☆、Chapter 33: Mourning
Under other circumstances, Yu Jiuyin wouldn't have thought much of the name Sheng Chun. The key point was that their journey seemed to be a quest for the right to serve a goddess, but in reality, it was a life-or-death journey.
The character "Sheng" (Sheng) symbolizes the future, while the character "Cheng" (Cheng) has a "皿" (Shang) below it. The problem lies in the stroke above the character "Cheng." This stroke is a fatal blow; while it might not have harmed him, it would have taken half his life. Fortunately, the lower half of the character "Sheng" is a "皿" (Shang), and the missing stroke proves that the blow didn't bleed, so he could finally make it back alive.
But that's not too late. Look at that spring. The top half is Tai, the character for Mount Tai, and the bottom half is Sun, which perfectly reflects the fact that the top of Mount Tai will never rise.
Most of them are local troubles, and even the dangerous scenes are completely restored.
But Juehu Village didn't seem to have any mountains. Yu Jiuyin couldn't figure out where this earthworm had come from. Rongqing saw something was on his mind and gave him a concerned look. Yu Jiuyin wrote the character "土" (earth) on Rongqing's palm. Rongqing was stunned at first, then glanced at Shengchun, vaguely understanding what Yu Jiuyin meant. Meanwhile, Rongqing, too, felt a cloud of doubt.
What do the earthworms, and the jars that Master Yu Jiuyin mentioned, represent?
But as it stands now, these doubts can only be completely resolved if they actually arrive in Juehu Village.
The gathering place was nearly 300 kilometers away from Juehu Village, and the organizer of the "death game" was very cautious. Apart from a van, there was nothing else.
"Looks like we'll have to drive there ourselves," Qi Ming, who had introduced himself earlier, tried to organize everyone after seeing everyone present. "Three hundred kilometers isn't too far, but it's tiring to drive all at once. I'd like to ask if anyone here can drive so we can allocate them in advance."
"I can't," Mu Xiaoxiao shook her head. Sheng Chun then said he wasn't old enough to get a driver's license and had never learned. Rongqing couldn't drive, so the only three left were Yu Jiuyin, Cheng Dong, and Qi Ming.
"Then we'll take turns, one hundred kilometers each."
"No, I can drive the whole way." This time it was Cheng Dong who spoke. "My job is to drive long distances. Three hundred kilometers is nothing, if you believe me."
"Okay, then it's up to you."
Everyone has discussed it, so there is no need to waste time.
Since Rongqing had a wheelchair, Yu Jiuyin ended up sitting with him at the back of the van. As soon as he got in, Yu Jiuyin hugged Rongqing in his arms, acting like a good brother who was taking care of his younger brother.
There was no conversation along the way. By the time they arrived near Juehu Village, it was already 12 noon. However, there was no road in front of them.
According to the map, they were less than five kilometers away from Juehu Village, but the road had reached its end. To go further, they had to walk.
"Get off the car. Looks like you'll have to walk the rest of the way by yourself." Looking at the bumpy road, Qi Ming sighed and said to everyone, then he shivered involuntarily.
Although it was noon, Qi Ming always felt that something was eerie here, maybe because of psychological reasons.
"It's a bit cold." Mu Xiaoxiao was the first to speak. She pulled a coat from her backpack and put it on. As for the others, they also hurried to take down their luggage. Only Sheng Chun kept mumbling, "It's too troublesome. Why do we have to walk?"
But even so, Sheng Chun still moved quickly because he had a feeling that if he couldn't reach Juehu Village before dark, something bad would happen.
The dirt roads in the countryside are the most difficult to walk on. Everyone was carrying heavy luggage, so the seemingly short distance of five kilometers became as difficult as the Long March.
"Is it okay? Will I be too heavy?" Rong Qing asked worriedly while lying on Yu Jiuyin.
"It's okay." Yu Jiuyin said with a smile, but behind her back she quietly placed a small porcelain bottle in Rongqing's pocket. "Open the bottle, don't let them find it."
"What is it?" Although Yu Jiuyin likes to act out, he is very reliable most of the time. Rongqing feels that he will not do anything useless.
"Incense ash for offering to the gods." Yu Jiuyin lowered his voice. "We don't know where these people came from, but anyone who can pass the spirit summoning game is likely to have no taboos. Traveling with such people is the most likely to cause trouble. Other things are fine, but the main problem is their boldness. If you encounter any powerful ghosts before entering the village, your identity will be revealed."
"I understand." Rong Qing nodded and quietly took the small porcelain bottle in her hand. The moment she opened the lid, a very special sandalwood scent filled the air.
At the same time, everyone suddenly felt that the coldness around them seemed to have dissipated a lot.
But all we can say is that what is coming cannot be avoided. Yu Jiuyin made all the preparations he could, but something still happened when they were less than two kilometers away from Juehu Village.
They encountered a funeral procession.
Although the country now advocates cremation, some rural areas still practice burial. This funeral procession is clearly carrying someone for burial.
This was probably one of those "very formal" villages, and their funeral procession was perfectly standardized. There were mourners, mourners weeping at the tomb, and even musicians and singers—everything was there. The coffin didn't look like it belonged to someone wealthy and powerful, yet the procession stretched so long that there was no end in sight.
"Dad, Dad!" the leading man, dressed in heavy mourning, cried with every step he took. The people behind him also followed his rhythm and wailed.
Qi Ming frowned, thinking these people were troublesome. But there was nothing he could do but stand there and wait for them to pass.
But for some reason, this group of people moved very slowly. As for the women who joined in the mourning, their voices kept changing, giving people a splitting headache.
"How much longer is this line going to take? It's just one more person dying." Sheng Chun was already exhausted from the long journey, having carried so much luggage. Hearing this, he couldn't hold back his anger any more, and without thinking twice, he started to complain.
But the funeral procession was right in front of him, so close that it was impossible for them not to hear what he was saying. The villager closest to him immediately stopped and pushed Sheng Chun hard.
"Say what you just said again." The young man who spoke should be a close relative of the deceased. His red eyes in anger made people feel inexplicably frightened.
Sheng Chun bullies the weak and fears the strong, so he took a step back and didn't dare to say anything.
But after the young man saw the luggage in Sheng Chun's hand, he couldn't help but sneer, "I thought you were so powerful, but it turns out you are just a bunch of idiots. We are here to bury our elders, but I'm afraid you will end up in a village where no one will be able to bury them."
"You" Qi Ming was a little annoyed, but after all, it was Sheng Chun who started it, so he could only swallow his anger. He glared at Sheng Chun fiercely.
Yu Jiuyin, however, began to ponder after hearing what the young man said.
Yu Jiuyin looked at the coffins in the procession, then glanced at Sheng Chun, and suddenly understood something. Rong Qing on his back whispered in Yu Jiuyin's ear, "There's a ghost in the coffin."
"That's Sheng Chun's own fault," Yu Jiuyin said helplessly. "Burial is different from cremation. During burial, the soul remains attached to the body. These people carrying the body to the ancestral tomb are sending the soul on its way to reincarnation. Sheng Chun is blocking the way, obstructing their reincarnation. Even a living soul without any resentment would blame him for meddling."
"Then" Rongqing was worried that something bad would happen to Shengchun.
Yu Jiuyin shook his head. "It's too late. We can't even wait until night. He needs to learn a lesson now."
Just as Yu Jiuyin finished his words, the coffin suddenly moved as it passed Sheng Chun, as if to confirm his words. The coffin lid, which had not yet been nailed shut, was opened. A pale hand suddenly stretched out from inside and firmly grasped Sheng Chun's wrist.
"What the fuck?" Sheng Chun was shocked, but then the corpse in the coffin suddenly stood up, and the body in the shroud tilted straight down from the coffin and fell on Sheng Chun.
"Ah!" Sheng Chun was frightened to death. Mu Xiaoxiao beside him also looked pale.
"Hurry, help me get this body out of the way!" It was summer, and the countryside still had the custom of keeping the body for the night. The body had been in the coffin for days and had already become smelly. Sheng Chun felt a pang of nausea, and fearing nausea, she nearly peed.
Qi Ming saw this and quickly went up with Cheng Dong to help. However, they were unable to move the body away from Sheng Chun. Finally, they had no choice but to go up and talk to the family.
"It's all my teammate's fault. I'll make sure he apologizes to you guys later."
"There's really no need to apologize. Why would a bunch of dead people apologize to me? I just think it's bad luck." The man sneered at Qi Ming for a moment, his contemptuous eyes almost making Qi Ming's back cold with fear. Fortunately, just when Qi Ming couldn't bear it anymore, the young man called for someone to come and lift the old man who was pressing on Sheng Chun's head out.
Strangely, the moment the family members touched the old man's body, the originally stiff body immediately became soft. The group sealed the coffin and ignored Sheng Chun and the others, continuing their funeral procession towards the ancestral tomb.
However, the expressions of Sheng Chun and others became increasingly ugly.
Because they noticed that the suonas that the group had been playing had stopped for some reason. The point was, when they were carrying the body, from Sheng Chun's perspective, they could clearly see the corpse's face transform from expressionless to beaming. As for the mourners, this time they weren't truly grieving; instead, they all looked at them with a gloating look. It was so eerie it sent chills down one's spine.
"Shall we continue on?" Cheng Dong asked Qi Ming. He felt something was not right here, that it was different from the games he had played before.
Qi Ming frowned, a bit hesitant. He'd played the death game just for the thrill; believing in Hela was pure nonsense. So, from the start, he'd thought Rong Qing was a lunatic, actually believing in Hela. But he'd never expected to encounter such a bizarre situation upon arriving, which made him uncertain about whether to continue.
"Why don't we just go back?" Mu Xiaoxiao was genuinely scared. She subconsciously moved away from Sheng Chun and closer to Cheng Dong. She felt the situation before her was beyond her ability to bear. Thinking back to the information she'd found online about Juehu Village, she became even more hesitant to go in.
"What do you think?" Qi Ming asked Yu Jiuyin and Rongqing.
"I want to go in. I won't go anywhere until I see the goddess." Rongqing's health was really not good. She couldn't bear such a long journey. But her enthusiastic eyes were surprisingly bright.
Yu Jiuyin tacitly agreed with Rongqing's words, looking as if he was willing to stand by him.
This is what we are talking about.
Qi Ming didn't know what to say. He had originally planned to return immediately as soon as Yu Jiuyin and Rong Qing agreed to leave. But now that these two insisted on going in, he didn't know what to do.
Cheng Dong unexpectedly became very strong. "I don't care if you don't leave, but I must go back. There are seven of us in total, and the four of us have already agreed. If you insist on going in, then we will have no choice but to abandon you."
"Don't say I didn't warn you, you won't be able to find a car in this remote area."
But Yu Jiuyin looked at Cheng Dong as if he were an idiot. "It doesn't really matter whether we can find a car or not. What matters is whether you think you can really go back."
"What do you mean"
Yu Jiuyin sneered, "You said that there are seven of us in total. Then let me ask you, Qi Ming, Sheng Chun, and Mu Xiaoxiao, there are four of us now, and my brother and I are only two, so who is the other one?"
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