It had been raining for several hours. It was 3:00 a.m. now. The sky was filled with torrential dark clouds and rumbling thunderstorm.
At this time, w.a.n.g Xu suddenly put on his raincoat, grabbed an iron hoe, walking out of the door and heading to the cemetery next to his lodging house.
The digging started like that.
Meanwhile, the suburban was still as usual. There were no vehicles travelling on the street, and obviously no pedestrians. Under this deluge of rain, even if there were people around, they still could not see what he was doing if they stood ten meters away from him. Nor he was a human being or a ghost.
At this moment, w.a.n.g Xu was very upset. It was not because he had just read some novels like Ghost Blows out the Light and wanted to be rich by stealing things from the tomb; actually, he was doing this begrudgingly. In fact, he had just moved to the lodging house near this cemetery for only three days. The first thought in his mind was: "Rental fee of the lodging house next to the cemetery should be very low. Anyway, I am a materialist and also a homebody who just needs to start at the computer all day long. In my free time, would I look out of the window and shout out loud my life ideals? I don"t care if it is a cemetery!"
Then, something happened that night, specifically at 00:00 by midnight. By that time, while w.a.n.g Xu was surfing the Internet on his computer, he heard constant heartbeats outside the window. Lub-dub, lub-dub… This sound gradually echoed inside the house with neither fast nor slow speed. At first, w.a.n.g Xu thought it was because he had been online for so long that he misheard it. He turned off the light to go to bed. However, as soon as he lied down on the bed, that sound once again resounded in his head. Moreover, it was even clearer than before. It was surely the heart beats.
w.a.n.g Xu felt his throat was dry as his body soaked in cold sweat. Outside his house was a cemetery and there were no other houses nearby. If we did not press our ear against one"s chest, there was no way to hear heartbeats. So, what was happening?
Finally, a materialist like him found a clever solution for it, which was taking a sleeping bill and ignoring it…
The next day, when w.a.n.g Xu woke up, it was already noon.
He suffered a splitting headache while starting the homebody"s work, which was to be online, then eat, then online again, then eat again…
[This translation’s copyright belongs to The Invincible Ladies and Wuxiadream.com]
Soon it was midnight again.
That sound echoed once more time. His nerves were totally collapsed. At this night, he lied down on the bed with his eyes wide-opened, using his cell phone and his old radio alternatively to record that sound for a long time. If w.a.n.g Xu could have evidence to prove that sound"s existence, he would have a satisfactory explanation for it. This was his final reasoning and the feeble light to save his life.
In the morning of the third day, w.a.n.g Xu"s eyes were bloodshot. He did not really know when that sound had stopped. He did not even know whether he had had a wakeful night or not. The only thing he remembered was there was only his breath recorded in the recorder.
w.a.n.g Xu turned on the cell phone, pressing the record b.u.t.ton one more time.
"If I hear this record and remember I do this, I do not mishear or have a mental illness. Anyway, the recorder is working normally."
After playing this record twice, he let out a long sigh before going out to buy a hoe.
The cemetery in front of him had been there even before the revolution time. There was no manager. Some graves did not even have gravestones. As soon as w.a.n.g Xu bought a hoe, he immediately went to the center of the cemetery, clenching his teeth and said: "Bunch of old yet still alive there, you dare to disturb this homebody! You would have soon had awareness of being reincarnated. I"m telling you, the creature like homebody only needs to close the door to be able to enter a totally different universe. Completely different universe! Do you understand? Tonight, anyone who dares to make that sound lub-dub lub-dub again, I will not leave you alone. I will come here again and exhume your tombs".
w.a.n.g Xu was very aggressive, trying to show a fierce complexion. After cursing for a while, he told himself that his words were very intimidating. As as result, he did not even finish his words, a lightning struck down from the sky, which almost made him fall down in fear.
Luckily that he did not fall down. He adjusted his clothes, clasped his hands behind his back and swaggeringly walked back to his lodging house.
Well, we don"t know who could see him pretending like that. Anyway, he successfully scared the old man selling watermelons across the street. From what the old man saw, this neighbor impulsively gesticulated with a hoe in his hand in the middle of the cemetery. He almost called 110. [1]
In fact, a guy who had little social experiences like w.a.n.g Xu could only do something like that. They thought they could solve anything on their own. That was why w.a.n.g Xu did not even go to his neighbors to check for it. He only needed to talk to Mister Zhang who sold watermelons across the street, he would have a lot of information. For example, this cemetery was not very big but it had been once a mansion of a family in Qing dynasty. Later, this mansion had been burned to ashes by a sudden conflagration, turning to a fallow since then. In the next thirty years, a person built a European-style villa on that land. This person was the former owner of the lodging house that w.a.n.g Xu was staying now. During the Resistance War, this villa was used by the command of the army for several years. The cemetery nearby had been formed in those years.
If it were an innate genius, who was a handsome playboy with n.o.ble aura or something, moved here, he would have perhaps a.n.a.lyzed many useful things from that information. Regretfully, our w.a.n.g Xu was just a normal homebody. Talking about something that he was doing better than others, it would be babbling.
Then, in that rainy night, w.a.n.g Xu dug the soil like a crazy man. It seemed the rain wanted to help him. The hoe quickly stuck deep into the soil as soon as it touched it. The exhumation should have been very difficult with the slim body of w.a.n.g Xu. However, it did not consume much of his strength.
The heart beats were still there. The sound echoed in his head, even covering the ears would not help at all. It was even louder in the heavy rain.
It seemed the sound was turning up from underneath the soil.
There should not be any tomb under the ground, instead, it was something else.
[This translation’s copyright belongs to The Invincible Ladies and Wuxiadream.com]
w.a.n.g Xu was digging crazily. He forgot his fear; instead, he was very wrathful and kept cursing: "That stupid thing, do you want to die or not? You are buried deep down under the ground, yet still keep beating nonstop. You totally didn"t care about other"s feeling, did you? Hm, let see how I suffocate you".
Upon his words, he stopped talking in sudden as the iron hoe touched a hard object. w.a.n.g Xu"s first thought was it should be bones. However, after he dug it out and had a close look, the flashlight nearly fell out of his mouth.
"Ahhhhh ha ha ha"
While holding the flashlight in his mouth, w.a.n.g Xu foolishly laughed in a half of a minute. His mind was still not calm yet.
"This looks like a treasure. Haha, I am rich, I am rich now…". w.a.n.g Xu mumbled to himself and then took that object out of the soil.
He had dug a more than two-meter-deep hole. He should be very exhausted. However, looking at the wooden box in his hand, he felt very conscious, his gesture was even agile.
This box was not very big, just about the same size with a shoe-box, yet very heavy. w.a.n.g Xu had to use all his strength to be able to bring it out of the hole.
While digging, w.a.n.g Xu did not realize the hole gradually got taller than him. Thus he was covered with all mud as he climbed out of the hole. However, he did not care as he was so exhausted.
When he got to the house, he did not know how much time he had spent out there. In short, all his strength had drained.
w.a.n.g Xu looked out of the window to make sure that he had not left any clear trace out there. Despite sweat and mud covered all over the body, he sat recklessly on the sofa, cleaning the box and carefully looked at the box.
He believed this thing was precious. It was not because he found it inside a tomb, but he realized that the wooden box was not damaged even it had been buried under the ground for so long. Especially, there was no single scratch caused by the spears of the hoe.
His imagination started to work. According to him, modern technology could not make this kind of box. So, what is this? If it was not jade or agate, it should be perhaps gold or valuables.
"It seems you have dug an unpredictable object."
"That"s right, my time has come. Ah. Who are you? Why are you in my house?"
w.a.n.g Xu immediately jumped up in fear. There was someone behind him. This one spoke up as soon as he was about to open the box.
"It has chosen you. It means you have something better than others. This is my business card. Today, just visit that address to find me." After speaking, that person walked towards him, bending his body to place his business card on the tea table.
By that moment, w.a.n.g Xu noticed he was around thirty years old with untidy hair and unshaved beard. His face was as white as paper.
He thought, "If I continue to be a homebody, I will end up like him in the next ten years."
Getting rid of that strange thought, w.a.n.g Xu shouted, "You did not answer my question. Who are you? I"m going to call the police!"
That person pretended not to hear him. His complexion was still as peaceful as water. He said with a feeble voice: "If you don"t go to the detective office before 4:00 p.m., so… haha, I don"t want to say more. You should watch out."
That mysterious guy was walking and speaking at the same time. Right at the time he had finished his last words he pushed the door open. After he walking out of the house, his shadow quickly disappeared in the rainfall.
After listening to what that guy had just said, w.a.n.g Xu was startled for a while. He ran outside to catch that guy, but it was impossible as the vision was blocked in the heavy rain.
w.a.n.g Xu went back to the house and started to convince himself. Since he was young until now, he totally relied on this method to calm himself down.
He convinced himself that that guy was just a thief. As he had seen him with a hoe and going back home with a wooden box, he said rubbish trying to find a way to escape.
[This translation’s copyright belongs to The Invincible Ladies and Wuxiadream.com]
After "thinking it through", w.a.n.g Xu picked up the business card on the tea table and was about to throw it to the trash bin. However, what he saw made him as if he fell down in a frozen storage.
The business card read: Mister Mao - Detective Office specializing in investigating soul mysteries.
There was no address on it.
w.a.n.g Xu stared at the word "Mysteries", the corner of his mouth convulsed, "Are you kidding me? Sure you are kidding me! Awww, and you told me to watch out. What should I beware of? Beware of being killed? Hey, uncle, you better answer me quick. d.a.m.n you."
After taking a cup of hot coffee, w.a.n.g Xu finally calmed down. It was not the hot coffee that made him calm, but his trembling hands could not handle the cup and let the coffee spill on his crotch.
"As things have turned out like this, too much thought was useless. Instead, I should think about the next step".
Therefore, w.a.n.g Xu immediately locked the door carefully then brought the wooden box into his bedroom.
After taking a deep breath, he opened the box…
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[1] 110: emergency number to call police in China.