July 13th, 1993.
A small town in the mountains of northeastern Romania, located on the border with Ukraine, was cut off from the outside world because of the collapse of a tunnel.
Rescuers and a town's officer contacted the people outside through wireless telegrams.
The first telegram from the officer read, 'A lot of food reserves, but something is wrong.'
As for what was wrong, the officer did not say clearly.
On the first day of being trapped, the outside world received two telegrams from the officer saying that many people had gone missing.
On the second day, a third telegram read, 'Hurry! Come and save us, he is going to be resurrected.'
On the third day, the fourth and final telegram read, 'Quickly come and save us! He's crawled out...'
After that, there were no more messages.
Three days later, rescuers finally entered the small village. However... It was eerily quiet. There was no one, not even a dog or a cat... No bird flew by, no calls from insects, it was dead silent.
Rescuers searched the entire village but found nothing. It wasn't until they noticed a church in the northwest of the village that they found something strange.
There was a graveyard at the back of the church.
Rescuers found that one of the graves had been dug up. There was a hole in the coffin board and the coffin was filled with sand. There were also traces of scratch marks all around the coffin. The strangest thing was... There were footprints on the mud near the grave... It was a trail of footprints walking out of the grave. According to the length and size, it most likely belonged to a skinny man, or a woman with large feet, or... a teenager.
The tombstone in front of the grave was a white cross with no name and no epitaph.
Afterwards, the rescuers once again searched the whole village and the surrounding mountains and forests. However, there was still no sign of any living creatures.
After that, the police conducted a series of investigations, but failed to solve the case.
This mysterious disappearance became known as the 'Four Telegrams' incident.
..............
20 years later, an expedition made up of scientists and archaeologists once again went deep into this mountain area to find out the truth of that year.
After a week of investigations, people found a cave halfway up a mountain nearly five kilometres away from the village.
In the cave, there were bodies of all the villagers. After 20 years, all of them had become skeletons.
Among the dead bones, there was one thing that had attracted the attention of the archaeologists.
The bones were not scattered at random, but were neatly arranged in the shape of a cross. In the middle of the cross was a crouched corpse.
It was the body of a teenager who looked to be 16 or 17.
Oddly enough, all the other bodies had turned to bones, except his body, which was air-dried and blackened.
The head of the body was buried between the legs and the hands were clasped around the knees. The bones were completely twisted from the posture, forming a wheel.
One of the archaeologists who studied the customs of Eastern Europe took a glance at the scene and shouted with surprise and delight, "Wheel of Caleb!"
Early March in the year 2013.
Several staff members looked helplessly at a suitcase trolley in the baggage area of Terminal 3 at London's Heathrow Airport.
The trolley was full of large bags and small bags that had to be taken onto the plane. Above all the luggage sat a young man.
He was an Asian man with short black hair and fair skin. He had exquisite features with a slender figure, and looked to be in his twenties. He was wearing a blue cashmere coat with white trousers and an English style camel plaid pattern scarf. Passers-by glanced at this young man a few times as he was as beautiful as a porcelain doll. "Is he a travel souvenir? He looks so extravagant." They all thought to themselves.
Unlike the other passengers who were looking on with interest, the young man on the baggage trolley looked bored. He was yawning and leaning lazily on a pile of suitcases, reading an unknown book.
This man was the fully recharged Zhan Zhao, who had just been on a long holiday.
However, according to Zhan Zhao, it was Bai Yutang who was recharged... Other than relaxing mentally, Zhan Zhao's body did not relax at all. Physical exercises increased so much that his muscles ached.
Zhan Zhao yawned again and cursed in his head,, "that damn mouse!"
"Excuse me, sir."
At this time, a voice with a strong English accent sounded behind Zhan Zhao.
Zhan Zhao looked back and saw a young woman, also of Asian descent, with short hair and glasses. She was wearing a black dress and a black coat, looking a little conservative.
There were many people behind her, who seemed to be escorting a large box. It probably contained some sort of special item, as a few staff took them through the special aisle next to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang. Zhan Zhao's trolley just happened to be in the way.
When the two people looked at each other, Zhan Zhao was stunned. "She seems familiar!" Zhan Zhao thought to himself.
"Ah! Dr. Zhan!" The girl said excitedly as she clapped her hands. "Long time no see!"
Zhan Zhao touched his chin and searched through his memories for about three seconds. He remembered that he had seen this woman at an academic exchange conference. This woman was probably an archaeology graduate back then named Song Jiajia. Zhan Zhao wasn't sure if she had already graduated or not.
Zhan Zhao nodded and was about to get off the trolley when a white figure appeared and pushed Zhan Zhao forward together with the trolley to move out of the way.
The man who came was dressed in a white trench coat. He had short hair and was wearing sunglasses. This man was very handsome and... had a good figure.
Bai Yutang pushed the trolley with one hand and handed a paper bag to Zhan Zhao with the other hand.
Zhan Zhao glanced at it. There were two sausage rolls and two cups of coffee inside.
With coffee in one hand and a sausage roll in the other, Zhan Zhao opened his mouth.
Originally, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were going to return to S City today after their holiday. However, the flight was delayed by four hours because of the weather. As a result, the two had to wait idly for a long time. Zhan Zhao bought a strange book from the bookstore, then sat lazily on the trolly and refused to walk. Bai Yutang had to push him around. Only children under 10 could enjoy the same treatment... However, Zhan Zhao was too cute like a cat as he sat there in boredom. Although he did not attract the attention of others, he did attract several whistles from enthusiastic travellers.
After waiting for a long time, the lazy cat said he was hungry, so Bai Yutang ran to buy him something to eat.
Zhan Zhao looked curiously at the huge wooden box that Song Jiajia and the others were pushing and asked, "what is this?"
Song Jiajia said mysteriously, "a dead body!"
The corners of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitched as he looked up and thought to himself, "Gong Sun will love this! Too bad, he's probably on a private plane right now heading towards S City with Bai Jintang. I wonder how he's doing lately?" Zhan Zhao remembered that Gong Sun had sounded upset on the phone a few days ago saying, "Why a holiday? It's more tiring than working overtime."
Song Jiajia chatted with Zhan Zhao while her staff was busy going through the formalities for the thing she was transporting.
"What body?" Zhan Zhao asked curiously. "Is it a research mummy or an ancient body?"
"Neither. The body is only 20 years old." Song Jiajia said to Zhan Zhao.
Zhan Zhao was puzzled. "Why are you researching such a young body?"
Song Jiajia secretly asked Zhan Zhao, "Dr. Zhan, have you ever heard of the Wheel of Caleb?"
Zhan Zhao was surprised and immediately remembered a report on the 'Four Telegrams' case he had seen the other day. He looked at Song Jiajia and said, "Oh... Are you the archaeologist in that report?"
Song Jiajia smiled proudly. "We got a lot of funding for scientific research, and this time we're going to take the body to the country for an MRI scan!"
"What's this Wheel of Caleb?" Bai Yutang asked curiously. He was putting the things away and was waiting when he heard the conversation.
"The Wheel of Caleb is a witchcraft." Song Jiajia had long heard of this person named Bai Yutang. She had never seen this legendary handsome man before, but now seeing him in person, she could feel how extraordinary he was. In a better mood, she began to give a bit of a history lesson to Bai Yutang. "If people hold too much resentment after being buried underground, the body will gradually bend in the coffin and form a shape. It's called the formation ceremony of the Wheel of Caleb. When the ceremony is completed, the body will wake up, open the grave and come out for revenge. After taking revenge, the body will return to the way it was before it had come out of the coffin and sleep. In many Eastern European folklore, there are descriptions of demons who dig graves to bring the dead back to life. This is one of the origins of the vampire legends. In the first resurrection case, the man who came back from the dead was called Caleb, so the Wheel of Caleb was named after him."
Bai Yutang thought this sounded too fake and asked, "so you're saying he was dead when he was buried underground?"
"Yes!" Song Jiajia nodded.
"Then he came back from the dead and crawled out?" Bai Yutang continued to ask.
"Yes." Song Jiajia nodded again.
"Then he went back to sleep after taking revenge?" Bai Yutang was puzzled.
"Yes!" Song Jiajia said seriously. "The Wheel of Caleb is a demon. Their purpose is to take revenge. After the revenge, they will fall asleep. However, while they are in a deep sleep, they must not approach people who are too resentful or too evil... Otherwise, they will wake up again and become a devil rather than just a man of vengeance."
Zhan Zhao touched his chin in thought. He was always interested in such mysteries. "So when it comes to the Four Telegrams of that year, this teenage body is the resurrected man mentioned in the telegram that crawled out of the grave. He killed all the villagers for revenge and then fell asleep again?"
Song Jiajia smiled and patted Zhan Zhao. "In theory, yes. However, if we tell this to others, people will think it's just a thriller novel, not archaeology. Maybe it's some kind of custom, or that something even weirder had happened. Either way, no one believes in bringing the dead back to life."
Zhan Zhao smiled and nodded.
At this time, the x-ray scans of the body before getting it sealed came out, and Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang curiously followed Song Jiajia to have a look.
Sure enough, in the box, there was a body crouched on its knees and curled up in a complete circle.
Bai Yutang frowned slightly. "Can people stretch to this angle by themselves?"
"It's difficult. The body may have been forcefully bent into this shape." Song Jiajia said.
Bai Yutang suddenly remembered that there was a case about 'boxed corpses' a long time ago. "Why do the living like to mess with the bodies of the dead so much?" He wondered.
After the suitcases were all packed, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang ate the sausage rolls, then walked around for a while to digest. Afterwards... they were finally able to board the plane.
Coincidentally, Song Jiajia and the foreign scholars took the same flight to S City.
Zhan Zhao asked curiously, "you're sending it to S City for studying?"
"Yes, the university in S City has a set of advanced MRI scanning equipment that can help us scan the inside of the body."
Zhan Zhao nodded and asked, "can I let Gong Sun visit?"
"Dr. Gong Sun is an excellent anthropologist. He is definitely welcome if he's interested. With his Major in forensic medicine, he can help us analyse the cause of death of this body."
While talking, the plane took off smoothly.
Zhan Zhao spent his long flight in a deep sleep to make up for his lack of sleep.
Bai Yutang flipped through the strange book Zhan Zhao had been reading... Bai Yutang couldn't read any of it and could only understand the bloody illustrations.
Zhan Zhao slept with a blindfold and a blanket.
Bai Yutang looked at him and reflected on himself. "Did I go overboard? I wonder if he can still work. When I called Bao Sir yesterday, I was told there are no new cases, so maybe I should let him rest a few more days."
In the early hours of the morning, the plane landed smoothly at S City Airport.
Bai Yutang pulled up the confused Zhan Zhao, and in the gentle and mechanical farewell of the flight attendants, they got off the plane and went to get their luggage.
"Ha-ah!" Zhan Zhao sat on a suitcase and watched the conveyor belt turn slowly. Bai Yutang stood next to him, waiting for all their luggage, while calling the twins and asking them to find someone to pick them up at the airport.
As he was talking, a scream sounded in the distance.
The twins had not fully woken up yet, but they heard the scream over the phone. Da Ding was calling the driver, while Xiao Ding was wearing a nightcap and holding Lu Ban on the phone. When he heard the scream, he said, "Wow... You guys sure are unlucky. You'd only just gotten off the plane. Seems like you two are the problem."
Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked up... The scream came from a special passageway upstairs.
After getting the last few suitcases, Bai Yutang noticed that security guards from the airport were on their way over. The situation seemed a little strange.
Just then, Bai Yutang saw a person stumbling out of the special passage, looking around for something. When that person saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, she waved and called out, "Captain Bai, Dr. Zhan!"
When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang took a better look, they saw that it was Song Jiajia. "Wasn't she leaving through the special passage after getting the Wheel of Caleb? We'd already said our goodbye, so why is she here?" They both wondered.
Song Jiajia waved to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang in a panic.
The two men temporarily placed their luggage somewhere safe and ran upstairs.
At this time, there were many people upstairs, most of whom were security personnel and staff of the airport. Several foreign scholars were talking with airport staff in English with various accents and broken Chinese. Looking at those scholars, they seemed to be in a state of disappointment, dissatisfaction, panic and confusion.
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang followed Song Jiajia to the exit. Song Jiajia pointed towards the box that contained the Wheel of Caleb. It had an X-ray done before being transported onto the plane. The box had even been securely wrapped at the airport as an extra precaution. Right now, the box had a massive hole in it.
Zhan Zhao squatted down and saw that the hole was made from the inside. Right now, it was empty.
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other.
Zhan Zhao asked, "where is the Wheel of Caleb?"
Song Jiajia spread her hands and said, "it's gone! It's gone!"
Zhan Zhao tilted his head slightly and looked at the box strangely, as he wondered, "Did the Wheel of Caleb come alive and escape?"