Chapter 40 The Sleeping Curse (4) Xie Tan wakes up in a coffin...
The driver looked ahead again, and there was a figure standing in the middle of the road. He was startled and slammed on the brakes, but the car wouldn't obey him and only stopped a moment too late. He had hit someone!
Everyone on the bus lurched forward due to inertia and hurriedly asked what had happened.
A passenger in the front row also saw the figure in the middle of the road and said that someone suddenly appeared and might have bumped into someone.
The driver quickly got out of the car, but the door wouldn't open no matter what he tried.
The human skin crushed under the wheels slowly opened and spread, like a thin sheet of dough, its color fading to almost transparent, rising from the bottom of the vehicle and enveloping the bus.
These are many irregularly shaped pieces of human skin sewn together with hair. Now stretched to their limit, the stitches are pulled open, like eyes opening up, scrutinizing everyone in the car, searching for someone who can see them.
Those who can see it are people who are "somewhat talented".
Unfortunately, no tourists saw the silent, human-skinned monster covering the bus; they smashed the windows with fire hammers.
But it didn't matter, because the "eyes" at the stitches, thanks to the flowing air, finally caught a faint smell, forgot their work, and crowded towards a car window, pulling the whole piece of leather together.
All the "eyes" were crammed into one car window, staring intently at the sleeping boy.
That's him.
Xie Tan was woken up by the noise and slowly opened his eyes.
The stitched opening quickly came undone, and human skin shed from the bus.
The door opened, and the driver and several helpful passengers got off, but the road was deserted.
They checked carefully, making sure no one was there, and assumed it was just the shadows of the trees at night that made them mistake it for someone else.
After all, the bus had been traveling for three hours, and both the driver and passengers were a bit tired.
They got back into the car, but it seemed to have some problems and wouldn't start.
There is a certain distance between the two scenic areas, and there are occasional small fishing villages or scattered households. Where they stop, there are a few dilapidated houses in the nearby woods.
The driver and two passengers went to see if they could borrow tools to repair the car.
There was also a public restroom, so a few more passengers got off the bus.
Xie Tan, sitting in the last row, understood what had happened from the passengers' conversation.
As expected, this is an unexpected turn of events.
Did the figure that suddenly appeared in the middle of the road disappear again?
Xie Tan turned around as if sensing something, and through the rear window, he saw a long-haired figure standing some distance behind the bus, its silhouette indistinct at the boundary of the taillights' beams.
I couldn't see her face clearly, but I could tell that her clothes were too big and her skirt was billowing, almost like a bed sheet floating on her skeleton.
So Xie Tan got out of the car, and when he looked back, the person was already gone.
He also went to the house in the woods, stepping on the dry branches of the grass, which creaked and groaned, and the tips of the grass brushed against his ankles, causing a slight tickle.
As he passed a public restroom with a broken light, he suddenly heard a scream.
Two passengers rushed out in fright, still somewhat confused, as if they had instinctively run out after hearing the screams.
They ran away, and then another male passenger ran out, as if he was avoiding something. He tripped and was caught by Xie Tan.
The male passenger, as if finding a lifeline, hid behind him and pointed to the public toilet, saying, "There's a corpse!"
If someone is committing a crime, Xie Tan will leave with him. After all, ghosts are attracted to his pheromones, but murderers can't smell them, so he has to run away too.
But thinking of the long-haired, long-skirted figure that vanished in the blink of an eye, Xie Tan calmed down. Since he had already encountered a ghost, he wasn't afraid anymore.
He told the male passenger to go back to the car, as he needed to check on the other rooms.
The male passenger, thinking that he also didn't believe it, became angry after being repeatedly questioned: "It really exists! If you don't believe me, come with me to see!"
Xie Tan, who was being dragged away: "?"
Are you people from Dichuo sick?
They're so afraid they won't die, yet they keep crashing into things. Are they all like the holy bodies of horror movie protagonists?
He was dragged into the innermost stall of the men's restroom by a male passenger, but there was only clutter inside, no body at all.
The male passenger was dumbfounded, searching back and forth: "That's impossible, I clearly saw it..."
They even approached him on their own initiative. Xie Tan remained silent.
The male passenger turned and left, even trying to find the women's restroom in defiance of the warning. Xie Tan then heard him trip and fall, followed by another scream.
The body was right outside the men's restroom.
Once found, the male passenger finally overcame his fear and scrambled out of the public restroom, running wildly towards the bus.
Xie Tan stepped over the corpse, which was already decomposed, with some parts revealing the white bone beneath the skin, as if it had been dead for a long time.
This wasn't killed just now.
After taking two steps, there were two more corpses on the ground in front of the sink, and another corpse at the entrance of the women's restroom. They all looked like they had been dead for a long time, but the degree of decomposition was different.
There was nothing there when they went into the bathroom.
The ground was covered with dragged bloodstains and fallen human parts. Three corpses blocked the way, making it difficult to find a foothold.
Xie Tan frowned, then heard rustling behind him. He turned around and saw the damp men's restroom with the broken light, but there was no one there and no ghosts.
But when he turned his head again, all three corpses on the ground had disappeared, and several more drag marks appeared on the ground.
At the doorway, a corpse was being dragged horizontally outside the door frame.
Xie Tan left the house a step later without any hindrance, and sure enough, there was nothing there.
Not only the corpses and the ghosts dragging them away, but also the bus speeding away in the distance, as if it didn't want to stay here for even a second longer, unaware that it had left behind a single passenger.
I might not be unaware, but I can't care anymore.
Xie Tan, who was left behind, was alright. His real destination wasn't the end of the sunset; it was just a backup plan that was in case something went wrong along the way.
The strange occurrence now proves that he's found the right place.
Xie Tan entered several other rooms, which were dilapidated, covered in dust, and uninhabited.
There were signs that the driver and two passengers had searched the place, but they had apparently found nothing.
There were also drag marks on the ground.
It was still raining outside, but Xie Tan was about to go check the highway when he smelled a strange odor as soon as he stepped out.
He examined it and confirmed that it wasn't his own pheromones. It smelled like burning oil lamps, or incense, but mixed with a strange, rotten odor.
It reminded him of incense used for offerings to gods or for memorial services.
Xie Tan's vision began to blur, his mind became dizzy, and he fainted.
Before he passed out, he heard Number 7 meowing worriedly, and had a thought: What is this burning thing? Why does it smell even worse than his pheromones?
A "hand" made of human skin supported him, and the sewn-up skin slowly unraveled, like an open sack, engulfing Xie Tan and carrying him away.
Xie Tan woke up inside a coffin.
The coffin was stuck in the ground, the lid half-closed, blocking the drizzle. He could only glimpse a bit of the gray night sky, like an ominous corner of the underground world. Opening it would mean certain doom.
But he didn't hesitate. He pushed open the coffin lid and found himself in a dug grave, surrounded by swaying branches that danced wildly in the wind and rain.
The grave was only a head higher than the coffin. Xie Tan sat up and was directly facing the empty tombstone with nothing written on it. His face was reflected in the obsidian slab in the middle.
This should be the place to put a portrait, but there's no photo. The image that shows his face looks like his grave, which is quite strange.
Beside the coffin was a bouquet of fresh flowers. Xie Tan parted the flowers and found a mass of rotting flesh deep inside. The flowers grew out of the flesh, each a small white flower with a stamen like a breathing cavity. The petals, as fine as needles, were arranged in several layers, like stacked fangs, stained red with blood and emitting the stench of corpses.
This is a solitary grave hidden in the coastal woods.
As expected of a horror comic book world, the kidnapping methods and locations have a very eerie, underworld feel.
If it wasn't for money, then was he targeted by some wizard and captured to be used as material for making poison?
This tombstone... could it be that they're looking for him to be their scapegoat?
At the front and back of the coffin, there was a tall oil lamp, one burning and the other extinguished. Xie Tan picked up the still-burning oil lamp and saw the carving of goat horns.
A black goat. So it's seeking revenge?
Just as he was about to climb out of the coffin, he saw a figure with long hair and a long dress facing him from the depths of the dark woods, amidst the mist.
It was the one that dragged the corpses away.
It sensed that Xie Tan had woken up and slowly floated over. Only then did Xie Tan realize that this was not a female ghost, and the flowing skirt was not the one that was fluttering.
It appeared to be a person, with the outline of a human head, long hair, torso, and limbs, but it was loose and flabby, as if it lacked muscles, bones, and internal organs.
It is a human skin sewn together with strands of hair.
The skins of those people did not come from the same person; they were flesh-colored, whiter, darker, and ashen white, and the degree of decay varied. Some of the skin pieces already had lividity. It was made by sewing together the skins of many corpses.
The long hair, which served as needle and thread, was densely tied at the "head" position.
Without a doubt, an ugly and terrifying monster.
Xie Tan watched quietly as it took the oil lamp from its hand. The other lamp was still in the coffin, and it had to stretch its skin and bend down to reach it, so Xie Tan took it for it.
The human-skin monster hesitated for a moment, somewhat flattered, and carefully took the oil lamp to avoid touching his clean skin with its bloodstained "hands".
Then, it turned off the lit lamp, lit another unlit lamp, and placed it in Xie Tan's hand, like a handover ceremony.
Suddenly, a corner of the coffin rim caught fire, illuminating the flames that spread steadily counterclockwise in the rain, turning somewhat black.
The strange burning smell returned.
Xie Tan felt an even stronger dizziness, and his temples throbbed with pain. It wasn't because of the pungent smell or the scorching light, but because... memories that didn't belong to him were entering his mind, while his own memories were disappearing.
When he woke up, he found that his mind seemed a bit confused.
Something inside the lamp, along with the smell of burning flames, slowly invaded his mind.
He endured the pain, ignoring the fading memories, and instead tried to recognize those unfamiliar ones.
They gradually became less unfamiliar, clearer, and more in tune with his soul, as if they were his memories all along.
It is the memory of that young master from a collateral branch of the family before his death.
So this coffin was prepared for the young master of the collateral branch... or perhaps it was prepared for him as well.
What kind of revenge is this? Wouldn't it be better to just kill him? If you think killing him is too easy, you should at least torture him, give him the memories of a collateral branch's young master, and erase his own memories. What does this mean?
Brainwash him, make him replace that young master? Like a little devil looking for a scapegoat to escape death?
Xie Tan realized that this was dangerous, but also an opportunity.
This could give him the opportunity to get to know the Black Goat family, and perhaps even infiltrate a more core group within them.
Then you'll have an identity.
Having more memories isn't a bad thing, but he can't forget his own memories.
The other, now-extinguished lamp likely represents his memory; he discovered that a section of his hair had been cut off and was probably burned inside the lamp.
The fire along the coffin had already burned three sides. He guessed this was the time limit for the ceremony; if it burned another side, it would completely surround him, leaving no room for maneuver.
Xie Tan grasped its wrist.
The wrist, made of human skin, was held in the boy's hand like an empty sleeve. He immediately threw it away in disgust, as if he had touched something dirty. He raised his chin and said coldly, "Ugly thing, get lost."
In Xie Tan's new memories, the young master of the collateral branch was like this. Although he was ignored by the family, he still retained the family's bloodline. He could occasionally see ghosts and monsters. He would pretend to be a black goat when he could use monsters. He was gentle and wanted to tame them. In fact, he looked down on these non-human ghosts and monsters and thought they were ugly and disgusting.
The human-skin monster froze. It had no mouth and could not speak, but it seemed to want to say something to him, swaying its leathery body with a rustling sound, looking very anxious.
It didn't understand why the boy had suddenly changed his attitude.
When he first saw it, his eyes were calm, without disgust or avoidance, and he even helped it carry things.
Xie Tan looked at the lamp in his hand and frowned: "You dare touch family property? Put it down. It's filthy, get out of my sight."
The monster in human skin also looked at the oil lamp. The patterns carved on the ram's horn were particularly clear under the lamplight, and it fell silent.
Then, it suddenly raised the lamp that had been extinguished and lit it with the flame of another lamp.
Another, more obscure and mysterious scent permeated the air.
Xie Tan recognized this time that it was the glands that had released pheromones due to pain and memories and emotions that did not belong to him.
With both lights on, his head throbbed even more. The young master's memories continued to creep into his mind, rampaging through him, but the rest of his memories were preserved.
The lost memories are slowly growing back, like a tree, based on his remaining memories. It just takes a while, and they are still blurry.
Fortunately, most of them were memories from the world before he transmigrated. Those memories from the past ten years or so were tasteless to eat and not worth discarding. Xie Tan even felt that forgetting them would be a good thing.
He'll recover slowly; he still feels somewhat lighter.
The fire around the coffin closed in a ring, encircling Xie Tan on all sides, like a strange sacrifice, before gradually extinguishing in the rain.
The dust has settled.
The human-skin monster put down the two malfunctioning oil lamps, deeply attracted by the alluring scent in the air, and irresistibly drew closer.
It picked up the corpse flower from the ground and presented it to Xie Tan, its behavior inexplicably shy.
Xie Tan fell silent, this time genuinely showing some disdain.
The human-skin monster could tell he didn't like it, and it sadly took it back. It thought to itself, "Maybe next time I should send something fresher."
But more than anything, he felt joy. Xie Tan's gaze returned to its peaceful state; he no longer disliked it.
Xie Tan and the others' headaches subsided and their memories stabilized. They propped themselves up and jumped out of the coffin.
With a "thud," the coffin lid slammed shut on itself, sealing the coffin perfectly.
The corpse flower burrowed into the ground, loosening the soil and causing it to swell, burying the empty coffin.
Xie Tan quickly retrieved his sports bag and took out his umbrella, but unfortunately, his umbrella was stained red with blood.
He sighed helplessly; in Diqiu, light-colored umbrellas were still not allowed.
He also brought the young master's hair knot and the long hair that was locked in the master bedroom. After examining it, he found that the young master's hair knot had changed.
Half of his braided hair seemed different; he couldn't quite put his finger on what was different, but it just looked more uniform.
He wondered if it was because the lamp that belonged to the young master's memories had also burned the young master's hair.
That should be it. Xie Tan knew that in his next move, he would have to treat himself as a collateral member of the Black Goat family.
He prepared to leave, but the human-skin monster was gone.
Following the path through the woods, he soon saw a sign indicating that it was five kilometers to the Sunset End Scenic Area.
The problem is that the original single-lane highway has a narrower road branching off to the left.
Moreover, it can only accommodate one vehicle at a time, and there is no way back.
There were no signs, and the surrounding area was a dense, quiet forest; it was impossible to tell the difference.
A new road appeared out of nowhere.
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