Living Funeral
Cui Fang suddenly burst into tears and said, "You don't believe me, do you? Then tell me, do I look like a dead person? If you don't believe me, I even suspect that you are the bad ones."
With that, Cui Fang started walking ahead.
I had originally planned to say something, but I couldn't bring myself to. I just wanted to find Cui Fang, but now that I had found her, she was leaving on her own, and there was nothing I could do. After all, I wasn't very familiar with Guang either. However, after Cui Fang had taken a few steps, Gao Qing suddenly called out to her, "I believe you."
After Gao Qing spoke, I looked at him in surprise. Gao Qing continued, "There’s only one reason to believe her: because she is alive."
Cui Fang paused in her tracks and slowly turned around. "Do you really believe me?" she asked.
"I believe you," Gao Qing replied.
"You see, what you don’t know is that my husband Guang has always had asthma. I knew about it before we got married. Later, I heard that there’s a rare herb on this mountain that can cure asthma, so I came up here. But unexpectedly, once I got here, I couldn’t go back down and have been wandering around in circles ever since." At this point, Cui Fang's eyes were once again filled with tears.
Gao Ling added, "But Guang is already dead. Even if you find the herb now, it won’t help."
"Really?" Cui Fang asked.
Gao Ling replied, "Is there any doubt? We all know it." Cui Fang looked at me and said, "If Guang is dead, then I don’t want to live anymore."
I was stunned for a moment and said, "Guang isn’t dead; he’s alive and well."
"Fei, how can you say such nonsense? Fan Ge..."
Zhao Fan interjected, "He’s alive and well; he hasn’t died." Even Gao Ling, who was usually slow on the uptake, understood this now. Zhang Xun said, "Since everything is fine, let’s keep moving forward. This place feels eerie; everyone stay alert."
Zhang Xun made this remark but didn’t pursue the earlier topic further, nor did Cui Fang respond.
So we continued walking forward. During this time, Cui Fang asked me how her husband was doing. I replied that he could eat and sleep well.
At that moment, I suddenly recalled the tragic way Guang had died; it had been quite horrific. Now that I thought about it, could it have been due to his asthma? But if he died from it, why was he found without clothes?
If that were the case, then there was only one possibility: Guang must have suffered a sudden asthma attack while being unclothed and died from it.
Cui Fang had been following closely beside me, and I occasionally exchanged a few words with her. At that moment, she asked us, "What are you looking for?"
I glanced at Cui Fang but had no response.
Cui Fang continued, "There was an old house ahead that I saw before, but it was locked. There might be something inside that you're looking for. I wanted to go in and spend the night there, but I couldn't get in. If I hadn't run into those Japanese Devils later, who knows what would have happened to me if you hadn't shown up in time."
I reassured Cui Fang that it was all in the past now and that we were safe.
Cui Fang nodded and then asked, "Don't you want to check out that house?" I replied, "Where is the house?"
She said she could lead us there. At that moment, Gao Ling interjected, "Is there a coffin inside that house?" After Gao Ling's words, I was momentarily at a loss. It seemed she had inadvertently revealed our purpose for coming here; even if there was nothing to worry about, it was still not ideal to have it exposed.
Cui Fang shook her head and said, "I didn't see any coffin, but many people died here. I'm so scared." Her voice had grown noticeably weaker.
Gao Ling reassured her, "With us here, what do you have to fear? Just put your mind at ease."
"Really?" Cui Fang asked.
Just then, a gust of cold wind blew past us. I looked ahead and suddenly saw several Will-o'-the-wisps floating in the air, instantly captivating our attention.
Zhao Fan was the first to speak up. "Look! There are Will-o'-the-wisps!" They floated in the air as if intentionally beckoning us closer.
At first, we didn't pay much attention; after all, a few Will-o'-the-wisps were just lost souls and couldn't pose much of a threat.
However, these Will-o'-the-wisps continued to entice us forward.
We stood frozen for a moment while they floated before us.
Then Gao Qing suggested, "Let's go take a look."
We had no objections and quickly followed the Will-o'-the-wisps as they led us onward. Sure enough, once we moved closer, they guided us further ahead—it felt truly eerie.
After walking for about several hundred meters, the floating Will-o'-the-wisps suddenly stopped. We stared at them intently as Zhao Fan asked, "Why have they stopped?"
Cui Fang had been hiding behind me, looking quite frightened.
We were also curious as to why the Will-o'-the-wisps had suddenly stopped moving. Ahead of us stood a large tree, its branches leaning down and blocking the path, creating a patch of shade.
Here, the Will-o'-the-wisps were not the kind that illuminated the road; instead, they flickered in and out of visibility, just enough to make things discernible, but overall it felt eerie.
The Will-o'-the-wisps danced in the air with a ghostly blue light that sent chills down our spines.
I spoke up, "Let's go see what it is." With that, I moved forward, but when I reached the front, we were all stunned to see a corpse hanging from the branches.
Moreover, it was a naked male body.
A dead person? Discovering a corpse here wasn't particularly strange; what was odd was that this body was hanging from a tree and completely unclothed.
My first thought was about light, but I quickly dismissed it in my mind. How could light be here? The person had died back in the village.
Gao Ling quickly shouted, "It's Guang; it's light."
As soon as those words left her mouth, Cui Fang, who had been hiding behind me, rushed out and circled to the front of the body. Then she let out a wail that was heart-wrenching.
Could it really be Guang? If it was him, this was truly bizarre. Moving to get a better look confirmed my suspicions; indeed, it was Guang. I was left dumbfounded.
Gao Ling and Zhao Fan were equally bewildered.
Was this really a ghost? Who had brought Guang's body here?
Gao Qing's face showed confusion as well. Could it be that he had faked his death and walked here himself? But that didn't make sense—how could he hang himself from a tree?
Moreover, the Will-o'-the-wisps had deliberately led us here. Was there someone controlling them? A flood of questions surged through my mind.
This Snake Skin Gully was truly eerie; none of us spoke, except for Cui Fang, who cried uncontrollably.
Through her tears, she lamented, "Guang, why didn't you wait for me? You just left like that. You heartless person—did you ever think about how I would feel?"
I was watching Cui Fang closely, genuinely afraid that she might do something drastic. If she chose to end her life behind my back, there would be nothing I could do about it. But if it happened in front of me, I wouldn't be able to live with myself.
Cui Fang was crying as she moved toward Guang's body, jumping up and down, trying to reach his feet, but it was utterly impossible.
The branch was at least five meters off the ground; there was no way she could reach it. Yet at that moment, Cui Fang seemed completely unhinged, jumping and crying. Her figure looked pitiful in such a haunted place, especially at night. It was truly unsettling.
I called out to Cui Fang, telling her to stop jumping; it was a waste of time and wouldn’t get her anywhere. If she wanted to get the body down, she needed to think of another way.
But Cui Fang wouldn’t listen to me. She acted like a madwoman, and when jumping didn’t work, she ran toward the big tree and started climbing it.
The tree was old and had a thick trunk, its surface wrapped in dried vines. As Cui Fang ran toward the tree, I couldn’t hold her back.
She quickly began to climb. I initially thought that with her build, she wouldn’t be able to make it up.
But I was wrong. Cui Fang grabbed onto the vines and started climbing higher while calling out Guang's name.
Damn it, this was really insane! I shouted for Cui Fang to come down, but this crazy woman wouldn’t listen to me. As I watched her ascend, I felt helpless and decided to stop trying to persuade her.
Just then, Zhao Fan suddenly shouted, “Brother Fei, something’s not right! The corpse’s eyes seem to have opened!”
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