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墨書 Inktalez
After Lin Minyou was released from prison, he settled in a small town in the northern part of Nangyun City. The town was not large, but it had everything one might need. We drove there, following the navigation, and arrived at this little town where Lin Minyou lived at No. 15 Yunde Town. However, when we got there, the door to No. 15 was tightly locked, and there was no one inside. Looking through the glass window, we saw nothing unusual.
As we observed, a crowd had gathered around us without us noticing, including several elderly people in their seventies and eighties. They were speaking in a dialect we couldn't understand. Soon enough, many people had gathered, and just then, we heard Mary speaking in the same dialect.
It turned out that these elderly folks were suspicious of our sneaky behavior and were unsure of our intentions. The following conversation was later relayed to us by Mary.
"What are you doing here in Yunde Town? Who are you looking for?" several elderly people asked.
Mary replied, "We are looking for Lin Minyou; he is our friend, and we have something to ask him."
"Lin Minyou?" the elders responded. "So you are friends of Minyou! He should be at the temple on the back mountain." With that, one of the younger men volunteered to lead us there. Although I couldn't understand their conversation, upon hearing Lin Minyou's name, the previously cautious crowd suddenly became warm and welcoming. It seemed that Lin Minyou held a certain respect in this town.
The young man led us up Yun De Mountain. After walking along a mountain path for a while, stone steps appeared before us. The young man informed us that these stone steps had been laid by Lin Minyou himself. I counted them; there were ninety-nine steps before a modest temple came into view. The temple door was open, and even before entering, we could hear the sound of a wooden fish being struck and faint chanting within. As we stepped inside, we found only three rooms; directly opposite us sat an elderly man with white hair on a meditation cushion, striking the wooden fish.
"Lin Minyou?" Yan Junde said in disbelief. Twenty years ago, Lin Minyou was thirty; now he was only fifty but looked as if he were eighty with his head full of white hair and deep wrinkles, some spots even showing signs of age. Despite his appearance, it was undoubtedly Lin Minyou; we couldn't fathom what had happened over the years to age him so rapidly.
Upon hearing someone call his name, Lin Minyou paused his rhythmic striking of the wooden fish before continuing again. We took this moment to observe the room: a three-meter-tall statue of Buddha stood in the center flanked by two smaller statues—one wielding a sword and the other holding a whip—both made of iron and appearing quite sharp.
After a long while, he slowly placed the wooden fish on the table and stood up to scrutinize us closely before saying, "You are here to ask about that incident from twenty years ago, right? You are police officers."
I was surprised by Lin Minyou's keen observation; within such a short time, he had discerned our identities and intentions. I nodded and replied, "Yes, we have come to inquire about that case from twenty years ago as well as the curse related to Baili Village."
"Has that curse begun again?" Lin Minyou trembled slightly at this news. He then closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath before raising his voice: "What a sin! What a sin! This matter was our fault, but why is it that after more than twenty years, you still cannot find peace?" As he spoke, Lin Minyou knelt heavily on the ground and began to strike his forehead against the floor repeatedly. We rushed forward to support him, but blood still flowed from his head.
None of us expected Lin Minyou's reaction to be so intense. Juan Juan hurriedly bandaged him, and Lin Minyou, looking despondent, said, "I know it will eventually come for me. It's only a matter of time. Most of those who knew about this are already dead. I don't know how much you all understand, but there's something I haven't told anyone."
We exchanged glances and helped Lin Minyou sit down. He spoke slowly and softly, "On the day we buried the body, the four of us, along with about ten villagers, were all present. When the body was thrown into the pit, her arms suddenly lifted as if she were trying to rise from the dead. Everyone there was startled."
As he spoke, we could still feel Lin Minyou trembling; the fear from that year had persisted into today, twenty years later. Even praying to gods had not diminished it in the slightest. He continued, "I was standing right next to her. Her eyes never closed; it seemed like she was staring at us. Ma Weishan picked up a stone and threw it in, breaking her arm, and then the others continued to fill the pit with dirt."
"She must have died with her eyes open! After such an incident, the four of us definitely couldn't stay in the village any longer. The next evening, I brought some paper money to atone for my sins, but when I arrived at the place where we buried her yesterday, I found that the pit we thought was filled had been dug up again, and the body was gone! She has turned into a Vengeful Spirit, waiting to take our lives!" He continued to shiver as he said, "The body is missing; she crawled out of that pit!"
A corpse actually crawled out of a grave! Such an unbelievable thing could happen? I quickly asked, "Could it be that you saw wrong or that someone moved the body?"
"Impossible! I watched the other three families leave!" Lin Minyou insisted. "None of them went there. As for the other villagers, I don't think anyone would do such a thing. She crawled out by herself; she must have been born under an ominous sign. That night she saw moonlight. A wise person told me that no matter where I run to, she will follow me. The only way to dispel this is to always keep a green lamp nearby."
As he spoke, he suddenly sat up straight and began chanting Buddhist scriptures again while striking a wooden fish drum in his hands, ignoring anything we said. I frowned; what exactly was the background of that girl who was murdered twenty years ago? And as Lin Minyou mentioned, where did her body go?
Juan Juan said, "There's a question I've asked before: can we still find that girl's remains from twenty years ago? The sudden lifting of her arms can be explained medically; after death, the nerves in the body do not completely die off and can respond to external stimuli. It's theoretically possible for an arm to lift due to muscle contractions as well. But I absolutely refuse to believe that a corpse could crawl out of the ground!"
It seemed this issue was gaining importance. As we were leaving, we ran into several elders from the town. Mary greeted them briefly in dialect. Once back in the car, Mary said, "I just chatted with those elders for a bit; they said Lin Minyou goes to the temple every day to teach them about Buddhism and even gives them vegetables and fruits he grows on Mountain. Whenever something happens in town, Lin Minyou is always there to help. They all say he's a great benefactor."
Yan Junde said while driving, "What's done is done; no matter what we do now, we can't repay the debts from back then."
Juan Juan nodded and said, "If you don't do anything wrong, you won't fear ghosts knocking at your door at midnight. Just look at how scared he was earlier; it's no wonder he seems like he's fifty but acts like he's eighty. It seems he hasn't had a good night's sleep in ages. One wrong deed can haunt a person forever—especially crimes!"
I sighed and said, "What you said is quite true. However things were in the past, the law has already punished him; his conscience has been condemning him all along. If he truly repents under that ancient lamp and Buddha's gaze, then perhaps ending this life would be enough."
Looking back through the car window at the Mountain, I saw the lush trees growing abundantly, and faintly, I could make out the small paths and stone steps winding through the hills, gradually disappearing from my view. Inside the car, I called Director Wang. He informed me that the body from that time was certainly no longer available; it had already been cremated. However, there were photos taken before the cremation, though he wasn't sure if they would be of any use.
Juan Juan examined the photos closely and reached a shocking conclusion: this body was not that of the girl. If the records were correct, Juan Juan deduced from observing the woman's pelvis in the photo that she had given birth. This left only two possibilities: either the girl from back then had indeed given birth, or this body was not the original one.
Considering what Lin Minyou had said, the second possibility seemed quite likely. This raised a new question: as Juan Juan pointed out, a body couldn't just crawl out of the ground by itself; someone must have dug it up. Who could that person be? What connection did they have to this curse case? Why had a case from twenty years ago continued to linger until now? One claimed it was a case of poison murder, while another said a corpse crawled out of the earth. In any case, no one seemed to approach this matter with a scientific perspective. Nevertheless, it was indeed strange; otherwise, why would someone commit suicide?
"If this isn't that girl's body, then where did her body go? Who swapped it?" I posed these two questions, and everyone fell into silence.
At that moment, several detectives walked in from outside. One of them spoke up, "Another suicide has occurred in Baili Village. The officers at the station have already rushed to the scene."
Director Wang gritted his teeth and said, "How can there be another one?" He then looked at us and added, "Let's hurry and take a look."
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