Le tombeau de Qin Shi Huang

Chapitre 20

No, perhaps "he" really has lived for over five hundred years. Agrippa's direct disciple—since he can possess another's body, perhaps over these five hundred years his soul has been constantly searching for new hosts in the human world, like a hermit crab constantly changing its shell... Xia Yongyu and Wu Jianxiang are just temporary bodies he has parasitized.

Why didn't he just kill me and parasitize my corpse to escape punishment? Perhaps he believed he could get a reduced sentence? Perhaps he had already hypnotized me, so he could summon me back to him at any time for his own use?

Did he hypnotize my attending physician to discharge me immediately so that he could spread the "Judas's Gate" curse for him?

But I don't have Tang Shijing's finger bones in my hand. If I am truly cursed by the "Gates of Judas," the evil spirits could come to claim my life at any moment after sunset. Although I'm quite certain I didn't hear any breathing or panting from the evil spirits outside the door, I become so afraid that I can't sleep whenever I hear the dripping of the kitchen faucet, the rustling of the blinds in the breeze, or any other faint sound I can't identify. I feel a constant rustling sound in my ears, like both tinnitus and auditory hallucinations.

I will not let any evil spirits into my house. I spend my days in the library sifting through archived newspapers, collecting old news about people who died in any accidents near my home, so I can know what those vengeful ghosts might look like; before I go to sleep, I will almost obsessively check every door and window, leaving no crack for any deadly ghosts to intrude.

I need to lock the door. But I must solemnly declare that I am not delusional—I'm just locking the door.