Chapter 16: The Seventh Day After Death

As we talked, the old man who had thrown himself into the lake and I returned to the city, and I took him to the hospital. After a simple dressing and a rabies shot, he flatly refused to remain there and insisted on going home. He would not even let me escort him.

But how could I give up such a good opportunity? My life was at stake, after all. Who knew when the Ghost Lady might come looking for me? After much persuasion, the old man finally gave me a phone number, then climbed into a taxi and disappeared. Looking at the string of digits, I felt considerably more at ease.

Two more days passed. During that time, I continued visiting the fishponds in the suburbs, but I never saw the old man again. Once I returned home, I became absorbed in The Art of Ghostcraft once more. I had already finished the book once, but its contents had still remained hazy to me. Now, as I read it a second time, I discovered that I had failed to grasp the essence of many passages.

Normally, reading a book for the second time should be considerably faster than reading it for the first. Strangely, however, my second reading of The Art of Ghostcraft was much slower than the first—far slower.

That day, I was studying The Art of Ghostcraft with extraordinary care when, without realizing it, I reached the chapter about the woman in red who had jumped from a building. I suddenly sprang up from the bed, only then remembering something I had forgotten over the past few days.

Counting the days, wasn’t tomorrow the seventh-day memorial of Zhao Yong’s girlfriend?

I immediately found myself torn. Although Zhao Yong had thoroughly infuriated me on the day his girlfriend died, I was a person who knew the truth. I couldn’t simply watch him walk to his death.

With that thought, I took out my phone and called Old Fifth Xie. The call was answered quickly, and Old Fifth Xie’s impatient voice came from the other end.

“I’m telling you, kid, didn’t I say not to call me? Next time, I’m not answering.”

I had no time to waste on him, so I got straight to the point and explained why I was calling. To my surprise, Old Fifth Xie tossed out a single sentence and hung up.

“It can be done, but stop calling me every time you want me to do this or that. I charge for my services. Have him pay me, and I’ll help.”

That old bastard had hung up on me again. I nearly cursed him outright, but after thinking it over, I calmed down. Zhao Yong had brought this trouble upon himself, so he had to suffer a little for it. It was only money, after all.

With that in mind, I found Zhao Yong’s number and dialed it. To be honest, I really didn’t want to make the call. I felt that once I did, I would never be able to show my face again.

The phone rang three times before he answered. Zhao Yong’s mocking voice came through the receiver.

“Well, well, Li Xi. Have you no shame? You said we were cutting ties, and now you’re calling me again?”

His words sent an unprovoked flame of anger surging through me.

“Damn you, Zhao Yong. Do you think I wanted to call you? For fuck’s sake!”

“Then why are you acting so pathetic? If you didn’t want to call me, why did you?”

“I…” I was instantly rendered speechless. After all, I was the one who had called him. What could I possibly say? It seemed I really was being pathetic.

When Zhao Yong heard my silence, he broke into a series of mocking laughs. I was so furious I could have burst. I had called out of kindness to help him, yet in the end he was laughing at me. I immediately wanted to hang up and wash my hands of the whole matter.

Still, I opened my mouth and said, “What the hell are you laughing at? You’re about to die and you don’t even know it. Tomorrow is your girlfriend’s seventh-day memorial—”

Before I could finish, Zhao Yong suddenly threw back his head and laughed even louder.

“Her seventh-day memorial? Are you fucking kidding me? Have you watched too many horror movies? Are you trying to tell me she’ll turn into a vengeful ghost and come for my life?”

“I… Damn you, Zhao Yong! I’m not joking. I’m trying to save you!”

“Save me?” On the other end, Zhao Yong seemed to laugh himself breathless. “Li Xi, I used to think you were merely a little dense. Now I think you’re childish—and maybe a little crazy. Ghosts? Ha ha ha!”

The line went dead.

Zhao Yong had hung up on me, leaving my face flushed and pale by turns and my heart pounding violently. Why the hell had I been so pathetic as to call him?

Furious, I threw my phone onto the bed and stormed out of the room. Outside, my father was sitting in front of the television. He turned to look at me and, probably noticing my strange expression, frowned.

“What happened? Why are you rushing around like that?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

Then I walked over to the sofa, sat down, and stared at the television. As luck would have it, a hopping-vampire film starring Lam Ching-ying was playing. I couldn’t help asking my father, “Dad, when the Pig Butcher’s corpse transformed, was it like the hopping vampires on television?”

In truth, I was only looking for something to talk about. My father and I didn’t have much to say to each other. More often than not, whenever the two of us sat together, we simply remained silent.

My father glanced at me. “What do you think? Their movements were probably similar, but their clothing would certainly have been different. The corpses in Lam Ching-ying’s hopping-vampire films were usually from the Qing dynasty, whereas the Pig Butcher had been buried in burial garments.”

My father answered with complete seriousness. In fact, he was always serious, whether dealing with people or with matters. He rarely lost his temper. The only time I had ever seen him truly angry was when I was little and stuck a bamboo pole into my grandfather’s grave mound.

After hearing his answer, I found myself at a loss for words. I didn’t know how to respond. Then I remembered that dog song. If it hadn’t been for that song, the old man and I might both have died that day.

I asked my father, “Dad, do you know anything about corpse drivers?”

He abruptly turned to look at me, his expression extraordinarily strange. Seeing him like that, I felt a jolt in my heart.

Could I have guessed correctly? Was my father really a corpse driver?

When I was young, I remembered, my father was always going out. Sometimes he would be gone for half a month before coming home. That did resemble the corpse drivers of legend. The more I thought about it, the more suspicious I became.

Unexpectedly, my father suddenly shook his head.

“What are you talking about? What corpse driver?”

“Fine. Forget it. Pretend I never said anything.”

I stood up and returned to my room. It was already deep into the night, so I turned off the light and went to bed. Yet I lay there for a long time unable to fall asleep, my mind occupied by two matters. One was that the start of university was fast approaching. The other was that tomorrow was Zhao Yong’s girlfriend’s seventh-day memorial.

Even then, I still couldn’t let it go. But if I took the initiative to contact him again, I would only be making a fool of myself. If I didn’t, I could only watch helplessly as he went to his death.

Should I go find him or not?