Chapter 047: Cemetery Bones (3)
"My name is Helin, because there is a crane on my coat." The man said, "They usually call me Mr. He."
Tao Xing also noticed that the hem of his Zhongshan suit was embroidered with white patterns, which at first glance looked like auspicious clouds, but upon closer inspection, they were actually many white cranes with spread wings.
But this is not the point. How can he be a ghost? Isn't he flesh and blood, and has warmth?
He Lin knew his doubts and said in a gentle voice: "When I see the moonlight, I can temporarily restore my appearance before I died, but it won't last long. I... will soon turn back into a skeleton."
He continued, "The cemetery has been in disrepair for many years, and the graves are leaking. If there is a heavy rain, it will easily flood here. Today I went to repair the graves and I shone in the moonlight."
He was actually repairing the hole, Tao Xing was right about that.
But why is it so strange that a ghost gets up in the middle of the night to repair his own grave?
Fortunately, he might have had a preconceived notion that this man was gentle and polite, so even though he knew he was a ghost, he was not that scared.
He secretly asked the system: "Is the mission object here?"
080 said: "Here."
"Which one?"
"I don't know."
Tao Xing's gaze swept across the group of white bones and then fell back on He Lin's face.
He Lin said, "Today the moonlight shines completely on the cave entrance beside my grave, opening the two doors. It was also a coincidence that you fell in." He paused and said, "May I ask what your name is, sir?"
"My name is Tao Xing."
"Mr. Tao." He Lin nodded, "But the moonlight has dissipated, the passage has closed, you can't get out, there is no other exit here."
"Ah?" Tao Xing was surprised.
"Don't worry, Mr. Tao. The moonlight will come back in three days and the passage will open again."
"But even if the passage is opened, we may not be able to get out. The hole is very high and the ladder... is broken."
He Linqing smiled and said, "That is the Moonlight Stairs. As long as the moonlight comes again, the stairs will appear."
"So, I will stay here for three days." Tao Xing fell into thought.
There are mission targets here, so it's not impossible, but... staying in this weird place that I don't understand at all, with a bunch of ghosts for three days, makes me feel too insecure.
"Arrange for Mr. Tao to stay in Hualin, prepare three meals and send them on time, and prepare bedding and tea." Helin ordered, "Mr. Tao is a distinguished guest here, and we must treat him with all our heart."
The skeletons were puzzled: "Mr. He, there has never been a living person here. We have no connection with the living people..."
Seeing this, Tao Xing said at the right time: "It's okay, don't worry about me." To be honest, he didn't really want to be taken care of by a group of skeletons.
He Lin was silent for a moment, then turned to Tao Xing and said, "To be honest, Mr. Tao, I actually... have something to ask of you."
"Ah, what?"
"Just now I saw that you were able to close the broken skull. I would like to ask you to help us restore the other broken bones. This is very important to us."
"He can repair broken bones?" The skeletons were in an uproar. "Really? He fixed Xiaobei's head?"
As the tall white bone man spoke, he bent over and picked up the head. Sure enough, he saw a crack on the skull, and the crack was glued together, making it almost invisible.
"The cemetery is in ruins. It's damp here all year round, so bones decay easily and break easily. Once broken, it's very difficult to reattach. If you lose your arms and legs, it's still okay. But if you lose your head like Xiaobei did, you can only wait to die."
He Lin said, looking up at Tao Xing: "To you, we are already dead, but to us, we are still living in this underground. However, if the bones fall apart, we will die again. I don't know where we will go, but in the end, we will never see him again..."
Before he finished speaking, someone shouted, "Xiao Bei is dying."
The skeletons looked back and saw two skeletons carrying a headless skull towards them.
A faint sound came from the abdomen of the skeleton: "Mr. He, I... I am going to die..."
The tall white-boned man quickly put the head in his arms on his neck and patted it hard a few times. However, as soon as he withdrew his hands, the head fell off.
The tall man picked it up and put it up again, but it fell down again as soon as he raised his hand.
He Lin sighed, "Xiao Nan, don't waste your energy."
The white bone called Xiaonan looked up: "Mr. Crane..."
Tao Xing looked left and right, then coughed and said, "Then I'll give it a try."
He Lin showed joy on his face: "Mr. Tao, thank you."
Tao Xing nodded, took the head, lowered his head to look carefully at the gap, fitted it in perfectly, then pressed hard, and with a click, the head returned to its place.
Xiaobei touched his head, turned around twice, was stunned for a moment, then jumped up and shook his head left and right: "I'm fine, I'm fine!" He spoke with his mouth now.
He jumped in front of He Lin and said, "Mr. He, I'm really fine."
Helin smiled happily.
Xiao Bei jumped in front of Tao Xing again and looked him up and down: "This living person can really help us."
The skeletons came back to their senses from their surprise and said in a loud voice, "Yes, he can help us." They cast eager glances at him and said flattering words, "Will you help us?"
The skeletons were all around him. No matter which direction he looked, he saw skulls everywhere. Tao Xing let out a sigh of relief: "Okay... okay, take your time."
"Great, thank you Mr. Tao." The bones cheered, "By the way, Mr. Tao, come with us, we'll take you to where you're staying. Hualin is the best place here."
Tao Xing walked forward surrounded by them, took a few steps, and looked back.
Behind him, He Lin put his hands behind his back and smiled gently: "Thank you."
After saying that, he took a step and followed.
Walking along the gurgling stream and through the grassland, there were more and more stone piles in front of them, of varying heights. Tao Xing glanced at them casually and found that the tall stone piles looked like houses.
Going further ahead, he was slightly surprised. He never expected that in this dim underground, there was a large garden with peonies and roses... There were clusters of flowers regardless of the season, but without sunlight, the colors were slightly cold, and there was no sense of brightness and freshness.
There are fewer houses here, only a few of them, located in the flower fields. Tao Xing was led into a stone house. The basic furniture was made of stone, mostly in accordance with the shape of the stone itself, without too much polishing. Moss was inevitable in the humid environment, and it was slightly green and moist and smooth to the touch.
The skeletons came in one after another, carrying bedding, washbasins, teacups... Tao Xing saw that the small cup was made of bones, with a hole in the middle of the bone.
Forehead……
After delivering the things, they crowded at the door, rubbing their hands, and looking at him expectantly yet shyly.
Tao Xing cleared his throat: "Come here one by one, where did you go?"
The skeletons were delighted and lined up immediately. The first one to come forward was the little skeleton. He raised his leg and said, "I lost a leg."
Tao Xing looked down and saw that he was indeed walking with the support of his ankle bones: "You are still playing football without a foot?" He frowned, "But I can't conjure a foot out of thin air..."
Suddenly a piece of bone appeared in front of him. He was startled and looked at the small white bone and said, "It's not lost. I have kept it."
"Haha, okay."
Carrying your own bones with you is quite strange.
Tao Xing took the bone and pressed it hard on his leg, "Okay."
The little skeleton moved his feet and ankles: "It's really healed."
A group of white bones jumped up and walked forward excitedly.
Next, Tao Xing reattached their arms, fingers, legs, and one of them even had its entire lower half missing.
He also gained some understanding of this group of bones.
The voice of the tall skeleton is a female named Xiaonan, the one with the beheaded head is Xiaobei, and the voice of the hunchbacked skeleton drinking red wine sounds like an old man named Xiaodong.
In addition, there are small things, small southeast, small northwest, small one, small two... small forty...
Once they die, they forget everything that happened before. They don’t remember who they were in life and are named according to the orientation of their graves. If there are not enough directions, they are named according to numbers.
Except for Helin, whose name is a little different, it is named after the pattern of his clothes. After all, he is the owner of the tomb.
Tao Xing calculated and said to the little skeleton confidently, "Then your name must be Xiaoxi?"
The little skeleton said: "My name is Xiaocai." Judging from his voice and body shape, he should still be a child.
Tao Xing: “…”
"Why are you different from everyone else?"
Xiaocai said: "I don't know. When Mr. He asked me if I wanted to be called Xiaoxi, the first name I thought of was Xiaocai."
Perhaps, he died not long ago and had some memories of his life. Tao Xing thought that the word "cai" (talent) might have been in his name.
The bone setting was quite fast. After a short while, the long line was finished. I could hear them talking while they were setting the bones. If I didn't use my eyes to see, it seemed like they were just living people.
Tao Xing's fear gradually weakened.
But I still have no idea which one is the task object.
The teams dispersed one by one, and He Lin at the end appeared in front of them.
Tao Xing raised his head and smiled: "Where did you break?"
He Lin moved his hand behind him and shook his head: "You don't need to answer mine."
"What's wrong?"
He Lin was silent for a moment, then stretched out his right hand. He was still in flesh and blood, with his fair hand sticking out from under his clothes. His right hand had no ring finger and little finger, and there were neatly broken marks on them, as if they had been cut off by something.
There were bones all around, and seeing their broken arms and legs didn't make him feel as if he was suffering, but seeing the broken marks on their flesh and blood bodies was a bit shocking, and Tao Xing felt a pain in his hand as well.
No wonder, when I wanted to hold his hand before, he deliberately avoided his right hand and raised his left hand.
"I don't remember how it broke, and I can't find the bone," Helin said. "I can't connect it."
"Oh." There's really nothing we can do about it.
"It doesn't matter anyway." He Lin said, pointing to a stone house on the left, "I live there, feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thank you very much for today, and go to bed early."
Then he said to the skeletons walking around: "You all should go back too, and don't disturb Mr. Tao's rest."
The white bones responded and dispersed one by one. Tao Xing saw that they all lived in the houses in the front. Only Helin lived in this garden, and now he was the next one to join.
The surroundings became quiet. Helin nodded and walked forward.
But Tao Xing had no time to rest. How could he possibly sleep in this environment? He wanted to find the object of his mission and also wanted to see if he could get out. He couldn't put all his hopes on three days later. It was better to keep his freedom in his own hands.
He thought for a moment and called Helin: "Wait a moment..."
The man just walked to the door and turned around when he heard the words.
Tao Xing's eyes gradually widened.
The young man in the Zhongshan suit had a green and slippery stone wall behind him and branches full of flowers beside his legs, with a few petals flying in the air.
Tao Xing watched helplessly as the man's clothes melted away, his flesh and blood disappeared, leaving only a skeleton.
The bones are like soft, white, warm jade, without any flaws.
"Mr. Tao, what do you want?" Bai Gu opened his mouth, his voice still clear and elegant.
Tao Xing took a step forward and looked at the smooth skull.
Unlike the other bones, the eye sockets were not completely dark.
He was glowing with a crimson light, like two candle flames, flickering faintly.
Familiar red eyes.
It's still you.
Tao Xing smiled. How could we meet again?
There was a hint of tenderness in his eyes.
Bai Gu saw his expression, realized something, and looked down: "I'm sorry, Mr. Tao, I've returned to my original form. The human form illuminated by the moonlight can't last long."
"It doesn't matter what you look like." Tao Xing looked into his eyes.
He Lin was stunned for a moment, then smiled lightly: "By the way, what did you ask me to do just now?"
Tao Xing didn't reply, but called out 080 first: "Is he the target of the mission?"
080: "You, the host, need to find this yourself."
Tao Xing: "...I am sure He Lin is the target of the mission."
080 received a message from the program: "Host, congratulations on unlocking the mission details. Helin is the target of the mission."
"Why is he a villain?"
“It’s not in the program yet.”
“…”
Tao Xing looked up and said to Bai Gu: "I wanted to ask you if I could just walk around, but after thinking about it, I felt a little scared and worried that I would get lost and not be able to come back, so I decided not to do it."
He Lin thought for a moment and said, "If you don't mind, I'll walk with you."
Tao Xing raised an eyebrow: "Okay, that's troublesome."
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