Grave Moving Brigade - Chapter 12

Chapter 12 – The Tombstone for the Ancestor

In the corridor of the second floor, Gao Qing, who had been moving slowly, suddenly changed her expression. Her heels tapped on the wooden floor. In a blink of an eye, she rushed into the door, pushed Chen Ling away with her body, and pounced in front of the crib.

When her hands were about to touch the child, she softened her movements, then she picked the child up and held him in her arms, humming a song to coax him.

The crying gradually subsided. After it stopped completely, Gao Qing glared at Chen Ling fiercely: “What did you want to do to him just now?!”

Chen Ling: “Ms. Gao, that is not your child.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Gao Qing was trembling as she held the child in her arms. Her face was filled with anger. She picked up a nearby glass of water and smashed it in the direction of Chen Ling. “Anyone who wants to hurt my child will die a miserable death! Get out of here! Get out now!”

Chen Ling dodged the cup flying towards him, put the talisman paper between his fingers back into his sleeve, and left a business card, “If you need anything, you can always find me.”

Gao Qing now wanted to tear him apart and immensely regretted bringing him upstairs.

She picked up the business card on the ground, walked to the door and threw it out. Her sharp nails scratched the door, making an annoying creaking sound, and her eyes were filled with resentment as they fell on the young man’s back.

After a moment, she turned back to the crib and held the baby with a strange look in her arms again.

She walked a few steps in the room holding the child, and when she heard the child’s laughter, she gently kissed the child’s cold face, picked up the bottle that had rolled to the ground, and put the nipple into the baby’s mouth.

Looking at the bloody and sticky liquid that was getting less and less with the gurgling sound of swallowing, Gao Qing forced a twisted smile.

After coming out of the villa, Chen Ling kept thinking that normal people could not make two different sounds of crying and laughing at the same time. Spirits, like humans, only have one mouth, so naturally they couldn’t do such a strange thing.

So what was going on with that baby just now?

The overlapping laughter painted countless mouths before his eyes, and behind the innocence was hidden evil.

The breeze in the early morning blew on his face, already tinged with a hint of summer heat.

When Chen Ling arrived home, Zhao Xunchang had already gotten up and was running in the yard to exercise. When he saw his apprentice coming in, he said calmly, “Did you go to the Gao family’s villa?”

“Master is still the smartest.” While admitting it, he did not forget to flatter him.

Zhao Xunchang enjoyed it and chuckled, “What did you find?”

“Miss Gao’s child is not a human, but not a spirit either.” Chen Ling said, “I suspect there is more than one soul in that body.”

To get more detailed information, they needed to observe more closely. It would be best if they could find out the origins of Gao Qing’s child and understand the whole story.

Zhao Xunchang pulled the handkerchief off his neck and wiped the sweat off his face: “Are you scared?”

“No,” Chen Ling answered straightforwardly. He took out the talisman paper that he had put in his sleeve and showed it to Zhao Xunchang. “I almost knocked him down with the white talisman just now, but unfortunately Ms. Gao suddenly appeared and interrupted me.”

The white talisman is one of the five elements talismans. It borrows the power of spirits from the underworld to suppress evil spirits.

Zhao Xunchang looked at the beautifully drawn talisman paper in his hand with admiration, but he said, “It looks beautiful, but the energy is not enough. You were distracted when you drew it.”

Chen Ling wilted, hesitating, “Just that one time…”

Young people are easily impetuous, which is understandable. Zhao Xunchang appeared to be strict, but he always secretly gave his apprentices some slack in schoolwork.

To put it bluntly, he was over fifty years old when he got such a disciple. How could he not dote on him?

He snorted and let the matter go.

There were a lot of things to do today. He had to find a stonemason to make a tombstone for the Jiang family’s ancestor, and he also had to go up the mountain to check on the progress of the project and chat with the contractor. Chen Ling was very busy.

After breakfast, he carried a big bag of steamed buns up the mountain. Contractor Yang had already started working with his colleagues.

According to the plan, except for the tombs storing remains, all other small urn tombs in the cemetery are arranged in a straight line, with ten tombs in each group, and the groups are arranged in a large wave shape. In this way, the front of each tomb could face the water and the back would face the mountain.

Chen Ling distributed the buns to the workers and took the contractor aside to discuss the issue regarding their food.

The contractor took a bite of the delicious bun and said, “The cook will be here before noon today. We can take care of our own meals from now on.”

Chen Ling was relieved and asked again: “Brother Yang, do you know where else in our city they make stone tablets besides the two shops on xx Road and xx Road?”

“Aren’t those two good? The cemetery I worked for before had all its products custom-made from them.”

“Yuhe Mountain is too far from those two roads. The price they asked for is already high, not to mention the transportation fee. They also won’t allow me to drive there myself. I don’t want to be taken advantage of.” Chen Ling was a little angry.

“Then I will…” The contractor slapped his thigh vigorously, “By the way, there is a carving studio on Lorraine Road. I heard that there are teachers there who occasionally take private jobs of carving monuments.”

“Sculpture studio?” The gap between art and funerals is a bit big.

“This carving studio is quite good. It does jade and agate carvings, as well as large stone carvings. It also has clay sculptures and paintings. It has a good reputation, but strangely, its business is not very good.”

The contractor edited a detailed address and sent it to Chen Ling’s phone. “If you are interested, you can go and have a look.”

Chen Ling was a man of action and arrived at Lorraine Road that morning.

The street belonged to the old city area, with plane trees planted on both sides. The houses are not as new as those in other districts. Most of the walls have a grey and old feel, and some have even peeled off, which is quite depressing.

The carving studio the contractor mentioned is called ‘Stars’ and is located at the end of the street. The sycamore tree in front of the door is half-dead, with half of its leaves falling off in the middle of summer. It might have been attacked by insects.

Because it was a weekday, there were no students inside.

Chen Ling found a carver through the front desk. When he heard that he wanted to carve a tombstone, the carver agreed immediately and asked for a very reasonable price. It could be seen that the sculptor is not only bold, but also very honest.

Chen Ling: “As for the materials for the stele, I’ll go to the quarry and bring them to you tomorrow.”

Sculptor: “No, our studio has a cooperation with a granite factory.”

“Can you get white marble?”

Chen Ling had his own little plan. If the ancestor was really interested in him, then he had to be nice to him.

After all, the spirit ate his food, wore his clothes, and cleaned for him every day. Even his ID card [T/N : CL is referring to JY’s tombstone] was made for him by someone Chen Ling asked. So, if he was rejected in the future, maybe the ancestor would show mercy to him out of such an old friendship.

“Yes.” The man patted his chest and promised, “When you go back, send me the detailed dimensions and the content you want to engrave on the tombstone. Come back and pick it up in a week.”

The problem was solved and Chen Ling was in a good mood. There happened to be a vegetable market nearby, so he went in for a look and planned to go back and make a good meal for his master.

He was carrying large and small bags, standing under the shade of a tree waiting for the bus, sweat rolling down his forehead uncontrollably.

Just when he was about to free his hands to wipe the sweat off my face, he saw someone appear next to him out of the corner of his eye.

The man was tall and straight, and there was a chill in his body.

He leaned towards Chen Ling, his lips almost touching the tip of the young man’s ear: “The man who erected the monument, write your name.”

Chen Ling only felt an itch in the tip of his ear, his mind went blank for a moment, and his limbs were unable to move.

When his body was free again, he looked to the right and found that there was nothing around him except a few sycamore leaves floating in the air and falling silently into the flower bed.

On the way back, Chen Ling was a little absent-minded. He lowered his head from time to time to touch the seal on his chest, which felt slightly hot.

The taxi driver probably drove around the area frequently and knew that a cemetery was built on Yuhe Mountain. He thought it was unlucky and dropped the passenger off one kilometre away from the foot of the mountain.

Looking at the asphalt road bleached by the sun, Chen Ling finally came out of his daze and walked back by himself, carrying his bags in misery.

As he passed a dry pond, someone called him from behind.

He turned around and saw it was Mr. Gao.

Mr. Gao was still dressed in a suit and tie today, with his hair combed sleekly, but it couldn’t hide the extreme fatigue on his face.

Chen Ling continued to move forward, and Mr. Gao followed him and said in a gentle voice: “Mr. Chen, I came here to ask for your help.”

“Where is the talisman I gave you yesterday?” Chen Ling suddenly asked.

Mr. Gao’s face froze for a moment, and then he said excitedly: “It was the talisman you gave me that saved my life last night, Mr. Chen, I know you are a real Taoist, you must save me.”

Chen Ling asked: “That Mr. Wu is capable.”

“Forget it, he’s a liar.” Mr. Gao cursed. Yesterday they were an employer and employee, but today they became enemies.

Since he knew Gao Qing’s child had problems, he should have some skills. Chen Ling pointed out: “Do you dare to say that the things he gave you never worked?”

Mr. Gao was speechless. He thought the young man was Mr. Wu’s enemy and so, he slandered the other party deliberately just to please him. Now that he was exposed in front of everyone, his face was alternating between hot and cold.

“I made a mistake.” Mr. Gao admitted his mistake and added, “But he is definitely not capable enough!”

Chen Ling didn’t care about this and asked, “Did your son go to see you last night?”

It was just a guess!

“You…” Mr. Gao was surprised, “How did you know?”

Chen Ling glanced at him and said, “You brought people to the villa to mess things up. Who else can your son go to if not you?”

Mr. Gao quickly denied: “That’s not my son!”

He was sleeping soundly last night when he suddenly heard someone running around barefoot in the living room. He got up and looked, but there was no one there except the still furniture.

What he thought about what happened during the day, he thought happened to dream about it at night. He must have thought too much during the day and had a nightmare. Mr. Gao returned to his room and fell asleep again.

Soon, he noticed something crawling onto the bed and moving around his body…

Mr. Gao was still in shock from what happened the previous night, and his voice trembled: “Mr. Chen, you don’t know, if I hadn’t found the yellow talisman and threw it over at the critical moment, I wouldn’t have been able to come to you in person.”

Just as they arrived at the courtyard, Chen Ling opened the door and said, “Mr. Gao, please stay and have dinner with us.”

Mr. Gao was very happy and said, “I’ll help you.”

Hearing the sound, Zhao Xunchang stuck his head out, took a look, then retracted his head and continued to study the new talisman.

The kitchen in the courtyard still used an earthen stove that burnt firewood. He first needed to ignite the straw first, and then put in wood and branches.

Mr. Gao volunteered, but due to his poor skills, his face turned into a cat-like face in a few strokes. He didn’t care much and wiped his nose with his suit sleeve.

Chen Ling handed him a piece of paper and asked, “Tell me, what is your connection with that baby?”