Chapter 30 The Funeral Procession "I have a feeling that those people who were... what the hell..."
After making some inquiries, it was learned that she was an elderly woman living alone, without children, in a dilapidated thatched house at the end of the alley. Everyone usually called her Granny Wang.
When Zhou Yaren and Lu Bing arrived at the thatched hut, Granny Wang was lying unconscious in the pile of firewood. They didn't know how long she had been lying there; her head was tilted and drooping, her forehead was scraped, and dried blood smeared half her face.
This scene made Lu Bing's expression change. He suddenly stepped forward to check the other woman's breath and thankfully she was still breathing: "Wang Po, Wang Po... Quick, Hei Zi, go and fetch a doctor."
Hei Zi responded and ran off in a flash.
Zhou Yaren entered the house and squatted down, gently touching the old woman's cold, bony wrist. She checked her pulse and said thoughtfully, "Lu Bing, lay her flat on the ground first, be gentle..."
Zhou Yaren was speaking when Granny Wang suddenly convulsed and woke up. She abruptly opened her cloudy eyes, her gaze widening in horror. Her withered hands, like chicken claws, gripped Zhou Yaren's hand that was taking her pulse. Her dry mouth opened, and she made a few hoarse, guttural sounds: "Qin...Qin..."
Granny Wang seemed to be having trouble breathing, her throat constantly hissing and gurgling.
Zhou Yaren lowered her eyes and leaned closer to the other person, pretending to listen attentively, and asked softly, "What do you want to say?"
Then, as if convulsing, Wang Po tried to whisper in his ear, her withered, bark-like hands gripping Zhou Yaren tightly, trembling with force, "Heh...heh...big...heh...come back...heh heh, you're here...heh..."
Besides gasping for breath, the old woman's pronunciation of each word was gurgling, like bubbles rising from the bottom of water, indicating that she had a mouthful of thick, bloody phlegm in her throat.
Zhou Yaren kept her expression down, carefully discerning the other person's very unclear words: "You mean, Qin Da is back?!"
Upon hearing this, Lu Bing's expression changed drastically. He stared blankly at Zhou Yaren, wondering what she meant. What did she mean by "Qin Da is back"?
Lu Bing blurted out, "Didn't Qin Da die?!" He died on the very night Zhou Yaren entered the city. Qin Da was devoured by blood leeches, leaving only bones and skin. Lu Bing himself led people to the wasteland outside the city to collect the body.
Wang Po suddenly became agitated, her face filled with horror. A high-pitched "hoarse" came from her throat, but she suddenly choked up as if she were suffocating, and then her eyes rolled back and she fainted.
At the same time, a constable rushed into the room: "Boss, someone saw that funeral procession last night."
"who?"
"The night watchman."
"Bring him over for questioning? Forget it, where is he? We'll go there right now!"
"It's right here in the county government office."
The night watchman was discovered in the sheepfold by an early-rising peasant woman. He was upside down in the trough, head to the ground and legs in the air. The peasant woman was startled, because a lamb had gone missing from her flock the previous month. She assumed the thief was coming to steal her sheep again and quickly called for her husband to pull the thief out.
When the night watchman was carried out and slapped awake, he was still a little dazed, with a bump the size of an egg on his forehead. He looked around at the crowd denouncing him, completely bewildered.
The night watchman, still dazed from hitting his head, was suddenly punched several times for no apparent reason, leaving him completely stunned.
Two villagers shoved him up from the ground, tied him up, and took him to the county government office.
Amidst the heated arguments and insults, the night watchman belatedly woke up and came to his senses. But before he could even feel fear for what he had seen and heard the night before, he was immediately caught up in another dispute and was dragged like an animal to the entrance of the county government office by a group of people.
"Sir, we've caught a sheep thief."
The night watchman hurriedly retorted, "I'm not a thief! I didn't steal any sheep!"
One rebuttal immediately provoked public outrage: "If you didn't steal anything, what were you doing in someone's sheepfold? Picking up sheep dung? How dare you say you weren't a thief?"
The woman angrily rebuked, "If you hadn't tripped up in my sheepfold and been caught by my own hands, you would have stolen my lambs!"
"Sir, lock this thief up immediately!"
Others chimed in, "Yes, lock him up."
The night watchman struggled desperately, but his hands and feet were tightly bound. He cried out that he was innocent: "I'm really not a thief! I saw a ghost last night..."
However, his explanations were useless, and the crowd did not give him a chance to argue. After all, they were all poor people who had only saved up this meager amount of money. They hated thieves the most, and the woman stepped forward and slapped him hard across the face: "You big-headed devil, stop talking nonsense."
The peasant woman was burly and robust, comparable to two thin and helpless night watchmen. Her slap was swift and powerful, even stronger than her husband's fist, and swelled up half of the night watchman's face.
The night watchman saw stars.
The people around were still shouting, "Caught red-handed and still daring to argue, this kind of person should be beaten to death."
"Isn't that a confession? Only thieves would sneak out to steal things in the middle of the night after everyone is asleep. Look at his shifty eyes."
This is outrageous! How could he look like a thief?! The night watchman was beaten and scolded, unable to defend himself, and cried out in grievance: "I am a night watchman, and being a night watchman means being out at night and hiding during the day. I am not a thief. Please, sir, do justice for me. I have been wronged!"
The person next to him was taken aback: "What? The night watchman?"
"No wonder! You, the night watchman, went off to steal sheep. It was impossible to guard against you."
"Don't make false accusations! I didn't steal the sheep, I..."
The yamen runners were getting a headache from their noise: "Alright, alright, stop arguing. Whether you stole the sheep or not, let's talk about it in court. What kind of scene is this in front of the yamen?"
As a result, once the case went to court, what was originally an ordinary theft case suddenly turned into a terrifying and bizarre case. The night watchman, as if he had lost his mind, told everyone present a strange story about encountering a funeral procession in the middle of the night.
Early in the morning, the county government was investigating the funeral procession that jumped into the Yellow River. Most of the yamen runners were dispatched by Lu Bing to investigate the coffin bearers. Coincidentally, the night watchman actually witnessed it with his own eyes.
After pondering for a moment, the magistrate immediately got up and went around to the back hall. He ordered someone to quickly inform Lu Bing to return, and then asked the clerk who was following him on the right in a low voice, "When will the cultivators from Taihang Road arrive in Beiqu?"
"It should be soon."
The county magistrate looked very grave, believing this matter to be of utmost importance: "Where is Master Fang from the Ancestral Mountain? Has he been found?"
"No, our men only found his Taoist robe in the thatched hut at Mengmen Wharf, but he has disappeared without a trace. We have already sent more people to search, but it's freezing cold and the river has just thawed, so it's not easy to find him. In addition, the yamen is really short-staffed. We have to investigate the case and search for him everywhere. Now that the yamen has collapsed, this incident has happened. You see, we can hardly mobilize any guards or errand runners in our yamen."
After listening to him ramble on for a while and recount a bunch of troublesome matters, the county magistrate became a little anxious: "Where is that person? Can't you even find one person! With this kind of thing happening now, who else can we turn to if not Master Fang? Going to Taihang Road and back is too far to solve the immediate problem. During the time that is delayed, we need a Taoist priest who knows divination to keep things in check."
Not only were people outside in a state of panic, but he was also filled with anxiety.
The clerk was even more flustered: "This...this is really..." The clerk really couldn't find any information about Master Fang. In addition, Lu Bing and Hei Zi, who were running around, would always grab him and ask him about Master Fang's whereabouts whenever they bumped into him, which made the clerk's head spin. He almost wanted to take over the work in the yamen and personally lead a team to search for him.
"I really can't find one," the clerk thought. He wanted to grab a random Taoist priest to put in place and calm the restless magistrate, but he couldn't, because this was a serious matter and a Taoist priest of unknown origin wouldn't be able to keep things in order.
Unlike others who had witnessed these strange events firsthand, the advisor still clung to a sliver of hope and refused to believe it: "Could it really be some kind of evil spirit causing trouble?"
"Everyone in Beiqu knows what kind of place the Ghost Government Office is. How could it suddenly collapse and become a ruin? You tell me..." The people outside are saying that the walls and buildings of the Ghost Government Office have collapsed and the magic array set up by Taihang Road has been destroyed. The evil spirits that were originally imprisoned inside will come out and cause trouble. People are terrified when they hear this.
Furthermore, his men were all talking about how Hei Zi and his gang had personally witnessed a row of constables hanging themselves in the courtroom of the Ghostly Magistrate's Office, and they spoke of it as absolutely true. Fearing that such rumors would cause trouble, the magistrate had no choice but to suppress this alarming news and silence his men.
The county magistrate, his heart pounding in his chest, had a feeling that something terrible was about to happen—no, something terrible had already happened: "I have a premonition that those strange cases of people being devoured by those damned blood leeches were just the beginning."
Upon hearing this, the advisor turned pale with fright.
The magistrate couldn't help but shove the clerk's shoulder: "Go quickly, go quickly, and bring Lu Bing back right away."
The frail clerk was easily frightened and felt a sense of panic, as if every bush and tree was an enemy soldier. He was pushed by the magistrate's paw, making his hair stand on end. He swallowed hard and said, "Sir, I have already sent someone to fetch him."
"Why is it so slow!"
Lu Bing, who was criticized for being slow, practically rode on fire to the county office. He immediately summoned the night watchman for questioning, only to find that the words he heard gave him goosebumps.
The strange and mysterious events in Bei Qu were endless, one after another without stopping. Lu Bing was starting to wonder if the human world was overrun by demons and monsters.
Logically speaking, those who dare to stand guard at night are not cowards. Even if they encountered a funeral procession dressed in mourning clothes in the dead of night, they would at most experience a slight heartbeat, but wouldn't panic too much. However—
Mentioning last night, the night watchman involuntarily shuddered: "Who would have a funeral so late at night? I couldn't resist my curiosity and went to take a look, and then," he said, his pupils trembling, "and then I saw that the people carrying the coffin were actually Master Shen and Madam Shen, along with Second Master Shen, and those few..."
Zhou Yaren was taken aback upon hearing this.
Lu Bing reacted strongly, abruptly raising his head, thinking he had misheard: "Who did you say?"
"Master Shen and Madam Shen..."
There are many people with the surname Shen in Beiqu County, so Lu Bing pressed for details: "Which Shen family?"
The wealthy merchants of the county were prominent figures in Beiqucheng, and even beggars on the street had seen them. The watchman naturally recognized them as well: "It's the Shen family, the biggest family in Beiqucheng, the old master Shen Tingshan who owns a silk shop."
Lu Bing tensed up and blurted out instinctively, "Aren't Old Master Shen and Old Madam Shen already dead?"
Not long ago, the long-lost young master Shen Yuanwen suddenly escaped from the Ghostly Courtyard, and the blood leeches that crawled out of his body almost wiped out the Shen family. Old Master Shen Tingshan, Old Madam Shen, and his brother, Second Master Shen, and other blood relatives were drained of their flesh and blood, leaving only a few skeletons and withered human skin.
Even recalling that scene sends chills down Lu Bing's spine, let alone the fact that the night watchman said the coffin bearers last night were actually members of the deceased Shen family.
"That's why I said I encountered a ghost! No, it was a corpse that came back to life!" the watchman continued. "Not only the Shen family, but I also saw Fang Danian, who was also dead, in the coffin-carrying team. It almost scared me to death."
Upon suddenly hearing an unfamiliar name, Zhou Yaren interjected, "Who is Fang Danian?"
Lu Bing's expression was grim: "He's one of the people whose flesh and blood were drained by the blood leeches before you arrived."
Zhou Yaren frowned, her face grave. She pressed her fingers against the bell at her waist and slid them lightly. Then she heard the watchman say, "Those coffin bearers are definitely not alive, sir."
Zhou Yaren instantly recalled that before the old woman fainted, she said that Qin Da had returned, and the night watchman said that he saw the Shen family patriarch and patriarch carrying a coffin, which was the Qin family's coffin.
Zhou Yaren asked in a deep voice, "Are you sure you didn't see wrong?"
The night watchman was taken aback by the question, then waved his hand decisively: "I didn't see wrong, absolutely no way I could have seen wrong. I dare not say anything else, but my eyesight is impeccable, and," he said, pulling up his trouser leg to reveal his knees, raw and bleeding from kneeling, "I was terrified. When I ran, I tripped over my own feet and ended up kneeling right next to the coffin, kowtowing to Old Madam Shen who was carrying it. I thought I was going to die on the spot, but Old Madam Shen probably spared my life because of my bow. I just knelt there until they carried the coffin past, I didn't dare to stand up, and my legs were too weak to stand, my whole body was trembling."
As he spoke, the watchman swore a solemn oath, "Sir, I really saw it with my own eyes. If I utter a single falsehood, may I be struck by lightning, or may this funeral procession carry me away! I really didn't steal the sheep!"
Lu Bing didn't care at all whether he had stolen the sheep or not.
If it were before, he might have thought the watchman was talking nonsense, but having personally experienced the Ghost Bureau and the Taiyin/Taoist Body, Lu Bing had no doubt about what the watchman said. He was convinced that what the other party said was true.
What's more, at this moment, the yamen runner who had been sent out by the county magistrate to investigate ran back breathlessly to report: "Boss, something terrible has happened."
Lu Bing, his face grim, forced himself to remain calm and said, "Just say it."
The constable looked horrified: "The Shen family—the bodies of Old Master Shen, Old Madam Shen, and the Shen family members who died tragically that night—have all disappeared."
Upon hearing this, Lu Bing nearly fell off his chair, then unexpectedly made eye contact with the dumbfounded night watchman.
The night watchman seemed to have suffered a great shock; his expression was so terrified that it even carried a hint of bewilderment: "The body... is gone?"
The constable glanced at the watchman squatting on the ground, and without avoiding him, continued, "And that Fang Danian he mentioned, I immediately went to the mortuary, and Fang Danian's body was also gone. Not only that, but all the bodies that were drained of their blood and flesh and placed in the mortuary before were also gone."
How could a corpse simply vanish without a trace? The night watchman, recalling the funeral procession he'd witnessed the previous night, trembled uncontrollably. "I told you I wasn't lying, sir! I really did encounter a ghost, not a thief. I saw Master Shen and the others carrying a coffin out of the city. Then, just as I was about to get up, I looked up and saw a white-clad female ghost float across the rooftop like a gust of wind, a gust carrying frost..."
Zhou Yaren suddenly looked up: "What white-clad female ghost?"
The night watchman was suddenly interrupted and stammered, "I, I don't know. It must have been a female ghost. In the middle of the night, she was covered from head to toe in white clothes. She could fly and followed the funeral procession like a ghost. Waaaaah, I was so scared that I ran away as fast as I could. If I hadn't run, I might have bumped into something ghostly. In the end, I accidentally fell into someone's sheep pen."
Zhou Yaren stood up abruptly and hurriedly stepped out of the door before anyone could react.
Lu Bing was stunned. Before he could even process what this white-clad female ghost that had suddenly appeared was, he immediately chased after Zhou Yaren's retreating figure, shouting, "Where are you going?!"
Of course, we should go back to the inn.
The white-clad female ghost, swift as a gust of wind, still carrying frost, immediately reminded the night watchman of Bai Yuan, who stayed at the inn.
Zhou Yaren seemed to shrink the distance between them with her feet, disappearing in just a few steps without giving a word.
Lu Bing was still shouting at his afterimage: "Are you going to ignore this bizarre case?!"
Lu Bing was extremely anxious and sweating profusely. He and the soldiers from the yamen were no match for evil spirits, especially a group of resurrected corpses, as they could only arrest people.
Having been frightened before, Lu Bing dared not let his guard down and immediately ordered his men: "Go quickly and keep an eye on him. Report back if anything happens."
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