Das Grab von Qin Shi Huang

Kapitel 66

She clutched her finger and ran quickly into the kitchen. After finally cleaning the sawdust from under her fingernails, she breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, in a flash, a silly thought crossed her mind: do ghosts have fingernail crevices? This rather ridiculous thought haunted her all morning, leaving a faint, almost imperceptible smile on her lips. At lunchtime, her husband actually noticed this smile and kindly inquired about her well-being.

"This is the first time I've ever seen a maid in the house smile..." the old man said slowly, yawning.

This smile also greatly surprised Wang Ma. After the master took his afternoon nap, she kept asking Wei Lan what was making her smile.

"It's nothing, really," Wei Lan replied with a straight face. She naturally couldn't reveal the truth, and besides, she felt she was being incredibly silly, laughing all morning over a ghost's fingernail. It wasn't a time to be happy! Even if a ghost gets pricked by wood chips, she could still take Wei Lan's life.

"Oh." Aunt Wang sighed, her tone unusually disappointed. However, her mind was clearly still on this, because not long after, she found another excuse to come closer and suddenly asked her out of the blue:

"...Nothing happened this morning, right?"

"Huh?" Wei Lan was still a little confused and didn't react for a moment. "What is it?"

After glancing around to make sure no one was there, Wang Ma leaned close to her ear and whispered mysteriously:

"Didn't you see anything?"

Looking at her strange expression, Wei Lan had a thought flash through her mind in an instant: scratches! That was what she wanted to say by being so evasive! This was perfectly natural; as the owner of the room, Wang Ma had obviously noticed the scratches behind the door much earlier than she had. She just wanted someone to confirm it!

So she replied with an indifferent expression, deliberately speaking slowly, "Is there anything unusual?"

Wang Ma seemed annoyed by her slowness, her face filled with anxiety, wanting to speak but unable to utter a word. Seeing her like that, Wei Lan secretly chuckled. Just as Wang Ma, unable to find the words, awkwardly prepared to leave, she suddenly blurted out:

"By the way, Aunt Wang, why did you slash the perfectly good wooden door?"

Although it was just a casual remark, it was like a thunderclap from a clear sky, startling Wang Ma so much that her entire body of fat trembled violently. Her face turned pale and then bluish, and she could only point at Wei Lan with her finger, unable to speak for a long time.

"You, you, you..." After a long while, she could only utter these few words.

Wei Lan was also startled, not expecting Wang Ma's reaction to be so strong. "If it wasn't you, then was it the master who did it?" she said. "Anyway, I didn't do it."

"No, no, no, it wasn't me!" Shocked, Wang Ma seemed to stutter, uttering six "no"s in one breath. Due to the urgency of the situation, she spoke in one breath without even catching her breath. "She was fine yesterday, but this morning I don't know how she became like this. It has nothing to do with me. I didn't do anything. I thought it was you. Master wouldn't be that bored. Besides, he wouldn't go to my room. You have to believe me. I'll say it really wasn't you."

She finally stopped talking, looking at Wei Lan with a pitiful expression. No wonder Wang Ma had been acting strangely all day; she had intentionally let Wei Lan see those scratches. She must have been terrified. Just thinking about someone entering her room while she was asleep and scratching her door with their fingernails—she must have been chilled to the bone.

If humans are like this, what about ghosts?

Finally, even the slow-witted Wang Ma couldn't help but notice the ghost's presence. After so many girls went missing, the demon's claws had also descended upon Wei Lan and Wang Ma, threatening to torment them. The ghost hadn't succeeded last night, but tonight, she would surely return. Wang Ma could no longer remain uninvolved; only by standing shoulder to shoulder with her and fighting side-by-side could they possibly survive. So Wei Lan grasped Wang Ma's hand, intending to tell her everything she knew.

A look of pain suddenly appeared on Wang Ma's face. She awkwardly withdrew her hand and kept rubbing her fingers.

"Wang Ma, what's wrong?" Wei Lan asked.

"I accidentally cut my hand this morning," Wang Ma hurriedly replied. "Oh no, it was a fishbone that cut me?"

Wei Lan slowly stared into her eyes. "Is it time to butcher the fish?"

“Yes, yes! That was the time!” Aunt Wang replied hastily.

She's lying! Wei Lan clearly remembers that she didn't eat fish at noon today. She stared intently at Wang Ma's fingers, at the invisible wound, yet one that throbbed with pain.

It's right under your fingernail.

It feels like getting pricked by sawdust.

Book One: The Seven Deadly Sins Special Episode - The Necromancer's Concerto (Part 1)

The seven-day National Day holiday has finally come to an end. On the morning of October 7th, the long-awaited sunny day swept away the lingering rain of the previous days. The girls couldn't wait to put on their brightly colored short skirts, and the men also picked up their pre-holiday short-sleeved outfits, each showing off their muscular arms. However, there was still one tall man who was completely covered up in a black trench coat, seemingly oblivious to the strange looks from passersby, walking along the streets after the rain.

K University Affiliated Hospital. The astrologer silently gazed at the golden bronze plaque above the hospital gate; this was the place.

He walked straight towards the inpatient department, silently ascending the stairs of the ward building. As usual, the snow-white building was empty, with almost no inpatients—which at least indicated that the students of K University were in good health. Perhaps she was the only unlucky one hospitalized! So he gently knocked on the door of ward 302, once, twice.

"Please come in," came the reply from inside. The next second, Yan Wuyue's mouth gaped open in surprise; the visitor was clearly a huge surprise to her.

"I heard you were sick and hospitalized, so I came with Maya to visit you," the astrologer said gently.

Before Yan Wuyue could answer, Maya's dark head suddenly popped out of the astrologer's coat pocket. "How are you, tomboy? I heard you ate the cafeteria food and ended up in the hospital? Nobody else is as unlucky as you, hahaha, you're so stupid!"

It was truly unlucky. Since returning from her trip to City C, Yan Wuyue had only eaten lunch at the cafeteria at K University, and by the afternoon she was vomiting and having diarrhea. Lu Bing and the others rushed her to the university hospital, where tests revealed that it was acute gastroenteritis caused by food poisoning, requiring immediate hospitalization and intravenous fluids. Thus, during this disastrous National Day holiday, after getting caught up in the "Do-Re-Mi" serial murder case, Yan Wuyue was forced to lie in her hospital bed cursing her unfortunate holiday.

"Saturn and Mars have been transiting your rising sign this past week, and these two are traditionally considered malefic planets, thus severely impacting your luck," the astrologer said earnestly. "Want me to tell you how to avoid misfortune and attract good fortune?"

"Huh?" Yan Wuyue's eyes widened. "I don't remember asking you to do astrology. How did you know my rising sign and birth chart?"

The astrologer smiled slyly. “I have my own business secrets, sir.” He suddenly remembered something and magically pulled a delicate, translucent, hollow, multicolored glass sphere from his pocket. “I was worried you’d be bored staying alone in the hospital, so Maya and I made this lamp last night to cheer you up.”

Yan Wuyue didn't reach out to take it, but stared at his coat and whispered, "I've always been curious... first Maya, then Glass Ball, just how much stuff can you possibly carry in your coat?"

The glass bulb lamp was at least the size of a large bowl in diameter; however, when it was hidden in the astrologer's arms, it appeared perfectly flat on the outside, without the slightest bulge. Yan Wuyue picked up the lamp's black silver handle and slowly spun the glass bulb. Inside, some shimmering green orbs floated, scattering faint, bluish-green arcs of light—it was quite mesmerizing. Playing with it with great interest, Yan Wuyue couldn't help but ask, "What's inside? Fireflies?"

"Fireflies!!!" Maya replied angrily, "You really have no eyesight, you can't even recognize the dead! Fireflies have such weak candlelight, how can they be worthy of being called lamps? It's all thanks to the master who made a 'spirit lamp' for you all night!"

"This is..." She was momentarily stunned.

"A spirit lamp, a spirit lamp! How many times do I have to tell you before you understand!" Maya was extremely impatient. "The spirits gathered inside are the 'Seven Deadly Sins' spirits that Master has recently collected, which are what you usually call ghosts!"

A lamp made from a ghost… Yan Wuyue felt a chill run down her spine and declined, saying, “Hehehe… Thank you for your kindness, I appreciate it…”

"Don't mention it," the astrologer said with a smile, pushing her hand back. "Astrology shops have plenty of these things. I find them too bright and give me a headache... Anyway, you live here alone. You can use this lamp to go to the bathroom or read novels at night. It's more convenient than a flashlight and saves energy! It's portable, doesn't need charging, and the light never runs out. Moreover, the lamp I made for you has been specially tuned to provide soft light that protects your eyes and will absolutely not hurt them!"

...Going to the toilet under the glow of a horde of ghosts?! How could he even think of that? I'm not that bold! Yan Wuyue grew increasingly horrified. She couldn't help but want to ask him many questions, such as, "What did the owners of these souls look like?" and "How did they end up in your hands? Did you eat them?" But then she thought again, the ghoul would probably sit up straight and answer her with a serious expression:

"Yes, I ate them."

“However, I only eat women,” the astrologer seemed to read her mind, winking mischievously. “So, don’t worry about being spied on when you go to the toilet.” He patted the lamp affectionately, and the green will-o’-the-wisps seemed to hear a summons, gathering towards his hand. “These children are all girls!”

"I...I wasn't even thinking about being spied on!" She helplessly clutched her head, realizing that she couldn't reason with this astrologer who wore such an innocent smile! She was furious and didn't even bother to acknowledge him as he got up to leave. The spirit lamp remained on her bed, making her feel uneasy. She wanted to kick it away, but then stopped herself.

Strangely enough, why are the souls of the women he eats also imprisoned? Does he have a "soul-torturing fetish," enjoying collecting souls? Or does he use those souls to count the number of people he has eaten? But judging from his nonchalant attitude, it doesn't seem like it... I wonder if smashing this lamp would allow those ghosts to ascend to a higher realm?

She slowly raised her hand, the will-o'-the-wisp in the lamp flickering uneasily in her palm. "Don't worry, I'll release you soon..." she thought to herself, concentrating her energy as she hurled the lamp to the ground...

"don't want!

A little girl screamed. For some reason, Maya's little head popped out from under the bed. Usually sharp-tongued and mischievous, she was now flustered and looked terrified. Suddenly, she pounced on Yan Wuyue, snatched the spirit lamp, and tucked it into her arms, holding it tightly.

"What are you trying to do? Destroy this masterpiece?" she demanded aggressively from the moment she arrived. "Do you know that this is a work that the master painstakingly completed over a month? Are you just going to smash it like this???"

"I...I think they're feeling suffocated in there, so I wanted to let them out for some fresh air...yes, fresh air, to clear their heads, hahaha..." She started making things up, "I'll put them back in later."

"Who are you kidding?" Maya said with a disbelieving expression, tightly wrapping the lamp under her body. "'The Master specially condensed the souls of the Seven Deadly Sins into a visible ball of light, all for you, you cold-blooded bastard! And then injected it into this glass ball.'"

"The seven deadly sins? Are they the ones mentioned in the Bible: sexual immorality, gluttony, envy, pride, sloth, wrath, and greed?"

"Oh, not bad, you know a little bit." Maya thought to herself, "Actually, there are only six in the spirit lamp. The other raging soul has also been obtained. That is a part of Xie Fengze's life. Because I am afraid that its powerful Martian energy will erupt at any time, Master does not dare to deal with it casually. Instead, I, Maya, must seal it in my body."

Book 1, The Seven Deadly Sins Special: The Necromancer's Concerto (Part 2)

That evening, Lin Na brought her dinner. Upon seeing it was just plain white rice porridge with pickled vegetables again, Yan Wuyue couldn't help but shout, "Meat! I want meat! My mouth is so bland!" But under Lin Na's smiling offensive, she could only swallow the porridge with tears in her eyes.

"The doctor said you need to stay in the hospital for observation for another day tomorrow, and you can be discharged if nothing unexpected happens," Linna said with a smile, watching her unsightly eating habits. "Once you've fully recovered, how about we all go for a Brazilian barbecue buffet together in our dorm?"

"Linna!" Yan Wuyue cheered, grabbing her arm and saying with tears in her eyes, "To tell you the truth, I'm actually... completely recovered today! Let's go, let's go! Brazilian barbecue, wait for me! I'm coming!"

Linna was both annoyed and amused. She pinched her cheek hard and said, "You glutton! It's because you're too greedy that you got a stomachache. Don't you learn your lesson?"

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me!" Yan Wuyue retorted confidently, "I just ate 'a little bit' more than you guys."

"...After lunch, those who ate twelve meat buns as a dessert only 'a little' more than us?"

"..."

"If others could eat as much meat as you, their bellies would have burst by now, you little meatball!" Lin Na chuckled, actually bringing up a nickname from inside the dorm. Yan Wuyue secretly groaned. Sure enough, no sooner had Lin Na left than Zhenye emerged from her bed. "Oh~" she blinked her cat-like eyes mischievously, "So your name is 'Little Meatball'~"

Oh no, I have to find a way to get out of this, so she put on a serious face and said, "Maya, actually, my food poisoning this time was entirely the cafeteria's fault, so the cafeteria paid for all my medical expenses. Well, the girl living next door probably ended up in the hospital in the same way."

"Next door?" Maya knocked on the snow-white wall. "Right here?"

“Yes,” Yan Wuyue replied, “I’ve had an upset stomach these past few days, and that girl is always in the toilet when I go. She takes even longer to poop than I do, probably because she’s eaten more than me,” she emphasized this point, “because every time I go back to my ward, she’s still squatting in there. Sometimes, I don’t hear her flush the toilet until I go to bed. That girl must also have food poisoning, and her symptoms are even more severe than mine.”

Maya looked at her with a strange gaze, as if she were examining a rare and exotic animal, her eyes filled with curiosity and a sigh.

"You're incredibly slow-witted!"

"What's wrong?"

Maya stared intently into her pure black eyes, her voice low and deep, like the trembling of a cello string, "There's no one in the next room at all!"

"In fact, you are the only patient in the entire inpatient ward!"

Yan Wuyue paused for a moment, then burst into laughter, before lifting Maya off the bed. The corridor was brightly lit, except for her own ward and the bathroom; everything else was pitch black. Yan Wuyue turned the handle of the door next door; as expected, it was locked. Looking through the small, transparent glass window in the door, it was too dark inside to see anything at all. Yan Wuyue could only see her own face, blackened by the stains, reflected in the glass. Suddenly, she perked up her ears and lifted Maya to the small window.

“Listen,” she whispered, “to the singing.”

Indeed, a faint singing voice drifted from inside the room, as if the speaker was weak and listless, hence the intermittent singing. However, there was no doubt that someone was in the room. Yan Wuyue triumphantly carried Zhenye back to the bedside.

"The girl next door starts singing every night. She loves humming in the bathroom, lots of off-key songs, I don't even know what they are," Yan Wuyue listened intently and started humming along, "Today's song sounds familiar. Mom... what song is it again?"

“The sea, my hometown,” Maya replied simply.

"No, no, that's not right, it should be... Mom..."

“Hey, I’m telling you, Rouwa,” Maya coldly interrupted her solo concert, “believe it or not, when my husband and I passed by here this afternoon, the room next door was indeed empty.”

“Maybe she went out at the time,” Yan Wuyue said dismissively. “I didn’t see her during the day either. Listen, she’s starting to sing again from the beginning.”

This time, her voice was louder and clearer, but this only exposed the girl next door's weakness: she was short of breath, and her voice was trembling. Even so, she sang that song over and over again without getting tired of it. Yan Wuyue couldn't take it anymore. "Ugh, what's wrong with you today? It's the same song over and over again. Can't you at least consider our aesthetic fatigue?" she said, opening the door to leave, only to bump into the nurse.

"Lie down and take your medicine!" The nurse simply scolded her twice, and Yan Wuyue obediently lay back down on the bed. As the nurse was dispensing her pills, Yan Wuyue made a distressed request, "Could you please tell the girl next door to sing a different song? Or maybe she shouldn't sing at all; it's so noisy here!"

"Next door? A girl?" The nurse's face turned pale instantly.

“Yes, she’s been singing since just now… Mama… Huh?” Yan Wuyue suddenly felt a complete silence, as if all other sounds in the world had disappeared, leaving only the sound of her own heartbeat. She grabbed the nurse’s arm abruptly. “Why did she suddenly stop? She was just singing! That girl who likes to have diarrhea at night, who stays in the toilet and sings in there…”

"Ah!!!" The nurse screamed, knocking over all the medicine bottles in her hands. Her lips trembled as she gripped Yan Wuyue tightly, as if she were her last lifeline. "You mean, 'that' girl who was singing in the restroom?"

Yan Wuyue nodded emphatically.

"But that girl... died a long time ago! About six months ago...!"

Book 1, The Seven Deadly Sins Special: The Necromancer's Concerto (Part 3)

More than six months ago, late one night, a girl of about sixteen or seventeen years old fainted in Renmin Lane, opposite K University. Kind-hearted people took her to the affiliated hospital of K University. After examination, the hospital found that the girl was simply dizzy and dehydrated due to hunger, and had no other serious illness. However, since her admission, the doctors and nurses have never seen any other expression on her face. She only sings with a smile, always singing as she walks from the toilet to her ward. She especially likes to sing while squatting in the toilet, refusing to come out no matter how much people try to persuade her. The nurses took pity on her and let her be.

She turned out to be mentally disabled.

Not long after, a local welfare home came knocking. The person in charge claimed that the girl had a congenital intellectual disability, commonly known as mental retardation, and had run away from the home more than ten days prior. The documents the man brought with him corroborated his statement, so they allowed him to take the girl away.

"Since that girl went back, how do you know she died half a year ago?" Yan Wuyue immediately noticed the suspicious point as soon as the nurse finished her explanation.

"Of course it is...!" The nurse was about to answer when she suddenly realized she had unintentionally become a witness, and her face hardened. "Why are you meddling in so many other people's business, you little kid? Go to sleep now!"

Sigh, we were so close to getting the truth out of her. As soon as the nurse left, Yan Wuyue's eyes widened, and she lifted Maya to her chest. "Maya, let's go to the next room and see what's causing this trouble!"

"You're so annoying! You hurt me!" Maya yelled in annoyance. "Go yourself if you want, you can't see ghosts anyway..."

Whether she liked it or not, Yan Wuyue grabbed her and dashed out the door. The singing had stopped briefly while the nurse was inside, but now it was starting again. Yan Wuyue pressed her face against the windowpane; the room was still pitch black, not even the faint moonlight could penetrate the darkness. The childish singing continued, and Yan Wuyue, on a whim, decided to join in: "Mama... Mama..."