“Wait, Teacher Qin Ran.” Mo Wei chased after me from behind and grabbed my wrist.
I stopped and saw him take out a string of things from his backpack and hang it around my neck. My chest felt heavy, and I looked down. At the end of the red string was a shiny peach pit, and below it was a string of copper coins and a dog tooth.
“Hehe, it’s a job requirement, used to drive away ghosts and evil spirits. I specially asked a master to bless it. I also wear one myself. It’s very useful when I go to places like this.” He grinned and pulled out a red string from his clothes. “Just in case, I prepared an extra one.”
“Thank you.” I touched the walnut and felt relieved. If Tunshe Nalin is really here, there is no need to be afraid, but if he is not here, this thing is still quite necessary. After all, I have been encountering ghosts quite frequently recently.
“And here is my magic weapon—the Golden Immortal Lamp. Take it.”
I took the flashlight Mo Wei handed over and turned it on. With a click, the light in front of me was as bright as day. I couldn’t help laughing: “With such a bright light, even ghosts would be scared away by you.”
“I made it myself. Ordinary flashlights are not as bright as this one. It consumes a bit of power. You can lower the brightness. I only brought this one.”
After dimming the flashlight, Mo Wei and I went up the stone steps one after another and passed through a dense forest. At the end of the stone steps, a large ancient building appeared before us.
It’s a traditional watchtower made of stone and wood, typical of southern Jiangsu. Built against the mountainside, it stands three stories tall, with a flat roof and gracefully upturned eaves at each of the four corners. The outer wall of the entire building seems to have been burned by fire, and it is black, the original color can no longer be distinguished.
“Has there ever been a fire… here?”
“It is said that there is. There is a legend about this haunted house.” Mo Wei paused behind him. “Teacher Qin Ran, look at that door!”
He gave me a fright and pointed the flashlight at the door of the old house.
This door was not the type of low door I had seen in the Nashe tribe but a tall, double-leaf door. The original vibrant paintings on the door had long faded into obscurity, barely discernible now. Yellow paper talismans inscribed with red runes were plastered all over—some curling at the edges, others torn in half or barely clinging on. The one pasted on the copper lock in the shape of a deer head was broken in the middle, and there were several of them scattered messily on the ground in front of the door, with a piece of rusty copper chain lying among them.
“Someone’s been here,” Mo Wei said, picking up the chain. “When I came yesterday, the yellow talismans were untouched and the lock was still in place. I was even thinking about climbing over the wall to get in. Damn it, could one of my colleagues have beaten me to it?”
“Really?” I was startled and suddenly felt that the possibility of Tunshe Nalin being inside was really a little higher, and I couldn’t wait to push the door. With a creak, the heavy wooden door was pushed open by me, and a wisp of cold wind mixed with a damp and moldy smell blew in my face. It was dark inside, and when I stepped into the threshold, it was like stepping from the human world into the underworld.
The front yard of this ancient house was filled with fog. I adjusted the flashlight to the brightest level but could only vaguely see the dark outline of the three-story building inside.
“Tunshe Nalin, are you here?” I raised my voice.
“Teacher Qin Ran, who are you calling?” Mo Wei was surprised.
“That person who sent me here is a friend I met in a nearby village. I feel that the person who came before us might be him.”
“No way, what is he doing here in the middle of the night?”
“Maybe he was tired on the way, so he went in to rest?” When I heard this, I suddenly felt it was absurd. If the door was open, it would make sense for him to go in to rest, but to remove the door locks and seals of this haunted house just to come in and rest didn’t seem like something that Tunshe Nalin would do. But that vulture with red feathers…
Mo Wei couldn’t help laughing from behind: “Teacher Qin Ran, your way of thinking as an artist is really different from that of ordinary people. You are not telling me a joke, are you?”
“Haha.” I laughed dryly and shouted twice more, but there was no response. My voice echoed in this foggy old house, sounding particularly creepy.
“Teacher Qin Ran, is there a shadow crawling over there…”
I was startled and looked towards the courtyard corridor on the right where Mo Wei’s camera was pointed. The light shone into the fog, just like frosted glass. Although I couldn’t see anything clearly, I still instinctively grabbed his arm. As a result, he laughed: “I was just kidding you.”
“Damn it, do you know that scaring people can kill them?” I let go of my hand and hit him on the shoulder with my fist.
At this moment, a rustling sound, like the sound of birds flapping wings, came from the direction he was filming. Is it Brother Vulture? Feeling a sudden surge of energy, I walked briskly in that direction, stepped over a crumbling row of railings, and climbed into the corridor.
The corridor is deep, long, and winding, like the intestines of a giant beast.
“Teacher Qin, slow down.” Mo Wei quickly caught up, laughing. “Your courage, it’s so inconsistent, sometimes big, sometimes small.”
The hallway was lined with many tattered cloth strips, dark red in color, with walnut-sized copper wind chimes attached. If you brushed against them carelessly, they would emit an eerie, ethereal sound. Perhaps because Tunshe Nalin wasn’t around, I felt that this place was even more terrifying than the cave temple where he stayed. Instinctively, I gripped the amulet at my chest but couldn’t help feeling curious. “You just mentioned that there’s a legend about this haunted house. What legend? What happened here?”
“Do you really want to know?” Mo Wei lowered his voice. “I’m afraid that if I tell you, you won’t even dare to stay for a second longer.”
“Am I that scared?” I replied, “If you’re going to say it, then just say it.”
“Then you have to promise me that once you hear it, you won’t run away and will stay to finish filming with me.”
“…Alright, I’ll stay until the end.”
Mo Wei smiled briefly, quickening his pace to walk shoulder to shoulder with me. “Actually, I don’t know if it’s true or not either, but it’s what an old man from this town told me. He said this old house has been around for hundreds of years. It used to be the mansion of a wealthy merchant in the area. The merchant’s family was originally thriving, but then they suffered a great disaster and all died. Though, to be fair, it was kind of the merchant’s own fault, but his family really suffered.”
I realized that this yellow-haired kid, as a paranormal vlogger, actually had some skill. With just a few words, he managed to hook my interest: “What happened?”
“Do you know about the ancient cult in the Jiangsu region that once revered witchcraft?”
I shook my head. Although I had some knowledge of the folk customs of the Jiangsu region when I came here for research, I wasn’t familiar with some of the hidden history of this ancient mountain area.
“That cult was called the Tusheng Cult. It was immensely powerful in Jiangsu at the time. The female cult leader, who had the greatest magical power, was so influential that she could be said to have held authority even over the king who ruled Jiangsu. She was revered as a national priestess, similar to the relationship between the supreme ruler and kings in the medieval period.”
“That female cult leader, you say… was the national priestess?”
He nodded. “At that time, the King of Southern Jiangsu was at war with a neighboring country on the border. Both sides’ shamans were engaged in fierce magical duels. It’s said that the magical tools and offerings they used in their rituals were made from human bones and skin. Since there were not enough death row prisoners, they began to capture civilians and slaves who had committed crimes. No matter whether they had committed a minor or serious crime, they would be skinned and boned.”
I was terrified when I heard this: “Did this rich merchant commit a crime and end up in trouble?”
Mo Wei shook his head. “This merchant had great ambitions. He wasn’t satisfied just being a businessman; he wanted to become a local ruler. When he heard the national priestess was going to perform a ritual, he got human skin and bones from somewhere and presented them to the national priestess together with a large amount of gold and silver treasures. But unexpectedly, they lost the battle. The priestess not only didn’t reward him but shortly afterward, led soldiers to the merchant’s house and wiped out his entire family. Dozens of people, regardless of age or gender, were tortured to death. In the end, they set the house on fire, leaving only a pair of young children, and were captured by the national priestess. The son jumped into the river halfway and should not have survived. It was tragic. The old man said that his grandfather was the grandson of the neighboring family. He mentioned it to him. At that time, he heard the people in the house screaming for a whole night. He will never forget it for the rest of his life.”
I couldn’t help but gasp in shock.
An entire family being wiped out… this truly isn’t just any ordinary haunted house.
“Clink…”
“Jia’er, you’re back…” A soft voice floated from behind.
“Did you hear that?” I was startled and turned my head to look. The mist behind me was thick, and there was no one in sight.
“What?” Mo Wei was startled by me and looked behind us. Then he snickered and patted my shoulder. “You’re learning bad habits ah, Teacher Qin Ran.”
“I really heard someone talking…” I tightened the protective amulet on my chest, feeling a sense of fear. I was tempted to back out, but then I remembered the earlier conversation with Mo Wei and the sound of bird wings flapping. I steeled myself, turned around, and walked down the corridor. “Let’s quickly take a round inside. You finish the video, and once I confirm my friend isn’t here, we’ll leave.”
“You really think he would be here?” Mo Wei muttered. “I actually think it should be my colleagues. It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have let it slip in the group before we left.”
Seeing the passage covered by rags at the end of the corridor, I plucked up my courage, reached out, and opened it. Suddenly, my eyes were enveloped by a red light and I froze there.
In the spacious and magnificent hall, a gloomy red lantern was lit. Under the lantern, a naked man and woman with their heads shaved and tied up were wriggling and crawling in a pool of blood on the ground, screaming miserably. There was no tongue in their wide-open mouths, and their hands were bare, with all ten fingers cut off, leaving only bloody palms waving.
In front of them, several standing figures surrounded a seated figure. They were dressed in luxurious clothes, with pale faces and no facial features, only dark eye sockets.
My legs went limp, and a pair of hands held my body up: “Teacher Qin Ran?”
In the blink of an eye, the scene in front of me suddenly disappeared. Under the light of the flashlight, there was only a pile of messy ruins and debris and black ashes that looked like those left over from a burnt building.
Am I hallucinating, or am I encountering ghosts again?
“Are you okay, Teacher Qin Ran?”
I patted my face, stood firm, and shook my head: “I’m, I’m okay.”
I didn’t see the scene of that year just now, did I?
“It seems that the original furnishings here are gone.” Mo Wei looked around, and suddenly, a ‘bang’ sound came from above our heads.
I was startled and raised the flashlight to look upwards. Above my head were crisscrossing wooden beams and mottled shadows.
“Dong… dong… dong…”
A continuous muffled sound came from above my head… like an old person knocking on the ground with their cane. I swallowed and looked at Mo Wei.
“You heard it too, right?”
He nodded and looked at the double staircase that led from the first-floor hall to the second floor.
“Let’s go up and see if it’s a ghost or a human.” Mo Wei walked towards the stairs. After what happened just now, my courage, which had swelled up because of Tunshe Nalin, had already shrunk by half. I subconsciously grabbed the strap of his backpack with the copper coins hanging on it and followed him to the stairs.
