“Did you take all the goods inside the grave?” The Village Elder patted his thigh.

Zhao Wuyang nodded embarrassedly.

“That’s terrible…” The Village Elder plopped back down on the chair, his eyes dispirited.

“I lost my peace of mind after digging that tomb. I had nightmares every night where I saw Xiao Mei’s face fly in the sky. I also saw my son with blood all over his face, demanding my life. I spoke about this with an elder in our village. He told me that the tomb belonged to Zhong Wuyan. Although she was a Queen, she never received love from King Xuan of Qi. The King’s favorite concubine Xia Yingchun had even schemed against her, so she killed herself with a heart full of resentment. She didn’t close her eyes even in death.

“Every night, ghosts would cry in the palace after Zhong Wuyan’s death. King Xuan of Qi was afraid to sleep in such conditions. Later on, a Daoist priest suggested to the King that Zhong Wuyan’s bronze mirror should be buried with her. She had used it daily, and the mirror would be a reminder for her: she couldn’t claim men’s hearts because she was ugly, and she shouldn’t blame it on others. The plan was to kill Zhong Wuyan’s resentment!

“King Xuan of Qi did as he was suggested. Soon after, the ghosts really stopped crying in the palace. Years passed, and tomb robbers rampaged throughout the land after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Many of them knew that Shandong was the territory of the State of Qi, where many generals and nobles had been buried, so they came here to rob the tombs clean. However, no matter who robbed Zhong Wuyan’s tomb, the mirror would soon return to the coffin. Since it was too strange, the tomb robbers no longer dared to rob that tomb anymore, and the place became our village’s forbidden area. The elder then asked me to buy some jewels and place them inside the coffin to appease Zhong Wuyan’s anger. Otherwise, the entire Wuyan Village would be doomed!” The Village Elder was still scared when he told us the story.

I shot Li Mazi a glance and found that he was listening with rapt attention.

It wasn’t different from what I had imagined. That mirror did have a spirit; no matter who took it away, it would always find its way back to Zhong Wuyan, its owner.

“I listened to the elder’s advice, so I bought some jewels and once again went to the forbidden area at night time to open the tomb. You know what I saw? The bronze mirror was inside the coffin. My legs turned to jelly… I was scared out of my pants. I just threw the jewels into the coffin, kowtowed a few times and hurried to cover the tomb again.”

So, all of the stuff that Xue Peng took from the tomb was from our modern era. Zhang Qinghai only took that bronze mirror because he knew this already?

But how did he know that?

No one could give me the answer to this question as Zhang Qinghai was already dead.

“Hey, what should we do now? How about offering a pig to the deceased?”

“What if Zhong Wuyan holds grudges against all of us? She would skin all of our faces!”

“We should move out of this village! I don’t want to live in this stupid village anymore.” The villagers started to discuss things noisily.

I hurried to stand up and raise the pitch of my voice. “As it’s come to this, you think you can escape this by running away? My friends were already back in the city when they were attacked. Instead of moving elsewhere, you should think about how to solve this potential problem, once and for all.”

“That’s easy for you to say. How many years has the tomb been there? Have you thought about that? What can we do if our seniors couldn’t deal with it?” A villager glared at me.

I gave him a smile. “Of course we can do something about it. Your ancestors couldn’t solve it because they didn’t get to know me, Zhang Jiulin. Actually, there’s nothing in this world I haven’t been able to solve yet!”

Li Mazi quietly gave me a thumbs-up. “Terrific!”

Zhao Wuyang looked at me with eyes full of awe. Then, he seemed to be thinking about something as he held his head low.

The Villager Elder didn’t buy it. He looked at me and said, “You’re too young. What abilities could you have? Moreover, how can we trust you? What if instead of solving this you provoke the spirit further and make it attack our village?”

I gently waved my hand. “You’ll immediately know if someone has experience in this field or not; it has nothing to do with age. You just need to listen to me. I’m sure I can solve this thoroughly.”

The Village Elder gathered his people on one side and discussed this for a good while. In the end, he told me, “All right, we’ll trust you this time. What should we do now?”

I thought for a moment and said, “Prepare some rice wine, empty bowls, and red threads. It’s late today, so we will go to Zhong Wuyan’s tomb tomorrow when the roosters crow.”

Uncle Wang treated me much better after we left the Village Elder’s house. He even asked his wife to make me some scrambled eggs when we returned to his home.

After dinner, Li Mazi said to me in private, “Little Brother Zhang, how certain are you about this? I feel this mirror is really powerful.”

“Rest assured. I’ve never fought a battle unprepared.” I smiled to ease his nerves.

We went to bed early since we had to work hard the next day.

It was around midnight when I was woken up by people banging at the main door.

Uncle Wang and Aunt Wang had already gotten up to open. The villagers outside screamed, “Hurry! Call the master staying in your house! Old Wu’s daughter’s missing again!”

“What? We found her last night, didn’t we?” Uncle Wang asked as he put on more clothes.

“They lost sight of her!” the villager complained.

I didn’t wait for uncle Wang to knock on our door. I had already put on my clothes and walked out.

Uncle Wang told me, “Boy, Old Wang’s daughter is missing again. I’m almost sure that she went to the tomb. We should hurry over to find her!”

I felt that something was strange.

I grabbed Uncle Wang and asked, “Uncle Wang, have similar events happened in the village before?”

“No.” Uncle Wang shook his head, his face worried. “Even after my daughter’s incident, our village has been mostly quiet and peaceful. I don’t know what’s going on.”

In other words, the mirror had gained more power by skinning people’s faces. This time, as it had the faces of Zhang Qinghai, Xue Peng, and Xiao Sisi, it had enough resentful energy to enchant Old Wu’s daughter!

The girl would offer her face to the mirror once she took it out from the tomb. The stronger the mirror became, the more people would be enchanted! It was a horrible, endless cycle of death!

I quickly woke Li Mazi and Zhao Wuyang up. The three of us followed the villagers and went to the mountain.

Uncle Wang was leading the group with the travel flashlight Zhang Qinghai had offered him. Li Mazi and I followed close behind him.