Green Lake Public Cemetery is located on the lakeside outside the city, built by the water, adjacent to Lower Grieol Village, known as the "gravekeeper village". There is no fog on the lakeside outside the city, so the scenery is really quite good when you come here in the spring morning. According to the conversation with the coachman in the carriage just now, there is a special dock behind the cemetery for "water burial ceremony". After hearing that Shade is an outsider, the coachman even recommended Shade to visit it.
But in this way, Shade also almost understood where the corpses of so many water ghosts in Green Lake came from.
The carriage stopped at the entrance of the cemetery. The black iron gate and the fences extending to both sides separated the boundaries of the cemetery. Passing through the gate, you will enter the cemetery. It is very quiet here, with only a few citizens paying respects to the deceased or dealing with the weeds around the graves.
Following the path in the cemetery, Shade soon found the grave of Mr. Nicholas Green, the father of the Green siblings. Because of the breakdown of his marriage, this gentleman was not buried with his wife. He was buried under a big banyan tree. Because the Green siblings often visited, the tombstone was clean and the grave was not covered by weeds.
Nicholas Kelvin Green
1761-1843, died at home
Rest in peace, father.
"Died at 82? Really lived a long life."
Xia De sighed softly, bent down and touched the tombstone. Then he came to the back of the tombstone and looked at the soil covering the grave with his naked eyes. After he was sure that he could not find any clues with his eyes, he stamped his feet lightly, and the chain came out of his trouser leg and pierced into the ground.
The chains of sin were not offensive, even if two of them appeared at the same time. However, through the manipulation of the rope trick, it was not a problem to break through the wet soil after the rain, not to mention that Shade could also attack by attaching moonlight to it.
The tail of the chain soon touched the coffin, which had been rotten after more than ten years, so the chain easily got in. And just as Xia De expected, there was no trace of any bones in the coffin.
"interesting."
The chains could not serve as Shade's eyes, so he could only rely on the induction of the model lake to detect the situation underground. After a more careful search, he actually found a hole on the side wall of the head of the corpse in the grave pit that was large enough for an adult to crawl through.
Although Shade's chain of sin could still be extended, the longer the chain was, the weaker his control over it would be. Therefore, Shade did not continue to investigate, but temporarily retracted the chain:
"I originally thought that it was Edwards' ancestor on the island who sent people to retrieve the bones. Now it seems that it is not that simple."
He patted the tombstone and turned to the small steeple church in the cemetery. A stranger's funeral was being held there, and Shade didn't want to disturb him, so he waited outside the church for half an hour. After people walked out with the coffin, he entered the empty church.
This is a church dedicated to the god of nature and evil. Although the church is simply decorated, the main hall also hangs the holy emblem of the righteous god, the Lord of All Things, with two overlapping leaves.
The priest had already gone out with the funeral procession, leaving only the young priest and the slightly older gravekeeper chatting while cleaning up the church after the funeral.
Seeing Xia De coming, the gravekeeper took a look at his attire and reminded him:
"Sir, the funeral is over. You are late."
"I'm not here for a funeral."
Xia De pointed to the church entrance:
"Can we go talk outside? I have something to do, but it won't take up your time."
The old gravekeeper with half-white hair nodded hesitantly, and after following Shade outside the church, he heard Shade say:
"I'm a writer from out of town. I occasionally pass by the village over there and hear about the legend of ghouls there, so I want to ask you about it. Of course, I'll pay you."
In fact, there are rumors of ghouls in cemeteries no matter where they are, and most of them are left behind by careless tomb robbers.
"Outsiders? Oh, yes. There are quite a few outsiders in the recent negotiations between the two countries."
The gravekeeper nodded in understanding and looked Shade up and down again:
"You are not the first writer to ask me for material. People always think that gravekeepers are a very strange profession, and there are always many stories. It seems that my profession should encounter all kinds of horror stories and bizarre events... But this is also true. Ghouls, ghosts, screams in the soil in the middle of the night, I have a lot of such stories, but I usually don't ask for money."
"What do you want?"
People who say this will make more demanding demands.
The old gravekeeper asked cheerfully:
"You look very young. A man of your age should have played Rhodes, right?"
Xia De raised his eyebrows:
"Of course, so..."
"Want to play a round of Rhodes? If you win, I'll tell you the story you want to know. But if you lose...how about we play another round?"
He pointed to a long bench at the back of the church where they could play cards.
Xia De naturally would not refuse, but when he took out his ordinary deck, he asked curiously:
"Do you often play cards with people who come to the cemetery?"
Shad noticed that the old gravekeeper's deck of cards was also carefully preserved, and it was obvious that he cared about his cards.
"No, invitations are only extended on rare occasions."
The two sat down on the chairs and checked their respective decks. The deck used by Shade did not have any special cards, but the old gravekeeper's deck surprisingly had two special cards. Judging from the average salary of the gravekeeper industry, these two cards were definitely not bought by him.
The two special cards are Human Organs·Kidneys from Sun 9 and Urban Legends·Non-Existent Streets from Moon 4. In the Human Organs series, Shade has seen Human Organs·Hearts from Miss Pavo of the Truth Society. As for the Urban Legends series, it is one of the most issued series so far, and each issue will add new special rule cards to include different urban legends.
The rules for Human Organs·Kidneys are that if the player who draws this card has four cards in hand when he stops, he can roll a 20-sided dice. If the number is greater than 10, he can choose to increase the number by one. The rules for Urban Legends·Non-Existent Streets are relatively simple. When drawn, throw a dice. If the number of dice is a multiple of three, the suit of the card is regarded as the sun; multiples of four are regarded as stars; multiples of five are regarded as flowers.
Seeing the interest on Xia De's face, the old man smiled and said:
"Although I like playing cards with strangers, I can't say to those who are attending the funeral: Oh, man, stop crying, do you want to play a round of Rhodes with me? And then they actually forget their sadness and are willing to play cards with me... ... At my age, I don't want to be beaten for nothing."
He and Shade put their decks on the chairs together, and Shade asked again:
"Did you win both of these special cards? The rules of that urban legend series are really interesting, but it's a pity that it requires special cards with suit-related rules to be useful."
The old man nodded:
"I won all of them. It's a pity that you don't have any special cards, otherwise I would be willing to bet with you."
The game uses a simple best-of-three rule. If both players bust at the same time or there is a tie with the same points, an extra game will be played.
Although the old gravekeeper required Xia De to win in order to obtain the story, he spoke when the two of them were happily drawing cards together:
"Ghouls are probably a rumor that can be found in cemeteries everywhere, but you should know that they are mostly false legends spread by ignorant citizens after stupid and unlucky thieves made noises at night. Of course, there are also young people who are too stupid and gather together to play courage games. When I was young, I would be whipped for this."
The two of them drew the second card together. Xia De took a look at the points and signaled to continue drawing cards. At the same time, he asked:
"So the rumor about the ghouls in the local cemetery is also false?"
"Of course not, at least I don't think so."
The old gravekeeper shook his head and drew out the third card like Shade:
"Since a rainy night more than ten years ago, when I patrol the cemetery at night, I can occasionally hear wailing, sobbing and rustling footsteps coming from underground, as if from hell deep underground. That is not my hallucination. Even if people find nothing after checking, I still think it is not my hallucination."
Xia De knocked on the seat to indicate that he was standing still. The old gravekeeper hesitated for a moment and actually drew the fourth card:
"There have indeed been bodies missing from the cemetery, but they have all been proven to have nothing to do with urban legends like ghouls. But I'm not the only one who thinks there's something strange hidden underground here. The villagers nearby have similar rumors as well."
The two showed their cards respectively, and Shade said with a smile:
"Stars 7, Flowers 10, Sun 3, I'm 20."
"Young people have good luck, but I'm not bad either. Look, flowers 4, flowers 6, the sun 9, human organs·kidneys, the moon 1. I also have 20 points. Fortunately, I have four cards in hand, so the special rules can be used. I can gamble again."
He brought the dice with him, and the dice clanged and fell onto the chair, spinning non-stop. Both of them were concentrating on watching the dice, and it probably spun too hard when the old gravekeeper threw it, so it spun for a full minute before stopping.
"11 o'clock! I'm lucky today!"
The old man clapped his hands suddenly, and Xia De also clapped with a smile:
"This rule can be activated. You are at 21 points. I lost the first round. You must remember this round. When you go to the village tavern and tell the villagers about it, they will definitely not believe it."
"We started the second game. It's such nice weather and we can play Rhodes in the church. My later years are better than those young people who are struggling to make a living."