Der Charme einer starken Frau verbreitet sich über die ganze Welt

Kapitel 11

"Sounds like burial goods from an ancient tomb?"

"Yes, that's right. I was looking for a coffin or something when I discovered a small door on the wall behind the jade artifact. It was only about 1.5 meters high, but the material of the door was very special. We boldly touched it and found that the small door was actually carved from a single piece of jade. Looking at this jade door, it was as if we were facing another world. Everyone was stunned."

Part Three, Thirteenth Day, Section 19, Thirteenth Day (3)

"The Gate of Life and Death?" I couldn't help but mutter to myself. I could imagine their feelings as they faced such a jade gate in the dark underground palace.

At this moment, sweat beaded on Su Tianping's forehead. He nodded tremblingly and said, "Just then, Han Xiaofeng suddenly became frightened. She said we should all go back. But Huo Qiang rudely interrupted her, saying that even if the door led to a ghost world, we had to go in and take a look. Huo Qiang's opinion was agreed upon by Chunyu and me, and Han Xiaofeng didn't dare to leave on her own. We tentatively pushed the jade door, and to our surprise, it opened. There was no lock on the door, nor any bolts or latches inside. Then, we each took a deep breath and ducked through the small door."

Is it a tomb chamber inside?

“No, inside the jade gate is a secret chamber about ten square meters in size, no more than 1.7 meters high. An ordinary person standing inside can only lower their head. We carefully shone a flashlight around and found no trace of a coffin. Only in the inner corner of the secret chamber was there a box-like object. This small box was also carved from jade, and its length, width and height were only about ten centimeters.”

After thinking about it carefully, I said, "Then it should be called Jade Box."

"The box wasn't locked, but there was a clay seal at the opening with some writing on it. However, the writing was too small, and we didn't pay attention to it at the time. Huo Qiang then forcibly broke the clay seal."

"What? You actually broke the seal?" I was genuinely furious. A "seal" is a block of clay used in ancient China to seal bamboo slips and affix a seal, serving as a form of encryption. Seals were already in use during the Spring and Autumn Period and were extremely popular during the Qin, Han, Wei, and Jin Dynasties. Seals preserved to this day are precious cultural relics, and the inscriptions on them are often of great help to research. I shook my head and said, "Even in ancient times, breaking a seal was a serious crime, as grave as stealing state secrets. Many people lost their heads for it."

“I’m sorry, I tried to stop Huo Qiang, but it was too late. He actually knows nothing about history.” Su Tianping’s face paled, and he swallowed hard. “Then, Huo Qiang opened that little box—”

What's inside the jade box?

My heart was pounding, terrified he might utter some terrible word. Su Tianping wiped the sweat from his brow and slowly replied—

"Jade ring".

I was taken aback for a moment, then repeated, "Jade ring?"

"Yes, there was nothing else in that little box except this jade piece—it's shaped a bit like a ring, but thicker than a regular ring. The color of this jade ring is very special; it's a translucent bluish-green color that reflects a dim light when illuminated by a flashlight. But on one side of the jade ring, there's a strange dark red color that looks like some kind of stain. Chunyu said she's never seen jade of this color before."

"A jade ring inside the jade box? I wonder if it has any special meaning?"

"But then, something unexpected happened. Perhaps Huo Qiang was too excited; he accidentally dropped his flashlight. With a crisp sound, the secret room was plunged into darkness. Everyone panicked at the sudden darkness, and Han Xiaofeng screamed immediately. We were all in a chaotic frenzy, and the secret room was very narrow and low; I bumped my head several times. Huo Qiang crouched on the ground and groped around for a long time before finally picking up the flashlight, but it wouldn't turn on; it was obviously broken. Although he had a spare flashlight in his bag, he couldn't find it in the dark. Han Xiaofeng seemed to be terrified; she ran out of the secret room in the dark, and we all followed her out."

At this point, Su Tianping suddenly stopped, his eyes becoming very strange.

"What's wrong? What else happened?" I sensed that there were some things he was reluctant to say.

Su Tianping's eyes darted around a few times, avoiding my gaze as he replied, "No, nothing—let me continue. At the time, we all ran into the underground hall, but it was pitch black and no one could see anything. We could only shout each other's names to avoid anyone getting lost. We groped our way forward like blind men when Huo Qiang suddenly said he had found the exit. We immediately followed the sound and found him, and with his guidance, we indeed returned to the tunnel. Everyone hurriedly ran forward, the slope under our feet clearly rising. Finally, we found the two large stone doors, and running out of the stone doors led to a high flight of stairs."

"It's just like an Indiana Jones thriller."

"No, I think it's more like a horror movie. We frantically climbed the steps and finally saw a sliver of light overhead. After a lot of hardship, we finally got back to the ground. In the end, everyone ran into the yard and gasped for breath, looking up at the sky as if they had just suffocated. Thank goodness, it seems that everyone was just scared and no one was hurt."

Aren't you scared afterward?

"Fear afterward? Of course, we were all very scared afterwards. Even Huo Qiang regretted it, saying that he shouldn't have been so reckless in breaking into the underground. That night, we still slept in the upstairs room, but no one dared to tell any more stories. The atmosphere among the four of us was a bit stiff, and we went to bed early. But in the middle of the night, another strange thing happened."

His startled tone made my heart race: "What strange thing?"

"When I was asleep in the middle of the night, I was suddenly awakened by a piercing scream. I immediately crawled out of the tent, and everyone else in the room came out too, except for Han Xiaofeng, who was nowhere to be seen. We rushed out of the room and saw a ghostly black figure standing in the corridor outside. I cautiously walked over and realized that the black figure was Han Xiaofeng. She was shaking her head in a panic, her face ashen in the dim moonlight, muttering something incoherently. We hurriedly got her back into the room, gave her hot water and pinched her philtrum, and finally she came back to her senses. She really looked like a ghost at that moment. Guess what she said next?"

"Just say it already." I was getting impatient.

"Han Xiaofeng said she saw a ghost—she said she heard strange noises in the middle of the night, then quietly went outside and found a sliver of light coming from the next room. She cautiously approached the window, poked a hole in the paper windowpane, and discovered a candle burning in the room. The dim candlelight illuminated a dressing table, and there was a woman dressed in white, her back to the window, facing the mirror in front of the dressing table. Han Xiaofeng was so frightened she couldn't speak. She saw the mysterious woman combing her hair, half of her jet-black hair hanging down, a wooden comb constantly combing and combing—"

"Just like in my novel?" I finally couldn't help but exclaim, shaking my head repeatedly, "How could that be? This plot is just fiction in my novel."

Su Tianping nodded and said, "That's right. Han Xiaofeng said she screamed in fright and then became somewhat delirious. After hearing her description, we were also terrified and decided to go next door to take a look. When we tiptoed into the next room, we found it pitch black. We shone a flashlight around but couldn't see a ghost. There was only a dusty dressing table with half a candle sticking out of it, but it looked like it hadn't been used in a long time."

"Could it be Han Xiaofeng's hallucination?"

"No one can say for sure. Maybe she read your novel and mistook the fictional elements for reality, or maybe she had a nightmare?"

"Another nightmare?" But I immediately shook my head.

"The next day, Han Xiaofeng became increasingly frightened. She secretly called you, but we immediately discovered it. Huo Qiang, worried that she would tell you what happened yesterday, grabbed the phone and spoke to you—"

I interrupted him: "Alright, I know all that. Let's talk about something else."

That afternoon, Han Xiaofeng and I hid in our room, too afraid to go out, while Huo Qiang and Chunyu went for a walk outside and didn't return until dusk. They looked terrible when they came back. I asked them what had happened, but they wouldn't tell me. It must have been something terrifying again. We were restless all day. Everything we saw underground the day before kept flashing before my eyes, as if we could be in the dark underground at any moment. After nightfall, it was our fourth night in the deserted village, and everyone went to bed early. To prevent Han Xiaofeng from running out again in the middle of the night, Huo Qiang even set up the tent at the door of the room.

As if I had some kind of premonition, I asked, "What happened that night?"

Part Three, Thirteenth Day, Section 20, Thirteenth Day (4)

Su Tianping stared into my eyes and slowly uttered two words—"Nightmare."

"What did you say?"

“I’m talking about a nightmare—that night, I had a nightmare.” Su Tianping’s expression grew increasingly terrifying, his deep, abyss-like eyes darting around. “I dreamt of a woman, a young woman in a long white robe, with dim firelight flickering around her. She had long, flowing hair and a fair, beautiful face, but her eyes were so peculiar, as if from another distant land. She had a peculiar look in her eyes, I couldn’t tell if it was sadness or despair. But the lines at the corners of her mouth were somewhat strong, as if she had made up her mind to do something. She appeared calm and composed, her aura was so noble, it could even be described as holy, something that no one today could possess—”

"Like Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen in Shakespeare's plays?"

“Yes, you’re thinking the same thing as me. Just like Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen, calmly reaching into a box full of poisonous insects, I saw her raise a stone knife with a sharp edge, and then with extraordinary composure, slit her own throat—I watched as her snow-white skin was cut open, and blood flowed freely from the cut in her throat…”

Suddenly, Su Tianping's eyes widened, as if he had already witnessed this scene. I quickly urged, "And then?"

"Then—I woke up from my dream." He shook his head violently, finally recovering from the memories of the dream.

I let out a long sigh of relief: "Strange, I usually forget my dreams as soon as I wake up. But why do you remember this nightmare so clearly?"

"Yes, but I can't quite understand it either. I remember this dream very clearly, you could even say it's etched in my memory, and I may never forget it for the rest of my life. Yes, I can recall it clearly now, the face of the mysterious woman in the dream, her unique eyes, and all the details, as if she were really right in front of me."

As he was talking, he suddenly reached out and touched her, as if the woman were sitting right in front of him. I quickly pushed his hand away and said, "Don't scare me, okay?"

Su Tianping gasped for breath, closed his eyes, and said, "I'm absolutely not trying to scare you, I really felt it—okay, let me continue. That morning when I woke up, the nightmare kept flashing before my eyes, so I told Huo Qiang about it. Huo Qiang was shocked when he heard it. He told me that he had the same dream last night, a woman in white cutting her own throat with a knife, exactly the same. Then, we told Han Xiaofeng and Chunyu, but what we didn't expect was that they said they had also dreamed the same thing last night. We were all stunned."

"You mean—all four of you had the same dream on the same night?"

“Absolutely true!” Su Tianping repeated, emphasizing each word. “On the fourth night after we arrived in the deserted village, the four of us in that room upstairs dreamed of the same mysterious woman.”

“How is that possible?” I lowered my head and thought about the mysterious events I had written about in the novel, then shook my head and said, “Perhaps there are indeed many things in the world that cannot be explained.”

“We were all terrified. We didn’t know who the mysterious woman in our dream was, why she did it, or why we all dreamed of her at the same time in that room. It was definitely a bad omen. Even Huo Qiang started trembling. Thinking about what we had done these past few days, everyone gasped. Only then did we begin to regret not heeding your warning. This place was too terrifying; no one could bear it.”

"So, you've decided to leave the deserted village?"

Su Tianping nodded hurriedly: "Yes, the deserted village was practically Count Dakula's castle. We didn't dare stay a minute longer, so we immediately packed our things and hurriedly left the old Jinshi Mansion. When we left the deserted village, the villagers all looked at us with a strange feeling. Their gazes were so bizarre, like they were... attending a funeral..."

"The villagers are looking at you like you're attending a funeral?"

"That's how I felt at the time, maybe it was just my imagination. We fled the deserted village as if our lives depended on it, heading out along the mountain path we had come from. I took one last look at the deserted village, the majestic stone archway at the village entrance, the nearby desolate mountains and wilderness, the cold, black sea, and the endless ancient cemetery. I whispered, 'Farewell, deserted village.'"

This extravagantly written description immediately stirred up my memories: "Yes, that's how I left back then."

"The journey out of the deserted village was very difficult for everyone, and we didn't arrive in Xiling Town until noon. Then, we took a minibus to the K City long-distance bus station and finally boarded a long-distance bus bound for Shanghai. No one said a word on the way, clearly still shaken from the fear of the deserted village. When we got back to downtown Shanghai, it was already past 11 p.m."

"Huo Qiang called me as soon as he got out of the car."

“I was there at the time, and he was actually a little hesitant, unsure whether he should tell you these things. I never expected him to die so quickly.” At this point, Su Tianping suddenly covered his mouth, his face contorted in pain.

"But why wouldn't you tell me the truth when I came to Huo Qiang's dormitory that night?"

"I dare not say whether what the four of us did in the deserted village violated any taboos. I'm afraid that if I say it out loud, it will cause even more trouble."

"You've gotten yourself into even bigger trouble."

“Yes, when I heard that Han Xiaofeng had also died, I was immediately terrified. I was afraid that I would be the next victim—” Su Tianping was silent for a while, then lowered his head and said, “So, I ran out of the dormitory that day and moved to a rented room outside the school. Huo Qiang and Han Xiaofeng both died in the dormitory, and I could no longer stay in that kind of place.”

Hearing this, I truly felt Su Tianping's bone-chilling fear, as if I myself had fallen into the abyss along with him. Before I knew it, an afternoon had passed. In this dark and chilly little café, Su Tianping recounted their bizarre encounter in the deserted village. I don't know how to describe the expression on his face as he spoke; it was like a drowning man clutching at the last straw on the surface of the water.

Su Tianping seemed a little better than before, perhaps because he had poured out his heart. He was breathing heavily, as if he had just gone through strenuous exercise. I looked at him and thought for a long time, but I couldn't think of a single word to comfort him. It's understandable; how could anyone not feel fear and despair in this situation?

Suddenly, Su Tianping bent down, took a leather suitcase from under the table, and placed it in front of me. He said softly, "I'm sorry, you can keep these things."

I froze, staring at the box and asking, "What's inside?"

"You'll see when you take it back," he said in a somewhat mysterious tone.

"Why must it be handed over to me?"

“These things don’t belong to me, but I can’t give them to anyone else. Now I can only trust you.”

I touched the surface of the box and felt nothing unusual, but I still hesitated for a while. However, looking into his earnest eyes, I finally nodded. But I didn't open the box in front of him; instead, I placed it at my feet.

Su Tianping seemed relieved again: "Thank you for coming today."

"Why? Just to tell me these things?"

“I don’t know, but I feel really suffocated by this, and I have to talk to someone about it. And that person has to be someone I can trust—that’s you.”

I couldn't help but nod. Besides, this whole thing started because of my novel, *The Deserted Village*, so if we're going to get to the bottom of it, I guess I should be considered partly responsible: "So what are your plans now?"

"I don't know, I just hope this is the end of death. At least I can tell you that I don't have a heart condition, and I won't scare myself to death in the middle of the night."

"I hope you're safe and sound. However, I still advise you to go back to school; your teachers will help you."

"Thank you, I will take good care of myself."

I finally stood up. My legs were a little numb from sitting for several hours. I said calmly, "It's getting dark, I should go. Call me if you have any questions. Goodbye."

Just as I was about to leave, Su Tianping called me back: "Wait a minute, here's your box."

"Oh, I almost forgot."

I scratched my head a little embarrassedly. Actually, I had deliberately forgotten, but since he had reminded me, I could only pick up my suitcase and go out.

Leaving the small basement café, I finally breathed in some fresh air, feeling as if I had been pulled out of the water.

It was already dark by then. I looked at the box in my hand, wondering what was inside. Without thinking too much, I hailed a taxi and quickly left.

Part Three, Day Thirteen, Section Twenty-One, Day Fourteen

Perhaps the story of the deserted village I heard in the small coffee shop yesterday was too terrifying, because I have been restless all day today. I can't help but hear Su Tianping's voice echoing in my ears—that trembling voice is like a black hole, constantly sucking the soul of the listener.

That evening, Ye Xiao came to see me. His sudden visit surprised me, and he seemed to be in a bad mood. Ye Xiao didn't say anything when he entered. He looked into my eyes for a long time before saying in a low voice, "That female college student named Chunyu has been found today."

Found her? Or not, a corpse? Han Xiaofeng's face immediately flashed before my eyes, and my heart leaped into my throat: "Where is she? Is she still alive?"