Chapter 8: Entering the Coffin

  I never thought my life would be so thoroughly disrupted by a female corpse.

  I didn't plan to go back home for the summer vacation, according to my plan I would do some part-time jobs in the city, but because of my girlfriend's sudden betrayal, I was so upset that I didn't want to stay in the city anymore, so I went back to my hometown, which is a small village at the foot of Daxinganling Mountains.

  But as soon as I got home, something happened.

  I was woken up by a loud muffled sound in the middle of the night, and immediately heard someone shouting: "Something's happened! Something's happened!"

  I sat up in bed with a start, looked out the window and saw that it was a cold and starry night outside, but the streets were bustling with people running around with flashlights and shouting. I quickly got out of bed and opened the door to see my neighbor Mr. Li, grabbed him and asked: "Uncle, what's going on? Why is everyone in such a hurry?"

  "Oh no, it's terrible! A big coffin was dug up at the construction site and then the soil above collapsed. Several workers from different teams were buried along with the coffin. Hurry up and come with me to rescue them!" Uncle Li said after he ran towards the construction site, I also quickly followed him.

  Later, I found out that someone invested in our village to develop a tourist resort. Moreover, they even dug a hole on the east side of Mantou Mountain in our village, connecting it to the inside of the mountain, saying it was for some kind of green passage. Through this hole, you can directly enter the depths of the mountain and walk into nature.

  This Mántóu Mountain has always had many legends among us, very strange. Various kinds of skeletons can often be seen inside the mountain, human, livestock, and whatnot. The old people in the village also often say that there is a mountain god living inside the mountain, which cannot be dug up. If it is dug up, it will suffer the revenge of the mountain god. But later on, an order was given from above, whether you agree or not, you have to do so. In just a few days, the excavators and other machines of the construction team came in, but unexpectedly, something went wrong just after a few days of construction.

  I followed Uncle Li in a hurry to the construction site, which was not far away, just at the east end of the village, and arrived in a few minutes.

  When I arrived at the construction site, my heart suddenly 'thudded' and I saw that the originally excavated passage of Mantou Mountain had collapsed. Half of the excavator was buried inside, and the driver seemed to have been frightened out of his wits, sitting on the side shivering and smoking a cigarette. The foreman stood beside him asking what happened, but he just kept repeating "coffin, coffin..." for half a day without making any sense.

  The foreman saw the excavator driver was dazed and didn't bother with him, so he shouted loudly: "Who can operate an excavator?"

  "I can do it, I graduated from Blue Dragon!" A young man in his 20s climbed up to the excavator and shouted. The foreman saw him and yelled: "Go slow, dig light, don't hurt the people buried underneath!"

  "Don't worry!" The young man patted his chest and immediately started the excavator, slowly clearing it up.

  "Everyone, don't just stand there, follow me and dig together! We must rescue the person!" The foreman shouted loudly as he saw everyone was stunned. Seeing this, everyone grabbed their iron shovels and rushed down to dig with the excavator.

  However, when the excavator started digging again, I furrowed my brow.

  Because I found that as the excavator slowly cleared the collapsed place, a wisp of black air actually emanated from it. This black air was very faint and almost invisible in this dark night, but I felt it. And at this time, a group of wild dogs suddenly ran out from somewhere, their hair standing on end, baring their teeth, and all surrounded the construction site, barking incessantly.

  There's something wrong with this place.

  My great-grandfather used to follow an old Taoist priest to learn his skills, and at that time, he was known for his ability to subdue evil spirits. However, my great-grandfather was defeated by a typical example of a fierce bull spirit in the cowshed, and before he died, he left behind only one yellow leather notebook. Unfortunately, my grandfather couldn't read a single character, and my father wasn't interested in this aspect either, so the yellow leather notebook had been hidden at the bottom of the cabinet for many years. It was only recently that I accidentally discovered it, and after reading it, I found what was written inside to be quite interesting - some cultivation methods and some experiences from my great-grandfather's life, all written in a mysterious and obscure way.

  But I didn't expect that what was written on Grandpa's yellow leather notebook would be used by me tonight.

  I have received higher education, so I naturally don't believe what's written on the yellow skin notes. All along, I've been treating it as something to read, but the scene in front of me now makes me have to believe, because that black air is clearly visible to me, faint but not dispersing, swirling above everyone's head at a height of three feet.

  According to the yellow skin notes, this black air is called moldy air. It revolves around a person's head and will bring disaster and financial loss. In short, it will be a series of unlucky events. Wherever this black air appears, there must be evil spirits.

  I knew that if we continued digging, something would definitely go wrong. I quickly grabbed Uncle Li and said, "Uncle, I feel like something is off about this place, we can't dig anymore, if we do, something will happen for sure!"

  Li Shu was sweating profusely, and upon hearing this, he said: "We can't not dig! There are three people buried underneath, two from the engineering team and also our village's Wang Lao Han's only son, Gou Dan. The Wang family has only one descendant for three generations, we can ignore others, but Gou Dan, we must rescue him!"

  Is the dog egg also buried underneath?

  I and Dog Egg are childhood friends, grew up together since we were kids. After graduating from junior high school, he stayed at home to do farm work. In recent years, we have been in close contact with each other, having a very good relationship. Last year when Dog Egg got married, I even returned home to be his best man. Who would have thought that just a few months later, something like this would happen.

  As soon as I heard that he was also buried inside, I suddenly became anxious and thought to myself, "Never mind, whether what the note said is true or not, no one can be sure now. Let's rescue people first."

  I grabbed a shovel and followed the team, starting to dig hastily.

  Because there are people buried below, the excavator did not dare to dig extensively, and the rescue speed has been very slow. It wasn't until midnight that only half of the soil was dug out. The team leader was anxious, he had already called the local government and the developer, and also called a professional rescue team and medical team. However, our place is surrounded by mountains on all sides, with only one rugged mountain road. These days, the trucks hauling dirt have been running back and forth, making the road bumpy and difficult to walk. Even if the rescue team sets out overnight, it's estimated that they won't arrive until tomorrow morning.

  This thing caused a great stir, although it was already midnight, but almost all the men and women in the village came with iron shovels, my dad was also in the team, even my grandfather rushed over wearing his shirt.

  People in the mountains are simple and honest. If something happens to any family in the surrounding villages, they will come to help. How can it be otherwise when such a big thing has happened?

  As the saying goes, "united we stand", it was almost 3 am when someone in the crowd finally shouted: "Found him! It's Xiao Liu from the engineering team!"

  My heart skipped a beat when I heard this. This little Liu, I knew her, she was the only woman in the engineering team, specifically responsible for cooking for everyone, had she also been buried inside?

  He shouted, and almost everyone rushed over with a "whoosh", then the foreman yelled: "Make way, make way, don't block, let Dr. Li in!"

  Li Dafu is the only doctor assigned to our village clinic, tall and slender, a university graduate from a big city, allocated to work at the town health center, then assigned to our village, now about 23 or 24 years old.

  Doctor Li carried a medical box, and under the leadership of the foreman, he hastily rushed through the crowd to run forward. I saw the situation and followed up, but when we saw Xiao Liu's situation clearly, everyone fell silent.

  At this time, Little Liu's face was dark and his lips were purple. His mouth, nose, and ears were all filled with dirt, and the lower half of his body was still buried underneath, clearly having suffocated to death long ago.

  Although so, Dr. Li still fulfilled a doctor's duty, but the result everyone knows, Little Liu has already died.

  "Let's get the body cleaned up first!" Dr. Li's face looked terrible, and he lowered his head as he walked out of the crowd.

  I thought to myself that this little girl's life is really not easy, originally living alone in the toilet, and being disturbed in the middle of the night to save someone, the person was saved but it turned out to be a corpse, after going back, I reckon she'll be scared.

  "Everyone stop staring and get Little Liu out first!" The foreman spoke again, and the crowd finally came back to their senses.

  Everyone had been holding onto the illusion that they could still save someone, but now that Little Liu is dead, the outcome for the remaining two people will probably not be much better. For a moment, everyone fell silent, and in silence, they dug Little Liu out of the ground.

  It wasn't until Little Liu's legs were pulled out of the soil that everyone let out a cry of surprise. I had been standing off to the side, and when I took a closer look, my scalp felt numb all of a sudden.

  Xiao Liu's legs had only white bones left, and the skin and flesh were all gone. Moreover, there were still blood-red tendons attached to the bones, which looked especially terrifying.

  "What the...? Where's the meat? What happened to it?" The person who was pulling out Little Liu at that moment was scared silly, muttering: "Could it be, could it be that something ate it?"

  What was eaten by something?

  How is it possible that something can gnaw a person's two legs clean in just a few short hours, leaving only bones?

  Furthermore, Xiaoliu was buried in the ground, what could be so fierce inside the earth?

  Just as everyone was shocked, our village's Wang fool suddenly emerged from the crowd, looked down at Xiao Liu's legs and burst out laughing, shouting: "Haha, you're done for, you're done for, dead for sure, dead for sure!"