I got a thick stack of materials from a distant relative in the countryside, supposedly from a Tang dynasty ancestor in our family

Relic. Relatives told him not to break it, let alone lose it, otherwise the spirit of the ancestors in heaven would not be able to spare him.

I carefully opened the pile of papers, and the smell of old musty ran through my nostrils, disgusting.

Judging from the paper, it seems to be thousands of years old, and the yellow rice paper is like the kind of paper that is burned in the fire for the dead.

The paper was brittle, and it felt like it was going to crumble into powder at the touch of it, and I lifted it with the utmost care, so that my whole room was so old

The atmosphere is entangled.

It's all letters, one letter after another, the kind of straight regular script from top to bottom, right to left. Very beautiful brush words, neither like the face body,

It's not willow, it's a style I've never seen before, maybe it's been lost for a long time. But this beautiful regular script is like a woman

The child couldn't have written it from my ancestor, maybe his wife, or even his lover? No, I looked closely and realized that it was not, this

It was written by a man, a man in his thirties. His handwriting was soft and dashing, but I could faintly discern something strange

The atmosphere, from between the lines of his words, from every stroke of his hand, every stroke, there is a deep hidden kind of fear.

Yes, it took me a whole day to see it, this fear was very hidden, I didn't read the specifics of the letter at the time, I

It was only from his handwriting that I realized something. I could feel that as he wrote the letter, he was filled with a kind of horror

His surroundings, but also from the depths of his heart. But his hands didn't tremble like ordinary people, and his brushstrokes were still powerful, just in the brush

There was a slight chill on the tip, an icy chill that he probably didn't even notice himself.

It wasn't written by my ancestor, it was a letter from another person to my ancestor. It's all Chinese, and I tried to put the first letter

Translated into modern vernacular.

"Brother Jinde: It's been ten years since I left Chang'an. I'm just writing to you out of the blue, so don't be surprised. You know, the court rewards

Give me a luxurious mansion in Chang'an, as well as thousands of hectares of fertile land in Guanzhong, and the official position of the Jianghuai Festival envoy. But I resigned from day one

I didn't do it, I left the mansion and the good field, returned to Kunzhou alone, and lived in my mansion of Thorn History. Ten years have passed,

I was alone, alone and wasted my time. I often recall that when the Anshi thief party was in turmoil, I was the assassin of Kunzhou, and you were under my command

For the generals, you and I defended Kunzhou for three years, so that Shi Siming's tens of thousands of troops were never able to trap Kunzhou and go down to Jianghuai. Eventually, we waited for reinforcements and stood up

It's a big deal. Brother Jinde, I miss you more and more, and the officers and soldiers who were born and died with me back then. I'm writing to you this time, that's it

I want to tell you something——— my house is haunted. Duanlu"

I didn't expect that my ancestor named Jinde turned out to be a general of the Tang Dynasty in the Anshi Rebellion, and this assassin named Duan Lu Shi

Let's defend Kunzhou together. But the problem is that my historical knowledge tells me that there is no such city as Kunzhou at all, and in the Anshi Rebellion, there was never

There has been such a thing as defending Kunzhou for a while. I was a little confused, so I called another distant cousin of mine, who was in our family

The most learned person is currently studying for graduate school in history.

He heard my question on the phone, and then he was silent for a long time before he slowly said, "Yes, the stack of letters you are looking at now is here."

I also read it a year ago, and I immediately fell into it completely, I looked up all kinds of materials, and even went to the northern part of Anhui and Jiangsu to do field research

But what disappoints me is that no, nothing, maybe history has forgotten that our ancestor still has some way to go. But I'll ask the experts to take a look

It is certain that these letters are indeed the authentic writings of the Tang Dynasty, and they are by no means forged by later generations. Listen to me, don't look any further, you'll fall into it too,

These letters are terrible, they contain blood, the blood of history, you can do it yourself, goodbye. ”

I sat for a long time, carefully reflecting on the words of this graduate student in history, who had been somewhat mysterious since he was a child, and liked to say things that others would not hear

Understood. What kind of historical blood, I think he is playing tricks, this is just a stack of correspondence from the ancients, could it be that those have long been withered

Will the bone man hurt me? But I had to be vigilant, and I began to plan to return the letters. But I can't stop it, too

Xu is because of the last sentence of Duan Lu, "My house is haunted".

I went on to open the second letter and translated it into the vernacular.

"Brother Jindewu: I am very happy to see your letter, it turns out that you have already been disarmed and returned to the field, which is a good thing. Last time I said, my family

It's haunting, yes, this ghost haunts me all the time. I vaguely felt that since the day I moved back to Kunzhou from Chang'an ten years ago, this ghost has been

I was haunted in this old mansion, but I didn't realize it at the time, it was a ghost. But this year, it's more and more active, actually

I've never been afraid of ghosts, but this time I'm really scared. You also know that the Thorn Mansion in Kunzhou was a very dilapidated ancient mansion.

After the war, the new Thorn Mansion was built, and I lived alone in this old mansion. This house is very big and very broken,

You don't know, I didn't hire a single servant, I was the only one in the big house, and I relied on the thousand acres of fertile land that I owned in Guanzhong

Every month, my agents there bring me food and money. I'm used to living alone, and my friends persuaded me to renew the hyun

Wife, I also refused. Have you renewed? God, now the ghost is here again, it's tormenting me, I can't write anymore, so that's it. segment

Road"

There is nothing new in this letter, but at least it can tell me that my ancestors worked as widowers. The sunlight outside the window was unusually strong, me

Thinking crankily at home, I thought of Kunzhou.

Queen's state, a city I've never heard of, but I'd rather believe it existed, because historically, it's like this because of all sorts

There are so many examples of forgotten causes. But what I can't understand is how Duan Lu and my ancestor named Cai Jinde are stubbornly defending in Kunzhou

For three years, resisting Shi Siming's tens of thousands of troops. In the Anshi Rebellion, Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan defended Suiyang, but in the end the city was broken and died

Is it even greater than Zhang Xun's ability? This question haunted me and prompted me to open the third letter.

"Brother Jindewu: You said in your letter that you have already been reborn and have three sons, which is really congratulatory, think about me, you may really have to be alone

It's been a lifetime. Yes, the guess in your letter is correct, I will never forget Tsukika, her eyes, her smile, her body, ten years

Before she died in Kunzhou, in this room, I will never be able to get rid of her, forever. In the past ten years, although I have lived alone, but I

I had a lot of cats, more than twenty of them, and among them the kind of cat with two different colored eyeballs that the Persian merchant sold to me at a high price. These cats were accompanied

I have been my lover for ten years, and with these twenty or so cats, I have a feeling of being a group of wives and concubines. Yes, I love them,

I thought of them as a group of beautiful women. But ever since my house was haunted, strange things kept happening. Yesterday one of my whites

The cat is missing and can't be found anyway and later I noticed a smell of meat coming from my kitchen and I haven't eaten meat in ten years since

Since the end of the war, I have become a vegetarian and lived a monk-like life. I was very surprised, I had never cooked meat, I uncovered the pot,

Oh my God, it's my missing cat inside. The cat was dismantled, all the hair was plucked, the internal organs were cleaned out, and the meat was cooked

I fainted. Although I was also in Kunzhou for three years and saw countless bloody scenes, in the past ten years, I have almost never been

I had never seen blood, and my relationship with the cat was getting deeper, and I wept like a dead wife when I saw such a tragic situation. I understand

This must have been the work of the ghost, because my mansion used to be a thorn mansion, with very high walls, and because of the rumors that my house was haunted

The city is well known, and no one dares to break in. I was in a lot of pain. Jinde, this is retribution, retribution ten years ago, you should understand the meaning of this sentence.

Duanlu"

What "retribution" means, I can't understand, and he said that my ancestors also understood, what is the matter? I've never met

I believe that there are any ghosts in the world, and as for the ghosts killing cats and cooking cats, it is even more fantastic, maybe Duan Lu has schizophrenia, and he gives birth

Hallucinations, yes, a person who lives alone in such an eerie ancient mansion for ten years will definitely have a mental breakdown. He also mentioned

"Tsukika", apparently a woman, perhaps his former wife, is certain to be in love with Tsukika, but he later lost it

So in order to mourn his deceased wife, he stayed in the room where his wife died, and fasted with a vegetarian diet, giving up Rong

Hua Fugui, what a rare lover.

It was already sunset, and the evening sun was spilling over my room, and it was also sprinkled on these old letterheads, smeared with a layer of blood

Color-like. I knew that the sunlight had a destructive effect on the relics, so I hurriedly moved the letter to a dark place, and in the dim light, I opened it

Four letters.

"Brother Jindewu: In just ten days, I had six cats killed and cooked, although I took the kitchen wood along with the stove

All the pots were moved, and I went to the temple in the city every day to eat vegetarian food, but the all-pervasive ghost still got firewood and pots out of nowhere. I'm afraid

Amazingly, every night, I gather all the cats into my bed and sleep with me. This bed was ten years ago when I slept with Tsukika

Yes, very spacious, sleeping in this bed, I can dream of her almost every night, she is still as young and beautiful as ten years ago, always twenty years old.

You will definitely not forget how much love Yuexiang and I had back then, and we became the envy of you generals and officers. Yes, Tsukika

She is a talented woman, her talent for writing poetry is not below me, every night, she holds a candle for me, I compose a poem, and then I hold a candle for her, she

Make another poem, and every time her poems are better than mine. It's a pity that she was born a woman, if Yuexiang is a man, she will definitely be able to be an official

When you become the prime minister, you will definitely be a literati for a hundred years. But she has all the advantages of a woman, beautiful and virtuous, considerate to me, in those days

Among all the officials' families in Kunzhou, her female celebrity is also the best, I clearly remember, Brother Jinde, your wife also specially asked Yuexiang

Teach the tricks of the rusty brocade. Now, everything has passed, they are no longer alive, and you and I don't care about political affairs. She slept back then

There was a group of cats sleeping in the place, even though they were very restless at night. I'm afraid they'll all be taken captive by that demon

They have become cat broth, they are the last hope in my life, Brother Jinde, what do you think I should do? Please give me some pointers. Duanlu"

I forgot to eat dinner, and though I was hungry, I have to admit that I was drawn to the letters. This of the road

There is an irresistible magic to the words, like adding some kind of spell that you can't close once you open it. From the text of the paragraph,

I seemed to see the woman named Yuexiang, and if Duan Lu's description was true, then I really regretted it and regretted why I did

Born in the twentieth century, not the eighth century AD, I would very much like to see Tsukika. I knew I had gone mad, and I believed me

The words of that history graduate cousin. It was getting dark, and at the same time that I turned on the light, I also opened the fifth letter.

"Brother Jindewu: After reading your letter, thank you very much for these ideas you gave me, but I'm afraid I can't do it. First of all, I won't leave

Kaikunzhou, because Yuexiang and I spent the best time of our lives in Kunzhou, of course, including the most tragic time of our lives. I think

If I leave Kunzhou and this mansion, I will die immediately. Second, I won't invite a monk or Taoist priest to exorcise ghosts, if he were to come

If you invite you, you will definitely disturb the rest of Tsukika's spirit in the sky. So, I can only continue to stay, and wrestle with the ghosts to the end, and tell you,

Now I only have the last five of my cats left, and the rest have been killed by ghosts. Brother Jinde, you won't understand, in this ancient mansion, there are everywhere

The smell of moon incense remained, and for ten years, this smell not only did not dissipate, but became stronger. I feel like the moon fragrance is not there all the time

Death, she is by my side, she accompanies her, and she has spent ten years together. I'm still writing poems every night, writing poems in memory of her,

Sometimes the next morning, I actually find that there is an extra poem under the poem I composed, which is the handwriting of Yuexiang, and it is still so well written.

It corresponds to the one I wrote. Yuexiang is right next to me, believe it or not, she's right there with me looking at me, yes, now,

I'm writing to you, she's next to me, she's telling me how to write, to be exact, she's dictating now, I'm writing. Ten years ago, her

It's dead, but ten years later, she's alive again, oh my God, how can I make it clear, you won't believe it. In addition, also sued

I'll tell you one thing, in Kunzhou City now, almost every house is haunted, and everyone is in a panic. The city of Kunzhou is like floating in the sea

Bo Yiye Bian Boat is even more panicked than when we were besieged for three years in the Anshi Rebellion the enemy back then was still human after all and now

Kunzhou's enemies are ghosts. Duanlu"

I felt a kind of fear surging out of these ancient papers, clutching me tightly. I seem to see that as I read the letter,

Tsukika was reading the letter with me right next to me, and I looked up and saw her face, which was beautiful. From her body, there was a smell of flesh,

Only then did I understand why Duan Lu said that the smell of moonincense had been lingering for ten years. Because of this smell of flesh, the fragrance that emanates from the depths of her flesh

In ancient Chinese, the moon has the same meaning as meat, lungs, liver, gallbladder, intestines, spleen, brain, legs, etc

next to the word. I don't know if I'll have the courage to read it. The phone rang suddenly, and it was my cousin who was a graduate student in history: "See

How many letters are there? I know you're hesitant now, I was just like you a year ago, and I can now smell your gore from the phone receiver

Taste, really, since you've seen so much, go ahead and read it, and come to my institute tomorrow morning. Good bye. ”

I held the phone and didn't say a word, listening to him say so much. After hanging up the phone, I felt that there was something wrong with the atmosphere in this room.

I suddenly felt that I was Duan Lu now, I was living alone in a big room like Duan Lu, really, I was Duan Lu, Duan Lu just

It's me, and I wrote all these letters. Is it? I asked myself, and I shook my head like crazy. I opened the sixth letter.

"Brother Jindewu: I just read your letter, you said that you were the twelve generals and officers who followed me to defend Kunzhou and were rewarded by the imperial court together

It's all unexpectedly dead this year, and it really hurts my heart. You said that General Liu was drunk in Chengdu and fell into the river and drowned, really

Incredible, I clearly remember that General Liu's water nature is very good, and he is a white jump in the waves of the Yangtze River. And General Lee at his son's wedding

It is also impossible to hang himself for no reason, and his cheerful and optimistic personality will commit suicide? And it's on that kind of good day

Zili. What's more, General Zhang was hacked to death by his family, made into human meat steamed buns, boiled and eaten. The deaths of other people are also very strange,

They didn't die in the battle in the sea of corpses and blood in Kunzhou back then, how could they have accidents one after another now, and almost in the same month

Village. Jindeok, I'm very worried about you, you'll be fine. Now I'm going to tell you the bad news as well, my cat is only one left

But it's alive and well, and it's a beautiful Persian cat. I'm going to protect it with my life, I swear. Duanlu"

It was late at night, I was sleepy, so I slowly fell asleep on the couch with the letters in my hand. After sleeping for a while, I suddenly smelled one

A strange smell, with a strong fragrance, went madly into my nostrils. I couldn't stand it anymore, I followed the fragrance and got to me

In the kitchen, I don't know who lit a fire on the gas stove and burned a stainless steel pot. I lifted the lid and inside was a pot of meat, exactly

Say it's broth. There was a thick layer of oil floating on the soup noodles, and I took a sip with a spoon, a soup that I had never drunk before, and it tasted very beautiful

Wonderful, this soup slipped from my tongue to my throat, then into my esophagus, and finally into my stomach, which was greedy for these beauties

The soup has been scavenged. I hadn't eaten dinner yet, so I couldn't care much about it, so I took another piece of meat with my chopsticks and put it in my mouth and chewed it.

The shredded meat was chewed by my teeth, and then the taste organ on the tip of my tongue was stimulated again, yes, I never ate that since I was a child

Who cooks the delicious meat? Soon, with doubts, I swept the pot of meat almost all into my stomach. Finally, I sent it in the pot

There was one thing—a finger, a human finger.

I threw it up, and then I woke up and it turned out to be a dream.

I had just fallen asleep and had such a strange dream. My heart was pounding, I was sweating profusely, and my sleepiness disappeared for a while.

It was now two o'clock in the middle of the night, and I opened the seventh letter with great spirits.

"Brother Jindewu: The city of Kunzhou has fallen into a great terror, people are constantly dying strangely, and there are new graves everywhere outside the city.

And it's all men who die. The whole city was filled with the stench of the dead, and the monks and Taoist priests were busy doing things. But there is no evidence of the Kunzhou stream

The only explanation for the plague is that ghosts haunt it. But I'm still alive, and my last cat, which is alive and well and sleeps every night

In my bosom, it is like the fragrance of the moon. After all these days, I gradually felt that Yuexiang was indeed alive, living in this beautiful Persian cat,

Yes, so now I can say that I have a new moon again, she will never be separated from me, we will always be together. Wind

The wind with the smell of death in Kunzhou City passed through my room, swept through our bodies, and although it was the height of summer, I felt it

A feeling of coldness to the bone. Retribution, this is karma, no one can escape. Duanlu"

Seeing this, a gust of wind passed through my window and hit my forehead, and I looked out the window, but the moon in the second half of the night was very round. I'm starting to ming

The meaning of retribution that Bai Duanlu said, I can imagine that Kunzhou City must have suffered some kind of disaster, and this disaster was caused by human beings themselves.

I've never believed in ghosts, but catastrophe certainly does, just in some special way. This gave me the courage to read on.

I opened the eighth letter.

"Brother Jindewu: Today is July 10th, do you remember July 10th ten years ago? I believe that this day will never be forgotten by you and me.

July 10th, every year on this day, our hearts ache faintly. I have spoken of retribution, and today is the day of retribution. We died

Guarding Kunzhou, there were only 5,000 soldiers and 20,000 people in the whole city. Our food is well prepared, but I didn't expect the Anshi rebels to be more prepared,

Finally, two years have passed, and we have eaten all the food in the siege, including all the rats, cats, dogs, and even war horses, everything we can eat

Everything has been eaten, and the whole city is starving, so in less than ten days, Kunzhou City will be self-defeating, and Suiyang has already been lost, we

If it is over, the rebels will march straight into the Jianghuai region, and the Tang Dynasty will be finished. We will never forget the day I gave it to you

After cooking a pot of meat, you were all surprised where the meat came from, I didn't say, just let you taste it first. You eat, you eat deliciously, you

They say it's the best meat you've ever tasted in your life. Finally, I tell you, this is the meat of the moon. You all threw up, and then, you all cried,

You big men shed tears like women. Yes, I killed Yuexiang with my own hands, and the moonlight was bright that day, and Yuexiang was still beautiful and moving

people, even though she has not eaten three grains of rice. I had a knife in my hand, and I stood in front of her and looked at her for a long time, but I ended up

I didn't have the courage to fall to the ground, I gave up, and I was determined to die with her. But the extremely clever Tsukika saw that I was holding a knife

With her intentions, she said to me softly, kill me, women are useless in war, kill me, eat my flesh, I will give anyway

It is better to die at the hands of my beloved, let my flesh enter into your flesh, let me be a part of you, from now on, we

It will never be separated. Come, do it, like a man, if you're still my husband, do it. No, I can't do it,

But Tsukika snatched the knife, and she stabbed it into her own heart. She smiled and died smiling at me, with the knife still stuck in her chest.

I was in so much pain, I wanted to die, but in the end I couldn't control myself, I was crazy, I was really crazy that night.

I thought of the honor of the Duan family, I thought of the oath of Kunzhou, and I dismembered Yuexiang. I said, I was crazy that night, I loved her,

So to dismember her, that's the reason, and this reason you'll never understand, because you don't have that kind of love that you never forget. yes

I dismembered her, and finished what she had told me before she died, and I chopped off her flesh, and her flesh was full of fragrance, natural fragrance, she

is a peerless beauty, even if it becomes a pile of meat in a pot. I didn't feel guilty or scared at all when I did it, that night

I'm really crazy and I just want to be with her forever. I boiled her meat, boiled a few large pots, and I ate one pot myself, and it smelled

It's beautiful, but it's actually very painful in my heart. Then, I gave you the other pots. There are many ways to love someone, there

In this particular case, I think that's the most reasonable way to go. Brother Jinde, the next thing is you, after you finished crying, you immediately returned home

, kill your wife and concubine, and cook them into a pot of meat. As a result, all the generals and officers began to eat the meat of their families.

Later, we simply locked up all the women in the city, about 10,000 people in total, and we ate thirty women a day, and the men in the whole city actually did

Not a single one objected. Some people are indifferent to watching their wives being eaten, and they still eat the most. In order to feed these

Women, we also arranged for women to eat women, of course they didn't know that they were eating human flesh, and they thought it was pork. So, we rely on it

After nearly a year of eating human flesh, Kunzhou this year is a terrifying world. Finally, we waited for the rescuers, and Kunzhou defended. It's been ten years,

I finally got these words out of my mouth, July 10th, and today is July 10th, and I think this should be the last day of my life. Our sins

It's unforgivable, oh my God, I saw Yuexiang, it's really her, she's smiling, she's here to take me out of this world. enter

Brother De, if you can receive this letter, it must have been brought to you by Yuexiang, please don't be afraid, cherish, Jinde, you have to be careful—

— Phantom's Revenge. Duanlu"

This is the last letter, I read it tremblingly, I don't believe it's true, even the Tang Dynasty wouldn't have happened.

Duan Lu must have schizophrenia, everything is his imagination, just like the legend of the Tang people, there are always some incredible things. But I can't

Self-extrication, although I don't believe it, but the breath that comes from this ancient paper and handwriting compels me to believe it. I faintly sent again

Now this last letter has many light red spots, very light, but very dense, what is this? Is it bloodstains? Is it the blood of the road,

After more than a thousand years, it has remained indelibly on this paper. Maybe this is what the cousin called the blood of history?

It was getting dark, and I sat blankly for a long time, until the sunlight filled my room, dispelling the smell of the Tang Dynasty. I'll put

I put all the letters away, and rushed to my cousin's institute with them.

My cousin had been waiting for me for a long time, and he looked at me with a strange look: "Your face is really ugly, you haven't slept all night?" Isn't it, you

You must have read the letter in its entirety, do you believe it? ”

"I don't know."

"But I know that I didn't say anything to you last night, I lied to you, and I don't want you to watch it, but now I have to sue

Tell you the truth. This is true, Kunzhou did exist, Qian is a man, Kun is a woman, as the name suggests, Kunzhou is a city dominated by women.

In the tenth year after the Anshi Rebellion, suddenly a huge disaster occurred in the whole city, and almost all the men died, so the city became a dead city.

It was abandoned, and now only a pile of ruins in the field remains, and there is no record left in the history books, and it took me a whole year to research it

fruitful. In fact, cannibalism has occurred more than once in Chinese history in besieged cities. ”

"And what about our ancestor?"

"On the night when the ancestor named Cai Jinde received the last letter from Duan Lu, he set himself on fire, and no one knew the reason.

And these letters were miraculously preserved. ”

"So it's really a ghost?"

"No, there is no such thing as a ghost in the world's opinion, it is indeed Duan Lu's imagination, the result of his long-term self-isolation, he

There has always been a strong sense of guilt, and he repented alone for ten years, his heart full of pain and longing for his lover. So he was born spiritually

Born hallucinations, which are the result of a constant struggle in the depths of a man's soul, he fails, he loses to his own soul, so his soul

It doesn't belong to him, the so-called ghost is actually himself, his other self, another self that represents his lover. because

With deep love, he has become one with Yuexiang, both physically and spiritually. So, he said that Yuexiang is still alive by his side, actually

It is himself ——— his other half, his spirit has been divided into two, the so-called dual personality, everything comes from within him,

It all stems from the love for Tsukika. After writing his last letter, he died, and the cause of death is unknown. But for him, it's for the best

Extrication. "So how did so many cats he had die, is it also a hallucination? And his comrades-in-arms, including our ancestor,

And the men of the whole city of Kunzhou, why did they die? ”

"In the dark, there is a mysterious force at work, but it is not a vengeful ghost as we generally understand it. Maybe those cat roots

It was Duan Lu who killed it himself, and through his subconscious, he was driven to repeat the kind of horror he did back then, which is a typical case of dual personality.

His normal personality at the time of writing the letter was unaware of his own behavior. I said that all evil comes from the heart, and our ancestor actually thought

There must have been the same mental process as Duan Lu. Have you noticed the word retribution repeatedly mentioned in the letter, which is not a simple Buddhist meaning?

is the revenge of their hearts against themselves, and in this sense, they are doomed. ”

"Thank you, cousin."

"Do you think what I just said is the standard answer? No, everyone has their own answer in their mind, and I really shouldn't say so much, either

Do you have a better understanding than mine? ”

I left my cousin's institute and returned home, and returned the letters, as if I had thrown away a heavy burden.

In the evening, my mother cooked a pot of broth for me. Mom didn't notice a hint of fear on my brow.

Meaty, really fragrant.