The World Below Surface

"You... You..." Jin Fu Gui's fingers twitched as he pointed at them, his mouth gaping. He couldn't find the words to curse them.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Jin Can Can urged, reaching for the handsome man's arm. But Lu Yan jerked away from her touch, his face cold and distant.

Behind them, two girls stumbled out of the woods, their faces and hair glowing with a sickly green light.

Lu Yan turned his back on Jin Can Can's pleading eyes. "Mr. Jin, if you value your life, you'll keep your distance from these things." He gestured at the eerie green swirls that surrounded them.

"What's wrong with these things?" Jin Can Can whimpered, feeling a surge of unease come upon her.

Lu Yan looked at her with a pitiless stare, as if she were already dead. "Just wait and see," he said.

Wait and see?

Jin Can Can felt a pang of doubt, and lifted her hand to her face.

She gasped as she felt a sharp itch and a burning sensation on her skin. It had started as a minor irritation, but now it was driving her mad. She scratched frantically, but it only made it worse.

She wasn't the only one. The others were also scratching themselves, tearing at their flesh. Only Jin Yuan Bao seemed less affected, and he watched them with a puzzled expression.

"Someone tell me what the hell is happening!" he demanded.

He rubbed his neck, trying to soothe the irritation. But he felt something moving under his skin.

Something was trying to get out.

The woods were alive with a ghostly glow, as if a thousand tiny green stars had fallen from the sky and settled on the snowy leaves and branches.

Jin Fu Gui felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he saw the fluorescent specks fly everywhere. He quickened his pace and snapped at the others, “Shut up and move faster! We need to get out of here and wash this crap off our skin.”

He looked unpleasant.

Jin Can Can followed him closely, biting her lip and suppressing her complaints. She knew better than to argue with him when he was in this mood.

The two girls who had joined them for this adventure felt awkward and out of place among the grown-ups. They did as they were told and trailed behind, hoping for the best.

“Jiang Bai,” Jin Can Can whispered to Lu Yan, “what is this stuff, really? Is it very dangerous?”

She had expected to catch fireflies, like they did in the movies. But these were something else. She had been captivated by their glow and managed to catch a few. Now, though, she regretted her decision. Her entire body itched relentlessly, as if the luminosity had infiltrated her pores and was devouring her from within. Initially dismissing it as a minor skin irritation or perhaps an allergic reaction, she had paid little heed. However, fear now gripped her after the handsome man's words.

Lu Yan turned his head and looked at her with a grave expression. He nodded slowly. “There’s a risk to life.”

“What?!” Jin Can Can gasped, her eyes wide with horror.

“Stop talking nonsense, what life-threatening thing?” Jin Yuan Bao, interrupted them. He was scratching himself furiously, his nails leaving bloody marks on his skin. He glared at Lu Yan, who he did not trust at all. “Can Cai, don’t listen to him. He’s just trying to scare you.”

“But, but it’s so itchy…” Jin Can Can whimpered, tears streaming down her face.

She scratched harder, tearing her skin open, chunks of flesh falling to the ground: “So itchy… so itchy… am I going to die soon?”

“Su Mei, are we also…” one of the other girls sobbed, clutching her arms.

The itching was unbearable, like a thousand needles piercing their bones.

Jin Fu Gui’s voice trembled. “Stop saying that! There’s nothing wrong with us, we just need to get back and wash up, that’s all. It will go away once we rinse it off.” He wanted to hug his daughter and tell her everything was going to be okay, but he was afraid to touch her, afraid of what he might feel under her skin.

Lu Yan backed away from the group. Washing up wouldn’t help. It was too late for that. Soon, their flesh would start to rot, and their bones would be infested with these… things. He wondered how they appeared here.

He recalled the chilling words of one of the students: schools are all built on top of mass graves. Was that where these things came from?

“Ah ah ah—what is this?” Jin Can Can wailed, her face contorted with horror and pain. She sobbed, and her tears were tinged with green. She held up her hand, and Lu Yan saw the horror that had sprouted from her palm. Several thin, long, greenish mushrooms had grown out of her flesh, twisting and writhing like worms.

“Don’t pull them out, you can still live a little longer.” Lu Yan warned, as he watched her collapse to the ground and try to yank out the fungal invaders. He knew it was useless. They had already taken root inside her, and pulling them out would only kill her.

The rest of the group was in no better shape. Jin Fu Gui and Huo Gang stared in disbelief, as more mushrooms erupted from their bodies, covering their faces and limbs with grotesque growths.

The two other girls screamed and cried, clutching at each other, as they felt the mushrooms burrow into their skin, feeding on their blood and organs. The mushrooms multiplied rapidly, becoming more numerous, longer, and thicker with each passing second.

Huang Li let out a final, agonised scream. A mushroom had burst through his eyeball, emerging from his eye socket like a spear. He fell to the ground, blood and pus dripping from his ruined eye.

As the world around them crumbled into madness, Jiang Bai remained eerily composed. His serene expression contrasted sharply with the panic and horror on the faces of the others.

Jin Fu Gui felt a chill run down his spine as he stared at him, wondering if he was some kind of alien or monster. "Mr. Jiang... Mr. Jiang, what in the world should we do with this?"

"It's over," Jiang Bai whispered, but his words echoed like a death knell in the group's ears. "There's nothing we can do. We're all going to die."

"Shut up, you bastard! You don't know what you're talking about!" Jin Yuan Bao snapped, his voice hoarse with anger. He clutched Jin Can Can's hand, ignoring the burning sensation on his skin. He tried to shield her from Jiang Bai's fatalistic words, but he knew she could hear them. She was sobbing uncontrollably, shaking her head in denial.

He whispered to her, "Can Can, don't listen to him. He's lying. He's trying to scare us."

Jin Can Can looked up at him with tearful eyes. "Brother, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have dragged you into this mess."

She wiped her face with her sleeve, but it only smeared the green liquid that oozed from her pores. It left glowing trails on the ground, like radioactive breadcrumbs.

"Don't be silly. You didn't drag me into anything. I came here willingly," Jin Yuan Bao said, forcing a smile through the agony. "We'll be fine. We just need to get out of here, take a nice hot shower, and forget this ever happened."

Huo Gang couldn't stand it anymore. He ran to Lu Yan's side, hoping for a glimmer of hope. "Mr. Jiang Bai, are you sure there's no way out? No cure? No antidote?"

Lu Yan shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

"Then how the hell do you know what this is?" Huo Gang demanded, his eyes desperate.

Lu Yan's voice was low as he spoke, "I can't tell you what it is, but I've seen it with these eyes. It can parasitize anyone it touches, and it won't stop until it kills its host. I wish I had a clue what it was or where it came from."

His face was wan and bookish, but his eyes held a haunted gleam that made Huo Gang flinch. A cold shiver ran down his spine as he met his gaze.

This man...

He felt a jolt of dread.

They ran towards the dormitory building, aware that they might encounter the ghost that haunted those three students. It was a risky decision, but they had no choice but to go back.

The playground was encircled by a ring of trees, blocking their view of the main road. Lu Yan led the way, pushing through the branches. As he emerged onto the pavement, he stopped dead in his tracks.

He said nothing, just advanced a few steps, waiting for the others to catch up.

"Ah!" Xie Lin, who followed him closely, shrieked.

"What is it?" Jin Fu Gui snapped.

They looked where she pointed, and felt their blood freeze. Jin Can Can turned ashen, and clutched Jin Yuan Bao's arm, trembling uncontrollably. She couldn't stand to look anymore.

The campus road was flanked by tall trees, throwing long shadows in the darkness. Only one street light flickered, and under its feeble light, they beheld a horrifying sight.

A male student hung from a noose, his body swaying softly in the winter wind. He spun slowly, exposing his bloated, bloodshot face and his long tongue lolling out of his mouth.

Xie Lin screamed, clutching Zhang Su Mei's arm. "He's dead! He's fucking dead! How do we get out of here?"

Zhang Su Mei stroked her hair, trying to calm her down. "Shh, shh, it's okay, it's okay. Don't look at him, okay? Just follow me, we'll make it back."

In the shadows, Lu Yan's eyes fixed on the lifeless face of the boy. He recognized him as one of the trio who had gone ahead, the nerdy one with the glasses.

The rest of the group was in a state of frenzy, and even Huo Gang, the tallest and strongest of them, felt a cold sweat on his forehead. Only Lu Yan seemed detached from the horror, watching everything with a clinical gaze.

The eerie glow of fireflies, the bizarre corpse hanging from the street light, none of it seemed to faze him.

"Come on, come on, it's okay, it's okay, just be careful, don't touch anything, let's go around." Jin Fu Gui was petrified, but he forced himself to sound reassuring. "It's okay, we'll be fine, we just need to go back."

He cursed himself inwardly. He should have never agreed to move into the school dorms to save some money.

Fucking principal, was he trying to kill them?

"Listen, don't panic, we'll just walk past him, and I'll call the principal." Jin Fu Gui grabbed Huo Gang's arm and pulled out his phone with his other hand.

But there was no answer on the other line.

Jin Fu Gui kept dialling, hoping for a response. And then, someone picked up.

A sweet voice greeted him on the phone. “I’m sorry, the user you are trying to reach has passed away and is temporarily unable to answer at the moment. Please try again later..."

"What... what the hell?" Jin Fu Gui was stunned by the absurd message. He immediately hung up the phone as soon as he realised what he had just heard.

The others heard it too, and they were paralyzed with fear. Jin Can Can and Huang Li covered their mouths with their hands, muffling their cries. No one dared to speak.

“I’m sorry, the user you are trying to reach has passed away and cannot answer at the moment. Please try again later…” The voice droned on, increasing in volume and intensity.

Jin Fu Gui snapped, not bothering with the SIM card. He inhaled sharply and flung the phone as far as he could.

The automated voice announcement followed the phone, amplifying its message.

“I’m sorry, the user you are trying to reach has passed away and is temporarily unable to… I’m sorry, the user you are trying to reach has passed away…”

“Shut up! Shut up!” Jin Fu Gui bellowed, hurling curses at the discarded phone, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He didn’t want to think about the possibility of being haunted by a vengeful spirit.

The mechanical female voice was relentless, escalating in speed and pitch. Soon, everyone within earshot could hear her cold, piercing words.

“I’m sorry, you are already dead. Please try again later.” The final drawn-out beep was like a death knell.

“What can I do? She won’t leave me alone…” Jin Fu Gui clawed at his thinning hair, his voice cracking with despair. “She won’t leave me alone… What can I do?!”

Jin Can Can clenched her teeth, shrugged off Jin Yuan Bao’s grip, and sprinted towards the spot where her father had thrown the phone. “Dad, I’ll take this call for you!”

She was too fast for Jin Yuan Bao to stop her, escaping his reach. Jin Can Can ran and wept simultaneously, “Dad, you and brother, live well.”

“Can Can! Don’t do this!” Jin Yuan Bao’s eyes were red with rage.

The shrill ring of the phone pierced the silence of the snow-covered forest.

Jin Can Can snatched it up, her voice trembling with anger and fear. "Why are you making a fuss? You think you can scare me? Come on, then! Show yourself! You're nothing but a ghost, a pathetic remnant of a life you wasted!”

She spat out the last words, defiantly, even as tears streamed down her face, mingling with the green mushrooms that had infected her skin. She didn't know how much longer she could hold on, but she refused to give in to the terror that gripped her.

"— I'm not afraid of you!"

As soon as she finished speaking, a pale, skeletal hand emerged from the phone screen, like a nightmare made flesh. It wrapped around her wrist, cold and clammy, and yanked her towards the tiny device.

She screamed, but no one could help her. The phone was too small for her body, but somehow, it swallowed her whole. It fell to the ground with a thud, leaving behind a trail of blood and spores. The only sign that she had ever existed.

Everyone who witnessed the scene was stunned. A ghost had just claimed a life, right in front of their eyes. It was impossible, but it was true.

“Can Can!!” Jin Yuan Bao ran towards the phone, hoping to find his sister, but there was nothing there. He picked up the phone, clutching it to his chest, and sobbed uncontrollably.

Jin Fu Gui collapsed to his knees. He pounded his chest and stomped his feet, wailing in agony. “Can Can…my baby girl…why…why…”

Huo Gang felt a surge of fear and sorrow. He wiped his face, trying to calm himself down. “Boss, we have to go. Now. Yuan Bao is still alive. We can’t let him die too.”

The young man didn’t seem to hear them. He kept crying, his tears soaking the phone. His grief was so deep, so raw, that it broke Huo Gang’s heart. He felt like he was watching a child lose his innocence, his hope, his everything.

“Oh, Can Can…I love you…I’m sorry…”

Suddenly, the phone screen flickered, casting a faint light on the snow. A voice came out of the speaker, a voice that chilled them to the bone.

“Brother?”

Jin Yuan Bao felt a jolt of shock. He recognized that voice. It was bright and cheerful, like a ray of sunshine.

He pressed the phone against his ear. “Can Can? Is that you? Are you okay?” His voice was trembling with disbelief and fear.

She giggled, as if she found his reaction amusing. “Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be? Brother, you sound so strange. What’s the matter?”

He stammered, trying to make sense of what he was hearing. “Nothing, nothing. It’s just… I thought you were… never mind. I’m glad you’re fine.”

Jin Fu Gui watched him with a stunned expression. He nudged Huo Gang, who was standing next to him. “Do you think Yuan Bao is possessed? Who is he talking to on the phone?”

Huo Gang shook his head slowly, his eyes wide with horror. He had no idea what was going on. Everything that had happened tonight was beyond his wildest nightmares. He wished he could wake up from this hell.

He glanced at Huang Li, who had been following them in silence for a while. He wished he hadn’t. The sight of him made him gasp. Half of his face was missing, leaving only a gruesome skeleton. One of his eyes was hanging out of its socket, swinging like a pendulum.

The two girls had retreated to a corner, too terrified to make a sound. They clung to each other, trying not to look at anything. They deserved some credit for not losing their minds.

Suddenly, Huang Li started to move.

"Old Huang? Huang Li?" Huo Gang followed Huang Li with a nervous expression, calling his name repeatedly. But Huang Li seemed to be in a trance, walking slowly and steadily towards an unknown destination.

Huo Gang was afraid to touch him, fearing to get parasitised by the mushrooms. He shouted louder, hoping to snap him out of it. "Huang Li! Where are you going? What's wrong with you?"

Huang Li reached a dimly lit streetlight, where he stopped and looked up. Hanging from the metal pole was a noose, swaying gently in the breeze. It was as if it was waiting for him. Huang Li lifted his chin and slid his head into the loop, without any hesitation. The rope suddenly tightened, yanking him off the ground.

He kicked and thrashed, clawing desperately at his neck. But the more he fought, the more the noose choked him. His face turned purple, his eyes bulged out of their sockets, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth. He made gurgling noises.

Huo Gang watched in horror, frozen in place. He whispered to himself, "There's a ghost... there's a ghost here..." He felt a cold sweat on his forehead, and his heart pounded in his chest. He backed away slowly, trying to escape the nightmare.

But then he screamed, a high-pitched, inhuman scream that echoed through the night. He clutched his head with both hands, as if it was about to explode. He collapsed to the ground, laughing and crying hysterically. "A ghost... hahaha, there's a ghost... no, there's no ghost, hehehehe..."

Jin Fu Gui saw the scene from a distance, and shook his head sadly. "Poor Little Huo has gone mad." He tried to coax his son, who was still holding his phone.

Huo Gang was ignored by everyone. He reached out to grab Lu Yan, but the other man evaded him with ease. Huo Gang gazed at the sky with a vacant expression.

"Hahaha... so many ghosts..." he croaked, pointing at the air. "So many ghosts... so many fireflies! Catch bugs... fireflies!" He leaped to his feet and staggered into the dark heart of the forest, following the ever-growing swarm of lights.

Two female students clung to each other, shivering.

They could barely move, their bodies wracked with unbearable agony. They were on the verge of blacking out, barely registering the figure that came closer to them.

Lu Yan had two small knives hidden in his sleeves. With a swift motion, he slashed their throats, sending them tumbling to the snow-covered ground.

He should be grateful to those fools for leaving him his weapons.

Two corpses lay still, nothing out of the ordinary. Green blood stained the snow, and green fungi sprouted wildly, enveloping the blades in a sickly glow.

Lu Yan spoke, his voice cold and calm. "I'm going back now. Are you coming?"

Jin Fu Gui was too busy trying to reason with Jin Yuan Bao, and didn't catch his words.

He only realised he was being addressed when Lu Yan repeated himself.

He was the only one left, besides this mysterious young man. (tn: Poor Fan Min, the author forgot to even describe how you died.)

The life had drained out of Jin Yuan Bao, leaving him a hollow shell of his former self.

A gust of icy wind snapped Jin Fu Gui out of his stupor, making him shiver and clutch his coat. He looked at his son's pale face, his eyes dull and unfocused, and felt a surge of despair.

"Come on, son, we have to go. Please, don't make me leave you here," he begged, tearing his gaze away from the lifeless figure and stumbling after Lu Yan, who was already several steps ahead.

Jin Can Can's voice crackled through the phone, saying something that made Jin Yuan Bao smile faintly.

"Okay, okay, you want to hear 'Emperor's Sacrifice,' right? I'll sing it for you, sweetie, just stop crying."

Lu Yan heard the raspy voice of Jin Yuan Bao, barely recognizable, and felt a chill run down his spine. He instinctively began to hum a random song, trying to drown out the haunting melody.

Jin Fu Gui and Lu Yan exchanged horrified looks.

"Yuanbao! What are you doing? You can't sing 'Emperor's Sacrifice' like that! It's forbidden!" Jin Fu Gui shouted, his voice trembling with fear and anger.

Lu Yan spun around, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. He stared at Jin Yuan Bao, who was still holding the phone to his ear, singing softly.

It couldn't be. It was impossible.

But he knew that song. He had heard it before, from the lips of the famous actress Lan Zhi Yu!

Jin Yuan Bao was oblivious to everything around him, immersed in his own world. He sang to his sister, hoping to pacify her anger, unaware of his father's frantic screams and his heavy footsteps.

"We have to get out of here! Now! This song is dangerous! It can't be heard by anyone!" Jin Fu Gui, realising his son was beyond reason, turned to Lu Yan and ordered.

Lu Yan didn't hesitate. He ran for his life.

As he sang, Jin Yuan Bao forgot about his phone, which he had left on the ground. He rose to his feet and lifted his voice to the moon, a pale sliver that had broken through the dark clouds. Around him, the night was alive with green sparks, drifting like fireflies.

From the phone screen, a white hand reached out, slender and smooth.

A shape followed, squeezing itself through the small opening of the device.

The wind made the corpses sway, two limp forms hanging from the street lamp. The ropes snapped and they dropped to the pavement with a thud.

They lay still for a moment, then twitched and stirred.

Huo Gang, mad, ran after the green lights, bursting out of the woods. He stopped in front of Jin Can Can, his eyes wild and bloodshot.

The two dead girls on the ground also moved their limbs...

**

"What the hell is 'Emperor's Sacrifice'? How do you know that song?" Lu Yan demanded, after they had put some distance between them and the horrors.

Jin Fu Gui shivered, his voice trembling. "It's a ritual, a ritual to the emperor. You know the story, right? The emperor wanted to cheat death, but death always wins. He sought a way to come back, to die and be reborn. That's 'Emperor's Sacrifice'."

"Where did you learn that?" Lu Yan couldn't believe that such a dark secret was hidden behind Lan Zhi Yu's song.

"From an ancient tomb." Jin Fu Gui spilled everything, as if he couldn't keep it inside any longer. He felt a strange pull towards this young man, a need to confess. "Not one that I dug up, though. That tomb has been there for ages. They say there's a god buried there!"

Lu Yan scoffed, his tone icy. "You said a god could be anything, even a rock."

"Who knows what's true and what's not? It's all legend. Some say it's dead, others say it was never alive to begin with." Jin Fu Gui panted as he ran.

Lu Yan had made up his mind to get out of this hellhole, even if it meant braving the night terrors that lurked outside. He turned to Jin Fu Gui, and asked in a low voice, “Are you sure you want to go back to the dormitory? You know what’s waiting for us there, right?”

Jin Fu Gui nodded nervously, clutching his phone. “The principal said it’s the safest place. He said they have experts working on a solution. He said they won’t bother us if we just lock ourselves in and go to sleep.”

Lu Yan frowned. “But that’s not what the voice on the phone said earlier.”

Jin Fu Gui shivered. He hesitated, then said, “Maybe we can wait until dawn. It’s too risky to go out now. This school is crawling with them.”

They continued walking, hoping to reach the dormitory building before anyone noticed them. But as they approached, they stopped in their tracks, frozen by fear.

There, in front of the dormitory building, stood a row of figures, perfectly still and silent, as if expecting them.

They heard their footsteps, and turned as one, their faces illuminated by the faint light.

Lu Yan recognized them all. Jin Can Can, Jin Yuan Bao, Huang Li… and Huo Gang. But they were no longer alive. They were something else.

Their skin was pale and bloodless, their lips were bright red and wet, their eyes were blank and hungry. They looked like paper dolls, cut out from a horror story.

Jin Fu Gui felt a surge of panic in his chest and his gut, as if a thousand needles were pricking him from the inside. He stammered, "W-what do we do? Do we run for it?"

Jin Can Can flashed a wicked grin, exposing a row of gleaming, razor-sharp teeth. "Daddy, you've been gone for so long. We've missed you terribly."

She spun around and faced Lu Yan, her cheeks tinted with a rosy hue. "Jiang Bai, where did you disappear to?"

But her eyes betrayed no trace of innocence or affection; instead, they exuded cold and cruel, unapologetic malice.

What was holding them back? Was the dormitory building really a safe haven?

Lu Yan hesitated; he took a step back, his muscles tense and ready to bolt at any sign of danger.

Just then, another girl descended from the upper floor, her hair damp and her skin flushed, as if she had just enjoyed a hot shower.

"Hey? Why are you all loitering at the door?" The girl asked, perplexed. She opened the door wide and gestured for them to enter. "Come on in."

A row of faces turned to stare at her, making her feel a chill down her spine. "What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" She wrapped her arms around herself. "Hurry up, or I'll slam the door shut."

She barely finished her sentence when Jin Yuan Bao advanced, blocking the doorway.

He bowed his head and smiled at the girl, revealing his own set of fangs.

"Let's get out of here." Lu Yan grabbed Jin Fu Gui's arm and dragged him along, as he snapped out of his shock and followed suit.

The dormitory building was no longer a sanctuary. This was bad; where could they go now?

They had barely escaped when a girl's scream pierced the night from the dormitory building.

Lu Yan and Jin Fu Gui ran for their lives through the campus, shunning the dark trees that glowed with a sickly green light, sticking to the main roads.

They could hear the agonised howls coming from the dormitory building.

A deafening boom shattered the air, sending shockwaves through the ground.

Lu Yan whipped his head around, disbelief etched on his face.

The dormitory building was engulfed in flames, a fiery inferno that lit up the night sky.

Not again. His future self?

Lu Yan had a hunch and sprinted even faster, following the blazing trail of destruction. He snatched Jin Fu Gui and made a beeline for the school gate.

**

"Son of a bitch! The school is blown to hell too."

One of the task assignees had been tailing Jiang Bai, the suspicious anomaly. As soon as Jiang Bai was taken to the school, their focus shifted to the building.

Jiang Yu and the others convened an emergency meeting.

"What the hell happened to the school? Is this connected to Jiang Bai?"

They were pretty sure Jiang Bai was innocent; he had nothing on him or in his bag that could trigger such a blast. And they had all witnessed the bomber, a spitting image of Jiang Bai.

"Our priority now is to find out if Jiang Bai is alive. He's a goldmine of secrets; we can't afford to lose him like this," Di Ying remarked.

Lin Chu also got wind of the explosion, her brows furrowing.

Are you kidding me? You're so desperate you'd blow yourself up too?