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墨書 Inktalez
Living Funeral
After Zhang Xun spoke, Gao Ling looked at him in disbelief and said, "It can't be that eerie!"
Zhang Xun replied, "Believe it or not, it's up to you."
Once Zhang Xun finished speaking, he fell silent. Gao Ling seemed to want to say something more, but I held her back and made a shushing gesture.
Although Gao Ling was eager to talk, she ultimately held back.
The ancestral hall looked quite strange at that moment! Especially with this group of elderly men and women, it was truly odd that they didn't utter a single word. In other places, elderly people were happily dancing in the square.
How could the elderly here be so silent?
I glanced at the time; it was around ten in the morning, yet the ancestral hall remained eerily quiet. I suddenly felt a sense of oppression.
Sitting among a group of older individuals made me feel like something was off.
I began to feel restless and wanted to step outside for a smoke. I intended to tell Zhang Xun before getting up, but as soon as I stood, Zhang Xun pressed down on my thigh.
Zhang Xun shook his head at me, his expression serious, not joking at all.
So I had no choice but to sit back down. After waiting for a while, I suddenly heard a girl's crying. From the sound, she seemed to be quite young.
A girl burst out from a room near the ancestral hall, crying for a moment before her sobs turned into laughter.
She was dressed in a red wedding gown and wore a red veil. She appeared before us, alternating between crying and laughing. As I watched this scene unfold, I thought perhaps someone was celebrating a wedding today. China is vast and diverse, with all sorts of peculiar wedding customs; this might just be one of them.
We watched intently, but I had to admit that the girl was impressive. Her transitions between crying and laughing were seamless. After about three minutes, Zhang Xun instructed Gao Ling and me, "Close your eyes."
I just thought, why close my eyes? I hadn't even spoken yet.
"Come on," Zhang Xun urged.
Zhang Xun's tone turned somewhat serious, and Gao Ling and I didn't dare to delay. We quickly closed our eyes, but soon after, we heard a girl's piercing scream, and it sounded quite tragic.
At that moment, time seemed to freeze for a few seconds, and then the shrine suddenly erupted into chaos. "You can open your eyes now," Zhang Xun said.
I still had no idea what had happened. I turned my head to take a look and found that a group of elderly men and women had rushed forward in a frenzy.
"Are they fighting over wedding candies? I want to join in on the fun," Gao Ling said.
Zhang Xun shot her a glare and scolded, "Damn it, can't you just stay out of trouble?"
"What did I do?" Gao Ling replied.
I glanced back and was shocked to see blood pooling on the ground. How could there be blood? Could that tragic scream have meant that the girl in the red wedding dress was dead?
I looked at Zhang Xun, who was also staring back at me. Our eyes met, and Zhang Xun signaled to me, "Don't ask anything, just leave here."
I nodded, feeling cold sweat forming in my palms.
"Hurry up," I told Gao Ling. "Don't look."
Gao Ling still seemed clueless. After we exited the shrine, she was about to say something when Zhang Xun knocked her out with a swift chop to her neck. He turned to me and said, "Carry her."
I: ...
I was momentarily stunned and asked, "How did you knock him out?"
Zhang Xun replied, "Talking too much can lead to trouble."
I agreed; Gao Ling certainly had a tendency to ramble. I also suspected that the girl who had just died might have met her end by colliding with the coffin—the very one that had been placed on the Divine Platform—because I thought I had heard a loud thud earlier.
However, I was curious about why those elderly people were rushing towards something when someone had just died. Were they trying to snatch the corpse?
My confusion deepened; this Coffin Street was truly eerie, and I suddenly felt an urge to escape from this place.
I walked ahead, carrying Gao Ling on my back.
After walking about a hundred steps, Zhang Xun said to me, "Chen Fei, don’t look back at the shrine now; you can ask anything later."
Just as I was about to speak, a louder commotion erupted from the shrine, almost making me turn back. But in the end, I held myself back.
Since Zhang Xun said it was okay to ask questions, I hesitated no longer and asked, "What were they trying to grab earlier?"
Zhang Xun looked at me and said, "Chen Fei, let me ask you a question: do you think young people fear death more, or do old people fear it more?"
This question left me bewildered. After pondering for a moment, I replied, "It should be young people. After all, who doesn’t fear death? Young people are still so young; while old people have lived long enough and experienced the ups and downs of life, they should be more indifferent to life and death."
As Zhang Xun and I continued walking, he said to me, "You’ve got it all wrong; actually, the older you get, the more you fear death."
I glanced at Zhang Xun; his gaze suddenly became profound. I asked him, "Do you have any basis for that?"
Zhang Xun replied simply, "I am the basis."
After Zhang Xun finished speaking, I couldn't help but shiver coldly. I stood there in a daze for a few seconds, and when I regained my senses, I immediately chased after him. However, until now, Zhang Xun still hadn't told me what that group of elderly people was fighting over.
But when I asked again, Zhang Xun remained silent.
He said, "Some things you need to figure out for yourself; others can't help you."
But what had actually happened earlier? Since Zhang Xun wouldn't tell me, I could only fill in the gaps and reason it out myself. I recalled everything that had occurred in the ancestral hall.
Was that girl in the red wedding dress supposed to marry someone?
But how could such a young girl possibly be marrying all those elderly men and women? Moreover, we hadn't even seen the most crucial moment at the end.
When I opened my eyes again, the previously lifeless elderly men and women seemed to come alive all of a sudden, rushing forward.
I thought to myself, if that girl had died by colliding with the coffin, then what exactly were the elderly men and women fighting over?
And why was she wearing a red wedding dress? Who on earth was she marrying?
It was clear that the three of us—Zhang Xun, Gao Ling, and I—could be ruled out. The elderly men and women were also excluded from consideration. That left only one possibility: the girl was marrying the coffin.
As this thought crossed my mind, my head suddenly buzzed with confusion. At this point, we had already moved far away from the ancestral hall, and turning back, I couldn't even see its location anymore.
I called out to Zhang Xun and asked, "What on earth is this Coffin Street? And did that girl just marry the coffin?"
This invitation arrived at home, and without a second thought, Zhang Xun decided to attend this bizarre "gathering."
Moreover, after attending it, Zhang Xun didn't explain anything.
In the morning, as soon as someone entered the room, Zhang Xun immediately knew that someone had come to deliver an Invitation. It seemed that Zhang Xun had attended similar gatherings before.
The more I thought about it, the more confused I became. At the crucial moment, however, Zhang Xun wouldn’t let us see anything.
The most critical point was that this gathering was organized by Zhang Xun for us to attend.
I suddenly began to suspect that Zhang Xun might be deliberately hiding something. This Coffin Street was indeed quite Eerie.
Everything felt Eerie. I suddenly recalled what the fake Gao Ling had analyzed for me; upon reflection, it did make some sense.
I waited for Zhang Xun's response. Zhang Xun said, "The first coffin has already appeared, and that girl is married to that coffin."
I had originally thought that Zhang Xun would beat around the bush, but I didn’t expect such a straightforward answer.
I still remembered what Zhang Xun had mentioned about the Five Coffins—five people. Was that first coffin related to these Five Coffins in some way?
And how could the girl in the red wedding dress be willing to marry a coffin? The relationships involved were simply intricate.
What were those Old Women trying to snatch after the girl died from hitting the coffin? And did the girl successfully marry the coffin in the end?
All these thoughts seemed absurd, yet they were undeniably happening right before my eyes. I suddenly felt a sense of confusion. What should I do next? Who could tell me?
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