Chapter 42

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Original Title: 挖坟挖出鬼

Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Yaoi

This translation is based on multiple MTLs and my own limited knowledge of Chinese characters. If I have made any egregious mistakes, please let me know.

Chapter Index

Chapter 42

The world was so big, and the city was so big. It wasn’t easy to find someone. Where could he find a wandering ghost?

Lin Yan was tossing and turning on the bed with his pillow in his arms, listening to the sound of the rain outside the window to put him to sleep. Ever since Xiao Yu left, he had been restless, always worried that he would not be able to hear the sound of his footsteps returning if he slept too well. After making up his mind to find him, Lin Yan set an alarm for two in the morning and decided to sleep for a while before going out.

The night was dark and ambiguous. It seemed that there was something invisible lurking in the corner, waiting behind the door for him to fall asleep to slowly walk to the side of the bed, staring at him with a face without any features, staring at him…

Lin Yan rolled over and pulled the covers over his eyes. He was already familiar with the chilling feeling of fear. At first he was afraid of Xiao Yu, then he was afraid of the little girl, then the ghost of Second Immortal Gu, and then he couldn’t even identify the source of his fear. What was the most terrifying thing wasn’t the gangsters who mugged people in alleys, or the dogs in the countryside who bite anyone they see. The most terrifying things come from the “unseen”. Only the unseen can trigger fear in the human heart, such as a closed door, a tombstone with no engraved name, a pair of eyes staring at their backs at all times, the unseen human heart…

The scariest thing about ghosts is that they are everywhere. They know all your contact information, they can make a silent phone call at midnight, put a paper coffin on your door, and flash by in the dark corner of a hallway, leaving an echo of gloomy laughter that drives people into desperation and even insanity.

Once the ghost appears in the sunlight, the ghost is no longer a ghost. It becomes an ordinary human being, eager to interact with people, even waiting for love. Xiao Yu was such an unlucky ghost, standing unconcealed in front of Lin Yan, disregarding everything that frightened him, becoming powerless, vulnerable and cautious, Lin Yan thought. It was him who took the weapon from the ghost and then drove him away viciously.

He was inevitably responsible for the appearance and departure of the ghost, and he had to find him.

The night was like a cloud of fog. After staying under the covers for a long time, Lin Yan stuck his head out to take a breath. Through the gloomy night, he suddenly saw something hanging on the wardrobe door. Something black or red, these two colours were indistinguishable in the dark. It seemed to be a piece of clothing, a small dress.

The shabby cotton jacket and cotton trousers, with their hands and feet stretched out straight, like a paper figurine on a string, but hidden in the darkness under the trousers and above the neckline, there were no hands, feet, or head.

What was this?

A flash of lightning flashed across the night sky, and the room suddenly lit up. Lin Yan felt a chill run down his spine. Hanging in the closet were the little girl’s clothes. After disappearing for several days, she suddenly reappeared at the exact moment when he decided to find Xiao Yu.

The rest of her also appeared. A pair of white and blue feet were hanging down. The colour of her toes was very dark and they seemed to have rotted and blackened. Looking up, a neck appeared above the collar of the ragged padded jacket, covered in deep blue and purple strangulation marks. The little girl’s head was limply tilted to one side, her eyes bulging, and her red tongue sticking out. A thick twine rope hung around her neck, and her small body swayed in the air.

The little girl’s hand grasped a rag doll without a head. Her eyes suddenly snapped open, and her dark carnivorous gaze stared straight at Lin Yan.

Lin Yan locked eyes with her in the darkness.

I’m not afraid of you. Lin Yan clenched his fists. Ghosts prey on the fear in people’s hearts. You just need to stay away from distorted dreams and you can stay away from fear and illusions. If Xiao Yu wasn’t not there, he can only rely on himself.

Neither of them made a move. The little girl’s body swayed like a hanging rice bag, and the doll in her hand also swayed in time with her long legs.

Something’s wrong, what is it? The adaptation to the unexpected situation makes Lin Yan’s mind clear. He slowly fumbled for the lamp switch on the bedside table. With a snap, the lamp came on and the whole room was filled with light The closet door was empty. There was no twine, and there was no hanging girl.

She seemed to have come deliberately to tell him the cause of her death… She was the ghost of someone who was hanged to death. Lin Yan gasped a cold breath. Something suddenly occurred to him, something that he had overlooked for a long time because of the fear and illusions.

Only by understanding what that power lurking in the darkness wants to do can he come up with a counterattack.

A boom of thunder roared, and the phone alarm rang out like a warning. At two o'clock in the middle of the night, Lin Yan changed his clothes, turned off the lights and set off.

For four days in a row, Lin Yan drove around the city. With the endless rain, the passers-by walking alone, the orange street lights and the raindrops flying diagonally under the lights, he felt like even he had become a ghost, moving with no purpose or direction. The only spiritual motivation he had was to find Xiao Yu, even though he had no idea if Xiao Yu was still here.

He had a lot of things he wanted to tell him. He wanted to know if Xiao Yu was safe. He was so determined to admit his feelings, but the ghost hadn’t looked back and walked away without a trace nor a clue. Lin Yan even suspected that Xiao Yu was deliberately avoiding him, concealing his movements, gradually slipping away through the darkness.

Where could he be? Lin Yan held the steering wheel. In four days, he searched all the places they had visited together - the elevated highway, Shenjiayuan, the hospital, the cemetery, every corner of the house, and he even went to the small temple in the western mountain, but couldn’t find a trace of him. Lin Yan parked the car on the side of the road. Pedestrians swam by the window like a school of fish. No one stopped and knocked on his window. He slammed his fist on the steering wheel. Lin Yan gritted his teeth and said, As long as you are still in the world of the living, no matter how long, no matter how far, I will find you.

He even booked a flight ticket to Shanxi, and in three days, if he still couldn’t find Xiao Yu, he would return to the ancient Ming Dynasty tomb. Like when he brought Xiao Yu out of the darkness, he would once again walk into the void and wait for the ghost’s return.

The rain began to fall again. The wind whistled through the trees on the street. The traffic lights flickered on and off. The neon glow of the whole city seemed mouldy and decayed in the rain. The night was endless. The Apple sign at the five-way exit shone with a white glow. He once embraced the ghost here. Lin Yan pulled out the car keys and walked aimlessly in the rain. His devastation flourished, and he couldn’t find a place to return to nor could he find his runaway lover.

How far does a person have to go before he can see his own heart? Lin Yan held a can of Coke and walked through every street, every overpass, every tunnel filled with orange lights, singing girls and homeless teenagers. The intricate path was like a net, with thousands of weaves and spins, leaving only one broken thread, leading in the only direction that was opposite of where he was going.

The railing of the overpass was covered with cold water droplets. The taillights of the cars flashed past like meteors. The wind whistled past his temple. A voice in his heart was shouting, Xiao Yu, where are you? Come back with me.

The rain was getting heavier.

The old man said that the person who really cared about you will never leave. Whenever you turn around, he will always be behind you. Lin Yan looked back as he walked, but behind him was only the gradually enclosing void.

What if Xiao Yu didn’t care about himself as much as he thought he did? Just like the little Daoist priest said, he only needs someone with a matching fate. How many people were born at the same time in the same year and the same day? He could go through all the options. If he stood behind another version of himself, how should he handle it?

There was nothing he could do. Xiao Yu was different from him.

For the first time, the fear of loss surpassed that of death. Lin Yan kicked the coke can away and grabbed his hair in annoyance.

The wet road reflected the broken LED lights. An old woman walked past Lin Yan, her movements extremely slow, like she had arthritis or rheumatism, and went straight across the road. He didn’t know when the fog started to form around them, the streetlights turning it to a clear yellow colour. The old woman’s figure was as thin as a piece of paper. When she reached the middle of the road, an old-fashioned cloth wallet slipped out of her pocket and fell to the ground with a thud. She didn’t see it and continued to walk forward.

Being the only pedestrian around, Lin Yan wanted to pick up the wallet and return it. When he was two meters away from the wallet, he suddenly felt that the old woman’s figure was a little familiar. He hesitated for a moment. Out of nowhere, a little boy dressed in rags rushed out. He was probably a homeless kid. He grabbed the wallet with dirty hands and ran away.

At that exact moment, a black car turned the intersection going faster than 180 kilometres and hurtled toward the little boy. With a muffled thud, the boy’s body flew to the side, like a potato tossed in the air, before landing in the middle of the road a dozen meters away, unmoving. Another car couldn’t dodge and ran over the boy. In just one second, a living child turned into a puddle of bright red meat, with white bones poking out of his flesh, sticking out like unpicked fish bones.

Lin Yan staggered back a few steps. The old woman turned back through the thick fog and gave him a brooding smile.

Second Immortal Gu.

The nightmare was far from over. They heard that he was looking for Xiao Yu, and they all came back.

“Squeak –” The two cars stopped at the same time. The drivers and passengers stumbled out of the cars. A woman’s shrill cry rang out across the empty road. Some people were vomiting, and someone else was calling the police. The driver ran towards Lin Yan and said incoherently: “You saw it all, you help me testify! It was the kid who suddenly ran into the middle of the road. I have nothing to do with it!”

He turned his attention to the pile of rotten flesh on the road and snuck a look at his hand. His blood-stained hand wasn’t holding a wallet at all, but a piece of rag, a rag covered with white flowers on a blue background.

Why does Second Immortal Gu hate him so much? What does the little girl with the doll want to do? Warn him? Intimidate him? Or simply get rid of him?

A group of reporters and traffic police had gathered in the middle of the road. The police lights kept flashing. Lin Yan hurried back to his car. He just wanted to get out of this place quickly. He didn’t even want to go home. Every single isolated space was filled with ghosts. He wanted to hear the sound of people, to get back into the crowd. He wanted Xiao Yu to appear out of nowhere more than ever. Raindrops pounded on the windshield and were swept away by the wipers like a small fountain. Xiao Yu didn’t come, leaving him alone to face this unknown curse.

Lin Yan felt unbearably upset.

He stopped in front of a movie theater. The lobby was brightly lit. Couples lined up to buy popcorn, arms linked. The air was filled with the nice smell of butter. Lin Yan rested on a soft chair in the hall for a while. After he supressed his panic and nausea, he bought a ticket at the window, intending to pop into the theater before going back out to continue his search.

There were not many people in the auditorium. After taking a seat, Lin Yan turned around and saw that the row behind his was almost empty, but the row he was in was almost full. He sat next to a couple snuggling each other, the girl throwing several kernels of popcorn in her mouth. The soothing music before the opening of the film was relaxing.

The commercials ended and the movie started. Lin Yan glanced down at the name on the ticket stub. He hadn’t heard of it. He hadn’t paid attention any new movies for a long time. It seemed to be an old movie, the image like an old brown picture. It seemed to deliberately use the nostalgic image and noise to increase the atmosphere.

On the screen, a group of people passed by. Everyone was expressionless, the sky was cloudy, and the gray and white spots dotted the screen. Lin Yan frowned. What was this acting? Why was it like a funeral?

The camera shifted to two children in the procession. A boy and a girl, one in green clothes and the other in red, like a pair of paper dolls burned to the dead, with their arms held up straight. Their faces were extraordinarily white but their cheeks were red. They walked across the screen absentmindedly. Behind them were adults, wearing bright red and purple robes and black cloth shoes. Their heads were tilted, the corners of their mouths turned upwards. Their mouths may have been smiling but it didn’t look like a grin.

There was no dialogue, no background music, just a group of people dressed in robes walking quietly. The eerie atmosphere was creepy. The camera panned back, and when the person at the end of the procession showed their face, Lin Yan felt a solid chill run through him. He was wearing a paper-like yellow robe, holding a paper flag in his hand. The wind blew and echoed. He was the temple master!

No one objected to the content of the movie. The couple next to him watched with great interest.

“Lin Yan.”

A voice came from behind him, as if it was far away, but also as if it was just next to his ear. Lin Yan went numb. This voice was too familiar.

“Lin Yan, get out.”

That’s right, it was Xiao Yu’s voice.

Where was he? Lin Yan snapped around. The projection room was pitch-black. He could only see the back two rows of seats. A few people were sparsely sitting there. His eyes swept over them. There was no Xiao Yu. Instead, there was a young boy with messy hair that looked somewhat familiar staring at him with a smile.

Lin Yan wanted to go around and look, but there were people on both sides of him. He’d undoubtedly be too slow. He was afraid that Xiao Yu would leave. In his anxiety, he stepped on the back of the chair and leapt over it. Not caring about being chastised by the other audience members for his lack of decorum, he agilely ran across two rows of chairs towards the darkness at the back of the theater. On the last row of seats by the door, a white figure moved, stood up and walked towards the door.

Lin Yan was about to shout out, but he was embarrassed to do it in public. He had just hopped over the third row of chairs when suddenly there was a crackling sound of wood breaking behind him. Lin Yan turned back suddenly, only to hear a loud bang. A heavy metal beam on the ceiling, along with the huge glass ceiling lights, fell down, smashing onto the row where he was had just been sitting!

The screen went black. The glass shattered into pieces. The entire auditorium was silent except for the humming echo of the broken beam. Lin Yan’s eyes widened in horror. He suddenly discovered a terrifying fact. The entire audience had entirely disappeared. The room was completely empty and dark, and he was standing alone and helpless in the middle of a rows of chairs.

“Xiao Yu!” He shouted out breathlessly at the white figure in the doorway. “Don’t go.”

He rushed out of the seats like a madman. The shadow seemed to hesitate for a moment before it flashed out the door and disappeared. Lin Yan stumbled out and followed through the dark corridor. There was no light. Even the little green light at the emergency exit went out. He rushed into the ticket lobby and was stunned.

Not only was there no one in the auditorium, the entire lobby was dead silent. Several metal shutters were down, the large LED screen with the movie times written on it was pitch black, and the glass cabinet of popcorn was empty. It was as if it had never been open for business at all.

He clearly bought a ticket to enter the theater. The lights had clearly been on. Where were the people in line?

Where was Xiao Yu?

“Who’s that?!” A flashlight’s white light shone at him, disorientating his vision and making it hard to see. A man’s voice suddenly sounded out: “Who’s there?”

Lin Yan used his hand to block the light. The man came closer and moved the flashlight beam. Only then did Lin Yan realize that this person was a uniformed security guard, who also seemed startled. He seemed startled as well. He looked up and down at him in astonishment.

“Are you trying to steal something?!”

“I came to watch the movie.” Lin Yan anxiously looked for the white shadow in the darkness.

“Don’t be ridiculous. We’ve been closed for a week for renovations. What kind of movie could you watch?!”

Lin Yan’s face went white.

No matter how much Lin Yan explained, the security guard decided that he was a thief. He wouldn’t let him go until Lin Yan pulled out five hundred yuan from his wallet and patted it in his hand. Lin Yan left the theatre and looked back. The whole building was dark. The theatre’s billboard was covered with a large piece of white cloth, and the scaffolding hadn’t been removed yet. The theatre that he had entered really wasn’t open!

Then the movie he saw, the audience, the popcorn, what was that all about?

Lin Yan suddenly realized that the little boy with messy hair sitting in the back row of the auditorium was none other than the homeless boy who had just died in his place! He was pulled by some force into a theatre operating in the underworld to see a funeral ceremony for the dead. And he was afraid that the real purpose of that force was the heavy beam that suddenly broke off. If Xiao Yu hadn’t called out to him, he would have become one of the dead.

Where did Xiao Yu go? Lin Yan stood hastily at the entrance of the theatre and looked around in all directions. In front of him was a brightly lit main road, where no one could hide. There was a snack street next to the theatre that was pitch-dark, and a corner of white clothes flashed by. Lin Yan broke into a run and followed him in. He ran along the wet ground tiles, the wind whistling in his ears. He was panting heavily, but the back of the figure refused to stop. When he reached a fork in the road, the white figure turned around. The familiar profile and the slightly frowning expression made Lin Yan almost shiver all over.