I said, "It's bad luck. Brothers, I'll listen to your advice, should we continue or turn back?"
My phone was passed around among the 'yin' brothers, and I saw Huang Xin's face turning pale, her lips trembling. Of course, she did not say "scared," maybe because she was afraid I would ask her to get off the car.
If the car was in Guangzhou, I would definitely have asked her to get off. But now, I wouldn't, since I had received this terrifying message, indicating that some force was already watching me.
If Huang Xin got off now, that force might target her, and I couldn't bear the thought.
Da Jinya looked at the message and muttered, "Is Fengmen Village really this bizarre?"
Duan Guangyi didn't even look and said, "I agree with you all, although the body of the deceased wife is important, the lives of our brothers are even more important."
Feng Ying glanced at the message, a proud gleam in his eyes as he sneered, "This method can scare me, Feng Ying? Fengmen Village underestimates me, huh? Let's move forward! Even if it's a dragon's den or tiger's hideout, I, Feng Ying, will challenge it!"
I asked Da Jinya, "What do you think?"
"Of course, let's continue. Are we, 'yin' people, going to be scared by such a message?"
"Da Jinya, that's a rare thing for you to say to my liking. We, 'yin' people, rely on courage and spirit. Clouds and dragons, wind and tigers, courage comes from noble people. Let's go, even if the Zombie King returns, I can challenge him with feng shui and tactics," Feng Ying snapped his fingers and said.
"Alright! Let's continue," I started the car again and asked Huang Xin and Feng Ying in the back to switch places.
"I won't switch," Huang Xin seemed to want to say she wasn't afraid.
I said sternly, "Xinxin, did you forget the three rules we agreed upon before getting into the car?"
"Okay, I'll switch," under my pressure, Huang Xin reluctantly changed her place.
There was a reason why I asked her to change. If Feng Ying was in the front, then I, Feng Ying, Da Jinya, and Duan Guangyi would protect Huang Xin and Cheng Yan, two women, in the middle.
This formation dates back to the primitive society in China.
"Brothers, let's continue," I pressed the accelerator and continued toward Fengmen Village.
After driving for over an hour, according to the map, we were very close to Fengmen Village. The cars on the national road were also extremely rare, almost none in sight.
Da Jinya opened the window and cursed, "What kind of place is this? The sun is shining brightly, but there's no warmth at all, the wind is howling."
I laughed, "Da Jinya, don't scare yourself. You are used to the dryness in the northeast, but don’t understand the climate in the south. In the northeast, it's dry, even though the weather is cold, as long as there's no snow, ice, or rain, the wind is dry; you just need to block it. But in the south, especially in the southwest, the wind carries moisture and chills the bones."
"Yes! It's uncomfortable," Da Jinya rolled up the window.
“If you live here for a long time, you'll get used to it. The south is rich in talents, literati, and beautiful rivers and lakes. In June, dragon boat races and enjoying the scenery on the river with a glass of wine is also a beautiful thing," Duan Guangyi was a former literatus from Hubei, which borders Henan, and he knew more about the south than we did.
Da Jinya shook his head, "Us northeastern talents are not inferior, no need to distinguish between north and south."
Then he probably got bored and started teasing Feng Ying, “Ah, Feng, why aren't you talking? Were you frozen? Or is your brain full of water and froze when the wind blew, unable to think?”
Feng Ying didn't look back and sneered, "Da Jinya, your grandson is uncultured. You understand nothing. Your uncle Feng is here to observe the topography, known as dragon watching in feng shui."
In the study of feng shui, mountains and rivers are seen as dragons; mountains are called celestial dragons, rivers and lakes as earthly dragons, and the land that carries mountains and rivers is called dragon site.
Feng Ying, when talking about feng shui, became spirited, "No wonder the south is abundant with feng shui masters, it's logical. The mountains in the south and the mountains in the north are different."
Hearing this, we all became interested.
We are all 'yin' people and have noticed some strange phenomena among the 'yin' people in the northeast.
In northeast China, there are all sorts of "yin" characters, including shamans, soul callers, fox breeders... and so on, but there are few feng shui masters, and people like Fengying can be considered as outliers among the "yin" people in northeast China.
However... there are feng shui masters in the south, such as Yuan Tiangang from southwest Sichuan, and the legendary physiognomist Laibuyi from Jiangxi in southern China. But when it comes to feng shui masters in the north, the most famous one is Li Chunfeng, a contemporary of Yuan Tiangang.
But Li Chunfeng is from Shaanxi, and although Shaanxi is administratively in the north, it is situated on the dividing line between the north and south, and, to put it more of an a bit differently, it leans more towards the south.
Why is there such a strange phenomenon?
I scornfully exclaimed to the silent Fengying beside me, "Lao Feng, you shouldn't start something and not finish it, that's not a good habit. Since you've stirred everyone up, you're responsible for calming them down, right?"
"Haha, getting anxious, eh?" Fengying laughed and pointed at the continuous mountain ranges outside the car window, saying, "The terrain of the northern and southern mountains is completely different. Look at these mountains, stretching for thousands of miles, undulating and interconnected, with gentle slopes. In feng shui, this is called 'long dragon.' And what is a dragon? It's the aura of emperors. Can an ordinary feng shui master control it? On the contrary, this long dragon is relatively easy to control and is of great help to the practice of feng shui masters."
Fengying went on to say, "Let's talk about the northern mountains. Many of the mountains in the north are solitary, with many steep cliffs. Each mountain stands apart, with very rigid and straight slopes. In feng shui, this is called 'rigid dragon.' It's difficult to control, and feng shui masters face a headache dealing with these kinds of mountain ranges every day."
He also said, "Of course, this is just one point. Another point is that feng shui has a purpose, the most important purpose being to seek the location of yin residences and to determine tomb positions. The long dragon is easy to control and does not harm those in the graves, but the rigid dragon is different. Not only does it harm those in the graves, it also brings calamity to the descendants of those in the graves."
"Ah, so that's where the problem lies," I slapped my thigh, finally understanding the issue.
Dajinya asked, "Doesn't the northeast have particularly good dragon veins?"
"Of course! There is a dragon vein in the northeast that stretches for thousands of miles. The mountain terrain is incredibly treacherous, and the dragon vein is one of both rigidity and flexibility. It can be counted as one of the rare dragon veins in the world, deserving to be called the Ancestor Dragon. This dragon vein is none other than Changbai Mountain!" Fengying spoke with fervor, but I interrupted, "Wait, everyone, stop talking and look at what's ahead."
With that, everyone stopped talking and looked ahead.
Ahead was a woman in black. She was about seventy or eighty meters away from us, but what caught our attention was the fact that she was wearing a black robe.
The robe covered her from the neck to the ground, a strange outfit.
In addition, I noticed that she was holding a lantern emitting black light in her hands.
In broad daylight, it's almost impossible to see red, orange, or blue light, but for some reason, black light is visible.
"Damn! What kind of thing is that? Can one see ghosts and demons in broad daylight?" Dajinya was flabbergasted.
I stopped the car and waited for the ghostly woman carrying the lantern to approach.
Dajinya held a loop drum in his hand, ready to launch an attack at any moment.
The ghostly woman walked slowly, step by step. She was now only about ten meters away from us.
At this distance, I could see clearly. Apart from the ghostly woman, there were two pale hands clutching her shoulders. Her face had all the facial features, but it was very eerie, like... the faces of the paper dolls given to the dead, stiff, pallid, and very dissonant.
The hand holding the steering wheel was already sweating.
The ghostly woman continued to approach, and when she reached my car window, she suddenly stopped and turned her head, looking at me expressionlessly.
Although she showed no expression, I felt as if she were smiling, a contemptuous smile.
"Hehe."
A voice came from the ghostly woman's throat, suddenly, from her abdomen, a baby burst forth. The baby, covered in blood and still attached to an umbilical cord, began to write a word on my car window—Dead!
Then, the ghost baby drew an "X" over the word.
At that moment, all the subdued spirits following the ghost woman behind her raised their heads.
"Hee hee hee hee hee!"
These spirits all emitted a despairing laughter.
Their faces were covered in blood.
"Wash your faces!" The ghost mother holding the lantern commanded.
Immediately after, a surprising scene unfolded. The spirits behind the ghost mother crouched on the ground, grabbing handfuls of sand and rubbing it frantically on their faces.
The coarse sand instantly left bloody scratches on their faces, oozing black blood!
"What are they doing?" Dajinya, the experienced shaman from northeast, couldn't help but tremble and ask me.
I stared at the ghost mother, trying to figure out what they were up to. We still had the car, right? If anything happened, we could just drive away. It's not like we had anything to be afraid of.
But despite my constant reassurances to myself, I couldn't resist the next moment of fear.
Author's note: Brothers, here's the first installment, it's very late, I'm sorry, mainly because these two chapters were particularly difficult to write. Even my third version feels a bit off.
The 'yin' spirit behind him suddenly grabbed the hairline with both hands and pulled it hard, tearing their own faces off.
Seeing this scene, Huang Xin and Cheng Yan exclaimed and closed their eyes, while faint sounds of crying could be heard.
I was also shocked.
But the real scare was yet to come.
After tearing off their faces, the 'yin' spirits still had another face, but this face... had changed.
Their faces had turned into our appearances.
There were faces with big gold teeth, my face, Wind Shadow's face, Duan Guangyi's face, Cheng Yan's face, and Huang Xin's face.
"Hum hum hum." The Lantern Ghost Mistress raised her hand, pointed in our direction, straightened her body, stuffed the ghost baby directly into her belly, then walked away, the 'yin' spirits with our faces laughing eerily as they walked towards us.
In our ears, we only heard the pitiful song of the Lantern Ghost Mistress.
"The moon is white, the birds are chirping, baby, baby, where are you?"
"The moon is white, the birds are chirping, baby, baby, where are you?"
"Babies are rotating in the field, which one is my baby, the most delicious one."
The voice was bone-chilling, causing Cheng Yan and Huang Xin to cry in pain.
I covered my ears too, the song was too heart-wrenching.
No matter how much we covered our ears, the voice still managed to pierce through.
It wasn't until several minutes later that the voice disappeared.
"Brothers, retreat?" I asked the 'yin' brothers.
The consecutive scenes of ghostly apparitions were truly frightening.
This 'Men' Village was not a place for ordinary people to go. It was only a few miles from the neighboring village, yet such eerie events were happening. What other terrifying things were waiting for me?
"Wuwuwu!" Huang Xin and Cheng Yan continued crying.
Big Gold Tooth's teeth were chattering as he said: "Is this... really so wicked?"
Wind Shadow was more resistant, saying to continue walking, as there was nothing to fear, it was all just occult trickery, just a load of nonsense!
Duan Guangyi, who had been silent, finally said something: "It seems that the situation here is indeed quite tense. Let's make a tactical retreat."
Making a tactical retreat meant retreating.
Since Duan Guangyi had spoken up this time, I couldn't lead my brothers into the unknown. We were here to investigate the Fox Coffin, not to risk our lives.
I said, "In that case, let's retreat!"
Wind Shadow shook his head, saying we were all too timid, and that he wasn't afraid.
"If you're not scared, then go alone," Big Gold Tooth pointed to the road ahead.
Wind Shadow couldn't stand being provoked. Upon hearing Big Gold Tooth's words, he immediately opened the car door and said: "If the dragon's pool and tiger's lair need to be breached, then I'll go in alone. I'll call you when I enter the village."
Old Wind was furious, and I hurriedly followed him, saying, "Old Wind, if you're determined to go, then fine, we brothers won't separate. We'll go together!"
"This is the way a man should act, let's go," Wind Shadow said, then got back in the car.
Big Gold Tooth was also provoked: "Damn, do you all really think Big Gold Tooth is afraid? Who am I? I've been involved in tomb raiding and fighting, am I truly scared of this? Let's go!"
I was about to start the car again when suddenly, my phone rang.
The ringtone tinkled away.
It was an unfamiliar number.
I answered the call and asked, "Who is this?"
"Big brother, it's me. Last time you called me, asking about my husband and the stone coffin," a woman said on the other end of the line.
It came back to me. In fact, Tian Fox had given me a phone number last time, and it was this woman who answered the phone. She vehemently denied that her husband had moved the stone coffin, then cut off the call.
It was only after checking the call logs that we found out their house was in the Resealed Door Village, which led to this visit to the village.
"Hey, big sister, what made you decide to call me?" I asked.
"Oh, I didn't tell you about my husband and the stone coffin last time because my husband got into trouble. This time, I think I should tell you. That stone coffin caused my husband's death..." the sister-in-law said, her speech significantly slowing down as she talked about her husband.
I told her I was close to Resealed Door Village and that we were just a few miles outside the village.
"Tut, you're really coming? You're so lucky. Our village is cursed, and no outsiders dare to come. This road was built for us villagers to use, outsiders never use it," she said.
No wonder there were no cars on this road, it was all because of this reason.
The sister-in-law said, "Alright, our village's road is inaccessible to you. I'll send my husband's friend and my mother-in-law to meet you."
"Okay," I told her the car's license plate number and hung up.
Big Gold Tooth asked who it was.
I said it was the wife of the man who dug up and sold the coffin.
"Alright, we've run into the real owner this time. Maybe we won't even need to enter the village," said Da Jinya, nodding.
After about half an hour, an electric tricycle stopped in front of us.
The driver was a young man. He got out, and opened the door of the tricycle.
From the tricycle, an emaciated middle-aged man and an old lady got off.
The old lady looked to be about seventy years old, with a face full of wrinkles, a greenish complexion, and a bamboo earring hanging from her earlobe.
The middle-aged man kept coughing incessantly, frail to the point of resembling a stick of bamboo, as though he could collapse from just letting out a fart.
Cough, cough, cough.
As he coughed and wiped his mouth, I noticed some bloodstains on his handkerchief. This man was seriously ill.
"Hey! Brothers, are you asking about the stone coffin that was taken out of Fengmen Village a few days ago?" the middle-aged man asked, pointing to the old lady and the young man. "This young man is my second nephew, and the old lady doesn't know anything. Ask me if you need information. By the way, can I get in the car? It's too windy outside, and I can't bear the chill."
After he finished speaking, Huang Xin and Cheng Yan both got out of the car and gave their seats to the middle-aged man and the old lady. The two of them accompanied the middle-aged man's second nephew outside to enjoy the breeze.
Da Jinya nudged my rib and said, "Xiaoli, look at Huang Xin, so virtuous. She would be the most suitable wife, beautiful and kind-hearted. Whoever marries her will have accumulated good fortune from their past life."
"Get to the point, stop talking nonsense," I scolded Da Jinya and asked the middle-aged man, "Brother, what do you know? Tell me."
"Ah!" the middle-aged man sighed. "We sold that coffin for seven thousand to the director. Making that coffin, it cost the seven of us dearly. We each received one thousand, which was the price for our lives."
I asked the middle-aged man where this information came from.
He said that the seven of them, with no other skill, were bold from a young age, and they specialized in making and selling coffins from the abundant supply near Fengmen Village. Over the years, they didn't earn much, but they could still make a living and had a little capital for small business. However, all the nightmares started from that stone coffin.
That stone coffin was a fox ghost coffin.
I listened attentively.
"When we made the ghost coffin, we felt particularly frightened. When we dug up the coffin, the surrounding air felt cold. The seven of us all felt that the stone coffin was unusual. We didn't dare to keep it at home, so we piled it up at the entrance to our village."
The middle-aged man went on to say that the next day at noon, a middleman contacted them, saying that a director wanted a stone coffin and asked if they had one.
They immediately thought of the fox ghost coffin.
At the time, Director Yueyun was only willing to pay seven thousand. According to the usual price, the fox ghost coffin would have been worth at least eleven thousand or twelve thousand. But the seven brothers, feeling that the coffin was too sinister, agreed to seven thousand, just to get rid of it sooner.
So the fox ghost coffin ended up in the hands of Yue Yun.
The middle-aged man said, "At that time, I thought the matter was over, but it was just the beginning of the nightmare. From the day we sold the coffin, my brothers started dying one after another. I feel that it's retribution."
He said the first brother, Niuer, died a gruesome death. He was riding a motorcycle to the city to buy some small items, and as soon as he arrived in the county, a large truck swerved towards him.
"Was he hit and killed by the truck?" I asked.
"If that were the case, then I wouldn't suspect the coffin's involvement," the middle-aged man said. Niuer was cut in half by a steel plate that flew out from the truck!
The steel plate acted like a steel knife, splitting Niuer's head open and scattering his intestines and blood all over the ground.
I sighed. A thousand yuan, just for a thousand yuan, Niuer met his end like this.
The middle-aged man said the second brother, Hugao Feng, died even more mysteriously. He suddenly collapsed and died while sunbathing during the day.
Da Jinya asked the middle-aged man, "Isn't sudden death something common?"
The middle-aged man coughed again, "Cough, cough. Sudden death is not a big deal, but... when his wife went to retrieve his body, countless small bugs crawled out of his nose, mouth, eyes, and ears."
The bugs transformed into moths as soon as they touched the air, covering the body and, in a few minutes, turning Hugao Feng's corpse into a pile of bones in front of his wife.
Da Jinya recoiled in horror.
"My third brother, Huyong, Hugao Feng's cousin, went crazy and poured boiling water over himself while sitting in a pig trough, scalding himself to death."
"And Lao Mi, Diaozi, Lao Pao, and the rest..." the middle-aged man recounted the deaths of their six coffin-selling brothers like a well-versed storyteller.
After telling these stories, the middle-aged man coughed again and said, "Ah, they died, and I'm not far behind. I've been coughing and coughing up blood these past few days. I went to the county hospital for an examination, and the doctor told me I have lung cancer. The doctor said he'd never seen such a strange cancer before. It was early-stage lung cancer on the first day, and it had progressed to late-stage cancer on the next. The cancer cells are growing too fast. In Northeast China, we say it's attracting yin energy."
He said he knew that it wasn't cancer at all; it was revenge from the owner of the stone coffin.
The middle-aged man said, "I heard that you want to investigate this stone coffin. Brothers, I advise you not to provoke it. Of course, if you insist on going, I will take you. My brothers and I were harmed by the stone coffin. I also want to go back and take another look. People should die clearly, right? We can't lose our lives for a thousand yuan without knowing the reason, can we? I can take you there, it's up to you if you want to go."
"Let's go!" I said.
The middle-aged man smiled, very sweetly. "Alright, I'll get on my motorcycle now, and we'll meet at the entrance to Fengmen Village. When you arrive, my wife and I will take you to the place in the mountains where we dug up the coffin."
"Okay, okay," I nodded, and at the same time, I shook my head, "Does the old lady really need to go? It's the wilderness, and her legs aren't very nimble!"
The middle-aged man laughed again, saying, "She can stay, but the old lady must go. Without her, we wouldn't be able to enter the mountain!"
Author's note: Thank you, brothers, for subscribing enthusiastically. I have always written very carefully, thinking over a plot many times, in the end, producing a thrilling story. The heavens have always been so attentive, and I only hope that you will enjoy it. As long as you're happy, I am willing to work hard, even if the heavens are tired.