Chapter 2: The Coffin Awakens 2
◎Get ready to run away, damn it! ◎
Yan Yue was eavesdropping on their conversation from the corner of the room, and couldn't help but raise her hands and read it over and over again.
Indeed, these flawless, tender hands should have been covered with calluses.
The thick joints and fingertips were covered with small cracks. The edges of the cracks were hard, and the middle was filled with blood-red flesh that would bleed if touched.
It gets better in the spring every year and is almost healed in the summer, but starts to crack again in the fall and gets worse in the winter. When there were too many cuts, she had to wrap herself in two layers of linen before working, and her foster mother would scold her for being a spoiled brat.
What Yan Yue said to the mother and son of the Li family was all true, but she didn’t tell the whole story.
For example, her parents are not biological.
Her adoptive parents' surname was Yan. It is said that the moon was exceptionally big, bright and round on the night they picked her up, so they named her "Yue". Yan Yue didn't remember that she was still a hungry baby at that time.
For example, she really didn't want to go back. If her adoptive parents knew that she was not dead, they would probably "kill" her again to give an explanation to the other party. She said all this to the Li mother and son just to make them think she was homeless, let down their guard, and make it easier for her to escape.
As for why these hands changed from rough to white and tender, Yan Yue was also completely confused.
She took out a shiny black pebble from her arms and looked at it in the moonlight. Could this be the effect of the stone?
When she woke up from the coffin, the stone was on her body. It felt warm and smooth to the touch, and holding it in her palm gave her a feeling of extreme security and comfort. I thought the stone must have been lost after drifting on the sea for two days, but it was still there when I woke up.
But it looks like just a round pebble, not a divine object at all.
After all, he can be considered as a destined stone who has shared her hardships. Yan Yue took out a few scraps of cloth from the bamboo basket in the corner and started to make lace in the dim light of the oil lamp.
These hands were long and thin, without any cracks to get in the way, and were more dexterous than before. The rags flew up and down, and soon wrapped the stone in the middle, making it very convenient to carry around.
"Miss Yan, are you still awake?"
Li's mother's voice came from outside the window, and Yan Yue hurriedly responded: "He's already lying down!"
Li's mother's voice was filled with displeasure: "You have to turn off the light when you lie down. Isn't this a waste of lamp oil?"
"Oh!" Yan Yue quickly blew out the oil lamp and said awkwardly, "I remember it."
As Li's mother left, Yan Yue complained in her heart: Isn't this a quick change of attitude?
She pushed the window and removed the window fork, but unexpectedly found a middle-aged man standing outside the fence. The man was not short, and he stared at the back of Li's mother as she just walked into the main room, without moving.
Yan Yue had seen him before when she was having dinner, and wanted to ask Li's mother if she was a neighbor, but unexpectedly the man disappeared again.
At this moment, the man saw Yan Yue looking at him, and he stared at her for a while, then suddenly ran away at an extremely fast speed.
Yan Yue was stunned for a moment and then burst out laughing. Could he be the old man named Zhao that Li’s mother mentioned during the day? The person who was visited by the widow at night was Li's mother herself! Hahahaha, she was so smart to think of throwing urine at others!
Midnight.
Yan Yue turned over and the wooden bed creaked. She vaguely found a dark shadow at the foot of the bed. She rubbed her eyes and looked carefully, and it turned out to be a person!
“Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!!”
She let out a scream that resounded through the night sky!
With the dim moonlight, Yan Yue could see clearly that the person coming was the middle-aged man who had been wandering outside the fence before!
She held up a pillow to cover her chest, huddled in a corner, and stammered, "You, you, you...what are you going to do...!"
Unexpectedly, the man just muttered: "Sure enough, I can see it..."
Before the man finished speaking, the door was kicked open and Li Tiezhu rushed in and asked, "Miss Yan! What happened?!"
Yan Yue threw down her pillow and rushed to Li Tiezhu's side. She grabbed his arm and pointed at the foot of the bed: "That person..."
Unexpectedly, when my eyes followed the fingertips, all the hairs on my body suddenly stood up!
That person disappeared out of thin air!
Yan Yue's legs went limp and she almost collapsed. Fortunately, Li Tiezhu supported her in time: "Miss Yan! What's wrong with you?"
When Li's mother came in, she saw Yan Yue holding Li Tiezhu in a panic and refusing to let go, muttering "someone" over and over again.
Seeing that the doors and windows were intact and nothing was missing, Li's mother thought that Yan Yue was trying to seduce Li Tiezhu. She smiled meaningfully and said, "Zhu Zi, Miss Yan is timid, why don't you stay here and sleep with her tonight!"
"No, no! Really..." Yan Yue was so scared that she was incoherent. She pointed at the bedside in fear and said, "Just now, there was really someone here... I don't know why, as soon as Brother Zhuzi came in, he disappeared..."
Li Tiezhu was very patient and asked, "What does that person look like?"
Yan Yue gestured: "He is very tall and strong, about forty years old. He has thick eyebrows, a big nose and mouth, and a scar on his forehead!"
The air was silent. Li's mother and Li Tiezhu looked at each other in horror, not saying a word for a long time.
Yan Yue's voice trembled: "Do you know him? Is he from the village? I saw him wandering outside the fence when we were having dinner earlier. He seemed to have something to ask Auntie. But how could he sneak into my room in the middle of the night?"
Li Tiezhu spoke with difficulty: "Yes, my father..."
"Your father?"
Yan Yue was stunned: "Didn't you say that your father passed away five years ago..."
The rest of the words got stuck in her throat, and her hair stood on end again. She cried, "You, you mean..."
"I... saw a ghost?"
Yan Yue wanted to cry, but for some reason, there was no tear in her eyes. She could only ask Li Tiezhu with a resentful look on her face: "How did your father die? Did he die unjustly? Even if he died unjustly, what does it have to do with me? Why did you come to me?"
Li Tiezhu couldn't bear Yan Yue's complaints, so he looked to his mother for help: "Mom, should I burn some money for Dad?"
Li's mother coaxed Yan Yue for a few words, pushed her son out of the room, and made a few more excuses, saying that they would go buy paper money tomorrow, and then they all went back to their rooms to sleep.
Yan Yue was so frightened that she couldn't fall asleep anymore. She tossed and turned until dawn, when she finally fell into a daze.
*
The breakfast was much simpler than last night, with only shredded pickles, corn porridge and corn cakes.
Yan Yue lied that she was not hungry and only drank the porridge. She took a pancake and said she would eat it when she was hungry later. Seeing that she looked listless, Li's mother thought she was frightened last night and said nothing. She went out with her son after dinner.
The two returned in the afternoon. Mother Li looked around the kitchen and asked Yan Yue, "Have you eaten?"
Yan Yue hid the pancake that she took in the morning under the bed, and stole another one at noon when no one was at home. She originally planned to wait for the two to come back to have lunch together, leave another pancake in the evening, and then slip away at night. I didn’t expect that Li’s mother actually remembered the number of cakes!
She could only say, "I'm a little hungry, so I ate a cake first."
Mother Li was obviously not in the good mood like yesterday and went to cook with a sullen face.
Li Tiezhu comforted Yan Yue, saying that they had offered incense and burned paper money for his father, and she would not have nightmares tonight.
Li's mother cut the pancake into cubes, added some shredded cabbage and fried two large bowls of it, but there was no portion for Yan Yue.
Li Tiezhu deliberately slowed down his eating speed, and when Li's mother went back to the room to take a nap, he brought the remaining half bowl of shredded vegetable fried pancakes to Yan Yue.
Yan Yue felt that at this moment Li Tiezhu looked very much like her second brother from her adoptive mother's family.
Her adoptive mother originally said that she was the child bride of the Yan family.
Yan Yue also thought that she would marry one of the brothers of the Yan family sooner or later.
If she could choose, she would like to marry her second brother. The second brother was mature beyond his years and always took good care of her. He would secretly help her with work and even secretly hide his boiled eggs in Yan Yue's pocket. The fourth younger brother is also okay. He loves to talk and laugh. The party is always lively when he is around, although he always pulls his own pigtails.
Unexpectedly, she was eventually arranged into a ghost marriage by her adoptive parents.
Li's mother was just like her adoptive parents. If she didn't want to be held hostage to death, she had to escape, no matter how good Li Tiezhu was to her.
After dinner, Yan Yue hid another cake as she wished. When the moon was at its zenith, she secretly got up, took the three tortillas hidden under the bed, and prepared to run away.
Unexpectedly, when she came to her senses, Li Tiezhu's father appeared silently behind her, which scared Yan Yue!
"Don't be afraid!"
Father Li raised his hands to comfort her: "I'm not a ghost, don't be afraid!"
Yan Yue's heart almost jumped out of her throat, but Father Li looked sincere, so she could only suppress her uneasiness and asked bravely: "You, are you a ghost?"
Father Li just stood there without moving and sighed, "Yes, I am a ghost."
Yan Yue was frightened: "I don't even know you! Why do you keep looking for me? Didn't I burn paper money for you today? Didn't you receive it?"
Father Li said: "No one else can see me, only you can see me. So, I want to ask you for a favor..."
Yan Yue was about to cry! Why can't others see it, but I can? But she was really afraid of being haunted by a ghost, so she asked bravely, "What can I do for you?"
Father Li hesitated for a while and said, "I want you to ask the child's mother for me... whether Zhuzi is my biological son..."
"……ha?"
Yan Yue's eyes suddenly widened, and she became eager to eat melons, and her timidity faded away.
She glanced up and down at Li's father. He was tall and strong, with big facial features. However, Li Tiezhu was short and thin, with no big features on his eyebrows, eyes, mouth and nose.
Uh... now that you mention it, it certainly doesn't look like his kind.
But I can't say this directly, especially since the other party is a ghost. God knows what the consequences of angering him would be? Will he turn into some evil ghost and pull her to keep him company?
Yan Yue had no choice but to comfort him: "Although Brother Zhuzi doesn't look much like you... but, maybe he looks like Auntie? Auntie is not tall either!"
Although not tall, Li Tiezhu is too short!
Father Li squatted on the ground and said dejectedly: "I have thought about it too, just living in confusion. Even when she was seriously ill, I couldn't ask her after all."
He rubbed his face and said helplessly, "But who would have thought that after my death, I would not be able to enter reincarnation because of this obsession. For the past five years, I could only wander around them and their son..."
Yan Yue couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed: "How can you let me help you? I'll go and ask Auntie, 'Who did you father Zhuzi with?' Is that reasonable? You are dead, but I am still alive!"
She thought clearly and reminded Father Li: "Besides, your wife is not a good person. Did you hear me? She wants to keep me for your Li family to continue the family line!"
Father Li defended himself, "My son's mother is not a bad person. It's just that she spent all the family's remaining money on my medical treatment five years ago, which made Zhuzi unable to find a wife. She has always been quick-witted, so she came up with this idea..."
Yan Yue felt that he was making up stories, so she rolled her eyes and said, "What the hell does it have to do with me? She treats you well, treats your son well, but she doesn't treat me well!"
Father Li retorted: "She even cooked a delicious meal for you yesterday!"
Yan Yue got even angrier after hearing this: "She was just trying to coax me to stay! She immediately changed her attitude when she heard I had nowhere to go. She even refused to let me have a full meal today! You're still speaking for her. It's true that you can't have two different kinds of people sleeping in the same bed!"
“I…I…” Father Li was tongue-tied and couldn’t say anything to refute for a long time.
Yan Yue was too lazy to listen to his explanation: "My clothes are made of excellent material. I think I can exchange them for some money, which is enough to repay them. Bye!"
She picked up three tortillas, turned around and walked out of the east wing without mercy.
In a panic, Mr. Li somehow pushed down an iron sled that was standing under the window sill of the main room.
There was a loud clang, which was very obvious in the silent night, and scared Yan Yue so much that he almost jumped up!
However, during this short pause, Li Tiezhu rushed out of the room: "Who?!... Miss Yan? It's so late, why are you still awake?"
Yan Yue glanced at Father Li and said with gritted teeth: "I want to go to the toilet..."
Li Tiezhu didn't realize anything was wrong: "Oh, then go quickly..."
Li's mother was a quick thinker. She saw something was wrong and said in a sarcastic tone, "Why do you have to dress so neatly before going to the toilet?"
Yan Yue's body froze. Mother Li stared at her hands behind her back and picked up the stick used to tie the door.
"What's that thing you're hiding behind your back?"
【Author’s words】
Yan Yue: Your whole family, including the people and ghosts, are not good people! [Crack][Crack][Crack]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
