What do you mean by saying that the corpses I sew are all ominous creatures?

Boom, boom, boom.

A sudden knocking sound rang out.

The sound was not loud, but muffled and rhythmic, consisting of three long and two short notes.

Uncle paused, looking towards the door: "Who is it? In the middle of the night..."

"I'll go take a look."

I put away my scalpel, stood up, and straightened my clothes.

I walked to the door and slowly opened the wooden door.

There was a person standing outside the door.

The man was wearing a large, old-fashioned black raincoat with a hood, obscuring his face, and was holding a dripping black umbrella.

His trouser legs were covered in mud, indicating that he had walked a long way through the mountains.

"Excuse me, are you from the Chen family?"

Her voice was hoarse, making it hard to guess her age.

"Yes." I stood in the doorway, a polite smile on my face.

"A late-night visit, may I ask who you are?"

The man did not answer immediately, but slowly closed his black umbrella, revealing a deeply lined face.

He was a man in his fifties with a hideous scar on his left eyelid that extended all the way to the corner of his mouth.

"I'm just a gofer."

The scarred man shook the water off his raincoat, his gaze passing over my shoulder and fixed on the coffin in the center of the mourning hall. A complex emotion flashed in his eyes—a mixture of regret and relief.

"I've been asked to come and offer incense to Old Master Chen..."

Without waiting for my reply, he stepped across the threshold.

I noticed that when he entered the room, he stepped in with his left foot first, and his heel did not touch the ground.

This is the rule in the trade, which means "passersby should not touch the earth, but only respect ghosts and gods and not disturb people."

He's an expert.

I narrowed my eyes and stepped aside to make way for him: "Since you are a guest, please."

The scarred man walked to the altar, took out three incense sticks from his pocket, and without him using any fire, he rubbed his fingers together, and the incense sticks lit up on their own, emitting a wisp of smoke.

He bowed three times respectfully to the coffin, and then placed the incense sticks into the incense burner.

After doing all this, he turned around and looked at me. His intact right eye looked me up and down, and then he suddenly grinned, revealing a set of teeth that were yellowed from smoking.

"So alike, so very alike. Especially those eyes, they're exactly like your father's."

My heart skipped a beat, but my smile remained unchanged, and my tone was the same: "You know my father?"

The scarred man didn't answer directly. Instead, he took a wet brown paper envelope from the inside pocket of his raincoat and handed it to me.

Someone asked me to pass on a message to you—

He leaned closer to me and lowered his voice: "This coffin lid... when you're buried, don't nail it shut. Otherwise, the person inside will feel suffocated and might break out of the coffin. Then, no one in this room will survive."

After saying that, he shoved the envelope into my hand, not giving me a chance to ask any further questions. He then turned around, reopened his black umbrella, and strode into the rain.

"etc!"

I chased after them out the door, only to find the alleyway outside deserted, with only the torrential rain washing over the bluestone pavement.

That person seemed to have vanished into thin air.

I lowered my head and, by the dim candlelight shining from inside the room, looked at the envelope in my hand.

Holding the letter in my hand, a sense of doubt arose in my mind.

What exactly did the mysterious scarred man mean by saying that? "Breaking through the board"? Does it mean Grandpa might come back to life?

No, absolutely not.

I have already dispelled the evil aura on my grandfather's body, and I have also removed the poisonous insect from his body. His body is now no different from that of an ordinary person, and there is absolutely no possibility of him coming back to life!

It seems that only this letter in my hand can give me the answer.

Wait, believe it!

I remember my second uncle saying that after Grandpa received a letter with a black butterfly pattern printed on the envelope, he began to prepare for his death!

I turned to my second uncle: "Second Uncle, what about the letter Grandpa read that you mentioned before? Where is it now?"

My second uncle was clearly still immersed in the eerie atmosphere brought by the mysterious scarred man, and he was taken aback when I suddenly asked him this question.

Coming to his senses, Second Uncle said, "Ah... that letter, I don't know where the old man put it after reading it, maybe in his room..."

"Um... Yoko, that person from earlier?"

"Don't worry, Second Uncle, he's a江湖人 (jianghu person, a person of the martial arts world), he knows the rules. He won't come looking for trouble after we've offered incense," I said in a deep voice.

"I'm going to Grandpa's room to get something. Please keep an eye on things outside. I'll be right out."

"Okay, Second Uncle got it. You...you go and come back quickly."

"Um."

After calming my second uncle down, I walked through the dimly lit corridor and pushed open the door to my grandfather's former room.

After entering the room, I turned on the light. The room was simply furnished.

There was only an old-fashioned wooden bed, a desk, and a wardrobe.

It's frighteningly simple.

I wasted no time and immediately began searching the room for the letter.

However, it was nowhere to be found on the bedside table, in the closet, or in the desk.

All that could be found were some items that my grandfather used during his lifetime, and a few old books.

I even searched through every pocket of my grandfather's clothes and the linings of his old books, but still couldn't find the envelope.

It seems that Grandpa didn't want anyone else to see the letter, so he disposed of it himself after reading it.

Right now, all I have is this letter.

Without much hesitation, I tore open the envelope and opened the letter.

It was very thin inside; there was only one sheet of paper in the envelope.

Upon unfolding the letter, the words inside immediately came into view.

"To my grandson Chen Yang: "

Seeing this letter is like seeing you in person. By the time you read this letter, Grandpa will probably have already passed away.

Don't be sad. Everyone in our line of work has to go through this sooner or later. Grandpa sewed up countless corpses in his life, accumulating a lot of good karma, but also incurring a lot of karmic debt.

This misfortune is fate, and also retribution; I have no one to blame but myself.

You don't need to delve into the details of Grandpa's death, but you must never reveal to anyone that you possess our family's heirloom, the "Chen Family Heavenly Garment Strategy."

I'm nearing the end of my life, and I know your temperament, so you can't avoid this trip back to Longzhai.

Sigh... All these years I've kept you away from coming back because I wanted you to stay away from this murky water.

But unexpectedly, after all the twists and turns, it was still unavoidable.

Now that we're back, there's no escaping it.

Remember these three things:

First, that copper coin sword and rattle drum are your grandfather's talismans; never let them leave your side.

Second, after midnight tonight, whatever sounds you make inside the coffin, don't be afraid. That's Grandpa helping you "test your courage." That's the final test; only after you pass this test will you be a true member of the Chen family's corpse-stitching tradition.

Third, go to western Hunan and find a man called "Ghost Hand Zhang". Only he knows the last whereabouts of your parents.

Finally, if things don't work out, go back to Jiangcheng and never return to Longzhai again!

—Grandpa's last words

This letter was actually left to me by my grandfather!

I recognize Grandpa's handwriting, and besides, the ink on it has a pungent smell, like something special has been added to the ink, it's... the smell of corpse oil!

I brought the tip of my nose close and smelled it. There was no mistake. This was a unique method of refining corpse oil that only my Chen family knew. It had the effects of dispelling evil spirits and suppressing evil.

This letter is genuine.

So Grandpa had foreseen his own death all along, and even personally set up the ominous Arhat Sitting in the Sha to test me?

No, that's not right, there are still some doubts.

Grandpa knows my methods; this level of intimidation is hardly a test.

Also, the timing doesn't match.

The time mentioned in the letter is clearly tonight, and besides, I have already broken the evil aura on Grandpa's corpse, so the possibility of it turning into a zombie on its own is not high.

So where does this "courage building" come from?

And the copper coin sword mentioned in the letter, I have not found it either.

And my parents... Ghost Hand Zhang... and what the scarred man said about the coffin never being nailed shut during burial...

After reading this letter, my doubts didn't lessen; in fact, they increased.