The people under the car were walking forward with the sound of gongs and drums, and the people on the car all turned their heads away. Only I was secretly glancing at the coffin in the team out of the corner of my eye.
Carrying the coffin for a ghost marriage is like carrying a sedan chair for a wedding in the human world. The bride has to get off the sedan chair when she arrives, and the ghost wife has to be buried together when she arrives. The coffin cannot be nailed shut, because the ghost bride in the coffin might peek through the cracks of the coffin to see what's going on outside. If a passerby at night makes eye contact with her, it will definitely not be a pleasant experience.
I simply asked everyone in the car to turn their heads around and no one was curious about looking at the coffin.
What I didn't expect was that when the coffin was carried to the side of the bus, the suona sound stopped at the side of the bus. When I looked out of the bus, I saw that more than a dozen strong men carrying the coffin were all unable to straighten their backs due to the pressure of the coffin poles. The coffin, which was originally more than three feet high from the ground, was falling to the ground inch by inch. Several strong men tried several times but could not move the coffin.
The matchmaker yelled at the top of her voice: "Hurry up, everyone over there come over and give a hand, don't let the coffin fall to the ground!"
The most taboo thing in a ghost marriage is the coffin falling to the ground. As long as the bottom of the coffin is covered with dirt, it means that the woman in the coffin would rather die than get married. The bride and groom have to carry the coffin back whether they are willing or not.
Ghosts are not like living people who can force a man to marry. Once a man is forcibly buried together, even if the ghost cannot defeat the ghost husband, can't she still cause trouble for the living? If a female ghost gets angry, everyone from the matchmaker to the coffin bearers will be in trouble.
However, this is not absolute. When the coffin is about to fall to the ground, as long as the rope of the coffin is not broken, it means there is still a chance to make amends - the ghost bride in the coffin is just hesitating, and has not yet reached the point of refusing to obey. At this time, the matchmaker is needed. With her words, she may be able to make things right. In that case, the man's family will have to pay the matchmaker a reward.
When I glanced sideways at the car, the matchmaker ran to the front of the coffin in two or three steps: "My dear aunt, what are you doing? You are about to go to your husband's house, why are you still throwing a tantrum..."
The matchmaker didn't say a word, and her voice suddenly changed: "Bah! You shameless slut, you still like others. Let me tell you, those people next to you are immortals, but they don't like you..."
I felt something was wrong when I heard the matchmaker's words. I suddenly turned around and looked at the coffin, but I saw the red-dressed female ghost who had just disappeared sitting on the coffin with a smile on her face: "Brother Yu, do you still remember how you married me back then?"
Guan Xingyu was so frightened that his face turned pale: "No, no... I have never married you... Don't come to me..."
"There's a ghost!" Everyone on the train saw the female ghost at the same time, and they were so scared that they swarmed to one side of the carriage.
The car that was originally parked on the side of the mountain road tilted to the side, and Ye Jin was so scared that he shouted angrily, "Don't move!"
We were clearly only two or three meters away from the wedding party, but the car was in chaos and the people below seemed to have heard nothing and remained there without moving.
Guan Xingyu screamed: "Wu Zhao, what are you doing? Kill him quickly! Quickly..."
I wanted to move, but I couldn't.
The space around me seemed to be suddenly locked by some force, not only trapping me inside, but also pressing down on my limbs due to the force that came from nowhere. Even if I wanted to raise my hands, I couldn't do it now.
When I turned my head to look at Monk Shi, he was also sweating profusely. He was struggling desperately but couldn't stand up.
Guan Xingyu obviously didn't know what happened to the two of us. He yelled from a distance, "Wu Zhao, Shi Bucong, what are you two doing? The devil has come to your door, and you're still sitting there? Go for it! Brother Jiang, where are your bodyguards? Let them do it!"
Jiang Yan was so frightened that his face turned pale: "Move...move..."
No matter how Jiang Yan shouted, his bodyguards remained motionless around him, not even trying to take action. Jiang Yan grabbed a bodyguard by the collar and said, "I'm talking to you, can you hear me?"
Before the bodyguard could say anything, there was a loud bang from under the car. The ropes of the coffin broke at once, and the mahogany coffin fell to the ground. As dust flew up around the coffin, the matchmaker screamed, "Which fairy did you like? Why don't you say something?"
A student leaning against the car didn't know what to think, and took over the matchmaker's words and shouted: "We are not immortals, we are human. We have encountered a ghost, auntie, please help us..."
"Shut up!"
As soon as that person opened his mouth I knew something was wrong, but it was too late to stop him.
The matchmaker looked up and asked, "Are you human?"
I immediately shouted, "No one should talk nonsense!"
However, the student ignored my warning and kept nodding, saying, "Yes, we are human beings, we are students. Auntie, look at the female ghost on the coffin..."
"What did you say? Ghosts are in the coffin?" The matchmaker screamed in fear and turned to look at the top of the coffin: "No way... Oh my God! Quick, hurry up..."
Oh no! They are going to kill someone! Cold sweat suddenly broke out on my forehead.
There is actually another way to say ghost marriage, which is that the ghost falls in love with the living person and tries every means to live with the other person. When the ghost feels that it is impossible for them to be together in the world of the living and the dead, the ghost will kill.
Sometimes, ghosts take action themselves and forcibly drag their loved ones to their side; sometimes, ghosts instigate others to kill because they are afraid that their loved ones have resentment in their hearts and would not want to be with them even after death.
The matchmaker might know about this legend, but judging from her reaction, what she knew was a little biased, because when she shouted "get started", she was obviously afraid.
Before I could even open my mouth, the wedding procession rushed over to the bus. The matchmaker screamed, "Quick, push the bus off, or we'll all die!"
“Don’t…” The student who was full of hope just now suddenly burst into tears out of fear, “We are human beings… You are killing people… Please, spare me!”
Jiang Yan shouted, "Quick, get out of the car and kill those bastards!"
Jiang Yan almost shouted his throat out, but none of the bodyguards around him rushed out of the car.
“Push… push… push faster…”
No matter how desperately the people on the bus begged or how loudly they threatened, the matchmaker under the bus turned a deaf ear and kept shouting for people to push the bus down the mountain. Just a few seconds later, the bus that was stuck on the edge of the mountain road was overturned from the top of the mountain by dozens of people.
I felt dizzy, and then my head hit the door hard. When I opened my eyes again, I was dragged out of the car. There was no one around me except Shi Heshang and Ye Jin. Only the overturned bus was left on the hillside.
I reached out and touched the bloody head: "What's going on?"
Monk Shi said, "After the car overturned, several people died. The survivors were all panicked, but Jiang Yan refused to believe you and insisted on taking everyone away. As a result, Guan Xingyu ran away with them, and the rest of the people also ran away. The girl from the Guan family didn't agree to go with them at first, but she couldn't stand Guan Xingyu's insistence, so she ran away with them anyway."
I struggled to stand up and ran to the back of the overturned car to take a look: "Where are the dead people in the car? Where did they go?"
"They were in the car!" Shi Heshang also rushed over. "They were in the car just now, how come they are all gone?"
There was indeed no body to be seen in the bus, only a few bloody footprints outside the bus.
Monk Shi panicked: "I was just looking at you and didn't notice the car... those dead people..."
"The dead man ran away!" I said in a deep voice, "Which direction did Guan Xingyu and the others go?"
Monk Shi pointed down the mountain and said, "That's it!"
"Chase them!" I took out a flashlight from my backpack and followed their footprints. However, before I had gone far, I saw a small river in front of me. The footprints disappeared when they reached the river.
Monk Shi used his stick to probe the river twice and said, "The water is not deep. Could they have all gone into the river?"
"Impossible! Wading into the river in the middle of the night is courting death. If they had any sense, they wouldn't have gone into the river." I took out three large coins and threw them on the ground. "Look downstream. They went along the river."
After I ran a few hundred meters along the river, Shi Heshang couldn't help but ask, "Brother, are you chasing in the wrong direction? Look at the ground, there's not even a footprint. The grass in front hasn't fallen down, how can they fly along the grass?"
Further ahead, there were only waist-high weeds. If I waded through it, it would be impossible not to knock down a single blade of grass. But in front of me, there was clearly no sign of anyone passing by.
I made another divination, and the result was still the same: "They are going this way. I must have calculated it correctly."
At this time, Ye Jin, who was following us, went to the waterside and brought out a stone. He pointed at the moss on the stone that had been rubbed off by his shoes and said, "Wu Zhao's calculations were correct. They were walking down in the water. We can definitely follow them along the river."
"Shall we go in the water too?" Monk Shi rolled up his trousers and was about to go in, but I waved my hand to stop him and said, "You guys stay on the shore, I'll go in the water and chase you. Let's not get too close, just keep a distance of one or two meters."
I stepped into the river and followed the current. Ye Jin pulled out a machete from behind him and followed him, sweeping the weeds on the ground. Not long after, I heard Shi Heshang shouting, "Old Wu, there seems to be a cemetery ahead, with many graves, take a look."
When I looked towards the shore with a flashlight, I saw a raised mound of earth.
~~~~~~~
Thank you all for your support, and stay tuned for the next episode!
Thanks: Doudou, for your long-term reward.
Thanks: I am grateful for the local specialties sent by Shen Fu. (To be continued)