All-rounder Artist

“Ding. ”

He got an email notification. Chu Kuang had sent the novel over and YangFeng saw the name of this new book.

“Ghost Blowing Lamp?”

Such a peculiar title.

It felt quite eerie.

What genre is this new book?

YangFeng was about to type to ask Chu Kuang about the genre of the new book, but before he could finish typing, the avatar of the other party had already gone dark.

This made YangFeng, who has had extensive interaction with Chu Kuang, understood that Chu Kuang probably wouldn’t respond to him anymore today. At the same time.

A colleague’s voice came from beside YangFeng: “Young Yang, it’s time to get off work. Aren’t you leaving?”

“Off work?”

YangFeng, with a deep furrow in his brow, was eager to take a look at Chu Kuang’s new book called “Ghost Blowing Lamp”. This was pure anticipation. “Quit dilly-dallying. Let’s go.”

The colleague patted YangFeng’s shoulder: “I need a ride from you today. My car broke down and it’s being repaired now. Can I trouble you to drop me off at home?”

“No problem.”

YangFeng glanced at his colleague and laughed: “The ride will cost you a hundred bucks, a friendly price from me to you, 01′ Zhang.”

01′ Zhang rolled his eyes: “A black cab, huh.”

YangFeng chuckled: “Just kidding… But your house is quite far. I’ll drop you off first, I had originally planned to stay back at work a bit longer to finish reading the book.”

01′ Zhang asked: “What book?”

YangFeng answered: “”Ghost Blowing Lamp”.”

01′ Zhang raised his eyebrows: “Another fantasy novel? Since Chu Kuang’s ‘Zhu Xian’ pioneered the fantasy genre, more and more people have started writing fantasy novels. Many have even followed the trend and achieved great success…”

01’ Zhang naturally assumed that “Ghost Blowing Lamp” was a fantasy novel. Evidently, the word “Ghost” in “Ghost Blowing Lamp” was the main focus. These kind of strange and mystical book titles often suggest a fantasy novel. “It’s not simply a trend.”

YangFeng glanced at 01′ Zhang: “This is Chu Kuang’s new book.”

While others were writing fantasy to follow the trend, Chu Kuang was an exception—

YangFeng also assumed “Ghost Blowing Lamp” was a fantasy novel.

01′ Zhang was stunned for a moment and then he started to laugh, surprised and delighted: “It’s Chu Kuang’s new book? Nice! Let’s give it a listen!”

Most people in the editorial department were big fans of Chu Kuang’s work and 01′ Zhang was no exception.

“Fine. We’ll listen to it together while driving.”

YangFeng didn’t refuse. By “listening”, he meant audiobooks.

Since editors usually have to drive to and from work and can’t read books or use their mobile phones, they would occasionally listen to books.

Silver Blue Books had developed an audiobook app which was quite intelligent and could adjust emotions based on the context ensuring it sounded very natural.

While it wasn’t as good as a broadcast, it was definitely better than dry reading. With that, both of them got into the car.

At the same time, they began using the voice-automated audiobook feature.

[Tomb robbing is not tourism or poetic artistry, but a technology, a destructive technology. When ancient nobles built tombs, they invariably tried to prevent their tombs from being robbed. Therefore, they devised all manner of traps and concealed weapons such as giant rocks, quicksand, poisoned arrows, poisoned insects, pitfalls, and so on…]

The car had started.

However, YangFeng and 01′ Zhang couldn’t help but exchange glances.

Why was the book talking about tomb robbing at the beginning?

Wasn’t it a fantasy novel?

The two were somewhat puzzled, but also a bit curious, so they continued to listen.

[My grandfather’s name was Hu Guohua. The Hu family was a well-known landlord in the region. At their most glorious, they owned over forty connected houses in three alleys in the city, and among them, some even held government positions and were businessmen… ]

Hearing this, YangFeng and 01′ Zhang more or less understood.

Turns out “Ghost Blowing Lamp” was not a fantasy novel after all.

The text was depicted in a realistic manner and was filled with a sense of era, and the story was narrated in the first person—

First person narrative?

How dare someone use a first-person narrative these days!?

YangFeng suddenly felt a tremendous headache.

Chu Kuang was still the same Chu Kuang.

He never plays according to the rules!

You must know that the first-person narrative is disliked by many readers, many of whom won’t even bother reading your content. If they see a first-person narrative, they’d drop the book without hesitation…

But he just went ahead and did it!

Old Zhang hesitated, “This doesn’t seem like a fantasy novel. There are no special abilities, instead it’s full of a sense of era, and it seems that the story is about grave robbing?”

“Keep listening.”

Said YangFeng, a sour expression on his face.

Though he felt that it wasn’t a reliable concept, he had felt the same way about

Zhu Xian’ and its fantasy Xianxia genre.

Given his past experience with Zhu Xian’, YangFeng was wary of passing early judgment this time.

Old Zhang just nodded, not saying a word.

Listening, the two became somewhat engrossed.

“To appease his uncle, Hu Guohua, after returning home, found a paper man craftsman from the village. The one who makes those paper effigies burned during funerals. This craftsman was very skillful. He followed the specifications and made a white paper woman for Hu Guohua, then painted eyebrows, eyes, nose, clothes, and hair with watercolor. From a distance, heh, it looked like a living person.”

“Hiss.”

Old Zhang felt a bit uncomfortable.

YangFeng also felt some goosebumps. He always thought these paper people were a bit creepy.

Still, they were both interested in how the story would develop.

And so, in the silence, only the voice kept going:

“A few days later, when the uncle came to visit his niece-in-law, the door curtain of the inner room lifted and out came a woman. She was fair with a broad face and wide rear, small feet. Hu Guohua’s heart thundered, ‘Oh lord, isn’t this the paper woman I had made? How did she come alive?\'”

YangFeng and Old Zhang jumped in surprise.

It wouldn’t really be called frightening, but they felt a sensation of unease. This tale made their skin crawl, reminding them of ghost stories from their childhood that were told by elderly villagers.

It was unexplainably creepy.

People in the book felt the same: “Looking at the woman sitting opposite him, Hu Guohua felt a sickly buzzing sensation, as if he had swallowed a fly. His scalp was pricking incessantly. The face of the paper woman was extraordinary white, without a trace of blood. The blush on her face was only paint…”

Just then, they hit a traffic jam.

Neither YangFeng nor Old Zhang were in a hurry, just quietly listening to the narration of ‘Ghost Blows the Lamp’.

The paper woman was just the beginning of the story.

Later on, the voice narrated the part about a cigarette-smoking rat; creepy, yet somewhat humorous…

The first half of the story leading up to the underground military fortress in Wild Man Gorge Heifengkou mainly set the stage and didn’t have any clear relation to the main plot thread.

The first half was more like folk tales or rural anecdotes.

Then, in the latter half, it shifted to the archaeological team entering the desert in search of the Ancient City of Jingjue. This part portrayed distinct geographical and cultural elements.

Desert of the Western Regions, Peacock River, Double Holy Mountain, The Thirty-six Countries, Beauty of Loulan, Dunhuang Murals and so on were all depicted.

The traffic jam lasted a long time.

By the time it cleared, the story had already reached a thrilling part.

Things like zongzi, upside-downs, evil forces, Lieutenant Goldfinder, and so on, were all explained in detail.

At the same time…

The remodelled mysterious and horrifying elements of the story also surfaced. The level of horror greatly surpassed that of the initial paper-woman, such that when they stopped at the lane outside Old Zhang’s house, he felt a chill on his back.

“Yang…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Could you walk me…”

“Aren’t we at your house already?”

“Look at how dark this lane is, doesn’t it resemble a tomb’s passage? I remember there being stray cats at the intersection…”

“I’ll switch on the high beams for you…”

At this moment, YangFeng was also feeling goosebumps.

Just as he was driving, a scary part of the story had come on, and he almost spaced out. It was Old Zhang s reminder that allowed him to brake in time.

“That works.”

Old Zhang hesitantly got off the car, mumbling reminders to YangFeng to drive carefully on his way back. He couldn’t resist to say, “Would you send me that novel? I know the rules, I won’t leak it.”

YangFeng couldn’t help but ask, “You still want to read it after being so scared?”

Old Zhang sighed faintly, “This book by Chu Kuang has created a new genre. It’s not only terrifying but also well written…”

“Alright.”

YangFeng had to admit Old Zhang was right.

This ‘Ghost Blows the Lamp’ isn’t some Xianxia novel. It’s an extremely thrill-inducing, horrifying, and fresh grave robbing novel!

The first-person narrative?

It doesn’t seem to be a problem…

In the face of an exciting story, the writing method of the novel isn’t the focus.. What YangFeng is more concerned about now is, would ‘Ghost Blows the Lamp’ scare the kids?