Chapter 29. Lu Bing, the coffin bearer, had reddened eyes and felt his blood surging...
The canyon's weather changed dramatically. Because the Taiyin/Dao body that had sunk to the bottom of the water shattered, the river section was "forced" to open prematurely. The originally thick ice layer was torn open by the river water, creating a huge crack. The surging current stirred up the broken ice shards, pushing and shoving them together, making a crackling sound.
Ice floes accumulate and form ice jams, which block the drainage of water in narrow sections of the river, causing the water level to gradually rise and overflow the riverbanks.
Ice shards occasionally crashed against the cliffs on both sides, leaving deep and shallow scratches on the brown rock walls, as if brewing an impending ice flood.
The man who shouted "Help!" at the crowing of the rooster summoned a group of officials and civilians. As soon as they heard what he was saying, they rushed towards the Yellow River one after another, hoping to save the man in time.
Lu Bing, still recovering from his injuries, was the first to rush to the front, asking as he ran, "What exactly happened? Who's having a funeral in the middle of the night? Are you sure you're not seeing things?"
"I really saw it." The person who was supposed to lead the way was panting and trailing behind, clearly struggling to keep up.
A burly man next to him had a bundle of hemp rope slung across his body. It was the rope he usually used to tie up goods. It was hanging on the donkey cart, and he casually pulled it out, just in case: "It seems to be the three siblings from the Qin family. Both of their older brothers died. Because they died violently, they had someone calculate an auspicious date for their burial at midnight."
As if possessed, the funeral procession carried the coffin straight to the Yellow River.
As luck would have it, it was the Qin family who had suffered the same fate again. Lu Bing's heart skipped a beat: "Could it be that they couldn't see the road clearly in the middle of the night? Don't they know that the river has been dredged?"
"Who knows? In the dark of a funeral procession, who can see anything clearly?"
However, this time the river thawed and made a lot of noise. The water was loud, and the ice blocks collided with each other, making a cracking sound. Even if you couldn't see clearly, you could hear the noise and proceed cautiously. If you could fall into the Yellow River, it would be impossible unless everyone was deaf and blind.
The people who arrived at the Yellow River were dumbfounded. They saw countless pieces of paper money and white mourning cloth floating on the river surface, which was covered with ice of all sizes. A black coffin was stuck straight in the middle of the water, with only the tail end of the coffin floating above the surface before it completely sank. It looked like a Yellow River water burial that had been botched halfway through a ritual.
Someone asked in a trembling voice, "Where is he?"
There wasn't a single person in the river.
"I really saw them carrying the coffin and jumping into the Yellow River," he thought. "Isn't it better to just let someone drown? He went to the city to find someone to save him, but he'd already wasted more than half an hour on the way. By the time he got back, it would be too late. He could only try to collect the body, or maybe he wouldn't even be able to collect it." The man panicked. "Could it have been swept away, or already sunk to the bottom?"
The river in the Qin-Jin Grand Canyon flows from north to south. If a person falls into the river, they will be swept away by the current and cannot stay safely in place waiting for rescue. Just as Lu Bing was about to speak, he heard the man next to him shout in alarm, "Someone! Someone! There's someone in the water!"
"where?"
Everyone leaned forward to look into the river, but couldn't immediately pinpoint the target: "Where is it?"
“There, under that block of ice… right there, next to the coffin, he’s moving!”
Then everyone saw a wisp of green hair float on the murky water, indistinguishable from water plants, but the person's head did not emerge from the water. Instead, it sank to the side of the coffin, like a black fish with its green back exposed, hidden in the ice, and could not be seen clearly at all.
"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and get them out!" Lu Bing said, wading straight into the water that had overflowed onto the riverbank.
"Running ice floes at this critical juncture is dangerous."
Driven by a desperate desire to save lives, Lu Bing disregarded the danger: "Get them out of there first."
The river water was icy cold, and it plunged into Lu Bing's boots. Before he could take more than a few steps, the surging current pushed the ice blocks towards him. Lu Bing didn't have time to completely avoid it, and sharp icicles grazed his calves, tearing his trousers and scraping his skin.
"Be careful, these ice lumps are like stones, with edges sharper than a knife, they can even cut through wood."
Lu Bing was well aware that the water was too strong; even the coffin stuck in the water was chipped by ice upon impact, let alone a flesh-and-blood body like his.
The blood oozing from his calf was quickly diluted by the river water, but the wound felt like it was being rubbed and licked by sand and gravel, sending waves of stinging pain through him.
For some reason, Lu Bing suddenly felt an even more ferocious undercurrent rising underwater. Immediately afterwards, large and small ice blocks surged and crashed on the surface of the water.
The sudden surge of the undercurrent knocked Lu Bing down, sending him crashing into the Yellow River amidst gasps of alarm. His injured shoulder slammed against a massive ice floe, the pain so intense he couldn't even groan. Having fallen into the murky water, Lu Bing quickly held his breath, thankfully avoiding choking.
"Young Master Lu!"
"Officer Lu! Grab the rope!"
The burly man immediately took off the rope and threw it at Lu Bing, who waved his arms but failed to catch it.
The crowd tried to throw him several times, but the current was too strong, and the ice floes pushed and the waves surged, sweeping Lu Bing to the middle of the river in the blink of an eye.
Seeing Lu Bing getting further and further away from the shore, everyone panicked and lost their composure. The burly man tried to wade through the water several times, but was forced back by the undercurrents and ice floes.
It's too dangerous. Whirlpools were visibly forming in the middle of the river, and even the best swimmers wouldn't dare to wade across.
Lu Bing struggled in the undercurrent, narrowly avoiding dozens of huge ice floes that nearly smashed his head. He held his breath underwater for a long time, and just as he was about to suffocate, he surfaced. Before he could even catch his breath, an ice blade sharp enough to cut through bone and flesh was slashing toward his throat.
Lu Bing was terrified and frantically thrashed about in the water. Just as the ice blade was about to draw blood and kill him, a hand suddenly grabbed him and forcefully pushed his head back into the water.
Then came a dizzying sensation as the underwater currents and the force pulling him tore at each other. Lu Binghe and the one pulling him were inevitably hit by the ice shards three or five times. Even if they didn't cause internal injuries, they should have been bruised.
Realizing the other party's intention to rescue him, Lu Bing struggled to turn over underwater and swam in a certain direction. The next moment, he was pushed onto the riverbank.
He was the one who went into the river to save people, but ended up being the one who was saved.
The people on the shore quickly pulled them ashore.
"Officer Lu, are you alright?"
"Young Master Lu, how are you?"
Lu Bing choked on his water, coughing until his vision blurred with tears. When he finally saw the other person being pulled from the river by the villagers, the tears that had been choking him flowed freely: "Cough... Zhou... cough cough Zhou Yaren!"
Lu Bing coughed and roared, glaring at Zhou Yaren, who was soaking wet. He had a fierce and angry look on his face, but his eyes were red and teary, like a rabbit that was about to pounce and bite.
The red-eyed rabbit roared, "Where the hell have you been?!"
Before this, Lu Bing thought Zhou Yaren had been buried alive in the ruins of the Ghost Government Office. He rushed into the Ghost Government Office and started digging, digging until his ten fingers were bloody and mangled... In the end, he was dragged out by his colleagues.
He believed the waiter's words and thought Zhou Yaren was dead. Several other witnesses also confirmed that they saw a man in blue robes, covered in blood, rush into the ghost's residence, and the building collapsed shortly afterward. During this time, there was thunder, lightning, and a tornado; the man in blue robes didn't have time to get out and was definitely buried inside.
Those witnesses who claimed to have seen it with their own eyes spoke with absolute certainty, and Lu Bing was heartbroken and blamed himself for a long time because of this, and almost went to the capital to plead guilty.
He summoned such a grown man to the north, and now that something has happened, the court will surely punish him, and he will definitely have to pay with his life and fortune.
Now, Zhou Yaren suddenly emerged from the Yellow River like a water ghost. Lu Bing's eyes were red, and his blood was churning inside, almost like a pot of boiling porridge. After shouting, he was deflated: "Where have you been these past two days? And how did you fall into the river?"
"He didn't fall into the river," Zhou Yaren slowly stood up, automatically ignoring the first question, and replied, "I heard the news and got here first, so I went down into the river to check the situation."
The man who had been calling for help was still panting. He recognized Zhou Yaren at a glance and nodded hurriedly, saying, "Yes, yes, he was the first person I met when I ran into the city."
"You dared to venture into the river in such danger?!" Lu Bing's shoulder blade wound, likely reopened by an ice shard hitting him underwater, was throbbing with pain from the icy water. He simply used his long sword as a crutch, sitting soaking wet on the riverbank, and after scolding him, asked, "What did you find?"
Zhou Yaren didn't mind being yelled at by him. Knowing that the other party was worried and angry, she told him the truth: "This coffin is stuck upside down in the riverbed, right between two rocks, so it wasn't pushed away by the ice floes. I searched underwater for a while and didn't find any other people who fell into the water."
Lu Bing's expression was extremely solemn. He stood up, leaning on his long sword, not daring to delay for a moment: "No, I have to go back and find out who carried the coffin and attended the funeral for the Qin family last night."
He had to find out as soon as possible whether the people who carried the coffin to the funeral had met with an accident after falling into the river and disappearing without a trace. Lu Bing bluntly ordered Zhou Yaren, "You come with me!"
"I still have..."
Without giving Zhou Yaren a chance to refuse, Lu Bing grabbed her and forcibly dragged her away, saying, "Stop arguing."
Zhou Yaren felt that it was unsightly for two grown men to be pulling and tugging at each other, so she calmly gave up after a few struggles.
The burly man behind him hesitated and asked, "Young Master Lu, what about the coffin?"
"It's too dangerous to go into the water now. Two of you stay here and keep watch. I'll find some good swimmers to come and salvage the boat later." As he spoke, Lu Bing shivered from the cold and quickened his pace. He had to hurry back to change out of his soaking wet clothes. Otherwise, if he caught a cold before his injuries had fully healed, it would be like adding insult to injury.
The situation was urgent and involved lives, so the two went straight to the county government office.
Lu Bing hurriedly reported the matter to his superiors, and then sent people out to verify who had carried the coffin and attended the funeral for the Qin family last night, and whether they had returned home yet.
Only then did he change into spare dry clothes in the guardhouse where the yamen runners were on duty.
Hei Zi and his men, who were dispatched, acted swiftly and quickly found out who was in charge of carrying the coffin and attending the Qin family's funeral. They then visited several households, including some of their close neighbors.
However, the result was unexpected for everyone. Lu Bing finally managed to take a sip of hot tea, almost burning his tongue: "What? They didn't go?!"
Hei Zi replied, "That's right. Apparently, Qin San changed his mind at the last minute and didn't plan to hold the funeral last night, so the rest of them stayed at home and none of them went."
It was good news that he didn't go, meaning no one had died, but Lu Bing still couldn't put his mind at ease.
“That’s strange,” Lu Bing thought to himself. “This morning, the man clearly said that he saw a group of people carrying a coffin and jumping into the Yellow River.”
Is this some kind of ghost?
But a coffin did indeed fall into the Yellow River, which means that the person was not seeing things or talking nonsense, otherwise he would not have rushed over for help in such a hurry.
"Could it be that they hired other pallbearers?" Hei Zi questioned. "Or was the funeral procession last night not carried by the Qin family?"
Lu Bing was taken aback, then stood up abruptly and rushed outside: "Let's go, let's go check on Qin San's house."
Because someone had just mentioned that the Qin family was going to have a funeral in the middle of the night, they assumed that the funeral procession was hired by the Qin family. But since the incident happened so suddenly early in the morning, no one had time to go to the Qin family to verify the specific details.
However, when they rushed to the Qin family home, it was empty, and the two coffins that had been placed in front of the mourning hall were gone.
Hei Zi asked, "Where's the coffin?"
Lu Bing replied with a stern face, "The coffin is probably in the Yellow River."
Hei Zi's heart trembled. Upon hearing Huang He's name, he recalled the bizarre and strange experience from a few days ago. He was plagued by nightmares every night, and every time he woke up, he was covered in sweat. He hadn't had a good night's sleep, and as a result, he had a faint bruise under his eyes.
Lu Bing instructed his subordinates, "Go and ask the neighbors." After all, a procession carrying a coffin would inevitably cause some noise, and he figured the nearby neighbors might see or hear something and could provide some clues.
But everyone was exhausted from a day's work, and naturally slept soundly at night, rarely disturbed unless there was a thunderstorm. Some of the older folks said they thought they heard a clanging sound, but didn't pay much attention. Because it's windy on cold winter nights, it's normal for a piece of tile or a pebble to fall, so they just turned over and went back to sleep, not giving it a second thought.
Zhou Yaren suddenly remembered the old woman he had met a few times before. He had run into her yesterday when he was staying at the Qin family's house. The old woman had been helping with the funeral arrangements at the Qin family's house. Zhou Yaren had just overheard her saying, "I just went to ask Liu Dashan to find a few strong men to help carry the coffin. The fortune teller said that the funeral for someone who died a violent death should be held tonight, and I've already arranged it with them..."
Zhou Yaren told Lu Bing about this person and incident: "She's the old woman who ran over to the Ghost Government Office last time when Qin San rushed in with a kitchen knife to deliver a message."
Lu Bing racked his brains for a while before vaguely remembering such a person.
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