Chapter 96: The Woman in Red at Elephant Valley

The small village was called Elephant Valley. In fact, Elephant Valley is another name for poppies. According to the pharmacopeia, poppies, also known as “imperial rice” or Elephant Valley, have medicinal uses. Their fruit can treat dysentery, stomach ailments, and prolapse, though only in small amounts.

Elephant Valley, situated along a small river, formed a wide alluvial plain. The mountain behind it had been partly cleared for poppy cultivation. The locals were accustomed to this herbaceous plant, with a mature system of planting techniques. Many children grew up helping their parents cultivate poppies, continuing the practice into adulthood.

Farmers’ children learn to plant seedlings and read the weather from a young age, just as shepherds’ children learn to tend cattle and assist with births. It’s all manual labor. Some, watching their parents accept gift boxes and gold bars with smiles, naturally grow up to follow suit…

In this dense, mountainous forest, open land was rare. Zuo Shan led us to a household, though it was just one person living there. Contrary to expectations, the locals weren’t vicious or cruel. Most were simple farmers, planting poppies as they would rice.

The true cruelty came from the monopolizing warlords.

I took out my compass to survey the surroundings. The homeowner, seeing me, asked, “Are you a feng shui master?”

I looked at him curiously. “You’re Chinese!”

The man, Yu Qian, shook his head. “My wife’s from China. She told me about people who can defy fate. From the look of you, I’d guess you’re a feng shui master. That thing’s pretty amazing…”

Yu Qian’s wooden house was large, able to accommodate five or six people. Normally, one would expect a family, but Yu Qian lived alone. He had an AK-47 in the house and a rocket launcher hanging on the wall.

I asked curiously, “Why do you live alone?”

Yu Qian replied, “My wife went back to China. Poppies are getting harder to grow. After this season’s harvest, I’ll go find her.”

I asked if he’d seen a Chinese man and a beautiful Chinese woman, possibly with a dog, maybe being held captive. Yu Qian shook his head. I checked my compass again—had I gone in the wrong direction?

Yu Qian grew some rice himself, and the cooked rice was exceptionally delicious, living up to the reputation of Thai fragrant rice. He also caught fish from the river and made a simple fish soup. Qi Qiqi drank the hot soup and couldn’t stop praising it.

Zuo Shan ate little, looking increasingly haggard, with the blood spider perched on his shoulder. Yu Qian seemed unfazed, not scared like most people would be. Apparently, he’d dealt with Zuo Shan before and was accustomed to the domineering blood spider.

As night fell, Yu Qian lit a fire in front of the house. “They say a fire keeps wandering spirits and ghosts from entering,” he explained.

After feeding Bai Yueming blood-mixed milk, the little guy fell back asleep. Carrying him during the day, I noticed he’d gotten heavier.

In the middle of the night, a chilling breeze woke me, as if something was watching me.

I snapped my eyes open and sat up. Less than ten centimeters from my face was a pair of hollow white eyes staring at me. The face had several gashes…

The sudden appearance startled me, sending a cold sweat down my back. Fortunately, my experience kept me from losing control. Instinctively, I reached for the jade ruler by my pillow. Sensing the female ghost, the ruler emitted a blue light.

I rolled to the side, sitting on the edge of the bed, facing a disheveled female ghost with wide eyes. Her ghostly hair hung down, and her eyes kept moving.

Yes, moving. She looked resentful and sorrowful, as if trapped in an endless purgatory.

I cursed, “Get lost! You picked the wrong person to possess. Careful, or I’ll crush you.”

The ghost opened her mouth as if to speak but drifted aside after my outburst. Only then did I see she wore red clothes.

Red-clothed female ghosts are notoriously ferocious, yet this one seemed full of grievances when facing me. Stranger still, why would a ghost from Elephant Valley’s mountains appear in Yu Qian’s house?

She floated ahead, and I followed, carrying my jade ruler, compass, and pre-drawn ghost-capturing talismans. The red-clothed ghost drifted forward, her ribbons trailing, not as terrifying as legends suggested. Honestly, among demons, zombies, and ghosts, I feared ghosts the most. Their intangible forms, often born of injustice, made them impossible to reason with. They’d attack without cause.

Sometimes, I couldn’t even see them. That was the real danger.

The ghost occasionally looked back, waiting for me. I left Yu Qian’s wooden house, glancing at the rocket launcher on the wall, and followed her down a small path. The sky was dim, with no trace of her. The surrounding forest occasionally echoed with the sounds of insects and beasts.

Some mountain spirits let out seductive calls, intermittent and eerie. This land, littered with death, was full of slaughter. The civilians here must live in constant hardship.

The red-clothed ghost stopped in a poppy field, hovering calmly above the white flowers, circling and gazing at me.

I asked, “Are you telling me to look below?”

She kept drifting, harmless, as if revealing a secret. I stepped forward, pulled up two poppy plants, and began digging with my hands. The tropical soil was hard, so I grabbed a stick from a nearby fence to pry it open.

Some sleeping insects in the soil scurried away.

Soon, I unearthed a skull, then a collarbone, ribs, and finally, a woman’s skeleton.

It was likely the red-clothed ghost’s remains. The bones were wrapped in black wire, with an iron weight tied to the feet. Faint traces of red thread and mildly scented wood ash remained.

I dug out all the bones and arranged them under the night sky. From the pelvis, it was clearly a woman.

Why was a woman’s skeleton buried under these vibrant poppies? I’d read in books that burying a body under a tree makes its flowers bloom with unusual vibrancy the next year. Was Yu Qian using this method to bless the land?

Unthinkable.

Sweat dripped down my cheeks, and the poppy scent filled my lungs with each deep breath. My vision blurred, and I nearly fainted. Suddenly, a light flashed before my eyes, and Ji Qianqian stood before me, smiling. “What’s wrong? Why haven’t you come to see me?”

Seeing Ji Qianqian under the light, so beautiful, I felt guilty and said, “I’m out here looking for flowers to save you. Wait for me, don’t be sad. I’ll be back soon.”

Her smiling face suddenly turned ferocious, her mouth opening wide, a long, fiery tongue extending, and rows of sharp teeth lunging at me.

Guilt-ridden, I didn’t dodge, thinking it’d be fine if she killed me.

Tut-tut-tut. The sound of bullets hitting the ground snapped me awake.

My vision went from bright to dark. Yu Qian, barefoot in shorts, ran out, shouting, “What are you doing?”

His gunfire jolted me awake. My hands were clutching my own throat—I’d nearly killed myself.

Ji Qianqian was a hallucination. Poppies have narcotic effects, and my relaxed mind had slipped into a self-induced illusion.

Yu Qian shone a flashlight around. “Was it a mountain spirit in red clothes? She seduces men, drains their essence, and refines it for her cultivation.”

I nodded. “Yes.”

Yu Qian scanned the area with his flashlight, spotting the skeleton I’d dug up. “Oh no, why’d you dig up the bones I buried?” He set his gun aside and carefully reburied the skeleton.

In the flashlight’s beam, I saw a tattooed “义” (righteousness) on Yu Qian’s arm. When Lin Dawei was gravely injured in a shootout, one of the men had the same tattoo. The photo showed half his face, but now I was almost certain it was Yu Qian.

I saw the AK in his hand but didn’t call him out. Starting a fight in Elephant Valley would be suicide. Yu Qian seemed honest, but he was hiding dark intentions.

I took out my jade ruler, but its glow was gone, and so was the red-clothed ghost, as if she’d never appeared. After reburying the bones, Yu Qian said, “Burying a body here makes the poppies grow lush.”

I asked coldly, “Is that so?” He nodded. “Yes. Master Zuo told me.”

I didn’t watch him finish burying the bones and returned to the wooden house. Qi Qiqi was awake, groggy, her tight black tank top accentuating her figure, especially her long legs. “What happened?” she asked.

I told her it was nothing, probably a wild boar digging around that Yu Qian chased off. “Go back to sleep. We’ve got to keep moving tomorrow.”

Back in my room, I tucked a gun I’d acquired into my waistband, loading the magazine. It was only 2 a.m., and I couldn’t sleep. Suddenly, Bai Yueming started crying incessantly, unaffected by blood-milk. His piercing wails seemed ready to tear his little throat.

Qi Qiqi picked him up. “Must be the gunfire. Poor baby, why’re you crying? Missing your mom? Don’t cry, I’ll sing to you… Only a mother is good in this world… A mother’s kiss, a mother’s kiss…”

Bai Yueming’s crying irritated me. After nearly strangling myself in a trance and seeing Qi Qiqi’s graceful figure, an inexplicable heat surged within me.

I quickly looked away, thinking about how Zuo Shan told Yu Qian to bury the body. I shouted, “Uncle Zuo, come here, I need to ask you something!” No response after two calls. I went downstairs—the rocket launcher on the wall was gone.

Yu Qian was missing. I rushed upstairs, grabbed our bags, picked up Bai Yueming, and pulled Qi Qiqi out of the house.

Bai Yueming must have sensed danger to cry like that.

Whoosh. A flash of light shot from the distance. I yelled, “Rocket launcher!”