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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter Nine: The Haunted Kiln
The Kiln is about half a mile from the village, situated in a desolate grassy area overgrown with weeds, where no one usually goes before the Kiln was established.
The Kiln is large, with more than a dozen workers busy at their tasks. On one side of the Kiln, there is a worker's shed, and the workers outside informed us that the boss is inside the shed.
Upon entering the first room of the shed, we found a middle-aged man in his forties sitting inside. His surname is Fu, and upon seeing us, he stood up with a smile and welcomed us, saying, "Old Guo, you have arrived. Please come in and sit down."
Although he appeared very polite, I noticed that his smile was merely a courtesy or perhaps forced, as I could easily see that his face was filled with worry, which even his smile could not conceal.
Elder Guo knew Boss Fu, as the land used for the Kiln belonged to Guo Village. When they came to build the Kiln, it was natural for them to negotiate with the Patriarch.
Boss Fu moved two chairs for us and then curiously asked the Patriarch why he had come to this rundown place. The Patriarch replied that he had specifically come to find him.
Boss Fu looked puzzled and asked, "What does Old Guo want from me? Just say it; I will certainly help if I can."
Seeing Boss Fu's enthusiastic and righteous demeanor, the Patriarch did not beat around the bush and directly spoke. He pointed at me and said to Boss Fu, "This gentleman is a very capable Yin Yang Master in our area. He can identify Yin Yang and determine Feng Shui. He mentioned that this Kiln has some issues, so I specifically came here to discuss it with you."
Upon hearing Elder Guo's words, Boss Fu turned his gaze towards me, scrutinizing me up and down. Then he tightly grasped my hand as if he had seen a long-lost father, leaving both me and Elder Guo stunned. We had come seeking his help, hoping he would agree to stop operations at the Kiln and relocate it. However, given his current demeanor, it seemed like everything had turned upside down. Did Boss Fu have something he needed my assistance with?
I asked him if he was facing any troubles at the moment.
Boss Fu nodded and said, "You are impressive; you even noticed that this Kiln has been cursed. That has been troubling me greatly; you must help me!"
Hearing this, I finally realized that something must have gone wrong with the Kiln. This person named Fu thought that Elder Guo had brought me here to help him with his troubles, no wonder he wouldn't let go of my hand!
Understanding this, I asked Boss Fu what exactly had happened at the Kiln. Boss Fu sighed and began to share his worries.
It turned out that shortly after Fu arrived in this village to build the Kiln, strange things started happening. At that time, only one kiln had been built, and they had hired only four or five workers. One night, one of the workers got up to relieve himself and suddenly saw a figure standing in front of the kiln, dressed in all black, facing away from him and completely still.
The worker was curious about who it was at such a late hour, wandering around the kiln instead of sleeping.
Thinking that the shadow in front of the Kiln was one of his coworkers, and since he couldn't sleep anyway, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes to light up but realized he had forgotten his lighter. So he walked over to the person in black, intending to borrow a light.
Soon, the worker reached the back of the figure in black and asked, "Hey, who are you? Why are you out here in the middle of the night?"
However, the figure did not respond and continued to face away from him. The worker felt intrigued and decided to take a look at the person's back in the moonlight, only to realize that this person didn't seem like any of his coworkers. So he said, "Brother, you must be from this village. Do you have a light? Can I borrow one?"
After saying this, the figure in black extended a hand and offered him a box of matches but still did not turn around or speak.
The worker took the match to light his cigarette and returned it. However, he found it strange that this person was so silent. He wanted to see who it was, so he tugged at the person's sleeve to get them to turn around, but they completely ignored him.
Now this worker was puzzled and thought to himself why this person was acting so strangely. He leaned closer to take a look. When he moved to the left, the figure's head turned to the right; when he moved to the right for a better look, the figure turned its head to the left—no matter what he did, it wouldn't let him see its face.
Feeling a bit annoyed, he said, "Hey brother, stop turning your back on me! None of us can sleep; let's share a smoke!"
After saying this, the figure finally reacted and slowly turned its head around. But when this worker saw what the figure looked like, he was instantly terrified...
The other party was not human at all; their face resembled a smooth whiteboard, completely devoid of features—no eyes, nose, or mouth. The flat surface of the face was crawling with disgusting maggots!
The worker was so frightened by this scene that he nearly fainted, exclaiming, "Oh my God, a ghost!" and then he turned and ran wildly into the workers' shed...
The kiln was very close to the shed, and the other workers sleeping inside were awakened by his scream. They saw him rush in like a madman, his face pale.
When everyone asked what had happened, he recounted what he had seen to his coworkers. However, they didn't believe him, so they all ran out of the shed together to look at the kiln. In the end, there wasn't even a ghostly shadow there, let alone a figure in black.
Later that night, the worker developed a high fever. Although he was taken to the hospital and the fever subsided, he became disoriented and startled by every question asked of him; he was completely different from before. Naturally, this worker could no longer stay to work here, causing Boss Fu to lose quite a bit of money over this incident.
If you think this matter ended there, you are mistaken. After finishing this story, Boss Fu began to speak about another incident and immediately broke down in tears, clearly indicating that this second matter was a sorrowful one.
Wiping away his tears, Boss Fu continued. He said that after the incident with that worker, every night thereafter, the workers would hear various noises outside the shed. Sometimes it sounded like footsteps; other times it was voices talking. On one occasion, there was even the loud sound of a suona (a traditional Chinese horn) playing outside the shed, which woke up everyone inside. This noise continued until the crowing of roosters from half a mile away finally silenced it.
The workers could hardly endure such disturbances and believed that this place was too haunted. They feared that if they continued working here, they might meet the same fate as that previous worker. Thus, they refused to stay at the kiln any longer, no matter how much Boss Fu raised their wages.
With no other options, Boss Fu invited a couple of masters to come and take a look. However, when those two masters arrived at the kiln and took one glance around, they simply stated that the hauntings were too severe for them to handle and advised him to move away quickly before leaving without further discussion.
Although Boss Fu was worried, he had invested a significant amount of money into this venture and could not just leave on a whim. He thought to himself that ghosts and deities were merely things people talked about; no one had ever seen them with their own eyes. So he called his younger brother to come help him along with more than ten workers. However, on just the second night after his brother arrived at the kiln, he died!
On his brother's first night at the kiln while eating in the shed, he suddenly grabbed Boss Fu and said, "Brother, why are there so many beggars here at this kiln? They all look so pitiful; why don't we give them some food?"
Boss Fu asked his brother where he saw any beggars while looking outside the shed. Although it was brightly lit by moonlight outside, not a single person could be seen—let alone any beggars.
Little did he know that his brother pointed at the entrance of the work shed and said, "Isn't that it? He's staring right at us." Sigh, they really are pitiful, wearing tattered clothes from who knows what era.
This scared Boss Fu badly. He looked left and right at the entrance his brother pointed to but couldn't see the so-called beggar. So he hurriedly pulled his brother and said, "Bro, don't talk nonsense. Let's eat quickly and mind our own business." He also advised his brother not to wander outside at night.
His brother probably thought Boss Fu was worried that he was new and might get lost alone, so he didn't take his brother's words seriously.
The next evening, his brother suddenly pointed outside the work shed and said to Boss Fu, "Bro, you're lying to me. You said this Kiln is in a remote place, but look outside—there are people everywhere, it's bustling!"
Boss Fu glanced outside; it was still empty. Now he realized there was indeed something wrong with this place because while he could doubt others' words, he couldn't suspect his own brother would lie to him like that. Of course, to avoid scaring his brother, he made up a few words and said those were people from the Village, then hurriedly closed the work shed door, urging his brother to sleep early. Meanwhile, he resolved to move the Kiln once the bricks were fired.
However, that very night, a sudden muffled sound came from the kiln area, waking up the workers and Boss Liu in the shed. Everyone rushed out quickly to find that one of the kilns had collapsed.
Boss Fu was both angry and annoyed, but when he scanned the surroundings, he realized his brother was missing. He began searching for him but couldn't find him no matter how hard he looked.
Two days later, when the temperature of the collapsed kiln cooled down and they started digging it out, they were horrified to discover a body inside. No, it could no longer be called a body; it was a charred skeleton!
Boss Fu recognized the skeleton by a watch on its wrist; it was his missing brother because that watch was a gift from him.
Of course, many speculated afterward why his brother fell into a kiln with temperatures over a thousand degrees. There were all sorts of theories—perhaps his brother heard some commotion outside and went out to check; or maybe he was lured by ghosts that night. In any case, he walked out of the work shed alone and strangely fell into the kiln.
At this point, Boss Fu cried again in sorrow and blamed himself: "It's my fault; it's all my fault. I brought him here. If it weren't for me, he wouldn't have died."
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