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墨書 Inktalez
Living Funeral
A corpse? Another corpse. Every time I see one, I feel like something is wrong with me.
The flashlight usually focuses the light, so when it shines on a certain spot, that area is the brightest. Although the surrounding areas are illuminated, they remain relatively dark. In such a eerie environment, shining a flashlight only makes everything seem more terrifying.
At this moment, I felt just like that, unable to suppress a gasp.
Corpses—my entire field of vision was filled with them, and they had all turned into mummies, neatly hanging from the beams of the room.
This ancestral hall was also made of wood and stone, with wooden pillars and beams inside. At that moment, many corpses were hanging from the beams, sending chills down my spine.
I didn’t step inside immediately; instead, I stood at the door in a daze. Sweat beaded on my forehead, and cold sweat formed in my palms. I gasped again.
Wasn’t I just here to check a house number? Why was it so difficult?
Damn it, so many corpses. Though I hadn’t counted them, a rough estimate suggested there were at least ten or twenty bodies.
Had the people of Zhang Family Village not buried their dead? This was truly bizarre.
I was torn about whether to go in. I had seen plenty of corpses before; just because there were bodies didn’t mean there were ghosts. But wherever there were corpses, there could be corpse fraud.
The bodies hanging here were mostly mummies, completely devoid of moisture as if they had been wind-dried.
However, what struck me as odd was that I worked in the funeral industry and knew how difficult it was to preserve a body’s integrity. The common method nowadays is refrigeration. Maintaining a body’s integrity is still quite challenging.
Last time at our funeral home, we had to burn the body of a Taoist priest just to clear out those long-abandoned corpses, which led to a series of troubles afterward.
Moreover, wind-dried corpses look particularly terrifying. You can close your eyes and imagine: eyes devoid of pupils, all white; cheekbones protruding while both sides of the face are sunken in—essentially resembling a skull. Coupled with skin that is completely dehydrated and wrinkled, it gives off an unsettling impression.
I steeled my courage and mentally reassured myself that there was nothing to fear; I would just take a quick look inside and come right back out.
I held my breath and stepped inside. The body hung at a height of about two meters from the ground, so to see it, I had to lift my head.
I moved forward cautiously, one step at a time.
Were all the members of the Zhang Family hanged? One by one, they were suspended here, and I walked carefully between them, navigating the gaps formed by their bodies.
I was quite nervous, but fortunately, I made it to the Spirit Platform without incident.
The deity worshipped by the Zhang Family seemed normal enough; it was Avalokiteshvara. However, when I glanced at the statue, I froze in surprise because this Avalokiteshvara was not white but black.
Strange. After a few more glances, I pulled my gaze away and began to flip through the thick book on the Spirit Platform, which was densely filled with names.
All of them had the surname Zhang. I initially thought it would be difficult to find Zhang Xun's name, but to my surprise, it was quite simple—the first name on the first page was Zhang Xun.
Moreover, there was a prefix in front of it: "Clan Leader." I never expected that Zhang Xun would actually be the leader of Zhang Family Village.
However, even as the clan leader, he had not been able to prevent this great disaster from befalling the Zhang Family.
It noted that Zhang Xun's home address was No. 11, Group 10 of Zhang Family Village. I memorized this number and was about to close the book and leave when suddenly I thought of Fatty Zhang and wanted to check if he was indeed a member of the Zhang Family.
But after flipping through for a long time and nearly finishing the book, I still couldn't find Fatty Zhang's name. It seemed that although both had the surname Zhang, they were not from the same place. I had worried unnecessarily; after all, Zhang is a common surname in China, so it wasn't strange for two people with the same surname to come from different regions.
I closed the genealogy book and prepared to turn around and leave. Just as I did so, I heard a loud "bang." I immediately turned back to look.
To my shock, the Black Avalokiteshvara that had been on the Spirit Platform had fallen directly down. Reacting quickly, I moved forward.
With a crisp sound of "crack," Black Avalokiteshvara shattered into pieces.
I stood there in disbelief when suddenly a cold wind blew in from outside, hitting my face. I sneezed and felt an inexplicable chill wash over me.
The shattering of Black Avalokiteshvara had nothing directly to do with me, yet I couldn't shake off a sense of foreboding.
At that moment, with a loud bang, the door of the ancestral hall suddenly slammed shut. Damn it, I hurriedly ran towards the exit.
However, when I reached the door, I found it wouldn't open at all.
I knocked on the door forcefully and shouted, "Is anyone there?" It was completely unreasonable for the door to close like that! Moreover, it was quite heavy; there was no way that little gust of wind could have blown it shut.
Could someone outside have closed it? I yelled towards the outside, "Is anyone there? Is anyone there?"
Damn it, if I knew who had closed the door, I would definitely make them pay. This Zhang Family Village is in a remote location; usually, no one comes here.
I wondered if Jiang Hao and the others had closed the door. Thinking this, I called out, "Jiang Hao, is that you?" But after my words fell, there was no response from outside.
Could it not be Jiang Hao and the others? Panic began to rise within me. Being trapped in this hall filled with corpses was truly terrifying. I was really afraid these corpses might come back to life; if they did, I would be dead in minutes.
I turned my back to the door and looked around the hall, glancing at the corpses above me. Unconsciously, my breathing became heavier.
I was genuinely scared and felt tense inside.
Should I look for another exit? Usually, ancestral halls have side doors. So I started to search through the hall again. After circling around once more, I still found nothing. Damn it, there were no side exits in this hall at all.
Reluctantly, I turned back to the front of the main door. I tried to pull it open, but it was tightly shut; trying to force it open seemed futile. I cursed under my breath.
Was it a ghost? Did a ghost close the door? Somehow, I felt it wasn't a ghost but a person. Using cinnabar, I wrote the word "Decree" on the door, thinking that if a ghost did lock it later on, maybe they would be afraid of my markings!
My heart began to race, but just then, someone tapped me on the shoulder. In that instant, my heart leaped into my throat.
Especially when my nerves were already on edge and someone touched my shoulder—I was scared half to death.
I immediately turned around to look, but behind me was empty; there was nothing there. Shouldn't there be no one else in this hall besides me?
Damn it, at this moment, my heart felt truly stuck in my throat.
As I looked up, I was met with a sight of so many corpses. The key issue was that it seemed there were other strange things hidden among them. Suddenly, someone tapped my shoulder.
"What the hell?" I exclaimed, "Who is it?" But no one answered me. This was truly testing my courage and mental endurance.
My hands had already formed into fists.
At that moment, I wondered if it could be a Taoist priest or the ghost in red, as they had been following me all along.
Thinking this, I called out, "Ghost in red!" and then shouted for the Taoist priest, but there was still no response. Could it really not be them?
I took out my phone to check the time; it was just past eight in the evening.
If I couldn't get out, it meant I was trapped here. Since the main door was inaccessible, I had no choice but to try the window. I began to search for its location, but the windows were quite high, roughly parallel to the height of the corpses, so I would have to climb up.
I gathered myself and prepared to ascend; I didn't want to stay in this haunted place any longer. I climbed up the pillar, and luckily, my experience of climbing trees while searching for bird nests had given me some skills, so scaling the pillar wasn't too difficult for me.
I quickly reached the top and began to move toward the window along the beam. As I got closer to the corpses, my anxiety intensified, and my hands and feet trembled slightly from nerves.
I thought to myself how unlucky I was to be in such a predicament. Just as I was about to reach the window, a knocking sound came from outside the door. I froze for a moment and then heard someone outside say, "Chen Fei, is that you inside?" At that same moment, I felt a hand touch my shoulder. When I turned around, I was shocked to see that this hand was reaching in from outside the window...
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