Dragon Girl Neues Kapitel

Kapitel 6

In the flickering candlelight, he saw her solemn and gloomy face. What was wrong?

Meanwhile, Ye Min was covering her mouth as she watched as Ma Lian and Lin Pang's faces turned a deep liver color, each with a rope tied around their necks, swaying back and forth on the beam with a creaking sound.

People are separated by disaster, but they also come together because of it. As the saying goes, when one place is in trouble, help comes from all sides.

Hearing Ye Min scream, Su Yan and Lü Fang couldn't sleep anymore. They hurriedly tidied up and opened the door to see what was going on. But what they saw next made them jump out of their skins.

The sun was blazing down outside! The view that met my eyes was—

The old streets connect to the alleys, and people of all ages, dressed in ancient costumes, walk side by side, weaving back and forth on the streets. The streets are bustling with people, and the shops are adorned with flags and lined with taverns. The shouts of vendors, the rumble of horse-drawn carriages, the haggling of passersby, and the rustling of the flags fluttering outside the various taverns and inns create a lively and bustling scene.

The two were horrified and at a loss, their logical thinking and worldview collapsing in an instant. An inexplicable sense of fear crept up from the soles of Lü Fang's feet. "What...what is this?!"

The shout was earth-shattering; the noisy scene instantly ceased! Even the wind carrying the fluttering flags seemed to freeze. The crowds, vehicles, and all sorts of sentient beings stopped, then slowly turned their gazes toward the source of the sound. Suddenly, hundreds upon hundreds of eyes stared intently and rigidly at Lü Fang!

"What are you looking at...what are you looking at...what are you looking at?!"

These eerie gazes, like massive boulders, pressed down on Lü Fang with an overwhelming sense of oppression and penetrating power. He felt he couldn't withstand the immense shock; the bright sunlight of the early morning had brought his thoughts to a standstill. But just then, something even more terrifying followed!

Section 48: The Frenzied Crowd (5)

What changed were their faces. Lu Fang stared in astonishment as all the unfamiliar faces gazing at him shifted; they blurred, then became clearer. Wait, what was this?

He looked closely and felt all the blood rush to his head!

Countless farmers, peddlers, scholars,镖头 (bodyguards), shopkeepers, pawnshop owners… their identities, statuses, professions, ages, and even genders differed, but they all shared the same face! This was the face Lü Fang used to gaze at in the mirror every day, once proud of it, once filled with pride; it was handsome, dashing, and radiant—

Those were his own faces; before him, all of them were his own faces! Countless "Lu Fangs" stared at Lu Fang. He was terrified, their faces ashen.

An unprecedented and overwhelming fear gripped him tightly, crushing him.

The same was true for Su Yan. The absurd scene unfolding outside the door left her so stunned that her jaw practically dropped. No wonder, being watched by countless "selves"—no matter how calm and collected you are, it's impossible to remain unmoved.

Lu Fang's scream was quickly swallowed up by the crowd, and the surroundings returned to silence. The streets and alleys were quiet, with only the warm sunlight shining down, soaking the two men's backs.

Fortunately, after a brief standoff, they realized that the superfluous "self" was merely watching them indifferently, showing no intention of attacking. But their nerves, which hadn't even had time to relax, tightened again, because at that moment, they clearly heard a series of "clattering" sounds approaching from afar. The sound of horses' hooves? The two men, trembling with fear, immediately looked in the direction of the sound.

"cavalry?!"

A troop of ancient cavalry, clad in golden armor and carrying swords, galloped from afar, halting a hundred meters from the two. Beneath their grimy, blackened armor, they were obscured. As they stared at each other, a growing unease gripped them; their chests heaved, and the atmosphere grew tense. Suddenly, the lead general, who had planted his banner, drew his sword, pointed it at Su Yan and Lü Fang, and then uttered a single word—

"kill!"

In an instant, the earth shook. The Ferghana horses, carrying armored soldiers, kicked up dust and moved with lightning speed. Those whom Lü Fang saw as "Lü Fang" and those whom Su Yan saw as "Su Yan" were either torn down or slaughtered by the fully armed killing machines. The quiet alley was instantly transformed into a river of blood. Yet, they seemed unfazed by the panic and pain, as if completely oblivious to the frenzied carnage around them, their eyes fixed on the two men with unwavering focus.

Section 49: The Female Corpse's Hair (1)

Still watching.

Su Yan and Lü Fang were trembling with fear. Having been stared at by countless "selves" and witnessed countless "selves" being torn apart, their ability to remain calm and collected without going insane was truly remarkable. However, if they stood there dumbfounded, the onrushing waves of blood would surely lead to their demise within seconds. With nowhere to run, Lü Fang roared, grabbed Su Yan, and turned back towards the hut.

At three in the morning, the sun was shining brightly, and corpses lay strewn everywhere.

Chapter Six: The Female Corpse

Thinking of the snake feast torture, which was a hundred times more terrifying than female genital mutilation in South Africa, my legs trembled like dustpans. At first, I thought it was a snake swarm, but after trembling for a while, I didn't see the legendary snake attack. I quickly pulled out my flashlight, and when the beam swept across, I almost screamed for my mother.

1 human body mural

2. Crossing the "River"

Chapter Six: The Female Corpse

1 human body mural

I'm going crazy!

The metal entryway wasn't particularly sturdy to begin with, and given its age, our handling of it has warped it beyond recognition, leaving it ugly and precariously stuck. However, the seemingly calm water ahead might conceal a deadly danger!

I had just told them that they couldn't go into the water, and Horse Face, whether he didn't understand or not, tried to dive into the water with shaky steps. I grabbed him and said, "Are you crazy! Didn't you hear what I said?" After I scolded him, he finally came to his senses, his face full of pain.

I guess he's only now finding time to be sentimental. I don't understand the beauty of attraction between people of the same sex, but I do understand the principle of deep feelings. Now we're all in the same boat, so I wanted to offer him some simple comfort, but before I could say anything, a loud "bang" from behind startled my hand, which was about to rest on his shoulder, making it tremble.

I thought ghosts could walk through walls, but it turns out that the old hag outside wasn't as powerful as she is on TV. It's a blessing in disguise.

The sound wasn't too intense, but it was enough to shatter our nerves. I pulled the horse face aside and hurriedly touched the surrounding walls, trying to find some mechanism or something. Could this stagnant waterway really have been dug for idle people to sit and fish?

Ye Min, mimicking me, groped around aimlessly until she touched something. Suddenly, a series of rustling sounds came from above our heads—very soft, faint, and drawn-out. Because we had been under immense pressure, our senses were pushed to their limits, making them exceptionally sensitive. Although the sounds were faint, after hearing them, we had only one feeling—we didn't know what they were, but there were a great many of them!

Section 50: The Female Corpse's Hair (2)

That sound is fucking horrible.

With a series of whooshing sounds, something seemed to be falling straight down from the riverbank above my head. Because of the limited light, I couldn't see clearly, but I knew there were quite a lot of them. The sight of so many strange, dark things made my heart sink.

In some North African countries during the early Middle Ages, rulers kept countless small snakes above prison cells, controlled by mechanisms. Once a prisoner was sentenced to death, the executioner would trigger the mechanism, causing the snakes to descend from the sky and devour the condemned, perhaps most heinous, prisoners. Unlike the electric chair, these supreme rulers believed the celestial snakes were a sacred force from heaven, echoing the belief in sin-eaters. They considered snakes to be the king of all spirits, capable of taking away all the sins committed by criminals. The most cruel and terrifying aspect was that ninety percent of these snakes were non-venomous, and even the remaining ten percent, though venomous, would not cause immediate death from a few bites. While countless thin snakes were tearing at their bodies, the executioner would also drive away and frighten the snakes around them. Once frightened, the snakes would not only open their mouths and bite wildly, but also look for places to hide. Thus, the eyes, ears, mouth, nose and other parts of the condemned prisoners became the most ideal hiding places for the snakes. At that time, they were used to this extremely cruel method to punish condemned prisoners.

Thinking of the snake feast torture, which was a hundred times more terrifying than female genital mutilation in South Africa, my legs trembled like dustpans. At first, I thought it was a snake swarm, but after trembling for a while, I didn't see the legendary snake attack. I quickly pulled out my flashlight, and when the beam swept across, I almost screamed for my mother.

Those jet-black, glossy things, like a waterfall, were actually all hair!

What fell from the sky wasn't heavenly soldiers or swarms of snakes, but human hair. I've always been extremely sensitive to hair; to me, it's practically synonymous with ghosts and monsters. At that moment, large clumps of hair burst forth from the depression above, hanging limply down, some so long they reached into the water, others still dangling in mid-air… They formed a "beautiful" forest of hair. Occasionally, a breeze would sweep by, and clumps of hair would dance in the night wind. The sight of it made my head explode.

Where did all this hair come from? I moved the beam of my flashlight to the roots of the hair and was shocked! There were also murals painted on the wall above the river, but instead of the Zouyu on both sides of the river wall, they depicted women with their arms outstretched towards the sky.

Section 51: The Female Corpse's Hair (3)

A painting of the Empress Flying to the Heavens?

The murals above were neatly arranged, and compared to the boneless dragons and white tigers I had seen before, these women were somewhat different: firstly, in terms of layout. The previous murals, regardless of their subject matter, seemed to have been refined and detailed on the wall after being gathered and evaporated, without frames or frameworks, yet lifelike. But these murals of empresses flying apsaras had frames and frameworks, arranged one after another. I could see the frames, but the women depicted within them were all very blurry. It wasn't the kind of faded blurring that comes with age or weathering, but rather the paintings themselves were blurry, resembling a combination of sketching and light ink wash—this was truly perplexing.

In fact, under normal circumstances, these murals are not particularly unique except for their neat frames and blurry image quality. The only difference is that the hair buns of the women in the paintings seem to cascade out of the murals and stand vertically upside down on the water's surface. These long hairs were probably originally tied up by something, but Ye Min must have tampered with some kind of mechanism to loosen them and let them hang down.

A gentle breeze blowing through the weeping willows brings a sense of peace and tranquility; an evening breeze ruffling one's hair makes one's hair stand on end.

Some time ago, I often accompanied my grandfather on his travels, including to the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu, which is considered one of the four major grottoes in China, alongside the Maijishan Grottoes, the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi, and the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan. The most memorable murals there were the "Thousand-Hand Sutra Transformation" murals in caves such as 79, 113, and 148. I never imagined that such astonishing and unforgettable murals could be found in Yunnan.

At this moment, recalling the boneless dragons that Ye Min and I had observed after we went to bed, I suddenly remembered something. I quickly grabbed the horse-faced man's glasses, put them on, and took another close look at those eerie images of the flying empresses. Sure enough! The bone dragons had no flesh, only eyes, and the flying empresses not only had flowing hair but also fingers!

This fleeting glimpse almost made me stumble and fall into the river. The women in the wall paintings had fingers just like ours! And like their "hair," they all emerged from the wall!

Real hair? Fake hair? Real fingers or fake fingers? I was terrified and dared not look any longer, but the more I thought about it, the harder it was to look away. These images of empresses flying in the sky seemed to have an irresistible magic that made me involuntarily yearn for them.

The hair and fingers of the women in the painting blend seamlessly with the artwork on the wall, almost flawlessly. Under the flashlight, they exude an unparalleled, eerie beauty—a silent yet terrifying allure. I immediately suspect that real corpses lie within this wall, their hair and fingers sacrificed for art through countless generations of sand and rammed earth. It's impossible that hair and fingers were cut off and stuffed in, is it? If there were indeed corpses, it would be utterly cruel. Looking at this, I couldn't help but think of something—the flesh forest of King Zhou of Shang.

Section 52: The Female Corpse's Hair (4)

Such heinous, outrageous, and horrifying things truly exist in the world.

The horse-faced man's glasses were on my face, so he naturally didn't see the fingers. He was just staring blankly at the world of hanging hair. Ye Min, like me, was looking very carefully, but tears streamed down her face. I didn't know if it was out of fear or out of sympathy for the women who had died tragically inside the walls.

I gestured to Ye Min not to tell Ma Lian about finding the finger, because I was afraid he wouldn't be able to handle it.

Seeing Ye Min nod blankly, my heart pounded with panic. A scene suddenly flashed through my chaotic mind: the people who built this place would stroll here alone in the dead of night, row a boat on the water, lie down in the boat, and drift slowly by. They would rest their heads on the boat, face up against the wall, wave a paper fan, recite ancient poems, and quietly admire the vivid and fragrant image of the Flying Empress on the roof... Of course, this is a name I made up myself. Who knows what they were called before? Perhaps even more...

Thinking about all this makes me feel nauseous; my stomach churns and I feel like vomiting.

"Bang!" I felt like vomiting, but vomiting shouldn't sound like that. If it wasn't me, it must be the sound of the iron gate. I couldn't help but curse. This thing was just as annoying as those damned morning exercises at 6:30 every day when I was a kid! I was constantly being urged to get up as a child, and now I'm being urged to die! I suddenly became a little irritable, my eyes even turning red. Fine, I'll just go back and fight it out!

Ye Min noticed my emotional shift and quickly pulled me back without saying anything, probably because she didn't know what to say either. Seeing her tear-streaked face, I calmed down a little.

In some unexpected events, excessive or intense emotions can lead to impulsive words and actions. The medical explanation is simply that something was secreted somewhere, and that this secretion had a certain effect on that area, ultimately causing something else… I've always had a vague fear of medicine, so I tend to keep my distance from these professional explanations. At that moment, Ye Min noticed my emotional fluctuation and stopped me in time. I didn't know what to say to her, so I could only force a smile and tell her I was fine.

That smile must have been incredibly ugly.

The nagging sound started again. Before, it was just a knocking noise, but this time it was much louder. The sound coming from outside the iron gate was like someone desperately scratching at us with fingernails, making our hearts pound. At this point, we had no choice but to go for it! I steeled myself, grabbed a clump of dead hair hanging down, tugged at it—it was solid—and immediately turned to Horse Face and Ye Min, asking, "Have you ever played on the rings?"

Section 53: The Female Corpse's Hair (5)

2. Crossing the "River"

I have thought of a solution, but...

I guessed they didn't understand. Seeing their blank expressions, I was in a panic and could only stammer an explanation: "Actually, hair is very strong, especially the hair of East Asians, which is thick and plentiful. Its main component is keratin. As the saying goes, a single chopstick is easy to break, but a bundle of chopsticks is as strong as steel; so if one hair is broken, it's all over, and you'll be crossing the river in clumps! I can't guarantee that these hairs won't break, nor can I guarantee that there's nothing underwater. Anyway, now we just have to try!"

Horse Face and Ye Min looked at me with firm expressions, not like they were joking. They knew in their hearts that they were forced into this situation but had no other choice. So they also came over with long faces to pluck the hair of the dead people. After all, no one wanted to face that old ghost behind them.

We're about to climb over these hairs to cross the "river," which is more ridiculous to me than the Sphinx standing in front of me.

At first, I was worried about Horse Face's weight, which is closely related to the weight-bearing capacity of the hair. After a quick test, it seemed to be no problem. If it wasn't a problem for him, then it would be difficult for Ye Min and me to have any problems. In order to set a good example, I gritted my teeth, grabbed other people's hair, and with my heart in my throat, I took the lead and climbed up the hair.

It's definitely sturdy enough. This feeling is a qualitative leap, a qualitative change, compared to climbing ropes, doorframes, and rings when I was younger…

Before coming up, I reminded Horse Face and Ye Min to grab as high as possible, no, to grab as high as they could, preferably close to the roots of the hair. This is because the roots of normal human hair are relatively thick, and hair becomes thinner towards the ends. A single hair can be stretched by about 40% to 60%, which is related to the cortex and has little to do with the corpse on the head.

In addition, I specifically reminded them that they could only climb onto things that weren't submerged in water, and absolutely not touch anything that was. When I was studying physics and chemistry, my teacher said that hair swells quickly when soaked in water, and its weight after swelling is about 40% higher than its dry weight before soaking. If a person were to hang from water-soaked hair, who knows if the increased weight would cause an accident?

After only a brief hesitation, they all cautiously got on the track. I carefully clung to the hair, cold sweat beading on my forehead, my mind a jumbled mess. Suddenly, I lost my grip, slipped into empty air, and tumbled headfirst into the water. A chilling, bone-deep fear instantly spread from my feet throughout my entire body! I screamed in terror, ignoring the danger of choking, and frantically waded in the water, and then…

Section 54: The Female Corpse's Hair (6)

I saw a sudden, violent surge of water not far away! It was as if something was moving rapidly, creating the turbulence. The waves, carrying a tremendous and overwhelming sense of fear, rushed towards the direction I had fallen into the water! I was utterly desperate. Tears and snot streamed down my face. Before I could even see clearly, a sudden numbness shot through my right thigh, followed by a tremendous pulling force that tossed me about in the water. I had absolutely no chance to resist. After the numbness subsided, an indescribable pain left my nervous system blank. I wanted to scream, but a lump was stuck in my throat, and no sound came out; I wanted to cry, but I didn't even have the strength to open my eyelids. Sewage mixed with blood splashed everywhere, filling the entire world. I couldn't see anything, I couldn't see anything, I…

"What? Let's go!" A muffled growl from Horse Face jolted me awake. "I...sorry! I got distracted..." I stammered, sweating profusely as I recalled the cheesy plots from those American horror movies. A chill ran down my spine; I didn't even need to reach down to check—I knew my back was soaked through, and a gust of wind would surely blow it away...

That scared me to death.

I had initially thought this stagnant waterway was only a few meters long, but it truly lived up to the saying, "You can't see the true face of Mount Lu because you're in the mountain yourself." Hanging above the waterway, I was astonished to find it was actually a hundred meters long. The project was too large, and if the budget went into deficit… besides, my situation here was extremely awkward: I dared not look up at the murals above, nor dared I look down at the blue waves below. As a result, I moved very slowly. Ye Min thought I had a fear of heights and kept comforting me from behind, though her voice was trembling with tears.

She didn't know that I wasn't afraid of heights, but rather afraid of water.

Fortunately, the tangled hair was quite sturdy, but this only strengthened my belief that there was a female corpse inside the wall. But it didn't matter; my legs were already trembling when I came up, so knowing this now would just make them shake even more. Let my legs shake as much as they want, as long as my hands don't get involved.

The hair hanging down was quite slippery; it had been coiled up for countless springs, summers, autumns, and winters. Feeling the filth clinging to it, I almost vomited. Furthermore, the climbing was relatively difficult. We had to grab several handfuls of hair, pull them together, and then wrap them around our wrists several times before daring to replace them. Our legs had to follow the movements of our hands, clamping them tightly; otherwise, we'd die.

Section 55: The Hump Bridge (1)

The waterway was eerily quiet; you could hear a pin drop. We all fell silent, the atmosphere heavy and oppressive. The iron gate behind us was silent too; had it vanished or entered? I didn't know, and I dared not look back, but I had a feeling that it was deliberately drawing us here… I pondered for a long time but couldn't come up with anything. Then something else came to mind, and I had to say it.

"Old Ma, do you still remember that iron gate you kicked down?" When disaster strikes, everyone is left to their own fate. Who cares who you are? I just started calling him Old Ma.

Horse Face was silent for a while before asking, "What's wrong?" I didn't turn around, but I knew his expression must be grim. I didn't bother to think about it and continued, "Did you see the disc-like thing on that metal shell, with words engraved on it?"

The iron gate was so corroded that it was almost unrecognizable, but I still noticed the small part that was barely discernible.

Horse Face said no. Then Ye Min spoke up, and her description confirmed my suspicions. She said she only saw two characters, something like "申" and "酉".

That's right, it's Shen and You.

Chapter Seven: The Hump Bridge

Just then, in the dark, still waterway, we heard something slide down into the water above us, creating a splashing sound. Horse Face tensed up and hesitated to move forward. Ye Min and I knew in our hearts that we were pretty much right about what had fallen into the water, but we only dared to gasp for breath and didn't dare to confirm it. We could only urge Horse Face on while speeding up.

1. Twelve-hour system

2. Things on the bridge

Chapter Seven: The Hump Bridge