Chapter 67 Burial Ground The pregnant corpse she painstakingly nurtured had actually been used by the trees…
Lu Bing was gagged by A Cong and thrown into the carriage. His kneecap hit the wooden chair leg, but he didn't feel any pain and didn't utter a sound.
Ah Cong pushed aside the inconvenient Qin San, pulled a pre-prepared shovel from under the seat in the carriage, and quickly went to do the hard labor.
Qin San, who was also bound hand and foot with a white cloth stuffed in his mouth, made a few inaudible sounds to Lu Bing, a disabled man, as if to ask for his opinion.
Lu Bing ignored her. He had always been rather ignoring her, and Qin San was used to it. She shuffled closer, using her shoulder to brace against Lu Bing's limp body, struggling to adjust him into a half-lying, half-sitting position. As Qin San panted and worked hard, she saw four finger marks on Lu Bing's swollen face. Her eyes widened, and she kept whimpering.
Lu Bing silently turned his head away, only able to glimpse a shovel digging through the gap in the carriage curtain. He didn't know what Chen Ying was doing here in the middle of the night digging up someone's grave; in any case, it was definitely not something immoral. He analyzed Chen Ying's words in his mind, word by word, but only half understood. And why was Ya Ren here? Was she looking for him?
Lu Bing felt a lump in his throat, and he forced back the overwhelming emotions surging within him, when he heard a "clang" sound outside the carriage curtain.
The shovel pierced the coffin. It was unclear whether Iron Face was too strong or the thin coffin containing Huang Xiaoyun was too fragile, but the shovel pierced right through the coffin lid.
Chen Ying warned, "Be careful, don't break it."
Ah Cong had to weigh the pros and cons, but the coffin that was gradually being revealed had already been damaged.
Chen Ying's expression changed. She jumped into the grave and swept away the yellow soil, only to find several roots inexplicably embedded in the coffin. She hurriedly urged, "Open it quickly."
Ah Cong deftly pried off two iron nails and lifted the coffin lid, revealing a skeletal, skin-and-bones mummy lying inside, with several tree root-like tendrils tightly wrapped around its body.
Ah Cong was using sign language, but Chen Ying ignored him completely and went straight to tear at the tree roots attached to the mummified corpse, which were difficult to separate. A bad premonition arose, and Chen Ying pressed her grim face against Huang Xiaoyun's lower abdomen, which was dry, shriveled, and even sunken. She haphazardly tore open the mummified corpse's clothes and saw that the abdominal cavity had been pierced by roots.
"It's over!" Seeing this scene, Chen Ying was furious. "Everything is gone!"
It was a complete waste of effort; the pregnant corpse she painstakingly nurtured actually became nutrients for the trees!
Chen Ying had gone to great lengths and made countless plans, but she never expected such an unexpected turn of events.
However, there were no living trees near the grave, only wild grass a foot tall. Where did these tangled roots come from that could grow so long and even pierce through Huang Xiaoyun's coffin?
Chen Ying turned around reflexively, and what came into view was the withered dead tree. Several green vines were wrapped around the dead tree, and dew-like blood beads were condensed on the tender buds.
Chen Ying observed the roots in the soil and found that they were sprouting from the direction of the dead tree.
How is that possible? Are the roots of a dead tree still growing?
Chen Ying climbed up using both hands and feet, step by step towards the blood-stained dead tree—this withered tree had just killed two people, and the blood flowed down the tree trunk and seeped into the roots.
Chen Ying stared intently at the tree trunk, vaguely sensing that the thorny vines entwined around it seemed to be sucking blood.
The thought flashed through her mind, and Chen Ying couldn't help but reach out. The moment she touched the thorny vine trunk, she felt a burning sensation on her fingertips, as if she had touched a piece of red-hot iron. Chen Ying quickly pulled her hand back and checked her fingertips; there was nothing wrong with them.
Chen Ying was astonished: "How can it be so hot?"
It was just a dead tree splattered with blood. She suspected she had some kind of strange illusion, so she reached out to touch it again, only to be burned and pulled back.
“Ah Cong,” Chen Ying called out hurriedly, “come here quickly, this tree is very strange.”
...
As midnight approached, a thin mist gradually rose, and the moonlight became hazy, enveloping the mass grave like a silken veil.
Zhou Yaren, smelling the faint, almost imperceptible scent of blood in the air, finally discovered a skeleton devoid of flesh and blood on a slightly raised mound—only the skeleton and human skin remained.
This discovery sent a chill down Zhou Ya's spine. He put down his bamboo cane and, enduring the immense shock, began to search for the deceased.
The skull was smashed open, leaving a large, broken crater, like half a shattered pottery jar, while the human skin was tattered and torn, with cracks everywhere, resembling a beggar's ragged clothes.
That wasn't all. It wasn't until Zhou Yaren touched the severed wrist of an arm that Zhou Yaren was horrified to see—this was the body of that severed limb and hand!
Zhou Yaren's breath caught in her throat. In fact, one could tell from the severed finger bones that this was a woman who had suffered unimaginable torture before being abandoned in a mass grave. On her deathbed, she tried to ask the passing Mr. and Mrs. Zhang for help, but they mistook her for a corpse demon, cut off her arm, and smashed her head.
Even in death, he could not find peace. His flesh and blood were drained by leeches, and he became the vengeful ghost that "came back to life" last night, scaring the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Zhang, who were getting bone linings made for Tiezhu, out of their wits.
That's why they saw Old Zhang killing a chicken at home to ward off evil spirits and drawing talismans with blood.
To Zhou Yaren's surprise, the Gu Master had actually gotten involved. Was Chen Ying also here?
A strong premonition welled up in Zhou Yaren's heart, and she suddenly stood up, ignoring the smudges on her fingertips that were stuck to the cochlear cavity.
The closed sense of hearing suddenly opened, and the sounds of wind rustling through the grass in the mass grave rushed into my ears, so clear that I could hear the falling leaves.
His hearing receded inch by inch, and he caught the heavy breathing and hurried footsteps in the rustling of the grass. Zhou Yaren turned his head, tracing the receding footsteps, as if he were fleeing.
Suddenly, a sharp, piercing pain stabbed into his ear canal, causing Zhou Yaren to almost lose his balance. The footsteps seemed to be crushing his ears—his keen hearing could only last for a moment before the buzzing sound blocked his ears again, this time almost completely shut off.
Zhou Yaren dared not delay for a moment. He estimated the distance within his hearing range and chased after her with his cane.
The overgrown vegetation and the chaotic, abandoned graves became obstacles for the blind man's path. Zhou Yaren suddenly braced himself with his bamboo cane, using the momentum to leap several meters away—the panicked little Dinggua saw someone suddenly descend from the sky, landing precisely in front of him. Caught off guard, his legs went weak with fear, and he knelt down with a thud, kowtowing, daring not to look up even once, crying and pleading with his eyes closed: "Ahhh, please, please let me go, please let me go..."
"Little Dinggua?" Zhou Yaren recognized the voice. "Why are you still here?"
He assumed the boy had already gone back with the villagers.
"Please..." The crying stopped abruptly. Xiao Dinggua looked up in astonishment, two lines of tears still hanging on her cheeks. As if she had seen a relative, she rushed forward and hugged Zhou Yaren's leg, wailing loudly, "I was so scared, so scared! It was you! Waaaaah!"
Zhou Yaren assumed he was frightened because he had witnessed the deaths of Sister-in-law Huang and Tiezhu's mother, so she bent down to help the child up: "Why are you here all alone?"
However, Xiao Dinggua was terrified like never before. He clung tightly to her leg and cried, "I'm lost! I've been running for so long and I still can't find my way back. I must have run into a ghost wall. They say that when you're in a ghost wall, you'll just keep going around in circles and you can't get out no matter how hard you run until you're exhausted. I'm so tired, waaaah, and I still can't find a way out."
"There's no such thing as being trapped in a ghost wall." The graveyard was deserted, and the child had scared himself so badly he was crippled. Zhou Yaren grabbed his arm and pulled him up, asking about the important matter first, "Who were you begging to let you go just now? Did you encounter someone?"
Little Dinggua blinked a tear, shrank his neck and looked around: "Yes, it seems like something is following me, chasing me."
Who's chasing you?
"I...I don't know, it seems to be that kind of thing." He didn't even dare to utter the word "ghost" in the mass grave, for fear of offending the spirits of the dead, who would surely not let him go.
Zhou Yaren turned her head and scanned her surroundings. Her spiritual eyes were completely black, and there was nothing suspicious about them.
In the dead of night, amidst desolate graves, timid people are most prone to wild thoughts, easily conjuring up all sorts of wild ideas from whatever they see and hear. For example, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang mistook a dying person for a resurrected corpse, and under the control of fear, they accidentally killed someone.
Zhou Yaren asked, "Did you see that? Who's chasing you?"
Xiao Dinggua opened his mouth, but couldn't answer for a moment.
Zhou Yaren pressed on, "Or did you not see it clearly?"
Little Dinggua stammered, "No, I didn't see it, but, but I know that thing has been chasing me."
"How can you know something is chasing you if you haven't seen it?"
“It’s true!” Little Dinggua grabbed Zhou Yaren’s arm, his eyes wide, and said with absolute certainty, “I heard a sound, there was a voice singing behind me.”
"Sing a song?" In the middle of the night, who would have the leisure to go to a mass grave to sing and express their longing?
Perhaps every skeleton lying beneath the earth represents someone else's longing and yearning.
Xiao Dinggua nodded firmly: "Yes."
Zhou Yaren asked, "Are you still singing now?"
"I'm not singing now, but I was singing the whole time before I met you."
"Male or female? What lyrics are they singing?"
"What was the woman singing? I... I don't know. I've never heard her sing before."
Do you remember the lyrics?
Xiao Dinggua was so frightened that he couldn't concentrate on listening to the lyrics. He tried hard to recall: "It seems to be about the third watch of the night, the bridal sedan chair swaying, and the newlyweds laughing."
These words sound like folk songs celebrating a couple's wedding, but is it really a wedding night song? Zhou Yaren thought of the ghost marriages that the villagers were so keen to hold.
So, could the folk song that Xiao Dinggua heard be related to ghost marriage?
"Ahhh," at this moment, Xiao Dinggua suddenly threw herself into Zhou Yaren's arms, wrapping her arms and legs tightly around Zhou Yaren, "It's happening again, it's happening again."
Zhou Yaren instinctively stopped the frightened Xiao Dinggua, looked around, and saw that it was still pitch black: "What's happening again?"
Xiao Dinggua wanted to bury his face in Zhou Yaren's clothes: "That woman, she's chasing us again, can't you hear me?"
Zhou Yaren's hearing was indeed failing; she couldn't hear any suspicious sounds. So she concentrated intently, straining her ears to listen, enough to hear sounds that ordinary people could hear. But all around was silent, except for Xiao Dinggua's squeaking. "What did you hear?" she asked.
Little Dinggua, holding Zhou Yaren tightly, couldn't free his hands to cover his ears and said tremblingly, "She's singing! She's singing again!"
Zhou Yaren pressed further, "What was the content of the song?"
Is someone playing tricks on us?
If it were a person pretending to be a ghost, why could only Xiao Dinggua hear it? Zhou Yaren could neither "see" nor hear it.
Little Dinggua kept shaking his head: "Let's go, let's go!"
Zhou Yaren knew the child was badly frightened, but she still hugged her and asked, "Tell me first, what was she singing?"
Xiao Dinggua's scalp tingled, yet he had no choice but to listen carefully: "The song goes on, the song goes on at midnight, the clouds are dark, the red candles in the wedding courtyard... the funeral banners flutter, the horse-riding festivities are lively, and the newlyweds laugh. You and I are so loving, our hearts are true to each other... Look at that paper sedan chair, swaying and swaying and swaying..."
As he recounted the story, Xiao Dinggua trembled like a leaf in Zhou Yaren's arms, barely daring to lift his face. "Ahhh, is the singer going to be paired with Brother Tiezhu's Huang Xiaoyun?"
Xiao Dinggua's words reminded him.
Zhou Yaren frowned and gently patted the back of Xiao Dinggua's head, signaling him to get off him. The latter persisted, so he had to tear the boy off. Then the two headed towards Huang Xiaoyun's burial place.
Along the way, the singing echoed in Xiao Dinggua's ears intermittently, sometimes near and sometimes far, making him walk with fear and trepidation, wanting only to leave this place of trouble as soon as possible.
Hopefully, this time we can get out of there.
To avoid stepping on the graves, they followed a winding mountain path, but they still couldn't avoid stepping on exposed bones. This frightened Xiao Dinggua so much that he jumped three feet high, wishing he could jump onto Zhou Yaren's back.
Sudden--
"There's a fire over there!" Little Dinggua pointed into the distance. A flame burned through the thin mist. His face lit up with joy, and the fear in his heart was somewhat dispelled by the firelight. "It's the villagers from Yuan Village! Quick—"
He was about to rush out to chase after her when Zhou Yaren pulled him back and said in a deep voice, "Don't run around."
Little Dinggua was pulled hard by him, lost her balance and staggered backward. She tilted her head and turned around: "I didn't run around."
Zhou Yaren's expression was solemn, his eyes fixed intently on the firelight in the mist. In that instant, Xiao Dinggua felt as if he could see the fire, and without thinking, asked, "Do you see the fire?"
Yes, Zhou Yaren saw the cluster of evil flames, so she subconsciously put her arm around Xiao Dinggua's thin shoulder, afraid that he would run away: "Stay close to me."
"What's going on? Aren't those the villagers holding torches? We need to hurry over and meet them so we can go back to the village together!"
If it were a villager holding a torch, he, being blind, certainly wouldn't have seen it. Besides, the flame was a ghostly blue-green and hadn't moved an inch from its spot. Zhou Yaren was certain: "It wasn't a villager."
"Who could it be?"
That's a good question; he wants to know the answer to that too.
Zhou Yaren and Xiao Dinggua rushed to the scene, only to find that the fire was located at the burial site of Huang Xiaoyun.
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