Chapter 2: Borrowing a Corpse to Return a Soul

  The chirping of the birds, chattering away, sounds so nice. What's that cool thing? Is it a spring? Yang Qiucheng felt his consciousness slowly recovering, and he slowly opened his eyes. The sunlight was too dazzling, so he quickly closed them again.

  Aren't I dead? Where am I? Yang Qiuchi thought hard, feeling as if his head was about to split open, and could only lie quietly.

  A gentle breeze blew in, feeling so comfortable. There was the sound of gently flowing water. Yang Qiucheng slightly opened his mouth and a cool clear spring immediately gushed into his mouth.

  After drinking a few mouthfuls of the clear spring water, Yang Qiuchi felt invigorated and his headache was not as severe. As he opened his eyes, what entered his vision were lush green mountains and dense forests. What a beautiful mountain scenery.

  Yang Qiuchi struggled to sit up, looked around, and found that on his left was a cliff over ten zhang high, with mountains overlapping each other. A small stream wound its way through the mountains, and he was sitting at the bottom of this stream. The clear water had soaked all his clothes, and when the mountain wind blew, it sent shivers down his spine.

  He didn't know what place this was, but the lush trees on the mountain told him that it was absolutely not the endless grassland and snowy mountains of Tibet's Ali where the huge funnel had appeared.

  Not far away, the truck was like a withered old man in his twilight years, pitifully lying among the nearby rubble, one wheel having flown off to who-knows-where.

  Yang Qiuchi struggled to get up. Feeling that something was not quite right with his body, he looked down and was startled to find that the wet clothes on him didn't seem to be his own. The style was very strange, like something he had seen before - yes, it was the kind of blue cloth short shirt and loose, thick trousers that ordinary people in ancient times often wore in historical dramas. His head also felt wrong, and when he reached up to touch it, he found that his usual buzz cut had turned into a long braid coiled on top of his head, with two strips of cloth fluttering in the wind.

  What's going on? Why am I wearing ancient clothes? Yang Qiuchi muttered to himself, shaking his head and walking unsteadily to the car. He opened the door and found the driver's cabin in disarray. The digital camera and the driver's Type 77 pistol were nowhere to be seen. Yang Qiuchi crawled into the cabin to search and found the camera and pistol under the seat.

  Yang Qiuchi picked up the pistol and digital camera and put them on the seat, feeling extremely tired. He plopped down onto the seat, leaning back against the headrest and panting heavily. Suddenly, he froze because in the rearview mirror in front of him, he saw a strange face covered in blood! Scenes from horror movies about encountering ghosts in cars that he had seen before flashed through his mind like lightning - it's a ghost!

  He suddenly turned his head back, and there was nothing behind him. He looked around to the left and right, but still saw nothing. When he lifted his head again, that stranger with a bloody face was still staring at him coldly!

  Yang Qiuchi's head buzzed with a loud noise, and he felt all the hairs on his body standing up. Isn't it like this in horror movies?! But now is broad daylight, under the scorching sun, would you still encounter ghosts?! Due to fear, Yang Qiuchi's neck stiffened, although as a forensic doctor, he had dissected countless corpses and shouldn't be afraid of ghosts, but having just personally experienced death and now encountering this strange and bizarre event, he became like a startled bird.

  Unable to move, he could only stare at the stranger in the rearview mirror, who was also staring back at him. They were locked in a stalemate. Yang Qiuchu's facial muscles twitched involuntarily, and the blood-stained face of the stranger in the rearview mirror also twitched. A thought flashed through his mind: could that stranger be himself?

  He blinked, and the person in the rearview mirror also blinked. He opened his mouth to smile, revealing a set of pearly white teeth. Similarly, the person in the rearview mirror also revealed a set of pearly white teeth. Yang Qiuchu let out a long sigh of relief - the person in the mirror was not a ghost, but himself.

  Was it himself? The thought made Yang Qiuchi's heart, which had just relaxed, suddenly tense up again. Was that stranger himself? How did his own face become like this? Still covered in fresh blood, ah~~! Yang Qiuchi grabbed the rearview mirror and wiped his face with his sleeve, revealing his true appearance. This was a completely unfamiliar face, one he had never seen before! Who was it?!

  How did I become like this? Where is the blood on my face from? Yang Qiuchu stared blankly at himself in the mirror, unable to react for a long time. Recalling the scene before being sucked into that giant whirlpool, he felt as if his soul had left his body, and should have been dead by now, so how did he come back to life? He remembered seeing someone lying between white jade belts, pouncing on him, and then nothing else. That white jade belt was probably this small stream, the person around whom was covered in fresh blood, motionless, likely a corpse, perhaps having fallen from the cliff beside the stream and died... Could it be... A phrase often used in ghost stories popped into his head - "borrowing a corpse to return to life"!

  Is it possible that I've come back to life in this person's body? It's likely that he died falling off the cliff, and I happened to pass through a massive black hole and arrived here, using his corpse to revive myself. However, such a major event as reviving a soul should require the approval of Yanluo Wang, but I haven't seen any ox-headed or horse-faced guards. Did I drink Meng Po's soup and forget everything? No, I remember everything that happened before this, so what's going on?

  He looked down at the ancient clothes on his body, ancient? Could it be that he had traveled through time and space, and was reborn in ancient times? As soon as he thought of the time-travel stories often seen in movies, Yang Qiuchuan's head buzzed with excitement and surprise. Was he also so lucky to have flown back to ancient times? But which dynasty did he end up in? If it was a era of continuous war, being killed inexplicably would be terrible, or if it was an era of widespread famine, being starved to death would be even more unlucky. He had to find someone to ask what dynasty he had ended up in.

  Whose corpse is this that I've borrowed? Judging from the clothes and appearance, it shouldn't be an official, as officials in TV dramas wear official robes and a black hat. It doesn't seem like a scholar with honors either, as ancient scholars wore long gowns, which can be seen from Lu Xun's "Kong Yiji". Ah yes, scholars in TV dramas also wear a hat with two small flaps on the sides. This corpse I've borrowed to return my soul only has a headscarf tied around its head, so it must be an ordinary commoner.

  It's okay to be a farmer, you can continue farming after finding land. If it's a long worker or a cowherd, that would be miserable. Or maybe he's doing business, but looking at this rough cloth clothes, I know it's not possible for him to be a big rich merchant. Maybe he's selling vegetables by the roadside, or perhaps he's running a grocery store.

  But even if this person had two acres of thin fields, or a grocery store, who would know, there was no clue at all, and where to find the thin fields and grocery stores? Thinking again, what can be done after finding it, what if this person owed a debt, or had an old, ugly and fierce wife and a bunch of starving children crying loudly, and he still had to find a living for them, wouldn't that be even more miserable!