Chapter 84

Chapter 84

Seeing his son look so pitiful, Xiao Mao seemed to waver as well.

He moved close to Li Miao and spoke quietly.

“Mr. Li, could you come home with us and observe him first? As for payment, we can discuss any amount.”

Li Miao shook his head. “Money isn’t the issue. Your son’s condition is simply too strange. I don’t need to tell you that. Even you understand it perfectly well.”

Of course they did.

Someone who had drowned more than ten days ago was now lively and active, exactly as he had been in life.

Who could fail to understand how unnatural and sinister that was?

At this moment, the more Xiao Sheng resembled a living child, the more frightening he became.

But parental love was boundless.

Even knowing that he was a corpse-fiend, his parents could not abandon him when he pitifully called them “Daddy” and “Mommy.”

Xiao Mao continued cautiously.

“Mr. Li, if my son truly wanted to harm someone, he wouldn’t need to make matters so complicated, would he? We live in the countryside, and I’ve heard the elders tell stories about such things.”

“When a person becomes a corpse-fiend, he can’t speak and is usually extremely vicious. He won’t even recognize his parents. Even if he remembers family and friends, his memories from life will be incomplete. But my son’s condition is different.”

Li Miao nodded.

Most elders knew some folk taboos from the mountains and countryside. Such knowledge also circulated among ordinary people, so Xiao Mao’s familiarity with it was not strange.

Li Miao too found the child corpse before him far too bizarre.

It was strange enough to make his skin crawl.

After considering the matter, he said gravely, “Taking him inside your home is out of the question. It’s too dangerous. If your family has a cellar or something similar, you can temporarily confine him there while I think of a solution.”

“What?”

Mrs. Xiao stared, reluctant to agree.

“Lock Shengsheng in the cellar? Wouldn’t that be…”

Before she could finish, Li Miao interrupted her.

“It’s the best solution. No matter how strange or powerful your son is, once dawn comes and the sun rises, he absolutely won’t survive.”

He was right.

The glorious light of the blazing sun was the absolute nemesis of every demon, ghost, and monster.

Even a corpse fiend, a Corpse King, or something more powerful had nowhere to hide beneath intense daylight and could only be reduced to ashes.

Li Miao believed that however unnatural this child corpse might be, it could never withstand sunlight.

Temporarily confining him in a deep cellar was therefore the best choice.

The cellar would also make it easier for Li Miao to apply sealing methods.

Seeing how resolute Li Miao was, Xiao Mao nodded in agreement and spent some time persuading his wife. Eventually, everyone accepted the decision.

The child corpse itself had been only five or six and did not understand many things. It merely curled up in its mother’s arms with its eyes closed as though asleep.

If its body had not been bleached white by the water and marked with patches of death, it truly would have looked alive.

Li Miao followed the Xiao family back to Xiao Mao’s home.

It was a self-built, three-story house in the village. Though less luxurious than an urban villa, it was still very impressive.

A wall surrounded a courtyard of two or three hundred square meters.

The cellar lay on the western side.

Xiao Mao led Li Miao to its entrance, looked at the son curled in his wife’s arms, and opened his mouth. He seemed to want to say something but remained silent.

Li Miao understood his meaning and said coldly, “Don’t consider staying with him. Confining him in the cellar is already the most merciful option.”

Xiao Mao nodded with a bitter smile. “I understand, Mr. Li. But whatever else may be true, my son’s behavior and awareness are exactly as they were when he was alive. How are we supposed to persuade him to remain alone in a cellar?”

Li Miao waved a hand. “That’s your problem. I’m only a corpse retriever. I can’t handle everything.”

He was not being heartless.

It was simply the truth.

He was already helping the Xiao family out of an esoteric practitioner’s sense of justice. They could hardly expect him to coax a small child as well.

He had neither wife nor family of his own and would not know how.

Xiao Mao walked over and whispered to the child corpse with his wife.

Xiao Sheng appeared quite obedient. He nodded vigorously, seemingly agreeing to their request.

The couple carried him over.

Xiao Mao opened the cellar door and led Li Miao down.

In the Sichuan-Chongqing countryside of that era, nearly every home had a cellar. Even the Xiao family, the wealthiest household in the village, followed tradition and built one.
It was normally used to store sweet potatoes, yams, and similar produce.

Li Miao descended into the cellar, chose a place, and asked Mrs. Xiao to set Xiao Sheng down.

He removed the black-dog-hair rope from his waist and bound the child corpse’s hands. Then he wound another loop around its waist. Only after checking everything did he relax slightly.

The child corpse looked up at him. Its skin was pale and its eyes reddish, yet its expression remained innocent and adorable.

In a clear childish voice, it said, “Uncle, Daddy and Mommy said I was naughty, so I have to stay here as punishment. As long as I’m good and listen, they’ll always love me and won’t be angry anymore. Is that right?”

Li Miao had no children of his own, but the young voice still made his heart tremble.

He nodded solemnly. “Your parents are right. As long as you’re good, they’ll continue to love you.”

“Mm-hmm!”

The child corpse nodded hard, believing their words.

Li Miao took Xiao Mao upstairs and dragged along Mrs. Xiao, who looked back every few steps. Then they closed the cellar’s wooden door.

“My baby! He’s so little. Won’t he be afraid alone in the cellar?”

Mrs. Xiao began to cry.

Li Miao answered calmly, “No. His memories and awareness may remain as they were in life, but his body has obviously become a corpse-fiend. Even if he doesn’t sense the difference himself, emotions such as fear will certainly be much weaker.”

He then instructed Xiao Mao to send the Xiao relatives through the village at once to find a male black dog and a rooster.

Once they found them, they tied one on either side of the cellar entrance.

Like door guardians, the dog and rooster stood watch over the exit.

Then Li Miao had them find an old kitchen cleaver used for more than three years and drive it into the wooden cellar door.

According to the teachings of Li Miao’s lineage, this was an exceptionally powerful method capable of suppressing even the strongest vicious corpse or corpse fiend.

Judging by the yin energy Xiao Sheng emitted, he was only the most ordinary kind of walking corpse.

But his condition was too strange for carelessness. Li Miao therefore used even his strongest corpse-suppression methods.

By the time everything was complete, the sky had begun to brighten.

Feeling tired, Li Miao wiped sweat from his forehead.

Xiao Mao asked, “Mr. Li, what should we do now?”

“Now that it’s daylight, there’s no need to worry. No demon, ghost, or monster dares cause trouble during the day. Everyone should sleep properly. After nightfall, I’ll find someone to help resolve this.”

Naturally, Xiao Mao and his wife obeyed every word.

After the disturbance of the entire night, they were truly exhausted and went to sleep.

Li Miao rested for a while as well. After rising, he consulted various texts passed down through the corpse-retriever lineage, hoping to find a case resembling Xiao Sheng’s.

He found nothing.

Through his connections, Li Miao located Old Cao and visited the coffin shop.

I happened to return immediately after handling part of my nether covenant with Zhou Min and met him there.

Li Miao sighed and looked at Old Cao and me.

“Coffin-Bearer Cao, Young Mr. Wu, that’s everything that happened. I can’t understand Xiao Sheng’s condition, so I came to consult you. Across the nearby towns and surrounding countryside, you’re the most experienced veteran in the profession.”

Li Miao had probably told Old Cao the same story before I returned, which was why Old Cao remained calm.

I was astonished.

I had never imagined something so strange could happen.

Yet it also sounded vaguely familiar, as though I had heard of it somewhere.

Old Cao looked at me.

“Xiao Wu, what do you think?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have an answer yet. But from Brother Li’s account, I have a feeling that Xiao Sheng may not know he’s dead. Perhaps only that can explain some of this.”

“Of course!”

Old Cao slapped his forehead and looked at me admiringly.

“Xiao Wu saw the key immediately. Xiao Sheng probably has no awareness whatsoever that he died.”

I did not tell them that the story sounded familiar. The feeling was faint, and I had not grasped its source. There was no point mentioning it.

Old Cao murmured, “Should we go ask the Immortal Lady?”

The instant the words left him, he shook his head and waved both hands.

“No, no. How could we trouble the Immortal Lady with this? The affair has nothing to do with her, and she hates trouble more than anything.”

Hearing that, Li Miao curiously asked who the Immortal Lady was.

Old Cao merely waved and said he could not answer.

After some discussion, Old Cao agreed to help.

Naturally, he would not work for free. He would take sixty percent of whatever reward the Xiao family paid.
That too was a rule.

I performed a service, and the client paid me.

Once the matter was resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, no karmic debt remained.

Li Miao was straightforward and agreed at once.

Old Cao gathered his various tools and prepared to follow him to Xiaowan Village.

I gritted my teeth and spoke.

“Old Cao, take me with you. I want to go too!”

“Oh?”

Old Cao looked back with a smile. “You’re skipping evening study? You already have much less time for schoolwork than everyone else, yet you must rank first in your year on every examination. Your time is precious.”

I stamped my foot. “Forget it! Missing one evening study session won’t matter. At worst, I’ll sleep less and make time to review. This child corpse is too strange and rare. If I don’t see it myself, I’ll definitely regret it.”

Old Cao threw back his head and laughed.

“I was waiting for you to say that. Come along. I’ll give you twenty percent of whatever we earn.”

Listening to our exchange, Li Miao looked puzzled.

He probably found the conversation strange.

I had chosen the life of the esoteric world and intended to earn my living from it, yet someone still demanded that I maintain such exceptional grades.

It was certainly unusual.

Whatever his thoughts, the three of us left the coffin shop and walked several steps to an intersection.

Numerous motorcycles waited there.

In those days, taxis were scarce not only in towns, but even in county seats and large cities. Three-wheelers, motorcycles, and similar vehicles carried much of the passenger traffic.

We commonly called the motorcycles “motorcycle taxis.”

Li Miao hired three, one for each of us, and we sped toward Xiaowan Village.

It was about seven in the evening when we reached the Xiao family’s self-built house.

Besides Xiao Mao and his wife, the relatives who had helped during the corpse retrieval the previous night were also present.

Some of the older people apparently recognized Old Cao. His arrival reassured them, and they greeted him warmly.

“Coffin-Bearer Cao is here? Good, good.”

“Greetings, Coffin-Bearer Cao. I’m already old. When my time comes, could you carry my coffin? I’d like to reserve your services now.”

The Xiao elders all greeted Old Cao, while the younger relatives were less familiar with him.

Li Miao introduced Old Cao and me to Xiao Mao.

Xiao Mao behaved well. He did not look down on me because of my age, but treated me with the same respect he showed Li Miao and Old Cao. My opinion of him improved.

Li Miao waved to the family. “All right. Everyone remain aboveground. The three of us will enter the cellar.”

Old Cao examined Li Miao’s earlier arrangements with his hands clasped behind his back and nodded repeatedly.

“Not bad, Young Brother Li. Your corpse-suppression method looks powerful. A black dog distinguishes yin from yang, a rooster suppresses evil, and a metal blade steeped in the smoke and fire of daily life pins down the fiend.”

He glanced at Li Miao’s waist.

“Your corpse retriever’s black-dog-hair rope is missing. I assume you used it to bind the child corpse. With precautions this thorough, not even the strongest vicious corpse could cause trouble. I like working with careful men like you.”

Li Miao was a famous corpse retriever throughout dozens of li and normally quite proud.

Praise from an ordinary person, however extravagant, earned only a bland response.

But Old Cao’s compliment brought a smile to his face.

“Coffin-Bearer Cao praises me too highly. They say you aren’t only a coffin bearer, but a funerary-paper artisan as well. Your spirit-paper arts are astonishing. They’re far beyond my modest methods.”

Uh…

I stood beside them, rather speechless.

Old Cao and Li Miao were both outstanding practitioners who earned their living from the dead.

Yet they too enjoyed praising each other.

People were the same everywhere.

Many years later, I learned an expression online: mutual professional flattery.

This was probably what it meant.

“Brother Li, Old Cao, let’s go down and look. I’m terribly curious about the child corpse’s exact condition. Oh, and we should bring some food.”

My reminder made both men realize the need. They instructed the Xiao family to bring something to eat.

After thinking, I told them to prepare two servings of identical food.

One cooked and one raw.

Once everything was ready, Li Miao removed the corpse-suppression measures, and the three of us entered the cellar.

The instant I stepped inside, an icy aura struck my face.

It differed from the cellar’s ordinary earthy smell.

It carried the fishy odor of river water.