MLV Ch 28

“Professor Jiang,” Shen Duo sat across from her, meeting her gaze. 

“According to our agreement, you are supposed to report your activities to the Jin family and the academy at the end of each month. But it has been three full months, and there has been no word from you. I had no choice but to lead a team into the mountains to find you. Your children are also worried about you.”

Jiang Ruochu keenly noted that he hadn’t mentioned Li Yi’an. She asked, “Is my husband dead?”

Shen Duo paused, then nodded. 

“My condolences, Professor Jiang.”

A look of grief crossed Jiang Ruochu’s face. She turned her head, and a single tear streamed down her cheek. Shen Duo wanted to comfort her, but she raised a hand, signaling for him to remain silent. She took a deep breath, trying her best to compose herself. 

“Little Shen, I’m sorry, but we deceived Old Master Jin. Their transformation is irreversible. When their time comes, only sealing their bodies in concrete and iron coffins will be able to suppress them. Take this message back to the Old Master, and tell him not to look for me anymore.”

Shen Duo’s tone became stern. 

“In that case, the operation should be terminated. Professor Jiang, it’s not just your family who is worried about you. The families of your subordinates are worried about them as well. They, like you, have been out of contact for months. Some families are already planning to file police reports, some are even preparing to sue the Jin Corporation for running a pyramid scheme…”

Jiang Ruochu cut him off.

“We can’t go back. The Old Master has connections everywhere. I trust he can handle the aftermath of this.”

It was clear from her demeanor that there was no room for negotiation. Shen Duo fell silent for a moment before changing the subject. 

“Then can you tell me what’s going on with this village?”

“The situation in Taisui Village is complex. You only need to remember one thing: the mold doesn’t just corrode your flesh, it corrodes your soul. Where the mold is, so are the dead villagers.” Jiang Ruochu pointed to the pot over the fire pit.

“This is ayahuasca. In shamanic legends, consuming it allows one to communicate with the gods. The ancient text The Nysan Shaman records that the ancient female shaman Nysan drank ayahuasca and gained insight into heaven and earth, saw the true form of the gods, and learned the mystical divine songs. Its main components are LSD and a rare flavonoid compound extracted from an herbaceous plant. I’ve tested it on many people. It produces strong hallucinations and a temporary surge in libido, but no divine communication. Legends are legends, after all, and tend to exaggerate certain facts. However, we did discover, by accident, that it is a short-acting antidote for the mold.”

Shen Duo could still taste the fishy, foul, bitter flavor in his mouth. It was nauseating.

“You gave me this to drink?”

“Yes. The injectable, high-potency immune serum is all gone. This is the last pot of the oral, short-acting antidote. You’re lucky. You should leave now; we are leaving as well. After we’re gone, you will only be safe for three days. If you are still here after three days, you will be re-infected by the mold.”

Shen Duo’s mind was filled with questions. Everything here was strange. The subordinates behind Jiang Ruochu had their heads covered by hoods, their faces hidden by masks, and even their hands were gloved, not a single inch of skin exposed. What was going on? Were this group of people vampires who feared the light? Although various anomalous creatures existed in the world, Shen Duo had never heard of the existence of vampires.

His intuition told him that these people were hiding secrets beneath their masks.

While asking questions, Shen Duo discreetly planned how to subdue them. 

“Do you have any message you’d like me to pass on to Jiang Ye? He’s been looking for you. Don’t you want to say something to him?”

At the mention of Jiang Ye, she sighed. 

“The way I’ve treated him all these years… he must hate me. He’s an adult now. My task is complete. Please tell him I’m sorry, but there were some things I had to do. His life will be better without me. Oh, and apologize to Miaomiao as well. It’s my fault her father got involved. Tell them to live their lives well, the both of them, and to forget me. Pretend they never had me as a mother.” She raised a hand in a gesture of dismissal. 

“Alright, you should go now.”

Shen Duo also sighed. 

“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to stay in this godforsaken place either. But I work for the academy, and my tenure review is this year. You know how it is—‘publish or perish.’ If I don’t get promoted to associate professor this time, I’ll be guarding the library gate next year. There are some things I must know. Professor Jiang, please come with me.”

The moment the words left his mouth, he struck. His hand, formed into a blade, chopped at the calf of a man standing beside him. Shen Duo’s strength was astounding; the blow was enough to fracture the man’s leg. The man cried out in pain and fell to his knees, his head conveniently right in front of Shen Duo, who took the opportunity to pull off his mask. The man’s true face was revealed, and Shen Duo was instantly shocked. It was a face in an advanced state of decay, with small white maggots crawling in and out of the flesh.

The other men rushed forward to restrain him. Shen Duo dodged and weaved, his movements nimble and unpredictable, never letting them get a hand on him. With a series of swift hand chops, Shen Duo knocked them all unconscious. He removed their masks one by one. Their faces were all the same as the first, rotten beyond recognition.

Shen Duo straightened up and looked at Jiang Ruochu. 

“Professor Jiang, I need an explanation.”

Jiang Ruochu remained as calm as ever. 

“Little Shen, only ghosts can move freely in a place inhabited by ghosts. The place I’m going is too far. Only death can get me there. You’re very skilled, and I can’t deal with you. Let’s switch.”

Switch? Shen Duo was confused. Was there someone else in the room?

She stood up, closed her eyes for a moment, then snapped them open. Shen Duo felt something was wrong with Jiang Ruochu. In an instant, her entire aura changed. Her once calm, dark eyes turned cold and ruthless, with the murderous glint of a falcon. To meet her gaze felt like having the searing barrel of a gun pressed against your forehead.

The woman glanced at the men lying on the floor. 

“You’ve got some fucking skills.”

“Professor Jiang?” Shen Duo watched her warily.

Suddenly, footsteps sounded from outside. The other men were returning.

Someone shouted from outside, “Sister Jiang, we’ve cut the Taisui meat. We lost three brothers.”

“Good. Wait outside for me for three seconds.” The woman beckoned to Shen Duo. 

“Bring it on.”

Before she could finish, Shen Duo launched a preemptive strike, rushing toward Jiang Ruochu. There were more people outside. If he could subdue her first, everyone would listen to him. Jiang Ruochu stood her ground, watching his approach with cold indifference. When he was within three steps of her, she suddenly sidestepped, evading his straight punch with incredible speed. Then, she took a large step forward and landed an uppercut to Shen Duo’s abdomen. With the first hit landed, she followed up with a second—a headbutt to Shen Duo’s forehead.

Shen Duo’s vision went black. The last thing he saw was Jiang Ruochu’s contemptuous smile.

Shen Duo didn’t know what happened after that. He spread his hands and said to Jiang Ye, “When I woke up, they were all gone. I decided to stay a while longer to find out what they were doing here, and what this ‘Taisui meat’ is. At night, this place is crawling with anomalous creatures. I disguised myself as a scarecrow to blend in. Today is the second day since I took the medicine. I was planning to leave today, but then I saw you guys.”

Jiang Ye was beginning to understand. Liu Bei had told him Shen Duo was dead, likely because she had been fooled by his disguise.

Shen Duo relayed Jiang Ruochu’s message word for word. After hearing it, Jiang Ye felt an indescribable anger. What does she mean, she had to do it? Can a simple apology just erase him from her mind? What on earth is she doing? She’s never given him a single explanation, and now she’s even abandoning Li Miaomiao. If she didn’t want to care for him, why did she give birth to him in the first place?

Jiang Ye took a deep breath to calm himself. 

“Why didn’t you come find us?”

Shen Duo stared at him and asked in return, “Do you know what’s been following you?”

Jiang Ye frowned. 

“What do you mean?”

Shen Duo pointed to the heads hanging below. 

“From my observations these past few days, the heads of all the sacrifices from this village’s history are hung here. Each head has a tag tied to it, recording their name and age. I heard someone in your group is called Yilale. Take a look at what this head is called.”

Shen Duo pulled up one of the heads. It was clearly smaller than the others, seemingly the head of a child. He removed the wooden name tag tied to its forehead and handed it to Jiang Ye. Jiang Ye looked closely. On it was written: Yilale, age 8.

“Jiang Ye, you’re being followed by a dead person,” Shen Duo said, his expression extremely grave. 

“Don’t you find his face familiar? This little ghost isn’t even using his own face; it’s the face of a male celebrity. If I hadn’t happened to see a video of this celebrity, I wouldn’t have recognized him.”

A flash went off in Jiang Ye’s mind. He suddenly remembered who Yilale’s face resembled. No wonder he always found Yilale familiar—he had seen that face in a pop-up ad on a website embedded in Jin Feize’s study materials! The owner of that face was a G.V. actor, and a rather famous one at that. Jiang Ye was stunned. Looking back over the past few days, there were suspicious clues about Yilale everywhere. For instance, Yilale never went near Jin Feize, and had never even spoken to him, because he, like the other ghosts, was afraid of Jin Feize.

Jiang Ye recalled Yilale’s story about the wooden dummy, and Huo Ang’s slightly different version, and slowly began to piece things together. He took the head from Shen Duo’s hand and put it in his backpack. Then he went around Shen Duo and retrieved Liu Bei’s head as well.

Shen Duo couldn’t understand his actions. 

“What are you doing with their heads?”

Jiang Ye didn’t say anything, trying to stuff both heads into his pack. But one backpack couldn’t fit two heads. Jiang Ye called out to Jin Feize, asking him to throw up his bag.

Jin Feize refused to offer up his backpack. 

“It’s gross. I don’t want it.”

“I’ll buy you a new one when we get out.”

Jin Feize reluctantly tossed his backpack up. Jiang Ye caught it and put Liu Bei’s head inside.

Jin Feize said, “You carry it.”

Jiang Ye: “…”

He had no choice but to wear one backpack on his back and the other on his chest.

Shen Duo urged them, “Alright, alright, let’s go.”

“I have to find Huo Ang.” Jiang Ye was stubborn.

Shen Duo nearly coughed up blood from exasperation. 

“Where are you going to find him?”

“Huh?” Jin Feize’s voice came from below. 

“I think there’s someone outside.”

“Don’t make any sudden moves!” Shen Duo ordered him.

Jin Feize paid him no mind and walked out of the stilt house, nail gun in hand.

Shen Duo: “…”

Could someone, just once, listen to him?

Jiang Ye and Shen Duo climbed down the pillar and followed Jin Feize out of the house. They found Jin Feize standing expressionlessly on the veranda. Bai Nianci, wearing his backpack, was panting heavily on the wooden ladder. Jiang Ye couldn’t help but stare at Jin Feize for a few extra moments. He usually wore a mask-like smile, but now his face was blank, which was highly unusual. The guy had been extremely volatile tonight; he had nearly killed Huo Ang and Shen Duo. Could it be because he had run out of hawthorn cakes?

“Little Ye, I finally found you.” Bai Nianci wiped his sweat, rambling. 

“I went back and checked your location trackers and saw you guys hadn’t met up, so I came in to look for you. If your mother wasn’t gone, and I didn’t have to watch out for you, I really wouldn’t have wanted to come in here.”

Bai Nianci handed handheld terminals to Jiang Ye and Jin Feize. Jiang Ye breathed a sigh of relief. With the terminals, they could locate Huo Ang and Yilale.

“And this is?” Bai Nianci looked at Shen Duo.

“Hello, I’m in biological research. My name is Shen Duo.” Shen Duo shook his hand.

Realization dawned on Bai Nianci.

“So you’re the Professor Shen that Little Ye mentioned. That’s great, you’re still alive.” He then leaned in close to Jiang Ye and whispered, “Little Ye, are you sure he’s human?”

Jiang Ye nodded.

“That’s good, that’s good.” Bai Nianci sighed in relief.

Jiang Ye turned on the handheld terminal. Yilale’s location signal had disappeared. Huo Ang’s location was in a nearby stilt house, but his blood pressure and heart rate all read “undetectable.” Jiang Ye remembered this stilt house; it was the one they had visited during the day.

Seeing that he couldn’t stop them, Shen Duo said, “You’d better be quiet. Taisui Village during the day and at night are two different worlds. I suspect different spaces have bled into each other at midnight.”

The night in Taisui Village was like a silent tomb, the faint lights like wisps of ghostly fire. They formed a single file line and quietly crept into the stilt house they had visited during the day. Shen Duo led the way, with Jiang Ye behind him, followed by Bai Nianci, and Jin Feize bringing up the rear. On the second floor, an electronic perpetual calendar hung on the wall, the date frozen in 2005. Jiang Ye noticed that the mold on the wall had increased significantly. He glanced back again. Jin Feize followed at the end of the line, his face still expressionless.

They went up to the third floor and found Huo Ang’s location. Everyone fell silent. Huo Ang wasn’t there. On the floor lay only his satellite tracking bracelet and a bloody piece of flesh covered in long, black fuzz.