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墨書 Inktalez
Living Funeral
Soon, I felt another hand at my ankle, and it was trying its best to push me up to the surface of the water. The whole process lasted about ten seconds before I finally floated up. I gasped for air and then heard someone say to me, "You go up first."
I didn't hesitate; I just knew that if I didn't get to shore soon, I would drown.
Once I climbed out, I lay directly on the ground, gulping in air. About a minute later, I got up and headed toward the edge of the well.
However, the well had already returned to calm. No way, that guy couldn't have drowned in there, could he? A flashlight was still shining from the bottom of the well.
I steadied my emotions and peered inside, only to see that guy entangled with the water ghost, completely motionless.
I thought to myself, could it be that they both perished together? I shouted out, but no one responded. Damn it, did he really die? If that guy died, it would directly affect me. I felt restless inside and wanted to jump back into the water to save him. But just as my foot touched the water, there was movement on the surface. That guy suddenly emerged from the water and said to me, "Get out of the way; I'm coming up."
But when I got a good look at him, I was stunned for a few seconds. He was very young and handsome, looking about my age.
Once I snapped back to reality, I quickly stepped aside as he climbed out of the well. However, the water ghost remained floating in the well water, motionless.
I glanced into the well and said, "The water ghost is dead."
He replied with a grunt, "Yeah, I was going to let him go earlier, but he wouldn't stop bothering me, so I took care of him." After he finished speaking, I couldn't help but look at him in surprise; he was looking back at me too.
Suddenly, I felt a sense of familiarity about this guy.
I asked him, "What's your name?"
He slicked back his hair into a pompadour and said, "My name is Longting; you can call me Ting."
Looking at Longting before me, I couldn't connect him with that previous disheveled guy. I nodded in response. Just then, a cold breeze blew by—damn it! It made me sneeze right away; it was too cold. I hurriedly put on my clothes.
The wooden box that had been pulled up from the well was placed aside. There was no light here, only a faint glow seeping from the well illuminated the surroundings slightly.
I turned on the flashlight on my phone, and the light became brighter.
"How did you know there was a wooden box down in the well?" Longting suddenly asked me.
I glanced at Longting, not wanting to reveal too much. I simply replied, "Someone told me about it. Besides, can't you help me get out of here alive? You're not one to lie."
A smile tugged at the corners of Longting's mouth. "Don't worry, I've been sleeping on the road for quite a while. A few people who passed by thought I was dead. I know all about the traps set up here, but even though I know, it still feels a bit complicated."
I found Longting a bit strange; he seemed like a perfectly normal person who enjoyed pretending to be dead by the roadside. The key point was that he did it so convincingly. Damn it, it was particularly unsettling, and he even liked sleeping next to corpses. This kind of eccentricity was something I had never encountered before.
We quickly moved closer to the wooden box. The black wooden box was covered with a layer of moss, indicating that it had been submerged in water for a long time.
Longting said, "I have a feeling there's something wrong with this box."
I wasn't sure if there was anything wrong with it, but I knew someone had wanted it brought up. I didn't know what was inside, but I knew I had to open this wooden box.
Having been soaked in water for so long, the box had started to decay, so removing the lock on the outside wasn't difficult at all; I easily got it off.
Longting looked on with anticipation, and naturally, I was eager too. I hoped there would be something hidden inside—preferably a piece of paper that would reveal all the conspiracies.
Without hesitating much, I took a deep breath and opened the wooden box. However, once it was open, both Longting and I were taken aback.
"Damn!" I exclaimed as we stepped back a few paces.
The night was thick and quiet around us, but thankfully I had a living person beside me. With a living person's courage being greater, Longting remarked, "Why is there a human head inside?"
I shook my head, indicating that I didn't know. There was a human head inside, which I hadn't anticipated. Was the last sentence in that notebook meant to lead us to this head?
So many corpses were left unattended, yet someone was fixated on this particular head. It seemed rather illogical; the head had been soaking in water long enough to turn pale. However, there was no foul smell. I glanced at Longting and said, "Why don't you take a look? Don't you enjoy sleeping with corpses?"
After my remark, Longting replied, "I enjoy sleeping with corpses, not with heads."
Is there really a difference? He thought there was. We exchanged a few words but tacitly agreed not to argue further; there shouldn't be just one head in this box.
Thinking about it, there wasn't much to fear. A corpse could be faked because of its integrity, but now it was just a head. With that thought in mind, I approached and shone my flashlight into the box at the head.
Under the beam of the flashlight, the head looked somewhat unsettling. It had been submerged in water for so long that while it appeared an eerie white, it showed no signs of decay.
The head took up about two-thirds of the wooden box. The light illuminated its protruding eyeballs, sending chills down my spine.
Longting leaned closer, and I felt there might be something else in the box.
I lifted the box and apologized to the head inside before flipping it over. The head fell directly onto the ground, and along with it came some other items.
I set the box aside and picked up the head to place it back inside. Then I gathered what had fallen out: three wooden blocks. Upon closer inspection, they bore patterns resembling rubbings.
However, when I looked at them, my expression changed. The patterns were indeed rubbings of previous designs; all three wooden blocks had them, each one larger than the last.
Seeing these patterns inexplicably stirred my emotions. Longting felt it too; he picked up a wooden block and murmured, "Could this be real?"
Hearing him, I asked, "What’s real?" Longting replied, "I'm just talking to myself; you don't need to mind me."
I glanced at Longting; there wasn't much to say. I asked him for the wooden block. After hesitating for a moment, he finally handed it over to me.
The pattern must be related to the conspiracy behind this; once it is deciphered, I believe many things will fall into place.
I stuffed the Wood Block into my pocket and prepared to close the wooden box. Just as I crouched down, I noticed that the head inside the box had its eyes closed.
I stared for a moment, wondering if finding the Wood Block had caused him to die peacefully. That seemed likely, but just a second later, the head that was originally closed-eyed suddenly opened its eyes. I was so startled that I nearly screamed.
What the hell, is this a case of a corpse coming back to life?
Longting, clearly someone in the know, responded to my exclamation, saying that a dead person's head couldn't possibly come back to life.
I told Longting that it had just opened its eyes.
Longting walked over to me and said, "You must have seen it wrong. I hope you did, but that was definitely not an illusion; I saw it clearly."
However, Longting simply closed the lid without any hesitation. Nothing unusual happened as he lifted the Wooden Box and tossed it back into the well, saying, "Whatever came from there should go back."
The black Wooden Box sank back to the bottom of the water. Having retrieved what I needed, Longting asked me, "Did you understand the pattern on that Wood Block?"
I shook my head, indicating that I didn't understand. Longting didn't press further. Since we had taken care of things here, we should go find that living person; he was probably still waiting for us.
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