Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 44 She seemed to see the past
Aunt Liu persuaded Ran Qing in a serious tone.

Aunt Liu, who had always been ferocious, was unusually calm and rational. She analyzed the pros and cons for Ran Qing from his perspective and gave a long speech.

She, who always mocked and ridiculed Ran Qing, now even praised Ran Qing seriously and gave him high evaluation.

At this moment, Sixth Aunt was nothing like the mean and vicious woman she usually was.

But after listening to Aunt Liu's words silently, Ran Qing shook his head.

"Let's get started, Aunt Six."

Ran Qing didn't think or hesitate.

Before coming here, he had already thought about these pros and cons many times.

He understood all the reasons that Aunt Liu said, but he also knew very well that he could not owe this favor. At the same time, he wanted to know what happened to his mother's body.

He did not come here as that man's son to save his father, but as an adult to repay the favor he owed and to demand the truth he deserved to know.

Ran Qing's eyes were determined, without the slightest hesitation.

In the pine forest, Aunt Six stared at the thin young man with a determined look for a long time. A light suddenly appeared in her dead eyes.

She stared blankly for a long while before lowering her head and letting out an ambiguous sneer: "...It's really exactly the same."

"The same stubborn guy."

Aunt Liu took a deep breath and raised her head.

She turned around, picked up the small bamboo basket on the ground, and handed it to Ran Qing.

"Take it."

Ran Qing lifted the cover of the bamboo basket and found it was a basket of eggs.

Aunt Liu carried her small wooden box to the mud pit, took out a large bag of incense ash, and sprinkled the ashes around the mud pit.

Then he took out many thin red ropes, each of which was tied with a thin bone.

Sixth Aunt tossed one of the bones tied with a red string to Ran Qing and said, "Put the bone in your mouth and keep the string outside."

She instructed Ran Qing while inserting the tiny bones one by one into the soil beside the mud pit.

Soon, the mud pit, which emitted the damp and smelly odor of rotting vegetation and incense ash, was filled with densely packed bones.

A cold wind blew, and the thin red ropes danced in the air like wriggling leeches.

In this way, Aunt Liu used densely packed red ropes to circle the mud pit, and then she stood outside the circle of red ropes and incense ashes, holding the ghost-eye sheepskin drum, and spoke to Ran Qing in the mud pit.

"You pry open the coffin a little, and then I'll hit the drum, and you throw an egg in."

"From now on, you can't speak, and the bone you're biting in your mouth can't fall out. You have to hold it in your mouth the whole time."

"Wear the Nuo opera mask with you. You will do whatever I tell you to do later! Do you understand?"

The flashlight hanging on the pine tree nearby cast a dim light into the mud pit.

Facing the light, Ran Qing could only see the blurry shadow of Aunt Liu beside the mud pit.

He took a deep breath, clenched the bones in his mouth, and nodded vigorously.

Then, Aunt Liu raised her hand.

The moment Ran Qing used an engineering shovel to pry open the blood-red coffin lid, a dull drumbeat was heard in the dark and damp pine forest.

thump—

A dull drumbeat echoed in the darkness.

Ran Qing, who was standing beside the coffin, felt his heart tremble and almost jumped out of his throat with the sound of the drum.

He calmed himself down and threw an egg into the coffin as Aunt Liu had instructed.

thump—

Another dull drum sound was heard, and some kind of sinister and chaotic vibration came along with the drum sound. Ran Qing, who was standing next to the coffin, felt the ground shaking and his body seemed to be spinning.

He hurriedly held the coffin and threw another egg into it.

thump—

When the third drum sounded, Ran Qing felt that the bone in his mouth seemed to jump.

He clenched his teeth, feeling a certain struggle. The bone tied with a red rope seemed to want to jump out of Ran Qing's mouth.

Ran Qing quickly threw another egg into the coffin.

Dong—the fourth sound…

The fifth tone...

The dull drumbeats, like death-prompting war drums, surged in the dark and damp pine forest with murderous and evil malice.

Ran Qing, squatting on the coffin, felt as if the coldness around him had been dispelled.

This pine forest, which should have been dark and humid, gradually became hot and choking.

There was a pungent smell of smoke in the air that shouldn't have been there.

It looked like there were a lot of incense sticks burning nearby.

Aunt Liu was standing by the mud pit, holding a sheepskin drum and beating it slowly.

At her feet, miserable dead faces were wriggling, tumbling, howling, and biting each other in the incense ashes on the ground.

The scorching, oppressive wind blew, and the red strings stuck in the incense ashes trembled constantly. Ugly little figures screamed and babbled, running around the mud pit.

Ran Qing stared at all this in a daze, his mind a little confused as he watched the bizarre scene in his vision.

The constant beating of the drum seemed to take away his sanity.

He lay on the coffin in a daze, and instinctively followed Aunt Liu's instructions and threw the eggs in the bamboo basket into the coffin one by one.

The dull drumbeat continued.

The hot and choking smoke in the pine forest became thicker and thicker.

Ran Qing vaguely heard the voice of his sixth aunt.

The sound seemed to be farther away, yet also very close. It was hazy, strange and sinister, like the muttering of a monster, making people's hair stand on end.

——It was exactly the same voice she used when she first sent Ran Qing to the Wujiang ghost world.

But that time, Aunt Liu only knocked four times.

Tonight, the bell has already sounded...

Ran Qing stared blankly at Aunt Liu beside the mud pit and forgot to count.

He just instinctively threw the eggs in one by one following the drumbeat. In his field of vision, the air was already distorted by the heat, and the strange and evil whispers of Aunt Six were floating in the air.

“…Red coffin lid!”

"There is no peace after death!"

Aunt Six was growling like she was chanting a spell, and the sound made Ran Qing's scalp feel like it was about to explode and the hairs on his body stood on end.

He clearly felt that there seemed to be some kind of cold aura in the coffin under his body, awakening with the strange mumbling of Aunt Six.

His hand subconsciously reached for the bamboo basket.

But this time, he got nothing.

Ran Qing looked down in a daze, only to find that the basket was empty. He had used up all the eggs in the basket.

At this moment, Aunt Liu's hoarse voice suddenly became clear and loud, like gongs and drums exploding in her ears.

Ran Qing was shocked.

"Open the coffin and jump in!"

Aunt Liu yelled hoarsely.

Hearing Aunt Liu's roar, Ran Qing subconsciously jumped into the mud pit and pushed open the vermilion coffin lid.

Under the dim pale light, lying in the coffin was a girl with a pale face and closed eyes.

She lay there quietly, seemingly asleep.

Ran Qing was stunned when he saw this scene...

But suddenly a force kicked from behind, and Ran Qing was caught off guard and staggered and fell into the coffin involuntarily.

The heavy coffin lid slammed shut, and Ran Qing fell into endless darkness. His rapidly falling body felt an extremely cold and stiff touch.

That is……

Li Hongye’s body!

(End of this chapter)