The sun went down, the day turned into night, and everything began to get quiet.
In a room in Xiaotong Guan, the lights were on all the time, and there were constant voices talking inside. At first, they were very soft, and gradually some unbelievable growls could be heard, followed by angry voices.
“You’re talking nonsense… this is impossible…”
“How could he…”
“…Shut up! Shut up!”
“Am I… wrong?”
After a long time, so long that the birds in the trees outside the room returned to their nests and began to rest, the room became dead silent.
With a click, Xu Hang opened the door and came out, then closed it again. He did not walk far but stood at the door motionless. The room behind him suddenly erupted with the howl of a wounded beast, like the wail of a soul trying to break out of its chest.
There was a powerful impact, and the entire door trembled as dust fell from the walls. Again and again, the sound of a fist striking the door with bare hands echoed, each blow delivered with all his strength.
The heavy wooden door actually cracked into several gaps, and the door lock began to deform until the last crisp sound, the door was completely scrapped!
Inside the door was Duan Zhanzhou with red eyes, and he looked like a man-eating beast. He rushed out, stumbling all the way, and disappeared without a trace.
When the truth arrives, people often react in a wild and unbearable way. They struggle, they refuse to believe it, and in the end, they can only accept it quietly and reluctantly, filled with regret.
Who made them stupid? Who made them stubborn? They deserved it.
Xu Hang was also ready to leave Xiaotong Guan. He had already done what he promised to Cong Lin.
The dark and long corridor seemed like the only way to the underworld. There was not a single light. The clattering footsteps here sounded like the rhythm of a mournful song. Xu Hang suddenly felt like singing a dramatic song. He opened his mouth and began to sing a passage from the Yue Opera “Butterfly Lovers”.
His voice was clear and mellow, but in this dark night, it seemed so sad and lonely.
“Brother Liang, I thought that the heavens would grant our wishes, but who knew that it would not be listed in the marriage book; I really hoped that you would ask Yue Lao to be the matchmaker, but who knew that the magpies and the crows would not call—”
He sang as he descended the stairs, the darkness concealing the emotions on his face.
“…Tombstone, tombstone, the black one is engraved with Liang Shanbo, the red one is engraved with Zhu Yingtai—”
“You have been filled with sorrow and hatred for eternity, how can I live alone? I made a vow to you before we die, and we will never be separated until the end of time…”
What a heartbreaking song.
After singing this line, he happened to walk out of Xiaotong Guan. Looking up, he saw the crescent moon, sharp as a knife, glowing with a blood-red hue, casting its light over the peaceful Hezhou City.
How desolate.
There are so many ignorant people in the city, and the walls cannot reveal the thoughts of those who are far away.
——
Duan Zhanzhou kept running, as if possessed by divine power. Every pore seemed to pulse with blood, and even his mind felt like a burning ball of fire.
Xu Hang’s devilish voice kept circling around his ears, tormenting him.
“Cong Lin stayed by your side for so many years. If he hadn’t pretended to obey while secretly acting on his own, you would’ve died countless times at the hands of the Chief of Staff’s schemes.”
“Every night, you act like a client… no, even a client offers sweet words to a prostitute. But you? At best, you’re just a repeat offender of the most vulgar kind.”
“He asked me to tell you that you must live a long life. Because he has committed too many sins, he cannot enter the reincarnation cycle. Even in the endless hell or the edge of the helpless place, he never wants to see you again.”
Stop talking! Stop talking!
Duan Zhanzhou covered his ears and ran like a madman. The wind howled past him, but it couldn’t drown out the voice. His legs grew weak, his heart pounded as if it would leap from his chest—only then did he finally come to a stop.
The mass grave.
The mass grave at night was truly terrifying. The branches of the dead trees stretched out like white bone claws, and crows cawed eerily above them.
The ground was full of graves of all sizes, with no tombstones. The stench of corpses wafted from all directions. Rats were running around, with bloodstains on their mouths from biting corpses. They would burrow into the ground when they saw people.
The people buried here would only become wandering ghosts after they died. How desolate that would be. Here, even the wind sounded like ghosts howling.
Duan Zhanzhou looked around, his face was gray and his lips were pale. He looked around and found that there were many new graves here, and the ones with moist soil were newly dug in the past two days. He spotted a grave, squatted down, and started digging with his bare hands.
The soft surface soil was easy to dig, but it gradually became hard and very abrasive to the hands as he dug deeper. Moreover, he had just injured his joints in a self-inflicted manner, but he did not seem to feel any pain at all.
The soil was gradually dug up, revealing the body underneath. He took a look and saw that it was not Cong Lin.
He turned around and walked to the next pit and continued digging.
This time, the moment the pit was dug, several gangrene worms squirmed out, their twisted bodies still clinging to scraps of flesh and blood. Duan Zhanzhou forced himself to endure it and kept digging. There was no intact body inside—only scattered body parts.
He gave up and went to the next one.
He dug blindly with his bare hands, until his fingertips bled and his clothes were drenched in sweat. He dug out old men who had been hanged, children taken by plague, headless, unidentified corpses, and scattered limbs… but he never found Cong Lin.
The mass grave was so huge that it frightened him.
When he dug the next pit, Duan Zhanzhou was so tired that he could only kneel on the ground, grit his teeth, and use his arms to push the soil away. His body was already covered with stains and stench, and there were some blind little bugs crawling around, but he didn’t care at all.
Where is he?
If he couldn’t be found anywhere, did that mean the King of Hell had rejected him—that he wasn’t dead yet?
Such a fantastic idea suddenly gave him a little hope.
Blood and dirt oozed from all ten fingertips, blending into a pungent, metallic scent. The pain of ten fingers linked to the heart should have been unbearable—but in that moment, it was nothing compared to the aching sorrow surging through his chest.
At this time, a terrified cry came from behind him: “Ghost… did I encounter a ghost?!”
He turned around and saw an old man holding a lantern, sitting on the ground in fear.
The old man had just finished burying the body and was about to go home. He passed by and saw something strange happening on the grave. He thought there was a ghost and was scared out of his wits. He took a closer look and saw that the man had a shadow. He thought it should be a person. He walked closer and saw that he looked familiar. “Is this… the officer? Hey, what are you doing?”
Duan Zhanzhou saw his face clearly and recognized that it was the old man who pulled the cart in the morning, so he rushed up, grabbed his hand, and asked, “It’s you!”
“Yes, yes, yes, it’s me… Sir, what’s the matter?”
“Let me ask you, is the person from this morning still alive? Where did you hide him?”
He used the word “hide” instead of “bury”, which means he expected the person to still be alive.
“Person?” The old man thought for a moment before replying, “You mean that body? He’s… really lucky to have met a kind soul like you. You gave me some money, and since I’m a Buddhist, I’ll count it as a good deed credited to the deceased. I prepared a simple, cheap coffin and found a decent spot to bury him.”
As he said that, the old man pointed to the front to Duan Zhanzhou, and Duan Zhanzhou rushed over without saying a word.
It was called a better place, but in reality, it was just a small mound beneath a crooked tree, with fewer graves around it.
Duan Zhanzhou swallowed hard, his eyes darkening. Slowly, he squatted down to dig, his heart pounding with a twisted hope—he wanted to dig it out, but at the same time, he hoped he would never find him either.
As the soil layer became thinner and thinner, the corners of the wooden coffin finally appeared.
He immediately increased the speed of his hands, sweat splashed out, and in a few seconds, the entire coffin was exposed.
This is indeed a very simple wooden coffin, made of the worst scraps, with a moldy surface, no paint, and many insect bites on the edges.
With trembling hands, he lifted the coffin lid, and there, revealed before him, was Cong Lin’s face.
Under the moonlight, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Duan Zhanzhou had thought that he would be miserable, but he didn’t expect him to be this miserable. He knew Yuan Sen was a worthless person, but he hadn’t realized that Cong Lin had been tortured to the point where he no longer resembled a human being. There were two huge holes on his body, and the flesh on his cheeks was sunken. The body was somewhat rotten due to the summer heat.
After rubbing his dirty hands on his body, he carefully reached in and took Cong Lin out as if he were holding an antique.
He had never treated him so carefully before. In Duan Zhanzhou’s memory, this was the first time that they had such ambiguous and intimate behavior.
He was so light. Like a doll made of feathers.
He held Cong Lin in his arms, but Cong Lin felt like ice, and no warmth could reach him. For the first time, his emotions felt like a stagnant pool of water—still and unmoving, yet with a gaping hole in the center, where he fell into it with a dull thud.
He wanted to hold Cong Lin’s hand, but he saw the mottled scars when he touched it, and his heart ached. He looked up and saw some fine candle powder in his palm.
He suddenly hugged Cong Lin tightly and put his cheek against his forehead. He wanted to get closer so maybe he could hear the subtle breathing and heartbeat and then prove that he was not really dead.
There’s none, there’s none at all.
This person will never be bullied or submissive to him again. He is truly dead, from soul to spirit, completely gone.
“Liar, you are indeed a complete liar. From the beginning to the end, you have never told me a single word of truth…”
Duan Zhanzhou squeezed out words that seemed like complaints bit by bit from his back teeth. He gradually pinched Cong Lin’s shoulders with his palms with force, but Cong Lin would no longer cry out in pain.
“It’s just a piece of cake… you actually became a killer? You are so stupid. Haha… I have neither done you any favors nor kindnesses, so who asked you to do this? Who asked you to sacrifice yourself?”
“And you even had Xu Hang tell me in person… You two siblings are truly something else. One is more cruel than the other. You always know how to make me suffer the most.”
“What do you mean we won’t meet again in the underworld? Don’t be ridiculous. If you really let it go, how could you want me to miss you?”
If the gods and hell officials knew about this, could they please give him a break and let him return to life? He had many more questions to ask. This guy could speak, but he pretended to be mute. He didn’t know how many times he almost couldn’t help but call out his name when he looked at him.
If he gives him a little smile, a little praise…
He can’t hear it anymore.
He looked at Cong Lin’s lifeless face, kissed him on the forehead, took off his long coat, wrapped Cong Lin’s whole body up carefully, and carried his body horizontally.
“Yinsi Quan Road, don’t be afraid…” Duan Zhanzhou whispered in a lover’s tone for the first time, “I’ll take you to find your sister.”
Stepping on the piles of bones under his feet, facing the mourning night wind, he walked down from the mass grave step by step.
