Chapter Thirty: A Lonely Grave in a Thousand Miles, Nowhere to Express Sorrow

  Novel Network

  Seeing that yellow paper symbol, I'm a bit worried. Qin Su'er's home won't be like my old mansion, haunted too? Got to ask her when I get back.

  I gently pushed that iron gate, making a "creak" sound, and I glanced around like a thief before walking into the garden.

  As soon as I entered, I felt something was off, a chill ran down my spine, and the eerie atmosphere made me shiver. Under the dim yellow light, I saw that the entire garden was in disarray, with spider webs hanging everywhere, and a putrid smell lingering in the air, making me feel dizzy and disoriented.

  I walked towards the main house, and as I touched the large door, there was a thick layer of dust on it. This isn't right, Qin Suer said she lived here, so why does it seem like no one has cleaned in a long time? I stood in front of the main house, not daring to go any further inside.

  Damn it, it's so quiet! How scary is that? What's going on? Qin Su'er said she lives here?

  "Su'er?" I shouted at the top of my lungs, but no one answered, leaving only my voice echoing in the air.

  "Suo'er, are you there? I'm Shangyu!" I plucked up the courage to shout a few more times, but still no one answered me.

  My heart skipped a beat, damn it, how could she live in such a godforsaken place?

  "Is anyone there? Is anyone there at all?" I shouted out the last few times, but no one paid attention to me. I was about to turn back and leave.

  “Bang……” The lights suddenly went out, and the surroundings were pitch black. I remembered what Tianji said, that Meihua Santiao Street was haunted, someone had died recently, and at midnight you could hear a female ghost crying; I also thought of the yellow paper talisman outside the iron gate, cold sweat dripping down, was it really true that there were ghosts?

  I suddenly heard a heavy gasping sound coming towards where I was standing, everything around me was invisible, I was so tense that my heart was violently pounding against my chest, and I took off running out the door.

  In the darkness, the panting sound was getting closer and closer, I saw a black figure pouncing on me.

  My god, there really are ghosts! My survival instincts made me punch that black figure like I was defeating a monster!

  That black figure grasped my neck with one hand, and a strong gust of foul-smelling air sprayed onto my face. I struggled desperately, but that figure's strength was astonishingly great, tightly pinching my throat, my mouth wide open, tongue sticking out, unable to breathe.

  My consciousness began to blur, my eyes turned black, and my head spun. It's over, I never thought I'd die in this godforsaken place!

  "Jade brother...", with a hurried cry, I felt the hand on my neck loosen and the lights in the house came back on.

  "Yu Ge, are you okay?" Qin Su'er hurried over and supported me.

  Coughing loudly, panting heavily. Under the dim light, I finally saw clearly that the one who had just choked my neck was a withered old woman.

  Damn it, this old turtle looks like he's 70 or 80 years old, but his strength is surprisingly great, look at the way he's staring at me now, it's clear that he wants my life, grandma's, it's too sinister!

  The old woman's face had no flesh, her skin was wrapped around her facial bones, and her face was covered with dense green spots. Especially her hands, which were thin to the point of being nothing but dry, withered bones, with fingernails that were five or six centimeters long, shining with a black, cold light, just like a zombie in a movie!

  If Qin Su'er had appeared half a minute later tonight, I would have been done for.

  "Mother Ma, you go into the house...". Qin Suer said softly to the old woman.

  The old woman seemed to lick her tongue with a low, muffled laugh and walked straight into the main house.

  "Yu Ge, how did you come? Is your neck still sore?" Qin Su'er asked gently, lightly rubbing my neck.

  "My heart didn't want to come find you, and it wasn't worth almost being strangled to death. I irritably replied: 'What do you think? What kind of ghostly place is this? And who's that old witch? If you came any later, I would've died at her hands.'"

  Qin Su'er hung her head and apologized to me: "Yu Ge, I'm sorry, didn't I tell you not to come looking for me?"

  Seeing Qin Suer's guilty look, the anger in my heart dissipated, and I said softly: "It's all because I was thinking of you... I thought that since you injured someone at the bar last night, you definitely wouldn't go there tonight, so I came to find you."

  Qin Su'er blamed: "Then why didn't you call before you came?"

  I chuckled and said: "Just wanted to give you a surprise!"

  I continued: "Su'er, I've come all the way to see you, at least invite me in and let's sit down, meet your parents?"

  Qin Suer's face suddenly looked very ugly, and she hesitated before saying: "Yu Ge, to be honest with you, this is not my home, I'm not a local, my hometown is far from here, I'm renting a room in Ma Gu Po's house... Ma Gu Po's children are all working outside, and the whole house only has me and her living in it..."

  It turns out to be like this! Damn it, that landlady Ma Guipo is too sinister, her appearance is simply like a thousand-year-old zombie crawling out of a tomb. I asked: "Suer, you live with this old fart, aren't you afraid?"

  Qin Su'er lightly bit her lip and replied: "No choice, the rent is cheap here!"

  "What about the rent? That's easy! Although my salary is not high, my old man has money. Why don't you move out and rent another house, I'll pay your rent, how about that?" Qin Suer remained silent for half a moment.

  I thought girls were shy and wouldn't dare to agree. Then he said, "Su'er, don't worry about it, just agree with me... Besides, I also can't stand this gloomy and eerie Ma Gu Po, don't want to see her again."

  Qin Su'er hesitated and agreed.

  Since it's a rented house, I didn't want to insist on going in and sitting down. Qin Su'er said softly: "Yu Ge, let me see you off?"

  When I woke up, those eyes that seemed to be staring at me in the dark were still there. I was worried that Qin Su'er would turn back and be scared, so I insisted on not letting her send me off. Qin Su'er sent me to the outside of the iron gate, and I said to her: "Su'er, wait for me to find a house, and then I'll call you!"

  Qin Su'er seemed rather reluctant: "Alright! Jade brother, goodbye!"

  "Goodbye......", I turned around and ran hastily on the bluestone path. Because, I was also afraid in my heart.

  Fortunately, nothing happened when I walked to the parking lot. Grandma's, it was as if I had a feeling of surviving a disaster.

  I just started the car and the phone rang, it was Tianji calling.

  "Hey, I'm asking you, buddy, where are you now? Are you okay?"

  I recalled being almost choked to death by that old witch, Ma Gu Po. I was so angry and scolded: "You damn pheasant, it's all because of your big mouth, I almost got strangled to death..."

  The paddy field frog on the other end of the line was terrified: "I told you not to go, but you insisted on going. Now you're blaming me? You really have no conscience!"

  "Never mind, I'm too lazy to tell you, brother, I'm fine now! Remember tomorrow's thing...", I said while driving and answering the phone.

  "You're here again? I remember, tomorrow at 9 o'clock in the morning, my old man and I will be waiting for you on time at the foot of Mei Mountain..."

  I hung up the phone and headed straight for Shen's old house in Sanjiang Town.

  Back in the house, it was still early, not even half past ten. Shen Lan was nowhere to be found, and the entire garden was quiet.

  I was just about to go to bed when I suddenly heard a "knock knock" sound coming from outside the door.

  Could it be that Shen Lan has returned and is looking for me? I opened the door to find Shen Lan's mysterious and ill-tempered old man, Shen Rukuan, standing coldly outside.

  "Uncle Shen, it's so late, what brings you here? Is there something on your mind?"

  Shen Rukuan gave me a cold glance and said indifferently, "Young Master Shen, I have something to give you." As he spoke, he handed over an object wrapped in oilcloth into my hands, then turned around silently and left.

  Damn it, he's really a weirdo, seems like he never smiles at all, the whole person is just a block of ice, if there are also green spots on his face, he looks almost the same as Qin Su'er's landlady Ma Guipo.

  Fortunately, I've already gotten used to it.

  What was it that he handed over to me? I opened the package under the lamplight, and inside there was a yellow piece of paper. No, it was a painting, a sketch!

  On the paper was painted a solitary mountain, and in the dense forest between the mountains stood two isolated graves.

  What does it mean? Dammit, I haven't figured it out all morning.

  I suddenly felt that the mountain looked a bit familiar. I took another close look, and almost called out in surprise - the one drawn on the paper was actually Mei Mountain!

  What does Shen Rukuan mean? What does he mean by giving me this painting of Meishan? Whose are the two lonely souls on Meishan?

  I stared at the two solitary graves carefully, and suddenly I had a sense of desolation in my heart. The two solitary graves on the yellow paper, although simple strokes, conveyed a strong sense of desolation, making me involuntarily think of a Song Dynasty poem: "Ten years of life and death, two vast expanses. Not thinking about it, yet unable to forget. A thousand miles of solitary graves, nowhere to speak of the bleakness. Even if we meet again, we won't recognize each other, dust covering our faces, hair like frost, last night's dream suddenly returning home. Small window, just dressing up. Looking at each other without a word, only tears flowing in thousands of lines. I can imagine the place where my heart will break year after year, on a clear moonlit night, a short pine hill."

  I didn't dare look again, afraid that tears would fall.

  I folded up the sketch and put it in my pocket. Tomorrow I'll be going to Mei Mountain anyway, so when the time comes, I can just search for them in the mountains and find out who these two lonely souls are.

  What? No way! How did Shen Rukuan know that I'm going to Meishan tomorrow? I remember I didn't tell Shen Lan about it. How did he know, is he a god or something, with precognition?

  As I thought about it, cold sweat began to flow down. Shen Rukuan was absolutely not a simple person, and neither was Shen Lan... All my actions seemed to be completely under their control.

  Was it an old man from Shenzhen who instructed them to do so?

  Damn it, as soon as I return to this old mansion, my thoughts are all messed up.