The headache was splitting, his mouth was parched, and his body felt so heavy it seemed like it didn't belong to him.
Just the act of opening his eyes took Hu Ma a long time, accompanied by bouts of dizziness and vertigo.
He was half-reclined in a room resembling a hall. In the center stood a dusty old square table with a few low stools around it. Against one wall, a stove was built from charred stones.
A few paper effigies leaned against the wall, their faces smeared with paint, giving them eerie smiles. Yellow and red talisman papers, covered in twisted runes, were pasted all over the room.
CRASH.
He instinctively tried to move, but his shoulders throbbed with a heavy pain.
An iron chain extended down from a roof beam, splitting at the end into two lengths, each tipped with an iron hook.
And now, both iron hooks pierced through Hu Ma's scapulae, the bloody points protruding from his chest.
He had been locked here for six or seven days.
Yet, he still didn't know why.
He had just graduated from college and found a promising security job in a lab then considered cutting-edge, at the forefront of global research. Then, a sudden explosion occurred, and he felt himself begin to float.
Confused and drifting, he lost track of how much time passed before a strange sound drew him in. As he followed it, he suddenly felt himself plummeting.
When he opened his eyes again, he was in this place, chained up.
During those six or seven days, a Granny would sit before him every night. She would silently chant, recite incantations, and wave strange talisman papers. Sometimes, she even tortured him, inflicting excruciating pain like being flayed in boiling oil, before feeding him some strange meat and medicinal soup.
But no matter what he asked or did, she turned a deaf ear and a blind eye.
Hooked by the two iron hooks and frequently fainting from dizziness, he was powerless to resist anything she did.
Why does she want to lock me up?
What weird things is she reciting to me every day?
Hu Ma had no answers.
During this time, he constantly felt dizzy, as if floating aimlessly. The relentless torment left him weak and exhausted.
Occasionally, when he woke up, his mouth would be parched, and his body felt completely hollowed out.
The water jar was just three meters away, near the earthen wall.
The chain from the ceiling was looped over a beam and could slide, so theoretically, Hu Ma could move around the room.
But moving undoubtedly came at a great cost in pain.
It took him a full few dozen seconds, gritting his teeth against the agony in his shoulder blades, to slowly push himself to his feet.
Then, trembling, he leaned against the wall, inching his way towards the water jar.
The friction between the bones in his shoulders and the iron hooks produced a strange, chilling scrape.
Droplets of fresh blood seeped out as he moved.
But not much; perhaps he had bled too much already.
Finally reaching the water jar, he saw clear water inside, with half a gourd shell floating on top to serve as a dipper.
Hu Ma scooped up a little water—his arms were too weak to hold much—brought the gourd to his mouth, and gulped it down.
The burning heat and the headache seemed to lessen somewhat.
No sooner had he quenched his thirst than his stomach rumbled with hunger.
Instinctively, Hu Ma looked towards a coarse porcelain bowl on the square table.
After hesitating for a moment, he forced himself towards it.
Lifting the bowl, he saw a square, reddish block of boiled meat on the plate beneath.
To his starving body, it was a powerful temptation, yet he resisted.
That eerie Granny, aside from chanting and reciting incantations before him daily, would occasionally feed him strange things: herbal medicine, talisman water, and, most importantly, this unknown type of meat.
Whether Hu Ma had an appetite or not, she would force it into his mouth, compelling him to chew and swallow. Each time was an agonizing experience.
This was why, despite his gnawing hunger, he couldn't bring himself to touch the meat.
I have to escape while she's not here. I must escape… Hu Ma reminded himself, focusing on the most pressing issue.
Making sure no one was around, he endured the dull ache, raised his right hand, and grasped the iron hook piercing his left shoulder.
Little by little, he exerted force, trying to push the hook out of his flesh.
Intense pain shot through his brain, making his very thoughts throb with agony. The hook felt like it had grown into his skin and muscle.
But Hu Ma gritted his teeth and continued to try, bit by bit.
...
CREAK...
Just as the pain intensified with each attempt, a gust of wind suddenly blew open the door, dimming the room slightly.
Is that strange Granny back?
Hu Ma startled, turning to look. A short, thin middle-aged man had entered.
The sunlight streaming in from behind him blurred his face.
An outsider?
A surge of hope filled Hu Ma at the sight of the newcomer.
In all his days here, he had only seen the eerie Granny and a little girl in a red dress with red ribbons in her hair.
This was the first time he had seen anyone else, and the urge to cry out for help rose immediately within him.
But before he could speak, he froze.
What if this man is the Granny's accomplice? Wouldn't pleading for help just bring more torture?
Besides, even if I don't say anything, he can see the iron hooks in my shoulders.
If he were truly an outsider, wouldn't he find this strange?
As Hu Ma stared at the man, trying to gauge from his reaction whether it was worth asking for help, he noticed the man completely ignored his plight. The stranger turned stiffly, glanced around the room, and then asked woodenly, "Where's Granny?"
...
Damn, he seems to know the Granny…
Hu Ma's hopes of rescue dwindled. But maybe I can get some information out of him.
"Granny has gone out," Hu Ma said, trying to sound calm. "Why are you looking for her?"
The man's voice was wooden. "I'm here to settle a score with her."
Settle a score? Hope suddenly surged in Hu Ma's heart. Could this person be an enemy of that eerie Granny?
"She's out. She often goes out during the day," Hu Ma said, suppressing his excitement. "Judging by the time, she should be back soon. You..."
"Granny will be back soon, so I have to hurry."
The wooden man suddenly turned to Hu Ma. He was no longer backlit by the sun, but his face remained indistinct.
His voice, thin and halting as if he lacked the strength to speak, said, "I was doing fine in the woods, but Granny suddenly had someone come and chop me down. She had me cut into pieces and made into a coffin. Tell me…" He paused, then asked, "...is that not a great feud?"
...
?
Hu Ma knew he should have agreed with whatever the man said, but the undertones of his words were deeply unsettling, leaving him dumbfounded.
"I could have attained true cultivation in another year or two," the man continued, his voice now carrying a shrill, weeping quality. "But Granny insisted on destroying my future! I was buried in the earth, encasing the corpse of Grand Master Cui, smelling its slow decay. I felt maggots crawl through his body, felt his rotting fluids seep onto me, into me! Tell me, isn't ours a feud of blood, a hatred as deep as the sea?"
As Hu Ma listened, a sudden chill ran down his spine, and his scalp tingled. He stumbled back a few steps.
Only then did he realize the man's gait was incredibly odd. His knees didn't seem to bend; he moved with a rigid stillness, as if a wooden board were sliding across the floor.
As the man grew more agitated and drew closer, Hu Ma's vision blurred for a moment. When it cleared, he finally saw what was under the black robe and hat—the thing that had been an indistinct face was no face at all.
It was a plank. A grimy, black wooden plank.
At that same moment, Hu Ma recoiled from the putrid stench emanating from it.
A coffin plank!
Yet this coffin plank was now screeching curses at him, its voice sharp with excitement. "I'm here to settle accounts with her!"
"She ruined my cultivation, so I'll take her grandson!"
...
Hu Ma instinctively wanted to flee, but his body was too weak, his legs turning to jelly.
He felt a wave of dizziness, watching helplessly as the coffin plank moved to press against his face.
The rotten stench and the shrill voice flooded into his ears and nostrils, pouring into his mind, nearly causing him to faint.
"AHEM!"
Just then, a soft cough came from the doorway, followed by an aged voice.
"You gained a bit of cultivation only to get lost in the woods and harm people, not even sparing pregnant women. Cultivation isn't easy, so I thought letting you guard Grand Master Cui's corpse for twenty years would be a way out for you. Not only did you fail to appreciate it, but you also came here to harm my grandson…"
The voice paused, then declared, "In that case, let's just burn you this time!"
...
Immediately, an ear-piercing scream tore through the air. Gusts of frigid wind surged through the room, and Hu Ma felt a violent blast brush against his face.
When he could finally see clearly again, a bare coffin plank lay on the floor.
A little girl with two small pigtails squatted on the plank in an animalistic posture, smiling at him.
And the sinister Granny stood hunched by the door, silent.