Part 2
Jiang Si: “Definitely not. The only way for a Yinchang ghost to break free from its shackles is to find its corpse. Once the corpse is found, he will be naturally liberated.”
“Holy crap, that sounds pretty tragic.”
Jiang Si glanced at him. “Every bone in his body was crushed, and even his head was cut off. Otherwise, his body wouldn’t be this flexible, and his head wouldn’t fall off just like that.”
Fortunately, the ritual paper he brought hadn’t burned out, and some white liquor remained. Jiang Si lit the white candle and burned the rest of the paper clean.
Having received the money, Uncle Li recovered a bit of his logic. He clutched the pile of joss money, refusing to let go, shielding it tightly in his arms.
“A Yinchang ghost has a pathological obsession with money. As long as they see money, they don’t care about anything else.” Jiang Si sighed. “It hasn’t been easy for him.”
Old Wang spoke up quietly: “The way you say it… who doesn’t love money?”
Let alone a ghost, even humans find it hard to quit their love for money, right?
“…” Jiang Si was speechless.
Seeing it getting later and later, the dark blue sky was filled with rolling clouds, obscuring some of the moonlight. The world suddenly grew dim.
Jiang Si didn’t need to check the time to know that Bai Qiniang and the other ghosts would be arriving soon. It would be a hassle if they all bumped into each other. He had to resolve the matter of the Yinchang ghost as quickly as possible.
He asked: “Can you tell me your story now? If you want to leave this place, I can help you. If you want justice, I can also call the police.”
“I—”
Uncle Li clutched the money and slowly raised his head, but tears flowed before he could speak. By the time he opened his mouth to say the second sentence, his face was already covered in tears.
Even Jiang Si was startled. A ghost had left its physical body, yet it could still shed tears.
“I was indeed a worker here. You ask where my body is? I tell you, every inch of ground you stand on contains my body. I am already inseparable from these buildings; I am a part of them.”
Following his words, the night wind rose, picking up the paper ash and sending it swirling through the air like fluttering butterflies, carrying him back thirty years.
At the end of the last century, everything was thriving, and the national industrial development was in a state of fervent upward momentum.
Uncle Li only had a middle school education. Though not very cultured, he was steady and hardworking. He spent over a decade at the textile factory.
Most of the workers here were female, doing work related to weaving. Naturally, Uncle Li, as one of the few males, was assigned to the boiler room to do the more arduous labor.
He was quite satisfied with this. At least he had a way to feed himself; as long as the factory was there, he had an “iron rice bowl.”
Until a rainy night.
Because he had drunk a couple of extra cups of liquor at lunch, he had napped for an extra half-day in the dormitory. When he woke up, he found the sky was already dark. Realizing he hadn’t started the fires yet, he hurriedly rushed to the boiler room.
From the dormitory to the boiler room, there was a small path through a banyan forest. It was said that before the factory was built, this area was a vast banyan forest. Later, due to development, ninety percent of the trees were felled, leaving only this small patch. The factory had strictly forbidden wandering into the forest, with heavy fines for anyone caught.
Uncle Li was in a hurry. Thinking no one would see him, he took the path anyway. He walked very fast, not paying any attention to his surroundings. It wasn’t until he was deep inside that he realized something was wrong.
In the quiet forest, besides him, there was a person in black. He was using a shovel to dig a hole, one strike at a time, seemingly burying something.
The liquor had gone to Uncle Li’s head, and before he could think, he blankly walked over and greeted: “Hey, what are you doing? Do you need a light?”
The person in black was startled and suddenly turned around to face Uncle Li.
In that instant, Uncle Li clearly saw the person’s face and what they were doing.
In the half-meter-deep pit, a large bag had been thrown, and through the opening, dense piles of cash were exposed.
Crap—
His brain, clouded by alcohol, instantly cleared. Uncle Li knew he had stumbled upon someone’s secret. In this pitch-black place where no one else was around, the other person would definitely not let him go.
So, without a word, he turned and bolted.
Seeing him run, the person in black hurriedly followed with the shovel.
Uncle Li ran blindly into the depths of the forest, tripping over protruding banyan roots again and only again. In the end, he couldn’t escape the pursuit of the man in black.
He still remembered being hit in the head by the shovel that day. As he lay on the ground trembling, he looked up and saw the hazy moon hanging in the treetops.
After two more strikes with the shovel, Uncle Li had no strength left to resist. He allowed the man in black to drag him like a dead dog into a nearby abandoned house.
The house was devoid of light. He thought he would be killed quickly, but he didn’t expect the man in black to have another plan.
The month he was locked up was the most painful month of his life. The bones in his body were gradually crushed until he lay on the ground like a puddle of mud.
Uncle Li begged him to give him a quick end.
The man in black demanded that he agree to guard his wealth after death.
Uncle Li had no choice but to agree. He thought the death he faced would be a direct stabbing or poisoning by the man.
He never expected he would be taken back to the boiler room.
The man in black stuffed him into a burlap sack and placed him by the glowing, coal-filled furnace. With a gentle push, he sent him inside.
At temperatures of several thousand degrees, not even a trace was left of a living person. Moreover, the investigative techniques back then were not nearly as advanced as they are now.
In the month Uncle Li went missing, it wasn’t that no one was curious. But at some point, a rumor started that he had run off to hide from gambling debts.
He had no children and no family; there wasn’t even anyone to insist on a police report after he died.
The missing person case simply went unresolved.
The original factory workers all left, and even the factory buildings were torn down and rebuilt. That banyan forest had long ago become a sacrificial offering to urbanization.
Everything was flowing on incessantly, leaving only him trapped here.
Jiang Si sighed. “Do you know who the man in black was?”
“I know.” Uncle Li lowered his head and rubbed the money in his hands. “But even if I tell you, you won’t find him.”
“?”
“Things are different now. The net of justice has a large mesh, but it lets nothing through. Even if he ran to the ends of the earth, he shouldn’t dream of escaping legal punishment,” Old Wang said indignantly.
Uncle Li glanced at him, his tone strange. “He’s long dead.”
“That man was our factory director. At the beginning of the century, he was caught for corruption and sentenced to death by firing squad. By now, the grass on his grave is probably several meters high.”
“…” Jiang Si and Old Wang looked at each other, speechless.
Indeed, they couldn’t exactly drag the man out and lash his corpse.
“Wait, but what about me? I’m innocent! I have no grievance with you, so why did you chase me all the way home?” Old Wang said. “Don’t you like money? I’ll burn a lot more for you, so just let me go! I’m really not interested in those photos.”
Uncle Li ignored him, tilted his head to look at Jiang Si, and said in a raspy voice: “Does what you said still count? I don’t want to stay here anymore.”
When Bai Qiniang arrived, Jiang Si was sitting on the stairs with a cigarette in his mouth, playing with his phone. Based on the length of the cigarette, he had likely been waiting for a while.
For no reason, she felt a moment of guilt. She had been having so much fun out playing today that she forgot the time. She’d probably get another scolding from Jiang Si.
Approaching with a sense of unease, Bai Qiniang greeted him in a low voice, “Jiang Si.”
“Mhm. Wait a moment,” Jiang Si said without looking up.
“?” Bai Qiniang couldn’t believe it and couldn’t help but look at the phone he was playing with.
The familiar green screen showed Jiang Si’s fingers dancing rapidly across the keyboard. In a few seconds, he finished a long paragraph and sent it.
Looking at the contact name… mhm, no name.
Taking advantage of Jiang Si being unable to see her, Bai Qiniang openly peeked at the screen. She found that what Jiang Si was saying was all incomprehensible business.
Words like “Picking bones” and “Finding graves” made her lose interest. Just as she was about to look away…
Jiang Si typed two more words: Love you.
Bai Qiniang let out a sharp intake of breath, craned her neck to see more, and was about to look further when she found the phone screen suddenly went dark, reflecting a familiar face.
Jiang Si turned his head expressionlessly, took the cigarette out of his mouth, and said one word at a time: “Do you believe me when I say I will really stew you?”
Translator’s Note: Talk about a tragic back-story! Uncle Li was a victim of corruption and a gruesome murder. In Chinese culture, being burned to ash with no remains left is a very “unlucky” way to go, as there is no body to bury. Also, a “Silver Chang” (Yinchang) is a particularly sad existence, as they are forced to guard money that isn’t even theirs. But on a lighter note—our cold and aloof Jiang Si actually texted “Love you” to someone (most likely Hai Di)! The romance is finally blooming. Thanks for sticking with me through this arc! See you in the next one!
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