Chapter 5 The Strange Case of the Burning Corpse

Xiao Hua asked me that, not because he thought I didn’t know, but because he wanted me to help with the story. We had all experienced these things, but the information each of us knew wasn’t very complete.

The map was said to have been created by translating the sound of thunder. It pointed to a strange place called Thunder City, which was said to be the place where immortals lived. Uncle Three was obsessed with finding this ‘Thunder City’, but we couldn’t find the map in the end. Later, after a series of investigations, we discovered that the map wasn’t a topographic map, but a map of the underground rivers.

Xiao Hua paused again. We already knew all of this information, but I knew that his goal wasn’t to talk about it, but to gives us time to think. I was used to his style of storytelling, so I let my thoughts roam for a while.

I touched my chin as I thought it over. Then, I started to realize what Xiao Hua was saying and why it was best not to mention this matter in front of Black Glasses.

Black Glasses’ fan was the girl who couldn’t speak.

As we all knew, Black Glasses actually wasn’t that young. According to him, all the young girls he used to know were now grandmas.

Back when Granny Huo was alive, Black Glasses took on a commission from the Huo family that involved a strange case of a burning corpse (1). An accident occurred in a school, and there was a young girl who was trapped in the resulting fire. When Black Glasses finally managed to rescue her, her throat was damaged and she couldn’t speak.

In the end, the case went unsolved, but the scene was definitely very strange. I recorded part of the story in my other writings.

Of all the strange things I had experienced or read about, this case was definitely the most frightening. I was a brave person, but the case file, the strange phenomenon Black Glasses discovered, and the reasons for not continuing the investigation were all extremely chilling.

At that time, the girl was pretty young. After doing some calculations, I realized that the mute girl in Myanmar must’ve been the girl from the fire. In order to keep the events of that year a secret, the girl may not have received any real information. As a result, she thought she was mute because of a childhood disability.

When I first heard about that case, I just saw it as an anecdote. But when I thought about it now, I suddenly realized that it seemed to be related to thunder. If that were true, then I figured Black Glasses didn’t accept Uncle Two’s job just for the money. But whether the case at that time was related to thunder or not, Black Glasses wasn’t happy with the lack of results and ended up in Mute Village, where he met that girl from before.

Was it a coincidence?

I nodded to Xiao Hua, and he continued, “As you all know, that map is very old, but must have been drawn by someone. When I was discussing all the data you investigated with Uncle Two before, a question was raised. A group of craftsmen who heard the thunder in the South Sea King’s tomb drew a map and finally escaped from the tomb. After they disappeared, their whereabouts were unknown. I think these people are the ancestors of Mute Village, and the underground river below Mute Village is really a path leading to Thunder City.

“After that, I made a bigger inference. I started to assume that if God had a chance to leak information to the world at that time, then he must’ve had hundreds of other opportunities. But why didn’t anyone discover it again after all these years? It’s not like it just stopped thundering. So, why did it only happen at that time?”

“Why?” Fatty asked.

“No, that’s actually not the right question. Based on my hypothesis, it’s reasonable to assume that countless people have discovered this matter. It’s appeared in every era, but those people chose to keep it a secret without exception. Why is that?”

When I thought of this, I suddenly looked at Xiao Hua, feeling cold all over.

“Because they found that anything related to this matter—”

“Will lead to death if it’s disclosed. And the deaths are all mysterious cases that can’t be explained.”

In the whole listening-to-thunder incident, there were countless rough threads that I had been unable to connect so far. It was just like how I didn’t realize until now that Black Glasses may have gone to Mute Village because of the corpse burning case.

The underground well in the corpse burning case, the body discovered in the well, and the strange ritual of transporting the corpses to the northeast triggered a series of events afterwards. There were countless details, but they were too incredible and difficult to connect.

There were only some small details that had something to do with listening to thunder. I had forgotten them long ago, but Xiao Hua must’ve been able to see the association between them right away. He was just that kind of a person. He hardly forgot anything, like when someone owed him money.

“Then the girl who can’t speak appeared in Mute Village—”

Xiao Hua followed my line of thinking and said, “It’s no coincidence that she appeared there. It has something to do with the ceremony at that time.”

“This—”

“This is a case within a case. I didn’t tell you all the truth, because I was afraid it would interfere with your investigation of the main incident. But the ancient well that Black Glasses found, the female corpse inside, the strange fire in the school, his eye disease suddenly worsening, the girl ‘accidentally’ appearing in Mute Village, and listening to thunder are all related.”

“So, you checked into this matter?”

“It wasn’t just checking,” Xiao Hua said. “I’ll tell you another thing. After listening, you’ll realize how scary it is.”

<Chapter 4><Table of Contents><Chapter 6>

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TN Notes:

(1) Chapters 112-115 of “Sand Sea”