I work as a security guard at a cemetery, and I overhear the dead chatting about getting rich quick.

Ningzhi's message arrived on the afternoon of the fifth day.

Lin Ye had just been thrown around by Xiao Man for the third time and was sitting at the dormitory entrance rubbing his shoulders.

My phone vibrated.

Ningzhi sent a message:

"Don't say it on WeChat. Come out and see me."

Lin Ye stared at the screen for two seconds.

Xiaoman stood to the side, chewing on a mint.

"Ningzhi?"

"Um."

"You found it?"

Lin Ye tampered with the phone.

"I don't know, but the way she sounded like she'd found out."

Xiaoman said, "Then we've found it."

Lin Ye glanced at her.

"You can even analyze a reporter's tone of voice now?"

"She did the same thing last time."

Lin Ye thought for a moment.

It seems that's true.

Whenever Ning Zhi discovers something, her first reaction is not excitement, but calmness and caution.

Very professional.

It also has a very personal style.

Ning Zhiyue's place is not a coffee shop.

It's a very small printing shop in the old town.

A sign hangs at the entrance that reads "Copying, Scanning, ID Photos, Thesis Binding," and the glass door is covered with faded "GG" stickers.

When Lin Ye arrived, Ning Zhi was sitting in front of the computer at the very back.

She was wearing a large white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, her hair was casually tied up, and there was a pile of papers spread out in front of her.

Next to it was a glass of iced Americano that had mostly melted.

She looked up when she saw Lin Ye come in.

"You're here?"

Lin Ye sat down opposite her.

Xiaoman stood at the door, first looking at the street, then at the small door behind the printing shop.

Ningzhi glanced at Xiaoman.

"Is she still coming along?"

Lin Ye: "Yeah."

Ningzhi nodded.

"That's good. I actually feel uneasy seeing you alone now."

Lin Ye: "Have I become that fragile?"

Ningzhi pushed a piece of paper towards him.

"You're not crisp."

Lin Ye was just about to breathe a sigh of relief.

Ningzhi continued, "You're very good at dragging others down with you."

Lin Ye: "..."

well.

The familiar Ningzhi is back.

Ning Zhi didn't waste any more words and directly spread out the several copies in front of her.

"In the past few days, I have checked old maps, local chronicles, land transfer records, park construction data, grave relocation records, and early construction notices."

Lin Ye sat up straight.

"And the result?"

Ningzhi looked at him.

"Before the Qingshan Cemetery was built, it was not an empty lot."

Lin Ye didn't say anything.

Ningzhi pushed an old map over.

The map is old, like it was copied from a local chronicle, and the text is a bit blurry.

She circled a spot with a red pen.

"This area is now Qingshan Cemetery."

Lin Ye looked down.

Next to that area, there were three very small characters written on it.

A desolate cemetery.

Lin Ye's finger stopped.

Ning Zhi said in a low voice, "On maps from the Republican era, this place was called Qingshan Luanfengang. Later, after liberation, there was a cleanup, but the cleanup record was only two pages long. It didn't specify how many graves were moved or where they were moved to."

Lin Ye looked up.

"Wasn't it written clearly?"

"Hmm." Ning Zhi sneered, "A very fine historical tradition. When it comes to crucial points, they always say 'It has been properly handled.'"

Lin Ye looked at the map and felt a chill run down his spine.

Before Qingshan Park was built, it was a mass grave.

That's not entirely incomprehensible.

Many cemeteries are located in remote and desolate areas.

The problem is, Qingshan is no ordinary place.

Now, every additional "I don't know" feels like another stone being placed in his heart.

Ningzhi then pulled out a copy of a local gazetteer.

"Further ahead, I came across a very strange sentence."

"What?"

"This sentence."

She pushed the paper over.

Lin Ye looked down.

The paper was written in traditional Chinese characters arranged vertically, with Ningzhi marking the characters next to it in pencil.

Qingshan was formerly known as Fengfeng Ridge, where, according to legend, Fangfeng broke his bones. At the foot of the ridge is a cave, which over time became a channel. The water flows through without a sound, but at midnight one can hear a drum; it is best not to approach.

Lin Ye watched it twice.

I didn't fully understand it.

But he understood the meaning of the phrase "There is a hole under the ridge, which will become a canal over time".

渠。

It's a canal again.

The old drainage ditch's words about dead people chatting seemed to suddenly echo in my ears again.

Ningzhi observed his expression.

"You think it's weird too, right?"

Lin Ye nodded.

What is Fangfengshi?

Ningzhi picked up her phone and pulled out her notes.

"There are many versions of the figures in ancient mythology. Some say they are giants, some say they were killed by Yu the Great, and some say their bones were very large after they died. In any case, local chronicles often link these legends with mountains, caves, tombs, and ancestral halls."

Lin Ye frowned.

"What does that sentence mean?"

"The literal translation is: Qingshan was formerly known as Fengfeng Ridge. Local legend says that Fangfeng's bones broke here. There is a cave at the foot of the ridge, which over time became a canal. The water flows silently, but you can hear drumming sounds at midnight. Don't go near it."

Lin Ye remained silent for a long time.

Ningzhi tapped the paper.

"I don't know if this is superstition, or if it's something made up by later generations, or if there's some real old legend. But there's one very coincidental thing."

"What?"

"You asked me to investigate the old drainage ditch," Ningzhi said, looking at him. "The local chronicles also mention the ditch."

Lin Ye picked up the photocopy.

The paper is very thin.

It feels heavier than a stone when you hold it in your hand.

Xiaoman stood to the side and glanced down as well.

She can't read classical Chinese.

But she understood Lin Ye's expression.

There's a problem.

Lin Ye hummed in agreement.

"There's a serious problem."

Ning Zhi then pushed another document over.

"The real problem lies here."

This is a construction record from the early years of Qingshan Cemetery.

The title is quite ordinary.

Weekly report on the first phase of construction of Qingshan Cemetery.

Ningzhi turned to the middle page.

"Look at the date."

Lin Ye lowered his head.

More than 20 years ago.

Ningzhi pointed to that line of words.

"It says here that the drainage project on the west slope and the slope project on the back mountain are being carried out simultaneously. According to the plan, that phase should last for twenty days."

She turned to the next page.

"Then on the seventh day, it suddenly stopped."

Lin Ye saw the column for the reason for the work stoppage.

Construction has been suspended due to unstable geological conditions.

There are only eight characters.

It's incredibly clean.

Ningzhi pointed to those words with her finger.

Don't you think that's a very flimsy excuse?

Lin Ye smiled bitterly.

"Now when I see the words 'geologically unstable,' I feel like someone is saying, 'Don't ask, it's inconvenient to ask.'"

Ningzhi nodded.

"I think so too. So I continued to look up data from the same period."

She took out a few more photocopies.

"Pages of concurrent project data are missing."

Which pages are missing?

"The construction logs for days seven through ten are gone."

Lin Ye frowned.

"Just during those few days when work was suspended?"

"Yes," Ning Zhi said. "There's also the on-site personnel registration form. It should have been three pages, but I only got two. The third page was torn off; you can see it on the edges of the scanned copy."

Lin Ye looked at her.

"Do you have a list?"

"Some of them."

Ningzhi took out a table she had compiled.

The paper was covered with the workers' names, job types, places of origin, and notes.

She circled two names in red pen.

Ma Changshun.

Yao Guanggen.

"These two people appeared in the construction log for the first six days. One was a driller, and the other was a blasting assistant. After the seventh day, they suddenly disappeared."

"Resign?"

"There is no record of resignation."

"Work injury?"

"There is no record of work-related injury."

"So the records were deleted?"

Ningzhi looked up at him.

"I checked their subsequent social security and labor records, but I couldn't find a complete record of them in this project. It's like someone erased these two people from the Qingshan project."

Lin Ye's fingers slowly tightened.

Drilling worker.

Demolition assistance.

It just so happens to appear in the West Slope Drainage Project and the Back Mountain Slope Project.

They disappeared just as the work was suspended.

This is no longer a coincidence.

Ningzhi pushed the paper forward.

"I also chatted with two veteran workers. One of them said that the reason Qingshan stopped construction back then was not because of unstable geology."

Lin Ye looked up.

"Why is that?"

Ning Zhi did not answer immediately.

She glanced at the print shop owner.

The boss was wearing headphones and scrolling through short videos, and a little bit of his voice leaked out—it was all exaggerated laughter.

Ning Zhi lowered her voice.

He said the space underneath had been hollowed out.

Lin Ye's heart sank.

"Drain it?"

"Yes," Ning Zhi said. "He only said that one sentence, and then refused to say anything more. He also told me not to ask, that there was no point in asking."

Lin Ye remained silent for a long time.

Xiaoman suddenly asked, "What about the other old worker?"

Ningzhi looked at her.

"The other one hung up the phone as soon as he heard Qingshan's name."

Xiaoman nodded.

"Afraid."

"I'm terrified," Ning Zhi said. "It's not just a normal fear of not wanting to remember; it's the kind of fear that you can hear even through the phone."

Lin Ye flipped through the papers one by one.

Old map.

A desolate cemetery.

Local chronicles.

Fangfengshi.

There is a hole at the foot of the ridge, which has become a canal over the years.

Construction has been suspended due to unstable geological conditions.

Missing page.

Two elderly workers were deleted.

The space below has been hollowed out.

These things all looked broken at first glance.

When placed together, it's like an invisible picture slowly being revealed.

Lin Ye's throat was a little dry.

"Therefore, Aoyama's problems are not recent."

Ningzhi looked at him.

"no."

Her tone was somber.

"At least twenty years ago, when the park was built, some people already knew that something was wrong down there."

Lin Ye looked down at the words "Do Not Approach".

After a long pause, he asked, "Can we continue the investigation?"

Ningzhi smiled.

"able."

Her smile looked a little tired.

"But the difficulty is starting to increase."

"How so?"

"The data has been tampered with. It's not just a simple loss; someone has handled it," Ning Zhi said. "The closer you get to the key parts, the neater the gaps become. It's like a piece of clothing with a hole; someone specifically takes scissors to smooth out the rough edges, trying to make it look like it was always like that."

Lin Ye frowned.

This is worse than just carelessly discarding documents.

Littering is negligence.

It has been repaired, clearly intentionally.

Ningzhi took a sip of her Americano, which was no longer ice-cold, and wrinkled her face slightly.

"It tastes awful."

Lin Ye said, "Want to change it to another cup?"

"You're treating?"

"certainly."

"Then I want the expensive one."

"OK."

Ningzhi looked up at him, her tone returning to somewhat its usual tone.

"You're starting to look more and more like a boss."

"Don't swear."

Ning Zhi smiled and continued flipping through the documents.

After laughing, she took out the last piece of paper.

"There's one more thing."

Lin Ye could tell from her expression that it wasn't good news.

"explain."

Ningzhi placed the paper on the table.

This is a record of document retrieval.

The form is new.

The timeframe is within the next few days.

Lin Ye immediately noticed the column for the unit to be consulted.

National Cultural Relics Safety Emergency Protection Center.

The name sounds very official.

It's so official that it gives you a headache the moment you see it.

Ningzhi tapped that column with her fingernail.

"When I was checking the information about Qingshan, I found that there was another group of people who were also accessing Qingshan's related archives."

Lin Ye stared at those words.

"What kind of unit is this?"

"I couldn't find much," Ning Zhi said. "There's very little publicly available information; it's mostly listed under categories like cultural relic safety, emergency protection, and risk assessment of major archaeological sites."

"Official?"

"It's hard to say," Ning Zhi shook her head. "At least on the surface, it looks like an official institution. The procedures are also formal, and their access permissions are much higher than mine."

Lin Ye looked at her.

"Are they investigating Aoyama too?"

"No," Ning Zhi said. "They started investigating before I did."

Lin Ye's heart tightened.

"How early?"

"The earliest access record was the day after the Gu family's incident."

Ningzhi pushed the form forward a little.

"They didn't retrieve the regular data from Qingshan Cemetery."

"What is that?"

Ning Zhi pointed to several lines of items to be reviewed.

The evolution of the old name of Qingshan.

Risk record of underground cavity on the west slope.

Early construction records of the back slope.

Excerpts from local chronicles related to Fengfengling.

When Lin Ye saw the words "Fengfeng Ridge", a chill ran down his spine.

This organization knows more than he imagined.

Xiaoman saw it too.

She bit the candy into pieces, making a very soft sound.

Click.

Ningzhi looked at the forest.

Do you know what this means?

Lin Ye didn't say anything.

Ning Zhi continued speaking for him.

"We're not the only ones investigating this matter in Qingshan."

She lowered her voice.

"There's another group of people who've had their eyes on Qingshan for a long time."

The door of the print shop was blew by the wind, and the glass rattled softly.

Lin Ye looked down at the access record.

National Cultural Relics Safety Emergency Protection Center.

The evolution of the old name of Qingshan.

Fengfeng Ridge.

The back mountain.

Old drainage ditch.

He suddenly remembered what Lu Zhixia had said at the Xicheng Old Bookstore.

It's best not to get involved in the Qingshan redevelopment project.

It now appears that there are more people who want to mess with Qingshan than he thought.

Moreover, none of them are like ordinary people.

Lin Ye slowly folded the paper and put it into the file bag.

Do you have a backup of this document?

Ningzhi glanced at him.

"Do you think I'm new to this line of work?"

Lin Ye nodded.

"That's good."

Ningzhi pushed the file bag towards him.

"Linye."

"Um?"

She looked at him, unusually not joking.

"The matter with Qingshan is even more troublesome than the one with the Gu family."

Lin Ye looked down at the white lines worn into the edges of the file folder.

After a few seconds, he said, "I know."

Ningzhi frowned.

"You knew about it, yet you still investigated?"

Lin Ye put the file folder into his bag and stood up.

"It's precisely because we know that we have to investigate."

Ningzhi looked at him.

Xiaoman was also looking at him.

Lin Ye looked up and gazed at the gray street outside through the glass door of the printing shop.

"I used to think that Qingshan was just a place where I could make my fortune."

His voice was not loud.

"Looking back now, it may have been the starting point for everything."

At the same time.

Outside the back hill of Qingshan Cemetery.

A white construction vehicle was parked by the edge of the woodland, with the window half down.

A technician wearing a reflective vest handed Su Tinglan a newly produced detection map.

"Ms. Su, the second round of scanning is complete."

Su Tinglan looked down at the picture.

The cavity reaction on the outside of the old drainage ditch is clearer in the picture than the first time.

Like a thin, dark line, it extends from the foot of the hillside into the depths of the cemetery.

Master Lai stood to the side, his face grim.

"We can't sweep any further in."

Su Tinglan remained silent.

The technician whispered, "Further in, that's the cemetery area."

Su Tinglan looked at the dark line on the map.

The end of that line was marked as a blurry black area by the software.

She asked, "What does 'black zone' mean?"

The technician swallowed hard.

"have no idea."

"The device cannot recognize it?"

"No," the technician said in an even lower voice, "it's like the space below, or like the signal is being blocked."

Master Lai tightened the lid of the thermos.

Click.

Su Tinglan raised her eyes and looked into the depths of Qingshan Cemetery.

The night was very dark.

The cemetery was so quiet that not a sound could be seen.

She remembered Wenren Heng's last words before he left.

Explore the green hills first, but don't dig too deep.

She closed the drawing.

"stop."

The technician breathed a sigh of relief.

Su Tinglan added, "Archive today's data; don't use the regular engineering system."

"clear."

Master Lai stared at the black area for a long time without moving.

Su Tinglan took a few steps, then stopped.

The phone lit up briefly.

It was a message from Lin Ye.

"I won't be going to the store tonight, something's come up."

Su Tinglan stared at the line of text, her fingertips pausing for a moment.

After a few seconds, she replied:

"Okay, get some rest when you're done."

After sending the message, she did not immediately put her phone away.

The wind is strong in Qingshan.

The wind made the hem of her coat sway gently.

Master Lai suddenly spoke up from behind.

"You'd better not get really involved."

Su Tinglan turned around.

Master Lai looked at her.

"If you pretend for too long, you'll forget that you were pretending in the first place."

Su Tinglan did not laugh.

She glanced down at her phone screen.

The screen has gone dark.

"I know."

"Good to know."

"Report the situation here and ask the higher-ups to send a captain over. Take action as soon as possible, or things may change."

Su Tinglan nodded.

"it is good."