After Markus and Brzenska passed on, I felt somewhat relieved. Now I needed to find Antonio.
Tsz Wan Shan is located within Vervecity's boundaries, but on the outskirts. It's quite far from us - about two and a half hours by bus.
I was planning to return with Stein to pack our bags when we found the tattoo parlor door open. At first I thought it was a burglar, but upon entering, we discovered Antonio had returned.
Stein and I immediately rushed to ask what had happened - why he hadn't answered his phone and eventually turned it off.
Antonio appeared extremely exhausted. Breathing heavily as he sat on a chair, he said, "Don't ask. That nunnery was too evil. I almost didn't make it out alive."
Hearing such ominous words piqued my curiosity. After pouring him a glass of water, I pressed for details.
Antonio drank the water, then ripped open his collar. "Do you know what this is?" he asked.
Stein and I looked simultaneously and saw numerous bite marks at the base of Antonio's neck. My heart tightened. "Did multiple people bite you at once?"
Jiangshi? Impossible. Jiangshi bites leave bloody holes from single teeth - Antonio wouldn't have survived that.
Could they be from newly mutated zombies? Some freshly turned zombies have teeth like normal humans.
"Little Boss, you're overthinking it," Stein said. "Those bite marks on his neck are clearly from women."
What the hell? Antonio didn't go to a nunnery? I sent him on business to a nunnery and he went to see women instead? Unacceptable. I'd have to deduct his pay.
Antonio quickly protested, "No, no! I didn't go to see women - I really went to a nunnery! Aren't all nuns women anyway?"
That made me angrier. "You're a grown man - you wouldn't go to a Buddhist nunnery looking for women, would you? If you wanted that, you could find it in our alley for a few hundred bucks!"
Antonio insisted he was wronged. "I didn't do anything! Those nuns came onto me first. I'm no playboy - I refused from the start. It's just that those nuns were too evil."
I sat down and told him to explain carefully. I wanted to hear exactly how these nuns were evil.
Antonio drank another glass of water and regained some composure before beginning his story.
Fortunately, there are only three nunneries within Vervecity. Antonio had chosen Nianci Nunnery to the east, making his search straightforward.
Antonio asked around and learned that several years ago, this Nianci Nunnery had indeed expelled a nun. The nun had gone mad, constantly seeking someone to buy a comb. But she wasn't really talking to people - she was speaking to empty air, having conversations with no one in particular, which created an eerie atmosphere. Eventually, someone reported her and she was taken to a mental institution.
When Antonio heard this, he realized - wasn't this the bald woman Markus had mentioned? Nianci Nunnery must have been where the bald woman stayed.
After gathering this information, Antonio decided to go up and investigate first before reporting back to me with more details.
Tsz Wan Shan, where Nianci Nunnery was located, stood quite high and remote. Very few people visited - only a handful of climbers who typically went partway up before turning back. As it was already growing dark, the mountain became even more deserted.
Being bold by nature, Antonio didn't let this deter him. He climbed energetically, reaching the halfway point where the nunnery stood in about an hour.
Antonio described the nunnery as quite large, with two Buddha statues and an incense burner in front. The gate stood over twice a man's height - those big red wooden doors commonly seen at temples.
But Antonio found something strange - for such a large nunnery, there was no scent of incense. Instead, an eerie feeling pervaded the place. The eyes of the Buddha statues by the gate appeared to have been gouged out, giving them a twisted appearance. The incense tripod outside contained not a speck of ash, suggesting no one had offered incense there for a long time. Even without visiting worshippers, shouldn't the nuns burn incense daily? What was going on here?
Rather than a functioning nunnery, it seemed more like an empty shell of a building with no real occupants.
While Antonio wasn't as knowledgeable as Stein about supernatural matters, having followed my grandfather for some time had given him decent intuition. He could tell something was definitely wrong with this place.
Having come this far, he wasn't about to turn back due to potential danger. He resolved to go inside, especially since night was falling and he needed shelter before descending the next morning - even though nunneries typically didn't accept male guests.
Having made up his mind, Antonio went up and knocked. Before long, a young nun answered. She had delicate features with clear eyebrows, small pink lips that looked cute and pretty, and wore monastic robes that should have given a holy impression.
But this little nun was anything but saintly. Upon seeing Antonio, she actually giggled and said, "My, what a handsome man!"
Antonio froze, completely unprepared for this reaction. He'd been ready to greet her with a solemn "Amitabha," never expecting such behavior from a nun.
Was this really a nun? She seemed more like... those women from the alleyway back home.
Despite the strangeness, Antonio stated his purpose - making up a story about getting lost on the mountain and requesting shelter for the night before leaving tomorrow.
The little nun didn't hesitate at all, immediately agreeing while throwing Antonio a flirtatious wink.
Antonio froze again, mentally cursing: "Motherfucker, is this really a damn nun? Did I come to the wrong place?"
This nunnery was clearly problematic. Since they'd allowed him in, he decided to investigate and uncover the truth - to see what was really going on inside. Maybe it wasn't a real nunnery at all, just a front disguising something else.
Following the little nun inside, Antonio realized the compound was enormous. Just crossing the front hall required quite a walk. After passing through and covering considerable distance, he finally saw rows of residential rooms.
The little nun, who introduced herself as Qingyin (the youngest generation disciple), led him to the west wing and opened a room for him. When Antonio asked to see the abbess, Qingyin said she was already asleep and shouldn't be disturbed. Qingyin instructed Antonio to stay quietly in his room, not to go out, and to refuse entry to anyone who knocked - except her.
Antonio found this strange. While he understood not going out (since this was a nunnery and he was male), why forbid others from entering?
Qingyin explained it was nunnery policy to prevent inappropriate relations between male guests and nuns.
"But why are you the exception?" Antonio pressed.
Qingyin stammered that as the disciple assigned to host male guests, she wasn't subject to those restrictions. With that, she quickly closed the door and left before Antonio could ask about the bald woman.
Antonio decided to let it go - he could ask tomorrow anyway. Exhausted from the climb, he focused on resting first.
The bedding and pillows carried a pleasant fragrance, as expected in women's quarters - even if they were nuns'.
Antonio fell asleep almost immediately, but was soon awakened by his ringing phone - my call coming through.
"Damn, there's actually cell service up this high?" Antonio grumbled, annoyed at being woken. But he didn't answer, his horrified gaze fixed ahead.
At the room's dresser sat a woman in a red wedding dress, her bare, oily head being combed. Though bald at first, her hair began growing unnaturally as she combed - sprouting like snakes before cascading into a swaying black waterfall.
The comb moved like a grasping hand across her head, the scene growing increasingly bizarre.
As an experienced fighter, Antonio would normally sense anyone entering, even while asleep. Yet this woman had appeared silently - he'd no idea when she came in.
Only one explanation fit: this woman must be a ghost. Hence Antonio's terror.
Confirming the door remained locked made him even more certain.
People couldn't enter - only ghosts could. Plus that unnatural hair-combing definitely wasn't human behavior!
Antonio was stunned - a ghost appearing in a Buddhist holy site?
"Who the hell are you?" he roared at the woman, ignoring my call.
Braver than Stein, while Antonio feared ghosts, he wasn't cowardly.
But when the woman turned around, Antonio nearly dropped his phone in shock, his face twisting in utter horror.