Chapter 2: The Ghostly Eyes of the Small Building

  One tick, two ticks, time is slowly passing by, but no corpse jumped out of the coffin, instead, it kept making "ah wu ah wu" sounds... Updates are coming so fast.

  I plucked up the courage and took a step forward, I wanted to see if there was really a dead person in this coffin.

  As I walked closer and closer, the air grew colder and colder, and I couldn't help but shiver.

  As I approached, my heart was pounding like a drum. What if there were eyes in the coffin staring at me? What if the corpse inside came to life? Many thoughts burst forth in my mind.

  If he dares to harm me, I'll throw the candle on his body. Corpses are afraid of fire. With this thought, I became even bolder and slowly approached the stone coffin.

  The candle was also close to the coffin, and I brought all my heart's prepared terror to gaze inside.

  Empty? Nothing at all? Ah, the "wow" sound was just because one of the windows was open, and it was the sound of the wind rushing in.

  I suddenly had a feeling that there was something in the coffin, and it wasn't empty, but rather he came out, because I felt like there were a pair of eyes right behind me, and he was standing right behind me watching me.

  I clutched the candle tightly, as if it were my lifeline. I slowly turned around and saw a pair of yellow ghostly eyes staring at me intently in mid-air.

  "Ah......" This was the first time I had screamed like that, it was my first scream in sixteen years. I threw the red candle in my hand over there, then turned around and jumped into the open coffin.

  "Ka-cha!" The coffin lid closed quickly and I was trapped inside the stone coffin.

  I kicked with all my might and pushed with all my strength, but I couldn't open the coffin. So I lay there like a corpse.

  Surroundings are pitch black, I can't see anything. The air is filled with the sound of my tense breathing. I close my eyes, at least here it's safe. There aren't those yellow ghostly eyes, no hands reaching out from the ground, and no white-haired female ghosts floating in mid-air.

  I don't know if I'm too tired or if I was always a heartless person, but I actually fell asleep in the coffin. In my dream, there were a pair of yellow eyes staring at me, but I didn't care about anything anymore. If I die, so be it. I'm exhausted and just want to sleep.

  I slept soundly until I woke up naturally, this is the first time in my life that I've had a natural wake-up from sleep. In the past at my maternal grandparents' home, every day before dawn I would be called by my aunt to help out in the backyard kitchen.

  I rubbed my eyes and sat up from the stone coffin, the lid of which was still open as it had been last night. It was only then that I discovered that I was covered with a large red quilt, on top of which were bright red auspicious characters that were so dazzling to the eye.

  Out of the coffin, my stomach growled loudly, and the dazzling sunlight outside shot in. I looked around the room upstairs.

  The stairs faced the stone coffin, and after passing by the coffin, there were five rooms inside. Three of them were locked, leaving two rooms open. One had a carved "flower" bed, and the other was a bathroom with a large bathtub. I walked in to see that the bathtub was dry and empty, so I felt relieved and went downstairs.

  I'm so hungry, there's nothing to eat in the room. I walk out of the house and look back at the small building, its exterior looks like a giant ghost character, even the roof tiles only have one side.

  I shook my head, hunger drove away all my doubts, and I walked towards the bamboo forest, dug up two bamboo shoots, found a few wild scallions, returned to the small cottage, in the kitchen, I washed the iron pot with rainwater from the large vat outside, cooked a bamboo shoot scallion soup, and drank it down.

  Looking at the sky, it's probably already late afternoon. In an hour or two, the sky will probably darken again. If I set out to the bamboo forest at this time, I'm afraid it would be difficult to pass through the dark bamboo forest safely in the darkness of night.

  After eating, I washed my face with rainwater from a large vat and wiped down the furniture in the room with a cloth.

  As night fell, I wanted to take out the bedding from the stone coffin and rest in a nearby room. However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't pull out the quilt, as if someone inside the stone coffin was tugging at it with me.

  But the oil lamp was on the coffin lid, and there were no ghosts inside. Just as I was puzzled, a sudden force pushed me into the stone coffin from behind, and the coffin lid closed again with a creak. I was trapped inside.

  My heart is pounding, I try to struggle, wanting to open the coffin lid. Who wants to sleep in such a place? I'm not dead yet.

  But the coffin didn't budge, I knew it was very big, so I used my hands to 'feel', hoping to find a mechanism or something on the side of the coffin wall.

  But as I felt around, I surprisingly touched a round object. I carefully identified it and found that it was a human head. The head was icy cold. I stared ahead with wide eyes, but everything was pitch black and I couldn't see anything. However, my hand told me that the head was right in front of me.

  "Ah......" I screamed again.

  What's next after the scream? I still have to face it, I flung open my hands and kept hitting the head in the coffin with all my might. Later when I finally gathered the courage to open my eyes, I saw a pair of yellowish eyes staring at me intensely right above my head.

  "Who are you and why scare me? Misfortunes have their roots, debts have their owners. Don't harm me!" I tried to calm myself down, I want to make a final struggle.

  "My queen, my queen..."

  The coffin suddenly lit up, and the head floated in front of my eyes, hair scattered, mouth opening and closing, fresh blood flowing from the corners of the mouth, constantly shouting "My queen..."

  "I'm not, I'm not your queen, ah......" I tightly covered my ears and closed my eyes.

  "The 'woman' who can enter this stone coffin is the queen of my Xuan Yuan dynasty, you are..." The voice was like a sound from an empty valley, constantly rushing into my ears.

  A bloody scene appeared before my closed eyes, a man was beheaded with a red thread and his limbs were cut off and hidden in the four corners of this house. His head was placed in this stone coffin, and his blood was scooped up into nine jade bowls by people wearing black cloaks who worshipped and took it away.

  My whole body trembled, tense and leaning against the corner, even if I covered my ears and closed my eyes, I could still hear him speaking, see what he wanted me to see.

  "What do you want?"

  "I want my body!" the head said again.

  I opened my eyes, and a faint light emanated from the stone coffin, allowing me to see that skull. His voice was low and menacing, with blood flowing from the corners of his mouth, and his dull yellow eyes stared at me blankly.

  "But I don't know where your body is, and there's no way for me to help you!" I wanted to escape, at this moment, I really didn't want to stay here anymore.