Ghost Stories Series 10

Chapter 59

"Ziyue, Ziyue, what are you singing?" Shuiying gently patted my shoulder.

"Huh?" I woke up from my hallucination and saw Shuiying and Kurada looking at me, while Shikong was walking towards the stone platform in the palace. "I just saw a lot of girls in colorful clothes dancing. They were singing 'Red skirt, red crown, red shoes and socks, a beautiful girl is getting married today...'" I hummed to them as I spoke.

"You were just singing this song, weren't you?" Shuiying looked at me strangely.

"Did I just sing that?"

"Yes."

"Come and see!" As he spoke, Shi Kong waved to us from the stone platform. Shui Ying and I exchanged a glance, said nothing more, and walked towards the stone platform.

The crowned mummy sitting on the stone platform held a sword in its right hand and a folded, wrinkled cowhide in its left. It was that folded cowhide that Shikong showed us.

In a daze, I saw the crowned mummy grinning again, but in my eyes it was no longer a mummy, but a ruddy-faced young man who was smiling at me. He stretched out his left hand, and in his hand was no longer the folded and wrinkled cowhide, but a gold ring inlaid with rubies, with beautiful patterns carved on it.

"This...this...this..." I was woken up again by Shuiying's voice, and the hallucination disappeared.

Shi Kong was holding the cowhide, which was already open. The three of them didn't look at what was on the cowhide, but stared at me, making my hair stand on end.

"What's wrong with you? Do I have any carvings on my face? Why are you looking at me like that?" I said, touching my face with my hand.

"Ziyue, look, look at this." Shuiying's voice trembled slightly as she pointed to the cowhide. Curious, I craned my neck to look at the cowhide in Shikong's hand. Upon seeing it, I was shocked and touched my face in disbelief.

The leather had a picture of a woman in a red dress. Although the leather was a bit wrinkled, the face in the picture looked exactly like mine!

I looked up in surprise again, staring blankly at the three of them.

"Ziyue, what song did you just sing? Sing it again."

"Red dress, red crown, red shoes and socks, a beautiful girl is getting married today, because she is lucky enough to be chosen by a prince, she will marry into the palace, just like all girls dream of..." I sang along.

Shuiying looked at me, then at the painting, and suddenly exclaimed, "I know! Ziyue, it must be like this! In countless past lives of yours, you must have been the bride of the king of this city! You were the queen of this city, so when you returned, this cursed city appeared!"

I glanced at Shui Ying, then at the crowned corpse, and for a moment it seemed as if he smiled at me again.

"Ah!" I screamed and jumped off the stone platform, fleeing towards the outside of the palace.

I was caught when I reached the palace gate, but Kurada caught up with me.

"Let me go! Let me out! I don't want to be that mummified corpse's bride!" I pounded on Kurada's body, but Kurada wouldn't let go.

“Don’t listen to Shuiying’s nonsense. It’s not necessarily true. She’s just guessing,” Kurada comforted me.

"Amitabha!" Shi Kong walked over. "Zi Yue, one must be able to face reality. Shui Ying's guess makes some sense, but that has been through countless lifetimes and eons. It's not you in this life. You don't need to be afraid."

“Exactly, exactly. Didn’t we come back to find out the truth? I was just guessing.” Shui Ying ran over and followed Shi Kong.

I gradually calmed down. I thought Shuiying's guess made some sense, but I still couldn't understand why the Queen didn't die with the King. And if that were the case, why did they summon me back to Cursed City? Did they summon me back to Cursed City just to let me die there? Didn't the mummies in Cursed City reincarnate? Then why was I reincarnated? If I was the King's Queen in one of my past lives, then where is the Queen's mummified body?

I voiced my question, and everyone fell silent. After a while, Shi Kong slowly said, "This is just a guess. Things are far more complicated than that. This city is filled with resentment."

I nodded and said to Shikong, "Last time I came here, I kept hearing Kurada's voice. I thought it was in the back courtyard. When I went in, I found a secret passage, but when I opened it, I saw a hunched old man in black. Why don't we go back there and take a look?"

"Okay." Everyone agreed. The stone door leading to the backyard was ajar.

With a creak, the door was pushed open by Kurada.

"Ah!" Shui Ying screamed before she even entered the courtyard. Actually, you can't blame her; anyone would get goosebumps seeing a yard full of dried corpses lying around.

We carefully stepped over the mummified corpses and stood in the courtyard.

“Over there,” I said, pointing to a corner at the very back of the yard. “The door to that secret passage is on that wall.”

As I spoke, I led the way toward that wall. As I walked, I gently picked up some of the mummified corpses that were in the way and put them aside. I heard Shuiying clicking her tongue behind me. I knew she was disgusted that I was handling the mummified corpses with my hands.

We soon arrived at the corner. "This is it." The corner was relatively clean because I had cleaned it last time, and there were no mummies there.

"Hey, Master Shikong, what are you doing?" Shuiying called out from behind me.

I turned my head and saw Shikong sitting cross-legged in the courtyard, constantly counting on his fingers. I didn't know what he was calculating. His staff was placed horizontally on his lap, and a faint golden light emanated from it.

"Amitabha!" Shikong chanted the Buddha's name and stood up.

Shi Kong carefully stepped over the mummified corpse and walked towards us. "As soon as I entered this courtyard, I noticed a very strange aura here," Shi Kong said, frowning.

"What gas?" Shuiying and I asked in unison.

“There’s an extremely heavy sense of resentment here, probably the heaviest in this cursed city, but at the same time there’s also a strong sense of righteousness. I walked all the way here from this courtyard, and both kinds of energy are strongest in this corner. I can’t understand why. But I just thought about it and came up with some questions. Ziyue, did you think this was where you felt buried in sand that day?”

"Yes, right here in this corner."

"Huh?" Shuiying looked up at the sky in a panic when she heard me say that, but no sand fell.

"Yes, I remember when you were talking about this experience, you said that this corner had the most mummies, right?"

“Yes, the mummies in this corner are almost piled up.” I gestured.

“That’s right.” Shi Kong clasped his hands together again.

"What came to mind?" Shuiying asked impatiently.

"Amitabha! If I'm not mistaken, all the mummies in this courtyard are one person, the queen of the king in that palace, that is, you—Ziyue!"

“This…this…” I was stunned.

"What does this mean, Master? All the mummies in this courtyard are actually one person?" Kurada asked, puzzled.

“I understand.” Shuiying looked at everyone triumphantly. When she saw Kurada and me looking at her in confusion, she became even more smug. “The mummies here are all the bodies of Ziyue after each of her reincarnations. After each of Ziyue’s reincarnations, she will eventually return here, and then, just like what Ziyue saw last time, she will be buried under the sand and become a mummified corpse. It’s the same every time.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking.” Shikong nodded approvingly.

“Wait a minute.” I suddenly remembered something. “This cursed city appears every twenty-five years, and that woman in black that night said she couldn’t calculate the whole of my destiny. My destiny stops at age 25… In other words, I return here every twenty-five years, every lifetime…”

Everyone stared at me blankly, speechless.

"What on earth happened that makes me feel suffocated not only in my dreams in every lifetime, but also suffocate to death under this sand and become a dried corpse?" Tears streamed down my face. It was the first time I had cried in so long. I couldn't describe the sadness I felt.

Was it because the king disliked the queen that he wanted her reincarnations to return again and again, only to be buried in the sand? But I don't think so. In my hallucination, when he reached out and gave me the ring, I saw his smile was so happy. But why? Was it because the king couldn't reincarnate, so he wanted his queen to be reincarnated again and again to return to his side? But why are these mummified corpses in the courtyard, and not in the main hall?

I really don't understand.

My tears fell on the stone slab, but dried quickly.

“Ziyue, don’t cry. I think we’re not far from the truth now. Once we know the truth, we’ll understand everything, and you won’t have to come back here every time you live.” Kurada gently stroked my hair, and I couldn’t help but hug him and cry, my tears getting on Kurada’s clothes.

After crying for a while, I felt a little better. I slowly raised my head and found that everyone's eyes were red.

"Alright, let's go into this secret passage and take a look. I'm also curious why these mummies are piled up the most in this corner." I wiped away my tears.

"Okay, let's try opening this hidden door," Shuiying said.

"Is it this little stalagmite?" Kurada walked to the corner of the wall and pointed with his toe at the little stalagmite that I had kicked last time.

Yes, that's the one.

“Okay, now watch me.” Kurada said, kicking the stalagmite.

But there was no movement on the wall.

I was stunned for a moment, not understanding whether it was because I kicked this stalagmite last time, or because the hunchbacked old man in the black robe opened the hidden door in the wall from the inside.

During that brief moment, I noticed a section of the wall slowly caved in, then silently slid to one side, revealing a hidden passage.

But then I was startled again. There was still that hunched old man standing in the dark passage! He was grinning, and after a moment of laughter, he turned and walked into the dark passage.

“That old man!” I called out.

"Was that the one you saw last time?" Kurada asked.

"Yes."

"He ran away!" Shuiying's voice trembled. I think she must have been terrified when she saw that old man, who looked like a dried corpse, standing inside when the secret passage door opened.

"Chase!" Kurada shouted, about to go in, but was stopped by Shikong.

"Slow down, be careful of any traps inside."

"Hmm." Kurada nodded and led the way into the secret passage.

15. Passageways, Secret Rooms

The passage was very dark, but we were well prepared; everyone brought flashlights.

The passage was only wide enough for one person to pass through, so we walked in in a line. Kurada was at the front, Shuiying and I were in the middle, and Shikong was at the back.

The secret passage was very long, and it was impossible to know where it led. It kept spiraling around, sometimes going down and sometimes up.

After walking a short distance, Kurada suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" we asked from behind.

"Step back a little." We stepped back, and Kurada squatted down, pointing with his flashlight to a slightly protruding rock on the ground. To be honest, if Kurada hadn't specifically shown it to us, I wouldn't have noticed this tiny protrusion at all.

Kurada slowly stretched out his foot, leaned back, and then quickly stepped on the small stone before jumping backward.

"Crack, crack, crack," several stone arrows fell to the ground. The arrowheads and shafts were all made of stone. The arrowheads were relatively thick, while the shafts were thin. The arrows were very short, and some of them had broken into two pieces when they fell to the ground.

"These things seem to have been installed later," Kurada said after looking around for a while. "Everyone, watch your step. Walk around any protruding or sunken stones."

We hopped forward like squirrels.

After turning a corner, the passage suddenly widened.

"Look!" I pointed ahead to Kurada and said, "There seems to be some light. Are we almost at the end?"

"Let's go take a look."

As I walked, I carefully watched the stones under my feet and the stones on the walls on either side. Suddenly, I noticed that one of the stones on the wall was moving. Just as I was about to call out to Kurada, the wall opened up into a secret passage—a passage within a passage! I was startled. Standing in the passage was the hunched old man in the black robe. He grinned at me, and the stone wall closed again.

I had a bad feeling. Just as I was spacing out, a stone slab suddenly fell behind me with a loud "bang," separating the four of us. Kurada and I were in the inner part of the passage, while Shuiying and Shikong were trapped outside the stone slab.

Fortunately, we were wearing walkie-talkies. I quickly took one out and started talking to Shikong.

“We’re fine, but you need to be careful. There must be some kind of conspiracy behind you being locked up inside. I sense that the hunched old man isn’t an ordinary person,” Shi Kong warned me.

"Okay, let's move on. You guys try to see if you can open that stone and stay in touch."

Kurada and I walked more carefully toward the light.

Upon reaching the end, they discovered that it was not the exit of the passage, but a very large stone chamber with several lamps lit on the walls.

Kurada and I exchanged a glance and cautiously went inside.

As soon as we entered the stone chamber, I suddenly felt a cold wind behind me. When I turned around, I saw a stone door slowly sliding out from where the stone chamber connected to the passage, blocking the passage.

"It's over!" I shouted and ran over, but there was no trace of a door on that wall.

When Kurada saw me turn around, he turned around too and ran to the side of the passage.