Chapter 114

Chapter 114

Only after I drew closer did I see that each of the two coffins held a spirit tablet.

The one on the right read: “Spirit Tablet of the Deceased Dou Zhile.” The one against the wall on the left read: “Spirit Tablet of the Deceased Dou Jinsuo.”

Dou Jinsuo’s spirit tablet?

Wasn’t Dou Jinsuo still perfectly alive?

When my gaze moved farther down, I finally noticed that the dates of death marked on both tablets were tomorrow.

No-strictly speaking, today.

It was already past midnight.

I frowned and looked at the little old man again.

He was sitting beside Dou Zhile’s coffin. He lit his pipe, took several hard pulls from it, then muttered to himself, “That child Jinsuo is timid, weak-willed, and easily used as someone else’s weapon. If I leave him behind after I’m gone, I truly won’t be able to rest easy.”

My heart gave a thud.

The man before me had to be Dou Zhile.

“He’s very focused when he works, and he’s got a gift for it. When he was little, he used to pester me to teach him my skills. He’s the Dou family’s only descendant, and he calls me Second Uncle. By rights, I should have taught him everything I know. Because of this, we uncle and nephew nearly fell out completely.”

Dou Zhile shook his head with a bitter smile. “The Dou family carries sins too heavy to bear. The more one knows, the worse one’s end. If I taught him even a little more, he would die that much sooner. But in the end… there was still no escaping this Calamity.”

At that, Dou Zhile set down his pipe, picked up the plane again, and shaved away at the edge of the coffin bit by bit.

I could hardly imagine what state of mind he was in, making coffins for himself and his nephew with his own hands so intently.

Clearly, this time, Dou Zhile was prepared to face death without flinching.

In a sense, he and his nephew… were dying because of me.

It wasn’t hard to guess why the Town Head had brought Dou Jinsuo here to find Dou Zhile.

They wanted Dou Zhile to help make a Human-Skin Red Coffin.

Dou Zhile refused, so all he could do was devote himself to death.

But even if he was willing to die, would Dou Jinsuo be willing too?

I had dealt with Dou Jinsuo before. Just as Dou Zhile had said, he was timid and terrified of death. After all these years in town, the only impression he left me with was that he was submissive and muddleheaded.

Would someone like that do something utterly unconscionable just to stay alive?

After all, he still had the Huang Family and Bai Family behind him now.

“Second Uncle.”

Just as these thoughts were running through my mind, Dou Jinsuo’s voice suddenly came from outside the door.

He was wrapped in a black overcoat, dew clinging to him, looking as if he had hurried here through wind and dust.

Li Qingying and I turned to look at Dou Jinsuo at the same time. He froze as well, his eyes flickering. “Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu… what are you doing here?”

How was I supposed to explain that?

“Passing by. Came in for a drink of water,” Li Qingying said, lying through her teeth.

Dou Jinsuo scratched his head. “Oh. All right.”

Dou Zhile put down the plane and called out, “Jinsuo, you’re here? Have you thought it all through?”

“I thought it through long ago, Second Uncle.”

As Dou Jinsuo spoke, he walked to the coffin containing his spirit tablet, looked at it, then took off his shoes and lay down inside.

He hugged the spirit tablet to his chest. From behind it, a beautifully carved little wooden horse rolled out. Dou Jinsuo’s eyes lit up. He set the tablet aside, picked up the little wooden horse, and held it as if he couldn’t bear to let go. “I never thought Second Uncle would still remember I liked this. With Second Uncle keeping me company, even if we go to hell, even if we have to cross mountains of knives and seas of fire, Jinsuo won’t be afraid.”

In that moment, Dou Jinsuo was completely different from the man in my memory.

He was resolute, brave, and ready to die without regret.
“Wait, that doesn’t make sense.” Li Qingying looked utterly puzzled. “You were as spineless as a puddle of mud in front of the Town Head before. So why are you now…”

Dou Jinsuo toyed with the little wooden horse and smiled. “I can’t beat them. Only by acting pathetic enough will they stop taking me seriously. In truth, the night the Town Head came to find me, the ending was already decided. It was an understanding between Second Uncle and me.”

Dou Zhile looked at Dou Jinsuo with both comfort and guilt in his eyes. Dou Jinsuo returned his look with a smile.

“But can death… really solve the problem once and for all?”

My voice came at the worst possible moment. In an instant, everyone’s eyes turned to me.

I continued, “For ordinary people, once they die, that’s the end of everything. But for people like you, even after death, your corpses might still be controlled or used for Corpse-Nurturing. To them, controlling a corpse with craftsmanship would be far easier than controlling a living person with thoughts of his own, wouldn’t it?”

My words struck the Dou uncle and nephew like a heavy club to the backs of their heads.

Dou Jinsuo froze on the spot. “Second Uncle…”

Dou Zhile’s expression turned ugly as well. He puffed on his long-stemmed pipe, again and again, without saying a word.

I went on, “Since you’re not even afraid of death, why be afraid to stand up and resist for yourselves, and for the Dou family, just this once?”

“What do you know?” Dou Zhile snapped. “How do you know the Dou family never resisted? But did resisting do any good?”

“Back then, do you really think that female student was someone Jinsuo’s ancestor wanted to violate? No, not at all! That was the most vicious revenge against him for refusing to aid the wicked and choosing to resist!”

I froze.

That female student from back then… He was talking about Fu Wan.

When Dou Jinsuo pawned that letter at the Pawnshop, he had told me that Fu Wan had been violated by his ancestor.

So there was actually more to the story?

“Go, go, go!” Dou Zhile suddenly stood and impatiently drove us out. “The Dou family isn’t willing to keep wading through these muddy waters. No matter who comes to persuade us, it won’t work. I’ve made up my mind.”

The door of the Blue Stone House slammed shut, and the sound of the bolt being drawn came from inside.

I stepped forward and knocked again. “Old Dou, we can still discuss this. Maybe there’s still a chance to turn things around…”

Li Qingying also came over to help me knock.

But no matter how we tried to persuade him, there was no response from inside.

When Li Qingying even started throwing herself against the door, the sound of something heavy being dragged came from within. The door had been barricaded.

Helpless, we could only leave in frustration.

The path down the mountain was difficult to walk. My mind was weighed down with worry, and Li Qingying came closer and held my hand, afraid I might fall.

We kept walking like that until we were nearly at the foot of the mountain. Then something suddenly occurred to me, and I cried out, “Oh no!”

I turned and ran back with all my might along the path we had come from.

Li Qingying caught up and asked anxiously, “Xiao Jiu, what is it?”

My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would leap out of my chest. “Sister Qingying, I… I might really have gotten someone killed.”

Judging from Dou Zhile’s preparations with the coffins, he had planned to take Dou Jinsuo with him in suicide, then be buried in the earth.

But the words I had just said might have made them… too afraid to leave their bodies behind.

As we spoke, the faint glow of fire appeared through the forest above us. Li Qingying shouted, “Oh no, the Blue Stone House is on fire!”

Damn it!

It was just as I had guessed. Dou Zhile, who had originally planned on burial, became afraid their corpses would be left behind and controlled by others. In the end, he chose to die in the flames together with Dou Jinsuo.

To make it truly end once and for all…