Flowers of the Departed Souls - Chapter 29

Guangming looked at the person in the coffin. Yes, it was clearly Ke’er, who was confined in the realm of Qingxu.

Moreover, the clothes on her body were exactly the same as the two times he had seen her. Inside her coffin, there was also a very strange jade rod, with a piece of nephrite jade at each end, and a wooden rod in the middle. This jade rod was placed on her abdomen, and her hands gently held the middle of the jade rod.

At this moment, the jade on Chi Ziming’s body suddenly emitted a very strange light. The light shone directly onto the jade rod. The light emitted by the jade pieces at both ends formed a connected triangular shape. Chi Ziming suddenly remembered what his classmate who specialized in jade said: “A complete jade yue, besides the yue itself, consists of the handle (bi), the ferrule (yue), and the cap (dui).” So, this rod and the jade pieces at both ends must be the bi, yue, and dui.

Chi Ziming quickly closed the lid. The light finally disappeared. His heart was still pounding violently. He was genuinely afraid that something might happen. All of this was so baffling, yet Ke’er had not told him that what was imprisoned was only her soul, and her body was still inside this wooden coffin.

Chi Ziming’s doubts grew stronger. Hadn’t she said she was a very ordinary peasant girl? If she was just a peasant girl, why were her clothes so magnificent? Why were there so many burial offerings here, all extremely precious jade stones, and why was the corpse preserved so well with peculiar spices, still so lifelike after thousands of years?

Was she hiding something from him? Was there another hidden reason for making him enter the third near-death state, and was the truth not as she had stated? If she wasn’t deceiving him, she wouldn’t need to lie to him like this.

“What did you see? Were you scared?” Luo Xiaofeng blinked. Chi Ziming snapped back to reality. “Yes… yes, I was a little scared.”

“How was it? Pretty terrifying, right? I’m actually a bit curious, what happens to a person after four thousand years? Is it just a pool of rotten water, or a pile of bones? But I smell a fragrance, a very strong fragrance, Brother Ziming. Is it really a pool of water inside, or a pile of bones? Can you see its appearance clearly?”

Chi Ziming truly didn’t know how to answer. “It’s—it’s a pile of bones. Bones—they look like they have countless holes, and they’re black and gooey, with countless wriggling worms on them. Oh, it’s really too terrifying and disgusting.”

Luo Xiaofeng stuck out her tongue. “Good thing I didn’t look, that’s really disgusting. People, in the end, all turn into a pool of water, returning to the earth.”

Aside from occasionally exhibiting a maturity beyond her years, Luo Xiaofeng was actually still a child at heart, Chi Ziming thought. After all, she was only in her early twenties.

And now, they were both extremely tired, hungry and tired. Chi Ziming found a mat, spread it on the ground, and sat down. Luo Xiaofeng also leaned against him, back to back. Were they just going to sit here and wait for death? Luo Xiaofeng felt extremely uneasy. “Brother Ziming, can I ask you a question?”

“If you have a question, ask quickly, lest you don’t even have a chance to speak later.”

“Why did you want to commit suicide?”

Chi Ziming was startled. “How did you know?”

“I didn’t mean to, but when I was cleaning your room, I saw that bottle of medicine and a suicide note next to it. You won’t blame me, will you? I accidentally read your suicide note. I know your feelings for your ex-girlfriend are still so sincere and deep. Sigh, it’s really a pity; I never thought she would treat you like that. Let’s not talk about that. Let’s be honest, what’s your biggest wish now?”

Chi Ziming thought, Well, she’s seen it, she’s seen it. Life is just like this. “My biggest wish is that my mother forgets me, her son, and lives happily. And—” He paused. “I also hope Yilian—that she can find her way out of her confusion and live happily.”

Luo Xiaofeng sighed. “Actually, you’re quite foolish. If you really died, how could your mother be happy? And it’s impossible for her to forget her own son. As for your girlfriend Yilian, I don’t think she fell in love with another man, but rather became obsessed with that bizarre organization. You should guide her out of her confusion instead of leaving her to her own devices. If you continue to let her go, she might ruin herself because of it.”

This was the first time Luo Xiaofeng and Chi Ziming had spoken so intimately. Chi Ziming felt that what she said made a lot of sense. Yes, how could I be so foolish? Yilian must have gone astray. “But what do we do now? Do we have a choice? If I hadn’t come here to commit suicide, I wouldn’t have come here. If I weren’t here, I wouldn’t have encountered these terrifying incidents. If I hadn’t encountered them, my life might have passed uneventfully. But I feel this peculiar experience has given me a lot of inspiration. Perhaps some things are destined by heaven, beyond our control.”

As he spoke, Luo Xiaofeng had already fallen into a deep sleep, leaning against his shoulder. She was truly tired. Chi Ziming was equally tired, hungry, and exhausted, so he also drifted off to sleep in a daze.

In his dream, he felt himself entering a dark tunnel, alone, holding a flashlight. Water droplets dripped drip-drip-drip on the tunnel walls. The deeper he went, the more a chilling sensation gripped his heart, but he had no choice but to keep going. He saw a shadow, a very large shadow appearing on the wall ahead, like a gigantic human-shaped bat, blocking the light in the passageway. He looked around in terror, but he saw nothing around him. Where did this shadow come from?

At this moment, he realized the shadow was moving, moving at the frequency of normal walking. It seemed to be just a shadow, without any concrete object casting it. But could such a shadow exist in the world? It looked like an invisible person, an invisible person wearing a bat-shaped cloak, but even more like a ghost, a strangely shaped ghost with wings. It was approaching him step by step.

Chi Ziming retreated step by step into the corner. He closed his eyes. If it was misfortune, he couldn’t hide from it. It was just a shadow; how could he evade it? After a while, he heard no movement. He opened his eyes and saw the shadow had already passed him. And at this moment, he saw another shadow walking towards him: one, two, three. They were like countless orderly ghosts, coming one by one in a continuous stream, passing by him, ignoring him.

When the last ghost floated past his eyes, he let out a long sigh. Perhaps, these ghosts were, to him, beings from another world, creatures living in two spaces. They couldn’t sense each other, which was why they had no effect on one another.

At this moment, he saw Ke’er. She was not a blurry shadow, but a clear, concrete person. She held two jade swords and danced, practicing her sword. “Ke’er, Ke’er…”

Chi Ziming softly called Ke’er’s name, but Ke’er, like the shadows, paid no heed to him. He grew a little anxious. Was she also separated from him by two worlds? Were these images merely fragments from thousands of years ago that he could only see but not deeply enter?

Chi Ziming called out again and again. Perhaps his shouts moved the spirits. Ke’er seemed to hear him, became still, and listened intently. “Ke’er, it’s me. Have I entered the third near-death state? Otherwise, how could I see you again?”

Ke’er looked at him steadily, shaking her head. “No, you haven’t. Right now, I have entered your dream, to tell you some facts. Yes, I am not an ordinary peasant girl. I am the daughter of the Fangfeng clan. I originally wanted to conceal my identity, but since you have discovered my tomb, I will tell you the truth.”

Fangfeng clan? The Fangfeng clan from the era of Yu the Great? He remembered “Guoyu: Luyu Xia” (Discourses of the States: Discourses of Lu, Part II) which stated: “In the past, Yu summoned all the gods to Mount Kuaiji. The Fangfeng clan arrived late, and Yu killed and executed him.” There was also an ancient book called “Shuyi Ji” (Records of Strange Things) that recorded that around the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties period, a Fangfeng Temple was built in the Wu-Yue region, and the statues of the Fangfeng clan inside were strange in appearance: “dragon head, ox ears, connected eyebrows and eyes, and feet three zhang long.”

Ke’er continued, “My mother died in childbirth when she gave birth to me. And my father, because he had made outstanding contributions in flood control, it can be said that his efforts were the greatest in controlling the floods at that time. Yu the Great became jealous. When he gathered the feudal lords for a meeting, my father happened to encounter floods on the way and was late because he was rescuing disaster victims. However, Yu the Great, without a word, seized the opportunity to execute my father. In fact, my father already knew that Yu the Great would harm him. He was afraid that I would cause unrest after the incident and also afraid that Yu the Great would harm me, so when I was eighteen, he locked my soul within a divine jade and carefully embalmed my body for preservation, then buried it in the tomb. Everyone else thought I died accidentally. I just never thought that Liangzhu would soon disappear after that. Then the Xia Dynasty appeared, and I also swore eternal enmity with Yu the Great’s descendants, determined to avenge my father’s death.”

“Sigh.” Chi Ziming let out a long sigh. “What year and month was that? What revenge are you talking about? The bones of Yu the Great’s descendants have long rotted away. Who are you going to get revenge on? Just calm down and let me rescue you from this temporal prison. Then, you can be an ordinary modern person. How wonderful that would be.”

Ke’er fell silent, then said, “However, the Departed Soul Flowers are a very powerful flower, both good and evil, existing in our era. They appeared in the sea of Luoyang Village in ancient times. I have always controlled their evil side. Now, their evil power has been strangely released, and they are stranger than before. I am also searching for the reason. The consequences of this release are terrifying; I cannot ignore it. It is being manipulated by a strange power, and I still cannot find the reason. Also, remember, take good care of my coffin and every item in it. If my body is destroyed, I can never return.”

“But, but I’m trapped in the tomb by that old woman. What do I do?”

Ke’er smiled, a somewhat enigmatic smile. “You don’t need to fear her. The tomb has two exits. One is the masked statue, and the other exit switch is beside the largest cong jade, where there is a pattern of a deity-human beast. The switch is on the left eye. You just need to press that eye, and a door will appear. This time, I will save you once. Remember, you still owe me one near-death experience.”

After she finished speaking, Ke’er suddenly vanished, and Chi Ziming also woke up at that moment. He quickly shook Luo Xiaofeng awake, then found the largest jade cong. He saw that the cong was greenish and very large. A jade cong was originally a ritual object used by shamans to communicate with heaven and earth and revere ghosts and spirits, possessing a strong primitive shamanistic color. On each of its four sides, in the vertical grooves, there were composite images of deity-human beast faces carved both above and below. The deity-human in the pattern had an inverted trapezoidal face, eyes with heavy circles, small triangular eye corners on both sides, and a shallow relief of a beast face pattern on its chest and abdomen, with oval convex eyelids and a bridge-shaped forehead. The shallow relief technique, dense intaglio lines, finely polished surface, and unique ornamentation possessed a mysterious beauty.

Chi Ziming, captivated by this jade cong, searched for the eyes of the largest deity-human. Luo Xiaofeng was very confused. “Are you studying jade culture? If you have a chance to get out, do you want to pursue archaeology?”

Chi Ziming ignored her. He found the largest deity-human beast pattern and pressed its left eye with his finger. At this moment, he felt a certain direction shaking violently as if the heavens and earth were trembling. Immediately, a hole slowly opened in the ceiling of the tomb. The sunlight shone down blindingly, making it difficult for them to adapt to the brightness for a moment. Chi Ziming found a ladder inside, set it up, Luo Xiaofeng climbed up first, and then he followed.

When they emerged, the hole slowly closed. It was a stone, fitting perfectly with the tomb. From the outside, it was just an ordinary rock on the mountain. After thousands of years, the entrance was still intact. Chi Ziming truly admired the wisdom of the Liangzhu people of that era.

When their eyes adjusted to the outside light, they found a person standing before them. This person seemed to have been waiting for them for a long time. It was Luo Bozi.