Asura

Chapitre 2

Staring intently at the strange black lamp, Chen Lianzi and I remained silent. The round lamp bowl was completely empty, without even a wick, and the entire lamp was so dark that it was unsettling. Remembering what Chen Lianzi had said about being trapped in a maze, I felt an even stronger urge to run away.

Geographically, Nanyang is located at the foot of the Qinling Mountains and the source of the Han River, and has been the heart of southwestern Henan since ancient times.

Chen Lianzi whispered that the secret of the Black Flame Lamp was said to be related to the Mongols of that time. During the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols were like wolves and tigers, and they ravaged Eurasia. Legend has it that the Black Flame Lamp could awaken the soldiers who died in battle and put them back into the battlefield. Wouldn't that be an invincible ghost army?

"I don't believe this nonsense," Chen explained with a wry smile. "Later, after Zhu Yuanzhang drove out the Tartars, I heard that this black flame lamp was destroyed by Liu Bowen. That's what my master told me. Since then, I've been very careful about old bronze lamps and similar items when I go down into the cellar, but I never expected to run into one here."

I was stunned by what Chen Lianzi was saying, so I turned to look at him and felt something was wrong. When I looked closely, I was almost scared to death!

It turned out that on Chen Lianzi's back, at some point, a woman in yellow was floating lightly on her back. She had her head down, her long black hair draped over her sides, and her pale face was expressionless. Her two white circles were filled with black pupils, which were staring at him without blinking. She swayed from side to side with his words and movements, without any intention of changing her gaze.

I thought I was seeing things, so I closed my eyes tightly to get a better look, while Chen Lianzi was completely unaware that there was a woman on his back.

I had just closed my eyes when I heard two short screams. When I opened my eyes, I saw Chen Lianzi lying on the ground. Several old cats jumped on his back and started tearing and biting at the woman in yellow. Caught off guard, they screamed twice and fell off Chen Lianzi's body, and were immediately sucked into the black flame lamp.

Chen Lianzi took a long time to wake up. His neck was covered in black handprints; he'd been gripped quite tightly. A few more minutes and he would have surely died! After he regained consciousness, I stayed with him, catching his breath. Realizing we shouldn't stay any longer, I quickly ran outside. I'd never seen a ghost before; this was quite an eye-opener. This black flame lamp probably really does have the power to command vengeful spirits of the underworld!

When they escaped from that haunted house, it was just before dawn. Later, after Chen Lianzi returned, he heard that he lay in bed for more than three months before he could get out of bed and had fallen seriously ill.

After Uncle Wu finished telling the story, he had drunk enough wine and yawned repeatedly before falling asleep. I, on the other hand, was so excited by the twists and turns of the thrilling incident that I couldn't sleep well all night. However, I am a staunch atheist and do not believe in ghosts or monsters at all. I kept wondering what was going on with that woman in yellow.

Liu Bowen was Zhu Yuanzhang's top strategist, and this "Five Ghosts Crushing Corpse" trap was probably his masterpiece. The black flame lamp, the woman in yellow, and the crouching coffin with engraved burial text—could it really be a tomb to suppress corpses, with some terrifying secret buried underneath?

The next day I asked my fifth uncle what happened to the old house hidden in the mountains. He replied that it was flooded last year and was submerged long ago. It's now at the bottom of the river and nobody can see it...

After a brief exchange, I gave up the idea of going to take a look.

After returning to Beijing, I was busy with the troublesome matter of job assignment after graduation, and I didn't contact my fifth uncle for a long time, so I gradually forgot about the matter.

After graduation, things were going reasonably well. I found a job at a foreign company in Beijing and also started dating a girlfriend who was quite a catch. Her name was Han Yena. She was very beautiful, cheerful, and kind. Considering my own circumstances, I was already quite satisfied.

Now let me talk about my personal conditions. I am quite good-looking. Of course, I'm not so handsome that I need to get plastic surgery. I am rather thin and tall, with my hair flowing down the back of my head. I am the kind of person who can be guessed from the front just by looking at me from behind. But that's exactly where the problem lies.

People who see me from behind will assume I must be a sparsely bearded, someone who stays up all night, has a pale complexion, and is the kind of ordinary person you could grab a handful of computers with your eyes closed at the computer mall. But when they come up and turn around to check, they suddenly realize that I am not like that at all.

My eyes are long and narrow, so long that they always give the impression of squinting. This makes my pupils appear to be particularly large. In addition, I was a mischievous child and often fell and hit my chin, causing the corners of my mouth to turn upwards as well. At first glance, I look like a guy who is always laughing and joking, with my pupils rolling around and a bit unfathomable. So, thanks to this very approachable smiling face, I am quite popular and have a lot of friends. When it comes to dating, I am even more adept.

Meeting a beautiful girlfriend made me very happy for a while, but as the saying goes, "The weather is unpredictable, and life has its ups and downs." That business trip to Yingtan, Jiangxi, brought about a complete change in my life after I returned. In fact, I was just being nosy.

Longhu Mountain in Yingtan has always made me think about the half-immortal Zhang Tianshi who named me. More than 20 years have passed, and he should be almost 80 years old now. This strange thing about naming me has made me confused since I was a child. It drove me to search for it for several days. It all started when I was bewitched and went to have the characters analyzed.

Chapter Five: Coffin Nails

The reason why these six ancient coffin nails are placed in front of me is a long story.

I never dreamed that an honest, salaried office worker like myself would get into a conflict with a tomb-raiding gang that supposedly specializes in shady, head-risking activities. It all started because of that ancient book, "The Secret Techniques of Tianyuan Mountain and Water." I don't know how these desperados found out I had the book, but they've repeatedly tried to take it from me to use as their secret weapon for tomb raiding. When I tried my hand at the simplest technique I'd learned—the "She" character layout—it almost resulted in a death. They threatened to kill me and give up the book. I simply couldn't stay at my workplace, or even in Beijing anymore.

Finally, fearing I would implicate my girlfriend, and remembering the fortune teller's prediction that her untimely death was because of me, I had no choice but to painfully choose to run away. I left a letter for Han Yena, breaking up with her, and then, with only a little over a thousand yuan left, I packed a few clothes and some necessities and left. But I really couldn't bear to leave my girlfriend, so after much thought, I chose to go to Tianjin, because the two cities are very close, and the thought of being closer to her made me feel a little better.

After arriving in Tianjin, I contacted a close friend from university, Chai Yong, a native of Tianjin who had worked for China Telecom after graduation. He was quite overweight, so I called him Fatty. After meeting, we drank quite a bit of beer. I naturally didn't hide anything from my buddy, and having witnessed the power of feng shui, I was very worried that some unknown evil force might harm my girlfriend. I didn't want to tell Fatty about these unscientific things, afraid he'd laugh at me for being a coward. I simply said I'd gotten into a fight with someone and had no choice but to run away. Fatty, however, advised me to call Han Yena and tell her the truth. He said that since our relationship was so good, she would definitely worry about me, and there was no need for any silly talk about who was dragging whom down with her.

I said, "Fatty, stop talking, stop talking! Can't you leave me some dignity? If I could tell her, I would have done it already. I've really messed with this whole thing, getting involved with these tomb raiders. There's so much trouble to come, how can I face her again? If this drags her down with me, I'd rather be dead. In short, I've wronged her in this life, I'll make it up to her by being her slave in the next." Fatty tried to persuade me for a while, but seeing my resolute attitude and the fact that I seemed to have something difficult to say, he stopped talking.

The wine fueled their sorrow, and the two of them quickly became drunk. When they regained consciousness, they found themselves lying on Fatty's bed. Fatty told them that he had sent his wife back to her parents' house these past few days, and that they should stay there until he found them a place to stay.

Because Fatty got married, I couldn't stay at his house permanently. The next day, I went out to rent a place. My budget was 100 to 200 yuan a month. I had to be frugal until things calmed down. After looking around at the real estate agency, I found a place that was quite suitable. The rent was only 150 yuan a month. It was 15 square meters, fully furnished, and located near the Workers' Cultural Palace and not far from the East Railway Station.

So I paid the information fee, got the detailed address and the landlord's contact number, and made an appointment with the landlord to go see the apartment immediately. As soon as I found the place, I met the landlord almost instantly, a very gloomy old woman who told me to call her Aunt Mei. Despite the hot weather, she was wearing an old-fashioned jacket with a traditional Chinese front opening. She didn't ask me a single unnecessary question and indifferently showed me the apartment I wanted to rent.

This area is full of old-style Western-style buildings built before the liberation. The layout of the houses is similar, with a small courtyard containing a small building, some three stories and some two stories. Each small building houses about six to eight families. The room I planned to rent was at the end of the corridor on the first floor. It was called a corridor, but it wasn't very long, only seven or eight steps to the end. There were four doors on the first floor. The old woman said that the first floor of this building had never been lived in, and three of the four rooms upstairs were occupied. I asked her how such a good location could be half empty, but she seemed not to hear me and didn't say anything or pay any attention to me. She just kept taking out her keys to open the door.

When we entered the room, we found it wasn't very spacious. Aunt Mei and I felt cramped as soon as we stood inside.

A light bulb hung horizontally on the wall, and there was hardly any furniture: a wardrobe, a table, an old-fashioned single bed, and not even a chair. In the innermost corner, there was a dressing table with a mirror, but the mirror was so dusty that it was too dirty to reflect one's image.

It seemed this used to be a woman's room. I felt that apart from being a bit dirty and damp, the room was fine and could be lived in after some cleaning. So I discussed it with Aunt Mei and decided to book it, paying three months' rent upfront. Unexpectedly, Aunt Mei said, "This place isn't clean. Everyone says it's a haunted house where someone has died. You're a young man with plenty of yang energy, that's why I brought you here. Think it over again, are you brave enough to live here? I'm only saying this once, don't blame me if something happens."

I tilted my head and thought for a moment. So what if it's haunted? Billions of people have died throughout history. If ghosts really existed, where would the living have a place to live? Even if I ran into something unclean, at most I'd get some bad luck. Anyway, I'm already incredibly unlucky, so it doesn't matter. Besides, this place is cheap, located in the city center with convenient transportation, and not far from the Haihe River. If those thugs come looking for me, I can run fast. Furthermore, if I, a grown man, said I was afraid, wouldn't Aunt Mei, a woman, laugh at me? So I steeled myself and said, "Don't worry, it's fine. I'll rent this place. It's just a haunted house, no big deal. I've seen plenty of dead people. I even caught a thief cat in a haunted house when I was a kid!"

Aunt Mei's cold eyes held a complex expression as she slowly said, "Since you're not afraid, I'm relieved. If anything strange happens, I'll introduce you to someone you can take a look at. If you really don't want to stay any longer, I'll refund your money according to the agreed-upon dates." Then Aunt Mei gave some instructions on utilities and other matters, hastily wrote a contract, and by the time the money and deed were settled, it was already dark.

I returned to Fatty's house. Fatty was happy to see that I had found a place so quickly, so he took the next day off to help me tidy up the house and buy household items. We got up early in the morning and went to the supermarket to buy some pots, pans, electric stoves, instant noodles, and the like. Fatty brought me a brand new set of bedding and an old color TV from his house, saying it would keep me entertained that night.

Fatty drove his white Xiali and brought my things to the place I rented. We were frantically taking things out of the car when a boy of about eleven or twelve ran over and asked, "Big brother, are you new here?" I saw he was just a kid and didn't want to talk to him. I thought to myself, this kid is so annoying. Why is he up so early on Tuesday morning instead of going to school? What is he doing causing trouble here?

Just then, a young girl, about twenty years old, came out of the building. She was very pretty and cute. She said to the little boy who was watching us move our things, "Little brother, don't be naughty, go back inside." The little boy pouted, "No, they just moved in, I want to help them move." The boy's older sister seemed a little angry that he was disobedient. She nodded to me and Fatty in greeting and then turned and went inside.

I quickly asked the little boy, "Is that woman your sister? Your accents don't sound like you're from Tianjin. Do you live in this building too?" Before I could finish, I received a slap on the back of the head. Turning around, I saw the fat man. "You little rascal, you were trying to commit suicide yesterday, listless like a walking corpse. But today, seeing a pretty girl has brought you back to life. Hurry up and move your things. If you get any more ideas, I'll give you a beating on behalf of Han Yena." I thought to myself, "Why has this kid gotten so temperamental lately?" I was about to give him a lecture when he mentioned Han Yena's name, and my temper immediately vanished. I silently started moving my things into the house. The little boy helped too.

As soon as Fatty entered the house, he covered his nose and said, "The dampness in this downstairs room is unbearable, and the smell is awful! No wonder nobody lives here. You'll get arthritis if you stay here. I'll find you another place in a few days. This place is no human being." I said, "Come on, I'm made of special stuff. I'll go wherever it's toughest. I won't let the Party and the people down." Fatty said, "Damn it, if the Party and the people were counting on you, China would be finished long ago." After thinking for a moment, he added, "It seems like only Party members are made of special stuff. When did you become a Party member?" I said, "You're really a mouthful of rubbish." We kept arguing, but our hands didn't stop. In no time, we had thoroughly cleaned the house from top to bottom.

Fatty was at the very back. He took a cloth and wanted to wipe the mirror on the dressing table. As soon as he started wiping, he realized something was wrong. He wiped it with his hand and tore off a large piece of paper from the mirror. It turned out that there was a large piece of yellow paper pasted on the mirror surface, covered with dust. If you didn't look closely, you would think that the mirror was covered by too much dust.

Stickers on a mirror? The fat man was completely baffled. He cursed, tore the paper off, and rubbed the mirror haphazardly with a rag. I glanced at the yellow paper he'd thrown on the floor; it was covered in red ink symbols, winding and twisting like ancient seal script, yet also resembling oracle bone script. I had no idea what was the point of sticking this on a mirror. I thought, "This is what you call human writing, not some kind of scribbling. Nobody can decipher it." I swept the tattered yellow paper into a corner with a broom.

As we swept the yellow paper to the corner of the wall, neither Fatty nor I realized that the strangeness of this room was about to be revealed. If we had known, I think we would have regretted it to death.

The room, only a dozen square meters, was small. The three of them tidied it up quickly. The little boy, Yang Bin, was from Anhui. His parents had passed away, and he and his sister, Yang Qin, had come to Tianjin to do business. They ran a small clothing shop on Binjiang Road and rented this room, where they had lived for more than half a year. It was almost noon, so I invited Yang Bin to have lunch with me. Yang Bin said he had to help his sister at the shop and left.

I told Fatty that this kid was really good, naturally kind-hearted and hardworking. Fatty rolled his eyes at me and said, "Anyone is better than you. You're not even as good as a child; you don't even have the courage to face Han Yena." I was speechless, just kept smoking, feeling like I wanted to die from what he was saying.

When Fatty saw that I didn't respond to him, he lit a cigarette and started smoking. The room wasn't big to begin with, and when the two of them smoked together, it quickly filled the room with smoke, making my eyes hurt.

Fatty seemed to suddenly remember something and said to me, "When I first came in, I felt that the room was very damp, as if something had gotten moldy and smelled a bit off. But when we cleaned the room, we cleaned up a lot of dust. If the room was very humid, there shouldn't be so much dust."

I thought about it and it really was true. I always felt something was strange, but I hadn't thought of it before: "Yes, I see that everything is very dry, and there are no damp or leaky places."

Fatty glanced at the dark, grimy wardrobe in the corner and said, "Have you looked inside the wardrobe? Is something inside damp? Is it even a wardrobe? It's so square and rough."

I said, "What could be in the cabinet? I think it should be empty."

As I spoke, I got off the bed and opened the top shelf of the cabinet, revealing six long nails hammered into a black-and-white photograph. I touched one of them; it was firmly driven in, flat and long with a lot of rust on its surface. It felt heavy, as if it had been there for many years. I said, "I feel like I've seen these nails somewhere before. They seem to be used by carpenters. That's right, these are coffin nails."

Chapter Six: The Woman in the Portrait

Hidden on the top shelf of the cabinet were six coffin nails, even more strangely, nailed straight down onto a black-and-white photograph! We were both momentarily speechless. Knowing a lot about these things, I absolutely dared not pull out the nails, but I was curious to see what photograph was nailed down below. However, I couldn't make it out clearly no matter how hard I looked. So, I casually pulled the table over, stood on it, and tilted my head to look. She seemed very young and beautiful, and I couldn't help but blurt out, "She's still very young!" Fatty hurriedly pulled me down, and we struggled to climb onto the table to look. The table creaked, almost collapsing. I quickly grabbed the table and shouted, "Dude, take it easy! We're still working class, if the table collapses, we'll have to eat on the floor!"

Before I could finish grumbling, Fatty had already climbed down, panting, and said, "Why is this photo so big?" My heart sank, and Fatty and I exchanged a glance, exclaiming in unison, "This is a funeral portrait!"

At the same time, he realized that the photo was a "funeral portrait," which startled the fat man. He quickly put his hands together and bowed twice to the cabinet, saying, "I was ignorant, please forgive me, please forgive me."

I almost immediately recalled the "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique" described in the "Suppressing" technique of "The Secret Techniques of Tianyuan Mountain and Water". It was the only rare evil technique in the book that was not described in detail. Because it was extremely vicious, it used coffin nails that had been used to seal the face of the dead soul. I immediately felt a chill for the woman in the portrait. Who had such a deep hatred for her that they wanted her to never be reincarnated?

If this was truly a murder trap set up according to the "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique," then this house would undoubtedly be a haunted house. The "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique" would involve skinning the woman in the portrait alive and burying her deep underground, then sealing the portrait's features with coffin nails tainted with corpse poison. This would suppress the woman's pent-up resentment, preventing her from venting it and causing her to gather around the burial site, unable to leave for eternity. Naturally, this house would become uninhabitable.

The fat man was timid. After bowing to the cabinet, he hurriedly said, "How could there be such a thing in this house? You should also bow to it and throw it away. It's really bad luck. Cremation is practiced now, how can there still be such a thing?"

I hurriedly said, "You absolutely mustn't touch these coffin nails, or we'll both be in big trouble." I almost revealed the secret of the 'Five Ding Disfigurement Technique'.

Fatty hesitated for a moment and said, "These nails are covered in rust. They might have been taken from a grave by some tomb raider. They look quite old. The location of the nails is also very strange. You've been acting strangely with the tomb raiding gang lately. Trust me, let's get out of here quickly to avoid getting into trouble."

Thinking about how I might frighten Fatty, I could only comfort him, saying, "What are you afraid of? It's a lucky charm, no need to pray." Fatty's face turned serious, and he said solemnly, "Lucky charm my ass! Don't talk nonsense. These things are better believed than not. The dead are the most important. Praying can only bring good luck, not bad. Anyway, it's you living here, not me. I'm worried that something might happen to you..."

Seeing his concern for me, I didn't say anything more. I opened the bottom cabinet door and saw several books and some miscellaneous items scattered haphazardly inside. The books were all thread-bound handwritten copies, along with two very old red notebooks. Among the miscellaneous items were a pack of candles, a small box of pills, a flashlight that wasn't too rusty, and other oddly shaped objects, all wrapped in waxed paper. I turned on the flashlight to take a look, but the dim yellow light flickered and then went out; the last bit of battery had probably worn out. I looked at these things, saw nothing special, and casually piled them on the floor.

So we discussed it and temporarily put all the books and other odds and ends back into the lower shelf of the cabinet. As for the upper cabinet, Fatty's idea was to buy some nails to nail it shut and burn it down in the yard, making it immune to all poisons! But I dared not. This was the first time I had ever seen the 'Five Ding Disfigurement Technique.' We couldn't disturb the woman's skinless corpse buried underground, otherwise, who knows what kind of trouble it might cause.

After discussing it for a while, we decided to listen to Fatty and carry this evil thing to the yard outside to call Aunt Mei to deal with it. Anyway, we were too scared to take it out and burn it!

The sight of this eerie object beside me sent chills down my spine. Without hesitation, Fatty went to the yard to find a spot to put it. I felt a chill run down my spine, a sense of fear creeping in, yet I couldn't resist looking at the photograph. The more I looked, the closer the woman in the photo seemed to be, as if she were right in front of me. I couldn't make out her features, but she appeared very young and beautiful. Unfortunately, her eyes were pinned down by two coffin nails, preventing me from getting a full view of her. Perhaps because they had been pinned down for so long, the edges of the paper had curled up, making the woman's eyes appear as two deep, dark vortexes, fixed intently on me.

Being stared at silently by the woman in the portrait was not a pleasant experience. I immediately wanted to look away and stop looking, but I couldn't move at all. My body was completely out of control, as if I was being sucked tightly into that vortex. It was a powerful and invisible force that left me with no room to resist. My hands and feet suddenly turned cold, and my skin felt numb as if it were being pricked by fine needles, both itchy and painful. My mind was filled with nothing but the woman's pale, white eyes.

I broke out in a cold sweat. I thought to myself, "I can't be that unlucky. How could I be affected by the 'Five Ding Disfigurement Technique'?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fatty come in from outside. I gritted my teeth and slammed the cabinet door shut. I breathed a sigh of relief, not wanting to worry Fatty, so I didn't tell him what had just happened. Fatty couldn't find any nails, so he took out a roll of packing tape and, with a few quick swips, we wrapped the sides of the cabinet that weren't against the wall tightly.

When we were moving this wardrobe out, we encountered a new problem. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't move it. We were panting heavily, and Fatty waved his hand, saying, "I can't do it anymore. I'm too tired to stand up. This wardrobe is a lump of iron. I'm hungry, let's eat first, then we'll continue!"

We finished tidying up the room, except for the cabinets. It was already 2 PM, and we were starving, so we ran to a nearby supermarket and bought kimchi, braised beef, instant noodles, beer, and some other groceries. Fatty even bought a sharp, thin kitchen knife, saying the house was haunted and he needed it for self-defense. Seeing the batteries, I remembered I had a flashlight that would work, so I grabbed a pack of those too. In case the old house lost power, I also bought a few lighters. I figured the candles couldn't be unlightable, right?

When we got home, we took out the electric hot pot we bought from the supermarket and cooked four or five packets of instant noodles in it. We ate them with kimchi and braised beef while we were sitting on the table.

I took a few sips of beer, the woman's eyes in the "funeral portrait" still haunting my mind. I glanced at the dark cabinet next to me and felt a chill run down my spine. So I asked Fatty, "Do you believe in ghosts?" Fatty was eating noodles and paused for a moment when I asked. After thinking for a while, he said, "It's hard to say about such fantastical things. Although I've never encountered a ghost, I believe in at least 60 or 70 percent of them." I nodded in agreement.

Fatty then asked me, "Do you believe in ghosts and spirits? I bet you don't." I said, "It's not that I don't believe, but I prefer to understand these things from a scientific perspective. An American scientist conducted an experiment proving that the weight of an adult's soul is 0.32 milliamperes. And Russian astronauts received signals from Io in space, saying that the souls of the dead gather there. They also observed countless weak electromagnetic signals flying from Earth to Io..." Fatty interrupted me, putting a large piece of braised beef in my bowl: "You fucking eat this already, I think you've been watching too many science fiction movies." I took a big bite of beef and said, "Then you fucking watch too many horror movies." We ate and chatted, the topic drifting further and further away.

As I was drinking, I looked up and saw that Fatty was nowhere to be seen. I thought to myself, "That kid has kidney deficiency. He needed to pee after drinking a little beer. He probably went to the toilet. I didn't notice when he left." Although I was chatting and laughing on the surface, I was still thinking about the troubles I had been having lately. I just kept drinking. Suddenly, I felt a woman's cold breath gently blow on the back of my head, and then I heard a sound coming from the cabinet.

I immediately looked up, feeling much more sober. I listened intently and clearly heard a series of soft knocking sounds coming from the cabinet in the otherwise quiet little room.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was incredibly eerie, completely out of rhythm. What was making that sound? Could it be that the woman who was nailed to the coffin in the closet had come back to life as a ghost? Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel a little nervous. I didn't dare to make a sound, and slowly reached for the sharp kitchen knife that Fatty had just bought. With a weapon, I could fight any ghost or monster I wanted.

The sudden noise coming from the closet startled me. I cursed Fatty under my breath; even if he were urinating in the Yellow River, he should have been back by now, but he left me alone in this haunted house. Just then, someone silently patted me, making me jump so hard I almost dropped the kitchen knife. I rubbed my eyes and saw it was Fatty, who had just finished relieving himself. He looked at me in surprise: "Old Feng, put the knife down! If you're upset, drink less. What are you doing with a kitchen knife?"

After regaining my composure, I put down the cleaver and asked Fatty, "Did you go out just now? Did you hear any noise from the closet when you came in?" Fatty said, "You're probably drunk. What noise was there? I didn't hear anything." I felt a splitting headache and said to Fatty, "I'm a little confused. We need to drink less in the future."

I couldn't help but wonder if I'd misheard because I was drunk. While casually chatting with the fat man, I listened intently, and sure enough, the woman in the portrait asked us to help remove the coffin nails! The soft tapping sound came again!

I watched as the fat man looked at each other blankly, standing there dumbfounded for a long time without making a sound. The room became a bit cool, as if someone had turned on the air conditioner, making it chilly.

Without further ado, and having eaten and drunk our fill, the strange noises had temporarily disappeared. So Fatty and I caught our breath and quickly started moving the cabinet again, but no matter how we tried, we couldn't lift it. In the end, the cabinet wouldn't budge. Fatty plopped down on the ground, panting, "We're really lucky. Two grown men can't lift a cabinet. It seems like this cabinet is rooted in the ground! It's really weird!"

I examined the cabinet closely to see what was going on. Several times it had clearly moved, and I kept telling Fatty not to fight back, but it always inexplicably turned back. Either he was using the wrong force, or the portrait in the cabinet was playing tricks. Could there really be ghosts in this world?

After thinking about it for a while, I felt something was wrong. We only wrapped the box with sealing tape on three sides. The side against the wall was too narrow to reach in, so we didn't wrap it with tape. But now the side without tape is facing outwards, and the whole cabinet is upside down. What the hell is going on?

Chapter Seven: The Five Ding Disfigured

The eerie dark red wardrobe stood smudged in the corner. The small room, which had just been cleaned, looked messy again after all this fuss. It made me feel suffocated. I picked up a kitchen knife and chopped at the wardrobe in a fit of anger. With a crisp clang, the room felt much colder after the chop. The wardrobe seemed to be releasing a chill that made me feel very uncomfortable.

Fatty also noticed something was wrong. He saw me pause after making a slash with the cleaver, then came over, pulled me away, and whispered, "Old Feng, there's something seriously wrong with this house. Let's get out of here and find somewhere else to stay tomorrow. This isn't a place for humans to live; it's clearly a place for ghosts!"

I didn't consider what Fatty said. My mind raced, and I remembered that when we came in, Fatty had torn the yellow paper covering the mirror. I had a vague idea in mind, so I asked him, "Fatty, where did you throw that yellow paper when you were cleaning the mirror? The one with the red ink scribbles. I think that yellow paper must have some use. Maybe the person in the portrait used to sit by the mirror a lot, so they covered it with the yellow paper with the scribbled symbols. Let's try again. If it doesn't work, we can just retreat honorably."

The fat man glared at me and said disapprovingly, "Watch your mouth. If you want to be glorious, be glorious by yourself. I'm not going to join you. I didn't see that yellow paper when it was thrown away. Maybe that kid took it to play with?"

Disappointed, I turned around and immediately snapped, "Fatty, how can you talk such nonsense? Isn't that yellow paper you're holding?"

The fat man raised his hand in surprise and froze. The yellow paper that had been torn from the mirror was actually stuck to his sleeve. The fat man shook his head and said, "This is really strange! I think I'm possessed. I haven't touched this yellow paper since I tore it off. What's going on?"

I didn't say anything. Of course, Fatty's words were credible. It seems that this dilapidated house and this eerie wardrobe are not only being used to scare people with that portrait, but also with that vicious and insidious "Five Ding Disfigurement Technique".

The yellow paper, resembling scribbles, trembled slightly in Fatty's hand. I grabbed it and examined it. The bright red ink was dazzling, shimmering with a golden luster. Upon closer inspection, it looked like cinnabar dipped in gold powder, the characters winding and unrecognizable. It did resemble a talisman I had once bought, only much larger. Recalling the six strange coffin nails in the cabinet, I began to understand. This thing was probably a corpse-suppressing talisman, prepared for the poor woman in this house who had been skinned alive. Fatty and I had stumbled into a den of wolves, and it seemed unlikely we could escape. Because once you accidentally get involved with a feng shui trap, it won't just disappear on its own.

Holding the yellow paper, I hesitated. The woman in the photo had likely lived here before, and her skinned corpse was probably hidden somewhere underground. Should I stick the yellow paper back on the mirror, or on the wardrobe? Since it was a haunted house, I didn't want to stay a moment longer. Even if the rent was cheap, survival was more important. After thinking for a while, I finally made up my mind and whispered to Fatty, "This talisman has already been torn off the mirror, so sticking it back on probably won't do any good. I'm the bravest and most meticulous guy among us. I'll open the wardrobe door and stick this talisman on the portrait! If it works, we'll burn this broken wardrobe and the portrait together. If it doesn't, we'll run away together. It's just a pity about your color TV; I haven't even had a chance to watch it yet!"

At first, Fatty didn't quite understand and just nodded blankly. I repeated myself, and he finally came to his senses. Touched, he quickly waved his hand and said, "That won't do. Han Yena is such a good girl, and she's still waiting for you wholeheartedly. Leave these speculative matters to me. Don't forget, back in school, I could take on three of you by myself!"

I was moved when I heard that, and choked up as I said, "Fatty, you never forget to give me a good scolding. Okay, it's the Qingming Festival, so I'll burn you a lot of paper money. Don't worry about who's better, just open the cabinet and stand guard. I'm going to stick that portrait on your forehead! Enough said, let's get going." Fatty nodded in agreement after I said all that.

It took us half a day to turn the cabinet so that the side with the door was exposed again. It took another half a day to tear off the tape covering the door. I held the yellow paper, and Fatty pulled the door open with one hand. We were both ready to take off running.

After all that fuss, it was almost six or seven o'clock. The damp, musty smell was getting more and more pungent, and the air in the little house was getting colder. Fatty and I could almost see our own breath in the air when we realized that this first-floor room didn't have any windows. The room was gloomy and dark. I gave Fatty a wink. Waiting until it was completely dark would probably be even more troublesome. Dude, let's go!

I opened the cabinet door, but the nails were still nails, and the portrait didn't stand up menacingly. I found it a bit funny, and wondered if Fatty was being a little too dramatic. I picked up the yellow paper and covered the portrait with it. The thin yellow paper ripped through the coffin nails with a hiss, perfectly covering the woman's face. Without looking back, I retreated to Fatty's side by the door. There was nothing unusual behind me, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The fat man squatted on the ground and threw me a cigarette, then muttered irritably, "You're really scaring people, you're terrifying! You're just talking nonsense. Hurry up and burn this piece of junk. Let's just leave empty-handed and retreat!"