Chapter 795 The Past (1)
Qin Ye didn't know anything about these people. Even though he was aware that they couldn't truly be considered to be living humans, seeing them seemingly alive and well still filled him with complex emotions.
He simply couldn't bring himself to detest them.
They had remained in this earthen building for year upon year, decade upon decade, century upon century... There was a time when their lives had also burned as brightly as the sun, but now, their lives had been reduced to faint rays of a dying sun that should've set a long time ago.
He heaved a faint sigh and slowly made his way into the earthen building. Everything here was frozen in the 90s, and it was a very peaceful and serene scene. Not a single person spoke to him or tried to stop him, it was as if he were just a time-traveling tourist.
There's no time to waste... Qin Ye took a deep breath before quickly rushing toward the second floor.
He encountered no obstruction!
Furthermore, there were still many people living on the second floor at this point in time. There were middle-aged women holding and crooning to infants, there were middle-aged men playing mahjong with cigarettes dangling out of their mouths, there were opera hobbyists giving their vocal cords a workout, but most of the residents were staring blankly up at the sky with numb expressions.
He didn't pay much heed to the residents of the earthen building as he quickly made his way to the third floor, and once again, he didn't encounter any impediment. On this floor, there was a clear increase in the number of children, and the sound of children's voices could even be heard coming from the school.
The school was fully intact, and there were certainly no Yin spirits here.
After passing the school, Qin Ye reached a staircase that led upward.
This is the staircase to the fourth floor... Qin Ye licked his lips with a nervous yet expectant look in his eyes. This was the unchartered territory where the final secrets of the Huang Clan's earthen building resided. He didn't know how much longer Chu Renmei and the other evil ghosts could be held back in the outside world, so he didn't waste any time as he rushed up the staircase at full speed.
The fourth floor was very quiet.
The majority of the people here were of the older demographic. There were less than 10 people on this floor in total, and some were playing chess, while others were playing mahjong. In contrast with the other floors, this floor was extremely empty.
This is it... Qin Ye took several deep breaths to prime himself into the best mental condition, then grabbed onto the doorknob.
This was a classic 90s yellow wooden door with a window attached to the top. In the instant that he grabbed onto the doorknob, the sorrowful wails of countless Yin spirits suddenly rang out. He tried several times to open the door, but it seemed to be locked from the inside, and it would only rattle erratically, but refused to be opened.
"What's going on here?" His brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and right at this moment, he noticed a certain sound.
Screech... Screech...
It was the sound of someone scratching their nails against a glass windowpane, and the sound sent shivers running down his spine. He immediately raised his head to find a head staring intently at him through the window. The head was covered in disheveled black hair, and two sets of inky-black fingernails were currently scratching gently against the window, having already left several white marks on the glass.
It was Chu Renmei!
Her hair was completely wild and unkempt, and her head was twisted at an impossible angle. Her inky-black mouth was wide open, and reddish-black blood was smeared all over the window. Her entire face was pressed against the glass, and she was staring intently at Qin Ye with an unblinking gaze.
"The events that took place in 'A Wicked Ghost' were from over a century ago, which means that Chu Renmei would've already been here back in 1995. Was she sealed in this room? Come to think of it, the first time she appeared was on the fourth floor. Is this a direct replica of the situation from back then?" Qin Ye pursed his lips before taking two steps backward, then aimed a vicious kick forward.
Boom! The locks of the 90s weren't all that sturdy, and he was able to kick the door in with just a single attempt. At the same time, his Yin energy was elevated to its peak. His Abyssal Prefect's token was able to pose some resistance against Chu Renmei in the outside world, but he wasn't sure whether the Chu Renmei in this "illusion" would be able to actually harm him.
The door fell to the ground with a resounding thud, but Chu Renmei wasn't inside the room, and the face pressed against the window had also disappeared. In the instant that the door was kicked open, the clouds in the sky quickly faded as if they were in a time-lapse, and night descended upon the earthen building in the blink of an eye.
The elderly individuals on the fourth floor were still playing chess and mahjong, seemingly completely oblivious to the transition from day to night.
All of a sudden, a faint cry of anguish rang out from inside the room. Qin Ye waited five seconds before making his way into the room with a wary expression.
It was dark. It was very dark.
The sky was concealed behind a dense layer of dark clouds, and there was no light whatsoever. The room was so dark that one wouldn't be able to see their own hand even if they were to hold it directly up to their face. From within the darkness, a burst of sorrowful singing rang out. "You're reveling in joy, while my gut is wrenching from pain... Separations are always so long while reunions are so short..."
All of his senses had been heightened to an unprecedented level, and he crouched down slightly like a lithe panther ready to pounce. His hand slowly skimmed along the doorframe as he searched for a light switch.
A light switch had to be positioned in a convenient location that was easy to reach, so it couldn't be too far away from the doorframe.
In the instant that his hand came into contact with the light switch, a bone-chilling sensation suddenly welled up in his heart, and he immediately released a series of chains out of his sleeves without any hesitation to form a protective net around him.
However, there was nothing there.
His chains failed to strike anything, but he could swear that in the instant his hand came into contact with the light switch, he felt another hand!
There was someone else standing beside him in the darkness, and they had also reached for the light switch!
"Fuck..." In a horror movie, it was often the case that the jump scares weren't the truly horrifying scenes. Instead, it was those seemingly insignificant scenes that built up suspense to an unbearable level, and what had just happened was exactly like one of those latter scenes.
The hand immediately pulled away upon making contact with him, and he gently pressed the light switch. A light appeared in the darkness, and everything in the room was presented clearly before him. At the same time, he discovered that there was an elongated shadow behind him!
Rumble! A loud thunderclap rang out in the sky, and the shadow faded in and out of existence with the flashes of lightning. This was a woman with a head of long and disheveled hair, and her hands were raised as if she were trying to caress Qin Ye's cheeks.
Clang! A Soul Shackle immediately shot out of his palm and extended behind him, but there was nothing there.
He took a deep breath before abruptly turning around, and sure enough, there really was nothing behind him. He cast his gaze out of the room through the opened door, and he discovered that there was no one in the corridor, either.
Boom! Right as he was carefully peering into the corridor, the door that he had just kicked down suddenly sprang up from the floor before fitting itself back into the doorframe, following which the sound of a lock being clicked into place rang out.
Deathly silence ensued.
"Surely it's inappropriate for a man and a woman to be in a room like this," Qin Ye mused with a faint smile before beginning to examine the room with a grim expression.
Virtually this entire floor had been completely connected to form a circular room. At the very least, that was what appeared to be the case from his perspective. There were antiquated screens separating the room into sections, and inside the section that he was situated in, there were countless photographs and pieces of artwork on the walls.
Most of the photographs were quite blurry, and 99% of them were black and white, while only a tiny minority were in color, and the resolution was not very high, but it was enough for him to clearly see what was on the photos.
These were all photographs of people.
They were photographs of all of the residents of the Huang Clan's earthen building, except they were wearing different clothing in each photograph.
On the first color photograph, there were a total of over 100 people wearing clothing from the 80s and the 90s, including military uniforms, work uniforms, and the shirts bearing witty catchphrases that were only just beginning to become popular at the time. All of them were completely expressionless like zombies. No, they were zombies.
At the very center of the photo sat a middle-aged man, and a flash of recognition appeared in Qin Ye's eyes upon seeing him. This man was very familiar to him. It was Huang Jiansen.
He took a rough glance at the photograph before moving onto the next one.
These photographs were all plastered to the wall, and there were several hundred of them, all of which were packed quite densely together. This next photograph was from an older generation, seemingly around the 60s to the 70s. Almost all of the residents in the photo were wearing the green military uniforms and sailor's striped shirts that were popular at the time, and this was a black and white photo.
Back in the 60s and the 70s, color photography technology hadn't been made publicly available on a widespread basis yet, and the color photography boom in Cathay took place approximately between the years 1980 and 1985. Roughly around 1980 and 1981, photos taken using color reversal film began to take off in the major cities, and at the time, color photograph enlargers were still quite rare, so the majority of color photographs were washed by hand. By the time 1984 and 1985 rolled around, color photograph enlargers had become very commonplace.
He took a quick glance and was just about to move on when his footsteps suddenly faltered, and he abruptly returned to that photo.
Something's not right... It's the number of people in the photograph!
It wasn't that his memory was exceptional, the difference was simply far too noticeable!
Seated to the left of all of the residents was a woman with a head of disheveled long hair, wearing a long blue robe with her hands placed on her knees.
"That's Chu Renmei! This is a supernatural photograph!" Qin Ye gently stroked the image of Chu Renmei on the photograph as he murmured to himself, "But why?"
Chu Renmei was the one who killed 66 people in a single night, among which were villagers and construction workers. However, it was clear from the photograph that the village had accepted her as she was seated on a stool, which had clearly been placed there for her.
Why had they accepted her? Could it be because... she was also a victim?
The answer is very likely to be hidden on this fourth floor... He set aside the countless questions that had surfaced in his mind for now and continued onward. Up ahead were more black and white photos, and it was clear that these had been taken in the republic era. It was still the same people, including Chu Renmei, and they were all in the same poses. This wall of photographs was like a visual story of the journey they had taken through the river of history and time.
In this photo, all of them were wearing long robes, and some were wearing traditional Cathayan melon caps. Their hairstyles had also changed into the long braids of the Qing Dynasty, but aside from that, nothing had changed, even the positions that they were seated in from photograph to photograph.
In the final one of these black and white photos, he saw a living Chu Renmei.
"This should be around 1880, which is the seventh year of the Reign of Guangxu," Qin Ye sighed. He was able to confirm that this was Chu Renmei as she was seated in the same position as she was in the other photographs. She was still wearing the same long blue robe, and she was seated on the very same stool.
He didn't dare to delay as he continued onward, but there were no longer any photographs left. Instead, it was all portraits from here onward.
This was a sketch of the entire village's residents, and the artist was clearly very skillful, creating an extremely lifelike piece of artwork to depict the village.
During the Qing Dynasty, even black and white photos weren't popularized yet. No, they didn't even exist at the time. However, the western art of sketching arrived in Cathay during that time, and all of the nobility had their own sketch artists, but such artists were very rare outside of these noble circles. Having said that, the Fulin Pass had a major port, so it wouldn't have been too difficult to track down artists here at the time. However...
Qin Ye's brows were tightly furrowed as he took a few steps backward to appraise the wall full of photographs, and the confusion in his heart grew more and more pronounced.
"What is the problem?" There was an extremely nagging feeling in his heart, telling him that something was amiss, but he couldn't identify exactly what the issue was. He continued to step back as he murmured to himself, "These are just normal photographs, but I can't help but feel like something's wrong. What exactly is it?"
Right at this moment, he abruptly stiffened as his back had bumped into someone.
It was an icy cold human body that was giving off a nauseating odor of decay. The body had already undergone rigor mortis, and its muscles were as hard and unyielding as stone. On top of that, a string of sharp and ragged breaths were coming out of their throat.
Whoosh! The same web of Soul Shackles was unleashed, yet there was nothing behind him, as if what he had just felt had been nothing more than a mere illusion.
However, right as he turned around, he noticed out of the very edge of his peripheral vision that Chu Renmei's pose had changed on the portrait!
She was now pointing directly at the village head in the center, where Huang Jiansen was sitting!
"Huang Jiansen..." Qin Ye immediately figured out what she was trying to tell him, and his eyes lit up as an enlightened look appeared on his face. "That's it! For the residents of this village, these aren't just photographs; these are pieces of evidence that illustrate just how long they've been alive! It's just like how Lee Jung-sook engraved words onto her own body, this is just a different method of recording. Even though they're under the influence of the equilibrium talismans, thereby severely restricting their memories, they'll definitely be able to tell just how long they've been living for from these photographs! Through these photographs, they're trying to make themselves remember their hatred and remember who reduced them to their current state! They did this because..."
He began to quickly rush along the wall.
They did this because the true culprit was very likely to be hidden in one of these portraits, namely the very first portrait!
They were unwilling to resign themselves to their fate! Even if they had to live in limbo for all of eternity, they still want to exact revenge on the one who had done this to them!