Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 43: Red Coffin Cover, Unrest After Death

In the dark pine forest, Sixth Aunt's smile was eerie and strange, making Ran Qing's hair stand on end.

At this moment, Aunt Liu seemed to have become something else.

Ran Qing subconsciously clenched the engineer shovel, feeling a little nervous.

But Aunt Liu squatted down and ignored Ran Qing.

She opened the small wooden box she had brought with her and, like a landowner conserving her wealth, counted its contents piece by piece. Her greedy, dark profile under the flashlight was scarier than a ghost.

After being silent for a few seconds, Ran Qing finally said nothing and began to dig the ground silently.

This wasn't the first time he'd seen Aunt Six undergo such a strange transformation, but he still felt uneasy.

In the past few days of contact, he always felt that the sinister and evil side of Aunt Six was gradually deepening...

After the soil in the pine forest was dug up, the stench of rotting vegetation in the air became stronger.

Aunt Liu was right. The soil here was all loose new soil, and it was effortless to dig.

Is this... Li Hongye's body underneath?

If so, who buried her here? And who killed her?

Ran Qing's mind was in a mess, with churning thoughts making him uneasy.

Whenever he thought of Li Hongye, the terrifying figure he had seen in the Wujiang ghost world would appear before his eyes. The icy shudder that made him feel suffocated and desperate seemed to appear with it.

Just the thought made Ran Qing feel a little breathless.

He quickly stopped digging, squatted stiffly on the ground with the shovel in his hand, and gasped for breath.

The harsh breathing sound spread in the dark pine forest. Aunt Liu, who was counting things, looked up and glanced at Ran Qing.

At this time, Aunt Liu had returned to normal.

She frowned and glanced at Ran Qing, saying disdainfully, "You're already tired after just digging for a while? You're really embarrassing your Ran family ancestors."

Ran Qing was a little embarrassed when being ridiculed by Aunt Six.

Aunt Six was obviously disgusted by the past of his Ran family's ancestors digging up graves and corpses, and she never missed any opportunity to make fun of Ran Qing.

Ran Qing lowered his head helplessly and continued digging in silence, unable to say anything back.

Soon, the shovel hit something. There was a dull thud as the shovel entered the soil.

Ran Qing paused, his digging effort immediately lightening. Aunt Liu, standing nearby, also came over, flashlight in hand, clutching the ghost-eye goatskin drum.

The flashlight fell into the mud pit, and as the soil was continuously removed by the shovel, a red wooden board appeared in the mud pit.

Aunt Liu's eyes changed slightly.

“…There’s actually a coffin?”

She immediately took several steps back, looked at the mud pit nervously, and said to Ran Qing: "Boy, keep digging!"

Aunt Liu stared at the mud pit vigilantly, looking completely ready for action.

Ran Qing, who was left in the pit, had a stiff face and his scalp felt numb. He was frightened by Aunt Liu's nervous reaction.

But at this moment, even though he was scared, he couldn't run away. After all, this was his own business...

Ran Qing took a deep breath, clenched the shovel in his hand, and continued digging with gritted teeth.

Soon, in the damp and cold pine forest, Ran Qing used a shovel to dig out a rectangular mud pit, revealing a complete coffin. The red coffin board looked a bit eerie and creepy under the flashlight.

Ran Qing had also seen a red coffin. It was a red coffin for an 87-year-old rural man who died in his sleep without any illness or pain. People said it was a happy funeral.

But the coffin in the mud pit in front of him looked a little weird.

Aside from the coffin lid, which was a vibrant, vibrant crimson, the rest of the coffin was a cold, pale white. This unusually pale color was as strangely cold as the skin of a dead person, and when the flashlight shone on it, even the light seemed to turn cold.

White coffin, red lid...

Ran Qing looked at Sixth Aunt, trying to seek an explanation. Beside the mud pit, Sixth Aunt's face was gloomy and extremely ugly.

"The red coffin lid, the dead are restless..."

Aunt Six murmured softly, slowly walking around the mud pit, muttering, "Kid, in your Ran family's Feng Shui, what is this kind of burial method called?"

"The body is buried in a white coffin, and the lid is covered with a red coffin..."

"I remember Ran Lao San mentioned something like, what is this called... gathering wind and abating evil?"

Aunt Liu stared at Ran Qing with her dull, dead eyes and asked.

Ran Qing hesitated and shook his head: "Um... Sixth Aunt, I don't understand Feng Shui..."

Ran Qing told the truth.

But Aunt Six was stunned, a little bit incredulous: "You don't understand Feng Shui? How could someone with the surname Ran not understand Feng Shui?"

"It's ok that your father didn't teach you corpse refining, but he didn't even teach you the ancestral Feng Shui technique?"

Ran Qing lowered his head in silence.

There was dead silence for a few seconds beside the mud pit in the pine forest.

Aunt Liu looked at Ran Qing, who was silent with his head down, and seemed to understand something.

She said coldly: "It seems that you really have a good father. He doesn't teach you anything and doesn't care about you... Hehe..."

Aunt Liu's cold snort made the atmosphere near the mud pit a little weird.

Ran Qing lowered his head, seemingly recalling that winter morning ten years ago. Standing on the edge of a field in the thick white fog, he watched the man walk away, his bag on his back, without even turning back.

Ran Qing exhaled softly and said, "Sixth Aunt, if we open the coffin and burn the body directly, will there be any danger?"

Ran Qing didn't want to talk about that person.

This isn't the time to talk about this sort of thing.

In the cold pine forest, as the coffin was dug out, Ran Qing felt that the chill in the air seemed to be slowly intensifying.

The forest seemed to have become even colder.

He was afraid that if he delayed any longer, something terrible would happen.

Beside the mud pit, Aunt Six gave the young man a deep look and said, "Opening the coffin directly is not dangerous. But touching the body inside would be dangerous."

"So I need you to hold back your female classmate and prevent her from discovering that someone is burning her body here."

"Kid, the next step is the last one."

"We're going to open the coffin, and you're going to go in and see your female classmate. It's very dangerous to lead her around in circles. I'm not sure how long you can hold out."

At the edge of the flashlight, Aunt Liu's face was faintly visible in the shadows.

She looked at Ran Qing coldly and said, "Your father, Ran Laosan, is not a good person. You can actually ignore him."

"He probably doesn't want you to care about him."

"Anyway, this is how his life is. His wife died, and he didn't care about his son. He ran off to the city and married a new wife to live a carefree life. He's so heartless."

"He saved you this time because he owes you. Even the fact that you're being haunted by these ghosts might be due to the karmic debt he caused."

"He hurt you, not you hurt him."

"You don't have to die for him. Now let's go back and bury the coffin and pretend nothing happened. There's still time for everything."

"This is your last chance to regret. You must think carefully."

Aunt Liu stared at Ran Qing intently and said seriously, "Your son has good grades, is hardworking, and is a down-to-earth person. He will have a bright future."

"There's no need to risk your life for a heartless guy!"

(End of this chapter)