Here Lies The Wicked

Chapter 21: The 21st Person

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

[My name is Zhao Xueming.

[I live in a small, isolated village in Xiangxi. A cement road had only been built into the village a few years ago. The county head said that it was sponsored by the government in its effort to support poor villages across the country. 

[I always made my grandfather tell me stories when I was young. 

[According to him, various methods of extrajudicial killings and torture were a norm before the Revolution. 

[A few of those methods were considered the most wicked. Weird and chilling things also often happened after such executions.

[Methods like the Five Ways of Slashing, Mincing, Sawing, death by burning, fed to venomous snakes, The Dismembered Man, boiling, flaying, Intestine Extraction, waist-splitting, dismembered by five horses, buried alive, laparotomy, forced penetration of women using a wooden stick, and death by drowning… these were the common methods of torture according to my grandfather. 

[The Five Ways of Slashing was to cut off a person’s arms, legs, dig his eyes out, and cut his ears, before decapitating him and cutting his body into three pieces. This was commonly known as the eight-piece cut. 

[Mincing was a method that caused a terrible and slow death. Two executioners would be needed for this method; a person would be covered tightly with fishnets before getting his body sliced from his feet up. He was only allowed to die when a thousand slices of meat were cut off his body. Grandfather said that there were people who only died after three days and three nights of torture. 

[Sawing was literally killing a person by using a chainsaw. 

[These methods sounded more and more gruesome as the list went on. At about six or seven years old, I couldn’t sleep alone for a month.

[Now that I think about it, I can’t help but be thankful that I wasn’t born during the times of rampant extrajudicial torture and killings. 

[Grandfather said that these people were in so much pain before they died that there would always be grievances left behind. On top of that, given that they had died horrible deaths, there would always be creepy incidents after that; no one dared go near their bodies. 

[Therefore, there had been a market for people who worked as corpse bearers. 

[They were also known as the Corpse Chasers of Xiangxi. 

[Every industry had its own unwritten rules. As such, there were some as well for corpse bearers. 

[For example, my grandfather mentioned that people who died by having their bodies split by the waist could not have both parts of the body buried in the same place. The usual practice was to bury the parts separately at two ends of a river or mountain; it was a symbol of ending the grievances of the dead and preventing the possibility of mutation. 

[Grandfather said that people who died this way were usually buried at two ends of a river. However, the more gruesome, painful, and angry a person was before he died, the stronger his grievances were. It was important to bury these bodies carefully in unexpected locations to weaken their grievances with the force of nature. 

[The reason why my grandfather understood so much about corpse bearers was that the generations before him had all been corpse bearers. 

[After the Revolution and enactment of liberal laws, the government banned torture and made public transportation better. People gradually stopped looking for corpse bearers. 

[With that, the corpse-bearing industry started fading out.

[Nonetheless, when I was nine years old, my dad went behind my grandfather’s back and carried a corpse that should not have been carried. He was found hanging on a tree at the entrance of the village two weeks after that, and his bloodied body was skinned.]

…

Du Feifei quit reading the novel on her phone in fear. She had chills all over her body like a kitten. It was already eight o’clock at night and she was the only one left in the office. 

The office was empty and eerily quiet. The sky outside the window was dark. 

This university graduate in her twenties had yet to complete her three-month probation period. It was the gentle girl’s first time working the night shift; she turned around in doubt and looked out to the corridor. She could not help but feel like someone was hiding in the empty office or the corridor. It was as if there were a pair of eyes peeping at her. 

Du Feifei was terrified. Her heart was beating like drums. She knew that she was overthinking it, but she could not help but think of the worst. 

Du Feifei was regretful. She should not have pulled out her phone to read the novel right when she was turning off her computer. 

All of a sudden, clank! Clank!

A man’s footsteps could be heard from the corridor. 

Du Feifei froze. She was terrified and afraid. 

Clank, clank.1 The steps continued in rhythm. It was as if they were knocking on her heart, and they were getting close. 

It was approaching her. 

“Who is it? Who’s out there?

“Is it the guard?

“Are you out there in the corridor?”

Du Feifei was covered in cold sweat. She could hear her voice trembling. 

The man’s footsteps stopped. It was silent. 

Du Feifei was trembling like a frightened bird; her body turned cold. She tried her best to listen for any movements, but she could not hear anything. It was as if the corridor and the office were two different worlds in a temporary silence. 

Only the sound of the cooling fan spinning while the computer shut down could be heard. 

Time was moving slowly, and every second felt like torture. Just as Du Feifei was about to crack under pressure, clank! Clank! The footsteps could be heard from the corridor again. 

However, the footsteps seemed like it was a repeat of the last. It wasn’t near her office, it was coming from afar. The footsteps were rhythmic and approaching the only lit office on that floor. 

Du Feifei had goosebumps. She was pale and terrified. 

Clank! Clank!

The man’s footsteps were approaching—but they disappeared once they were near the office. 

Soon after that, the footsteps were heard again for the third time, coming from afar and approaching the office rhythmically. It was exceptionally piercing in an empty space at night. 

It was like a cassette on loop. 

Du Feifei was on the brink of breaking down. She said in her trembling voice, “Who are you? No matter who you are, this isn’t funny! Is it the guard out there?

“If you continue scaring me like this, I will call the police.”

Clank, clank… the steps continued for the fourth time in the corridor. It was as if her voice went unheard. 

Du Feifei was getting paler and paler. She was shivering, and the air was giving her chills on the back of her neck. She turned around in fear but found nothing. There were only dark windows. 

Clank, clank. The footsteps continued to go on loop. 

Du Feifei was trembling—she was on the brink of crying. When the steps repeated themselves again, Du Feifei couldn’t stand it anymore. She ran out of the office in anger to try to catch the prankster red-handed. 

The footsteps disappeared. 

The corridor was empty. There was no one. There were only a few light bulbs keeping the corridor lit. 

It was as if the footsteps were a hallucination. 

The temperature in the corridor was low. 

Apart from the sound of wind rushing into the corridor, there were no other sounds. It was silent. 

Du Feifei was white. 

What happened tonight was beyond what any person could bear; let alone a girl who was working the night shift alone. Du Feifei was shivering. She was on the brink of losing it. 

The building was empty and quiet at eight o’clock. It was as if the whole building was in its own world, and Du Feifei’s office was the only one still lit on this floor. 

Du Feifei was terrified. Her limbs were cold. She did not dare to stay a second longer. 

She turned around and rushed back into the office to grab her things. 

Just as Du Feifei turned around, clank! Clank! The footsteps were approaching her again, with the same rhythm. They came from Du Feifei’s back, and they were near. It was as if someone was right behind her. 

“Ahh!”

Du Feifei screamed in the corridor; she broke down. She ran to the other end of the corridor without caring for her phone or things. She did not care if she were to be scolded by her manager for not turning off the lights the next day or even if her salary was cut. She did not dare look behind her. 

Two security guards rushed over after hearing Du Feifei’s sharp scream amidst the silent night. They found a shaken Du Feifei. 

Du Feifei broke down when she saw them. 

After Du Feifei had calmed down, she thought about the footsteps in the corridor—but there weren’t any at the moment. 

The security guards brought the terrified Du Feifei to her office in an attempt to look for the prankster she was talking about but to no avail. 

The guards started assuming that Du Feifei was just a nervous girl working the night shift alone and they did not take her seriously. They brought Du Feifei to pack up her things, turn off the lights, and escorted her downstairs before getting her a cab. 

Her eyes blinked, and tears were still in the corner of her eyes. Du Feifei looked back at the night sky—she slumped into the car seat and tried to feel safe from being wrapped in it. 

Tonight’s unfathomable experience was still sending chills down her back. 

Du Feifei’s apartment was located in a secluded area. She rented a unit in an old apartment block. She had been staying in Zhou City since she had graduated to work on her career. 

Du Feifei turned on all lights in her apartment once she stepped in. The warmth of home gave her a sense of safety. Du Feifei poured herself a glass of warm water. 

All of a sudden, clank! Clank!

A man’s footsteps came from the bedroom, and they were approaching the door! 

The glass in her hand fell to the floor. Du Feifei looked in the direction of the bedroom helplessly. She wanted to scream, but it was as if a heavy stone was weighing down her heart. She could not make a sound. 

He was in her apartment! 

‘Why!

‘Why!’

Du Feifei felt chills all over her body within the blink of an eye. Her eyes widened in fear.