Telling this old man that he is planning to do another livestream on the mausoleum is not good.
Again, Xievian made an excuse. "Well, I'm a writer who documents histories about strange places. I just want to check the mausoleum out to see if I could find something."
The old man didn't budge. "No excuses. Go home."
This time, Xievian felt very helpless. "Sir, I'll negotiate. I'll just take a look at it, then I'll be gone. Just a look, sir. You can come with me if you'd like."
With a scowl on his face, the old man rejected, "You want to drag me and die with you? No thanks."
When Xievian saw that the old man was about to go back to his watch house...
Although the old man attacked him with a pitchfork a while ago, talking to him now made Xievian feel that the old man wouldn't harm him. Of course, that feeling was very unreliable, he had almost gotten skewered. But he needed to take a risk.
He raised his voice a bit, enough for the old man to hear him. "Sir, if you refuse, I'll come back here every night at 12:00 a.m. to bother you! Trust me! I'll really do that!" It was a very naïve threat, but Xievian knew that this gravekeeper probably hated being bothered.
Sure enough, the old man stopped. Xievian put his hand inside his pocket and gripped the pocket knife inside. If the old man showed any sign of murderous intent, he'd try to escape using his meager survival instincts.
The old man sighed. He looked back at Xievian and beckoned him to come. "You just need to write a documentary, right? No need to go to the mausoleum. I'll tell you what I know."
Xievian felt surprised. Although it wasn't what he wanted, aside from appraising the place, he actually also needed information about the mausoleum.
Of course, this could also be a trap. The moment he followed the old man to the watch house, there was a possibility that he'd be murdered, but, you know, he'd agonize over the potential solution later when that situation occurred. Right now, he was on the weaker side. He needed something that the gravekeeper had, so he was very passive.
He followed the old man to the watchtower. They climbed silently.
Xievian looked down and saw a view of the cemetery.
It actually looked peaceful.
Not scary in any way.
When they finally reached the watchtower, Xievian looked inside. It was very clean—clean as in there was nothing inside except a chest box and a very large machete.
Seeing the machete, Xievian backed up a bit. While he was not very keen on living, dying by a machete was not on his bucket list. His will to live rose a bit, but just by a bit.
The old man plopped down and motioned for Xievian to also squat. Xievian squatted across from the old man and looked at him curiously.
The old man felt irritated by the stare. "What are you looking at, boy?!"
Xievian took back his gaze. "Nothing. Just curious. So what was the mausoleum all about?"
The old man took a flask of alcohol out of nowhere and drank it. He pointed at the window. "See the back gate?"
Xievian looked outside and nodded.
The old man continued, "Behind that is a lush wilderness. Going deeper is the mausoleum. The mausoleum is located in the old cemetery. During that time, buying a space inside the mausoleum was a good deal. Your loved one's coffin wouldn't be damaged by the sun and rain, and it was also very affordable. Actually, it was all fine. There had been legends, but they weren't real. The real hauntings happened when the corpse of that woman was put inside the mausoleum."
"Corpses were said to have moved. There were a lot of visitors missing. When they finally managed to find them, all of the missing people were inside coffins. The original corpse was gone, replaced by the visitors."
"Then it escalated to demonic possessions. People who visited the mausoleum went crazy after going home, committing horrendous crimes, and then killing themselves."
The old man stopped his storytelling for a bit and glanced outside the window, seemingly looking for something.
Xievian remained patient. He thought about the old man's story and felt like it sounded like a template urban legend. Seeing that the old man had looked away from the window, he asked, "Why do you say that the woman was the cause of the hauntings?"
"Her burial was weird." The old man smiled eerily. "A lot of people said that she was locked inside the casket alive. She did it willingly."
"If she did it willingly, then why is she haunting?" Xievian was very confused.
The old man shook his head. "How would I know? It's an old story from around 130-plus years ago."
"Are those real?" This was what Xievian needed to know.
"I don't think so. But just don't go to those places. After the mausoleum was abandoned, nature reclaimed the old cemetery. You might meet wild animals and strange people there. It's very dangerous. If you're going to ask why it was abandoned, it's because of the location. It's prone to flooding, so one can imagine the smell," the old man said dismissively.
Looking at the guy who had almost skewered him with a pitchfork saying that there were dangerous, strange people at the mausoleum made Xievian feel like he was tripping.
Finally, he couldn't help but ask, even at the risk of getting silenced, "What's up with you almost murdering me with a pitchfork?"
The old man decided to play dumb. "Oh, that was an accident. The pitchfork fell and landed on your spot." That was different from what he said before.
Looking at the old guy, who probably wouldn't admit it, Xievian gave up.
Probably this was all he could milk from this trip. He thanked the old man and said goodbye.
Just as he was about to climb down, the old man asked, "How are you getting home? There's no taxi passing by here. I don't know which idiot sent you here in the dead of night, but there probably won't be any more idiots like that."
Xievian had thought about that before. "I plan to walk to the main highway, then grab a taxi."
The old man looked speechless. "That's almost a 30-minute walk. In this damn place, aren't you afraid of getting murdered?"
Xievian answered honestly. "No."
The old man pulled out his walkie-talkie and murmured, "No wonder you want to rush to that place." Xievian could hear it loud and clear.
The old man did not care if he heard it. He turned on his walkie-talkie and said to the other side, "Son, can you bring this guy with you as you send the stuff to old Jonny?"
Hearing the old man call his son on a walkie-talkie, Xievian realized that there was another person in the cemetery besides the old man.