Yama Rising

The scorching stench of burning paper lingered in the air. The three Yin spirits stood in front of Qin Ye, rubbing their hands with avaricious glee. Wang Chenghao sat numbly next to Qin Ye, thinking to make the bed yet not daring to make a single move.

Wang Chenghao coughed dryly, “Brother Qin… people invariably change after experiencing a massive upheaval in their lives…”

Something feels off… something feels off about this entire situation… Yet despite his reservations, Wang Chenghao still nodded his head.

I already no longer scream at the top of my voice at the slightest of scares. Shouldn’t I be given a little bit more time to adjust to the situation?

Mm… his suggestion seems logically watertight, but I still can’t help but feel like something is a little bit off somewhere…

“My lord.” A baby-faced student scratched his head, “About that… is it possible to give us some paper effigies and the like...”

“My lord… we don’t even know how we died… I-I-I just want the opportunity to speak to my family and give them one final account.”

“But my lord…”

What happened to your basic level of comprehension?

The three spirits were all taken aback. Is he… trying to ask us for a bribe?

“My lord…” The tallest student coughed dryly, “We’re… we’re just poor students…”

“My lord! Please don’t!” “Please spare us! I’m very familiar with Insignia University! I can be your guide and companion!” “My lord, please have mercy on us! I think we’ve still got some room for negotiations! Why don’t I sing you a lullaby every night?”

Qin Ye suddenly felt incredibly miserable. Ever since he had taken on the role as the last Emissary of Hell, the only profitable situation he had dealt with so far had been the incident with Wang Zemin. The others were either the owner of a rundown inn, or a bunch of poor students wearing their tattered uniform. There was simply no place for him to make a windfall!

“My lord! We’ve got a grievance!” As they saw the unyielding expression on Qin Ye’s face, the students immediately went down on their knees and begged him with trembling.

Grievance…

Wang Chenghao was still watching the scene intently when Qin Ye stood up abruptly and suddenly instructed, “Go fetch us a pot of water.”

“Now!”

“Interesting.” Several seconds later, his smile faded, and he asked placidly, “How long have you been dead?”

“Three years… Interesting… very interesting…” Qin Ye tapped his fingers on the table and mumbled to himself as though deep in thought, “Anyone who’s a human and not a suicidal maniac would definitely be left with a remaining grievance if the death was unnatural. But… I don’t see that in your case.”

The three spirits shook their heads in unison.

“You… must have died without any form of pain, whatsoever. In fact, you probably didn’t even know you had died!”

“I didn’t want to die.” His earlier jolly, spirited personality had vanished completely. Instead, his lips were now trembling, and even his form had begun to waver, “But… we weren’t given any options.”

His voice began to choke up, “Over the last three years, we’ve wracked our brains trying to figure out the cause of it all. Unfortunately…”

This college… something’s wrong with it!

He hadn’t expected much of an answer with this question to begin with. After all, the three spirits weren’t even aware of how they died, so how could they possibly recall the precursor to their death?

Swish… Qin Ye gazed deeply at them, and then at the ground, as though he were gazing through the flooring and staring straight at Old Man Liu and his wrinkled face.

“We heard the sounds of a troupe of people playing the gongs and drums as they marched upstairs at midnight. Then, these sounds would be followed by the sound of messy footsteps retreating back to where they came from. But this entire place is locked at twelve midnight!”

What a coincidence.

“We were the only ones who had heard it extremely clearly. It was… it was almost as though someone had struck the lottery and was being promoted to a top official. Apart from the gongs and drums, there would even be the festive sounds of firecrackers and the chinese sorna playing in the background. It created such a huge ruckus that none of us could sleep at all!”

“My lord, can you imagine what it was like… Twelve midnight, in the still of the night when all the lights are out, and you suddenly hear the clanging and banging of loud gongs and drums… You look out of the peephole, yet not a single soul can be spotted outside even though you can hear footsteps stopping right outside our door!!”

“We’ve reported the incident, but nobody believed us. Then, just when we were supposed to move out of this room… that’s where our memory ended.”

They had mysteriously died in the prime of their lives, only to realize that they had been transformed into earthbound spirits that were unable to step out of the confines of a room that was no larger than twenty square feet in size. Since then, apart from the cleaners who came in to refresh the rooms every year before matriculation season, there wasn’t a single other living person who had entered this room. Nobody even remembers them anymore. And so they forced themselves to be happy and cheerful at all times. Naturally, they wouldn’t want to scare away anyone who entered their room.

They wanted to get out.

Unfortunately, they were unable to do these things.

“Not at all. In fact, we’ve not even heard of others speaking of such horrors before! Otherwise, how else could we possibly continue living here?!”

“Thank you… thank you my lord!”

Rather… if this matter were in fact the supernatural incident reported in Insignia University, its resolution could very well bag him a million bucks!

As a result of the announcements being broadcasted nation-wide, the entire campus grounds were enshrouded with an almost oppressive silence as soon as dusk fell.

The lights from the kiosks around were also completely extinguished.

Apart from the dormitories, the only sources of light around were from that of the street lamps. As the night breeze swept across the campus, the trees made ominous rustling sounds, as though a mysterious beast were creeping around under the cover of night.

Wang Chenghao had brought his laptop along with him, but they were not connected to the internet yet. After playing some games on his phone for a little while, he quickly got bored, yawned, and went to bed. Qin Ye continued to browse the web on his phone for a little while before turning in as well.

Qin Ye slept peacefully.

Clang… A loud bell chimed melodiously from the school’s bell tower, yet it also reverberated ominously throughout the entire campus grounds

It was midnight.

He furrowed his brows. Then, just as soon as he was about to return to sleep, he suddenly heard a bright, clanging sound coming from close by! ƒ𝚛𝐞𝚎𝑤𝘦𝚋𝓷o𝚟e𝘭.c𝐨𝙢

Qin Ye sat up immediately and glanced at Wang Chenghao. Wang Chenghao was still sleeping like a log.

“It’s coming… it’s coming!!”

“The sounds of the gongs and drums from three years ago… are here again!!”

1. It’s a chinese woodwind instrument that is similar to an oboe. It emits a somewhat loud and high-pitched sound, and is used in both wedding processions and funerary rites. It is also an essential part of ritual music for a number of Taoist rituals and rites.