Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I dragged Jiang Kai along and followed Uncle Ye into the house.

To my surprise, Jiang Kai wasn’t the only one in Uncle Ye’s home acting abnormal. There was another one-Uncle Ye’s son, Ye Xiaowu.

Ye Xiaowu was tied to the bed, a strip of cloth stuffed in his mouth. His eyes were bulging, bloodshot from corner to corner.

Even with his mouth gagged, he still snarled desperately at everyone who passed by.

Uncle Ye had only this one son. The moment he saw Ye Xiaowu like that, his eyes reddened. He turned to face me and was about to drop to his knees, but I hurriedly held him up.

“What are you doing, Uncle Ye?”

Back when my parents passed away, the people in the village had helped a lot-Uncle Ye most of all.

Uncle Ye’s voice choked up too. He gripped my hand and said, “Changdong, I shouldn’t be asking you of all people for help with this. But I really have no other choice. I’ve invited every spirit-medium woman and old master from miles around, but not a single one was any use.”

“If this keeps dragging on, I’m afraid Xiaowu and Jiang Kai won’t make it. And our village will be finished too. Anyone who could leave has already left.”

“Just tell me what happened,” I said. “I grew up in this village. Now that something this serious has happened, there’s no way I can stand by and do nothing.”

Only after getting my promise did Uncle Ye begin to explain, haltingly, what had happened.

As it turned out, it all started with Tang Dong.

Ten days ago, Tang Dong’s parents suddenly returned to the village, saying they were going to bury Tang Dong.

No one knew where Lai Zhi had found the man, but the Tang family all called him Zhou Banshen.

According to Zhou Banshen, the seventh Calling Back the Spirit ritual for Tang Dong had succeeded, and he had indeed brought back Tang Dong’s Soul Summoning Banner.

Following Zhou Banshen’s instructions, Tang Dong’s parents returned to their hometown to hold another funeral. They also had to keep the coffin above ground for seven days, to appease Tang Dong’s soul after it had been wandering outside for so long.

The villagers were simple, honest folk, and they had all been neighbors for years, so everyone pitched in to help make arrangements.

But after the Tang family’s mourning shed was set up, the atmosphere in the village turned strange.

Tang Dong’s body had been cremated long ago, yet the Tang family still placed a coffin in their courtyard.

No one knew what kind of wood that coffin was made from, but it was a vivid, glaring red.

From the moment that coffin was carried into the village, all the dogs and chickens in the village stopped making a sound.

Once night fell, everything was so quiet it was terrifying.

The village elders felt it was unlucky and went to ask Tang Dong’s parents about it, but Tang Dong’s parents brushed them off with excuses like “the master’s instructions” and “everything will be fine after seven days.”

But no one expected something to happen in the village on only the third day of the vigil.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Ma San’er died. Drowned in a drainage ditch.”

For a moment, I couldn’t process it. Ma San’er was already dead? Then who was the person I saw by the roadside?

Besides, the drainage ditches in our village were extremely shallow. At this time of year, the water inside wouldn’t even cover the top of your foot.

How could a grown man in his thirties drown in one?

“The police said it might have been because he was drunk. He fell headfirst into the ditch.”

Uncle Ye clearly didn’t believe it either, but for now, there was no other explanation.

After Ma San’er died, the villagers became even more convinced that something was wrong. A lot of them went and blocked the Tang family’s courtyard.

Zhou Banshen was there too. He was perfectly calm and said outright that this had happened because Tang Dong held a grudge against the people in the village.

Only by keeping the vigil for seven days and burying him at the auspicious hour could Tang Dong’s resentment be completely dispersed.

Otherwise, even if they buried Tang Dong right then and there, things would keep happening in the village. Once someone was targeted by a vengeful spirit, there was no escaping it.

The villagers didn’t dare act rashly. Every household shut its doors tight, all thinking that if they could just get through the remaining four days, maybe everything would be fine.