MLV Ch 22

At dawn, as the sky was just beginning to lighten, everyone was packed and ready to go. Huo Ang handed each person a walkie-talkie and a life-sign monitoring bracelet. Once everyone put on their bracelets, the laptop in the suitcase he carried displayed each person’s satellite position, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate.

These people were indeed well-prepared; their equipment was all state-of-the-art. As Jiang Ye marveled at this, he was also keenly aware of the inside of his own body. He couldn’t feel the tracker much anymore now that it had been in for a while, but he still couldn’t accept it psychologically, and his walk was a little awkward.

Bai Nianci asked, “Little Ye, are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

Jiang Ye’s body stiffened. 

“I’m fine,” he said dryly.

Jin Feize smiled. 

“It’s alright, I’ll take care of him.”

Bai Nianci patted both of their shoulders and hoisted his hiking pack. Jiang Ye shot Jin Feize an icy glare and followed Bai Nianci towards the dense forest behind the hillside. As they climbed north, towering Sal trees were everywhere. The sun had not yet fully risen, and the forest was pitch-black, shrouded in a thick layer of fog that made visibility extremely low. Jiang Ye held up a flashlight, following the beam of light ahead of him.

Jin Feize walked behind him and asked, “How are you doing? Are you okay?”

Jiang Ye ignored him.

The deeper they went, the more they saw dilapidated wooden shrines placed at the base of some trees. Strangely, the shrines were empty—no statues, no portraits, just an incense burner placed in front. For some reason, Jiang Ye felt that the fog was especially thick around the shrines, though it was probably just his imagination. The old hunter told everyone not to look at the shrines, saying they were left by people who had visited Taisui Village in the past.

“A deity of nothingness,” Bai Nianci whispered to Jiang Ye. 

“What your mother said about the Western Yunnan faith is real.”

He took photos of all the shrines. The old hunter kept objecting, but Bai Nianci was stubborn and didn’t listen to him.

By noon, the fog still had not dissipated. They reached a small creek, which the old hunter said was the Southwater Creek flowing down from the mountain. Its water was so cool it was freezing to the touch. Jiang Ye said he needed to relieve himself, walked a short distance downstream alone, pulled down his pants to take out the tracker, washed it clean in the creek water, and put it in his pocket. He stood up and pulled his pants on, when he suddenly saw the mangled, rotten-faced figure of Liu Bei on the opposite bank. She seemed to be making a gesture at him, but the fog was too thick to see clearly. He moved a little closer and saw her place a finger to her lips.

What does that mean?

Just as he was about to ask, Jin Feize’s voice came from behind him. 

“What’s taking so long?”

Liu Bei vanished in an instant.

Jin Feize walked up to him and asked with a smile, “Took it out? Don’t lose it. It’s more dangerous here than you think. You’re only safe if I know your location at all times.”

Jiang Ye glanced at him coldly, still ignoring him, then turned and climbed back over the rocks to the upstream area. Huo Ang and Yilale were looking at a map, with the old hunter pointing out the approximate location of Taisui Village. Bai Nianci was eating a compressed biscuit, flipping through the photos of the shrines he had taken that day. As they rested, a dark shadow suddenly floated down from upstream. The shadow emerged from the thickest part of the fog and drifted down with the current. Huo Ang told Bai Nianci, Jiang Ye, and the others to get away from the creek, his right hand resting on the small of his back, his face alert. Jiang Ye was sure he had a gun back there.

The shadow floated closer. 

“It’s a living person!” Yilale shouted.

He rolled up his pant legs, waded into the creek, and dragged the person to shore.

“Thank you… thank you…” the person said, trembling.

Huo Ang asked, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Jiang Ye went forward for a look and was instantly stunned.

The person saw Jiang Ye and said in surprise, “Student Jiang Ye, what are you doing here?”

Jiang Ye frowned. 

“Xiao Liu.”

A chill went through Jiang Ye’s heart. He clearly remembered Xiao Liu turning into a cackling monster.

Xiao Liu introduced himself to Huo Ang and the others. 

“Professor Shen and the others are missing, and I got separated from my colleague. Student Jiang Ye, you remember, right? It was Xiao He, who also took care of you before. He was attacked by a wild beast, and his body is just upstream.”

“A wild beast?” Huo Ang and Yilale exchanged a look.

The old hunter was puzzled. 

“I’m an old man who’s lived around here for decades, and there are no wild beasts in this forest.”

“There are! I saw Xiao He’s body with my own eyes. There were several claw marks on it.” Xiao Liu clutched a water bottle, shivering, his face pale. 

“And I keep feeling like it’s following me. I’ve been hiding and got lost, I’ve been walking for almost a week. Thank god I finally ran into you all. Please, get me out of here!”

Jiang Ye studied him discreetly, growing more alarmed the more he looked. He didn’t know if anyone else had noticed, but this guy’s eyes didn’t move. He always moved his head and neck together, never just his eyeballs. It was very likely because he was already dead, and his eyes had stiffened and couldn’t move.

Jiang Ye moved around behind him, trying to see if there were any clues on his back.

While observing, Jiang Ye asked, “Xiao Liu, when was the last time you contacted Professor Shen?”

Xiao Liu slowly turned his head to look at Jiang Ye. 

“I forgot. I forgot… Take me home. I want to go home.”

At that moment, everyone froze. Xiao Liu’s body hadn’t moved, but his neck and head had twisted a full one hundred and eighty degrees, his pale face staring straight at Jiang Ye. The old hunter pointed at him, his finger trembling, his face horrified. Huo Ang quickly covered the old hunter’s mouth and pulled him further away.

“Student Jiang Ye, why are you looking at me like that?” Xiao Liu’s expression grew more and more savage.

Jiang Ye remembered Liu Bei’s gesture of putting a finger to her lips. Was she reminding him to keep silent, to not let the ghost know it was already dead?

“It’s nothing,” Jiang Ye said lightly. 

“I was just thinking you’re incredibly flexible. If you stop being an investigator, you could be a ballet dancer.”

The ferocious look on his face faltered for a second before returning to normal.

“Okay… Okay… Student Jiang Ye, you have a point.”

With a ghost in their party, everyone’s appetite vanished. The old hunter was terrified. 

“I just remembered I left the kettle boiling at home, I have to go back. You guys go on ahead, I’ll be leaving now.”

Huo Ang grabbed him by the collar. 

“You took our money and you think you can just run off?”

Yilale dropped the act, drew the gun from behind his back, cocked it, and smiled as gently as water. 

“I advise you to think twice.”

“You people!” The old hunter was about to lose his mind, whispering, “Don’t you value your lives?!”

“Double the price to take us to Taisui Village.” Bai Nianci adjusted his glasses, his expression calm.

The old hunter hesitated. 

“Three… three times. This is a life-threatening job, you have to add more money.”

“Deal,” Bai Nianci said generously.

“The initial payment counts as the deposit. When we get to Taisui Village, the rest will be transferred to your account.”

“Crazy, you’re all crazy!” the old hunter muttered, sitting down far away from Xiao Liu.

No one had the heart to eat. They took a few bites to tide themselves over and continued on their way. For some reason, Xiao Liu latched onto Jiang Ye. Wherever Jiang Ye went, he followed. It gave Jiang Ye a huge headache. The others cast sympathetic glances his way but were powerless to help. Jiang Ye saw Huo Ang and Yilale communicating with sign language, so he deliberately led Xiao Liu to the front so he wouldn’t see them conferring. After they finished, Huo Ang and Yilale passed Jiang Ye and brushed his shoulder. Jiang Ye received a slip of paper. He lowered his head to read it discreetly. It said they planned to make their move after everyone was asleep that night.

“Xiao Liu,” Jin Feize suddenly called out.

The atmosphere instantly fell silent. No one could have imagined he would take the initiative to talk to a ghost. The old hunter frantically gestured for Jin Feize to shut up.

“What do you want to say?” Xiao Liu whipped his head around, his face instantly becoming ferocious.

“What are you, and why do you keep following Jiang Ye?” Jin Feize asked with a beaming smile.

“What did you say I am?”

Before everyone’s astonished eyes, Xiao Liu’s face began to reveal its rotten true form, and his neck elongated, stretching until it was right in front of Jin Feize.

He repeated hoarsely, “What did you say I am?”

Yilale raised his gun and aimed at Xiao Liu’s head. The old hunter was about to have a panic attack, gesturing desperately at Jin Feize.

As if he couldn’t see, Jin Feize tilted his head, studying Xiao Liu’s grotesque face. 

“Did your hemorrhoids grow on your face? How pitiful. Has no one ever told you from childhood until now? You really don’t know you’re an ugly freak.”

Xiao Liu froze, his savage face stuck in mid-air.

“Mr. Ugly Freak,” Jin Feize’s smile was warm and gentle, “stay away from Jiang Ye and me. Otherwise, I’ll use an electric drill to give you plastic surgery.”

His monstrous face stopped abruptly, three steps away from Jin Feize, and then stiffly retreated. The look on his face was as if he’d seen a ghost, even though he was a ghost himself. A miracle happened. Xiao Liu really did stop sticking to Jiang Ye. He trailed along at the very end of the group, alone and forlorn, as if he had truly realized how ugly he was and didn’t want anyone to see his face anymore.

Huo Ang’s face was full of amazement. 

“Fuck, that actually works?”

Yilale slowly lowered his gun, the look he gave Jin Feize changing slightly.

Jiang Ye’s brows knitted slightly as he stared at Jin Feize with a grave expression. Only he knew that Xiao Liu hadn’t backed off because he realized he was ugly, but because he was afraid of Jin Feize. Just like Liu Bei, he was wary of Jin Feize. Jiang Ye couldn’t help but wonder, what kind of ability did Jin Feize have that could make even ghosts afraid of him? Could it be that if you were crazy enough, even ghosts would flee in terror?

That evening, Huo Ang and Yilale started setting up the tents. Huo Ang asked Jin Feize, who was standing to the side, “Hey, kid, lend a hand?”

Jin Feize smiled and said, “I don’t know how.”

“I’ll teach you,” Huo Ang said. 

“Big Brother Huo here has other things to do. You learn how to set up your own tent.”

Jin Feize said, “I can’t learn.”

Huo Ang was starting to get angry and was about to say something when Yilale, squatting in the distance, advised him, “Forget it.”

“…” Jiang Ye walked over. 

“I’ll do it.”

Jiang Ye had brought one tent, and Huo Ang’s group had brought two, for a total of four tents. They assigned the tents: Jiang Ye and Jin Feize would share one, Bai Nianci and the old hunter would share another, Yilale and Huo Ang would be in the third, and the last one was for Xiao Liu. Jiang Ye didn’t want to sleep with Jin Feize, but neither Huo Ang nor Yilale were willing to. Because Jin Feize had deliberately provoked Xiao Liu during the day, the old hunter felt he was unsafe and also refused. So, Jiang Ye had no choice but to stay with Jin Feize.

They deliberately pitched Xiao Liu’s tent a little further away from the others to make it easier to identify in the dead of night. Huo Ang’s original plan was to set the tent on fire, but Yilale vetoed it. This was a primeval forest; a tent fire would be hard to control and could easily cause a wildfire. They had to resort to Plan B: pretend to go urinate and dig a pit. At night, after everyone was in their sleeping bags, he and Yilale would seal Xiao Liu’s sleeping bag, throw him into the pit, and bury him.

Huo Ang said to Jiang Ye and Jin Feize, “You two don’t have to do anything. Just stay quietly in your tent and don’t come out.”

Jiang Ye nodded. 

“We’ll be counting on you.”

They left, leaving Jiang Ye and Jin Feize in the tent. Jiang Ye could tell that Jin Feize had the temper of a young master. After walking for a whole day, he had sat down only a handful of times, probably because he found the forest dirty. The guy squatted and inspected his sleeping bag for a long time, as if he wouldn’t sleep at all if he found a single speck of dust.

Jiang Ye pressed his lips together, wanting to say thank you; after all, if Xiao Liu had kept clinging to him today, he might have had to share a tent with him. But remembering what happened last night, Jiang Ye lost the desire to speak. He was afraid Jin Feize would go crazy and torment him again, so he lay down and zipped his sleeping bag up tight.

Jin Feize looked at his sleeping bag and said, “You haven’t said a word to me all day.”

Jiang Ye remained silent.

Jin Feize chuckled, his voice a low drawl. 

“Baby, sooner or later, you’ll come to me on your own.”

Jin Feize took out some sleeping pills from his bag, swallowed them with water, turned off the light, and got into his sleeping bag.

The lights in all the tents went out, and the surroundings sank into a silence as black as ink. Jiang Ye closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep. He didn’t know how long he had slept when he felt someone blowing on the side of his neck. What strange thing was Jin Feize up to now? Jiang Ye opened his eyes. It was pitch-black in front of him; he was in his sleeping bag. His neck felt numb and itchy; cold hair was draped over his shoulder. The one blowing on him wasn’t Jin Feize, but Liu Bei.

Liu Bei was waking him up.

He tried to get up, only to find himself and his sleeping bag bound tightly together. He was being moved, then thrown outwards, slamming onto the hard dirt ground. Jiang Ye landed on his head, the impact making him see stars.

He could faintly hear Huo Ang’s voice from outside.

“Damn, he’s heavy.”

Jiang Ye was horrified. What were these guys doing? Didn’t they realize they had taken the wrong person?

He wanted to yell at them to stop, but when he opened his mouth, all that came out was: “Gok… gok…”

Jiang Ye was stunned.

Huo Ang said, “This monster is still ‘gok-gok-ing’. Does he think he’s a mother hen?”

Yilale urged, “Dig faster. Don’t cause any more trouble.”

They sped up their movements, and Jiang Ye could hear the sound of them digging. No matter how he tried to call for help, he could only produce the strange “gok-gok” sound, as if his throat had been slit. Jiang Ye realized he had been tricked by Xiao Liu. Perhaps ghosts knew some kind of illusion magic. That thing had made Huo Ang and Yilale mistake the tents, move the wrong sleeping bag, and had also rendered Jiang Ye unable to speak.

Huo Ang and Yilale were now shoveling dirt onto him. He could feel the soil on top of him getting heavier and heavier.

Think of something. I have to think of something, fast.

He struggled to reach his hand into his pants pocket and find the tracker. Damn it, he really didn’t want to touch this thing ever again, much less ask that guy Jin Feize for help, but he had no other choice. He gripped it tightly and crushed its rubber casing. The device inside also shattered with a crack.

Inside the tent, the phone lost Jiang Ye’s satellite signal, and the alarm began to beep. Jin Feize’s eyes snapped open. Jiang Ye and his sleeping bag had vanished from beside him. He grabbed a flashlight and was about to open the tent when he saw a shadowy figure squatting menacingly in front of it. Jin Feize calmly took a nail gun from Jiang Ye’s backpack, unzipped the tent, and disappeared into the darkness.

“Gok-gok-gok.”

“Fuck, it’s still making noise,” Huo Ang cursed under his breath.

The sound coming from the thing on the ground was making his scalp crawl. Unable to bear it any longer, he pulled out his gun and aimed at the head of the sleeping bag, planning to shut its mouth before burying it.

“Wait,” Yilale’s expression changed. 

“That’s not him. The sound is coming from the forest.”