Chapter 12 People from the Zhang Family’s Ancient Building

Qiu Dekao’s people were staying at the top of the village, which might have been the reason why there were so many of them. The tall buildings there were very densely distributed, which made them suitable for many people to live in at the same time while looking after each other.

I called Pan Zi over, explained the situation to him, and had him follow us as we went around the familiar stream. The night was very cool and refreshing, the moon was shining in the clear stream, and the sound of insects everywhere reminded me of the situation half a month ago.

After going up, I found that Qiu Dekao’s people practically occupied the whole village. Lights were blazing everywhere, big round tables were set up in all the yards, boxes of beer were piled up, and naked foreigners were eating. Most of the rooms here had obviously been turned into a kitchen area.

Grave robbing was something that could enliven the economy, and I told myself that a valuable tomb that went undiscovered could enrich a country’s soil and water, which was definitely reflected here.

When they saw Qiu Dekao coming, several foreigners—who were so drunk they couldn’t even stand up straight— picked up their beers and shouted at him, “Boss, come on! Don’t be too upset! (Boss, come and drink with us. Have some fun!)”

Qiu Dekao ignored them and went straight around to the back of the house, where the atmosphere suddenly changed. I saw a very cold and cheerless building that was very small and seemed to have only one room. There were two stone-faced people standing guard at the door. There wasn’t a drink in sight and only a dim incandescent lamp shone on the door of the house.

Qiu Dekao made a gesture to the guards and brought us in. As soon as I entered, I smelled the pungent scent of medicine.

There was an oil lamp on the ground that was casting its dim light on a mass of what looked like flour sacks lying on a straw mat. There was a man wearing glasses sitting nearby who looked like a doctor.

“How is he?” Qiu Dekao asked him.

He shook his head. I leaned forward for a better look and gasped—the mass of “things” on the straw mat turned out to be a person.

But was it really a person? I looked at the “person” and suddenly felt extremely nauseous. All of the skin on his body was sunken, like an orange rotting from the inside out. But a closer look at all the sunken places showed that there seemed to be a bubble of liquid right under his skin. At first glance, the man seemed to have been rotting there for a long time.

But he was alive.

I looked into his eyes and saw that he was looking at me, but he obviously couldn’t move.

“How did this happen?” Pan Zi asked.

“I sent seven people down, but he was the only one who came out. He was fine when he came out, but he suddenly had a high fever three days later and then he became like this.” Qiu Dekao was livid. “He was the one who brought the sword out. He told me that he had entered the deep part of the stone passage and that was where he encountered the corpse with the blade. He separated from the others at that time. They kept going, while he brought the sword out to me. As a result, those who continued to go deeper never came back.”

“What happened to his body?”

The bespectacled doctor shook his head, “I don’t know. All I can say is that his body is melting into a strange liquid from the inside out.” As he said this, he poked the man’s arm with a needle. The skin in the depression immediately broke and a black liquid flowed out of it.

“If you want to ask, ask quickly,” Qiu Dekao said. “His time is running out. You can ask him questions, but he can’t answer them. He can only nod and shake his head.”

I approached the man and asked him, “Don’t be afraid. After you answer these questions, I may be able to save you. But you must answer me truthfully. Did you find this sword on a corpse?”

His expression didn’t change, but he nodded slowly. I asked another question, “Were this person’s fingers particularly long?”

He looked at me but didn’t respond.

I glanced at Qiu Dekao, but he didn’t respond either. Pan Zi said, “He probably didn’t notice the man’s hand. Ask about some other characteristics.”

I thought for a moment and asked, “Did that man have a tattoo?”

The man lying on the straw mat still didn’t respond, but he continued to look at me. As I stared into his eyes, searching for the answer I wanted, I suddenly noticed that his eyes were very strange.

Just a moment ago, I suddenly saw a familiar look flash through them.

This person’s eyes were extremely desperate. I could understand that nobody would have bright eyes under such circumstances, but I clearly saw some familiarity in this despairing look.

I couldn’t fully grasp this feeling, but I was sure that it was very familiar. I had seen it at a certain moment in time, and it had been very memorable.

Is it Poker-Face? I asked myself. Did he put on a human skin mask again, replace Qiu Dekao’s person while he was inside, and switch places?

Impossible. It couldn’t be Poker-Face. His eyes were so distinctive that I was sure I would recognize them in an instant. Moreover, these were Qiu Dekao’s people. If Poker-Face knew Qiu Dekao was coming and also knew this person would be sent down, he would’ve had to make a human skin mask and replace it. If that happened, then Poker-Face would have to have eight legs.

I still looked at the man’s hand just to be on the safe side. It already looked like a liquid-filled rubber glove, but there weren’t any signs of unusually long fingers.

I was relieved. Even if it was Poker-Face, it was impossible for him to cosplay someone like this. And it was even more unlikely to be Fatty. Not only could Fatty’s eyes indicate yes or no, but they could also sing “Eighteen Touch” (1).

After careful consideration, I finally came up with the answer.

This was the way Xiao Hua had looked at me when I met him before the big fiasco at Crescent Hotel.

At that time, Xiao Hua thought I was familiar, but he couldn’t remember who I was.

I looked at the man and he looked back at me. He must’ve been trying very hard to remember. Like Xiao Hua at that time, did he also think I looked familiar?

I suddenly had a bad premonition, as if something terrible was about to happen. “Answer me, did that person have a tattoo?” I quickly asked him again.

But after I asked, the man’s eyes suddenly opened wide and he struggled to get up. It seemed he had finally recognized me. As he fixed his eyes on me, his chest was heaving and he kept growling with something that was no longer a human voice.

Everyone was startled and could only watch his strange movements as he tried to get up. The doctor tried to push him back down but ultimately failed. As he kept struggling, black pus and blood flowed out of the several sunken places on his skin that had broken open.

I was shocked as I watched him stand up and growl at me.

What I saw was a person with an extremely strange posture, as if his body had melted completely. His two arms were hanging on both sides of his body, the sunken parts in his skin had broken open, and black liquid was flowing all over.

But I didn’t feel scared at all. In fact, there was another, more terrible feeling rushing through my whole body.

I suddenly realized that I had seen a person with this posture before. And I had seen it right in front of me!

The feeling was so strong that I stood my ground as I watched the man coming towards me. I broke out in a cold sweat as I eyed his movements. Then, I remembered two things.

The first one was the strange photo Brother Chu had given me, which showed an image of a strange shadow behind a screen.

The other one was that shadow I had seen in the second-floor window of Agui’s house that had a very similar posture to this person.

Could it be… the two strange shadows were a prototype of this kind of person?

The man looked at me and shouted as hard as he could before trying to jump on me. But he fell to the ground after only two attempts and could no longer move. I looked at him coldly, but couldn’t hold on any longer.

<Chapter 11> <Table of Contents><Chapter 13>

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TN Notes:

(1) It’s a sexually provocative Chinese ballad. This was all I could find.

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Updated 1/6/2021