Rumors of Little Jiangxi's ghost cast an impenetrable haze of gloom over the construction site. Although the Taoist priest hired by Old Wáng acted like a fraud who danced for show and was utterly useless, The Contractor—that fat man who was usually elusive and only cared about progress and cash—could no longer sit still.
A dead man was one thing, delaying the construction schedule was another, but a haunting causing panic that left no one willing to work was a matter that could cost him his life!
Therefore, on the first Monday morning after the tragedy, The Contractor made a rare appearance at the site. With his beer belly protruding, his hands on his hips, and his face dark as iron, he stood before the scaffolders and delivered a stern 'safety production speech.'
"Listen to me, every damn one of you!" he shouted, spraying spit everywhere, his finger practically poking the noses of the workers in the front row. "From today on, if any of you bastards go up the scaffolding without a safety harness, you can pack your bags and get out! Don't you dare gamble with your luck! Your lives are your own! Think about your wives waiting for money back home! Think about your children waiting to be fed!"
His cursing was foul and directed at everyone's ancestors, but there was only one core message: safety first (for the sake of his schedule and money), and anyone who didn't comply would be fired.
"Don't think I'm joking with you bastards! Whoever wants to be the next Little Jiangxi, go ahead and try! See if he doesn't come looking for you at night to cry!" Finally, he even resorted to using this chilling threat.
The effect was significant.
Over the next few days, the scaffolders checked each other before going up, binding their safety harnesses so tightly they practically tied double knots. Old Wáng also seemed to be wound up like a spring; he personally patrolled before work every day, and if he saw anyone whose harness was even slightly loose, he would launch into a scathing tirade that kept them from lifting their heads.
"You dog-filth! If you want to die, don't drag me down with you! Harness! Tighten it! You hear me?!"
Safety awareness across the entire site was forcefully elevated to an unprecedented level. It seemed that the bloody lesson and the ghostly shadows at midnight had finally served as a warning.
However, the cruelty and weirdness of fate often exceed everyone's imagination.
On the fifth day after The Contractor's speech, the sky was overcast, stifling and windless. The site operated as usual, but beneath the noise, there always seemed to be a subtle, underlying tension.
The incident occurred a little after two in the afternoon, the time of day when people are most prone to fatigue.
The location of the incident was precise—it was the exact area where Little Jiangxi had fallen and where the ghostly shadows had lingered at midnight!
A new layer of the outer wall had been built up, and the scaffolding had been raised accordingly. At that time, three scaffolders were performing reinforcement work above that area. Everyone was wearing a safety harness, which Old Wáng had checked only minutes before.
No one knew exactly how it happened. There was only a jarring, sickening sound of metal twisting and wood snapping, followed by a chorus of short, shrill screams!
Zhāng Fēng, who was below mixing mortar, looked up instinctively, just like the other workers.
He saw a sight that almost froze the blood in his veins—
The scaffolding in that area didn't collapse because of a worker slipping; instead, it fell inward all at once, as if squeezed by an invisible giant hand! Bamboo poles as thick as bowls twisted and snapped, and the green safety net was torn like a fragile spider web!
The three workers, all wearing safety harnesses, were like stones tethered to a collapsing mountain, falling along with the wreckage while screaming in terror!
"Bang!" "Snap!"
The heavy impact, the crisp sound of bones breaking, and a wail that was abruptly cut short all smashed into everyone's eardrums!
Dust flew into the air, and debris scattered everywhere.
It all happened too fast, too suddenly!
When the dust settled slightly, people looked on in horror as, amidst the new pile of wreckage, two workers were pinned by twisted bamboo poles and slats, their condition unknown as blood seeped from the cracks. As for the third… his safety harness was still tightly buckled around his waist, but the other end was attached to a broken, twisted piece of bamboo. He hung in the air in an extremely bizarre posture, his neck tilted at an unnatural angle, his eyes wide open, already devoid of breath.
Another death!
And in the exact same spot! After The Contractor had given specific instructions and everyone had carefully buckled their harnesses!
It was not an individual mistake; the entire scaffold had collapsed!
"Ah!" a female kitchen helper let out a hysterical scream.
The entire construction site fell into deathly silence, with nothing left but the faint moans from the ruins and the sound of crumbling rocks.
Everyone stood frozen, pale-faced, their eyes filled with unimaginable fear.
If Little Jiangxi's death was an accident or personal negligence, what about this? Three people, all wearing safety harnesses, yet the entire scaffold collapsed? In the same haunted spot?
This could no longer be explained as an accident!
It was unclear who started it, but the workers began to back away slowly, as if the ruins were a man-eating swamp. No one spoke, but a silent, massive panic spread through the crowd like a plague.
"Ghost… it's a ghost… Little Jiangxi has found his substitute…" someone said in a trembling voice, echoing everyone's deepest fear.
"This place is cursed! We can't stay here!"
"I'm quitting! This job is impossible!"
Someone threw down their tools, the sound ringing out with a crisp "clatter." This noise was like a fuse, instantly igniting the pent-up panic.
"Right! Quit!"
"Damn it, keep the money! My life is more important!"
"Let's go! Going home!"
The workers grew restless, swarming in groups toward the worker quarters. No matter how much Old Wáng roared, tried to block the path, or even threatened to withhold wages, it was all in vain. The threat of death and the fear of the supernatural overwhelmed their desire for money.
The construction site was paralyzed in an instant.
Zhāng Fēng stood where he was, not moving with the crowd. He looked with a heavy expression at the ruins that had swallowed three lives (perhaps more). The sensation from the Earth Spirit Pearl within him was unusually clear—the 'Qi' beneath that patch of land was even more chaotic, cold, filled with despair, and… an indescribable baleful aura.
The Water Spirit Bead also gave a warning; the 'water vapor' there (perhaps including the fluids of life) carried a heavy, deathly silence.
He watched the crowd fleeing in a panic, he watched the furious and helpless Old Wáng, and he watched the land that seemed truly cursed.
He knew that he probably couldn't stay at this construction site anymore, either.
It seemed that a storm was coming again.