Chapter 33

The Treacherous Land 3, Shrouded in Mystery

In the evening, Anger and Mofei drove to the construction site Zheng Jiu had told them about.

As the number of pedestrians on the road dwindled, Mofei asked Anger, "Do you believe what Zheng Jiu said?"

Anger glanced at Mofei, who laughed, "Don't give me that 'believing is seeing' stuff."

Anger raised an eyebrow, thought for a moment, and replied, "Well, overall, I don't really believe in zombies. So, it's either someone's playing tricks, or Zheng Jiu is up to something."

"If someone's playing tricks, it might not necessarily be to take Zheng Jiu's life, right?" Mofei mused. "Even if everyone knows the construction site is haunted, the police won't be fooled by a simple ghost story... Does this mean someone might want Zheng Jiu to sell that land?"

Anger crossed his legs and thought for a moment, then nodded. "Driven by profit or industry competition? It's possible... But don't you think the difficulty of this prank is a bit too high?"

"Hmm?" Mofei looked at Anger, seemingly puzzled.

Anger, examining the photographs, chuckled softly. "It's like making a movie... seems quite challenging."

"Indeed," Mofei nodded. "If it were just these photos, I could understand; maybe someone tampered with them... But Zheng Jiu himself saw it, said the zombie moved closer to him bit by bit. That's quite intriguing."

Anger nodded, "The bit by bit approach, I think, has a dramatic flair."

"True, if those zombies really wanted to kill him, why didn’t they just draw their swords right away?" Mofei asked, somewhat confused.

"Speaking of drawing swords... Mofei, do you know that in the Qing Dynasty, the patterns on official robes represented different ranks?" Anger suddenly asked.

Mofei was startled, then shook his head. "The official robes? You mean the part at the chest?"

"Yes," Anger nodded and explained, "This pattern with a blue background, golden sun, mountains, and a central tiger represents the uniform of a fifth or fourth rank military official... Only military officials would carry swords. It matches well."

Mofei thought for a moment and asked, "If someone is staging all this, where would they find such props? It's not like they're actually filming a TV drama."

"Hmm," Anger nodded. "If one is willing to spend money, it's possible, or perhaps, it's not a physical object at all..."

"Anger,"

Anger looked at Mofei, "Do you think he's lying, deliberately luring us to his construction site?"

"Why don't you call and ask Xia Fan to see if he was the one who referred us," suggested Mofei. "If so, we can also inquire about the situation."

Anger slightly furrowed his brows and said, "You make the call."

Mofei, somewhat helplessly, replied, "I'm driving."

Anger looked out the window, silent.

With a resigned shake of his head, Mofei pulled the car over, then took out his phone to look up Xia Fan's number.

Anger watched as Mofei connected the call, "Hello? Xia Fan, it's Mofei..."

Mofei hadn’t finished speaking when he noticed the light by the window dim briefly, as if someone had passed by, and then brighten again.

Mofei glanced out the window, saw no one, and continued, "Yes, I wanted to ask you..." He stopped mid-sentence again, noticing Anger's expression. Anger's eyes were wide, staring in horror at something in front of the car.

Instinctively following his gaze, Mofei saw two figures, dressed in black robes with flower plumes and long braids, hopping forward not far from their car. It seemed they had just passed by...

"Mofei? Mofei?" Xia Fan, holding the phone, couldn't help but raise his voice after hearing Mofei start and stop twice, "Hello? Mofei?"

"Uh..." Mofei, snapping back to reality, was about to respond when he saw Anger unbuckle his seatbelt, open the car door, and step out.

"Anger!" Mofei quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and rushed out of the car after him.

Anger ran to the front of the car; the two figures were close by, but after only a few steps of pursuit... they suddenly vanished.

Anger frowned, looking around. Mofei was also puzzled, but the figures were truly gone... or more precisely, the ghostly shadows were.

"What happened?" Mofei asked Anger.

"I don't know." For the first time, Anger seemed bewildered, shaking his head, "I really saw them, how could they just disappear?"

"Hey... Mofei? Hey, can you two not ignore me?" Xia Fan's voice was on the verge of exploding over the phone.

Mofei came back to his senses and answered the call, "Xia Fan, it's about the ghostly shadows at that construction site."

"What ghostly shadows at a construction site?" Xia Fan blurted out, "Hey, little brother, don't call me late at night to scare me, okay?"

Mofei, taken aback, looked at Anger and switched the phone to speaker mode, asking, "Xia Fan, the contractor of that site, Zheng Jiu, he didn't contact you? It wasn't you who referred him?"

"Who's Zheng Jiu?" Xia Fan sounded puzzled, "Acupuncture or pouring wine?"

Anger furrowed his brows, "Haven't you received any cases involving Qing Dynasty zombies lately?"

"Pah!" Xia Fan quickly retorted, "You've been watching too many movies. Where are all these zombies from, especially Qing Dynasty ones?"

"We just saw them, they vanished after hopping away," Mofei said.

"Huh?" Xia Fan was momentarily stunned, then burst into laughter, shouting into the phone, "Xia Qi, Xia Qi, listen to this, Anger says he's seen a ghost!"

"Oh, what?" Xia Qi, laughing, hurried over to Xia Fan's side and asked, "Anger, you saw a ghost? Male or female? Are you scared? Let Mo Fei give you a hug!"

Anger, fuming, snatched the phone back and returned to the car.

Puzzled, Mo Fei followed, only to see Anger turn the car's stereo up to maximum volume, then placed the phone, still transmitting their raucous laughter, next to the speaker, and flipped the switch...

A loud blast sounded, transmitted through the phone signal to Xia Fan and his brother, startling them nearly to the point of dropping the handset. As cries of shock and their disgruntled curses came through, Anger slammed the phone shut, handed it back to Mo Fei, and declared, "Next time, don't let those brothers into the gallery! Let the dogs bite them!"

"Where do we have a dog?" Mo Fei asked Anger, half laughing, half crying.

"Then you bite them!" Anger glared at Mo Fei.

Mo Fei pinched his nose, "Are you saying I'm a dog?"

After struggling for a while, Anger finally removed Mo Fei's hand, then stared blankly ahead.

"Anger..." Mo Fei, having also collected himself, asked Anger, "Did you see something just now?"

"Yeah." Anger nodded.

"Explain to me how that works?" Mo Fei looked at Anger, "You usually figure it out with just one glance."

Angler shook his head, "Not this time... I'm completely clueless."

Mofei paused, then asked, "So, are we still going to the construction site? Just now, Xia Fan said he doesn't even recognize Zheng Jiu."

Angler thought for a moment, fastened his seatbelt, and said, "Let's go."

Mofei started the car, heading towards the construction site.

Suddenly, Angler asked, "Mofei, are you afraid?"

Mofei thought for a moment, then replied, "Not really, curiosity outweighs fear."

Angler smiled and patted him on the back of his neck, "I like your attitude."

Mo Fei was momentarily stunned... Although Angler's pat on the back of his neck was like patting a large dog, he still felt inexplicably happy.

After arriving at the construction site, night had fully fallen. A few dim streetlights illuminated the area, and a simple shed was visible in the distance, dark and unlit.

Angler and Mofei exchanged glances, finding it odd. Zheng Jiu had arranged to meet them here, so why hadn't he turned on the lights to wait for them? Or was it that he hadn't arrived yet?

Mofei parked the car by the roadside, took out a flashlight, and walked with Angler towards the construction site.

As they walked on the uneven ground, Angler, who was notably lacking in balance, stumbled several times. In other words, he could fall even on flat ground, let alone on such rough terrain. After a few close calls, Mofei took his hand in one of his own, while Angler wrapped his other arm around Mofei's.

Angler did as suggested to maintain balance. Mofei, holding the flashlight in one hand and leading Angler with the other, headed towards the shed. Their hands intertwined, Mofei felt slightly reassured, at least constantly aware of Angler's presence, not having to worry about him at every moment. Glancing at the flashlight, Mofei fiddled with a slider at its end... It was a multifunctional self-defense flashlight, bought after the last urn incident. The device had a slot at the back; pushing a button would extend two electrodes from the front, instantly generating a high-voltage current... akin to a stun gun.

At the entrance of the shed was a small room with a sign on the window—Duty Room.

Angler and Mofei exchanged glances again. Mofei knocked on the duty room door, calling out, "Is anyone there?"

After a moment, a voice came from inside, "Who is it?"

Mofei and Angler involuntarily sighed in relief. There was someone inside.

"Hello, we are here to see Mr. Zheng," Mofei said.

"Mr. Zheng?" After a moment, the door to the duty room opened, and a man in his forties, bald and plump, emerged, asking, "Who are you looking for? Which Mr. Zheng?"

"Zheng Jiu," Mofei replied, "the owner who recently acquired this plot of land."

"Uh..." The gatekeeper scratched his head, seeming confused. After a moment's thought, he said, "Are you sure you've got the right person? The owner of this land is surnamed Wang."

"What?" Angler and Mofei exchanged puzzled glances.

Mofei took out a paper with the address written on it and showed it to the gatekeeper, asking, "Is this address correct?"

"Yes," the gatekeeper looked at it and nodded.

"Is there anyone living inside the shed?" asked Angler.

"Everyone's gone to the canteen," said the gatekeeper. "We knock off at seven in the evening. The workers go to eat and then come back to sleep. This shed is full of construction workers, there's no bosses here."

Mofei frowned at the gatekeeper, while Angler turned to look at the distant construction site, pulling out a photo to ask the gatekeeper, "What is this project? A theme park?"

"An amusement park?" pondered the gatekeeper. "There used to be one here, but it's been demolished. This area is designated for building residential complexes."

"Wasn't it a school before?" Mofei inquired.

"Right, both the school and the amusement park were in this area. The park was quite small," replied the gatekeeper.

Anger furrowed his brows deeply, picking up a photograph and comparing it with the distant construction site... The environments were identical. Just then, suddenly... two vague figures began to slowly materialize on the empty ground in the distance.

Anger and Mofei's eyes widened as they watched the figures become clearer... two head-hanging zombies from the Qing Dynasty, floating in mid-air. From that angle, it looked exactly like the scene in the photograph Anger was holding.

Mofei gasped sharply. At the same time, they heard the gatekeeper scream in terror, exclaiming, "Mother! There are ghosts!"

Coincidentally, several construction workers returning from lunch heard the scream. They all looked towards the construction site and saw the ghostly figures in the middle of the site, causing them to shout in alarm, with many pulling out their phones to take pictures.

Mo Fei helplessly glanced at the crowd, then turned to look at Angel, who was frowning and staring at two ghostly shadows in the distance, stroking his chin, seemingly deep in thought...

After a while, just when a few braver workers thought of getting closer to take a look, the two ghostly shadows mysteriously vanished in an instant.

The crowd was abuzz, with many people making phone calls and sending photos of the ghostly shadows on their phones to their friends.

"Angel," Mo Fei looked at Angel, "What's going on?"

Angel remained silent for a while, then said to Mo Fei, "Let's go."

"Where to?" Mo Fei asked, puzzled.

Angel thought for a moment and said, "To the pet market, I want to get a dog." Having said that, he pulled the still confused Mo Fei and left the construction site.