Gong Fugui, puffing on his cigarette, said, "At the time, Yi Yan Tong's face was frighteningly pale. The men carrying the coffin were all scared. Some suggested just abandoning the coffin."

"Yi Yan Tong immediately blew up, saying, 'Do you know what's in the coffin? I'm telling you, anyone who gets within thirty zhang (one zhang is about 3.3 meters) of this thing, no one will escape. If you run now, whatever's in that coffin will come after you and haunt you to your death sooner or later.'"

"The only way out is to hand the coffin over to the warlord. The warlord has the life destiny of a chaotic era's bandit king; only he can suppress the coffin's evil energy."

"If you want to die, don't drag me down with you."

"Yi Yan Tong's words terrified the men even more. I could see the soldiers were about to mutiny, so I quickly went with the aide to calm them down. After coaxing and scaring them, we finally stabilized the troops, but it was starting to get dark."

"Yi Yan Tong urged us several times, and only then did those men tremblingly carry the coffin onto the stone bridge."

"As soon as the coffin reached the middle of the bridge, the river water exploded. It was like dragons were fighting in the water, waves churning and surging. You could hear the crashing of the whitecaps even several meters away."

"Now, the bridge was only four or five meters long. A few steps forward and anyone on the bridge would be across, but the men carrying the coffin onto the bridge, it was as if they were being held back. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't move an inch!"

"Yi Yan Tong frantically threw things into the water, everything from golden coin swords to peach wood nails. Anything he could throw into the water, he tossed in."

"Strangely enough, the way Yi Yan Tong was throwing things into the water, it was like pouring cold water into a boiling pot. Every time something splashed into the water, the waves would calm down a little. But before long, they would churn up again."

"The men on the bridge couldn't move no matter what, and Yi Yan Tong had thrown everything he had. So he started telling us to throw our guns and uniforms under the bridge."

"I knew: guns have killing intent, and uniforms have the aura of blood, which can suppress evil."

"But our guns and uniforms were no good! We were just a bunch of shrimp soldiers and crab generals led by a bandit king. We didn't have the blessing of the imperial dynasty's luck, so throwing anything into the water was useless."

"The soldiers panicked and followed Yi Yan Tong, throwing their guns into the water. As soon as I saw that, I knew it was going to be bad. Before they could throw any more guns into the water, I quietly ran away."

"I only ran a hundred meters or so when I heard a loud crash from the river. When I turned back, the bridge had collapsed, and all the men carrying the coffin had fallen in."

"The people standing on the bank were like they were petrified, just watching the white waves engulf them, without moving a muscle."

"I knew at a glance that they were all doomed. I started running for my life, I don't even know how far I ran before I slowly made my way down the mountain and back to the warlord's mansion."

"After I got back, I knew the warlord wouldn't let me off easily, so I pretended I was scared out of my mind, babbling nonsense to him. The warlord thought I had really gone crazy, so he let me go."

"Fortunately, I had secretly saved up some things while working for the warlord. Not working under him anymore, it wasn't too difficult to make ends meet."

"I knew myself that I was the only one who survived from the men who went down the mountain. Whatever was in the coffin definitely wouldn't let me go."

"I was trying to find a way for my family to survive while waiting for my death. At that time, I had even picked out my burial ground."

Gong Fugui pointed towards the mountain as he spoke, "That's where I chose my grave. I told them that if anything ever happened to me, don't hold a funeral, don't wear mourning clothes, don't even burn paper money. Just wrap me in a straw mat and have someone throw me into the mass grave."

"I lived like that for two years before I finally met my death."

"Actually, I don't even know how I died. The day I died, I was working in the field, and I felt like a ghost had blown air on me, and I shivered from the cold."

"By the time I came to my senses, I had already fallen to the ground, and my ghost was standing beside my body. That was in the middle of the afternoon! If I hadn't run fast, I wouldn't have even had a ghost left."

Gong Fugui said, "My family knew what I did for a living, and they listened to me. They wrapped me up and threw me in the mass grave and left. And so I became a wandering spirit."

Gong Fugui sighed with emotion, "Those who are in the tomb-robbing business will end up like this sooner or later. You dig up other people's graves; of course they're going to want your life!"

I lit a cigarette and put it in my mouth, tapping the table twice with my right hand out of habit. "Have you ever seen a man named Qiao Gongliang?"

"Or, after you died, did anyone come looking for you?"

"No!" Gong Fugui said with a bitter smile, "When I was alive, no one paid any attention to me. Why would anyone come looking for me after I died?"

I continued to ask, "After you died, did you ever go back to Old Baldy Mountain to take a look?"

Gong Fugui said, "I went back, but I didn't dare to go near the river. I just looked from a distance. I was unwilling to die! It's a lie if I say I didn't want revenge, but I was really too scared to go back to Old Baldy Mountain and cross that Stone Bridge River. I would just take a look and leave."

I said in a deep voice, "How many times did you go back to look? What did you see?"