Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Hidden Fox Cave

My first reaction was that a group of paper figures had risen from the grass.

When I looked closely, I saw that at the spot where the villager had fallen, a paper figure stood upright, dressed in a green shirt and blue trousers. The face and features of the paper figure were identical to those of the person who had just toppled over.

I wanted to take another look, but the village chief tugged at me. "Run! What are you waiting for?"

At that moment, there was no choice but to flee. The chief dragged me as we sprinted across to the other side of the meadow. One after another, the paper figures rose from the grass, though no one knew where they'd appear. Because the villagers wore their clothes inside out, most faced the paper figures head-on. The air was filled with mingled screams and gunshots; it was impossible to tell whether the cries came from men or ghosts. Everyone was desperately running for the edge of the grassland.

I watched as a paper figure lunged at a villager, and suddenly felt something catch my foot. A chilling gust swept over me, and instinctively I stepped back. A paper figure, still tangled in grass stems, stood before me, its arms outstretched, fingertips pressed against my shoulders.

If I hadn’t stepped back, the paper figure would have embraced me.

Having missed its mark, the figure's hands curled twice in midair, its feet rising onto tiptoes, as if preparing to leap at me.

"Run!" The village chief tried to pull me away, but I snatched his torch and swung it at the paper figure's face.

Before coming here, I'd told everyone, "Always bring a torch." When facing evil, a torch can save your life.

We had been crossing the meadow with torches blazing.

As I brought the torch down, its flames struck the paper figure's face. The fire danced across the oiled paper, running from the head to the feet, and in the blink of an eye, the figure became a ball of fire.

I shouted, "Don't be afraid! If you encounter a paper figure, burn them with fire—they fear it!"

My shout steadied the villagers. Some swung their torches wildly, forcing a path through the grass.

As I followed the chief, I glanced back at the paper figures. In just a moment, the colored paper used for the ritual had burned away, leaving only a skeleton in the glow of the flames.

Those paper figures were bodies wrapped in colored paper—no wonder they burned so quickly! The paper had been saturated with corpse oil.

I followed the chief through the meadow and stopped before a stone cliff. I counted heads; just six of us had made it out, including myself.

Someone, having escaped death, sobbed uncontrollably, covering their face. The chief kicked them one by one. "Enough crying! Save your breath. If we can't move Qiu Shuang, we'll all die here…"

While the chief scolded them, I studied the mountain wall. Just as he’d said, beneath the two-meter stone cliff was an embedded stone tablet.

I approached with my torch and found several lines of strange writing. The text ran vertically, right to left, in ancient script, but I couldn't recognize a single character.

After studying it for a while, I asked the chief for three sticks of yellow incense, which I lit and placed before the tablet.

The chief whispered, "What are you doing, boy?"

I replied, "Old saying: when you meet a temple, worship the gods; when you meet a ghost, burn incense. A little courtesy never hurts."

In truth, it was not about courtesy. As I lit the incense, I also ignited a two-inch signal incense, clamping it between my fingers and hiding it in my sleeve.

Soon, Hu Sanqi's voice rang in my ear. "That's a horse tablet! The writing is much like the horse tickets used in burning paper figures."

According to folk custom, funerals require burning paper horses and oxen. But those figures aren't simply burned; the ox needs an ox ticket, the horse a horse ticket, and before burning, a funeral master must recite a passage. It means the paper oxen and horses are authorized by the Underworld to carry the deceased into the afterlife. Without tickets, burning them doesn’t count.

I asked in my mind, "Godfather, are you saying there's actually a horse sealed behind this tablet?"

Hu Sanqi replied, "Judging by what I see now, yes. Why don't you go in and take a look? That tablet was smashed open once and later patched back together. Kick it in the center and it'll break. Once inside, be careful. I'll be going now."

Hu Sanqi left without another word, despite my repeated calls.

Feigning surprise, I said, "Uncle, look—the smoke is seeping into the tablet!"

Before the chief could approach, I kicked the tablet. It shattered with a crash, revealing a pitch-black cave behind.

The chief pointed at me. "What's going on?"

"I saw smoke drifting into the tablet and figured there was a gap behind it. So I gave it a kick." I crouched, torch in hand, and peered into the opening. "Uncle, do you think Qiu Shuang might be inside?"

As I spoke, my torch accidentally touched a hidden fire groove at the cave's entrance. Flames shot in, illuminating the cave in moments.

I clung to the entrance and looked inside. "Uncle, should we go in?"

The chief swallowed hard. "Boy, can we really go in there?"

I answered, "At this point, we have no choice."

I didn’t look at the villagers behind me; I could imagine them exchanging glances, hoping I’d go first. I had no time to argue, so I was the first to crawl into the cave, torch in hand.

Hu Sanqi had told me before: in ancient tombs and secret burials, it's not always the first who enters that dies first. Often, the one in front triggers the trap and those behind perish. The true purpose of secret burial traps is to keep everyone inside, not to scare them away.

Human greed is fiercer than ghosts. If a ghost loses its mind, it can be driven out; but if a man loses his mind, not even the gods can bring him back. Tomb robbers who escape an ancient tomb soon begin plotting how to open it again. If they see a trap, won’t they try to solve it? The designers of secret burials anticipated this; their traps often cut off escape routes.

Those villagers behind me thought I was the fool, but in truth, they were the real fools.