Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 76 The Seventh Day
On the fourth day, the knife seller came on credit.

The mysterious knife seller came to the door in the cold moonlight and took back Aunt Liu's kitchen knife.

After being retrieved from the Wujiang ghost world, the knife became tattered and had gaps all over its surface.

Seeing that Ran Qing was the only one there, the man selling the knife on credit was not too surprised.

He took back the broken kitchen knife with an expressionless face and said concisely, "Thank you."

The man who sold knives on credit had a very bad look on his face after failing in his business.

He obviously did not expect that Sixth Aunt would die and found it unreasonable.

But he didn't ask Ran Qing any more questions and left.

Perhaps asking is a taboo for people who buy knives on credit.

After all, they claimed that they could predict good and bad luck and the future, but this time they failed at the hands of Aunt Six.

The man who bought the knife on credit didn't anticipate that Sixth Aunt had died before, and he didn't anticipate that Sixth Aunt would not be able to escape this disaster no matter what.

The knife he gave to Aunt Liu was completely wasted.

After sending away the knife seller on credit, Ran Qing began to prepare for the first seven nights.

The first seven nights are when the dead return to life.

Ran Qing was no stranger to this.

When he was very young, he secretly observed those wandering souls.

The confused and dull wandering souls will wander around the places where they lived in their lifetime after death.

However, it is recorded in "Witchcraft, Ghosts and Magic" that people in the Xuanmen sect will return on the first seven nights regardless of how they died - it's just that the way they return is different.

Only after the seventh day can the person be considered to have completely died.

Ran Qing couldn't help but be curious. What would Sixth Aunt, who had turned into a monster, look like when she returned on the first seven nights?
……

…………

"Ran Qing, why don't we go home?"

Under the street lights late at night, Ran Qing sat on the roadside holding a thick copy of "Witchcraft, Ghosts and Magic", reading the old book in his hand in the light of the street lamp.

In his right hand he held a brand new pipe, in which burned the pungent earthen tobacco leaves.

Ran Qing was flipping through "Witchcraft, Ghosts and Magic", and from time to time he smacked his lips and exhaled pungent smoke.

However, his lungs only allowed the smoke to rise around him. This was the limit that Ran Qing, who did not smoke, could accept. He smoked only because he needed the pungent smell of tobacco leaves to cover up the scent of blood and flesh from the people who had taken revenge on him.

A wandering soul floating by in the distance was completely unaware of the ghost sitting here, and instead avoided the area filled with choking smoke.

Little Cotton lay at Ran Qing's feet, not minding the smell of cigarettes on the boy.

She was sometimes drowsy and sometimes awake. Just now she was playing with her shadow under the street light, but now she suddenly regained consciousness and asked Ran Qing curiously.

Ran Qing glanced at her and explained, "Tonight is the seventh night after the death of Sixth Aunt. We are waiting for her soul to return."

On the seventh night, Aunt Liu will return to the soul. This will be her last night on earth.

When going out, Ran Qing opened the door and turned off all the lights in the house. Then he sprinkled fine flour in the house and hung a bell at the door.

Only after Sixth Aunt's soul returned and left could Ran Qing go home to open the altar and light incense.

He was not sure what appearance Sixth Aunt would take when she returned, and the "Book of Witchcraft and Demonic Arts" did not say. After careful consideration, Ran Qing finally suppressed the urge to meet Sixth Aunt, and chose to stay away from her and wait for the bell hanging on the door to ring.

Little Mianhua, who was in a daze, was also curious about what Aunt Liu would look like when she came back.

But after hesitating for a while, she did not dare to go back to look, but lay down at Ran Qing's feet and waited.

If the returning Sixth Aunt turns out to be that terrifying monster...

Little Cotton felt terrified just by imagining it.

In the second half of the night, the sound of a bell finally rang in the pitch-black cement house.

Ran Qing, who had been reading for a long time, immediately closed the book, stood up, and looked towards the concrete house from afar.

In the moonlight, his yin-yang eyes vaguely saw a blurry, hunched black figure walk into the house. Then, there were some noises in the house, as if something was being smashed.

Hearing the violent noise, Little Mianhua shrank to Ran Qing's feet in fear and began to tremble.

Ran Qing also frowned, staring at the direction of the cement house from afar, and clenched the pipe in his hand.

Aunt Six really came back as a monster...

After death, people will become vicious and cruel and no longer have any humanity.

This is what his grandmother told him when he was a child.

But in the case of Li Hongye, this law failed. The girl who turned into a demon remained sober and rational, and let Ran Qing go at the last moment.

This made Ran Qing think that powerful people in the Xuanmen could remain conscious after death.

But now Aunt Six has returned as a monster, vicious and brutal, with no humanity left.

The powerful perception of the ghost man allowed Ran Qing to clearly feel the strong and violent evil spirit in the concrete house below.

...Even Aunt Six is ​​no exception, so why can Li Hongye still be rational?

Ran Qing stood on a high place, staring at the concrete house below with an expressionless face, and doubts arose in his heart.

He watched the hunched black figure sneak into the house, wander around for a long time, smash a lot of things, and noises continued to come from inside the house.

Afterwards, the hunched black shadow, having found nothing, groped his way out of the house and wandered around the cement house. He seemed unwilling to give up and tried to find Ran Qing and Xiaomianhua nearby.

But in the end, it achieved nothing.

The black shadow, having found nothing, stood on the concrete yard and growled angrily.

It wandered outside the house for a long time before unwillingly disappearing into the darkness.

Little Cotton, who watched the monster disappear, was so frightened that his whole body was shaking like a sieve.

"Ran...Ran Qing," Little Mianhua said in horror, "Auntie has turned into a zombie! She's back and wants to eat us!"

After the corpse becomes stiff, it will return to its former residence and look for its former relatives to eat.

The hunched black shadow that appeared in the cement house just now clearly followed the same behavioral logic.

Searching for the living relatives and friends in the house and trying to eat them...

Little Cotton seemed to be reminded of the fear he had when he had seen zombies before.

Ran Qing squinted his eyes and shook his head slowly: "It's not a zombie, but something scarier than a zombie."

After watching the hunched black figure disappear into the darkness, Ran Qing did not return rashly, but stood on a high place and waited for a long time.

Only when there was no movement in the cement house and Aunt Liu's ghost had indeed disappeared did Ran Qing bring Xiao Mianhua back into the house.

The room with the door open was already in a mess.

The flour-strewn floor was covered with tiny monster footprints.

All the bowls in the cupboard were pulled out and smashed, and the floor was littered with broken pieces of porcelain bowls.

There were several claw marks on the wall made by monsters, which looked shocking.

The tablets of Heaven, Earth, Emperor, Parents and Teachers were also smashed to pieces.

The two beds in the two bedrooms were moved.

The monster searched the house for living people, even under the bed and in the corners, making the whole house a mess.

It's hard to imagine what would have happened if Ran Qing and Xiao Mianhua had stayed in this room...

Walking straight to the tablets of Heaven, Earth, Emperor, Parents and Teacher, Ran Qing skillfully lit another stick of incense in the large vat.

Then, looking at the mess in the house, Ran Qing muttered to himself.

"...After the ceremony, I have to go to Li Hongye's house."

(End of this chapter)