Rustle…
The shadows of the trees in the yard were swaying on the paper windows, the sound of the wind outside squeezed in through the door gap, the dim oil lamp flickered, and the waiter, who was separated by a curtain, made a slight sound of chattering teeth, staring at the female corpse lying on the coffin without blinking.
The shop assistant looked for a long time, his eyes became sore, his eyelids drooped, and he began to feel sleepy. In his dim state, he heard a slight crackling sound, and the sleepy shop assistant woke up with a start and quickly wiped his eyes.
On the other side of the blurry curtain, the oil lamp was swaying, and the corpse of a ghost covered with a white cloth was sitting upright.
'My...my...mother...'
The shopkeeper's dead woman sat up, uncovered the quilt on her body, and put down her stiff legs. As she moved, the white cloth covering her face slipped off, revealing a pale golden face with lifeless grey eyes, a crooked mouth and nose, and a blue tongue stuck to her lips. She walked slowly through the curtain, swaying from side to side.
cluck~
The guy swallowed, closed his eyes, buried his head under the quilt, and curled up his body.
"If I had known... I wouldn't have earned the ten cents from the shopkeeper..."
After a while, there seemed to be no movement in the room. The waiter quietly lifted a gap in the quilt, and in the dim light, he saw a figure in funeral shrouds walking back and forth. At a certain moment, as if it felt someone was peeping, it suddenly turned around and faced him.
The guy screamed "Ah!" and when he lifted the quilt, he saw a pale golden face and a lifeless corpse standing beside the bed. He was so scared that he fell off the bed and ran to open the door in a hurry.
"Shopkeeper! Your wife got up—"
Screams of fear echoed throughout the backyard, and then the candle in the room in the attic, which had been originally lit, was blown out, and the doors and windows slammed shut twice in succession.
'Fuck you...'
The guy cursed in his heart. He heard the footsteps of the female corpse in the main room behind him, but he didn't dare to stop. He rushed to the side door of the backyard, opened it, and ran straight out. Feeling the female corpse behind him, he didn't dare to look back and ran out of the alley madly.
Bang bang bang!
While stumbling, the waiter ran from house to house and banged on the doors of other houses nearby, almost crying out of fear.
"Who will open the door and let me in..."
The night wind blew through the long street. In the direction where the fleeing figure was running, there was still a light on in the crack of the door of a room under an attic.
“… Alas, I went over to take a look, and it was indeed my wife’s corpse. You said that the person was dead, so how could she get up and kill her own relatives? It’s not just my family, there are more than ten families in the town with the same situation as mine. Nowadays, when someone dies in a family, the family members put the corpse away and leave at night, hiding outside for two days before coming back, but the other neighbors can’t leave. As soon as it gets dark, every household immediately closes the doors and windows and dares not go out, for fear that the corpse will run in. They even raise the threshold on purpose, after all, the corpse is stiff and the knees can’t bend.”
Dogs barked in the night and an oil lamp burned quietly on the table. Hearing the old man talking about the strange things in the town, Lu Liangsheng thought carefully. He was not afraid of the evil spirits approaching, but he just felt a little strange. Logically speaking, there are conditions for corpse transformation. Either the yin energy is extremely heavy, or there are other external causes.
Moreover, it is a bit too strange that the corpse would rise up on the same night as the person who died.
"Father, is there a land temple in this town?"
"No, no..."
Having said this, the old man paused, suddenly remembered something, and looked at the scholar in front of him.
"It happened many years ago. I was about 40 years old at that time. It seemed that there was a heavy rain with lightning and thunder. Later, I heard that the land temple at the entrance of the town collapsed. At that time, there was chaos and no one cared. As time went by, I forgot about it. Do you think it was because of the land temple?"
Lu Liangsheng suddenly heard the sound of the street outside. He remained calm and said with a smile: "Maybe."
"Alas, the land temple really needs repairing. By the way, young master and the Taoist priest traveled all night, I'm afraid they haven't eaten yet?"
The old man got up from the bench, took the oil lamp, lit a handful of straw, passed it into the stove, and broke off a few branches to make a fire.
"If you don't mind, I'll cook a meal for you two. I'm the only one at home anyway, and I still have some rice left."
When he turned around, he saw only the scholar still sitting there, bowing to him and thanking him, while the Taoist priest beside him had left at some point.
"Where is the Taoist priest?"
Lu Liangsheng smiled and pointed to the backyard: "He went to the toilet and will be back soon."
On the street outside the house, the Taoist who was said to be going to the outhouse was running on the street with a yellow cloth bag on his shoulder. The air was filled with mist and a figure was vaguely visible, crying and knocking on the door, coming towards him.
He stumbled and looked back as he ran. When he turned around, he happened to see Sun Yingxian, who was dressed in Taoist robes. He was so excited that he cried out "Wow!"
"Master, help me!"
He ran over and threw himself at the Taoist's feet, hugged his ankles, lay on the ground on his side and pointed to the misty street behind him.
"My shopkeeper's wife has turned into a corpse."
"It keeps chasing me. I'm so scared!"
Female corpse
Sun Yingxian had a serious look on his face. He kicked the waiter on the ground and threw him to the side. He then took out a few talismans from the yellow cloth bag at his waist and held them between his fingers. He tilted his head to look at the waiter on the ground.
"How old is the corpse? Does it look...horrible and hideous?"
The guy didn't react, his words were trembling: "It's so scary... It can scare someone to death."
In an instant, the Taoist put the talismans between his fingers into his pocket, drew out the red line and a small sword again, ignored the guy, and ran towards him through the fog. A figure came running swayingly, and he tightened his fingers and shone directly at him.
The red rope was tightened around the corpse's neck. Sun Yingxian's arm quickly circled around and the small sword stabbed at the back of the opponent's head. Dark red blood slid down the edge for an instant. The corpse stretched out her arms and swept them backwards. The Taoist shrank down, pinched the red line and quickly raised his hand to press on the corpse's forehead, as if one end of the line was stuck there.
The Taoist took a quick step back, stretched the red string and pulled it. The black color spread across the lady's forehead and the body froze in place, motionless.
"It's done."
Sun Yingxian rolled up the blackened rope, took out a talisman, wrapped it up, lit it, and threw it on the street to burn.
He pushed the corpse to the ground, leaped up and stepped onto the roof next to him, and walked back to the alley he came from, stepping on the tiles. He kicked the courtyard wall and landed lightly in the courtyard. He patted his Taoist robe and walked into the room. He raised his chin towards the scholar and made a reassuring gesture.
Soon after dinner, there was a shouting outside. The old man ran out to see, then came back shaking his head, thinking that the female corpse had been found.
Thinking that there were two guests present, he did not say much so as not to scare them, and he carried out two quilts and went up to the attic.
"My wife and children have passed away, and no one has lived upstairs for a long time. Please don't be disgusted."
"Don't mind. We have lived in the wilderness before."
"That's good. That's good."
Perhaps because he had been lonely for too long and the town was depressing, the old man made the bed while talking a lot to Lu Liangsheng and the Taoist priest. After chatting for a while, the old man took up the oil lamp and went downstairs to wash and go to bed.
call…
The night wind was blowing, and there were still some voices on the street outside. The branches outside the window lattice swayed gently against the paper window. The Taoist moved the bookshelf up, fell on the bed, covered himself with the quilt, and fell asleep in a moment, occasionally mumbling softly.
'Jingqiu... Xiaoxian... Hehe...'
Lu Liangsheng glanced at him, shook his head, and fluttered his robe sleeves, revealing the warmth of a cup of tea. He took two copies of "Illustrated Records of Mountains and Seas" and sat under the window frame by candlelight to read them carefully for a while. Soon, he took out "The Greatest Virtue" annotated by his mentor and read aloud.
"To cultivate oneself, one must first correct one's virtues... With virtues, there are people; with people, there is land; with land, there is wealth; with wealth, there is usefulness. Virtue is the foundation, and the virtues of people are good words and good deeds..."
The steam from the tea curled up, and the clear sound of reading came from the window. In the alley below, a thin black shadow meandered and climbed, its fine scales shrinking and climbing up the tree trunk, and fell along the swaying treetops to the lighted window.
hiss~~~
hiss—
A snake hissed and Lu Liangsheng raised his head. A small green snake coiled on the window. When it saw the scholar noticed it, it started shaking its tail.
"You came here to seek fate? Well, then just listen quietly from the window."
The candlelight was bright, and the little snake coiled quietly, listening to the scholar's clear voice and swallowing its snake tongue.