Corpse floating in the well

Yuanli said inwardly, dissatisfied with his tone, "What? The Emperor still wants to forcibly take me back and lock me up in front of my two best friends? It's still a long time before Ah Cha comes back, I'm just going back to play the immersive experience. I know I promised you that I would go back with you to look at paintings and learn spells, but I really want to play the immersive experience in Guanshan Town!"

After listening, Heng Jin said directly: "I want to go play with you too."

"It's terrifying! You'll be immersed in a fantasy world, witnessing all the horrors that happened in Guanshan Town with your own eyes. You might even be confronted by a terrifying ghost face the moment you enter. It's so real to all five senses that even the blood from a severed head splattering on your face feels slightly warm. Tsk tsk, Emperor, don't go. I'm afraid it'll scare you."

"Sounds interesting, let's go." Yuan Liguang saw that he didn't move, so he asked again: "Why? The Netherworld doesn't welcome me?"

"You're not unwelcome." After saying this helplessly, Yuanli warned him in her heart: "Don't talk nonsense, otherwise I won't take you with me."

Seeing him nod obediently, Yuanli took him into the underworld.

Before entering the Netherworld, both of them concealed their spiritual auras. Looking at his flamboyant face, Yuanli was a little worried that he would be recognized, so she asked him to cast a spell to change his appearance in advance. However, the spell cast by Heng Jin would not take effect in Yuanli's eyes.

Since Abang and Ayi had to personally escort the soul of the evil corpse and the ruby, Yuanli took Hengjin directly to Mengpo and Axiang to wait.

As soon as we arrived near Axiang, we saw many dead souls lined up from a distance.

Ah Xiang was too tired to pay attention to her. As she approached the stall, Ah Xiang, who was distributing soup, said without even looking up, "No cutting in line!"

"A Xiang, it's me."

Hearing her voice, Ah Xiang, who looked like an old woman with gray hair, was so excited that she looked up and turned into her original bright and beautiful appearance. "Ah Li! I missed you so much! You finally decided to come and see me! You sit down first, I'll come over to play with you after I finish sending these things."

Yuanli walked over to her and stood next to her and asked, "Why are there so many dead souls? How long have you been busy?"

"Oh, I also want to ask why there are suddenly so many dead souls. However, although it is hard work, it is also a good thing. They can all be reincarnated. You are the only one who feels sorry for me. I am so tired that my waist is about to break." Ah Xiang said to her coquettishly.

While she stopped serving the soup, Yuanli took the initiative to pick up the spoon, "Master Xiang, just give the order, I'll scoop the soup."

Ah Xiang was busy with the things in her hands in an orderly manner, and responded to her: "Ali, you are so nice!"

The two of them worked together, with Ah Xiang as the main one and her as the auxiliary one. Although there were many souls that needed to drink Meng Po soup, most of them were distributed not long after Ah Bang and Ah Yi came over. For the remaining small part, Ah Xiang asked her clone to distribute the soup as usual.

After sitting together, Ah Xiang asked, "Who is he?"

Without waiting for Ah Li to answer, Ah Pang whispered in her ear, "He's the thief who stole Ah Li! He just cast a spell to change his appearance."

After hearing what Abang said, Axiang's eyes instantly lost some of their kindness. After hearing Abang talk about the time Hengjin lifted her hair, the kindness in Axiang's eyes seemed a little fake.

Ah Xiang communicated with her through telepathy, "Ah Li, we must not be foolish and be deceived by others!"

Yuanli was confused and asked through telepathy, "Ah Xiang, what are you talking about? I don't quite understand."

Ah Xiang transmitted his voice through telepathy, "A Bang just told me about his words and actions towards you in Hua Mian Village. Those bloody stories of people falling in love and marrying the bandits who kidnapped them are common among humans, but they can't happen to you! If you still like his reincarnation, Wen Yici, there are plenty of new stories in Naihe. Go listen to them and clear your mind. By the way, how did you and Ah Cha go through your trials in the mortal world? When can you tell me about it? He is now your husband for one life. Treat everyone equally, my dear Ah Li."

Listening to Ah Xiang's long and earnest speech, Yuanli said to her helplessly through telepathy, "Okay, Ah Xiang, I'll tell you later. The old man is still here. I was communicating with Ah Bang and Ah Yi alone today, and this guy heard everything clearly! I guess my skills are not good enough. I still need to go back and practice diligently. I'm afraid he'll hear me saying bad things about him later. When you live under someone's roof, you have to bow your head!"

Ah Xiang looked Heng Jin in the eye and telepathically said to Yuan Li, "You are a human trafficker who deserves to be punished by heaven and earth!"

Heng Jin didn't react, not as if she could hear anything. Ah Xiang met Yuan Li's puzzled look, and she continued through telepathy, "I'll just test to see if he's eavesdropping."

"He can't hear it all the time." Yuanli said through telepathy.

Ayi said, "This immersive Guanshan Town is not only based on the memories of the town's deceased souls and the observations of the ghost messengers who went to deal with it, but also collects the memory fragments provided by the plants and trees at that time. It is even more like touching the soil to ask the spirits. It is super real. A-li, are you ready?"

Ali nodded excitedly, looking forward to it.

The moment you enter the illusion, a cool breeze blows on your face, and the scent of lit paper money, incense and candles mixes with the night wind, blowing into your nose from time to time.

At night, there was some damp and cold white fog floating in Guanshan Town.

There is also a huge stone coffin standing next to the town gate. The coffin lid is carved with "Guanshan Town" and outlined with black ink. The coffin body is tied with red silk.

As soon as I entered the street, I saw that both sides were almost entirely lined with coffin shops and paper-making shops. Red lanterns were hung under the eaves of the houses. Even when the street was deserted, the candles in the lanterns were still lit, shining red.

None of the shops had their doors locked; they were all wide open, and one could see unfinished coffins in the middle of the yard or in the middle of the shop, with sawdust all over the ground next to the coffins.

There is a small altar on the right side outside the store door. There are incense and candles on the table, and a bowl of brown rice with a pair of chopsticks stuck upright on the rice.

Only when offering food to the dead will chopsticks be stuck upright in the rice.

There is also a black iron basin under the altar, which is filled with ashes from burnt paper money.

The further you go into the town, the bigger the shops become. In addition to coffins, they also display paper figurines, including boys and girls, paper horses, gold ingots, and everything else.

"Look how well these ingots are made. They look like real gold." Yuanli exclaimed.

"Because Guanshan Village folded the ingots and then pasted a layer of gold foil on the outside, it looks natural from a distance and looks like it's made of real gold." A Bang explained to Yuanli.

"Is there any difference between burning gold-leafed ingots and ordinary ingots?"

"It makes no difference to the dead. They are all sold to the rich and powerful. They just buy the face and comfort of the living."

Several shrill female screams rang out, and soon the windows of the shops along the street lit up one after another. The strong men in the houses closest to the source of the screams ran out with their clothes draped over them.

"Go, go, go, go and see what's happening!"

Yuanli excitedly followed the strong men into a courtyard. The large red lanterns hanging at the gate were unlit, and the courtyard was pitch black. The strong men, holding red lanterns, gathered in front of a well. An old woman in rough clothes was slumped on the ground.

The old woman had gray hair and her clothes were thin and had a patch with rough and crooked stitching, but the uppers of her shoes were made of brocade.

Her face was filled with terror, and she hunched over in fear, her hands shaking. When asked, she could only stammer and could not utter a complete sentence. She only pointed at the well, and even looked away in fear.

The youngest and strongest man among them approached the well, and Yuanli followed him to see.

The water was too dark to see what lay beneath. The strong man held a lantern out of the well. In the red light, he saw a woman's corpse, swollen and swollen. Her face was pale, her eyes wide open. She was wearing a red shroud and floating upright in the water, her head up and her feet down. Strands of hair floated on the surface.

They all make a living by making paper coffins, so they are not afraid of the dead, but the swollen female corpse is still a bit disgusting.

"It's a peach."

He put away the red lantern, walked over to the old woman and said, "Third Aunt, I'm so sorry. What happened? Didn't Taozi go with Hua Niang to deliver the goods? How could she have died in the well? Moreover, she was so buoyant that she must have been there for several days. How come we only found her now?"

Someone in the crowd immediately said, "Aunt San's shop had customers yesterday. If the peach had been soaking in this well for a few days, it's impossible that it was discovered only now! Could it be...could it be that someone deliberately moved the body and dumped it in this well? Aunt San, think carefully about whether you heard any suspicious noises tonight?"

Aunt San swallowed fearfully, tears welling in her eyes as she spoke, "Taozi and Hua Niang went to deliver the goods four days ago. His father wanted Taozi and Hua Niang to be alone together and cultivate their relationship. Coincidentally, the goods they were delivering were all light items, and Hua Niang could drive a horse-drawn carriage, so he let them go. But tonight, when I came out to fetch some water, it was pitch dark and I couldn't see anything. I put my lantern on the ground, and just as I threw the bucket in, I felt it hit something. I retrieved the bucket, shone the lantern, and saw Taozi soaking in the well. I screamed in fear and collapsed to the ground, not daring to look any closer."

"Third brother is getting worse and worse as he gets older. If he had a bit of filial piety, he would have remembered to prepare some water for me. He wouldn't have found the peaches soaking in the well just now. The body is soaked like this, the murderer must have escaped long ago."

"Oh! It's all because he was seduced by that vixen widow Hua Niang. Right after he got married, he started to treat my mother and daughter harshly. Those who don't know would think he is our stepfather! Who knows! It was him and Hua Niang who killed Taozi! Ergou, help your third aunt live with us, otherwise this bastard might harm his mother again in a few days." Ergou's father said angrily.

"Dad, Taozi is my third brother's own flesh and blood after all. You wouldn't do something so cruel as to murder your daughter and dump her body in your own well, right?"

"Of course not! Old sister-in-law, come on, let's live at my house!"

Ergou's father reached out to help the old lady who was slumped on the ground. Just as he took her arm, her sleeve was pulled up by the handkerchief, and three long red scratches on the old lady's exposed arm came into view.