Chapter 175
Chapter 175
Wang Dachun must have been part hound!
His senses were incredibly sharp.
As soon as we sat down in the classroom, he lowered his voice and secretly asked me,
“Boss, did you go do something thrilling and dangerous again yesterday? Hurry up and tell us about it.”
I was instantly astonished. I stared at him blankly and asked in confusion,
“How did you know? I didn’t tell you anything.”
Wang Dachun chuckled lewdly and winked at me.
“Intuition! My intuition is extremely accurate.”
As he spoke, he even pointed at his own head.
It seemed this man’s perceptions truly were much sharper than an ordinary person’s.
For example, when we walked home together after evening study last time, Wang Hu had been invisible to ordinary people, yet Wang Dachun still noticed him…
My fierce battle of magical arts with the rogue occultist last night had probably left traces of qi on my body, which Wang Dachun vaguely sensed.
Even so, I smacked him on the head and deliberately said,
“Intuition? If your intuition were that accurate, you wouldn’t have provoked me outside the school when the semester first began.”
Wang Dachun clutched his head in both hands and looked deeply aggrieved, but he couldn’t think of any way to argue back.
Yao Nan and Zeng Jin were also watching me with eager expressions.
Yao Nan said,
“Desk Mate, you only made fun of Wang Dachun for boasting about his intuition. You never denied what he said. Hurry up and tell us what kind of thrilling experience you had this time. Was it even more exciting than one of those Hong Kong zombie movies with Uncle Nine?”
This girl!
She had personally suffered from gu arts, and someone had attacked her home with fire-form baleforce.
Yet those experiences hadn’t made her afraid of such things. Instead, she had become even more interested in them.
Apparently, she had a strong will beneath her gentle exterior…
I shrugged helplessly.
“Fine. We’re already so close, and you know about my situation anyway, so there’s no harm in telling you. Besides, this matter is somewhat connected to what happened at Yao Nan’s home last time.”
I gave them a detailed account of how we had ambushed the rogue occultist in the small wooden cabin on River Street.
The life-and-death battle had all three of them crying out in excitement!
Adolescents were bursting with hormones and spent every day fantasizing about leading extraordinary lives.
Forced to sit in classrooms, attend lessons, and study, they envied me immensely.
But in truth, I envied them instead.
Their lives were prosperous and stable. They came from privileged families and didn’t constantly walk the edge of danger or deal with terrifying yin entities…
And before I turned fifteen, I still faced a deadly life tribulation. If I failed to survive it, I would probably die.
That was why I had taken the initiative to become Master’s disciple back then. I wanted to learn the magical arts of the esoteric arts and use my own strength to defy heaven and change my fate!
I, Wu Zhong, would never accept fate!
At the very least, I should not die during a life tribulation at fifteen.
After school that evening, I returned to the coffin shop.
Old Cao told me Big Bull, Ergou, and the others had dug Zhou Min’s grave during the day. It was on one of the mountaintops Zhou Min had mentioned before, where she could overlook the home she had lived in.
As for the coffin, he had chosen one with relatively thin boards but fine workmanship, allowing Zhou Min’s body to be properly laid to rest.
After all, even when buried and resting in peace, Zhou Min would still fundamentally be a vicious corpse.
As long as she lay inside the grave, she would emit dense yin-baleful energy. No snakes, insects, rats, ants, or similar creatures would ever dare approach and gnaw on her body…
There was no need to use a thick coffin, as one would for an ordinary deceased person, to protect the body from insects and vermin.
“Big Bull and the others have already gone to Li Miao’s place. Only the two of us are left. Let’s follow the usual routine and ride over.”
Old Cao spoke with a smile and summoned the two paper horses downstairs once again.
Each of us mounted one, and we left the coffin shop for the Chuan River in the countryside north of town.
When we reached Li Miao’s home, we dismounted.
A thin black coffin stood in the middle of the courtyard. Zhou Min lay on her back inside, her hands peacefully crossed over her abdomen.
The coffin lid had not yet been sealed.
Big Bull, Ergou, and the other two men were chatting with Li Miao.
There weren’t as many rules surrounding this particular coffin procession…
After all, the one lying inside the coffin was already a vicious corpse.
If you asked me, the easiest solution would have been to let Zhou Min walk with us up the mountain. Then Big Bull and the others wouldn’t need to exhaust themselves.
But Zhou Min had seemed to want us to carry her up in a coffin. When I mentioned it to Old Cao, he surprisingly agreed with her.
Perhaps… only someone properly carried up the mountain by coffin bearers could truly be considered buried and at peace.
It would mean a hard trip for Big Bull and the other three coffin bearers, and there was no client to pay them. Technically, I counted as the client, but they probably wouldn’t accept my money.
Zhou Min had volunteered for this procession, after all. They were merely carrying her coffin, so there was no karmic debt for them to incur.
Whether they accepted money didn’t matter. They were simply contributing some hard work…
“Coffin-Bearer Cao, Young Mr. Wu, you’re here?”
Big Bull greeted us with a smile.
I hurriedly cupped my hands in response.
“Brother Big Bull, thank you all for the hard work! Once we’re finished, I’ll treat everyone to a late-night meal and drinks at an open-air food stall.”
“Sounds good!”
They all agreed with smiles.
They wouldn’t take money, but food and drinks made them perfectly happy.
After chatting for a few moments, Big Bull pointed behind him and spoke solemnly.
“Then we’ll ask Coffin-Bearer Cao to seal the coffin so we can lift it and begin the journey!”
…
Ten minutes later, Big Bull and the other three carried the coffin by its four corners, while Old Cao led the way. We slowly followed the mountain path from the riverbank toward the summit.
Fortunately, the mountains Zhou Min had chosen were all close to the Chuan River. We didn’t need to circle around to the side facing town, or the journey truly would have been long!
Li Miao and I walked beside the coffin, while Heizi followed us with its tail wagging.
Our group began climbing the mountain.
I heard Flat-Top mutter softly,
“This coffin is really light!”
Big Bull immediately rebuked him. “Enough nonsense. Keep quiet.”
It seemed Zhou Min wanted to complete every step of being properly buried and laid to rest, but she had no intention of making things difficult for us. She even knew enough to make the coffin lighter.
…
After we buried Zhou Min, life returned to its peaceful rhythm.
Time flowed onward like water and never stopped…
Final examinations soon arrived.
They were far more important than the monthly exams!
The entire school entered a tense period of exam preparation.
The day before winter vacation began, the school posted our grades.
Only after seeing my name at the very top did I finally breathe a sigh of relief.
“Whew! First place in the final exams too. Now I can finally go home and enjoy the New Year.”
An air of parting filled the classroom.
When we are young, we perceive the passage of time very differently from adults or the elderly.
Adults spend every day working to earn money and support their families. One day after another resembles a fast, endlessly repeating silent film.
When they occasionally come to their senses and look around, they discover that months or years have passed without their noticing.
But young people haven’t yet experienced so many partings of life and death, nor have they seen society’s complexity or the vastness of the world. Their emotions are sensitive and delicate.
Sometimes, merely changing desk mates feels like a painful separation.
Sometimes, transferring schools feels as though you will never meet again in this lifetime.
Even a winter or summer vacation seems like an extraordinarily long separation.
So when I packed my textbooks, organized the winter-vacation homework our teachers had assigned, and prepared to leave, I noticed reluctance on the faces of Wang Dachun, Zeng Jin, and Yao Nan.
“Boss, as we part today–”
“Get lost!”
I deliberately cursed with a laugh.
“It’s only winter vacation. We’re going home to spend the New Year with our families. We won’t see one another for thirty or forty days. Stop acting like this is a final farewell.”
Though when I thought about not seeing these good friends for dozens of days, I felt a little unaccustomed to it too.
Back then, I still lived in a rural village. Forget a computer–my family didn’t even own a landline telephone!
If I didn’t come into town, we truly had no way to contact one another.
When I returned to the coffin shop, I said with a grin,
“Old Cao, I’m going home for winter vacation. You’ll be living alone again. Are you going to miss me terribly and feel completely lost? You’ll even have to spend New Year’s Eve all alone and miserable.”
Before Old Cao could answer, Wang Hu slowly floated from a nearby coffin and timidly raised one hand.
“Over here! There’s still a ghost to keep Boss Cao company.”
I pretended to be astonished.
“Good grief! So it’ll be one man and one ghost celebrating together.”
Then we all burst out laughing.
After the laughter subsided, I suddenly slapped my forehead.
“Wait, that’s not right! There’s Miss Bai and Huihui too. They can come to the coffin shop and celebrate the New Year together. It should be quite lively then.”
The thought amused me.
A coffin bearer and funerary-paper artisan, one ghost, and two monsters.
Gathered together for New Year’s Eve–the scene would certainly be fascinating!
After packing some clothes and other belongings, I set out for home. As usual, I first needed to visit a mountain near town before leaving.