Chapter 83: The Coffin that Landed
Bai Yu stopped in her tracks, took off her sunglasses, and looked at Zhao Mingyue. “There’s a ghost that doesn’t want us to move forward. If we go forward, we’ll just end up going in circles, but if we head back, we can escape.”
Zhao Mingyue also stopped, glancing around. Something felt off. She had seen that grave mound earlier, but now it seemed to have shifted back to its original position after walking for a bit.
“Does ghostly wall nonsense work on ghosts too?” Zhao Mingyue found herself genuinely curious about this situation.
“It shouldn’t. In my eyes, you’ve just been spinning in circles,” Bai Yu said, eyeing a small bridge about a hundred meters away. “I’m wondering if this ghost wants to help us or harm us.”
That remark jolted Zhao Mingyue’s memory. “Oh right! I heard that when ghosts create walls, it’s not always to harm you; sometimes it’s to help. I remember this story about someone who was walking at night, and suddenly he found himself in a ghost wall. He panicked and ran back, only to hear the next day that a crash had happened ahead that killed people.”
“So, does that mean this ghost is trying to help us?”
“I think so, otherwise she wouldn’t be guiding us back; she’d be leading us to that gutter where she drowned,” Bai Yu explained. Zhao Mingyue followed her gaze and noticed there seemed to be someone on the bridge.
This person wasn’t just standing on the bridge; they were half hanging off, as if they were sprawled across it.
Zhao Mingyue was certain this was definitely not a living person. No living person could have skin that gray.
“It’s a female ghost! Why is she trying to help me? Is there danger ahead?”
“She’s trying to stop you from going to the village,” Bai Yu responded, stepping forward. Suddenly, the ghostly wall was broken, and to Zhao Mingyue’s eyes, nothing had changed, but the woman on the bridge jumped down.
“Stopping me from going back?” Zhao Mingyue’s expression changed.
She knew something dangerous lay ahead. It was surprising that she hadn’t even arrived yet and was already facing this kind of situation.
“Here, the yang and yin are a bit muddled. Something is affecting the magnetic field,” Bai Yu explained, walking toward the small bridge. “In my understanding, yin and yang are two completely different magnetic fields. Ghosts, especially weak ones, can’t appear during the day because it’s yang, and it weakens or harms them; whereas at night, it’s yin.”
“Not all ghosts can appear during the day. Not to mention, most are limited to a certain area.”
“And this ghost is definitely not normal.”
“To put it simply, when I entered a certain range, I felt a lot lighter, like the daytime pressure on me disappeared.”
She was also a ghost, so she could feel things that other ghosts could feel, which is why she said that.
“Your village probably has more than one thing.”
The situation here was even more complicated than Bai Yu thought. For such a large-scale disturbance in the magnetic field, there couldn’t just be one thing. If there was only one, it would be the one inside Zhao Mingyue’s body, and when she entered her body yesterday, she would have definitely felt it.
Bai Yu was wondering if those crazy folks would come to this place.
The recent peace was likely the calm before the storm. Those lunatics were not only hiding their identities but primarily looking for ways to grow stronger. Only when they had power would they dare to show themselves, just like that red-haired woman.
So during this time, those nutcases would certainly be frantically searching for ways to get stronger, and Zhao Mingyue’s village was so close, it would be easy for them to find.
She thought about that Chen Yun she had killed. The talisman power in her hands came from some evil god.
So, did this evil god have something to do with Ping Shan Village?
If so, then there was more to deal with in the village than just ghosts and evil gods; there were also those crazies.
“More than one?” Zhao Mingyue found it hard to believe.
“You’ll know if you go take a look.”
With the ghostly wall broken, Bai Yu and Zhao Mingyue quickly reached the small bridge’s side.
One side of the cement road had a ditch, three meters wide but dry, while the small bridge connected to the opposite side of the ditch. The dirt on the bridge showed it hadn’t been used in a long time, and below it, stagnant black water faintly emitted a foul odor.
Looking down from the bridge, over three meters away, Zhao Mingyue wondered if that stagnant water contained the female ghost’s corpse.
“That ghost was just standing here watching us, right?” Zhao Mingyue pointed to one side of the bridge.
The ghost on the bridge weighed heavily on Zhao Mingyue’s already gloomy heart. If even a ghost was stopping her, what was waiting for her in the village?
Ten kilometers wasn’t too far.
After reaching the end of the cement road and following a left path, they were now very close to the village. Bai Yu glanced at Ping Shan again, and her gaze returned to Ping Shan Village.
It was completely different from the bustling Tianchang city—a visit here felt like stepping back over a decade.
There were few tall buildings, mostly brick houses and bungalows; even the cement road hadn’t been paved to the village’s entrance, abruptly ending.
As soon as they stepped off the cement road, Bai Yu heard the sounds of drums and gongs. Oddly enough, this clearly festive drumming was mixed with the mournful sounds of a suona, typically played at funerals.
The former is usually used at weddings, while the latter only plays when someone has died.
“On the same day in the same village, a wedding coincides with a funeral?”
Zhao Mingyue quickened her pace, almost jogging to the village entrance with Bai Yu.
Indeed, they spotted a festive procession carrying a large wedding palanquin with bright red ribbons heading south, while from the west, an opposing team draped in black and white, holding flower wreaths and ghost-calling banners, was playing the suona.
The two processions didn’t yield to each other, crossing paths without a care. The wedding party continued south, while the funeral procession approached Zhao Mingyue and Bai Yu.
Zhao Mingyue quickly pulled Bai Yu to the roadside, watching as the procession grew closer.
In front was a middle-aged woman in a white mourning dress, her head bowed, holding a grayish-white portrait close to her chest, walking silently ahead. She looked pale and her eyes seemed vacant, as if she didn’t even see Zhao Mingyue and Bai Yu by the roadside.
As the woman passed by, Zhao Mingyue caught a quick glimpse of the portrait and realized she recognized the old lady; the memory was quite vivid.
The funeral procession moved silently, paper money fluttering in the air as the suona in the back played a mournful, urgent tune, sounding rather jarring due to its off-beat melody.
Just as the large black coffin passed by Zhao Mingyue, several thick jute ropes holding it suddenly snapped, and with a loud thud, the coffin fell to the ground. Almost instantly, the sound of the suona stopped, and everyone in the procession turned their gaze toward Zhao Mingyue and Bai Yu.
