Chapter 102

Chapter 102

I stared at Wang Dachun in shock, hardly able to believe my ears.

He had actually mentioned… a living corpse!

And he said he had read an early Republican-era account in the Fubei County Gazetteer at the county archives.

That meant the incident with a living corpse like Xiao Sheng near Xiaowan Village outside Lianghe Town was not the first one!

Another had appeared many years before.

The revelation stunned me.

Whatever lay beneath the Chuan River outside Xiaowan Village was probably far more extraordinary than we had imagined–and had existed for far longer…

Wang Dachun saw how violently I reacted when he mentioned the Fubei County Gazetteer’s account of a living corpse from the Republican era. I had even dropped my chopsticks on the table.

He looked puzzled and surprised too.

“What’s wrong, Brother Wu?”

Zeng Jin also stared at me in confusion.

Yao Nan, meanwhile, gave me a teasing smile and winked.

“Wu Zhong, don’t tell me Wang Dachun’s story scared you. These frightening tales may be recorded in the Fubei County Gazetteer, which makes them seem like official history, but ancient people didn’t understand science. They wrote all kinds of nonsense.”

She thought I had been so frightened that I could not even hold my chopsticks.

Wang Dachun and Zeng Jin clearly did not think the same way.

Wang Dachun probably figured that since I knew arcane arts myself, a strange story of uncertain truth should not have shocked me this badly.

Sometimes, ignorance really was courage!

Wang Dachun did not understand the difference. He believed a living corpse was merely another evil being like the Dry Immortal. Little did he know that living corpses were far stranger and more sinister than a comparatively weak mountain creature like the Dry Immortal!

I took a deep breath and concealed my lapse in composure.

A smile returned to my face. “It’s nothing. I got distracted and lost my grip on my chopsticks. Let’s eat and stop telling scary stories. What if you make Yao Nan faint again?”

I picked up my chopsticks and deliberately made a joke of it.

Wang Dachun and Zeng Jin burst out laughing.

Yao Nan reached over and pinched my arm.

“You’re awful! I happen to be incredibly brave. That picnic was just an accident. Didn’t you say I saw it wrong? Hmph.”

I did not mention the matter again.

After evening study, I told Wang Dachun to wait for me. I said we should leave together after the classroom building’s lights went out because I had some questions for him on the way home.

He seemed to sense something. He grew visibly excited and rubbed his hands together, repeatedly looking as though he wanted to speak.

We waited until nearly every other student had left and the elderly security guard came to hurry us out before locking the building.

Only then did I call Wang Dachun over, and the two of us crossed the gradually darkening campus toward the front gate…

“Dachun, tell me everything you read in the Fubei County Gazetteer about the living corpse incident in Xiaowan Village. I want every last detail. Don’t leave anything out. Understand?”

My voice was solemn, and my expression was serious.

Wang Dachun slapped his thigh with a triumphant exclamation.

“Brother Wu–Boss! I knew something was going on. You changed the subject on purpose in the cafeteria, didn’t you?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re not completely stupid after all.”

“Then can you tell me what terrifying things have happened around Lianghe Town recently?”

His face shone with excitement and eagerness.

He really was quite brave!

The Dry Immortal’s spirit possession had nearly killed him last time, yet he had learned nothing and remained fascinated by the supernatural.

As the saying went, once bitten by a snake, a person would fear a rope for ten years.

Why did Wang Dachun seem like someone who had been bitten by a snake and developed an obsession with snakes instead?

“Ahem.” I waved a hand. “First, tell me the precise circumstances and details of the living corpse recorded in the Fubei County Gazetteer. After you’re done, I’ll tell you.”

“Sure, Brother Wu!”

Wang Dachun continued recounting the strange story he had read in the Fubei County Gazetteer…

It took place around the beginning of the Republican era, a time that was already deeply unsettled. The wars of the late Qing had barely ended, and the smoke of conflict still hung over the whole country.

In those chaotic times, human lives were worth less than grass, and the bones of the starved lay beside the roads.

A grain merchant named Xu Xinyi lived in Lianghe Town. Through the most tenuous of family connections, he was distantly related to a minor warlord entrenched near the Sichuan-Yu border.

Using that connection, he traded grain among several nearby towns.

One night, Xu Xinyi took a boatload of grain down the Chuan River from Lianghe Town to Dangkou Town.

He was no great merchant. Other than himself, he had hired only a boatman and one assistant to accompany the cargo.

The three of them set out under cover of darkness from the wharf north of Lianghe Town, following the current downstream.

When the boat reached the waters near Xiaowan Village, the moon stood at the center of the sky.

Moonlight lent the surroundings a faint glow and glittered across the river. Tall wild grasses along both banks and the more distant mountains cast black silhouettes beneath the moon.

During the Qing dynasty, Xu Xinyi had sat for the preliminary imperial examinations. Although he failed several times and remained merely a student candidate when the dynasty fell, he was unquestionably an educated man in an age when illiteracy was widespread.

Sailing beneath the moon, he listened to the flowing river and gazed at the distant mountains. A poetic mood came over him, so he left the cabin, sat at the bow, and began to drink.

After hesitating, the boatman advised him, “Boss, it’s late. Mist hangs over the river, and the air is bitterly cold. You might also see something unclean in the water. You should return to the cabin.”

Xu Xinyi drank a cup of wine and smiled. “Warlords are fighting everywhere in this world, and people are dying wherever you look. Why should I fear something unclean?”

He did not believe in such things.

After all, he often shipped grain along this route, and nothing had ever happened.

The boatman gave a strained smile. “Boss, you hire my boat often and keep me in business. That’s why I’m offering you honest advice. We usually leave early in the morning and arrive before dark. This time you were in a hurry and set out at night. Sailing the Chuan River after dark can easily…”
Before he could finish, a voice called from the nearby bank and interrupted him.

“Hello? Is someone on that boat? Can you give me a ride? Please help me!”

Xu Xinyi immediately stood and looked toward the shore.

In the moonlight, he saw someone on the bank waving continuously, apparently hoping to catch a ride.

The grain boat was not large and naturally traveled near the bank instead of in the center of the river, so the person was not far away.

Xu Xinyi told the boatman to pull ashore and let the stranger aboard. It would be a simple act of kindness.

But the boatman shook his head repeatedly, his expression uneasy.

“Boss, it’s the middle of the night. No ordinary person would appear beside the river for no reason. Xiaowan Village may be nearby, but no villager would come out here at this hour. Something’s wrong! We shouldn’t invite trouble. Let’s keep going.”

Something was wrong?

Xu Xinyi froze as a chill crept into his heart. “You mean… it might be a ghost?!”

The boatman shuddered at the word, and even his voice began to tremble.

“It’s possible. Sailing the river at night is dangerous in more ways than one. If you hadn’t always treated me well, I wouldn’t have agreed to make this trip after dark. I’m no Red-Boat Oarsman–just an ordinary boatman without much skill.”

Hearing that, Xu Xinyi hesitated.

But the person on the bank kept shouting and begging for help.

Xu Xinyi looked more closely and saw the man’s shadow stretching long across the bank beneath the moonlight.

He relaxed at once and smiled at the boatman.

“Master Wang, I’ve heard stories about sinister ghosts too. But ghosts don’t have shadows, do they? Look at the man calling for help. He’s casting a shadow in the moonlight. Travelers should help one another when they can. Pull over.”

“But… even if he’s not a ghost, what if he’s a criminal?”

“I’m not worried. I’ve trained in fighting, and my assistant, Xiao Zhao, knows a few moves as well. He has a knife. Besides, I have this.”

Xu Xinyi patted the pistol at his waist.

Master Wang had no choice. He carefully steered the boat toward shore.

As they drew closer, they saw that the man was dressed like a traveling merchant. He wore a long robe and carried a cloth bundle, and he truly did not resemble a ghost.

His entire body, however, was drenched, and his clothes were soaked through.

When he saw Xu Xinyi’s boat approaching the bank, he repeatedly cupped his hands in gratitude.

“Thank you! Thank you, sir, for helping me!”

Then he carefully jumped aboard. His feet struck the deck with a solid thud and left a trail of wet footprints across the planks.

Xu Xinyi felt slightly more at ease.

He was a kind man, but not a fool. Even while helping someone, he remained on his guard.

Now that he had seen the stranger’s undeniably solid body, surely the man could not be a ghost!

When Xu Xinyi questioned him, the man introduced himself as Zhou Mu, a native of Shiyan Town upstream from Lianghe Town. He said he had been traveling to the Fubei County seat that morning when his small boat capsized there.

Everyone else had tragically drowned. He alone survived, only to find himself stranded on the riverbank with no idea what to do.

The boatman came closer, frowned, and asked, “Mr. Zhou, you said the boat capsized this morning and everyone else drowned. If you swam to shore, why didn’t you seek help in Xiaowan Village? It’s the middle of the night now. Fourteen or sixteen hours must have passed.”

That was right!

Once the boatman pointed it out, Xu Xinyi also sensed that something was amiss. He watched Zhou Mu and waited for an answer while quietly placing one hand on the pistol at his waist.

The question seemed to stun Zhou Mu as well.

He stood motionless, water still dripping from his soaked clothing.

Drip.

Drip.

Each drop struck the deck with perfect clarity.

“That’s right! Why didn’t I go to the nearby village for help? I… I don’t seem to remember. How strange. Why didn’t I go anywhere after the boat sank? What’s happening? I can’t remember!”

Zhou Mu’s expression grew increasingly peculiar, and he began smacking himself on the head.

Xu Xinyi and the boatman felt their scalps prickle.

At that moment, Xu Xinyi’s assistant, Xiao Zhao, happened to emerge from the cabin.

Zhou Mu stood with his back to the cabin, so the first thing Xiao Zhao saw was the man’s back.

In an instant, extreme horror flooded Xiao Zhao’s face. His entire body began to shake violently, as though he had witnessed something terrifying beyond words.

Zhou Mu could not see Xiao Zhao behind him, but Xu Xinyi and the boatman standing opposite him could.

Xu Xinyi silently raised his brows, asking what was wrong.

Suppressing his terror, Xiao Zhao slowly lifted one trembling hand and pointed at the back of Zhou Mu’s neck.

Xu Xinyi edged to the side and peered more closely in the moonlight.

His scalp went numb. All the strength seemed to drain from his body, and he nearly collapsed onto the deck.

The skin below the back of Zhou Mu’s neck was densely mottled with patches of livor mortis!

From their appearance, they had certainly not formed within the last hour or two. They looked exactly like the marks on a body that had been dead for fourteen or sixteen hours.

Xu Xinyi felt as though he had been struck by lightning. His body went rigid, and his mouth turned dry.

Zhou Mu was still muttering to himself.

“Why didn’t I go for help? Why can’t I remember? What’s going on?!”

He grew increasingly agitated and pounded hard on his chest.