Chapter 46

Yin Xiaoxiao felt as though his head was going to explode. Really, a nobody like him wasn’t suited to think about parallel worlds and whatnot.

“What’s going on with you?” Ji Kang worriedly asked Yin Xiaoxiao, a complicated look on his face.

“Ah, I’m fine.” Yin Xiaoxiao regained his regular attitude, raising his head and straightening his back, doing his best to make himself look more magnificent and mighty. Unfortunately, he, ah, failed. His current height was naturally not comparable to that of a human’s. How was it that, the more he lived, he became shorter and shorter?!

Ji Kang again laughed lightly, then he bent slightly at the waist so that he was level with Yin Xiaoxiao. “I will bring you over to the stone table, alright?”

Yin Xiaoxiao looked at the pair of smiling eyes in front of him, so lost that his mind was akimbo. As a result, Yin Xiaoxiao nodded, a little feeble-mindedly. By the time Ji Kang had cupped Yin Xiaoxiao’s body in his hands and lifted him up, Yin Xiaoxiao had gone from muddle-headed to clear-headed, and he blushed deeply.

As everyone knows, snakes don’t wear clothes! Even intelligent vipers didn’t wear clothes! And put a man and a snake together, a man’s skin was like a snake’s scales. If a human’s skin can sense different things and different feelings against the skin, so too could a snake’s scales sense things from the outside world. And so, Yin Xiaoxiao felt Ji Kang’s smooth and tender palm and became embarrassed. Aiyaya, they were actually skin to skin. Ji Kang had very nice skin. The sensation of his hand on his body felt very nice!

Cough cough, Mo Laoda, may I just say that your family’s Xiaoxiao has gotten cozy ¹ with another?

Naturally, Ji Kang saw Yin Xiaoxiao’s face turn red in his hands, but Ji Kang absolutely did not think that he’d become embarrassed because of their skin to skin contact!

Ji Kang very carefully placed Yin Xiaoxiao on the stone table, then soon after sat on the stone bench in front of the stone table.

Still shy, Yin Xiaoxiao glanced around to distract himself. This stone table was placed to the right and in front of the large bed. There was the stone table and the stone bench, and there was a long hallway stretching towards the back. All three, the stone table, the stone bench and the long hallway, were all made of precious jade and were completely, incomparably lavish. Two stone dragons playing with a pearl were engraved and dyed upon many of the jade pillars in the long hallway. There were no phoenixes and luans ² but Yin Xiaoxiao definitely remembered that Ji Kang had been married. The beams and columns above the long hallway were engraved with many flowers and plants, insects and fish, and rare and fantastic beasts. Yin Xiaoxiao saw many species he had never before seen. It seemed as though, even if it had only been a few millennia, species had changed a lot.

He forced himself to return to normal and it was only then that Yin Xiaoxiao dared to look at Ji Kang again. Perhaps it was because Ji Kang had always looked gentle from their first meeting, but Yin Xiaoxiao didn’t treat Ji Kang with wariness and had a very good impression of him. It was because of this that he didn’t feel any apprehension in asking, “Ji Kang, that person on the bed, is it you?”

There was only one bed in the main grave room, and there was only one person on the bed. Naturally, Ji Kang knew what Yin Xiaoxiao was asking. Also, fortunately, Ji Kang’s temperament was naturally that of a gentle person. And finally, it had been a few millennia. Time had polished down even the original grievances. In regards to his own death, he said in an exceptionally normal tone, “It is I. At the moment, you are looking at my soul. Yes, this is what people would refer to as a ghost.”

Yin Xiaoxiao furtively let out a sigh of relief. If he had to choose between a soul and corpse, Yin Xiaoxiao would choose Ji Kang’s soul. Although Yin Xiaoxiao would have managed whether it was a soul or a corpse, not having the smell of a corpse, not having corpse turtles ³ , and not having to look at bones was a little more pleasant.

What could be said to Ji Kang, a man who had been a sovereign? Yin Xiaoxiao had a little bit of a plan in mind. Although Ji Kang saw through him, he didn’t reveal him and only said, “How about it? Do you want to see my corpse?”

Yin Xiaoxiao’s head shook like a rattle-drum ⁴ . “No, no, I can see you well enough from here like this. Like this is good.”

Ji Kang’s lips smoothed into a smile. He picked Yin Xiaoxiao up and walked over to the bed. In Ji Kang’s hand, Yin Xiaoxiao writhed and struggled for a spell, but Ji Kang lifting the gauze clearly marked Yin Xiaoxiao’s defeat. After all, Ji Kang was a ghost. Needless to say, Yin Xiaoxiao wasn’t stronger than a ghost. Probably not even Yin Xiaoxiao’s venom would have had any effect.

Ji Kang raised the gauze. Yin Xiaoxiao screamed aaaah as he strove with all his might to stretch his neck straight and stare fixedly so as not to catch a glimpse of the corpse [added for clarity]. But with his slender body, Yin Xiaoxiao was unable to fight Ji Kang, a soul with two hands and great strength. Ji Kang seemed to only have to use one hand to push Yin Xiaoxiao’s head downwards. Yin Xiaoxiao’s head inexorably lowered further and further, and in this way he very quickly came to see the thing on the bed. Now Yin Xiaoxiao felt incomparable loathing for his lack of eyelids as a snake. If he had them then at least he’d be able to close his eyes!

Yin Xiaoxiao wailed with a sullen look on his snake face. Let it go, let it go. At best there would only be bones below! He’d just go for broke! He risked a glance! Heroically martyring himself, Yin Xiaoxiao, utterly fearless, looked at the corpse lying on the bed. In the end, it wasn’t, as he’d imagined, unbearable to look at. Instead, it looked very normal, as though Ji Kang had gone to sleep. There was even a trace of red still on his face.

Yin Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened in shock, wonder on his face. “Could it be that after you became a ghost you still have the great ability to keep your corpse from decaying like this? My god, this is a marvel ⁵ !  Huh? Do you have something in your mouth?”

Yin Xiaoxiao turned his head to look at Ji Kang, then finally saw that there was a complicated expression taking up all of Ji Kang’s face. Having heard his question, he answered, “How could I have such great ability? Have you ever met a ghost that was capable of persevering their corpse so well?” Ji Kang stopped, then continued speaking, “What you said was correct. There is indeed something in my mouth. It is, of course, a bead.”

“A bead?” Yin Xiaoxiao asked, astonished. “Is there really a bead like this in the world? Able to keep a corpse from decaying?”

Ji Kang was silent for a while, then said, “I have only seen one such bead in my entire life. It’s called the ghost shark egg ⁶ and it can ensure that a corporeal body endure forever.”

“Isn’t this more than enduring forever? Like this, one could say that you’ve only just fallen asleep! This ability is too powerful! I’ve heard of similar things that can keep a corporeal body in good condition, but the corpse would appear like, tsk tsk, even at a glance a person would still be able to recognize it as a corpse! What is this? This ghost shark egg you mentioned, is it magical?”

“This ghost shark egg is indeed magical.” Ji Kang sighed and said, “But I am confined here, and this ghost shark egg is a large cause of it.”

“Ah.” Yin Xiaoxiao, not really understanding, nodded. Overall, he felt that he had heard the name ghost shark egg somewhere before. “To tell the truth, the name of this beadl is really very, well, strange.”

“Actually, this ghost shark egg isn’t something of my great Zhou. Rather, it’s a totem of the Guifang ⁷ . It was the most important thing to the Guifang people.”

“Guifang?” Yin Xiaoxiao hesitated and said, “Wasn’t that the Guifang state? They were an ethnic group ⁸ . I remember it that there were records written of them during the Shang Dynasty.”

The reason why Yin Xiaoxiao knew about the Guifang was because of an associate professor in the history department of the university. His family name was Qin and everyone called him Professor Qin. Yin Xiaoxiao audited most of his classes on ancient Chinese history, because the other courses weren’t open to Yin Xiaoxiao (…), not for any special reason. And this Professor Qin was most interested in relatively esoteric and unusual matters regarding ethnic minorities, such as totems and supernatural entities, and the direction that his research took was also rather unusual. For instance, speaking of totems, if researchers clearly and with surety indicated that people’s power in ancient times was very small and weak, then totems were usually a mystical thing over which humanity couldn’t prevail. Professor Qin, however, felt that the totems of some minorities weren’t like this. Perhaps it was because the Professor recognized the existence of mysterious forces. And Professor Qin had spoken of the Guifang.

According to the written historical record, the Guifang was this national minority that existed in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. During the Zhou Dynasty, they had lost a war and fled. Later they were mentioned by name in the historical records of the Spring and Autumn Period, in the Western and Eastern Han, and in other Dynasties. Even in the not-so-distant past, there were written accounts of this ethnicity. However, in Professor Qin’s classes, Professor Qin readily considered the Guifang to have been destroyed during the Zhou Dynasty. Why could Professor Qin be so sure that the Guifang had been destroyed? In the words of Professor Qin, since the so-called “Guifang” of the post-Zhou had lost the item most precious and necessary to their people, Professor Qin did not recognize this ethnic group as the Guifang.

Professor Qin had spoken like this so often in class that Yin Xiaoxiao’s interest in the Guifang had been piqued, and he’d searched for information on the Guifang several times after class. There was little information, most was a one pass ⁹ . This had deepened Yin Xiaoxiao’s interest in the Guifang. But regardless of the source of information, he had been unable to find out the final mysterious fate of the Guifang. But Professor Qin had surely had even more detailed information about the Guifang, so Yin Xiaoxiao had tried to find Professor Qin.

Professor Qin had been very fond of Yin Xiaoxiao, this student who visited him. In the history department, nine times out of ten students didn’t attend their classes. But everytime Yin Xiaoxiao had attended class, he’d been very conscientious. Add in that Yin Xiaoxiao had frequently stayed behind after class to ask questions and, little by little, the two became quite well acquainted with each other. Therefore, as soon as Yin Xiaoxiao found him, Professor Qin knew that Yin Xiaoxiao had come to ask questions about the Guifang. He had already witnessed Yin Xiaoxiao’s enthusiasm in class when he heard about the Guifang.

Confronted by Yin Xiaoxiao’s questions, Professor Qin actually threw a picture at Yin Xiaoxiao.

In the picture was a dǐng ¹⁰ , a nine-footed dǐng. Still, what made Yin Xiaoxiao shiver was that the nine feet of this dǐng was made of bone. As for what bones…Yin Xiaoxiao didn’t know. But Professor Qin had offered the picture to Yin Xiaoxiao so that Yin Xiaoxiao could look at the characters on the  dǐng…unfortunately, Yin Xiaoxiao couldn’t read them.

Professor Qin naturally knew that Yin Xiaoxiao couldn’t read the above-mentioned language. Seeing that Yin Xiaoxiao was beginning to doubt him, the professor said, “On the dǐng is written: Nine barbarian chiefs kneel before Wu Ding, who killed 3000 virgin males and virgin females as live sacrifices to the Nine Cauldrons ¹¹ until blood rained from the sky, forming a sea of blood. The Guifang Totem sank inside. Disaster from beginning to end.” Professor Qin again spoke, “In the twelfth year of Wu Ding King’s reign, the Shang Dynasty army fought the Guifang for three consecutive years. The Guifang invoked the Guifang Totem to defeat Wu Ding. Wu Ding cast the Nine Cauldrons of the King in reply to the Guifang Totem. Naturally, after that, the Shang Dynasty dared not attack the Guifang. The Guifang Totem was a ghost shark egg. Carrying a ghost shark egg can ensure that a corporeal body endures forever.”

Recalling this, Yin Xiaoxiao cried out, “You said this was a ghost shark egg? The Guifang Totem? It’s actually here?”

Ji Kang looked at Yin Xiaoxiao strangely. He had clearly spoken of the ghost shark egg previously for a very long time before, yet Yin Xiaoxiao only reacted now. Truly, he didn’t know what to say. “Yes. The battle depicted in the reliefs was an attack on the Guifang.”

“In order to get the ghost shark egg?”

“That’s right. Father king ¹² , Zhou Cheng King’s, body was deteriorating, but he wanted to live forever and not die. Hearing that the Guifang Totem could ensure that a corporeal body would endure forever, he ordered that I attack the Guifang and seize the ghost shark egg. But unfortunately, the ghost shark egg could only ensure that a corporeal body would endure forever and couldn’t prevent the soul from being extinguished. Father king finally died, and the ghost shark egg was also buried with him.”

To tell the truth, Yin Xiaoxiao was now even more dazed. If the ghost shark egg was buried with Zhou Cheng King, then how was it here with Ji Kang? If the Guifang Totem had such great power, then how was Ji Kang able to capture it? Furthermore, were the Guifang really eliminated by the Western Zhou? It could be assumed that they had been destroyed. Yin Xiaoxiao’s train of thought fixed itself on the treacherous youngster. No, this treacherous youngster ought to be Ji Zhao! When Ji Kang attacked the Guifang to capture the ghost shark egg, and after Ji Kang’s death, Ji Zhao once again attacked the Guifang. But why? And the scene in the relief made Yin Xiaoxiao think that Ji Zhou had perhaps eliminated the Guifang? And further, there was that pyramid of human heads and that mountain of bones in the grave room below. Were those people of the Guifang?

“I saw another youngster in the reliefs outside who must be Ji Zhao. Did he also attack the Guifang?”

At the mention of Ji Zhao, Ji Kang’s face drooped. Very clearly not wanting to speak of Ji Zhao, he only said, “It is he. Ji Zhao is my younger brother from the same father and mother. After my death, he indeed went and attacked the Guifang. He also built this tomb. Well, Xiaoxiao. You have been here for two days. That snake outside has also been waiting for you for two days. You should leave.”

Yin Xiaoxiao went ‘ah’. He saw Ji Kang’s ugly expression and knew that he was not currently in a good mood. Yin Xiaoxiao certainly didn’t want to know what consequences would come of angering a ghost, and without any better option said, “Then, I can come again?”

“You may. You can come back regularly and keep me company.”

“Then Heitan…that snake outside, can he come too?”

Ji Kang hesitated, then said, “Of course he can. Next time you and he can come together.”

Yin Xiaoxiao was pleased. “Okay. Then I’ll come back again.” After that, he turned to face the closed stone door. “Now, how can I leave?”

Ji Kang swung a sleeve and then said, smiling, “Can you leave now?”

Yin Xiaoxiao looked and saw that the small hole had once again appeared.

T/N: I think we’re finally done with the history stuff, for now at least. Hooray!

Footnotes

<ol>亲密接触了: can mean literally in close contact, but can also mean intimate 鸾: a mythical bird similar to a phoenix but blue. Wikipedia says that they trample snakes and that a lean was gifted to Zhou Cheng King, Ji Kang’s father, as a tribute 尸鳖: a type of fictitious insect that is said to gather near corpses 拨浪鼓: a little drum on a stick that has two beaded strings attached. Twirling it between your hands makes the beads hit the drum 不可思议: an idiom meaning that something is incredible or unbelievable, but in a good way 鬼鲛鱼卵: Ghost sharks are related to sharks and are found in deep water 鬼方: literally translated as Ghost forces; according to wikipedia, they were to the northeast of the Zhou Guifang was the term used by the ancient Chinese dynasties to refer to the people to the northeast of them. There are different theories, one has the Guifang was an ancient country, another has them as a small tribe that was nomadic in nature, and another has them as different tribes 一笔带过: idiom meaning that something was mentioned only in passing and/or without great detail 鼎: an ancient cooking cauldron with two looped handles and three or four legs 九鼎: a collection of nine dǐng that represented the King’s divine right to rule during the Shang Dynasty. According to wikipedia, it was used to offer sacrifices 父王: how princes and princesses referred to their father</ol>