Xiao Taos Geistergeschichten (Vollversion)

Kapitel 6

He held the receiver under his chin, reached out sharply, grabbed a cigarette, and lit it.

"Did Reporter Tao go to the underground palace in Hailing City?"

"Ah, I went there in the evening."

"How was it? Was it scary?"

Tao Rujiu remained silent for a while on the other end of the phone. He was unwilling to admit it because he didn't want to show weakness in front of Ling Li; however, if he answered that it wasn't scary, it would be a denial of the underground palace and Ling Li.

Besides, I was indeed afraid.

"horrible."

He eventually admitted it.

"Compared to the daytime, Hailing City is a completely different place at night."

Ling Li laughed sinisterly on the other end of the phone.

"You haven't seen the scariest thing yet. It's best not to go out after 11 o'clock. Hailing City is located in the suburbs and there's hardly anyone around."

Tao Rujiu thought Ling Li was concerned about him, and while he was suspicious, he was still somewhat touched. However, he didn't expect to hear the following:

"I only took you on this field trip because I saw you were a male reporter. If it were a female reporter with a stronger yin energy, she probably would have already run into a 'good brother' (ghost). However, if Tao Ji unfortunately encounters a situation that the insurance company cannot cover, I can only express my deepest regret."

There was no response on the other end of the phone for a short while, but after a while, Tao Rujiu answered calmly and respectfully.

"I will always remember President Ling's concern."

It was clear the young man was angry. The title "male reporter" couldn't help but evoke certain associations. Ling Li even expected the other party to slam down the phone immediately. However, Tao Rujiu's remarkable patience only gave the man a sense of frustration, as if he were bullying the weak.

He decided to end the call.

Tao Rujiu told himself that this was just one of the many faces in the world, and because he still needed to be assertive, he absolutely could not allow the atmosphere to become rigid. The word "patience" was the first lesson he was told to learn when he entered school.

However, he still had to smile and respond to people's sarcastic remarks, and he was always saddened by his own incompetence and weakness.

—Even if it was out of necessity.

After hanging up the phone and stepping into the courtyard, I found that most of the people who had been cooling off had already left. A gentle breeze blew through the courtyard, somewhat alleviating my gloomy mood.

Master Lü sat in his rattan chair and asked with a smile, "Your girlfriend's phone call?"

Tao Rujiu shook his head, just as he was thinking about how to answer, when a flashback suddenly appeared in his mind and he opened his mouth wide but couldn't say a word.

Only then did he remember that there was no cell phone signal in that room that afternoon.

Tao Rujiu told Master Lü about it, originally just wanting someone to share the sudden surge of terror. He thought that given Master Lü's age, he probably wouldn't understand the meaning of the "signal." However, before he could finish explaining, the old man had already pursed his lips and sighed.

"This matter has been mentioned before."

He gestured for Tao Rujiu to follow him into the third courtyard.

“A reporter who came last time, I think he also stayed in this room. He also mentioned that the cell phone signal was intermittent.”

"Have reporters stayed here before?"

Yes, there are. There are three or four already.

Are they all here to gather material?

"Probably, it happened several years ago. Anyway, they all ran away after only two days." Master Lü said, still somewhat indignant.

"One of them even said the whole room was full of ghosts... Ugh, what kind of talk is that!"

Tao Rujiu suddenly understood why Ling Li had brought him here.

Ling Li must know the strangeness of this replica ancient city, so he wanted to use it to tease him or make him back down, just like the reporters before him.

Should he back down? The young man was in a daze, while Master Lü still had something to say.

“I heard one of the reporters say that when a cell phone has no signal, it’s called… interference. Ghosts are different from things in the mortal world. When they get close to things like TVs, radios, and cell phones, they will cause interference. I can’t really explain it, but what they meant was that when a cell phone has no signal, there are ghosts in the house.”

"You mean, so they were scared away by the cell phone signal issue?"

If it's just for this one detail, then it's making a mountain out of a molehill.

"Of course it's more than that. But the specific reason is unclear. Those people were scared away and never came back, so no one in the city knows what they encountered. However, it is said that they often talk about Hailing City being haunted in Xiyao, causing panic among the people."

Tao Rujiu nodded. The phone malfunction might be due to an underground magnetic field, and as for the ghost story, it was probably just a rumor.

"Then, Master Lü, have you ever seen a ghost?"

"Of course I've seen will-o'-the-wisps. But I've never seen one with a blue face and fangs," the old man said with certainty.

"The children in the opera troupe only heard about it from others. Real ghosts aren't something you can just see whenever you want."

Hearing the troupe leader say that, Tao Rujiu felt a little more at ease. However, when he looked back at his own little room, which was pitch black with the lights off, he felt uneasy again.

"Ms. Lü, I'd like to change rooms, is that alright?"

Master Lü looked troubled.

"Logically speaking, this isn't a guesthouse, so they only prepared this one room. In the sweltering summer, having to share a bed with someone else is going to be unbearable."

Tao Rujiu understood all this, so he nodded and said no more. However, Master Lü was worried that something might happen to him, so he took out a large handful of keys from his waist.

"Why don't you come with me and see if there's any room that we can clean up and still use?"

The first courtyard was uninhabitable due to the shops and stage, and the opera troupe had filled the second courtyard as well. Master Lü led Tao Rujiu around the third courtyard, went upstairs, and guessed which room was relatively well-ventilated.

In the darkness, the interior furnishings were not clearly visible, but there was a stronger smell of wax than downstairs.

"There are no lights in the rooms upstairs. If you're going to stay here, just take a flashlight, take a shower, and go upstairs to sleep."

Tao Rujiu responded, then suddenly remembered that he still had the electronic torch he had taken from the underground palace in the evening, so he took it out of his pocket and turned it on.

The eerie green light flickered twice, then silently "burned." The small room was instantly filled with a ghastly green, illuminating the face of a woman who also had a faint ghastly green tinge, less than five centimeters from Tao Rujiu's right cheek.

"scare!"

Since this wasn't the first accident of the night, Tao Rujiu was somewhat prepared. He simply let out a soft cry and took a large step back. Master Lü, however, thought something serious had happened to him and quickly helped him up from the side.

The pale-faced woman remained standing in the same spot, motionless. The strong smell of wax permeated the room, emanating from her.

This is a wax figure. And there are more than just this one in the room; the vases, inkstones, and even the ruyi scepter and bonsai are all made of wax.

“These are all decorations and mannequins that were originally placed downstairs and in other courtyards. Since there was no more room, they were piled up on the second floor. You can make do with them for a night tonight, and I will ask them to help you move them tomorrow.”

Tao Rujiu glanced at Master Lü, then looked back at the room full of wax products.

"Master Lü, I think I'd better go back downstairs."

Chapter 012

The opera troupe's self-built bathroom was in the garden. Tao Rujiu returned to the house after taking a bath, and it was nearly eleven o'clock. The lights in the other houses in the courtyard were gradually going out. Only the chirping of crickets and crickets, and the sound of the seashell wind chimes on the stage being stirred by the sea breeze, remained all around.

He pulled the notebook out from under the bed and imported the recording from the voice recorder. As was Tao Rujiu's habit, he would usually make a brief summary, but he didn't want to recall what had happened today.

The clock quickly struck eleven. Tao Rujiu turned off the light, lay down on the bed, and wrapped himself in a towel blanket. In the suburban night, the chill seeped in through the cracks in the antique-style doors and windows. Tao Rujiu could even feel it piling up on the floor in front of his bed, forming a blurry white silhouette. Amid the buzzing of mosquitoes in his ears, he buried his head in the blanket.

The cottage had no curtains, and the full moonlight cast the shadows of the osmanthus and camphor trees in the garden into the room, which transformed into eerie tentacles that swayed gently on the carpet. In his imagination, Tao Rujiu saw the full moon transform into a giant, one-eyed creature that descended and peered into the house through the cracked windowpanes.

Tao Rujiu's nerves remained taut, and it was within this tension that he slowly drifted into a hazy state. After all, the entire day's running around had consumed far more than just physical strength.

As sleep took hold, the young man lay in a deep slumber, initially quiet and peaceful, but after a while, the tranquility was broken by the distant, ethereal sounds of opera singing.

He listened intently; the sound was coming from the stage in the front yard.

Tao Rujiu got out of bed and pushed open the door. The full moon shone a pale light on the courtyard. Leaves fell silently to the ground. There was no one around, only him as he walked out of the third courtyard to the sound of opera.

There was the sound of flowing water in the courtyard.

The opera troupe members were all gone, and the doors and windows upstairs and downstairs were wide open. Only the gurgling water from the well overflowed, submerging Tao Rujiu's ankles and then slowly climbing up his calves.

He waded through the well water and entered the first courtyard. Sure enough, there was music playing on the stage. They were singing a tune he had never heard before. Tao Rujiu stood behind a pillar. The moon, as big as a lantern, shone on the roof tiles of the stage, illuminating the surroundings. On the stage, a man and a woman dressed in wedding attire were performing.

There were no women in the opera troupe. Tao Rujiu was wondering who the bride on the stage was when his gaze inadvertently fell on the audience.

The red curtain had been lifted, and the two nailed coffins inside were open. Damp red stains slid out of the coffins, landing on the moss-covered ground, and winding their way up the narrow stairs leading to the stage.

The opera singer wore heavy makeup, deep red, and the wedding dress was originally also red. However, after singing for a while, the clothes and headdress began to turn black and moldy. In the end, every time the female lead took a step, a string of tassels would fall off.

Tao looked at both sides of the old stage. The accompaniment of the opera troupe was also there, but it seemed that a thin veil was covering their faces so that their features could not be seen. He looked at them one by one, trying to identify them, and finally his gaze fell on the blue stone open space in front of the stage.

The moonlight illuminated a row of antique-style tables and chairs, and a silver-white figure sitting in the very center.

That was the white figure that Tao Rujiu had glimpsed in the underground palace.

The white figure sat on an antique-style armchair, but raised his right hand and tightly grasped a boy standing next to him.

The boy was Qin Huakai.

"Flowers bloom! Flowers bloom!"

Tao Rujiu hid behind a pillar and called out softly, trying to summon Hua Kai to his side. However, the music suddenly grew louder, drowning out his voice. Tao Rujiu tried to go around behind the white figure and reached out to grab Qin Hua Kai's sleeve.

But by some strange twist of fate, he bumped into Bai Ying's shoulder, and the feeling was as hard as hitting a tombstone.

The white figure stiffly turned its head little by little, and grabbed Tao Rujiu's wrist with its left hand.

Its hands were cold, like rough leather. Tao Rujiu tried to shake it off, but met its face, which was completely visible in the moonlight.

It was a face cast in silver, expressionless.

A silver mask coldly covered the upper half of its face, leaving only its deep pupils and sinister gaze visible.

Tao Rujiu opened his eyes wide; he recognized that half of the face.

It seemed sharp. A sharpness born of black hair, not golden brown, and a mask, not sunglasses.

Just as "Lingli" firmly grasped Tao Rujiu, the music on stage abruptly stopped.

The indistinct faces of the opera troupe members put down their instruments and sat quietly on folding stools. Even the two dead actors on the stage stiffened and stared straight at them.

In the dead silence, the gurgling sound of flowing water became clear, and then turned into a series of urgent knocks on the door.

Knock knock knock.

The well water rattled the courtyard gate, causing it to shake violently. The well water flowed through the cracks into the front yard, forming the outline of a large hand groping on the ground.

"Is anyone there...is anyone there..."

A strangely salty sea breeze suddenly swept through the air, carrying coarse sand that rubbed against everything around it. The moonlight dimmed, and everything began to fade.

The dead seemed to melt like wax figures, turning into two streams of dark red liquid that flowed back into the coffins. The opera troupe opened the door and stepped into the courtyard, where the well water overflowed overhead. The buildings and curtains of the Emerald Pavilion began to rot, worn smaller and smaller by the sand. Fragments of wax, well water, sand, and wood chips began to swirl in the air, making it impossible to open one's eyes.

He held tightly to Tao Rujiu and Hua Kai's skeletal hands, never letting go.