Chapter 36

Chapter 36

It is common knowledge that anyone who drinks too much will wake up incredibly thirsty.

Hua Jiunan had no idea how long he had been asleep when the thirst finally woke him. Enduring the throbbing headache of a hangover, he climbed down from his upper bunk to find some water.

Groggy and disoriented, he fumbled for the thermos and poured a cup. He took a large gulp, only to nearly spray it right back out.

*Pah! Why is it beer?!*

It was only then that Hua Jiunan remembered they had used the thermoses to store the alcohol the night before.

Glancing at the four empty beds and then at the digital clock on the wall, Hua Jiunan felt a jolt of alarm.

“Daji, Daji, wake up!”

“It’s three in the morning, and Hu Wa and the others still aren’t back!”

Chen Daji, still half-asleep, rolled over and mumbled, “If they aren’t back, they aren’t back. Maybe they ate too much and got the runs. They probably just need to squat a bit longer!”

There were no bathrooms in the dorms. To relieve oneself, one had to go to the public restrooms outside.

Hua Jiunan yanked the blanket off Chen Daji. “What do you mean ‘squat longer’? They went out to dig up dead men’s bones and haven’t returned!”

This finally jolted Chen Daji awake. “Holy crap, seriously?!”

The two scrambled into their clothes, grabbed flashlights, and followed the footprints Hu Wa and the others had left in the snow toward the back playground.

Strangely, the footprints didn’t stop anywhere along the way; they led straight to the base of the playground wall. It was obvious that Hu Wa and the other three had jumped over the wall.

Chen Daji couldn’t help but wonder, “What? Were they afraid they wouldn’t find any inside, so they went to the back mountain to dig for bones?”

Hua Jiunan, having experienced more than his fair share of the supernatural, already sensed that something was wrong. He quickly scaled the wall and saw that a set of footprints indeed led deep into the mountains.

“Daji, hurry up and get over the wall! I’m worried something’s happened to Hu Wa and the guys!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Hua Jiunan hopped down from the wall and began chasing the footprints. Chen Daji, being fiercely loyal, pushed aside his fear and hurried to follow. However, he covered his face as he jumped down-clearly, the incident from a few days ago where he landed face-first had left him with a deep psychological scar.

After the two left, a faint, ethereal sigh drifted up from beneath the ground.

The soul of a white-haired, white-bearded Daoist floated up from the earth. Appearing with him were over a hundred other ghosts-men, women, young, and old.

However, like the Daoist, these ghosts lacked any aura of malice or violence; their expressions were all peaceful. One of them, an old ghost leaning on a cane, remarked, “It looks like something big is about to happen!”

“Four were just led away by the Human-skin Lantern, and now another two are chasing after them. Sigh, what a pity. So young, yet they’re about to become short-lived ghosts!”

Seeing the Daoist Master’s soul staring toward the back mountain without a word, the old ghost with the cane tried to persuade him further. “Daoist Master, you’d best not meddle in this business. That Human-skin Lantern is incredibly fierce; none of us can afford to offend it!”

***

On the other side, the anxious Hua Jiunan and Chen Daji were running at full tilt. They crossed a small hill and arrived before a dense Locust Forest. Hu Wa and the others’ footprints vanished right at the edge.

Chen Daji was panting heavily, hands on his knees as he asked, “Big Brother, what’s the deal here? Do you think Hu Wa and the guys are trying to scare us on purpose? Maybe they climbed the trees?”

Before Hua Jiunan could answer, a low, wailing “woo-woo” sound suddenly echoed through the Locust Forest. It sounded exactly like the eerie opening theme of the old *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio* TV show.

Two pale, white lanterns drifted out from the woods, bobbing up and down until they hovered right in front of Hua Jiunan. Two words were written in blood on each lantern: “Wealthy” and “Family.”

A foul stench wafted over, making Hua Jiunan knit his brows in disgust. As Chen Daji stared at the lanterns, his eyes gradually grew glazed and vacant. He began to follow the lanterns, running deep into the Locust Forest at high speed.

Hua Jiunan was horrified and immediately gave chase. “Chen Daji, stop!”

The deeper they went into the forest, the darker it became. As Hua Jiunan ran, the ground suddenly vanished beneath his feet, and he plummeted into a bottomless pit.

Upon landing, the pain he expected didn’t come; instead, the ground felt soft. A pained cry erupted from beneath him.

“Big Brother, move your butt! You’re sitting on my head!”

Hua Jiunan scrambled up. By the light of his flashlight, he saw that Chen Daji’s face was covered in blood once again.

Human blood is of the Yang element, especially that of a young, unmarried man; the Yang energy in their blood is even more potent. With his face now effectively masked in pure Yang, Chen Daji was naturally released from the Human-skin Lantern’s control.

However, in this state, he looked more terrifying than a ghost. His lips, already swollen from the previous fall, were now even worse-looking like two sausages hanging from his mouth. He had also lost half a front tooth, causing air to whistle through his words as he spoke.

“Big Brother… is my face ruined?”