Chapter Seventy-Eight: Uncle Pillar, Drunk

Back then, they lived in a work shed. Behind the shed was a cluster of makeshift shacks, inhabited by a group of women who made their living serving the migrant workers. Their services were cheap—though they said the price started at thirty, in reality, even twenty was enough to seal the deal. So, whenever wages were paid out, many workers would rush straight to the shacks behind. But Chen Qingshan’s wife was considered the village beauty, so he never had any interest in those women. As for Uncle Zhuzi, he was an honest man and never went there either. That night, only the two of them remained in the work shed.

Just as Chen Qingshan was preparing to sleep, Uncle Zhuzi said, “Qingshan, come on, let’s have a couple of drinks. This money isn’t clean, better not let it linger overnight—spend it quick and clean.”

So the two of them went to the usual little food stall where the workers ate. This time, with a budget of two hundred yuan, they ordered plenty of dishes and even splurged on a bottle of liquor they’d never usually allow themselves. They drank slowly; Chen Qingshan’s capacity wasn’t great, and Uncle Zhuzi was notorious for being a lightweight. By the time the bottle was empty, Uncle Zhuzi could barely speak straight.

Chen Qingshan, tipsy himself, said to Uncle Zhuzi, “That coffin full of things was worth a fortune! Your nephew’s nothing but a scoundrel—just a drumstick and a hundred yuan each, and he thinks that’s enough to be rid of us?”

Uncle Zhuzi looked at Chen Qingshan and replied, “What, you envy him?”

“How could I not? With that kind of money, I’d go back to the village and try for village chief—why keep taking crap here?” In those days, Chen Qingshan had his sights set high; no good migrant worker didn’t dream of being village chief.

“That coffin held a woman’s body. I saw the grave goods myself; all of them were intimate belongings, nothing else. That shows those trinkets were her treasures. And tell me, what woman doesn’t cherish her jewelry? Even grave robbers, when they find a woman’s coffin, leave the jewelry alone for fear of revenge. My nephew took her things—he’s doomed. Don’t envy him; this kind of money, you might earn it, but you might not live to spend it,” Uncle Zhuzi said.

“Oh, come off it. You still believe that?” Chen Qingshan scoffed.

Uncle Zhuzi just gave him a mysterious smile, then suddenly vomited all over the table. Helpless, Chen Qingshan carried him back to the shed.

It was just drunken rambling between two workers; Chen Qingshan didn’t take it seriously. But the very next day, the foreman died. He was standing below on the site when a steel bar fell from above, piercing him through and pinning him to the ground—a gruesome, instant death. The foreman, as it happened, was Uncle Zhuzi’s nephew.

With that tragedy, work stopped again for safety inspections. As people gossiped about the foreman’s death, some speculated it was the vengeful spirit of the woman in the coffin. They spoke with conviction, but Chen Qingshan dismissed them as armchair prophets; everyone’s wise after the fact.

True foresight—that’s real skill. And this time, Uncle Zhuzi really had predicted it.

Chen Qingshan hurried to find him. “Zhuzi, can you really tell the future?”

But Uncle Zhuzi just looked bewildered. “Tell what?”

Chen Qingshan reminded him of last night’s conversation, but Zhuzi looked even more confused. “I said that? I don’t remember a thing! I must’ve been drunk out of my mind.”

“Don’t play dumb,” Chen Qingshan said.

“I’m not playing! That was my nephew—he always gives me extra work every month. If I really had the gift, wouldn’t I have saved him?” Uncle Zhuzi replied.

Chen Qingshan was skeptical, but Uncle Zhuzi seemed genuinely clueless. Maybe it was just drunken nonsense that happened to come true?

And so the matter passed. On the first day back after work resumed, it rained all day. When Chen Qingshan went out to relieve himself, his stream of urine unearthed a gold earring from the mud. It was exquisitely crafted. He picked it up, bit it to test that it was real gold, then slipped it into his pocket. He assumed someone had dropped it. He thought, if he brought it home and told his wife he bought it, she’d be overjoyed.

But from that day on, Chen Qingshan began to have erotic dreams. Every night, a woman would enter his dreams, entwining herself with him passionately. He didn’t think much of it—just chalked it up to missing his wife. Besides, the woman in the dream was stunning, and he rather enjoyed it.

After a week of this, with hard labor by day and exhausting dreams by night, Chen Qingshan was spent. Though the dreams were pleasurable, he felt drained—weak, sweaty, as if his very life was seeping away.

That night, it was Uncle Zhuzi who invited him out for a drink. Chen Qingshan, feeling his health slipping, ordered a bottle of tonic wine, while Uncle Zhuzi stuck to his usual strong spirit. Before Chen Qingshan had finished his small bottle, Uncle Zhuzi was already drunk.

Facing Chen Qingshan, Uncle Zhuzi gave a chilling smile that made Chen uneasy. “What are you looking at me for, grinning like that?” Chen asked.

“How’s the lady taste?” Uncle Zhuzi asked.

Chen Qingshan was instantly flustered. “What lady? What taste? What are you talking about?”

“The one who sleeps with you every night,” Zhuzi said.

Chen Qingshan figured Zhuzi must be drunk again—was it only when drunk that he became some all-seeing sage? How else could he know about the dreams?

“How did you know? Can you see my dreams?” Chen Qingshan asked guiltily.

“An eight-hundred-year-old corpse must be something special,” Zhuzi replied.

That sentence sent a chill down Chen Qingshan’s spine. He suddenly remembered the female corpse unearthed from the coffin—could the woman haunting his dreams be her?

He hastily set down his bottle and said to Uncle Zhuzi, “Zhuzi, what’s going on? If you see anything, you have to save me, brother!”

The memory of the foreman’s grisly death sobered him up fast.

“You took her possession. Of course she’ll come for you. Tell me, what did you take? Didn’t I tell you, a woman’s jewelry is her most cherished thing?” Uncle Zhuzi said coldly.

Chen Qingshan was still muddled—he hadn’t even gone near the coffin, how could he have taken anything? But then he slapped his forehead, suddenly recalling the gold earring his urine had washed from the soil. “But that gold earring—I found it in the mud! I didn’t know it was hers!”

“It was dropped by the foreman when he took the goods. It’s hers. Luckily, you only picked it up, so she’s just siphoning a bit of your life force—otherwise, do you think you’d still be alive? But if she keeps draining you, you’ll be lucky to survive at all,” Uncle Zhuzi said.

Chen Qingshan was ready to kneel before him. Lowering his voice to avoid being overheard, he pleaded, “Brother, you have to save me! I was wondering why that woman kept appearing in my dreams, always the same one I’ve never seen before!”

“She’ll come again tonight. Just act as if you know nothing—let things proceed as usual. When you’re done, praise her beauty and say you want to give her a gift. Put the gold earring on her. Once it’s returned, things should go back to normal,” Uncle Zhuzi instructed.

“Should? What if it doesn’t work?” Chen Qingshan pressed.

But by then, Uncle Zhuzi had already collapsed onto the table, snoring.

Chen Qingshan carried him back, but Zhuzi slept like the dead. For days, Chen Qingshan had eagerly awaited sleep. Now that he knew the woman in his dreams was an eight-hundred-year-old corpse, he was too terrified to close his eyes. He lay there, eyes shut but unable to sleep.

Only in the dead of night, when exhaustion finally claimed him, did he drift off. And as always, the woman appeared. She never spoke, only smiled, gently undressed him and herself, and then pressed herself to him. In the past, he had enjoyed these dreams, but now, even in sleep, he knew the truth and was too frightened to respond. She undressed him, but he was limp with terror—how could he react in such circumstances?

Seeing him unresponsive, she might get angry, he thought, and feared she’d choke him to death for it.