Opening prologue of Strange Events Across Yunnan: The Bronze Mask and the Map in Blood
Late at night on an old street in Kunming, a sharp crack rang out from the antique shop of Chen the Third. A rusty bronze mask tumbled out of a package. On its inner surface, two lines of dark red writing stood out: “Beneath Fuxian Lake flows a river of corpse oil; in the Ailao Mountains, living human stakes are buried.” Beneath the mask lay a yellowed map marked with seven places in Yunnan: Fuxian Lake, the Ailao Mountains, the First Bend of the Nu River, the sinkhole in the Dulong River Valley, the ice cave on Meili Snow Mountain, the Xishuangbanna rainforest, and the Snake-Bone Pagoda in Dali. Chen the Third’s breathing suddenly grew ragged. Ten years ago, three members of the archaeological team he joined had disappeared beneath Fuxian Lake. The only clue they brought back was a rubbing of this very mask. Now, the mask had been sent back anonymously, accompanied by a piece of cowhide paper covered in Yi script: “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, a sacrifice to a hundred ghosts. Open the gate to the underworld.”
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