Shen Duo answered the phone and asked, “Dean, have you reviewed the dissection video?”
Two thousand kilometers away, inside a building at the Special Biology Research Institute of Capital University, a cold-faced middle-aged man was staring at the large screen ahead of him.
On it played the footage of the forensic examiner dissecting Liu Bei’s headless corpse. The examiner was dressed in a sterile protective suit, wrapped tightly from head to toe. He picked up the scalpel and cut open the corpse’s chest cavity inch by inch.
Inside, it was overgrown with black hair. The short strands were like stiff spines; the long ones were like human hair. Even the internal organs were unrecognizable, twisted into something like a sea urchin.
The forensic examiner was about to take a sample and place it under the microscope. The instant the scalpel sliced into the organ tissue, the black hair actually climbed upward along the blade.
The examiner was terrified. The scalpel fell into the corpse’s chest cavity.
The corpse, its chest split wide open, suddenly began shaking violently. Fortunately, restraint straps had been fastened around it.
The forensic examiner immediately gestured toward the surveillance camera, refused to continue the dissection, and evacuated the examination room.
The video ended there.
Shen Duo explained, “According to the forensic examiner, these headless corpses are infected with a type of mold. Upward, the mold enters the nasal cavity through the skin and mucous membranes, then infects the eyes and brain. Downward, it enters the lungs through the respiratory tract, and it can also infect the heart through the bloodstream. The mold controls their bodies, the same way horsehair worms control mantises.
“There’s a fungus in the United States called Massospora cicadina. It can eat away a cicada’s rear end and reproduce spores in the cicada’s abdomen. By then, the cicada is already dead, but Massospora cicadina can still control its dead shell, making it seek out mates and copulate, completing transmission. Mold is a kind of fungus. This mold is probably similar to Massospora cicadina. The latter controls dead cicadas; the former controls dead people.”
“You’re saying these corpses have gone moldy from the inside out?”
“More or less.”
The person on the other end of the call sighed. “Is it really some so-called fungus? This thing looks as if it has consciousness of its own. Some people say it is a messenger of the gods. Duo, do you believe that?”
“What kind of god would use something this disgusting as a messenger? Don’t tell me you also believe the city mirage in the Antarctic aurora is the kingdom of the gods.” Shen Duo shook his head. “I am a firm atheist. I believe our science can explain these so-called supernatural phenomena. We cannot explain them for now only because we have yet to open the black box.
“The ‘refraction phenomenon’ Professor Jiang mentioned has already been confirmed. If all of her predictions are accurate, then we truly don’t have much time left. Tomorrow I’ll begin recruiting personnel and prepare to set out. Once we arrive at that place, we’ll know whether there really are gods in this world.”
Shen Duo paused.
“By the way, A-Ze came down the mountain. Did you know?”
“I know.”
“How could he come down? Did all the old masters of the other families agree?”
“Duo, that is not something you should concern yourself with.”
“Dean, I think you should know how dangerous A-Ze is.”
Shen Duo had long since seen through Jiang Ye’s lie. That calm, self-possessed young man would not do something as deranged as dismembering a corpse.
If Shen Duo remembered correctly, Jin Feize had a family history of mental illness, inherited from his mother.
When Jin Feize had just been born, his mother’s schizophrenia flared up. She said Jin Feize had been impersonated by an unclean thing, that the Jin Feize before her eyes was not her real son.
Later, her mental illness grew more and more severe. She even kept insisting that she had killed Jin Feize with a power saw, hidden his head in the refrigerator, hidden his limbs under the floorboards, and buried his body in the garden. But Jin Feize could not be killed. He came back from the dead.
Jin Feize’s father, Jin Ruohai, had no choice but to send her to a psychiatric hospital.
When Jin Feize was ten, he went to visit his mother. An abnormal incident occurred at the psychiatric hospital, and both Jin Feize and his mother vanished into thin air.
It was not until a late night three days later that Jin Feize, covered in blood, appeared alone at his own front door, holding his mother’s severed hand in his arms.
After that incident, the child gradually became abnormal.
The dolls his relatives bought for him were dismembered and hidden in various corners of the house. The household staff told his father that he stayed awake all night, and that even if he did not eat for several days, nothing seemed wrong with him.
Rumors spread through the house. People whispered and gossiped, saying an evil spirit lived inside Jin Feize’s body.
According to the Special Biology Research Institute’s past experience, Jin Feize very likely was no longer Jin Feize.
The higher-ups at the Special Biology Research Institute originally wanted to have Jin Feize humanely destroyed. Old Master Jin held a veto and refused to agree to the proposal even if it killed him. He even hanged himself in front of his son, Jin Ruohai, to force Jin Ruohai to give up the idea.
When Jin Feize was ten, the institute’s higher-ups reached a consensus and sent him to Mount Longhu.
From then on, Jin Feize had lived on the mountain and had never once come down.
“At the funeral of the old Celestial Master of Mount Longhu last April, Ruochu personally visited Mount Longhu and persuaded the heads of the various traditions to let him come down,” Jin Ruohai said. “If any problem occurs while he is down here, then even if the old man hangs himself again, I will approve the euthanasia proposal.”
“Oh?” Shen Duo asked. “I’m very curious. What method did Professor Jiang use to persuade them?”
As far as he knew, the leaders of those religious traditions were each harder than a foul stone in a latrine pit.
They were the inheritors of the lineages humanity had relied on for thousands of years to resist anomalous organisms. In an age without science, their ancestors had used experience to summarize geomancy, divination, and hidden-gate calculation arts in order to deal with unnatural organisms that exceeded common sense.
In 1979, the authorities took the lead in establishing a religious association. Only then had those old men come together, burying old grudges and crossing the barriers of sect and faith to found the Special Biology Research Institute at Capital University. Together, they systematically trained specialized technical and combat personnel.
They were giants of this field and rarely listened to anyone else’s opinion.
If they decided Jin Feize was to spend the rest of his life on the mountain, then not even one hair on Jin Feize’s head could leave it.
The other end of the phone fell silent for a long time.
Then Shen Duo heard Jin Ruohai slowly begin to speak.
*****
It had been a cold, drizzling April.
Zhang Junwu, the one-hundred-and-twenty-year-old Celestial Master of the Celestial Master’s Residence, had ascended to immortality. His coffin was laid in Upper Clarity Temple, and people from all walks of life climbed the cinnabar stairs to bid farewell to the old Celestial Master.
Jin Ruohai went on behalf of the Jin family. His father—the eighty-nine-year-old Old Master Jin—insisted on coming along to send off his old friend, and had bodyguards carry his wheelchair up the mountain.
Several other major religious factions, including Shaolin and Wudang, had already arrived. Some obscure folk groups and reclusive families that had lived in seclusion for years had also sent people to mourn.
What no one expected was that, amid the endless fine rain, a woman in a black coat came up the mountain holding an umbrella.
Behind her came eight steel coffins.
More than thirty burly men stood in the rain and carried those iron coffins to the front of Upper Clarity Temple. Cold rain splashed across the dark, heavy coffin bodies, flashing with a piercing brightness like steel needles.
The woman lifted her umbrella slightly, revealing red lips as vivid as fire and brows and eyes as finely carved as sculpture.
The graceful mountains and waters could not suppress her fierce beauty. She stood in the rain, and though she was dressed entirely in black, she was still like a flower blooming in blazing splendor.
Jin Ruohai heard her speak. Her tone was neither warm nor cold, and her voice passed through the curtain of rain, clear and pleasant to the ear.
“Ruochu greets all the old seniors.”
“Professor Jiang,” a Daoist priest from Wudang Mountain, Zhiheng, stepped forward. He swept a glance over the eight coffins in the rain and asked, “What is the meaning of this?”
Abbot Tanci of Shaolin Temple recited a Buddhist invocation and said, “If I am not mistaken, are these not corpse-pinning coffins?”
Everyone looked at one another, astonishment showing on every face.
In the past, when people died unjustly and violently, common folk, in order to prevent the corpse from finding no peace after death, rising from the coffin, or returning as a revenant, would place scale weights atop the coffin so the violent corpse could not emerge while it lay in mourning.
Later, for convenience, some people used cast iron to forge massive coffins eight inches thick and weighing over a thousand jin, directly sealing the violent corpse inside.
Of course, all of that was superstition.
Nowadays, everyone advocated science. These violent corpses that died but did not decay were classified as “anomalous organisms.”
“Don’t joke around,” Priest Zhiheng said. “Where is there a violent corpse here?”
Jiang Ruochu’s gaze passed through the hall and landed straight on the old Celestial Master’s coffin.
“I do not have spare time for jokes,” Jiang Ruochu said decisively. “Where there are dead people, there are violent corpses.”
Several Daoist priests from the Celestial Master’s Residence were furious. “Nonsense. Our master attained perfect merit. How could he become a violent corpse?”
Standing behind Old Master Jin, Jin Ruohai spoke in a deep voice. “The institute’s research has long shown that the formation of a ‘violent corpse’ has nothing to do with whether one’s merit is perfect. Radiation, drugs, and fungi can all cause deformities in the human body.”
One Daoist priest said, “Dean Jin, our master never consumed alchemical pills. As for radiation, televisions, phones, marble steps, and jade prayer beads all emit radiation. Not only did our master live among these things, so do we. Are you saying we will all become violent corpses too?”
Jiang Ruochu was somewhat impatient. “Why not open the coffin and take a look?”
“The old Celestial Master has already been placed in his coffin. How could we dare disturb his peace?”
Discussion rose throughout the hall.
That Daoist priest stepped out and cupped his hands toward Jiang Ruochu. “Professor, if you came to bid farewell to our master, the Celestial Master’s Residence welcomes you. If that is not your intention, then please leave.”
The woman looked very impatient. “Could you shut your mouth for one minute?”
The Daoist priest flushed with anger. “You—”
Old Master Jin suddenly struck the ground heavily with his cane.
“Quiet!”
Old Master Jin was highly respected, the oldest person present. In their line of work, the older one was, the more authority one had.
The Daoist priest finally stopped talking.
Everyone fell silent.
And in that silence, everyone heard the fine patter of rain, and a faint, nearly imperceptible hissing scratch.
Everyone looked at one another.
The sound grew clearer and clearer. A Daoist priest followed the scratching and walked over, all the way to the old Celestial Master’s coffin. Terror appeared on his face, and he pointed at the coffin.
The Daoist priest who had spoken earlier turned deathly pale. He found someone to bring over an awl and bored a small hole into the coffin wall.
The hole was one inch in diameter, about the size of a copper coin, just large enough for someone outside to peer into the coffin.
He pressed one eye against the hole.
Inside, it was pitch-black. He could see nothing at all.
The scratching sound that had been so close also stopped.
Suddenly, a murky blue-green eye appeared before him, frightening him so badly he fell backward.
“The corpse has changed!” he shouted.
“Why would this happen?” Priest Zhiheng frowned. “Take the corpse back to the institute and dissect it to see what caused it?”
But Abbot Tanci asked, “Professor Jiang, you brought eight corpse-pinning coffins. If you intended to encase the old Celestial Master’s coffin in eight layers, then their sizes should be larger one after another. Yet the ones you brought are all the same size. The remaining seven coffins could not possibly be prepared for us, could they?”
“Abbot, your wisdom is great.” Jiang Ruochu bowed to him. “That is correct. I brought the remaining seven for you.”
Priest Zhiheng’s face alternated between green and white.
Giving someone a coffin was the same as cursing them to die. Especially since the coffins this woman had brought were ominous corpse-pinning coffins. That was equivalent to cursing all of them to find no peace after death.
He was so angry he was about to teach her a lesson, but Tanci pressed down on his shoulder.
With that one press, it was as if a thousand-jin weight had pinned him in place. He could not take even one step.
Tanci asked, “Please speak plainly, madam.”
Jiang Ruochu closed her umbrella and stood beneath the eaves.
Slowly, she said, “Do not ask me why. I do not know the specific reason either. I only know that after all of you die, you will become that kind of thing unless you immediately step down from your positions as leaders. Of course, every family and every tradition needs a leader. As long as someone is the leader, that person cannot escape this calamity.”
Old Master Jin laughed heartily. “It seems someone wants to destroy our lineages.”
“You could put it that way. If you cremate the corpses, you still may not be released. There remains the possibility that you will transform into a quantum state and become lost in a superposition of life and death,” Jiang Ruochu said.
Priest Zhiheng coughed and said, “Professor Jiang, our specialty is philosophy. Liberal arts. Please explain in words we can understand.”
“What I mean is, you may become vengeful ghosts.” Jiang Ruochu took a cigarette case from her shoulder bag. “Excuse me. My craving is acting up. May I smoke?”
“Please go ahead,” Tanci said.
Jiang Ruochu lit a cigarette and exhaled a trailing plume of white mist. Her face was wreathed in the smoke, and that fierce beauty softened.
She continued, “At present, the only method is to bury you in corpse-pinning coffins, then seal the graves with cement. I know this will cause you great pain after death, so I want to make a deal with you.”
“Please speak.”
“I will find the true solution for you, but you must agree to one request of mine.” Jiang Ruochu paused, then said, “I heard the Jin family’s Jin Feize is imprisoned in your Exquisite Pagoda. I hope you will let him out and allow him to come down the mountain with me.”
“This…” Tanci said. “You must understand, the institute has already classified him.”
“I know.” Jiang Ruochu said, “All you old leaders, this is a modern society where science is highly advanced. A wooden tower hung all over with Three Pure Ones bells cannot suppress mental illness. I will have him take medicine, see a psychologist regularly, and experience the love and peace of the world.
“I guarantee he will not go onto the street and hack people up, set fire to a shopping mall, take drugs and drag-race, or have group sex in a KTV. Let him out. Ten years from now, I will give you the answer.”
“He may not necessarily listen to you,” someone warned her.
Jiang Ruochu shrugged. “To be honest, the decision is yours. After all, the people who will find no peace after death are not me. Decide for yourselves.”
Tanci sighed and said meaningfully, “Professor Jiang, you were not this impolite before. You have changed a great deal. I remember that you never smoked. I have heard a rumor that you were possessed by a ghost.”
Jiang Ruochu smiled. “What, do all you seniors plan to exorcise me?”
The people in the hall looked at one another, their expressions complicated.
“We roughly know where you come from. If you are the one leading this operation,” Tanci said solemnly, “then we accept your deal.”