Facultad de Humanidades

Capítulo 12

One man was on top of me, and another was pressing down on my arm.

Suddenly, I heard the man who was holding down my arm scream, and then warm, sticky fluid splattered onto my face.

The man riding on me looked at his companion and was utterly terrified. He froze.

I quickly struggled to my feet from under him and looked back. Two long, cylindrical objects protruded from the man's eye sockets—two bamboo shoots.

It grew longer and longer until the man collapsed to the ground, his limbs twitched a few times, and he stopped moving.

The man sitting on the ground was trembling like a leaf, completely bewildered by what had just happened.

I was both shocked and frightened. I turned to run, but the man grabbed my ankle.

"Go to hell!" I cursed as I tried to pry his hands off.

No sooner had he finished speaking than he suddenly sat up straight, his head tilted back at a 90-degree angle, and a thick bamboo shoot emerged from his mouth. It looked like it had been inserted through his anus and was coming out of his mouth. Because, within minutes, he was lifted up like a whole roasted lamb, his feet off the ground.

The smell of blood was especially strong under the moonlight.

Although I panicked, I didn't lose my composure. I quickly dialed 110.

The police arrived quickly, and after investigating the scene, they determined that I wasn't really involved. They took my identification and statement, and finally released me to go home the following morning.

I took half a day off, and when I arrived at the company in the afternoon, I happened to run into my female boss who was throwing a tantrum and giving me a severe dressing-down.

I cursed the damned old crow in my heart, and then listlessly began to do my work.

Less than two hours later, someone died at the company.

The old crow died; it drowned in the toilet.

I was in her cubicle at the time, but I didn't know that the moaning sounds coming from next to me were her cries before she died.

According to the sanitation worker who discovered the body, she was frantically clawing at the toilet wall with both hands, breaking her fingernails. Her entire head was submerged in sewage, as if she had been pushed down into it.

Everyone in the company was questioned by the police. It turned out that the same group who took my statement last night were the ones who came to investigate. One of the policemen gave me a rather meaningful look.

But I don't have time to care about that. I'm almost 80% sure that I am the reincarnation of a shrine maiden.

Are all these people dead because of me...? Then wouldn't I be a murderer?

Although the methods are different, it is still murder after all... Could it really have been me?

I was filled with anxiety.

When the seven-day period was up, I went to see Grandma Mei as agreed.

My mother was supposed to accompany me, but after experiencing two bizarre murders, I was afraid of another accident, so I secretly set off without my mother's knowledge.

When I arrived at the stall, I found that the owner was someone else. Grandma Mei wasn't there. I asked around, but no one knew Grandma Mei.

Feeling agitated, I wandered around the temple area but found nothing, so I had to take a bus back to the city in the afternoon.

Unexpectedly, I received a phone call from a woman on the way.

"Molan, is that right?" The voice was old and unfamiliar.

"Yes, it's me. May I ask who you are?"

“I am Granny Mei. Come to the west entrance of Santang Village now. I will be waiting for you there.”

"OK!"

A surge of secret joy welled up inside me; today, everything would finally be over. I completely overlooked one thing: I hadn't given Grandma Mei my phone number at all! We had only agreed to meet at her stall.

Santang Village is located five kilometers from Jinchan Temple. My car was going to stop there on its way back to the city, so I arrived at the west entrance of the village without any problems.

Grandma Mei was still dressed the same, leaning on a cane and carrying a bamboo basket. The basket was covered with a floral cloth, so I didn't know what was inside.

"You've arrived."

Before I could even speak, Grandma Mei greeted me. I was amazed by the hearing of a blind person.

"It's me, Granny Mei. What do we do now?"

"I've found the location where you set up the formation back then. Come with me. Once we break that formation, you'll stop having nightmares."

"Grandma Mei, do you think it's possible for me to inherit the magical powers from my previous life..."

"It's hard to say. You remember the details of your past life's formation so clearly, perhaps subconsciously you still possess some esoteric skills." Granny Mei didn't even turn her head.

Hearing her say that, my heart started pounding... It seems I really am a murderer.

"If we break that evil formation, will I be able to get rid of this power?"

Granny Mei seemed unconcerned about my witchcraft, coldly saying, "One thing at a time, let's deal with your nightmare problem first."

I shut my mouth because I was bored.

After walking for more than an hour, my feet were starting to give out, but Grandma Mei seemed perfectly fine. Since she was helping me, I couldn't complain. I could only follow silently.

"arrive!"

We walked into a grove of trees, and I had lost my bearings; it was getting dark all around. Hearing Granny Mei say that we had arrived was a relief to me.

She tapped the ground with her cane for a while and then said, "Dig up this patch of soil, there's a bluestone slab underneath, move it."

After saying that, he handed me a small shovel from the basket.

Fortunately, the soil layer wasn't very thick, and I quickly shoveled it away. It took a lot of effort to move the stone slab.

A musty smell hit me. Below was a dark room.

The wind, I don't know where it came from, blew so hard that Grandma Mei and I, one old and one young, looked like grave robbers digging up graves in the middle of the night.

But it's a good opportunity to ventilate the dark room.

Once the musty smell has dissipated and there's enough air for us to breathe, Grandma Mei handed me something.

"Take this oil lamp and go downstairs. I'll follow behind you."

Descending the stone steps, one enters a narrow stone path, barely wide enough for one person to pass at a time.

I would look back every now and then to make sure that Grandma Mei was behind me.

Finally, we reached the end of the stone path, where there was a stone wall.

"Grandma Mei, there's no road ahead."

A faint voice drifted from behind me: "Touch the three protruding stones on the left side of the stone wall with your hand, and press the middle one. Be careful not to press the wrong one."

Unexpectedly, this stone wall turned out to be a stone door.

As I stepped through the stone gate, I saw the stone chamber I had seen countless times in my dreams.

Seven earthenware jars, seven young girls.

Just then, my phone beeped with a text message. There was still a signal in this place!

I looked and saw a text message from my mom asking where I was, saying she couldn't reach me by phone and needed to contact me urgently. I suddenly realized I hadn't let her know I was safe yet.

So I put the oil lamp aside. I was just about to make a phone call.

Grandma Mei came in and asked, "Did your family come looking for you?"

"Yes, my mom is looking for me. I'll let her know I'm safe first."

"Okay. I'll wait for you." Grandma Mei's face remained expressionless, but I had the illusion that I saw a strange smile flash across her face.

Just as I was about to make a call, someone called.

Hello, who is this?

"Mo Lan? This is Professor Yang. Where are you?"

"I...I'm out running errands. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Moran, our next conversation is very important; it concerns your condition. Can you promise me you'll come back to see me as soon as possible?"

A wave of unease washed over me. It wasn't my fault that we hadn't been in touch for so long: "But I really can't get away right now. Can I come see you tomorrow?"

Professor Yang suppressed his anxiety: "Alright. Moran, I suspect you have dissociative identity disorder. There's a possibility you might have a bloodthirsty tendency to kill when you're in a split state. But I didn't tell you then, hoping to observe you for a while before making a conclusion. However, with a scientifically rigorous attitude, I also planned to help you release your psychological pressure from another angle, to help you get rid of your nightmares. So your mother and I set up a scheme, intending to have a sorceress tell you a story, and then have you personally break the formation. This would allow you to achieve mental liberation. But before we succeeded……an accident…happened…"

Professor Yang's voice suddenly became intermittent.

"Hello, Professor Yang, can you hear me...?"

"Yes, I can hear you. I learned about two murders involving people close to you from my police friend. Although I don't know how you did it, my intuition tells me that you are involved. Until the third murder... I'm certain it's related to you."

I was completely stunned by his question: "What, a third incident?"

"The sorceress we hired to play Granny Mei died in her own home. Her death was as bizarre as the previous two murders, but we found your wallet next to her body..."

What? Granny Mei was part of their scheme? And she's already dead!

Who is this old woman next to me...?

I turned around, and "Grandma Mei" was smiling at me, still waiting for me to finish the call.

I knew things were going badly: "Professor Yang, I'm currently..."

Snap!

The phone was violently thrown against the stone wall and shattered into pieces.

The woman who called herself "Grandma Mei" suddenly opened her eyes, through her scabbed eye sockets.

Then, her skin split open from between her eyebrows, peeling away the aged human skin like taking off clothes, and out emerged a woman dressed in black.

She's the woman from my dreams!

"Who are you...you...what do you want?"

I retreated step by step.

“You know who I am, don’t you?” She still had a sweet smile on her face.

She picked up the oil lamp and shone it on each of the earthenware pots for me to see. The six girls around me were all alive, just like in my dream, maintaining a stiff posture. Only the pot in the middle was broken, with the remains of some kind of animal beside it.

The woman in black spoke frankly to me: "Two hundred years ago, I encountered this heartless man named Ye Shiquan. I don't want to talk about our grudges anymore. I should have killed him with my own hands, but he was lucky enough to survive. So I captured seven young girls and used their virginity to set up this cursed array, cursing his entire family! But this array requires the living dead. Unexpectedly, thirty years ago, a pangolin broke through the central earthenware pot, causing the girl to die and releasing her soul..."

I finally understand why I kept having this nightmare: I'm the reincarnation of that runaway soul. It turns out the two thugs died because the woman in black wanted to preserve my virginity.

"Then why did you bother with my female boss and that fortune teller?"

“If I don’t kill your female boss, how will you, silly girl, believe you know witchcraft? As for that sorceress, I owe you a lot for bringing you in. But if I kill her and frame you, everyone will believe you’re fleeing from justice. In a few days, I’ll find a corpse and fake your suicide, and everyone will naturally believe you committed suicide out of guilt. Then no one will come looking for you anymore.”

I retreated step by step until I had nowhere left to retreat.