He should have become a plain, honest farmer, but instead, he died an unnatural death.
In the tranquil Little Yi Village, birds seemed to have vanished without a trace. Yu Xiaoxue and I sat in the graveyard for a long while before finally deciding to bury Zhang Yidan.
Besides, if we reported something this bizarre to the police, no one would believe us. Following procedure, they would have a forensic examiner dissect him, leaving his corpse to be tormented all over again.
Dust returned to dust, earth returned to earth. Zhang Yidan had suffered enough. It was time to cover him with yellow earth and send him into the grave.
I picked up a discarded hoe abandoned beside a grave and began digging Zhang Yidan's grave. According to the old customs, a young man who died before the age of thirty did not need a coffin. He was simply wrapped in a straw mat and hastily buried under cover of night. Before lowering him into the earth, a stone also had to be placed on his corpse, to prevent his wronged soul from emerging to cause trouble and harm people.
But now, I had no intention of putting down a stone either, because Zhang Yidan no longer had a soul. Grandma had pierced him with the soul-sealing talisman scissors, and his new soul had long since been scattered.
Besides, Little Yi Village's feng shui had already been broken. Ghost officers could not enter, and even if they knew Zhang Yidan had died, there was nothing they could do to come and bind his soul. Once he missed the appointed time for crossing the Bridge of Helplessness, he would become a solitary wandering ghost.
"Who are you?! Who let you bury someone? Put your hands up, all of you!"
Just as I was digging a pit to bury Zhang Yidan, two people dressed as police officers hurried in from outside Little Yi Village. One of them, a tall, middle-aged officer, even drew his pistol, chambered a round, and aimed it at me.
A gun? Was he a criminal police officer?
The other, somewhat younger man did not have a gun. He looked like an auxiliary officer, but he still pulled out handcuffs and pounced at me.
"Xiao Zhang, be careful. The people in Little Yi Village all know a few unorthodox tricks!" The criminal officer was clearly an old hand. With one look at Zhang Yidan's horrifying death, he knew something was seriously wrong this time.
I did not resist, because the gun was aimed straight at me. Yu Xiaoxue was terrified, her whole body trembling. This sort of scene belonged only on television, yet she had never imagined she would encounter it herself one day. Had she never been arrested by the police before?
Although that auxiliary officer was rather plump, his movements had clearly undergone professional training. In three swift motions, he pinned me to the ground, then clicked the handcuffs around my wrists behind my back. He even lifted me up as though it were effortless.
Seeing that Yu Xiaoxue was pretty and docile, he did not dare get handsy with her. Instead, he took out plastic restraints and bound her hands behind her back too.
"Captain Huo, it looks to me like these two men got into a vicious fight over this woman, and someone ended up dead. Does this count as us earning merit this time?" The auxiliary officer surnamed Zhang chuckled and shoved me, making me drop to my knees.
"What's your name? Was it you who killed the dead man?" The criminal officer surnamed Huo unloaded his pistol. He did not answer the auxiliary officer, but questioned me instead.
"Xia Yitian. I didn't kill him. A strange contagious flu broke out in the village a few days ago. Those who fell ill first caught colds, then coughed up blood, and finally died. You can investigate and see whether what I said is true." I answered honestly, though I felt a trace of irritation toward the auxiliary officer who had shoved me down.
"Really?" Captain Huo asked impassively. He glanced around and found that the village truly looked gloomy, as though it had lost every trace of human life.
He had worked as a criminal officer for more than a decade and had seen every kind of incident. Whether anyone was in the village, whether the footprints were from today, whether anyone had ever left the village, whether people should have been working in the fields at this hour—all these clues could be seen at a glance.
The criminal officer gripped his pistol again and gestured. "Zhang Kaifu, let's go see whether it's really as he says. If so many households have all died, this is a major incident for our jurisdiction!"
Zhang Kaifu, the auxiliary officer, froze, his heart beginning to drum. This was a contagious disease. He could throw his weight around under the protection of authority, but if everyone in the village really had died in that state, forget catching the disease and dying—he would be scared to death on the spot.
"Uncle Huo... That's a contagious disease. How about we don't enter the village? Let's take these two back first, call for reinforcements, and then come in?" Zhang Kaifu said as he grabbed the back of my shirt.
"Damn it, call me Uncle again and I'll smack you! Your father handed you over to me so you could learn, not muddle through life! We're police officers, not gangsters! Check your phone yourself and see whether there's a signal!" Captain Huo raised his foot and kicked Zhang Kaifu, then signaled for him to escort Yu Xiaoxue and me into the village.
"Go in, and you'll probably regret it," I said calmly, but Zhang Kaifu kicked me.
"Stop trying to scare me, you bastard! Say that again and I'll make you pay!" Zhang Kaifu put away his phone and spoke viciously.
Most auxiliary officers were temporary workers recruited from the local villages. They had broad connections, but had never attended police academy, so it was hard to avoid the swagger and ruffian air of local bullies.
"Zhang Kaifu! You're hitting people now? Do you not want this job anymore?" Captain Huo spat, rolled up his sleeve, and looked ready to go beat him.
Zhang Kaifu forced a smile and dodged away. He then casually shoved me forward and escorted me into the village. Zhang Yidan's corpse was left where it lay. There was no one nearby anyway, so he was not afraid of disturbing the crime scene.
"Kid, you say we'll regret this? Regret what? Whose funeral is that halfway up the mountain, from Granny Zhou's household?" Captain Huo was fairly well informed about the area. How could he not know about my grandmother? The moment he saw what looked like a funeral halfway up the mountain, an ominous feeling immediately rose in him.
"Granny Zhou's own," I said calmly. My grandmother's surname was Zhou, but she had never told me her name. When my parents had signed forms at school, they had always written Zhou Xian. Only after I attended my grandmother's funeral did I learn that her name was Zhou Ying.
"Hiss..." Captain Huo sucked in a breath. His eyes swept left and right across the terrain, as though considering whether he should enter the village.
Granny Zhou had been famous in the surrounding villages for far more than a day or two—it had been decades. If a criminal police captain like him did not know of her, he would have wasted his years in the profession.
The four of us reached the front of the Si Bridge. All of a sudden, a chill seemed to rush from the stream beneath the bridge. I could not help feeling startled. It was daytime—how could the yin energy still be so intense?
When we began crossing the Si Bridge, Yu Xiaoxue started trembling all over. Like me, she had seen the strange sight beneath the bridge. Her ears even felt strangely numb and ticklish. Listening closely, it sounded as though someone was speaking.
I watched Captain Huo and Zhang Kaifu carefully. They did not seem to notice anything unusual.
But when we reached the middle of the bridge, Zhang Kaifu sneered and looked at me. "Hey, you said everyone in the village had died. You bastard, didn't you hear them?"
I looked at Zhang Kaifu as though I were looking at a dead man, but sighed inwardly. They're here.
Captain Huo frowned. He seemed to have noticed that something was wrong too.
"If you don't want to die, don't look beneath the bridge." I gave Captain Huo a cold warning. After all, this criminal officer had stopped the auxiliary officer from beating me earlier.
Captain Huo froze for a moment and stared fixedly at me, as though trying to see something in my eyes.
"One thousand flowers, ten thousand flowers, drifting, drifting, sprinkling, sprinkling... Piling up, piling up, making a snowman, not afraid of cold, not afraid of frost..."
"Listen to yourself, damn it! There's a whole group of children down there!" Zhang Kaifu spat onto the ground.
I watched the muddy spit stir up the air and ripple outward. I knew then that Zhang Kaifu was finished.
Human spit had the power to ward off evil. A true Daoist master could condense yang energy into a single mouthful of spit and burn a ghost with it. Zhang Kaifu was no master, but that mouthful of spit still roused the vicious nature of the "things" below. Once the yin energy was disturbed, the energy beneath the river instantly began to churn, surging toward us with even greater force.
"Xiao Zhang! Don't look beneath the bridge!" Captain Huo reached out to grab him, but he had not expected Zhang Kaifu to act as though possessed. After seeing what was below, Zhang Kaifu began flailing wildly.
With his eyes bulging wide, he clutched the bridge railing and struggled. His face twisted, and his head jerked at an impossible angle. In the end, as though he had gone mad, he leapt from the bridge.
Captain Huo could not hold him back. However, he was no inexperienced rookie. He immediately chambered a round and fired three shots into the sky.
Gunshots could startle ghosts.
At first, I thought he was going to shoot someone. But when I saw the deafening blasts scatter the yin energy, I knew Captain Huo was no ordinary man. He knew a thing or two about ghosts, gods, and wandering souls.
But Captain Huo, you could not just fire three shots like that! How was this startling ghosts? This was announcing a funeral!
Sure enough, in the blink of an eye, countless yin ghosts rose from the river. They directly dragged Zhang Kaifu, who had fallen into the water and was struggling desperately, beneath the surface!
Just as Captain Huo's face went deathly pale with fright, a man and a woman arrived from outside the village. The woman carried a copper-coin sword in one hand and an iron bell in the other. She chanted incantations while walking forward and tracing arcs with her sword.
The man was tall, burly, and extremely solid. He ran onto the bridge in a few strides, scattered a handful of spirit money toward the riverbed, then took out a pinch of incense, lit it, and stuck it into the bridge.
"To all passing spirits, gold and silver as offering, incense to borrow the road. Please show mercy and raise your noble hands."
With that, the man jumped into the river. In less than a few breaths, he dragged Zhang Kaifu back up as though he were hauling a dead dog.
Fear showed in Captain Huo's eyes. He stared at the man, unable to speak.
The beautiful woman, who looked to be in her twenties, shook her sword and bell and came to Zhang Kaifu's side. She then pressed the sword to his forehead and said, "By the decree of the Supreme One, I call upon the Five Directions and Five Emperors above, and the Great General Who Slays Ghosts below. All yin souls and wandering ghosts must not linger! Let all afflictions be dispelled! As the law commands!"
With a jingle, Zhang Kaifu woke up, and the woman smiled.
I saw the faint black aura on Zhang Kaifu's face fade, only to return. Then I looked beneath the bridge and saw that the passage that had opened there had returned to its original state. My brows furrowed, and I could not help warning the woman, who was still crouched beside Zhang Kaifu examining him. "Get away from him! He's already beyond saving."
The sturdy man gave me a cold, disdainful smile.
The woman did not mock me like the man, but she shook her head with a laugh, clearly not taking my words to heart. Perhaps she simply had great confidence in her own magic.
I was somewhat helpless. If someone died, it was not me dying, and I was still handcuffed. Why should I care about her? Besides, there were still two grown men there, weren't there?
I had guessed correctly. After Zhang Kaifu woke, saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth. He revealed a sinister smile, and his eyes instantly bulged as wide as copper bells. He extended both massive hands and, faster than the eye could follow, seized the woman's slender neck!
Zhang Kaifu squeezed her throat with all his strength, practically dragging her upright.
The woman's feet left the ground. No matter how much she struggled, she could not touch down. Even when she instinctively stabbed at Zhang Kaifu's eyes with her sword, she could not break free!
The sturdy man froze for a moment, but immediately threw punch after punch at Zhang Kaifu with all his might.
"Xiao Zhang! Stop!" Captain Huo rushed forward too, trying to pry Zhang Kaifu's hands apart. Yet no one knew where Zhang Kaifu had found such strength. He refused to let go even in death, squeezing until the woman's eyes rolled back, her crimson tongue and saliva spilling out.