Chapter 39

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Original Title: 挖坟挖出鬼

Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Yaoi

This translation is the product of my limited knowledge of Chinese characters as I attempt to learn the language. If I have made any egregious mistakes, please let me know.

Chapter Index

Chapter 39

The home had grown as quiet as a graveyard because of the ghost’s disappearance. Lin Yan didn’t dare go home and made various excuses to stay at the hospital. He was a meticulous and gentle person. The old man was satisfied after a few days in his care. He even sighed thinking about how his daughter could have broken up with someone like him.

“Lin, I don’t think you can forget Weiwei. How about, when she wakes up, I’ll set you two up again. When buying clothes, you get the new ones, but for relationships, old connections are better than new ones…”

Lin Yan’s hands stopped moving. He smiled good-naturedly at his former would-be father-in-law: “Weiwei is too good for someone like me.” Seeing that the old man seemed to want to interject, he continued, “I’ve been busy with school, and I have an internship, so I can’t ask for someone to wait for me when nothing will come out of it.”

Hearing the polite refusal in Lin Yan’s tone, the old man sighed pitifully and refrained from commenting.

For five days in a row, Yin Zhou and the little Daoist priest stayed up all night and went out to look for the lost soul as soon as it got dark. Halfway through, they were reported by an old lady wearing a red armband for disturbing public order because of the loud noise they made while passing through a residential area and had to stay in a police station overnight. After a few days, the dark circles under their eyes were no lighter than Lin Yan’s.

Things took a turn for the worse in the early hours of the fifth day. It rained heavily for several days, and the whole city became like a sea. The TV kept broadcasting the news that passersby were trapped, the houses at the bottom of the bridge were flooded, and drivers had drowned in their cars. When the two came back, they looked like drowned rats. The little Daoist rushed into the room wringing a wet T-shirt in his hand, stammering, "I-I found it, this water is gathering yin, and it almost washed into the sewer to some unknown place. ”

“The soul is born outside of the body and can be very confused. Usually, it stays in place and won’t wander around, but the streams of water carry yin. If it rains heavily, if a soul gets washed away, even if you find it before seven days, it’ll be useless, the body and soul won’t reconnect. A person without a soul is no different from a lunatic. L-Luckily, I caught this in time.”

The little Daoist set up a small brazier and threw a talisman paper and blocks of pine incense into it to burn. The entire ward was foggy, and the surrounding smoke gave off the mysterious atmosphere of an old countryside. A pale blue-green shadow floated towards the hospital bed. Yin Zhou, who knew about the cherished jade, secretly dragged Lin Yan closer: “Just wait until she wakes up and ask for clarification.”

“I don’t care, as long as she’s okay.” Lin Yan hesitated before he walked out of the room with a cold face. He looked at the curtain of rain outside the glass door in the first-floor lobby.

There were still three hours before dawn. The foyer was deserted. A mother and daughter in the triage area in the corner were dozed off with a saline drip hanging beside them.

Time passed.

The little Daoist priest and Yin Zhou came out of the elevator. Seeing Lin Yan standing at the door, lost in thought, Yin Zhou pouted and said, “He hasn’t smiled since that thing left. It’s like he’s possessed.” Yin Zhou didn’t notice the young Daoist’s embarrassment. He patted the jade pendant into Lin Yan’s palm, “She woke up. She’s drinking porridge in bed and recuperating. She also remembered what happened that night. She said that she met a grandmother with her granddaughter burning paper offerings at an intersection in the middle of the night. She was wearing floral print clothes and a red scarf. Do you know who she’s talking about?”

Lin Yan was stunned: “Second Immortal Gu?”

Yin Zhou spread his hands: “Dude, your recent evil infection is so powerful that you can’t get away from it. Fortunately, my yang energy hasn’t been affected.”

“She doesn’t know why she had this piece of jade in her hand. Even after asking her several times, she said she couldn’t remember. It’s kinda weird how we kept asking her.”

Why did Second Immortal Gu and the girl in red pester Weiwei that day? This matter has nothing to do with her. Why did Xiao Yu’s waist ornament appear in Weiwei’s hands? He always cherished the things that Lin Yan bought for him… Various thoughts twisted together in his head. Lin Yan suddenly remembered what he had deduced before. If the girl in red wanted to stop Xiao Yu from regaining consciousness by killing herself, this whole thing, the reasoning of the temple master, the time of death of Second Immortal Gu that was tampered with, all of it pointed to Xiao Yu. Someone was instigating the conflict between him and the ghost. This hadn’t stopped because of the temple master’s disappearance. It actually intensified…

What if the purpose of “it” was to separate Lin Yan from Xiao Yu?

What if “it” had been waiting for the right moment to kill the ghost that Lin Yan had accidentally led from the grave into the human world?

What if the thing making the ghosts vulnerable was a curse. There was a person pulling the strings of this curse, a person hiding in the shadows. The black hand stretched out in the mist… Lin Yan gasped and looked at the dark flower garden. Would he be in the same danger as well?

Yin Zhou wanted to say something, but he found that the look in Lin Yan’s eyes wasn’t quite right. He kept staring at the dark curtain of rain outside the door. After a while, he turned back suddenly: “Do you have an umbrella upstairs? I’m going out. I can’t drive in this weather.”

“Are you asking to die? The people trapped outside can’t even be saved, what are you doing?”

Lin Yan gritted his teeth: “I’m going to find Xiao Yu.” After staring at a security guard’s flashlight and raincoat, he couldn’t help but want to go out. Yin Zhou was so frightened that he grabbed him and said, “You’ll have to wait until dawn. Besides, why do you want to find him? Didn’t you always want to send him away? He finally agreed to leave, are you addicted to this ghost?”

Lin Yan cursed him to get lost. His anxiety kept rising. The rain curtain was pitch black. The holly and pine trees in the courtyard were blown to the side by the strong wind. The rain was pouring from the eaves onto the marble steps. Lin Yan forced off Yin Zhou’s hand with all his strength. He said anxiously, “You don’t understand. He’s not from this era. The young master knows nothing, he has nowhere to go…”

Yin Zhou’s expression was complicated: “How do you figure that? He’s a ghost, where can he not go? Maybe he will be reincarnated as a baby soon.” He grasped Lin Yan even tighter, his eyes were unfathomable. “You don’t like that gay ghost, do you?”

“Are you also…”

“No.” Lin Yan turned his face away. “I just pity him.”

“Don’t be fucking ridiculous. You ran away from home when you were in high school and took a train to Yunnan with two hundred dollars, yet I’ve never seen you in such a hurry.”

Lin Yan was silent. For a long time, he scratched the hair in front of his forehead. He asked the little Daoist priest: “A-Yan, can you summon his soul? I’m worried that something will happen to him… You know, your master, he…”

A-Yan’s eyes suddenly turned cold: “Do y-you think I’m some kind of gadget? He’s no longer something I can summon.”

Only then did Lin Yan realize that this reaction was because he had hit the little Daoist priest’s sore spot. Any concerns about that ghost would undoubtedly be irritating to A-Yan. He embarrassedly apologized. The young Daoist priest shook his head with a heavy heart: “L-Lin Yan, don’t look for him. What can you do if you find him? Hanging out with him will drain your yang energy… You’ll have at most two months, then you’ll die. He left for your own good.”

“A-As for my master,” A-Yan said coldly, “He’s not that powerful. Back then, he had to rely on your shadow to kill that ghost. Now it’s even more impossible. You can rest assured.”

“Will he be reincarnated?”

The corners of A-Yan’s mouth twitched. His eyes narrowed to reveal a nervous smile: “It’s not that simple. A beast is always a beast. His resentment is so strong but his wish is not fulfilled. He’ll probably go back to his lair and continue to harm people. You are not the only one with pure Yin. M-Maybe one day you’ll see him already hanging around someone else.” After saying this he turned around and walked away. Yin Zhou stared at A-Yan’s back in surprise. He said to Lin Yan: “Is he acting strange? That was weird.”

Lin Yan shook his head: “No, he’s right. I made these mistakes myself.”

“This world is nuts. I can’t understand it.” Yin Zhou rolled his eyes.

————-

The empty passenger seat in the car, the empty double bed in the house, and the pillows thrown aside were waiting for its master. Lin Yan was lying on the bed tossing and turning. Every time his gaze swept across the empty pillow, he felt suffocated and couldn’t help but ignore every other worry and hold it. How long had he even known him? What was he waiting for? He’s not coming back.

He doesn’t want us anymore. He went to a dark place, waiting for another person who would accept him. Maybe for a year, maybe for ten years, maybe for a hundred years. He can afford to wait, we can’t.

It was a waste of time. Lin Yan fetched a cigarette from the bedside table. He hugged his knees and took one puff after another. It was clearly daytime, but outside the window was as dark as ink. The rain poured down, drowning the city until it was a swamp. Bodies swam through the water in different postures. Swelling, rotting, green pus oozing out. With sewers lying on every street corner, the bodies turned into a mass of foul water hundreds of square kilometres wide. Who would have recognized what it looked like?

That night, he had a strange dream. He dreamt of an empty crossroads. Legend has it that the crossroads are where yin and yang meet. A familiar voice came from the depths of the thick fog. Xiao Yu said it’s so cold, there’s no blanket here.

Lin Yan said wait, I’ll burn one for you.

My clothes are still in your closet.

I’ll burn them for you too.

Where is my coffin? Where are my burial clothes? I want a set of things for the wedding. I want to get married. I want to marry the daughter of a neighbouring village clerk who just died. I want the dowry and jewelry for the engagement. I want paper money and red candles. The gentleman has seen our horoscopes. We are made for each other and our future will be filled with many children and grandchildren.

Lin Yan stood at the foggy crossroads, shivering from the cold. He was wearing a red satin burial suit with dark ‘happiness’ characters, a large black flower on his chest, riding a deathly white paper horse with eyes like two deep black holes. He shouted into the depths of the fog: If you marry, what should I do? I’ll be there soon. Wait for me.

It’s too late, Xiao Yu said. It’s enough for you to burn those things.

I got married. The lady next door is good-natured. We’ll be buried under the big locust tree behind the village. Don’t forget to burn more money and food, and next year, when you come to add soil to the grave, burn some clothes for the children.

Lin Yan woke up at once. The night was dull and dreary, and the rain outside the window was incessant. His face was also cold. He reached out his hand to feel his cheek was wet. His chest was sore and bitter. Lin Yan bit the corner of his blanket. After the corner of his gaze passed over the lonely pillow next to him, he suddenly felt upset and couldn’t fall back to sleep.

The subtext behind every “go” was to stay, behind every “goodbye” was the desire to stay, but he was forced by his pride to only leave those thoughts unfinished. The result was that the building was empty, the tea had gone cold, the key was still in its original place, the seat was still reserved for him, but the man refused to cross the boundary marker and return to his world.

Even if the curtains of the world are open, feelings are still private. Lin Yan quietly got out of bed. He walked barefoot into the dark bathroom, moved a small stool and sat down by the bathtub. He murmured: I’ll wash your hair for you, okay?

No answer. A cold and silent house. A cold coffin, a silent grave.

Lin Yan looked at the void and smiled. He thought that he must be stupid.

————-

Weiwei’s health was actually not too badly affected. After the little Daoist priest and Yin Zhou successfully found the lost soul, she recovered quickly. In the morning, Weiwei’s father called Lin Yan to say that she would be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. Lin Yan was cooking chicken soup in the kitchen with his phone held up to his ear. In the meantime, he cooked noodles for his former would-be father-in-law. He packed them into a thermos and sat down at the table. He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he could finally let go of one thing.

The rain poured with no signs of stopping. The news of the torrential rain spread all over the country. Photos of cars submerged in water and pedestrians struggling to keep their heads above water were posted everywhere online. Lin Yan, as a native of the area for more than twenty years, had developed the skills to avoid flooding, freezing, sand, etc. When he arrived at the hospital, his lunch was still intact, but the hospital elevator was underwater and needed maintenance. Lin Yan had to climb the stairs with the thermos and accidentally walked up one extra floor. He turned into the hallway on the sixth floor, and before he realized that the floor number was wrong, he was already being pushed by a middle-aged woman who rushed over and shoved his shoulder, yelling loudly: “It’s not easy to come to the hospital when it’s raining so hard. I will definitely thank you volunteers on behalf of the community when we get back!”

The older woman’s voice was like a bell. She had short hair that looked like a beetle and she wore long-style scrubs with ducklings on them. Two chubby legs were tucked into black pantyhose, but her ankles are too thin. In contrast to wearing boat shoes, the bottom of her shoes were like duck webbed-feet, snapped on the ground. She talked to herself and pushed Lin Yan to go inside, not minding his whispered arguments the entire way.

“Has the team leader given you the rundown? Don’t say anything when you get there. The old man isn’t in a good condition. The doctor said that it is only a matter of the past few days, so let’s let the old man go comfortably.” The older woman slapped Lin Yan on the shoulder. “This young man is so good-looking today. I like looking at you.”

Lin Yan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He held the chicken soup and the older woman cut him off again. “I’m off to work. Volunteers haven’t been able to come in because of the recent heavy rain, and all the wards are short of people. You cover this area, don’t make any mistakes.”

Seeing that she was about to leave, Lin Yan finally couldn’t help but exclaim, imitating the older woman’s breathing technique*: “I-I went to the wrong floor!”

*(T/N: He’s being sarcastic because she went on for so long without taking a breath)

“What?” The older woman’s thin eyebrows instantly shot up.

“I… I mean, I’m going downstairs to see my friend. The elevator was broken, and I went up an extra floor…” Lin Yan muttered and held the thermos in front of him. “See, I’m delivering lunch.”

The older woman was stunned for a second and then grinned: “Ah, why didn’t you say it earlier? You’ve kept me held up!” She had completely forgotten the fact that Lin Yan had been trying to explain the situation this whole time and raised her hand to look at her watch. Because she was chubby, the dial was pressed into her white skin. “What can I do? My shift is almost up and there’s no one left. The old man might finally wake up, ah…”

The most sensible move at this time was to quickly flee the scene with the thermos in hand, but Lin Yan should never have spoken up. It was this next sentence that made his life like a radish just pulled out of the mud, not yet washed clean under the faucet before being flopped back down with a crisp thud.

Life itself was seemingly predetermined, seemingly one coincidence after another without any rules. In fact, every corner and fork in the road has already been predetermined, where to stop, where to turn around. No matter how much you struggle, you must eventually follow the predetermined path. And it’s our heart that controls all this. It has nothing to do with the event itself.

The only difference was the time you arrived at that fork in the road.

“I’ll be free after I deliver the food. If you’re really in a hurry, I’ll be able to help you later.” Lin Yan mumbled.

With a bang, the door to the parallel world opened, and from here, life was divided into two paths. One was full of flowers and sunshine. He happily went home and watched TV and ate oranges. He went home happily to watch TV and eat oranges, slowly forgetting everything related to Xiao Yu, and was finally swept away by a handsome, respectable boy he met by chance; while the other was wet and dark, walking alone with a flashlight in the misty and supernatural world. At this time, Lin Yan, who was standing at the fork in the road, unknowingly started down the second path.