After the south-facing wall of the first-floor dormitory was smashed open, I passed through the bricks without touching the load-bearing wall, so the old building remained stable.
Shen Yihu assigned three capable subordinates to start digging in the middle of the room, and the excavated soil was quickly removed.
They dug for a full three hours, creating a huge pit.
Suddenly, Shen Yihu’s shovel struck something hard with a *clang*.
Overjoyed, I knew we had found it.
Carefully, they cleared away the excess soil, revealing a stone coffin. The coffin was gray, with blackened patches due to the damp underground air.
Shen Yihu was visibly shocked.
I was equally stunned. *A stone coffin? Could this be the one Ye Wenxin mentioned? But why was it buried inside the house?*
I jumped into the pit and used a shovel to clear the surrounding soil. The cold stone—what secrets lay within? Finally, the coffin was fully unearthed in the center of the room.
The coffin was extremely heavy, making extraction difficult.
“Find a way to get it out!” I shouted.
Shen Yihu frowned. “How? Heavy machinery can’t get in, and we can’t just tear down the walls now. Trucks can’t reach here either.”
After examining the situation, I instructed Shen Yihu to prepare ten thick wooden poles, several pulleys, thick ropes, and iron hooks.
We built a frame in the middle of the room, mounted pulleys on it, and hooked the iron frame beneath the coffin. Ropes were threaded through the pulleys, lowered into the pit, and connected to the hooks. Outside, motorcycles were used to pull.
After nearly an hour of preparation, three motorcycles roared to life, their engines spewing black smoke as they slowly pulled. The wooden frame creaked under the strain.
The coffin gradually rose, emerging from the ground. Once it was sufficiently above the surface, we placed wooden poles beneath it and stopped the motorcycles. The ropes were untied and repositioned around the coffin itself. With coordinated effort, we dragged the coffin horizontally out of the pit and placed it in the open area in front of the old building.
The sunlight was intense, so we surrounded the coffin with canvas to shield it from prying eyes.
I climbed inside, where Chen Tutu handed Shen Yihu and me white gloves and masks.
Inspecting the coffin, I finally found the mechanism. Ye Wenxin had mentioned trying numerous methods to open it without success—it seemed this would take time.
The stone lid had a keyhole, roughly the size of the jade ruler. I hesitated before inserting it and twisting.
With a *click*, the coffin opened slightly, revealing a narrow gap.
A faint wisp of white corpse energy seeped out—the weakest kind—vanishing instantly in the sunlight. *Too weak… as if something had drained it.*
“Strange. The corpse energy is unusually weak,” I muttered suspiciously.
“Could something have absorbed it?” Shen Yihu, ever the sharp detective, immediately pinpointed the issue.
Chen Tutu added, “Could it be the female corpse on the third floor? Did it suck away the coffin’s corpse energy?”
Impressed, I nodded. “You’ve got the right idea. This is corpse cultivation.”
Shen Yihu frowned. “You mentioned *yin corpses* before—dry and wet ones. What’s *corpse cultivation* now?”
“In the Golden Triangle’s jungles, the damp environment is perfect for corpse cultivation. But in a city? Unbelievable.”
The truth was slowly coming together.
“Officer Shen, Dr. Chen, your insights helped. Let me share my theory.”
Shen Yihu urged, “Stop stalling. Out with it.”
I placed two stones on the coffin lid—one representing the coffin, the other representing Room 302.
“Seven people died in Room 302, making it a genuine haunted space. The resentment attracts wandering spirits, so it was chosen as the cultivation site. But that alone wasn’t enough. Two iron rods and wooden poles were used to channel the coffin’s corpse energy upward.”
Chen Tutu looked baffled. “Are you saying… all of this was orchestrated?”
I paced under the sunlight. “Exactly. The coffin was deliberately buried to absorb decades of underground yin energy. This area was a mass grave during the war—many were killed when the Japanese occupied the city. Later, cherry blossoms flourished here unnaturally.”
Shen Yihu nodded. “The elders mentioned the atrocities. The cherry trees grew unnaturally vibrant.”
“During the Cultural Revolution, the dormitory stood empty, providing the perfect opportunity to bury the coffin. Once it absorbed enough energy, Guo Furong was placed in the haunted room, and the iron-wood setup was used to siphon the energy. Everything was timed perfectly—it wouldn’t have taken much longer to complete.”
Chen Tutu voiced skepticism. “But any minor disruption—like the building being demolished—would’ve ruined everything.”
“Yet here we are. Someone invested *immense* effort into this.”
Chen Tutu fell silent, but Shen Yihu, ever the detective, had more questions. “Even if the coffin absorbed yin energy, how? It’s just stone, not a magnet.”
“Good point. Theory alone isn’t enough—let’s check the evidence. Officer Shen, open the coffin.”
Shen Yihu paled. “You want *me* to open it?”
“You’re the expert. Plus, you’re stronger.”
Chen Tutu rolled her eyes and yanked the lid open herself.
Inside, I expected a single skeleton—but there were two, intertwined.
“A married couple buried together?” I mused.
Shen Yihu examined the hip bones. “No. Two men.”
That shocked me. *Same-sex burial from decades ago? Was society more accepting back then?*
Before I could ponder further, Shen Yihu clarified, “They’re brothers. Not what you were thinking.”
I was impressed. “Officer Shen, you’re a modern-day Judge Dee! How’d you deduce that from bones?”
Chen Tutu was equally stunned—this wasn’t standard forensic knowledge.
Shen Yihu smirked. “It depends. Sometimes I can tell, sometimes I can’t.”
“When *can* you tell?” I pressed, intrigued.
“When their names are written down.” He pulled out a wooden plaque: *”The Xiao Brothers Rest Here Together.”*
I facepalmed. *Since when did Shen Yihu become a comedian?*
Beside the plaque lay a scroll and a pair of blue embroidered shoes—exquisitely crafted, clearly meant for a woman.
But why place women’s shoes in a tomb for two men?
“Dr. Chen, these would look lovely on you,” I teased. She ignored me, spreading a white cloth to examine the bones.
“Any theories yet, Master Xiao? How does the coffin absorb corpse energy?” Shen Yihu pocketed the plaque.
“Let’s see.” I carefully unrolled the scroll under an umbrella to protect it from sunlight.
As it unfurled, a single pitch-black eye stared back from the white paper—so vivid it seemed to leap out.
My blood ran cold.
*This was the eye that had been following me in the old building—the one that haunted my shoulders.*
It was hypnotic, terrifying, indescribable. It had toyed with me, tried to kill me, to stop me from uncovering the truth.
Steeling myself, I searched for inscriptions or seals but found none—just that eye, meticulously detailed.
And deep within its pupil… a faint, ghostly silhouette.
*What in the world…?*
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage