Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

Madison’s church was in Wenxiena, so they had to pass through a village called Wubang and a logging station built by the Dutch before they entered the rainforest.

The logging station was now a distribution center where the English were stationed. The center provided supplies for people who were going into the rainforest and was also in charge of transporting mahoganies and fur out of the rainforest. There was even a post office for expedition teams to transport specimens back to their countries.

The two men were silent as they walked. Madison had become quiet and taciturn because of Nanre’s body. Zhang Haiyan didn’t ask him to help carry the body as they continued moving forward silently. That first day’s itinerary didn’t require any tracking skills since they just had to focus on getting to Wubang. Once they reached Wubang, it would take another day for them to get to the logging station.

They were staying the night in a temple outside Wubang Village. The local monks had felt very sympathetic towards them when they found that there was a corpse on Zhang Haiyan’s back.

They chanted sutras for Nanre all night long while Zhang Haiyan sat on the temple’s roof and watched the sun set over the nearby rice fields.

He noticed that there was a very small building across from the temple’s door. It was about half a person high and also looked like a temple. The South Sea style’s characteristics were more obvious and there was something being worshiped in it.

“That’s a sorcery temple.” Madison said from behind him. “I’ve been here before. That temple worships a piece of skin from an unknown animal. The whole piece of skin is wrapped in a strange kind of grass that forms a cocoon around it. A sorcerer put it there more than two hundred years ago.”

Zhang Haiyan looked back at him. “Do foreigners believe in sorcery as well? Oh, you basically work in the same business.”

There was a kind of mysterious sorcery that was popular in Southeast Asian regions such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Africa. There weren’t any written records about it and it was very obscure. The legends of this sorcery technique were often incredible, and no one was able to explain what it was or what it could accomplish.

Sorcery was an extremely mysterious profession. In other words, it was so mysterious that the practitioners were often demonized. Most of the time, sorcerers in folklore were more like evil ghosts instead of human beings.

Madison's long blond hair was tied up in a bun as he sat down next to him and said, “It’s not like that, A Bin. I'm a registered priest. I serve God and listen to people’s confessions, but I don’t help people solve practical problems.”

Zhang Haiyan stared at the sorcery temple. It looked like a tomb with multiple mountains around it.

“I know what this sorcery temple’s purpose is. The locals told me that the rainforest is right on the edge of this temple. After the Dutch came, they began to cut down the rainforest and turned these places into rice fields. As a result, many strange corpses would flow out of the forest after the rainy season. They carried the plague with them and many people died. So, a sorcerer built this temple here to keep the plague in the forest,” Madison continued.

“Have you ever entered the rainforest?” Zhang Haiyan asked him.

“I have gone into the rainforest, but I didn’t go far. I visited some of the tribes there,” Madison said. “I made some notes about it. Would you like to read them? I heard that your English is very good.”

Zhang Haiyan shook his head. Madison was right. He could speak many languages ​​and dialects due to his job, but he didn’t need any notes about the rainforest. He was already aware of the dangers hidden in southern Perak’s rainforests.

It was an unknown territory. The tropical rainforests grew wildly at a speed that even the human body could perceive. There weren’t any paths or landmarks to refer to, and even the path you took a week ago would be completely different a week later.

Madison was silent for a while before he offered his wine to Zhang Haiyan. This was the wine he liked to drink before, but he had stopped drinking a long time ago.

After Nanre’s death, he broke his promise and started drinking again. “Since you can make Nanre look like this, are you a sorcerer?”

Zhang Haiyan looked at the wine and almost couldn’t conceal his panic. Oh, no, he thought to himself. He wants a closer relationship.

Zhang tried to smile, “No.”

Foreigners were either very unsociable or extremely enthusiastic. Madison obviously belonged to the latter. The enthusiastic foreigner needed to absorb energy from the crowd, which was why he had gone to Perak to help children.

But Zhang Haiyan wasn’t that kind of person. He needed to be alone to restore his energy.

Madison looked at the sunset and then at his bottle of wine. It seemed he was ready to have a heart-to-heart with him. Zhang Haiyan quickly jumped off the roof, walked towards the sorcery temple, and came to stand in front of the strange little building. He saw the grass cocoon, which was about the size of a swaddled baby.

When they left the next day, Madison discovered that there was a baby-sized package beside Nanre’s body on Zhang Haiyan’s back. When the two reached the edge of the rainforest, the package was moved and Madison realized that it was the grass cocoon from the sorcery temple.

Madison was overwhelmed again and pointed at the cocoon. “You—you—you—”

“Relax. I’ve replaced the cocoon with a stone wrapped in grass. They look exactly the same on the outside, so no one will discover it. Two hundred years have passed. I bet none of them has dared touch it. Who can possibly remember what’s inside of it?”

“You even dared steal the offering from the sorcery temple? Aren’t you afraid of being possessed by evil spirits?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m the evilest spirit you’ll ever meet in your entire life. No one is more wicked than I am.” Zhang Haiyan patted the grass cocoon behind him with satisfaction. “This thing is very powerful, so you shouldn’t irritate me. Otherwise, I’ll have you eat it.”

“This… this isn’t right.” Madison was so shocked that he lost the ability to speak Chinese.

“Maybe I should send you back. Do you want to seek revenge or not?”

Madison was stunned for a moment. Zhang Haiyan ignored him and walked faster, leaving Madison behind so that he had to chase after him.

“What are you going to do with this kind of thing?”

“Trust me. There’s a special reason as to why this thing is outside the rainforest. It’ll fucking come in handy if we bring it with us.”

“What do you mean?”

It was as if the grass cocoon had pushed Madison to become chattier. He kept talking the whole time, so Zhang Haiyan picked up his pace. As a result, they arrived at the logging station in less than a day.

By this point, Zhang Haiyan was certain that this guy was born to be a priest. Madison talked way too much, but he must’ve been a great father. Nanre must have been happy during those ten years she was alive.

This was a foreigner with childlike curiosity.

“A Bin, when I asked around about you, I heard that you were a very energetic person in Penang. What have you been through all these years that made you become someone like this?”

“Nothing happened.”

“A Bin, I’m a priest. You can confess to me. I won’t tell anyone what you’ve told me.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“A Bin, A Bin, A Bin, A Bin!”

Zhang Haiyan’s face was solemn as he walked toward the logging station. He patted Nanre and whispered to her, “Don’t be scared, little girl. After we enter the rainforest, I’ll send your father to the underworld so he can reunite with you. Then I will avenge you.”

“A Bin!”

Zhang Haiyan couldn’t help feeling annoyed and looked back at Madison. But just as he was about to get angry, he saw that Madison’s expression had changed.

Madison was looking at a pile of goods outside the post office where a fat white man was teasing a little Malay girl. The man was teaching the little girl how to tie knots. The little girl seemed to be only eight or nine years old. The fat man sometimes looked at the girl’s ankles and then at her parents who were off to the side. The little girl’s parents didn’t notice the looks that Madison and Zhang Haiyan were giving them.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s him,” Madison said. “He’s one of twelve people. His name is Wade. He’s a farrier (1).” Madison put his hand on the knife by his waist. “Why didn’t he enter the rainforest?”

****

TN Notes:

(1) Person who takes care of horses' hooves (like trimming them) and puts shoes on them.

****

Tiffany’s Notes: Someone managed to be more talkative than Zhang Haiyan. That’s surprising lol. I can’t believe Haiyan was like, “Oh, he wants to be sentimental with me. I’d better jump off the roof.”

Merebear's Notes: Tiffany's being all positive while I'm over here like "KILL HIM!!!!! Save the little girl, Haiyan!!!" lol