Chapter 34
Chapter 34
“What’s wrong, Xiao Wu?”
Old Cao steadied me and smiled.
I did not know how to answer.
The instant before the lid closed had lasted less than half a second, and the light was dim. I did not even know whether I had seen correctly.
Perhaps my eyes really had deceived me.
And saying anything would accomplish nothing.
By coffin-bearer rules, once a coffin was formally sealed, nothing in the world could justify opening it!
It could be reopened only if they had decided to completely destroy the corpse inside.
So I shook my head and said it was nothing.
Old Cao needed to concentrate on the procession and did not question me further. He merely told me to watch and learn.
With everything ready, they prepared to raise the coffin.
“Hah!”
Big Bull and the other three exhaled in unison with a powerful shout. Each tied a white towel around his left arm for wiping sweat during the journey.
Old Cao assigned several distant Duan relatives to carry common wooden benches.
If Big Bull and the others became exhausted on the way to the grave, the coffin could rest on these.
Ancient custom forbade a coffin from touching the ground during its funeral journey!
If it did, the corpse’s death energy would connect and merge with the energy of the earth. Forcibly lifting it again disrupted yin and yang, potentially creating a vicious corpse and damaging the feng shui fortune of its descendants.
But coffin bearers were not made of iron. They eventually tired.
So their predecessors devised a solution: distribute light, sturdy wooden benches evenly on the ground and rest the coffin on them.
The coffin never touched earth, yet the bearers could set it down and catch their breath.
Old Cao ordered the Duans to form two lines outside the courtyard, men on the left and women on the right. They must cry aloud when the coffin emerged.
Yuan Fei held a brass compass.
“Master Cao, the hour has arrived. You may raise the coffin.”
Old Cao nodded and took his place at its front.
Big Bull had explained that a coffin procession generally used four, six, or eight bearers, depending on their strength and the coffin’s weight.
At the front walked the leader who enforced rules, chose direction, and set the rhythm–the coffin bearer proper. That was Old Cao.
Big Bull, Ergou, and the other two were powerful men in their prime with some martial training.
Miss Duan’s coffin was made from excellent, heavy fir, but with Old Cao leading, five men should suffice.
They positioned the dragon spine and steadied the flood-dragon braces.
The phoenix rope secured the joints of the five phoenix poles, fixing the enormous red coffin in place.
Old Cao bore the front across both shoulders.
The four others stood at the corners, each carrying a pole on one shoulder and steadying it with one hand.
“Send the coffin through the gate! Neither linger nor look back! Let the ancestors clear the road!”
Old Cao called in a shrill voice completely unlike his usual one.
I was not a Duan and did not need to stand ahead, but following behind the coffin was inappropriate, so I stood beside the folk Taoist master Yuan Fei.
Old Cao had privately suggested I observe Yuan Fei’s practical methods. As the Immortal Lady, Master stood at such a lofty level that she might not explain these basics in equal detail…
As the saying went, the master opens the door; cultivation depends on the student.
That made perfect sense!
I watched every procedure and technique carefully and committed them to memory.
Mr. Yuan’s Ghost-Beating Staff particularly fascinated me. I wanted one of my own.
But I had not even reached the threshold. I scarcely knew the theory, never mind practice. Even if Yuan Fei gave me his staff, I could not use it!
“Send the coffin out! Lift!”
Big Bull and the others shouted with Old Cao, their voices tearing through the night.
All five heaved upward!
Judging by Big Bull’s size and bulging muscles, I expected them to lift it easily.
But at the instant they tried to rise, all five expressions changed!
The coffin did not lift as expected, nor could they straighten. They remained half crouched, straining.
The coffin did not move a fraction!
Yuan Fei and I noticed immediately.
He frowned. “Master Cao, what’s happening? Did you lift?”
Old Cao’s face darkened, all earlier ease gone. “We did. I estimated we used seventy percent of our strength, but it didn’t move.”
Impossible!
Yuan Fei looked uneasy. “I know Big Bull’s strength. He can carry five or six hundred jin alone! Miss Duan died young, so her coffin wasn’t made too large. Even excellent fir couldn’t make it this heavy. Why can’t you lift it?”
Old Cao said coldly, “Boss Duan bought this coffin from me. With its lid, it weighs exactly eight hundred eighty-eight jin. Miss Duan weighed under a hundred. Less than a thousand jin total should be easy for five of us. There’s only one possibility…”
Miss Duan did not want to leave!
My heart lurched.
From the cat startling the corpse onward, everything had been strange.
I could no longer remain silent. I told Old Cao and Yuan Fei that I had seen the corpse open its eyes through the narrowing gap as the lid closed.
Both were shocked and asked whether I had seen clearly.
I answered honestly.
“It lasted only an instant, and the mourning hall was dark. I wasn’t certain, so I said nothing. Besides, Old Cao, you said a sealed coffin can’t be opened.”
As we spoke, the Duans waiting outside the courtyard wondered why the coffin had not appeared. They began whispering.
Old Cao beckoned. “Boss Duan, please come here.”
When he approached, Old Cao asked whether Miss Duan had left any unfulfilled wish. From the situation, she did not seem willing to go.
This was entirely different from their first judgment!
Boss Duan looked at the coffin, thought, and shook his head. “I don’t think so. I don’t know. She was always lively and carefree. If something troubled her, her father should have known.”
Old Cao frowned, then decided to try once more.
If the corpse held no specific obsession and merely clung to life because she died young, forcing her away should not cause much trouble.
Old Cao returned to the front and ordered Big Bull’s men to use all their strength!
They would tear the corpse energy away from the mourning hall’s earth energy.
Once the coffin rose, carrying it onward would become easier.
“Send the coffin through the gate! Lift!”
At Old Cao’s shrill cry, they heaved with every ounce of strength.
I stared at the coffin’s base.
At last, it slowly left the ground. I began to relax.
But it had risen less than an inch!
Veins bulged on Big Bull and the others’ necks. Their faces contorted, every muscle rigid, while sweat poured off them.
“Too heavy! I’ve never carried a coffin this heavy.”
The bearer nicknamed Flat-Top grimaced.
“Ahhh!”
Big Bull roared and summoned every scrap of strength, but could not raise it further.
Worse, the coffin began sinking!
Its base was about to touch the ground again.