A Tragedy That Should Never Have Happened

(Wangyou)

The uncles from Chu Xiaotian's village weren't among the people who had been rescued. They were still buried in the middle of the passageway, and it would take another day to reach them.

Just then, the rescue expert spoke up. Drawing on his many years of experience, he said that the ten people buried in the middle had no chance of survival. Even if an iron frame supported a tiny pocket of space, there couldn't possibly be enough oxygen there for all ten of them to stay alive. With that, he told them to take their time digging out the rest themselves. He had to go supervise rescue operations at another collapsed building.

The rescue expert wasn't lying. He really was busy. In this day and age, shoddy construction was everywhere, and accidents happened one after another. As a rescue expert, he had to hurry from place to place, directing people in the effort to save those buried underground or beneath piles of bricks. He didn't think it made sense to spend a whole precious day here directing a rescue team to dig out ten people who couldn't possibly survive. It was better to go elsewhere and help rescue more people.

The project manager was named Quan Siguang. It had to be said: that was a name practically asking to be struck by lightning, especially in a high-risk line of work like this. But although his name didn't sound auspicious, Quan Siguang was rich. He had taken on many construction projects, and none had ever gone wrong—not like his name suggested. As a result, his reputation had soared, and he had become a trusted contractor. So many projects wanted to hire him that it would have been hard for him not to make a fortune.

This time, Quan Siguang was unlucky. An accident had happened. But so far, nobody had died, and the prompt rescue had saved many lives. That meant the incident could only help his reputation, not hurt it. He had been in a pretty good mood until he heard what the rescue expert said. Then he found himself in a difficult position.

If there was still a chance the ten trapped people could survive, rescuing them now would be another heartwarming story, and his reputation would soar even higher. But the situation was different now. The rescue expert had said they were absolutely doomed. In other words, even if they dug them out right away, they'd be ten corpses—and there'd be no benefit to him.

Most importantly, if he kept the rescue team digging, the expense would be enormous. Keeping a professional rescue team and an expert here for a single day cost at least hundreds of thousands. There was no question about the team's efficiency, but their equipment had to be paid for too. Without tens of thousands of yuan to keep it running, the equipment wouldn't work.

Hundreds of thousands a day—that figure made Quan Siguang ache. It hurt him right down to the bone. But he was a clever man, and he knew this was his chance. If he could rescue a few people in time, what he gained would surely be worth more than what he spent. So he had gritted his teeth and paid. But now the survivors had all been brought out, and only ten corpses remained in the passageway. He didn't want to spend any more.

He decided to take the rescue expert's advice and let the rescue team leave. He would have his own construction crew slowly dig out the ten people who were trapped beyond hope. He could always pay a little more for their funerals afterward.

To everyone else, Quan Siguang's decision seemed perfectly reasonable. People were like that: if you could save a little, you did. But Chu Xiaotian was a Spirit Guide, and he strongly objected. He had spent years dealing with the dead, and he had a vague sense for life and death. Right now, he had a feeling that the ten uncles from his village were still alive. The feeling had no basis at all; it was even a little absurd. Yet he had no doubts about it. He told Quan Siguang what he sensed and begged him not to give up—to keep the rescue team digging.

But to Quan Siguang and the others, his words sounded like the natural reaction of a boy who had lost relatives and friends. The rescue expert even patted him on the shoulder and consoled him with a sorrowful expression. "Young man, I know you don't want to believe it, but this is the truth. You have to face it bravely." After saying that, he left. Quan Siguang ignored Chu Xiaotian's pleas and ordered another team of his workers to keep digging through the passageway and get the men out as soon as possible. Even the dead couldn't be left buried for too long. It wouldn't be good if their bodies started to rot.

Chu Xiaotian begged Quan Siguang for ages, but it did no good. So he turned to the other members of the construction crew who were digging. They were much easier to talk to than Quan Siguang. They understood how Chu Xiaotian felt, and they dug with all their might. Chu Xiaotian worked just as hard. His instincts told him that if they didn't clear the passageway quickly, his uncles would never come out.

Chu Xiaotian and the others worked with all their strength, taking turns in two shifts around the clock. But they couldn't compete with the professional rescuers and their specialized equipment. The rescue team had needed only a day to reach the middle, but Chu Xiaotian and the others took two days, even though they gave it everything they had. At last, they reached the middle—and found Chu Xiaotian's ten uncles, who had been trapped in the passageway all that time.

Just as the rescue expert had said, they were dead. But when everyone carried their bodies out, they were astonished to find that their limbs weren't stiff and their bodies still held a faint trace of warmth. In other words, they had only just died.

The rescue expert had been wrong. Two days earlier, the ten men hadn't actually been dead. In the place where they were trapped, a water pipe had once run outside. When the passageway collapsed, the pipe had broken and the water had stopped flowing, but the men had managed to draw in quite a bit of oxygen through the empty pipe and stay alive. Oxygen alone, however, wasn't enough. They needed food and water, and there was nothing of the sort where they were trapped. After holding on for five days, they finally couldn't take it anymore and starved to death.

This was a tragedy that should never have happened. If Quan Siguang had listened to Chu Xiaotian and kept the rescue team digging, they would have reached the ten men a day later—and the men would still have been alive.

The incident had gone from no deaths at all to ten fatalities. That was far worse than if the ten men had died in the initial collapse. Quan Siguang panicked. That very night, after the cause of their deaths had been confirmed, he disappeared. No one knew where he had fled.

Chu Xiaotian's ten uncles had died there, and the project manager had run away. Quan Siguang hadn't given Chu Xiaotian a cent—not for compensation or funeral expenses, not even for the fare home. He went to one so-called relevant department after another, hoping to get what his ten dead uncles were owed.

But the answer he got was that he would have to wait for an investigation, and that they couldn't decide what to do until Quan Siguang had been caught and brought to justice. Chu Xiaotian could only wait. He waited three days, but no decision came. Instead, he received a notice: his ten uncles had to be cremated at once to prevent their bodies from rotting and polluting the city.

He had waited for an answer and received no answer, only this notice. Chu Xiaotian fell silent. To people like him, corpses were sacred. He had never even considered cremating his ten uncles. He wanted to take them back to the little mountain village where they had grown up. He had stayed here all this time because he was waiting for the compensation and funeral expenses they were owed. He had received no money, and now they wanted him to cremate their bodies. Chu Xiaotian felt utterly heartbroken.

As someone who guided corpses, Chu Xiaotian knew ways of preserving bodies that ordinary people could never understand. His ten uncles' bodies wouldn't rot in his care—not for a good while, at least.

He explained the reason to the so-called city management officials who had come to notify him, and asked them to help transport the bodies back to his hometown. But they didn't take him seriously and insisted on hauling the bodies away. At last, the silent Chu Xiaotian snapped. He grabbed a mattock and smashed the officials who had come to notify him and take the bodies across the face, sending them fleeing in a sorry state.

Chu Xiaotian didn't wait any longer. He opened the bundle he had brought from the village and took out the corpse-guiding implements he hadn't used in ages. He was going to guide his uncles back to their hometown himself.

To outsiders, the Corpse Guiding Technique seemed mysterious and terrifying. But in Chu Xiaotian's hands, it was remarkably simple. He took out several yellow talismans and stuck one to each of the ten bodies' chests. Then he drew a wooden sword carved from peachwood and swung it for a while. The ten men, who had been dead for quite some time and lying motionless on the ground, suddenly stood bolt upright. Chu Xiaotian held a copper bell in his right hand and shook it. The corpses walked in a circle where they stood, then each placed a hand on the shoulder of the person in front. The one at the head of the line rested his hand on Chu Xiaotian's shoulder. As Chu Xiaotian rang the bell, they followed him outside.

Chu Xiaotian was guiding the corpses on a long journey, so he had linked them together to keep them from getting lost. For a short trip, he only needed to ring the bell to set the corpses in motion and make them walk just like ordinary people.

(Wangyou)