Chapter Twenty-Five: The Secret of the Forest Farm

The two of them stood in front of the tenement building, chatting for quite a while.

At last, Ah Huang was convinced of everything Fu Yang had told him, deeply moved by the tale. He’d thought his own experiences over the past few years had been extraordinary, never expecting Fu Yang’s to be even more fantastical.

"Ah Huang, is my wife really as powerful as you say?"

"Of course! Anyone who can make the very shadow of the Gates of Hell appear naturally near their residence is a figure of legend—someone who could crush a Taoist like me with a single finger! No wonder, after I passed out, you managed to fend off that fierce spirit in the woods. Your wife must’ve helped, right? You lucky little pretty boy, living off your woman. Tsk tsk..."

"Shut up! I told you to quit talking nonsense, or I’ll be in serious trouble," Fu Yang said, punching Ah Huang in the shoulder.

Yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that, judging by her actions, Dong Weike wasn’t as formidable as Ah Huang claimed. At best, she seemed to be on par with the little ghost boy in the forest—perhaps even inferior...

What was the truth behind this?

"Hey, Yangzi!" Ah Huang suddenly slapped his thigh, his excitement bubbling over. "Why not ask your wife to handle this? She could easily deal with it!"

The idea tempted Fu Yang, and it even seemed reasonable. If he could just find a way to ask Dong Weike for a favor, perhaps...

But then he remembered: Dong Weike had already told him she wouldn’t appear again until the first day of next month, when he made the three-animal offering.

He replied, dejected, "My wife—no, my queen said she won’t show up until I offer the three animals on the first. Not before then."

"What’s today?"

"The eighth..."

"Damn! That’s too long to wait—so much for relying on her. We’ll have to handle it ourselves," Ah Huang said, clearly disappointed.

Fu Yang, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief.

He’d had enough of Ah Huang’s loose tongue. If Ah Huang ever blurted out "your wife" in front of Dong Weike, Fu Yang could already imagine his corpse hanging in the doorway, left to dry...

Fu Yang went on to tell Ah Huang that, while he was unconscious, Liu Neng had been reassigned. A beautiful new deputy chief was now leading the case, and he gave Ah Huang her phone number for contact.

When Ah Huang heard the new officer was a stunning woman, he nearly started drooling, his eyes shining red, panting like an eager hound.

He quickly asked Fu Yang for the number, dialed, and even cleared his throat to make his voice sound more magnetic, trying to present the demeanor of a master.

On the other end, Zhao Shanshan explained to Ah Huang and Fu Yang that the bureau had already contacted specialist police officers with the necessary skills and equipment to conduct an underwater search of Linxin Lake, but preparations would take a week. In the meantime, the police had sealed off the central depths of the forest, barring students and citizens from entering.

Finally, Zhao Shanshan suggested they could go to the city archives that afternoon to look up records on the construction of Jiangcheng University’s forest.

At the gates of the city archives, Fu Yang and Ah Huang spotted a woman in uniform from afar.

She was strikingly beautiful, with a figure that turned heads and drew sidelong glances from passersby—impossible not to notice.

"Uniforms are just irresistible," Ah Huang blurted, wiping the drool from his mouth with the back of his hand.

The two were truly partners in crime—their first impressions of Zhao Shanshan matched exactly. Fu Yang was the reserved sort, hiding his thoughts behind a façade of propriety, while Ah Huang was openly flirtatious.

They jogged over.

"Captain Zhao, we’re here," Fu Yang greeted her.

Zhao Shanshan turned, her smile blooming like a flower. "Hello, Fu Yang. No need to be so formal—just call me Shanshan. And this must be Master Huang?"

"I am Huang Lengshuo, a disciple of the Outer Sect of Mount Mao. I will assist the police in bringing this vengeful spirit to justice," Ah Huang announced, stretching out his hand for a shake, eager to feel her delicate skin—he’d been envious when Fu Yang shook her hand earlier.

But Zhao Shanshan, seeing his formal introduction, simply raised her hand and saluted crisply, ruining his chance for a fleeting touch.

Fu Yang grinned slyly, while Ah Huang felt utterly deflated.

The Jiangcheng City Archives, established in 1955, contained integrated records from the Republican era’s central archives and local histories from the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties—a true treasure trove of information.

It was difficult for ordinary people to gain entry, but for a deputy chief of the criminal police, it was child’s play. Zhao Shanshan had already arranged everything.

After Fu Yang and the others entered, a staff member escorted them to the "Republican Era" section.

"Older residents of Jiangcheng often mention that the forest in the city center was originally built as a public park," Zhao Shanshan explained as they walked. "Later, for reasons unknown, it was abandoned. After the civil war and the founding of the People’s Republic, it was incorporated into the newly established Jiangcheng University’s campus..."

She seemed quite familiar with the history of the university forest, chatting easily with Fu Yang and Ah Huang as they went along.

Fu Yang felt a pang of shame—he was a student at Jiangcheng University, yet knew nothing of any of this.

The Republican Era section was not large, just two rows of shelves.

"Let’s start searching. The Republican period wasn’t very long, so it shouldn’t be too hard," Zhao Shanshan said.

Two hours later, it was Zhao Shanshan who made the first discovery—her keen observation and information-gathering skills far surpassed those of Fu Yang and Ah Huang.

The book was titled A Brief History of Construction in Republican Era Jiangcheng, documenting all major public construction projects in Jiangcheng from 1911 to 1949: theaters, cinemas, bus stations, schools, churches, and more.

Within the "Public Facilities" section, they found records on the construction of the university forest.

It turned out that the area now occupied by Jiangcheng University’s forest had once been a mass grave during the Japanese occupation!

During the invasion, Japanese forces committed unspeakable atrocities in many Chinese cities. Jiangcheng fell to the enemy, and countless citizens were slaughtered, their bodies dumped into enormous mass graves and covered over.

After the war, with Japan’s surrender, the exact locations of many of these graves were lost amid the chaos. By a twist of fate, the site became a paupers’ burial ground, where the bodies of those who died from hunger or war were wrapped in straw mats and tossed into the earth.

A mass grave atop a paupers’ cemetery—the concentration of yin energy here was nothing short of terrifying.

No wonder ghost stories proliferated. At night, the place was swept by chilling winds, as if it belonged to another world.

Eventually, even the Nationalist government thought the place too haunted and decided to level it, planning to build a public park for the city’s residents.

That’s when they discovered that beneath the paupers’ cemetery lay yet another mass grave!