Chapter 38: The Unspoken Secret (Part 2)

  I was getting a little nervous about this idea when Xiaorui took me to the other side of the coffin and said, "The words are here.

  I knew what she was saying, following her finger, and indeed saw the four characters "Dreams Come True" engraved on it. After thinking for a moment, I said, "How about we open this coffin?"

  When I said this, my heart almost jumped out of my chest. I don't know if it's because I've written too many ghost stories, but now I see anything and involuntarily associate it with some frightening plot. Chu Jiangshan had died under strange circumstances a long time ago. Since he didn't have any family members in the world, his body was cremated by the relevant department. So, I naturally don't need to worry that there's his corpse inside this coffin... but what if there's something else lying inside?

  The driver's words echoed in my ears again, he said this place is often haunted, originally I didn't quite believe such talk, but just now on the road I already heard an old woman's crying voice, and vaguely heard the two words "Jiang Shan", could it be referring to Chu Jiang Shan?

  I'm very scared, but I have to make such a suggestion. Xiaorui is by my side, she has been here once alone, and in front of the girl I love, I absolutely do not allow myself to be timid and retreat.

  Xiao Rui shook her head and said, "Can't open it."

  I was shocked, and with great force pushed the coffin lid upwards. It felt cold and heavy to the touch, as if it were made of iron. Xiaohua said: "I've already checked, the coffin lid isn't welded to the body, so it should be possible to open it, we just need a key."

  Key? Chu Jiangshan has long been dead, and this coffin doesn't even know who put it here, where can I find the key? Although I have some basic unlocking techniques taught by Erliang, I don't think I can open this coffin for sure. But in front of Xiaorui, I couldn't say anything discouraging, so I asked: "Where is the keyhole, let me take a look."

  Xiao Rui had obviously studied this coffin for a long time, and immediately squatted down, pulling me to crawl under the coffin, saying: "I've checked, the only possible place with a keyhole is here."

  I shone my flashlight on the place Xiao Rui mentioned, and it looked different from the keyhole I imagined. It was more like a recessed rectangle, with another pattern recessed in the middle of the rectangle. These patterns were all too familiar to me, exactly the same as those jade pendants.

  I hesitated for a moment, then took out the jade pendants from my body. Although they all looked the same to me, I wasn't sure if it was okay to just pick one at random to use as a key. If I picked the wrong one, nothing might happen, but what if there were some kind of mechanism that would trigger a hail of arrows? That would be too unjust. After thinking about it, I chose the one my mother had given me and said to Xiaorui: "You go out first."

  Xiaohui saw me take out these jade pendants from my body, and at first, she didn't know what I wanted to do. But she had already seen the rectangular shape at the bottom of this coffin countless times. After taking another look at the jade pendants in my hand, she thought for a moment and suddenly understood, her face full of surprise: "Where did you get these things from?"

  I said: "You go out first, I'll tell you later."

  Xiao Rui responded with a sound, handing me the flashlight and crawling out from under the coffin herself. I held my breath, carefully placing the jade pendant on top, making a soft "click" sound as it fit perfectly into the rectangular space. However, there was no change in the coffin. I gritted my teeth, using my fingers to press down on the pendant, gently turning it left and right to test the direction. Then, with a bit of force, I turned it to the right, and immediately heard a series of "creaking" sounds coming from above. Next, I heard Xiao Rui's excited shout: "A Lei, come out quickly! It's open!"

  I hastily drilled out from the bottom of the coffin, only to find that I had a cold sweat all over my body. But I didn't have time to pay attention to this, and quickly shone my flashlight towards the coffin. As expected, the coffin lid had slid open from top to bottom, revealing the dark interior of the coffin with a hint of chill.

  This coffin is much higher than the ordinary one, so from our position, we can't see the bottom at a glance, and we don't know what's inside. Myself and Xiaorui looked at each other, both seeing fear in each other's eyes. At this moment, Xiaorui took a step forward, I hastily pulled her back, saying: "You stay here, I'll go."

  Xiao Wei looked at me with gratitude and said: "Let's go together." I nodded, took a deep breath and said: "Let's go."

  The two of us took a step forward, arrived in front of the coffin, looked at each other again, Xiaohua nodded, I shone my flashlight into the coffin, and then the two of us leaned our bodies forward, this time, we finally saw what was inside the coffin.

  Inside the coffin wasn't a corpse lying as I had imagined, nor was there anything that would make people feel frightened. There were only four small coffins, all black and carved with those mysterious patterns.

  We looked at each other and didn't know what it meant to put small coffins in this big coffin. Xiaorui said, "Don't worry about that for now, let's take a look."

  I bent down, laboriously picking up those small coffins one by one. Although they were called small coffins, they were still nearly twenty centimeters long and were probably made of iron, feeling extremely heavy in my hands. I was exhausted after finally managing to pick up all four small coffins, leaning against the coffin edge panting heavily. Xiao Rui was arranging the small coffins, and after a while she looked up and said: "A Lei, you have to come too."

  I crouched down and asked: "What's wrong?"

  Xiao Rui laboriously turned over a small coffin and said: "You see, it's still up to you to take action."

  There was no coffin inside, but it seemed like there were some papers. I reached in and saw that the top one had a line of writing: "Welcome to the Dream Club."

  I was taken aback, lifted my head, and found that Xiaorui also had a look of surprise. Both of us had been in contact with the Dream Club before, but we didn't expect to find the welcome words of the Dream Club in this coffin as well. However, after thinking about it, I felt relieved. After all, this place where Chu Jiangshan's secret was hidden was originally told by the Dream Club to Xiaorui, and so many mysterious letters were signed with the name Chu Jiangshan. If Chu Jiangshan had nothing to do with the Dream Club, that would be strange.

  I turned over the first sheet of paper, and on the second sheet there were a few more words written. It was a sentence that I thought I had seen before. The handwriting was also very familiar to me. I once found a notebook in Old Chu's home, with writing that looked exactly like what I'm seeing now: Their Secret.

  My heart started racing violently, the last time I saw such a notebook at Lao Chu's house, it had recorded Wang Qiang and Er Liang's secrets, but unfortunately, they were all torn off, I don't know if this one will also record the secrets of these two people. Thinking that the doubts that have puzzled me for a long time may be revealed at this moment, my hands are shaking uncontrollably.

  I turned over another page, and the words on it shocked me. I hastily pretended to be calm and folded up the papers and put them in my pocket. I said to Xiaorui: "Open all of those and see what's inside. We can rush back tonight and study them further."

  Xiao Wei just stood at that angle and couldn't see the words written on the paper, nor did she notice my current abnormality. She nodded and said, "Okay, open these few too."

  I picked up the second small coffin, and this time there were two recessed rectangles at the back. I thought for a moment and took out two jade pendants to press them down simultaneously. The coffin lid slid open, and inside were some papers. Afraid of seeing words that shouldn't be seen by Xiaorui, I didn't have time to check and put them in my pocket. Next, I examined the third small coffin, and indeed there were three rectangles at the bottom. Following the same method, I opened it up, but didn't see any papers inside. I felt around with my hand and pulled out a small photo from inside.

  Xiao Rui hastily shone the flashlight upwards, but before I could see clearly, there was a "pa" sound and everything went black in front of me. The flashlight fell to the ground. I was startled and used one hand to pick up the flashlight from the ground while using the other hand to quickly grab onto Xiao Rui, asking: "What's wrong?"

  Xiaohui covered her mouth with her hand. I saw tears in her eyes. She took the photo from my hand and said, "Do you know who this person is?"

  This time I finally saw the person in the photo clearly, of course, I knew who this person was, because she looked almost identical to Xiaorui, she was Xiaorui's mother, and she also looked exactly like the woman in the ancient painting in the dry well in the backyard of the old mansion, except that her teeth were not red.

  Xiaohui stared blankly at the photo, tears streaming down her face. I gently patted her shoulder to comfort her. After a while, Xiaohui finally stopped crying and said to me: "Do you still remember when you asked me what my dream was?"

  I remember, at that time, Xiaorui told me that her dream was to see a woman. I suddenly understood and pointed to the photo with my hand, saying: "This..." Xiaorui didn't wait for me to finish speaking, nodded and said: "She is my mother, who has passed away almost twenty years ago."

  Xiaohui's dream was to see her mother who had been dead for nearly twenty years, which was basically an impossible thing. I finally understood why Xiaohui said that her dream seemed absurd to others. No one would believe they could see someone who had been dead for many years, unless they thought about it day and night. But I didn't dare say anything to Xiaohui on this matter, so I changed the subject: "Let's take a look at what's in the next coffin."

  Under the fourth coffin, there were four recessed rectangles, but I only had three jade pendants in my hand, it seemed that there was no way to open it. I looked at Xiaohui and said, "Let's take it away."

  Xiao Wei nodded and said: "Then put these empty ones back, it's too tiring to bring them on the road, anyway, everything inside has been taken out."

  I thought it was the same reason, so I let Xiaorui hold the flashlight and I struggled to pick up those small coffins, one by one, putting them into that big coffin. Because the big coffin was quite high, I couldn't just casually throw them in, so when I put them down, I had to lean my body down very low. Xiaorui held the flashlight and stood behind me, and just as I was putting the first small coffin down, I suddenly remembered Xiaorui standing behind me, and my heart felt a chill, involuntarily thinking of the words on the paper in the first small coffin.

  At the top was written a person's name and a sentence:

  "Little Blossom"

  "Push him down!"