Flowers of the Departed Souls - Chapter 8

Chi Ziming opened his room, finding it empty. Where was Ge Jianliang? Hadn’t he been assigned to the same room as him? Where could he have gone? Could he have done something desperate, or perhaps, like the previous two guests, met with an unfortunate end?

At this thought, his heart pounded violently. Had he gone to the room where Zhong Dan’s body lay? The thought sent shivers down his spine, as he really didn’t want to see Zhong Dan’s gruesome corpse again. He searched all the rooms in the inn, but Ge Jianliang was nowhere to be found. Finally, he came to that room’s door, softly called Ge Jianliang’s name, and pushed the door open.

The faint light from the corridor dimly illuminated the room. Zhong Dan’s two large, empty eye sockets seemed to stare straight at him, as if they had been waiting for him for a long, long time. This peculiar gaze sent shivers through him, making his teeth chatter slightly. “Ge, Ge Jianliang, are you there?”

He surveyed the entire room. Clearly, there was no living person here, nor a third dead person. He was eager to retreat, but then he felt Zhong Dan’s eyes suddenly seem to move. At that moment, he felt everything around him still. Time ceased to flow, even his own breathing seemed to stop, and only Zhong Dan’s terrifying face expanded endlessly.

He shook his head. No, he must have been mistaken. How could that be? Looking closer, the eye sockets really were moving. He felt his heart leap into his throat. He rushed out the door, running to the staircase, feeling no movement behind him. Thinking it over, something wasn’t right. Was Zhong Dan still alive? If she really was alive, he couldn’t just ignore her. No, as someone who wasn’t even afraid of death, how could he be afraid of a corpse? He had to go back and see what was going on, maybe she really was still alive.

Chi Ziming returned to the room once more. This time, he thought of turning on the light. There was indeed something crawling in the socket, but it was just a small mouse. The mouse squeaked as it crawled out, its fur matted with dark red bloodstains in patches.

He let out a heavy sigh. He had been quite frightened just now. But then, he became puzzled again. Where had Ge Jianliang gone? He wasn’t in the inn; where else could he be?

Could he have gone to the seaside? As he rushed out the inn door, he bumped into someone. He thought it was Ge Jianliang and quickly helped him up. “I finally found you.”

But looking closely, it was the old man with a slight limp, named Luo Bozi. “Old man, why are you here?” Indeed, he hadn’t been able to find him anywhere in the village, yet now he appeared here.

“I heard something else happened here?”

Chi Ziming nodded. “Yes, another female guest committed suicide, and her husband is now missing.”

“How could this be? Should we go look for him together?”

“That would be great. You’re familiar with this place, but—are you able to move around easily?”

Luo Bozi knew what he meant. He patted his thigh and said, “I’m fine. It’s from polio when I was little. Now it’s just a little shorter. Young people might not even keep up with me when I walk.”

Chi Ziming smiled, and they went to the seaside. However, the seaside was empty and silent. Chi Ziming was very worried. “He wouldn’t have given up and jumped into the sea to commit suicide, would he?”

Luo Bozi gazed at the sea, his eyes becoming deep and melancholic again. “Do you know, Luoyang Village has an ancient secret. Every time someone dies here, a cluster of flowers floats in from the sea. These flowers resemble roses, but they are even more delicate, more enchanting, and more crimson, as if nurtured by fresh blood. We call them ‘Flowers of the Departed Souls,’ because their appearance indicates that a soul is about to drift away with them. It is said that the Flowers of the Departed Souls are sacred flowers that carry souls to the other shore, so that wandering spirits no longer roam aimlessly with nowhere to settle. In these three days, I’ve seen two clusters. The flowers arrive here, as if beckoning, summoning away the deceased. Someone once claimed to have seen a soul, a shadow-like thing, drift away from a deceased person, slowly float towards the sea, then embrace the Flowers of the Departed Souls, and drift to a very, very distant place with these beautiful flowers. But now, you see, they’re not here, although the scent of flowers is very strong. Oh, that’s the scent of death. The stronger the scent, the closer death comes, closer and closer…”

As he spoke the last few words, Luo Bozi repeated them incessantly in a dream-like tone, making Chi Ziming also feel that scent, rushing towards him like a spring breeze, yet also floating eerily like a dream, drifting closer, closer.

Flowers of the Departed Souls? What an eerie name, what eerie flowers, and what a beautiful appearance? But at this moment, Chi Ziming temporarily had no interest in dedicating too much passion to it. “So, Ge Jianliang isn’t dead yet, right?”

Luo Bozi nodded. “If the curse isn’t broken, that should be the case.”

“Curse? What curse?”

“This is Luoyang Village’s secret. Outsiders cannot know it, otherwise—they will die terribly. There’s a well-known saying that this village was cursed by a God of Death in black, and people here will die abnormally, one by one. Therefore, people who leave Luoyang Village are generally unwilling to return. And the Flowers of the Departed Souls are plants cultivated by the God of Death; they are his only act of mercy.”

“I’m a little confused. If people who know this secret die terribly, then what kind of secret is it? Could Xia Yimin’s and Zhong Dan’s deaths also be related to this secret? Or rather, did they suffer death because they discovered this secret?”

Luo Bozi gave him a meaningful look. “The closer you get to this secret, the closer you are to your death. We’d best not talk about this anymore. Let’s not discuss it, let’s continue looking for the person.”

Chi Ziming nodded, thinking, this village, does it really harbor some terrible secret, even more terrifying than the legend of the God of Death? This matter was becoming increasingly bizarre. The deeper he delved, the more he plunged into an ever-thickening fog, eventually losing even his last shred of direction.

“Old man, do you think Ge Jianliang is in danger? Why are the people who’ve had accidents these past few days all outsiders, and all staying at the inn? Has nothing like this happened in the village itself?”

“No, the number of abnormal deaths in the village has always been high. Basically, people here either die or leave for other places. You’ve already noticed, haven’t you? You’ve walked all over the village and only seen a sparse few people.”

Chi Ziming nodded. “What’s the reason for this?”

The old man patted his shoulder. “If I knew, I probably wouldn’t be standing here.”

Chi Ziming didn’t understand. “What do you mean?”

“It means I might have gone with them.” Chi Ziming found it increasingly strange. Was this village really that evil? Was it truly cursed, or controlled by an unseen evil force? Chi Ziming recalled this beautiful seaside, the primitive and ancient village, and the continuous cliffs and precipices behind it. It looked so marvelous and beautiful, as if crafted by the divine. He and Cai Yilian had loved it when they first visited. Now, he remembered that people were so sparse in this village, both then and now. Moreover, most people who saw him would run into their homes and close their doors. Luo Xiaofeng was also difficult to approach at first. The only ones who felt different to him were Luo Xiaofeng’s grandmother and this hunchbacked old man in front of him. Another big question was, he truly couldn’t see a single flower here. Was it only because of winter? Was this village, like the barren fishing village in Márquez’s writing, a place where the soil couldn’t grow flowers? But that was just fiction. Yet, a similarly strange fishing village was laid out before him, and it held even more sensational and soul-stirring legends, along with terribly dead suicides.

Chi Ziming had too many doubts in his heart. Following Luo Bozi, he climbed over a mountain, but still couldn’t find Ge Jianliang. It was so dark. Chi Ziming was getting anxious. “What do we do? He’s nowhere. He wouldn’t just disappear without a trace, would he? Could he have gone home?”

Luo Bozi shook his head. “This village, whether by water or mountain, is far from the main road. There are no passenger buses in the village, and the boats don’t operate at night. So, he shouldn’t be leaving here for now. Oh, by the way, could he have gone to Illusion Cliff?”

“Illusion Cliff? What does that mean?”

“People who enter there get lost and often can’t come out. They’ll experience hallucinations, all sorts of hallucinations, like dreaming, and they’ll go insane. Even if they do come out, they’ll become mentally ill. The village idiot here, he became this呆呆傻傻 (dāidāishāshā -呆- dull-witted, silly) way because he went to Illusion Cliff. Geologists once came to investigate and said there’s a large amount of radiation there that causes people to go insane and hallucinate. Once they go insane, they’ll perform all sorts of unbelievable actions and deeds. That area is currently strictly forbidden to enter. If Ge Jianliang accidentally went in there, we’re in trouble.”

“We’ve searched so many places, and we outsiders aren’t familiar with this area. Did he really go in there?”

Just as he was speaking, Chi Ziming suddenly saw a black figure flash by not far from him, passing through the small woods. Soon, it was out of sight, but then, it reappeared at the other end of the woods. Chi Ziming found this person very suspicious and shouted loudly, “Hey, stop!”

But the black figure ran incredibly fast, so he chased after him, following closely. The black figure climbed over one hillside after another, then suddenly disappeared, like a bird sweeping across. Chi Ziming stopped, gasping for breath, and looked around. The man in black was nowhere to be seen. A man in black? Could he be the legendary God of Death?

He suddenly felt light-headed, his whole body beginning to feel disoriented. His vision also became a bit blurry. What was wrong? What was happening? He tried hard to shake his head, but then he heard laughter, many, many people laughing. The entire valley was filled with all sorts of eerie, unrestrained laughter: men, women, old people, and children. It was as if many people were laughing wildly at him, yet he was like a bird trapped in a cage with its eyes covered by a black cloth. They could watch him and mock him shamelessly, but he couldn’t see them.

At this moment, he unbelievably saw a person walk out of the gloomy woods. His hand was clutching his stomach, laughing continuously. Gray hair, wearing thick-rimmed glasses, “Dad!”

Oh my god, wasn’t that his father? But his father had died when he was fifteen! What shocked him was not just this. He also saw his uncle, grandfather, eldest uncle, the aunt next door, and her drowned son. My god, these people, these people, hadn’t they all died long ago? What was going on? Where was this place? Why were all these people dead? Had he stumbled into the Underworld?

No, no, how could this be? He kept backing away, then turned and ran, but his head hit a hard signboard. He fell to the ground because of the force. As he clutched his forehead and read the words on the signboard, his eyes widened considerably.

There were two very large red characters: ILLUSION CLIFF.