Daomu Biji: Restart

"It looks like she’s turned around," I said after taking a deep breath.

"Is it because the two of us aren’t wearing any clothes? This little girl must be in love. Quick, tell her that us two brothers don't like someone who's rotting like that," Fatty said. He then told me to keep walking and not make any trouble. He was certain I must’ve been mistaken.

I’m the one who can see it. You can’t see shit, I said to myself. What right do you have to say this?  

Even though I was still feeling apprehensive, I quickly moved to follow them. I took a few steps forward, but I couldn’t resist the impulse to look back. When I did, I immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

The leather figurine woman had turned again, and this time, I could basically confirm that it was moving.

"Run quickly," I said to Fatty.

The three of us got into running stances as we moved forward, but there really wasn’t a difference in speed because of the water. We eventually got to a spot where I figured we would hardly see the leather figurine woman. I was just starting to calm down when I looked back again.

It was dark behind me, so I moved the candle around to have a look. At that moment, I saw something standing so close behind me that the candle almost hit it.

My whole body broke out in goosebumps when I realized it was the leather figurine woman. I didn’t know when it had come up behind me.

It was still in the same stance as before, but it was really close to me. Not to mention a rotting leather figurine, even a living person would’ve scared me to death at this distance.

I quickly stepped back a few meters and ended up bumping into Fatty. At this time, I noticed that the leather figurine woman’s hands were different from what I had originally thought. The arms weren’t hanging down, but held aloft as if making an offering. The hands themselves were gone, and I figured they had probably rotted away or were broken off. I also noticed something hanging from the curvature of its elbow.

I leaned closer to get a look at it and found that it was a pair of jade Azure Dragon annulus (1). Both of them had a white jade protective layer around them that had oxidized so badly, it was obvious they had been buried here a long time. I didn’t know why they had appeared on this figurine’s arm.

Fatty couldn't see it and asked me, "What's wrong?"

"That leather figurine just now"—I suddenly felt that I shouldn’t say anything to irritate the thing in front of me, so I changed my tune and said—"that beautiful woman figurine is following me for some reason. It has something on its arm."

"Is it a love token? Does it want to give you something?” Fatty asked me. "Don't take it Mr. Naïve. If you do, you’ll be responsible for it and have to buried here together."

Poker-Face couldn’t see it and couldn’t help me, so all I could do was try and analyze it carefully. When I looked closely, I kept feeling that it wasn’t ordinary jade, but more like a pair of ears.

Was it for me? Was the ghost of this buried female figurine acting in good faith and giving us some clues? Or was this female ghost hoping to make some kind of contract with her belongings?

Besides, neither Poker-Face or Fatty could see it. If I did take the proffered items, they might not be able to see what I did.

As I examined the jade carefully, I kept thinking more and more that they really looked like a pair of ears. Maybe they really had something to do with listening to thunder? With the exception of the Thunder God worship, we hadn’t seen anything related to listening to thunder the entire way. This was the first clue I had seen that was actually related to it.

I believed that everything related to listening to thunder was probably in the main tomb chamber, but it was obvious that no one had been there. Uncle Three and the others must have used a very special skill I had never learned to steal the main coffin.

Were these things that looked like ears related to the main tomb chamber?

I looked at the maid who had been buried here and felt some sadness and pity in my heart. It was said that water was a barrier to the existence of the soul, and the reason why those who died in the water became water ghosts was because there was no way they could reincarnate through a medium like that.

I didn’t know why—maybe I was just being weird or it was my intuition—but I couldn’t shake the feeling that she wanted to get something in return for doing this.

After thinking about it, I rubbed my face and gave up on this superstitious idea. My principle was only to apply the appropriate superstition when I couldn’t figure something out. There were some parts in tombs that couldn’t be explained, but most of them did have a plausible explanation. I took a deep breath and said to the leather figurine woman, "I don’t want this, I want something that can help me get out."

With that said, the three of us walked on.

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TN Notes:

(1) Azure Dragon is 1 of the 4 symbols of the Chinese constellations, also known as the Azure Dragon of the East. A jade annulus looks like this:

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Since I can't get onto the stupid VDI at work, here's the chapter I should've posted last night (sorry, I got caught up watching the precious cinnamon rolls in "My Roommate is a Detective" lol)