The harrowing scream ripped through the air just as the driver was laughing and chatting with the staff member at the entrance of the tomb chamber. This sudden, discordant cry echoing from the burial passage made everyone flinch.

“What… what was that?” the staff member, a young woman, stammered, thoroughly spooked.

The driver, being a man, rushed inside first. The young female staff member hesitated for a moment before following him in.

Accompanied by a cry that grew steadily louder, the driver and the young woman burst into the tomb chamber.

“Oh my heavens!” the driver shouted.

The scene before him left him speechless.

The woman was sobbing breathlessly, violently shoving at the glass enclosure.

In her frenzy, the woman possessed immense strength. Coupled with the fact that the county had not profited from this site and thus hadn't invested in quality materials, the glass enclosure was substandard. After several forceful pushes, Qi Yue managed to shove it open.

“Chang Yuncheng!” Qi Yue shrieked, grabbing the skeleton with one hand while snatching up a scalpel with the other.

Yes, yes, it was hers! Hers!

Her knife!

Again and again, she slashed at the mooring ropes submerged in the water…

Finally, she was struck on the head, releasing her grip, and swept away by the current…

Her last sight was that knife swinging against the rope…

Tears dripped onto her hand, onto the knife, onto the dry bones…

“Oh, my God!”

The stunned driver and the young staff member finally snapped out of their daze.

“What are you doing! You’re destroying national cultural relics!” The young woman was no longer afraid.

She feared ghosts, not madwomen.

The driver was also terrified. If this was investigated, would he be considered an accomplice?

Both men rushed forward to restrain the hysterical woman. At that precise moment, a clap of thunder cracked overhead. Whether it was an illusion or not, as the thunder boomed, the world went black before the eyes of the three people.

The rolling thunder shook the mountain tomb, jarring their eardrums; one could only imagine the sheer magnitude of the strike.

“Bury him! Bury him! You can’t treat him like this!” Qi Yue struggled and screamed.

The brittle bones could not withstand such pulling and scattered with a crash amidst the commotion.

The young woman let out a piercing shriek.

It was over, it was over; she was going to lose her job!

The young woman went berserk, too.

The three people inside the tomb chamber wrestled in a tangle, alerting those outside.

“Call the police! Call the police!”

“Get someone from the precinct!”

Hedu Ridge Ancient Tomb became lively for the second time.

The last time it was this bustling was right after the excavation began.

Her ID card was pulled from her backpack and thrown onto the desk.

The police officer seated behind the computer picked it up, glanced at the ID, and then at the woman handcuffed to the chair.

“From Yanjing, huh,” he remarked, quickly keying the information into the computer.

She wasn't a wanted fugitive.

The officer tossed the ID card back.

“Hey, talk. What happened? Why did you destroy national relics?” he demanded sternly.

“Bury him back, bury him back…” the woman in the chair only murmured.

The two officers in the room exchanged a look of helplessness.

Ever since they restrained this woman, she had repeated only this phrase.

“She must be crazy, right?” the other officer commented. “Maybe we should call the hospital.”

The officer at the computer was also at a loss. Dealing with criminals was one thing; dealing with a lunatic was something else entirely.

“Miss,” he thought for a moment, adopting a gentler, almost coaxing tone, “tell us what happened. We are the police; the police uncles will help you.”

That tone gave the nearby officer goosebumps.

“Lao Zhou, she’s crazy, not mentally disabled…” he whispered.

“Eh, it’s pretty much the same,” Lao Zhou replied, maintaining his ingratiating expression as he looked at the woman.

Qi Yue hugged her knees, folding herself inward.

He was actually buried like this…

Only this knife…

Had he held onto it for a thousand years?..

All alone, clutching this knife…

That fool…

That bastard…

Hadn’t she told him to live well, to forget her, just live well…

If his death was this lonely, what must his life have been like…..

Qi Yue burst into tears again.

The two officers exchanged a helpless glance.

Being a township police officer was truly difficult; what kind of incidents did they have to deal with all day long?

“You know how to fear now, but what good does crying do?” Lao Zhou sternly snapped, “You destroyed a cultural relic!”

As they were speaking, a cheerful ringtone sounded, startling the two men. They frantically searched and retrieved the phone from Qi Yue’s backpack.

“Hey, your call,” one officer said.

Qi Yue was sobbing uncontrollably, clutching her knees, murmuring words too soft and disjointed to understand.

The officer answered.

“Qi Yue, where are you?” an anxious female voice came through the receiver.

“Hello,” the officer said.

Hearing the clumsy Mandarin, spoken by a man, Huang Ying paused.

“Who is this?” she asked, glancing at Peng Jiahai beside her.

Peng Jiahai looked at her, hesitated, and started to turn away, just as Huang Ying’s voice suddenly sharpened.

“What? The Nan Zhai Township Police Station?” Huang Ying exclaimed.

Peng Jiahai immediately turned back.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

Huang Ying responded with a series of murmurs and affirmations to the person on the other end.

“…Officer, listen to me, Qi Yue is absolutely a law-abiding comrade, yes, yes… she’s from Yanjing… a doctor, a doctor… Okay, fax?… Send the fax over, and I’ll send you verification letters… Yes, yes… She is a good comrade, a great doctor. Check online, at Yanjing Hospital, she’s one of the nominees for the Top Ten Physicians… Yes, yes… Okay, okay… We’ll be right there…” She hung up the phone with a heavy sigh.

“What happened?” Peng Jiahai asked.

“This girl, I don’t know what happened, she went traveling, and somehow she destroyed a relic,” Huang Ying said, pacing around while clutching her phone. “Nanyun Province, Nanyun Province, who is in Nanyun Province…”

After murmuring for a moment, she started making calls.

“I’ll book the flights,” Peng Jiahai offered, picking up his own phone.

As dusk settled, the officers at the precinct received a call and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Director Chen guaranteed it; the department car is already here to pick her up. She really is a doctor,” Lao Zhou reported.

Excellent; it would be a relief to have this hot potato taken off their hands.

The other officer was equally pleased. The car arrived soon after.

The two local officers, three auxiliary police, and the cook all rushed out to greet the visitors.

“Where is Dr. Qi?” Deputy Director Chen asked immediately upon stepping out of the vehicle.

Qi Yue was escorted out. Deputy Director Chen introduced himself, circling around several times before finally mentioning Huang Ying’s name.

“…The accommodation down below is all prepared. Dr. Qi, let’s get you settled first,” he said.

Qi Yue kept her head bowed. Although tears still flowed, she was no longer howling.

“I’m not leaving,” she stated flatly. “I’m never leaving him again…”

Director Chen looked toward the two local officers, who gave him an expression that clearly conveyed: This is how she is.

Regardless, Qi Yue refused to budge.

“Please, I beg you, let me go stay with him, let me stay beside him…” she pleaded, grabbing the nearest person, and this plea sent her into fresh sobs.

The phone call hadn't mentioned that the woman had mental issues. How could a renowned doctor from Yanjing Hospital be a lunatic? Director Chen looked thoroughly perplexed.

“Alright, alright,” he finally conceded in resignation. “Find Dr. Qi some lodging nearby.”

Once the woman was finally settled, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Oh? It’s raining,” someone remarked.

Everyone looked up as large raindrops began to hammer down, quickly forming a sheet of water.

“Where did this rain come from? It was clear just a moment ago.”

Everyone scrambled for the cars.

Through the rain-streaked, blurry windows, the small, brightly lit window of the little guesthouse behind them looked even more desolate.

“A truly strange woman,” Deputy Director Chen said again, shaking his head. Then, thinking of something else, he instructed the officer beside him, “Have the locals here keep an eye out. Make sure nothing happens to her.”

The officer nodded quickly in assent.

The car started, its headlights piercing the misty rain as they slowly drove away.

Simultaneously, rain was falling in many places—bringing joy to some and sorrow to others.

“This damned rain!”

A man’s harsh curse cut through the night.

The beam of his flashlight barely managed to illuminate the mountain path through the downpour.

“It’s all your fault!” his companion, a girl, shouted angrily, struggling to walk on the muddy mountain road.

Deep in the forest, it was pitch black, and the sound of the rain made the night feel even more terrifying.

“You said you were experienced, yet you got us lost in the mountains! Are you experienced at all? And what was that nonsense about hiking across a landslide—landslide your a—” The girl’s angry words were cut short by a swift swoosh nearby, as if a heavy object had burst out of the woods.

The girl screamed and clutched tightly onto the boy in front of her.

The boy lost his balance unexpectedly and fell, his flashlight rolling away.

Both of them screamed.

The rain lashed down, and then silence returned, as if nothing had happened.

“Why are you screaming!” The boy regained his composure first and shouted while reaching for the light that had rolled beside him.

The girl clung to him tightly.

“I heard something!” she cried, looking wildly around, finally dissolving into tears.

“Alright, alright, there’s nothing here. Look, there’s an open space ahead. We’ll pitch the tent there. I have the stove; we can light it inside, and we won’t be afraid anymore,” the boy comforted her.

The girl sobbed, nestled in his embrace. The two managed to stand up, took the light, and continued forward. Soon, their hazy beam of light gradually receded into the distance.

In the area they had just passed, a rustling sound began.

A streak of lightning split the night sky, illuminating a figure standing on the mountain path, where no one had been moments before.

The tall man stood naked in the rain, his long hair reaching his waist.

The lightning flashed only for an instant before he merged back into the darkness.

Landslide your a—…

Your a—…

So, this is the place?

A deeper shadow in the darkness began to move slowly. The swish-swish of the pouring rain masked the sound of footsteps on the mountain trail.

The moon is sixteenth after the fifteenth…

Everyone, please have a good night’s sleep.

Regardless of the outcome you wished for, please be understanding. In this world, it’s rare to have everything perfectly aligned; pleasing everyone is impossible. There will always be regrets of one kind or another. Thank you for your tolerance.

Recommended: Yun Ni’s A Timely Medical Arrival. Modern internal medicine doctor Yang Mo returns to the life of Yang Molan. A destined bitter life will henceforth become brilliant, dazzling, and colorful. Her unique modern experience ensures that those with malicious intent will be utterly defeated. (To be continued.)