Ah Ta covered his eyes, seemingly unable to bear the pain, and hissed, “He has strange things on him… It’s very powerful and might affect the boss’s ability to perform the ghost marriage. Brother Guman, come and deal with it. Ah, damn it, it hurts so much!”
“Haha, serve you right, you big bad guy! You think we’re easy to mess with just because we’re from the mountains?” Saibang spat at him, but Ah Ta immediately grabbed his neck and pressed him down, saying, “Shut up!”
The sharp sound of the brakes scraping against my eardrums and the car jolted to a stop.
“It’s too late, the boss is here.” Gu Man said, pushing open the door and getting out of the car.
I looked ahead and indeed saw a black G-Class parked not far away.
“Ah Ta, bring him over here.”
“But…”
“Just bring him to see the boss first!”
Ah Ta gritted his teeth, grabbed me by the arm, and kicked open the car door.
Two burly men in black jackets came down from the black G-Class, wearing sunglasses and carrying guns, exuding the aura of desperate bandits. Gu Man pushed me forward, and the two burly men immediately held me and pushed my head into the car door.
The scene in front of my eyes darkened, and I was forced to kneel. A damp and cold air enveloped me. Although the temperature outside was also low, it felt like being in an underground ice cellar inside.
When my vision adjusted to the light in the car, I could see clearly that at the end of this wide and long car without seats, there sat a middle-aged man in a black suit and with a cane. He had a pale face, sunken cheeks, and high cheekbones. At first glance, he looked like a dried corpse crawling out of a grave.
“Young man, come closer so I can get a good look at you.”
I watched him warily: “You’re their boss? Why did you capture me? I’m just a painter, what could you possibly want from me? Did you grab the wrong person?”
“Go over when you’re told to!” A rough voice shouted from behind, and my body was roughly shoved forward.
I struggled to lift my knee and get up, but my shoulder was firmly pinned down.
“Did the boss tell you to get up?”
I was fuming with anger, turning my head to glare at the burly man behind me, only to feel the barrel of a gun pressed against my forehead.
The instinctive fear of deadly weapons surged from the top of my head straight to my brain. Trembling, I turned my head back, facing the man in black at the end of the car. Slowly, I began to crawl toward him on my knees.
I don’t know why, but the closer I got to the man, the colder it felt. By the time I reached him, I was shivering uncontrollably. My chin was lifted by the tip of a cane, and before my eyes met the man’s face, the first thing I saw was a Buddha amulet on his chest. The frame was golden and gleaming, while the transparent glass inside contained a powdery, lime-like substance.
I don’t know why, but my eyelids started twitching wildly.
The man looked down at me, his eyes narrowing, the corners of his eyes creasing into fan-like wrinkles. His irises were a light brown, and his features were deep-set, hinting at a mix of Southeast Asian ancestry. For some reason, he seemed somewhat familiar, though I couldn’t quite place why. Before I could identify the source of this feeling, he chuckled softly and said, “You’re certainly quite beautiful. No wonder the youngest is so fond of you. Your birth date and destiny line up perfectly—just right, just right.”
There was a dimple next to the corner of his mouth.
I couldn’t help but stare at it. “The youngest… who is it?”
“When you meet him, you’ll know,” He said, patting my cheek. “As long as the youngest likes you, that’s all that matters. Come on, kid, call me ‘father,’ and I’ll give you a little gift to mark our meeting.”
I clenched my lips together, convinced that this man was likely insane. Refusing to obey, I suddenly felt a sharp pain as my hair was seized and violently yanked backward. The man continued to smile, his expression as gentle as a Buddha’s. “Kid, call me ‘father.’ You’ll be part of my family sooner or later, so you might as well start now. The sooner you do, the less suffering you’ll have to endure. Ah, be good.”
I instinctively knew that his so-called ‘greeting gift’ was anything but good, and that ‘father’ wasn’t a title to be used lightly. Stiffening my neck, I gritted my teeth, trying to resist. But I had been spoiled by my adoptive parents since childhood. Though rebellious and prone to unconventional ways, I had never truly experienced physical suffering. My pain tolerance was abysmally low. The searing agony of my scalp being yanked felt as if my skin might be torn away. After just a brief struggle, I couldn’t endure it any longer. Humiliated, I surrendered. “…Father!”
The hair was loosened, and the man smiled and said, “That’s more like it.”
With a loud crash, a golden light flashed before my eyes, and something fell from my head and landed on my neck. It was heavy and stuck to my chest, as cold as a stethoscope.
I felt a chill in my lungs, and I shuddered. I looked down and saw that it was the amulet he was wearing—obviously, this was his gift.
“Why… why are you giving me this?” I asked. The moment the words left my mouth, a sudden weight pressed down on my back, as if something unseen was bearing down on me. At the same time, a chilling sensation brushed against my ears—like a breath exhaled by someone right beside me.
I instinctively tried to reach behind my ears, but my hands were bound tightly behind my back. Turning my head to look, I saw nothing. The car was cramped and shrouded in darkness, its windows sealed shut. With the seats removed, the space felt unnaturally wide and long—just like a moving coffin.
“I hired the most skilled Ajarn[mfn]It’s something like a spiritual master[/mfn] from Thailand and went through a lot of trouble to have this amulet made. Don’t rush, once the sun sets, you’ll get to meet the youngest. He’s been thinking about you a lot,” He said, tapping my forehead with his cane. “Come, bow to Father, and the ceremony will be completed.”
Bow again? Bow your mother’s head, this crazy old man…”
Who is the youngest? Is there someone like that among the people I’ve known?
Shock and fear tangled in my mind, leaving me in disarray. I didn’t want to give in, but the weight on my back grew heavier and heavier, like a massive stone pressing down on me. It felt as if unseen hands were stacking more and more weight, an invisible force yanking my neck downward. No matter how I struggled, I was being forced to bend, little by little.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of deathly pale hands wrapped around my waist. Their wrists seemed to be adorned with a string of… colorful chains. A chill ran down my spine, and my breath caught in my throat. My heart pounded as I tried to focus, but when I looked again, there was nothing there. Yet, the crushing weight on my back only grew heavier.
In that instant, my ankles were suddenly tightened, as if another pair of hands had grabbed it. With a loud “crack,” the Buddha amulet dropped to the ground. At the same time, the vehicle was slammed by some massive force, the glass shattering with a flurry of sounds. The car flipped sideways, and in an instant, the world turned upside down. I was thrown directly out of the car window.
Instinctively, I curled my arms around my head and tumbled into the snow.
Dazed and seeing stars, I lifted my gaze, only to realize that the large G-Class had been rear-ended by a gray jeep. It was like a flood washing away the Dragon King’s temple—unexpected and chaotic. But the real culprit wasn’t the jeep’s driver. It was the massive… white wolf standing just ahead of the vehicle.
I knew that there were snow wolf packs in the high-altitude mountains of southern Jiangsu, but seeing one up close was both shocking and terrifying. Its appearance was truly bizarre—its eyes were pure white, and its body was covered with large, red, bud-like growths that seemed fungal in nature. Despite the obvious distortion in its back from the impact, it stood still as though it didn’t feel any pain, resembling the “zombie deer” that had gone viral in some online videos. I sat frozen on the ground, too scared to move, fearing it might turn and pounce on me. But instead, it merely glanced back once before calmly leaping into the nearby forest and disappearing from view.
“Boss! Boss, are you okay?”
“Hey, kid, don’t run!”
The shock snapped me back to my senses as I spotted two figures darting into the woods behind the gray jeep. The driver, a man with a Daoist hairstyle, lay slumped over the steering wheel, his face smeared with blood, unconscious. In the overturned G-Class ahead, a burly man was struggling to drag someone out of the wreckage. Without hesitation, I sprang to my feet and bolted toward the depths of the forest behind me.
“Don’t let that kid get away! Don’t worry about me, go catch him!”
An extremely shrill voice came from behind like a ghost, followed by a few bangs. Someone actually fired a gun behind me.
I rushed forward in panic and heard a “bang” behind me, and a cold liquid splashed on the back of my neck. I couldn’t help but turn my head to look, and with a “splash”, a huge shadow passed directly across my face. It turned out to be a mountain vulture with blood-red feathers.
There was a bloody hole in its abdomen, and blood flowed all over my face, but it flapped its wings and flew into the sky without hesitation.
What’s going on… are all the birds and beasts here so tenacious?
It couldn’t be that they are… helping me, right?
I was stunned, but I didn’t dare to stop for even a moment. As I turned around, a bullet whizzed past, grazing my cheek before striking the tree trunk. The bark splintered and scraped the corner of my eye. The sharp, burning pain surged, and blood began to fill my vision. I stumbled and bumped into the tree when I wasn’t paying attention. I held onto the tree trunk and barely stood still. There was a double image in front of me. I didn’t know if it was an illusion, but I saw a figure a few steps ahead.
No… there was not just one figure, but several. They stood upright among the shadows of the trees, and no one knew what they were doing in this forest.
Are they the mountain people living nearby?
“Hey! Help! There are poachers here! They want to kill me to silence me!” I shouted urgently, recalling that the mountains of Southern Jiangsu were home to many nationally protected species. In my desperation, I rushed toward the nearest figure. But as I drew closer, my feet froze. The words stuck in my throat, choked by a fear that slithered up from my stomach, coiling tightly around my neck like a venomous snake.
Amid the tree shadows, like dark clouds, a pair of white, eerie pupils were staring at me… standing motionless in front of me was none other than the truck driver. His head was oddly tilted to one side, resting on his shoulder, with a terrifying wound on the side of his neck, as if it had been torn open by a beast. However, the blood had long since dried, and the flesh was rolled back, revealing his neckbone.
“You…”
Just as I was about to speak, he suddenly lunged forward, and the figures behind him mirrored the same movement. The scene was even more terrifying than the pursuers behind me. My legs went weak, and I instinctively wanted to retreat, but then I heard the sound of the chase drawing even closer.
Two gunshots rang out behind me. “Damn it, you’re like a fox, so hard to catch. If you keep running around, I’ll break your legs. Anyway, it won’t hurt to heal you later!” I stood there, not daring to move. A rough male voice came from behind me. “Hey, Batuo? Why are you here? You’ve been missing for so long, I thought you were dead!”
Batuo?
Is this the driver’s name? Do they know him?
I stared at the truck driver who was jumping forward with several figures behind him. Before I could react, I heard a strange “hehe” roar from his throat, and suddenly he jumped up and pounced forward.
I was caught off guard and stepped on a stone, tumbling to the ground. But as I fell, I saw the driver, Batuo, leap over me and rush toward the back. The next moment, a heavy thud echoed as a body hit the ground, followed by a scream that pierced the air: “Damn you—ah!”
The gunshots rang out in rapid succession, bullets scattering in all directions. I dropped to the ground and turned to look. Batuo was pinning one of the man in black, the ones who had been after me, to the ground. He had his hands wrapped around the man’s head, and the corners of his mouth were split wide open, stretching all the way to his ears, revealing countless sharp, terrifying teeth. His long tongue split down the middle, revealing rows of fangs, and with a single lick, he scraped the man in black’s face, peeling off his skin in a gruesome, blood-soaked display.
“Ah—”
“He… he… face, face, face…”
I trembled, slowly turning my head to see several figures leaping toward me from the shadows of the trees. Their pupils were completely white, and their mouths were stretched wide, reaching up to their ears.
“Ahhhhhh—”
I got up and ran to the side. I didn’t know how far I ran, but I vaguely heard a flute sound coming from the front. The sound was very special, like an eagle’s cry. I immediately recognized it as the one I heard on the way to find the painter the night before. I couldn’t help but cheer up.
I didn’t dare to look back to see if those strange people were chasing me. I just ran towards the sound of the flute. After a few steps, I saw a stream. I was about to wade across the water, but I saw a white shadow on the right. I looked in that direction and was stunned.
A figure was sitting on a rock playing the flute. It was Tunshe Nalin. He had changed into a blood-red outfit, which made his skin look even whiter and his complexion even more beautiful. The dense branches and leaves drooped and swayed, casting mottled shadows like ink around him, making him appear and disappear, almost distorted, like a seductive ghost whose whereabouts were hard to find in the mountains.
The wind stopped, everything was silent, and the only sound I could hear was my own heartbeat.
My muse, his red attire burning into my eyes and my heart—he was what I had lost and regained, the fire of my soul.
Dong, dong… dong, dong…
It was like the sound of the evening drum and the morning bell, deafening in its intensity.
I stood there, unsure if I really saw him.
It wasn’t until a soft rustling sound came from behind that I snapped out of my daze. I quickly took a few steps forward, moved in front of Tunshe Nalin, grabbed his flute, and covered his mouth.
“Shh, don’t make a sound, there are… monsters.” I turned my head, nervously glancing behind me. Seeing that no one was following with bounding leaps, the tension in my body eased slightly.
