Chapter Two: Ancestral Blood (Urgently Needs to Be Bookmarked and Recommended)

I quickly changed my clothes. After washing up in the bathroom, I came out to see my father sitting in a chair in the room, making tea for himself.

He didn’t look like he intended to go out. I guessed he must have something to say to me. To be honest, I had plenty of questions for him as well, but I hadn’t planned on asking them now. So I simply sat down on the bed opposite him and picked up my cup of tea.

He studied me for a while, his expression peculiar, before saying, “Yuanzi, don’t you have anything you want to ask your old man?”

I smiled. “Of course I do. But I’ll wait until you’re ready to tell me, so you won’t have to go to the trouble of making up stories.”

At that, his expression stiffened. “Wh—what do you mean, making up stories? When have I ever made up stories for you?”

“You see? You’re stammering already.”

“Ah, things aren’t as you imagine.” He sighed.

“So you admit you’ve lied to me about certain things, right?” I wasn’t exactly the forgiving type; to say I wasn’t upset with the old man at all would be a lie.

He gave a bitter smile, took out a cigarette, lit it, and said, “I knew I couldn’t keep those things from you for long. If I could have, I’d never have dragged you into this. But things had already slipped beyond my control. If I hadn’t done it, the consequences would have been even worse.”

As I listened, I mulled over the phrase “dragged you into this.”

He looked at me, a trace of guilt in his eyes. “Yuanzi, I came to see you first thing this morning because I want to be honest with you about something. After you hear it, you may hate me, but that’s all right. In any case—”

I immediately knew what he was about to confess. I waved my hand. “Enough, Dad. I already know. You were the one who led me into that ancient tomb, weren’t you?”

He looked at me in surprise. “How did you know?”

So I laid out the contradictions, using Fatty’s line of reasoning. When I finished, my father looked at me, full of suspicion.

“Hmm… When did you start noticing these problems?” He clearly didn’t believe I had suddenly become so clever.

Honestly, it wasn’t hard to see through it, but you had to look at it with the detachment of an outsider, as Fatty did. That’s the clarity that comes with being a bystander. Still, I took the opportunity to show off a bit—secretly letting him know he couldn’t fool me so easily.

I gave a smug little laugh. “Dad, I’ve been on my own in Beijing for ten years. You really think you can hide something like this from me?”

After I finished talking, his face darkened, and for a moment, he didn’t know what to say.

I pressed on, “Dad, to tell you the truth, my mind is full of questions right now. But I can put most of them aside. There’s just one thing you have to explain.”

He came back to himself and looked at me. “You want to know why I had to lead you into the ancient tomb for us to enter the main chamber?”

“That’s right,” I said. “And don’t give me any more of that ‘blood link’ nonsense. Just tell me the truth, straightforwardly. I promise I’ll never ask about it again.”

He couldn’t help but give another bitter laugh. “That kind of place—the ancient tomb—it really does change a person. Look at you. You’ve only gone down once and you’re already talking tougher.”

I thought to myself, as if I had a choice. I was forced into this by you people.

He seemed to ponder for a moment, then shook his head at me. “Keeping these things bottled up makes me miserable too. But son, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you—it’s that I simply can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t tell me?” I immediately stood up. “It’s just you and me here, face to face. Why not just talk, like we’re having a normal conversation?”

His expression looked as if he’d swallowed a mouthful of bitter herbs. He held back for a long moment before finally saying, “If I told you, you’d think I was out of my mind. Some things… they just can’t be explained with words.”

“Come on…” I was at a loss for words, and at the same time, my curiosity grew. What on earth could it be that troubled him so much?

He clicked his tongue. “Blame your father for being uneducated—I don’t know how to explain it. It’s not a concrete event, but rather… an idea, a concept. Most importantly, you wouldn’t believe it, not with your current understanding.”

I laughed. “Dad, I’ve already seen animated corpses with my own eyes. What else could I possibly not believe?”

“Zombies are not the same as this.” He thought for a moment, then said, “Let me put it this way. You know the dynasties of ancient China, right? If I told you that the rise and fall of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties—all those great periods in Chinese history—were orchestrated behind the scenes, set up from the very beginning, would you believe me?”

“What… what are you talking about?” I was completely baffled. “You’re saying the transitions of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing were arranged by someone? Dad, do you even know what you’re saying?”

His expression was deadly serious as he looked at me. “If you can’t believe even this, then nothing I say will ever convince you.”

I started thinking he was just making up excuses. For heaven’s sake, those are the five greatest dynasties in Chinese history—saying they were under someone’s control is absurd.

“Well? Does your old man seem crazy to you now?” he asked.

“Dad, it’s not that I don’t believe you, but…”

He waved his hand. “Yuanzi, you were never meant to know any of this, but it doesn’t matter now. Just remember: our Yuan family is different from others. In every generation, one male descends to inherit the family’s ancestral blood. Right now, that person is you.”

“Ancestral blood?” I looked at him, bewildered.

He nodded, his gaze drifting to the window. “After your grandfather passed away, I was the only one who knew about the ancestral blood.”

As I tried to figure out what exactly “ancestral blood” was, I asked, “Second Uncle and the others don’t know?”

He shook his head. “Even within the family, only those who inherit the ancestral blood know the truth.”

“So you were the previous heir to the ancestral blood?”

“That’s right.” He turned back to me. “Back then, your grandfather sealed the main chamber of the tomb with his own blood. To enter again, someone with the ancestral blood had to lead the way. That’s why I had to bring you into the tomb. I didn’t want to tell you at the time, and I certainly couldn’t explain it in front of outsiders, so I used the ‘blood guide’ as a cover. In the end, it amounts to the same thing.”

I thought that sounded like quite a stretch. But on further reflection, something didn’t add up.

“Dad, if you were also an heir, why did I have to lead the way?”

“Ancestral blood is unique. It’s not a special blood type—it’s more like a curse.”

“A curse?”

“Yes. When a new heir appears, the effect of the ancestral blood in the previous one fades away.”

I wasn’t sure whether I believed in this “ancestral blood,” but admittedly, it did explain some things.

“Then why didn’t you just tell me directly?” I asked.

His expression grew somber. “In certain places, the heir to the ancestral blood is a bridge to the other side. Yuanzi, in that tomb, you must have seen things that no one else could, right?”

A chill flashed through my mind, sending a shudder through my body.

“The white shadows?” I blurted out.

He nodded. “Yes… Back then, I was just like you. I would often see strange white figures in certain places, as if they were watching me, drifting above my head.”

“What exactly are they?” I asked urgently.

He looked at me for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, “They’re ghosts.”