The World Below Surface

With a swift motion, the little girl raised her hand and delivered a resounding slap to the big dog's forehead: "Go back quickly!" Lucky, the dog whimpered and exhaled a gust of putrid air, vanishing into the forest at lightning speed.

Lu Yan trailed behind Li Li, his mind plagued with confusion: "What's wrong?"

Li Li's countenance was solemn and foreboding: "Something is coming."

Her expression did not resemble that of a little girl but rather a fierce beast - her features contorted with ferocity, her eyes sharp and piercing. She glared at Lu Yan, her entire being seemingly transforming into a wild beast as her pupils dilated and her hair bristled. Even so, she remained adorned in a beautiful red dress. Like a child, she reached out to Lu Yan, imploring him to take her home.

What could Li Li have sensed? Was it the task-giver or an invader lurking in the village? Lu Yan remained silent, choosing not to ask, but instead, he pulled Li Li back towards their home. With haste, Li Li's demeanour returned to that of a regular child, nothing out of the ordinary.

Upon arriving home, Zhang Bo's wife paced in the yard, anxiously awaiting their return. Her countenance eased as soon as she spotted them, particularly Li Li as if she had found a beacon of hope. She approached them hurriedly: "Li Li, what do we do? Someone from the village chief's house informed us that his wife was possessed and has vanished."

"Vanished?" Li Li's face puffed up as she raised her eyebrows, "What could have taken her?"

Zhang Bo's wife shook her head, "I don't know. The village chief claims that something called out to her by name, and when she opened the door, she was gone."

"I'll go take a look!" Li Li responded, still seething with anger.

Zhang Bo's wife hesitated, "Well... It's chaotic in the village nowadays. If you're not here, those things in the back mountain..."

Ordinarily, it would be fine for Li Li to leave and play, but it was clear that now she had something important to attend to. If those things in the back mountain emerged...

Li Li furrowed her brow, taking a moment to consider before retrieving a bone whistle from around her neck. She cast a fleeting glance in Zhang Bo's wife's direction before tossing the whistle to Lu Yan. "If you have any problems, blow the whistle and call Lucky over. But if you summon it, you must feed it fish and make sure it's full."

Lu Yan clasped the whistle in his hand. "Alright."

Zhang Bo's wife's covetous gaze lingered on the bone whistle, but she hesitated for some unknown reason and dared not ask for it. After reminding Li Li to stay safe, she returned to the house to prepare dinner. As Li Li departed, she stealthily peeked out of the door and inquired in a low voice to Lu Yan, who was standing in the yard, "Did she take you fishing just now?"

Lu Yan responded, "Yes, and we caught one."

Zhang Bo's wife's eyes bulged with momentary terror. After verifying that he was unscathed, she clicked her tongue twice and remarked, "No wonder she gave it to you. You can rest in your room now. I'll clean up for you."

Lu Yan discerned from Zhang Bo's wife's expression that the "fishing" excursion was also some sort of trial.

Under Zhang Bo's wife's scrutinizing gaze, Lu Yan dared not resist impulsively. She displayed a bashful grin before dutifully entering the house.

Before he entered, he could still see Zhang Bo's wife's head craning out of the kitchen door, peering out.

Lu Yan sat down in the room and surveyed his surroundings. The layout of this house was peculiar, oriented towards the side of the mountain. The window where the shadow had appeared the previous night coincidentally faced the mountain.

What lurked on that mountainside, exactly?

Contacting Li Li about the "theft" she mentioned, Lu Yan added the fact that Luo Ying deliberately angered Zhang Hui Xuan and left her alone without carrying out any missionary activities and speculated that this village must be guarding something.

Luo Ying's goal was guarded by the village, and the mountain behind the village seemed to be the most likely place to find it. Lu Yan pinched the bone whistle, and the ice-cold and piercing touch made him clear-headed. He longed to take a look at the mountain behind the village, but...

Rewind three days.

In a private room of a restaurant dozens of kilometres from the village, six people had been gathered for hours, poring over maps of the area. With a note of suspicion in her voice, Lin Chu said, "Speaking of which, this Village of the Heavenly Immortals is really strange. Other villages know to move outwards, but they keep going deeper into the mountains. What would make a group of people willingly live in the deep mountains? Either it's to hide some secret, or there's something that makes them have to stay away from the crowd. These two could also coexist."

She gnawed on a beef tendon barbecue, her mind racing with possibilities. "We're returning to the village to pay respects to our ancestors... but it's strange. Our surnames are all different, which is not common in a village. Usually, a few surnames dominate a village, especially in remote areas. But we are not like that. Do the villagers not suspect anything, or is it because this is not unusual in the village due to the interference of the mission?"

When Lin Chu stepped foot into this world, she began gathering numerous samples. She delved deep into this realm's historical tomes and perused popular TV dramas on various video platforms. Ultimately, she begrudgingly admitted that this world was akin to a distorted mirror of their world; alike in some aspects, yet vastly different in others.

The audacity of the newcomer's actions left the others in shock, causing them to follow her lead. However, Yu Xiang Guang was at a loss and weakly glanced around before inquiring, "When do we enter?"

Lin Chu finished a meat stick, wiped her mouth, and nonchalantly replied, "No need to hurry. Our mission is to pay respects to our ancestors in our hometown, so we need to only return before the specified time. Moreover, that village sounds dangerous, so it's best to prepare beforehand."

Yu Xiang Guang gazed at the mountain of supplies Lin Chu had accumulated and became ensnared in his thoughts. Metal knives, ropes, miniature flashlights, and other essentials cluttered the space. Lin Chu had already amassed an arsenal of weapons and was equipped with all the necessary tools. She bobbed up and down, feeling somewhat weighed down, her baby faces contorted into a distressed look.

An Xing Yu pointed to the dozens of storage bags on the table and asked, "What are these for?"

Lin Chu shot a glance towards the bags and retorted, "Maybe we can take some samples for research." She lowered her voice and continued, "Don't you want to know the structure of ghosts? I've read on websites that we might encounter zombies, ghosts, and other phenomena beyond scientific explanation. Can't we use science to study these things?" Her eyes sparkled with curiosity. "If I can get some zombie tissue this time, that would be awesome."

Yu Huan (于桓) shivered and rubbed his arms. He glanced at his companions and asked nervously, "Don't you feel scared? What if we run into trouble with these things?"

Lin Chu lifted her head and expelled a protracted sigh. "I fear aimless living more than I fear death with purpose. Death, in itself, isn't frightful, but dying in ignorance and foolishness is the most petrifying thing to me," she said.

One by one, the others retreated.

Lin Chu scanned her surroundings, shrugged, and smiled. "It's alright, I know I'm weird. I've been this way since I was young. Besides, I'll handle these affairs myself. I won't burden you nor will I seek death deliberately," she said.

Yu Xiang Guang immediately interjected. "Don't speak nonsense."

An Xing Yu chimed in. "We're not concerned about you being a burden."

Lin Chu divested herself of several items, retaining only a few metal knives and a portable flashlight. She stowed everything in her pack and smiled at An Xing Yu. "Losing one's life is indeed terrifying, but if it's for the sake of uncovering the truth, then for me, it's a death worth dying."

"You..." Yu Xiang Guang wanted to interrupt, but Lin Chu waved her hand. "Alright, alright, I won't say any more."

The group remained outside for a few more days, determined the location of the Village of the Heavenly Immortals, and rented a car to journey into the mountains.

"The more I gaze at this place, the more desolate it appears," Lin Xue Yuan said, lamenting as the vehicle manoeuvred through the serpentine mountain road.

The further they ventured into the mountains, the chillier it became. Peculiar rocks jutted from the narrow roadside, while on the opposite side, there was an impenetrable forest. Despite approaching winter, the foliage remained lush and dense. The frigid wintry air, mixed with the verdancy, sent shivers down one's spine.

Lin Chu sat at the rear, her eyes fixed on the screen.

The drone was Lin Chu's eye in the sky, a mechanical bird that soared above the car. But the fickle signal kept cutting out, leaving her staring at a frozen screen. The view shuddered whenever it climbed too high, forcing her to lower it an inch ahead at a snail's pace.

The navigation system chimed in, dutifully announcing, "Seventy-five kilometers to Village of the Heavenly Immortals, approximately..."

"Ay, why is it so far? The mountain road here is too winding!" exclaimed someone in the car upon hearing the distance.

Even though the village wasn't far in a straight line, the sinuous mountain road stretched out the journey.

Lin Chu's screen flickered and went black, and she scanned the view beyond the car. Tumbling through the air, her drone crashed into a thrashing sea of green.

"Shit..." she breathed.

Lin Chu fiddled with the drone's controls as they approached a tunnel but eventually gave up.

Emerging on the other side, the navigation system chirped again, "Eighty kilometres to Village of the Heavenly Immortals, approximately..."

"What's going on? Why are we getting further away? Did we take a wrong turn?" asked Xie Zi Qing (谢子清), puzzled.

Even Yu Huan, the driver, was confused. "There's only one mountain road here, how could I have taken a wrong turn? I followed the navigation system."

With the drone mishap fresh in their minds, the team fell silent, leaving only the car and the intermittent voice of the navigation system to fill the void.

After a while, Lin Chu announced, "It seems that we won't arrive until tomorrow afternoon." She didn't mention that, despite the car's full tank, they might not make it to the Village of the Heavenly Immortals before running out of gas.

**

In the village, Lu Yan sat in his room, yanking at the curtains. The glass was frosted and nailed shut, defying his efforts to peer outside.

He pushed open the door and stepped out into the yard, but Zhang Bo's wife appeared from the kitchen, asking him what he was doing.

Lu Yan feigned a casual stroll, moseying around the yard.

Lu Yan's phone buzzed with a message from Luo Ying. She had successfully executed her plan: the village head's family had hastily arranged an early funeral for the deceased villager. She pressed Lu Yan to seize this opportunity and infiltrate the funeral procession as a mourner, hoping to discover where they hid the body. The Zhang family also wished Lu Yan to attend the funeral.

Lu Yan was baffled by their request. Given his frail condition, he could comprehend why Zhang Hui Xuan could not shoulder the coffin. Still, he found it bizarre that he was not even allowed to follow the procession. He glanced out the window and saw Zhang Hui Xuan's house sealed off from the outside world. It appeared that he never ventured out of his home and remained isolated.

Lu Yan went to the kitchen, where Zhang Bo's wife was busy preparing food. She raised her eyebrows when she spotted him and asked, "What brings you here at this hour?"

"I have some spare time," Lu Yan replied casually. "I thought I'd lend you a hand." He brushed aside her protests and picked up a knife and a cutting board. He began to chop vegetables with swift and precise movements.

Zhang Bo's wife welcomed the relief of having someone to share the burden with, and the two of them exchanged meaningless chatter in the kitchen. Lu Yan casually approached the conversation and inquired, "Why doesn't Li Li's dad come out more often? It would be good for his health to move around a bit." He lied effortlessly, without a hint of guilt, "I was weak when I was young too, but my family made me come out and play with other kids. We ran and jumped around, and it was only later that I slowly got better."

Zhang Bo's wife shook her head with dismay at Lu Yan's suggestion. "No, he can't come out often."

"Well, on the day of the old lady's funeral, will he not go?" Lu Yan persisted.

Zhang Bo's wife was in the middle of picking up a chicken when she heard this. She wiped the kitchen knife across the rooster's neck, letting the thick chicken blood flow into the bowl. She frowned and said, "Don't ask so many questions!"

Lu Yan couldn't help but feel like she had imagined putting the knife to his throat at that moment and silencing him forever.

At noon, Zhang Bo returned, but Li Li was nowhere to be found. He explained that Li Li was still helping at the village chief's house.

"You don't know, the old lady is cursed. I heard that something that shouldn't opened the door. A wild bobcat from nowhere came into the room. The old lady turned into an jumping undead, jumping up and running around..." Zhang Bo recounted the story while eating, his face brimming with relief from surviving a disaster. "You don't know, the old lady's face turned into a wildcat's, yellow and white stripes, and she suddenly grew claws to bite people. If it weren't for Li Li, the village chief's family wouldn't have been able to control her."

Zhang Hui Xuan scooped up a bowl of soup and pondered, "Where did the bobcat come from?"

Zhang Bo's head shook with uncertainty. "I'm in the dark on this one. With the New Year coming, chaos abounds. My guess is something slipped out from the back mountain." He scarcely finished when Zhang Hui Xuan nudged him in the side, shooting a subtle glance at Lu Yan. Zhang Bo wasted no time diverting the topic.

Zhang Bo's wife clucked her tongue in response. "If that's the case, shouldn't we put Granny Qian to rest quickly?"

"You've got it. Li Li's orders were to bury her tonight and send her off," Zhang Bo said, cramming a spoonful of rice into his mouth.

"Tonight?" Zhang Bo's wife's surprise was palpable.

"Can't dally. Nightfall ushers in more than just dreams. Best we bury her fast and stifle the malevolence lurking in that place." Zhang Bo gestured to Lu Yan. "I need to call upon you tonight to stand in."

Lu Yan nodded his agreement.

He was equally curious about what the villagers meant by "that place," which was strictly taboo.

The whole village banded together to orchestrate a swift and dignified funeral. The mourning hall stood erected, with the old woman's corpse neatly tucked in a coffin and laid to rest inside the main house.

What truly caught Lu Yan off guard was the coffin's robust construction. Sealed tightly with nails all around, chicken blood smeared over it as if anticipating a desperate bid for escape.

Beside the black-and-white memorial photograph, two statues of Old Lady Third Whisker stood stoic, one on either side. The grandsons and granddaughters of the deceased knelt upon cushions in the yard. At the same time, her sons and daughters-in-law burned paper money, gold and silver ingots, and several pallid, papier-mâché figures.

After a chorus of tears and wails had filled the room, the suona horn let loose a deafening blast, its shrill notes echoing through the pitch-black mountainside.

"It's time-"

The mourning grew more tumultuous. The village chief flung himself in front of the coffin, howling and weeping with abandon. But his sorrowful cries were cut short by a swift kick to the leg, courtesy of Li Li, resplendent in her red dress. "Enough. You'll wake her up if you keep howling like that. Shut up!" Her sharp rebuke was all needed to bring the wailing to an abrupt end. All eyes in the mourning hall turned to Li Li.

"Now, everyone must leave the room and allow the old lady to rest. Return after midnight to see her off." Li Li spoke with the practised cadence of a seasoned funeral director. "And remember: no one is permitted to enter!"

With her command, the mourners withdrew to the other side of the yard for a banquet.

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