Chapter 8, 12:37

  At night, the Fukuroi Hospital is in the suburbs. Except for the wide road and the four-story hospital building in front of me, all that's left are those willow trees swaying in the spring breeze. Those willows seem to be people, constantly swinging their proud bodies. The moonlight spilled from a crescent moon in the sky seems to be a new outfit for these "willow people".

  Once again, I came to the Furi Hospital, with a mood of deep emotion. Looking at the open iron gate in front of me, my tense emotions involuntarily rose. Before coming, who would have imagined that in this psychiatric hospital, I would actually encounter a ghost that only appeared in my grandfather's words.

  I let out a sigh of relief as Da Zhuang and I walked into the hospital, it was still before working hours, so the middle-aged man on duty was still sitting in the duty room. Da Zhuang and I walked into the duty room, to avoid drawing attention, I placed the iron rod wrapped in black cloth at the corner of the bed, then sat down on a stool, while Da Zhuang sat down on the bed next to the middle-aged man.

  Dazhuang closed the door of the duty room, took out two cigarettes from his pocket, handed one to the middle-aged man and lit one for himself. "Aren't you the two brothers from daytime? How did you come so early? There are still twenty minutes left." The middle-aged man lit a cigarette and took a hard drag, then exhaled clouds of smoke. "This cigarette is quite mild, just right for my taste." He said, closing his eyes to savor it.

  Upon hearing the middle-aged man's words, Da Zhuang chuckled and said, "What's wrong? Brother, you're quite particular about this. If I had to say, it's better than the ones with tobacco inside, but I heard they've stopped producing these. Luckily, my family stocked up on some inventory, or else I wouldn't be able to enjoy such good cigarettes." He then took two more puffs.

  "Haha, little brother really knows his stuff! I used to love smoking this brand too, but I didn't think the manufacturer would be so unreliable. It's really infuriating! So, I've switched to a different brand, but compared to yours, it's still inferior by who-knows-how-many times." The middle-aged man paused for a moment "Right, you two brothers came to ask me about Zhang Uncle's address today, saying you wanted to go find him and ask him something. Did you guys see Zhang Uncle?"

  I shook my head. "We found Zhang's house, but he wasn't there. His wife said he hadn't been home since last night."

  When I said that, the middle-aged man exclaimed, "That's not right, Zhang Shu is a family-minded person. Every time he gets off work, no matter how late it is, he will always go home. He can't possibly not go home."

  Time passed quickly, before we could chat a few more sentences, the middle-aged man had reached his off-duty time. The middle-aged man bid us farewell and went off duty, leaving only me and Da Zhuang in the duty room.

  Looking at the people constantly walking out of the hospital, it can be seen that basically everyone in the entire hospital has already reached the end of their shift and left. Da Zhuang frequently smokes, waiting for most people to leave before taking out another cigarette from his pocket, lighting it up and putting it in his mouth.

  Before long, three people walked to the window of the duty room and opened it. "Hey, we three will leave first. If there are any emergency patients coming for treatment, you two can find us in the music room." The only man among them said, then took the two young girls away. That so-called music room was actually a place where people played cards, it was clear that these three were the doctors and nurses on night shift mentioned by the old man.

  "What's the big deal, he's just a doctor. He's leading two women out and isn't afraid of being killed by a woman's belly." As he spoke, Da Zhuang took two heavy puffs on his cigarette and then inserted the butt into an iron box.

  "I said, how come you're still so energetic? The other one is a doctor, those two are nurses. If the little nurse doesn't follow the doctor's lead, won't they be laid off? Besides, they went to play mahjong and cards, what you said about the dead skin on your belly isn't even relevant." I said, looking at Da Zhuang's hostile expression.

  After hearing what I said, Da Zhuang obviously couldn't hold his face "Damn it, I knew they were going to play mahjong, and you actually believed those words I said, really."

  "By the way, tell me some of the things your grandfather used to tell you. It's like a brainwashing for this atheist, I heard from my grandfather that your old man was an expert in robbing graves, is that true?" Da Zhuang suddenly became interested in my grandfather's affairs.

  "You first listen clearly, that's not stealing a dead man's grave, in our line of work, that's called reversing the fight."

  "My grandfather used to be a grave robber, and I'll tell you one story. My grandfather had a master who was even more formidable than him, and he was said to be a mountain-moving Taoist priest. This mountain-moving Taoist priest was incredibly skilled, and it's no exaggeration to say that they could move mountains. Firstly, their skills in digging tunnels were unparalleled, and they could dig through mountains. My grandfather once followed this master to rob a tomb, which my grandfather said belonged to a general from the Song Dynasty."

  "My grandfather and Mountain Moving Daoist were digging a tomb when the Mountain Moving Daoist said that this grave was very strange, not a normal tomb structure, but rather an ancient tomb structure with many intersecting passageways. This type of tomb is the most difficult to navigate. Firstly, the main chamber is hard to find, secondly, there are many passageways that intersect each other, if you enter, it's easy to get lost in these passageways and end up walking in circles, and then you'll be trapped inside and can't come out. After Mountain Moving Daoist finished digging the tomb, he tied one end of a long silk thread to a nail at the entrance of the tomb, and gave the other end to my grandfather, telling him to hold it tightly no matter what, without letting go. This silk thread was called 'guide road silk', a necessary tool for navigating tombs in their line of work. The guide road silk is a tool that helps navigators mark their route, and it's not afraid of high or low temperatures, and is very sturdy and reliable."

  Everything was ready, and the Mountain Moving Man led the way into the tomb. The tomb wasn't very big, and people couldn't fully stretch out inside, but this kind of tomb was the most secure. Under the Mountain Moving Man's long experience, Grandfather and the Mountain Moving Man entered the main chamber. In the main chamber, there were two stone coffins, one placed in the center of the room and the other in a corner. The Mountain Moving Man observed the coffin in the corner to see if there was anything unusual about it. As they say, "A careful sailor can sail for ten thousand years." Meanwhile, Grandfather pushed the central coffin, and suddenly the entire chamber emitted a loud "twang" sound, like a broken zither string. Grandfather thought it was just the guide rope breaking, but the guide rope was fine, and there was nothing unusual about the opened main coffin either. The Mountain Moving Man already knew that disaster was imminent. Just as Grandfather hadn't yet pushed open the stone coffin lid, the Mountain Moving Man discovered that the side coffin and the main coffin were slightly ajar. But before he could tell Grandfather, Grandfather had already pushed open the stone coffin lid. In an instant, they heard the sound of "creak" coming from the side coffin. The coffin lid was flipped over onto the ground, revealing a corpse with a grotesquely ugly greenish-blue face sitting upright inside.

  "It's not good, it's a green-faced dumpling. He immediately called out to Grandfather to hurry and escape. Grandfather had never turned over a bowl before, and what he learned from the Mountain Moving Taoist were just common sense. At that moment, he was so scared that he loosened his hand and pulled out a gun from his pocket. The guide thread also disappeared with a 'whoosh' sound. The guide thread was made of a special material that could be lengthened or shortened. When Grandfather let go of it, the thread followed the force and disappeared along the original route, probably at the outer entrance of the cave. After that, Grandfather fought a battle with the Mountain Moving Taoist, but no matter how I asked him, he wouldn't say anything about the details of the battle. All I know is that two years later, the Mountain Moving Taoist died under strange circumstances."

  Dazhuang listened with great enthusiasm, but didn't expect me to finish so soon. "Damn, you're done already? I haven't had enough yet."

  Actually, I still can't guess how Grandpa and Mountain-moving Taoist escaped from the ancient tomb that Grandpa told me about. And why did Mountain-moving Taoist pass away after two years? Also, was the green-faced glutinous rice ball eventually eliminated by Grandpa and Mountain-moving Taoist or not?

  "I say, Little Ke comrade, you've managed to tease out the particularly strong desire for knowledge that's been hiding in my body. Can't just forcibly suppress it now, can we? Tell me two more," said Da Zhuang.

  Looking at Da Zhuang's appearance, I took another look at my watch. At this time, it was still more than an hour before two o'clock. So I told Da Zhuang a few stories about his grandfather's experiences that he had told me before.

  "Don't make me talk anymore, I've already told you so many times, my throat is dry, let me take a break." I took a sip of water, and just as I put down the cup, I heard that familiar yet chilling "creaking" sound coming from the corridor. I looked up to see that it was already past 1:30...