The fault of yin and yang

Chapter 5

The person in front seemed to hear our shouts, but only paused briefly without turning around. When we were about ten meters away from her, she continued walking forward. She was a woman with long, flowing hair, but she looked like a farmer who often worked in the fields, so her hair was messy, with almost all the hair on top standing up. But strangely enough, she was wearing a knee-length blue satin embroidered cheongsam...

If I had stopped and thought about it then, I probably wouldn't have followed along. What peasant woman would wear a cheongsam? Besides, I remember my aunt had only recently changed into flat shoes. It was probably early May, not the right time to wear a cheongsam at all. We had only walked for an afternoon, and it was getting dark. After Qian Lizhong's commotion, my biggest thought at that moment was to get out of there as quickly as possible. I didn't have time to think about anything else...

We ran and stumbled after the woman for a while, and then she disappeared. When we got to the place where she disappeared, we found a cave there, with a whistling wind blowing through it.

"That woman must have gone in through here. Let's follow her, we'll definitely get out," Qian Lizhong said, rushing inside. Duanmu and I tried to stop him, but we only touched his sleeve. Yufei looked at us and asked timidly, "Should we follow her?" I looked at Duanmu, gritted my teeth, and said, "Let's go, we can't let him go in alone." "Maybe there really is a way out," Duanmu murmured.

You can feel the airflow and hear the wind in the cave, and the cave is obviously not long because it is not particularly dark inside.

I wasn't from a wealthy family growing up. When I was little, I played in caves like this with my cousin from the countryside. Plus, I learned about yin and yang from my grandmother when I was seven or eight, so I considered myself incredibly brave and wasn't afraid at all; in fact, I found it quite interesting. Duanmu Ping, on the other hand, only transferred from the countryside to F City at the age of ten. She could identify any flying insect just by its sound, and caves like this were nothing new to her. Yufei, however, had lived in the city since childhood and had always been pampered. While we were still sitting in front of the TV on our little stools watching the weather forecast, she was already practicing piano. So, she remained huddled behind Duanmu, but didn't cry or say anything about being scared. This was quite unexpected. When I realized we were lost, my biggest fear was that Yufei would break down and cry uncontrollably, but she remained very strong. In contrast, the only man among us, Qian Lizhong, was crying and making a scene. This was probably the saddest and most disappointing thing in those beautiful, innocent years…

"Ah... damn it, you scared me to death!" It was Duanmu. It turned out that Qian Lizhong was standing in the middle of the cave waiting for us, which scared Duanmu half to death. Yufei tugged at Duanmu's sleeve, and Duanmu had no choice but to swallow back what he was about to say.

"I...I...I'm scared," Qian Lizhong, already trembling, burst into tears again after being startled by Duanmu. Duanmu turned to look at Yufei, but Yufei remained silent this time. The two of them turned and walked past Qian Lizhong. I stuffed the bag Qian Lizhong had thrown down into his arms and followed. We could almost vaguely see the exit ahead, which should have been exciting news, but Qian Lizhong's sobs hadn't stopped almost the entire way…

"Listen up, kid. If you want to get out of here, shut your mouth, or I won't serve you," I suddenly turned around and pointed at Qian Lizhong's nose, shouting loudly. I'd almost driven him crazy on the way here. I didn't expect this kid to actually listen and stop crying.

"Where is this? It's so different from the other side of the mountain," Yufei whispered, pulling Duanmu's hand. Indeed, before entering the cave, there were only a few large mounds of earth, and the cave itself was just between two not-so-high mountains. The water there was all rivers. But this place was completely different. Although the mountains here weren't very high, they were very wide and expansive, and the water here was all springs, with a spring not far away...

Only now are we truly beginning to reflect.

"We walked for a long time without feeling like we were getting any closer to the mountain. How did we get here so quickly by following that woman?" I paused here, because at the time I didn't really know how to describe the situation.

“Even if it’s raining, there’s no reason why there would be so many rivers,” Duanmu began to voice her doubts. This is one of the main reasons I like Duanmu; she is more rational than most girls.

“It seems there’s no spring here,” Yufei said, still holding onto Duanmu’s clothes with one hand and pointing to a spring not far away with the other.

"Zuo Weiyang, can we go back?" Qian Lizhong asked cautiously, as if afraid that I would scold him again.

"Yes," I glanced at him and said, though I wasn't really sure myself. At that moment, I started to feel that everything here was so uncomfortable. "Don't you guys think this place feels a bit awkward?" "I don't feel like this place is like home."

Duanmu replied, "Weiyang." Yufei tugged at my hand and said, "Let's go back."

The problem was, when we were about to go back, we found that the cave that used to lead straight to the other side of the mountain had become a dead end, only a little over a meter deep. It was then that I suddenly realized that we had encountered something evil!

(III) The Prelude to Chapter Four of the Ghostly Wandering

Although we knew we might have encountered something, we didn't know how to tell them. In the end, we could only tentatively ask, "Do you know what wandering spirits and graves in the mountains are?" Qian Lizhong didn't cry this time, but judging from his blank eyes, he didn't understand what I meant at all. Yufei looked at me with a frightened and questioning look. Yufei, who was already like a porcelain doll, was even more heartbreaking to see at this moment. Duanmu nodded hesitantly and then turned his head to the side.

"Wow, you mean we encountered a ghost..." Qian Lizhong finally understood. I'd rather he hadn't...

A silence fell. Aside from Qian Lizhong's sobs, we all sat like puppets in the cave. Without someone pulling on a string, we wouldn't even blink. I was trying to figure something out. Although I knew we might have encountered something, before I was seventeen, I had only learned theoretical knowledge, and at that moment, I was truly bewildered. "You only realize how little you know when you need it"—that was the moment I understood it most deeply. As for Duanmu and Yufei, they huddled together, watching the sky outside the cave grow darker and darker…

“Listen to me,” I broke the silence. It was getting dark, and I needed to make them understand our situation as quickly as possible, so I didn't care whether they accepted it or not. I said, “After we came out of the orchard, we probably walked into a graveyard…” “But we haven’t seen any graves along the way,” Yufei interrupted me. “Remember those small hills before we entered the cave? The ones Qian Lizhong climbed before, they were probably…” “I…the one I climbed…was it also…? But grave mounds aren’t that high, it’s just a hill,” Qian Lizhong stammered, denying my words. “Listen…to…me,” I said to Qian Lizhong, enunciating each word clearly. At this moment, I utterly despised him, so I strongly resisted his interruption…

“From our perspective right now, those might seem like small hills, six or seven meters high, and a river a little over three meters wide; but in reality, they're probably just little mounds of earth and puddles left from the rain these past few days,” I paused, glancing around at them. Duanmu remained seated, lost in thought; Yufei stared at me with wide eyes; and Qian Lizhong's eyes were already brimming with tears. “The woman who led us into the cave earlier, she probably wasn't human.” I dared not directly say she was a ghost, afraid that the word "ghost" would trigger their already fragile nerves. Even so, Qian Lizhong's tears had already begun to fall, and Yufei buried her head in Duanmu's shoulder. Although Duanmu didn't cry, her fixed gaze clearly told me she was afraid. After all, they were only fourteen years old; even the most resilient nerves would likely crumble under such circumstances…

“We might have encountered a mischievous ‘troublemaker.’ If that’s the case, as long as we don’t go any further, we’ll be fine when it gets light. Of course, that’s the most optimistic scenario,” Yufei said, looking up at the sky. She clearly wanted it to get light quickly. Qian Lizhong, despite his tendency to cry, was still a boy and less sensitive; he quickly stopped crying when he heard that everything would be alright by daybreak. But Duanmu asked the question I least wanted to answer—“What about the most pessimistic scenario?” Although I’ve always admired Duanmu’s directness, I felt particularly averse to this question this time. Perhaps even I myself couldn’t bear to face this most pessimistic possibility…

"What's the worst-case scenario?" Duanmu asked softly again, then took my and Yufei's hands and said, "We're both okay." Yufei nodded at me, and I could only tell the truth: "What we're encountering now is what people often call 'being trapped in a ghost wall.' There are many kinds of ghosts that can trap people in this way. The smallest is the 'mock ghost' I just mentioned. This kind of ghost is usually just a small ghost that has been dead for less than ten years. It usually just creates illusions in front of you and won't directly cause death. Once you discover it, it will naturally be fine after a while. Actually, it's just playing around. It's usually encountered in places with few people, such as mountains and forests, where there are graves. The most serious one is the 'soul-shifting spirit.' Actually, it's called a 'spirit,' but it's just a wandering soul. It's just that the 'soul-shifting spirit' always appears in packs like wolves." Each group has a "god-master." The "soul-shifting god" doesn't just create illusions in front of you; it genuinely lures you into a real situation. What kind of situation you're in depends on the "god-master's" mood. Moreover, in this situation, or rather, in this world, whether you live or die is up to you. The most troublesome thing is that if you encounter a "soul-shifting god," even if you've already realized the situation, it's useless. Unlike the "magic ghost" who just plays around and abandons you when it gets boring, the "soul-shifting god" will abandon you regardless of whether it's fun or not. Being abandoned in its world is like encountering the bandit Hu Zi from back then—death is no crime, beating to death is no excuse; life and death are truly preordained. Besides these, there are other things, like the black dog blocking the way, but they're not so bad.

By the time I finished speaking, it was already completely dark...

“Weiyang, how do you know so much?” Yufei asked. Before I could answer, Duanmu said, “You don’t know, Grandma Zuo is a master. Weiyang must have learned from her. So with Weiyang, we’ll definitely get out.” Although I knew Duanmu’s words were meant to reassure them, it still made me feel even more pressured. “How do you know?” Yufei asked Duanmu. “Once, when I went to find Weiyang, I saw her grandmother say something to a piece of yellow paper, and the paper caught fire…” “Zuo Weiyang, what kind of ghost are we encountering?” Qian Lizhong asked softly. Actually, I didn’t know either. “If what we’re facing is an illusion, then it’s fine. If it’s real, then… In fact, we don’t know if it’s an illusion or not. The only way is to wait for dawn.” Of course, I didn’t say this. Partly because after what Duanmu said, I had to at least pretend I didn’t know. On the other hand, I really didn’t want to scare them. But it seems that among the four of us, except for Qian Lizhong, everyone else understands what’s going on, they just don’t want to say it…

I just sat there, and it was completely dark by then, but the sky was full of beautiful stars.

Duanmu was just about to share the last of his snacks when I, having just taken a sip of water and not yet having taken the bread, heard a loud "bang" from the mountain...

"Someone's setting off firecrackers!" Qian Lizhong said, and was about to rush outside when the three of us pulled him back at the same time. Just as he stood up and rushed out, a series of "bangs" rang out, as if many people were shouting and rushing down the mountain...

The cave we are in now is located in a ravine between two small hills, each about twenty meters high and running north-south, on a large mountain. The two hills seem to be very close, because we can clearly hear the voices and even the running sounds of people rushing down from both sides...

(III) Ghostly Encounters Chapter 5: A Terrifying Experience in the Mountain Stream

"It looks like there's a war going on," I said, pulling Qian Lizhong behind me to sit down. "How could there be a war at this time?" Duanmu took my hand; her hand was cold and wet, she was scared too. "It looks like there are a lot of people," Yufei peeked out, then placed her hands on ours and turned to look at Qian Lizhong, who was covered in cold sweat, and said, "Weiyang, could it be that this 'god' you mentioned earlier... could it be that they've taken us...?" Before Yufei could finish, I understood, "You mean we're decades ago, or even longer?" I interrupted her. "Is that possible?" Duanmu asked eagerly. I nodded but didn't speak, because if all this was true, then it undoubtedly meant we were unlucky enough to encounter a group of "soul-shifting gods" who had transported us to an era they thought was fun, and this place might no longer be the outskirts of F City...

The fighting outside was fierce. From our location, we could hear not only the deafening gunfire but also their shouts. However, both sides' languages sounded very strange, like some kind of dialect. We could barely understand a few words from one side, but we couldn't understand the other side at all. We didn't know if we were in some remote mountainous area.

Not only that, we could see the shells just by looking up. One after another, they blocked out the sky above the cave, making it almost impossible to see the sky. If we didn't know these were deadly bullets, we would have thought it was a meteor shower. However, with each bullet that passed, we could hear countless screams of agony...

We sat crouched in that cave, daring not to move an inch except to look up at the sky and down at the ground, afraid of being discovered. I don't know what others thought, but I felt for the first time that I understood—death is so simple!

While we were frozen in fear by the sounds of gunfire and screams outside, a shell suddenly landed right in front of us. The shell, less than two meters from me, hit the ground, and the instant it hit, I closed my eyes… After a dozen seconds, I slowly opened them. The shell was still there, perfectly intact—it hadn't exploded. Then I suddenly smelled the familiar odor of the school toilets—Qian Lizhong had wet his pants…

But we had no mood to laugh at him, because Yufei was leaning on Duanmu and had no strength left, while Duanmu's face was covered in water, glistening in the moonlight, and we couldn't tell if it was sweat or tears; and when I tried to say a few words to comfort them, I found that I could only open my mouth and couldn't say anything at all.

Life and death are separated by only a few seconds...

The battle continued, with no sign of abating from the sounds of fighting, shouting, and artillery fire.

"Yes, it's Japanese," Qian Lizhong suddenly spoke, startling us all. His voice wasn't loud, even a little hoarse, but we were all on edge. It took us a moment to react. "What Japanese?" I asked. Qian Lizhong gestured towards the shell on the ground. Only then did I start paying attention to the dud—a duck-egg-shaped shell gleaming with a pale white light, about the length of two fists put together, roughly twenty centimeters, with short horizontal and vertical lines along one end. "How did you know?" Duanmu asked, examining the shell closely. "I read it in a book. It's the same kind of shell the Japanese used in 1940," Qian Lizhong replied, his voice still hoarse. It was then that I realized this kid actually had some use.

"Around 1940? Are you sure?" Duanmu pressed on, always eager to get to the bottom of things, which was probably why she excelled academically. "Hmm... about right. The bombs used by Japanese planes during their invasion of China in 1937 were like that," Qian Lizhong, taken aback by Duanmu's question, answered softly after regaining his composure. "So, if one side is the Japanese, what about the other side?" I muttered to myself, but Duanmu suddenly said, "Shandong, it's Shandong." Duanmu tugged at my clothes and whispered, "I didn't mishear, it's a Shandong accent. My grandfather is from Woniu City in Shandong, that's how he speaks." Duanmu's grandparents had both migrated from the Yimeng Mountains in Shandong, and they still spoke with a strong Shandong accent. When I visited Duanmu's house, I couldn't understand her grandfather at all. If what she said was true, then it must be correct. Luckily, Qian Lizhong and Duanmu pointed it out in time, otherwise I would have thought we were in the Korean War. If we had been sent to Korea, we would never have been able to come back...

Just as we figured out who was on the north and south mountains, another shell fell. We watched helplessly as the egg-shaped shell fell in a perfect parabolic arc. This time, we didn't even have the strength to close our eyes...

"Boom—bang!" It exploded. Although it wasn't a dud this time, luckily—the shell landed in a spring in front of the cave. Although the explosion splashed water all over us, the shell casing didn't come off. Thank goodness it landed in the well; otherwise, even if it didn't kill us, it would have detonated the dud, and we probably would have really been sent back to our hometown.

Water streamed down my face and hair for a long time before I realized—we were still alive. The sound of the bomb exploding left my ears ringing for a long time. During that time, I couldn't hear any shells or human voices, which gave me a feeling of despair. Only after my ears slowly returned to normal did I realize that I was soaked, my legs were numb, and although my hands weren't numb, they were trembling uncontrollably…

And so, the four of us sat in the same position until dawn, and the moment the sun suddenly peeked out, all around us fell silent again…

"Shall we go out?" Qian Lizhong asked softly. The night we had teetered on the brink of life and death had left us on edge. We hadn't yet adjusted to the silence, and it wasn't until Qian Lizhong spoke that we realized we should go out and check. I tried to stand up, but it was impossible; my legs felt like they weren't even mine anymore. Duanmu was a little better off, managing to stand up by holding onto the mountainside, but he was also struggling and sweating profusely. Yufei was in even worse shape; the only part of her body she could move was her fingers. As for Qian Lizhong, apart from speaking in a hoarse voice, he could barely move anything.

After quite a while, when we finally scrambled out of the cave, the sun was already high in the sky. The scene around us made us wonder if the four of us had all had the same nightmare the night before. The two hills to the north and south were lush and green, dotted with wildflowers of various colors, and the birds in the trees were singing sweetly and melodiously. It didn't look like there had been a war at all...

"Gurgle—" The rumbling of our stomachs finally brought us back to our senses. While we were standing there in a daze, the sun seemed to have risen even higher, almost directly overhead. Because of what happened outside last night, we hadn't eaten anything since. After finishing the last bit of food we should have eaten yesterday, we finally felt a little more energetic…

"Weiyang..." Duanmu finished the last sip of her cola and was half-lying on the grass looking at me; although I understood what she meant, I really didn't know what to do except shake my head...

"Weiyang, are we in the most pessimistic state right now?" Yufei stood up and asked, looking ahead with a blank expression. I could only nod. I had to admit that, judging from the bomb explosion last night, we had indeed run into a "soul-shifting god"...

(III) The Ghostly Wanderer Chapter Six: The Journey of Soul Transfer

Among the various "ghost wall" illusions, the "Soul Shifting God" is the most despair-inducing type of ghost. They mostly live in groups, and their numbers are not large, about a dozen or so. Ordinary "ghost wall" simply places the environment around a person in the form of an illusion, while the "Soul Shifting God," as the name suggests, has the ability to place a person in the environment; the former is illusory, and the latter is real. We have undoubtedly encountered such a group of "Soul Shifting Gods" now. They are called gods, mostly because of their gregarious nature. Generally, ghosts exist in the mortal world in individual form because different causes of death produce different yin energies. If the yin energies clash, it will lead to mutual destruction. However, the "Soul Shifting God" is composed of ghosts that died on the same day, month, and hour of the same month, and with the same cause and manner of death, all found by a "god master." This "god-master" must be a spirit that has lived for over a hundred years and has not entered hell since the day it returned to the underworld to possess this ability; perhaps it is precisely because the "god-master" of the "soul-shifting god" has never entered hell that he is called a "god" among all ghosts, but how this "god-master" evaded the pursuit of the "impermanent god" remains unknown...

"Can we still get out?" Qian Lizhong asked, utterly dejected, as he slumped to the ground after I nodded. "Maybe," he replied. "The 'Soul-Shifting Gods' are called 'gods' partly because they usually act according to cause; they generally won't harm people unless there's a specific reason." Actually, there was something else I didn't say: they simply leave people in this world until they die...

"What do we do now? We can't stay here any longer, but should we go south or north?" I asked as I poured spring water into an empty Coke bottle. Actually, I was afraid that if we stayed here any longer, it would get dark and another battle would break out. I really didn't know if we were lucky enough to survive the third artillery shell.

No one spoke for a long time, but Yufei and Duanmu had already started pouring out all the drinks and filling them with spring water. They clearly agreed with my idea—to keep walking.

"Let's flip a coin," Qian Lizhong said, taking a one-yuan coin out of his bag. Normally, I would have slapped him for his illogical thinking; but now, it seemed like the only option. "The national emblem goes north, the numbers go south," I said, tossing the coin up. The four of us craned our necks, watching the coin gleam silver in the sunlight. Perhaps this was our only hope; it was up to fate. The coin tumbled a few times in the air before falling straight down. But looking at it, we felt an unprecedented disappointment. I felt an urge to burst into tears—the coin landed on a rough stone.

The four of us looked at each other, bewildered. What did this mean? Did it mean we had to stay here for another day?

"Is the cave we came from open now?" Yufei suddenly asked excitedly. Just then, Qian Lizhong rushed into the cave where we had sat all night. We were so hoping he would shout "It's open! It's open!" or yell for us to come in. But less than ten seconds later, Qian Lizhong came out dejected. Looking at his expression, I couldn't bear to ask anything more. "How is it?" Duanmu finally asked. Seeing Qian Lizhong shaking his head and shedding tears, my own tears welled up too. The constant cycle of hope and despair was too cruel for a group of teenagers. Yufei and Duanmu were already sitting on the ground crying…

"Let's go," I cried for a long time, until we were all exhausted, before I realized the sun had already passed its zenith in the west. "Which way?" Qian Lizhong asked with a mournful face. "No way to the left or right, no way to the back, we'll just go forward," I said, looking at the winding, seemingly endless mountain path ahead. "I'm not going, I'm not going! Going or not going, we're both going to die, I..." Qian Lizhong stared blankly ahead for a moment and then sat down and shouted. "Slap!" A crisp sound interrupted Qian Lizhong's shouting. It was Yufei. Yufei slapped him, which shocked all of us. Everyone was stunned. If it were Duanmu, I wouldn't have felt anything, but Yufei is a girl who blushes even when she speaks loudly. Clearly, Yufei was also frightened by her own actions, looking at her hand and then at Qian Lizhong, unsure what to do. However, the slap was quite effective; at least when we picked up our backpacks and started walking, Qian Lizhong followed, even breaking off a few thicker branches from a tree by the roadside for each of us. Duanmu was in front, I was second, Yufei followed me, and Qian Lizhong was last. We walked forward little by little like that…

I don't know how long we walked, but my stomach started growling again. We had nothing left to eat except water. And the path was much more difficult than we had imagined. There were stones of all sizes and tall, short bushes growing haphazardly. In some places, there was hardly any place to put our feet. People kept slipping and falling. My pants were torn, and Yufei had a cut on her arm. Duanmu had broken the branch he was carrying and had to replace it with another one. Qian Lizhong was okay, but after Yufei slapped him, he seemed to realize that he was a boy, so he took Duanmu's bag, who was walking ahead, and carried it on his own.

This wasn't really a road; it was just a narrow gap between two hills, full of sharp bends, so you couldn't see what lay ahead at all. We continued on, walking and resting intermittently. The sun was already past three in the morning, and to be honest, we'd completely lost sight of the point of continuing...

"Will you remember tomorrow, the diary you wrote yesterday, will you still remember tomorrow..." Yufei softly sang "My Deskmate". The three of us were deskmates, and we often sang this song. We even gave it a name, "Desk Song". But at this moment, this song made me suddenly very afraid of parting. I don't know if the consequence of continuing down this path will be - separation by life or death.

Yufei sang for a while, and Duanmu and I quietly joined in. Later, Qian Lizhong's voice also joined in. And so, we sang our "table song" as we struggled forward, singing it countless times. After rounding another large bend, Duanmu suddenly stopped. "What..." Before I could finish, I saw it. About a few dozen meters ahead, a small white dog was struggling on the ground, seemingly tripped over something. In this situation, seeing any living thing made us hesitate. "Woof—woof, woof—" The sound didn't sound like a dog. I nudged Duanmu and asked, "Is it a dog?" Duanmu didn't turn around, keeping his eyes fixed on the road ahead. She uttered two words: "fox, weasel," and then continued, "It seems to be trapped by something, maybe a hunter's trap." "What should we do?" Yufei asked, tightly holding onto Qian Lizhong, who was trying to move forward. Duanmu didn't answer, but she had already started walking forward little by little; she stopped when she was about a meter away from the little white fox. The fox was only about half a meter long, not counting its tail, but it was pure white all over. Its hind legs were trapped in a crescent-shaped, serrated steel ring buried in the grass. Duanmu looked back at me. I knew she wanted to save it. Although I was afraid it would bite us, considering the intelligence of foxes and weasels and how pitiful its bloodied hind legs were, I nodded...

(III) Chapter Seven: The Immortal Points the Way (Ghostly Encounters)

As soon as we pried open the steel ring trap, the little fox darted into the bushes and disappeared.

"Let's go," I said, handing the branch to Duanmu and picking up a slightly shorter one from the ground, pointing ahead. Duanmu nodded and continued walking forward, while Yufei kept looking back at the direction the little fox had run off in. Qian Lizhong kicked the trap into the bushes and followed.

After walking for a while, the road ahead gradually opened up. The sky was a bit cloudy, and the sun was no longer visible. We were on a road with many curves, so without the sun, we had no idea where we were or which way we were going. We could only keep walking until it got dark. It really was a case of leaving it to fate.

"Let's rest, I'm too hungry to walk," Yufei pleaded listlessly, leaning on a tree branch. Actually, it wasn't just her; I was also starving, my stomach growling countless times.

"The clouds in the sky are getting thicker and thicker, it looks like it's going to rain soon. We're afraid it'll be too dangerous to rest here..." Although I really wanted to rest for a while, looking at the increasingly thick clouds in the sky and the dark sky behind us, we had no choice but to keep going.

"Zuo Weiyang!" Seeing Qian Lizhong's terrified expression, I looked in the direction he was looking—an old woman in white had appeared at the corner to the left. Her back reminded me of the "Soul Transfer God" who had led us here. I'm afraid it wasn't just me; they were probably all in the same boat as me. Duanmu involuntarily took a few steps back, Yufei even closed her eyes, and Qian Lizhong's face turned green. I imagine my expression wasn't much better.

"Wei, Wei, Weiyang, what should we do?" Duanmu couldn't even speak properly this time. Nobody wanted to encounter a ghost again. Last time, we were almost blown up. Who knows what will happen this time? It's best to never experience something like that again.

There was only one road ahead. I had finally managed to cross the small ravine between those two hills. The road had finally widened. I had finally survived until now. All these hardships had made me start to hesitate...

“Let’s go. Going forward won’t necessarily kill us, and even if we don’t encounter another war, we’ll starve to death if we go back. Since that’s the case, let’s just go forward. We’ve already seen a ghost once, what’s there to be afraid of a second time?” Yufei’s soft voice dispelled my confusion. It was unbelievable that Yufei, who was usually so gentle and weak, had persisted until now and even said such a thing. However, what Yufei said was indeed reasonable.

If I don't leave now, I'll either starve to death or die of despair. If I leave, there might still be a glimmer of hope! This principle saved my life more than once in the following thirteen years.

Moreover, at this moment, a large patch of dark clouds was looming behind us. If we remained standing still, we would definitely get soaked. Getting sick or catching a cold at this time would be tantamount to courting death.

The air was thick with the smell of earth, as if a downpour was imminent. Just a few hours ago, the sky had been clear and bright, but now it was pitch black and suffocating, and the wind had suddenly picked up. The four of us tried to walk forward as quickly as possible, but just after we turned the corner where we had seen the old lady, we had to stop...

There were three forks in the road ahead. Before we could even figure out which way to go, we were surprised to find the old woman in white standing about six or seven meters to our left. A large rock protruded from the mountainside, about a meter long, and the old woman in white was standing under that rock, waving to us.

"Children, the rain is coming, come and take shelter!" the old woman called to us from under the rocks. I could hardly understand a word of the Shandong dialect spoken by the soldiers during the earlier battle, but although the old woman's words also had a slight accent, we could still understand them fairly well.

Duanmu, Yufei, and Qian Lizhong stood there like popsicles, straighter than the branches in their hands, but I breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s alright, they’re just people,” I said, pulling their hands.

"You, you, how, how did you know?" Qian Lizhong was still in a daze; Duanmu and Yufei were also looking at me, waiting for my explanation;

"No matter what kind of ghost it is, she will never let you see her face. Generally speaking, she won't even let you see her head. The female ghost we encountered before, didn't she also avoid letting us see her face? Moreover, any ghosts that use 'ghost wall' techniques, such as the black dog blocking the way or the soul-shifting spirit, will avoid getting close to people during the day, and they certainly won't talk to people..."

Before I could finish speaking, the wind suddenly picked up, and raindrops began to fall in droves. I had no choice but to pull them along and run...

"You kids, what are you doing standing there waiting for the rain to pour?" the old lady said as she made room for us. Yufei and the others were clearly still hesitant and didn't dare to get too close to the old lady. I could only stand between them. Actually, I was also quite nervous. It was really worrying to have someone like this appear at this time.

"Where are you students from? Where are you from?" the old lady asked, sitting down on the ground. After sitting down, she patted the ground next to her, inviting us to sit down as well. Firstly, in case she was a person, we should at least show some politeness; secondly, we had walked for so long and were truly tired. So I decided to sit down.

"Grandma, where is this? We came here for a spring outing, but we don't know how we ended up here," I said, and sat down. Duanmu and the others looked at me and sat down as well. I didn't answer the old lady's question, but just said a few words.

"Grandma, can you show us the way? Which of these three roads can we take to get out of this mountain?" I asked, sizing up the old woman.

The old lady was wearing a typical white short-sleeved jacket that old ladies often wore, and white trousers that were fitted at the ankles, along with white cloth shoes with rubber soles. Her silver-white hair was neatly styled into a small round bun at the back of her head, adorned with a white hairpin, the material of which was unclear—whether it was silver or platinum. In her hand, she held a slender white tobacco pipe; the pouch, the bowl, and the stem were all white, giving it a shiny appearance, though like the hairpin, the material was indistinguishable. Even the small cloth bag at her waist was white.

If this elderly woman dressed entirely in white hadn't had a kind and gentle face, I think I would have been quite surprised; but what she said next truly astonished me...

(III) Ghostly Wall Chapter 8: Nightmare Opens and Nightmare Destroys

"Leave the mountain? This mountain doesn't even have roots, how could you possibly leave?" the old woman replied casually as she filled her pipe with tobacco. Hearing her words, the four of us exchanged bewildered glances—roots? What did that mean?

The old lady glanced at us, sighed, and continued, "You kids, so young yet so clever! You never wanted to tell me the truth, and now you want me to help you?" She took a drag of her pipe, completely ignoring our astonished expressions, and continued, "Tell me, children, how did you get here?" Then, without looking at us again, she continued puffing on her pipe…

I looked at them, and suddenly felt like I was close to solving the mystery. We were silent for a moment, then Duanmu nudged me, glanced at the old lady, and nodded. For some reason, I coughed a few times before speaking; maybe it was nervousness…

...

Actually, our journey here was very simple, it only took a dozen or so sentences; but after listening to what I said, the old lady didn't make any comment.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier. At this point, what we saw wasn't just water droplets, but a curtain of water. Huge raindrops were pounding the ground in patches, creating a misty effect in the distance. Fortunately, due to the wind direction, and the fact that the rocks protruding from above, though not very long, were enough to shelter the five of us, our shelter felt like a completely different world from what was just a few steps away. Even the sound of the rain seemed much softer in those few steps...

"So what did you do before you realized you were lost?" The old lady tapped her pipe on the ground and asked, looking at the rain outside. I glanced at Yufei, hesitated for a moment, after all, it was Yufei and Qian Lizhong's story, and although I'm always gossipy, it still felt a little awkward to talk about such things in front of the parties involved; but Yufei was very generous, seeing my hesitation, she took over the conversation...

"After we decided not to work, we slipped out of the orchard," Yufei said, running her hand through her hair. "Before we left, I left him a message, telling him to come find us." At this point, Yufei paused, glanced at me and Duanmu with embarrassment, then glanced at Qian Lizhong out of the corner of her eye, and said in a slightly lower voice, "Then we just kept walking, and somehow we got lost."