Chapter One: The Small Coffin

  This was a rectangular object, completely black all over, about one centimeter wide and high, approximately three centimeters long, at first glance it looked like a hand seal mold. Hong Jun took it, feeling light as if it had no weight, he turned it over and couldn't recognize what material it was made of, it seemed to be hollow, shaking it slightly something inside seemed to be rolling around, Hong Jun wanted to open it to see what it was, after using eighteen kinds of martial arts to twist, pull, press, and pry, finally discovered that it was a single piece.

  He was using the jade craftsman's eye to ponder how to carve a piece of jade into a treasure, but this thing began to emit a faint glow under his repeated rubbing, flashing with dark light.

  "What is this?" Hong Jun and Xu Ming stared with wide eyes, the black object's glow suddenly burst forth, twisting and turning its eerie and colorful body in Hong Jun's palm.

  ……

  "I won't go tonight, I've had stomach pain for the past few days and can barely eat, let alone drink. Really, let's talk about it later." At 5:30, a day's work ended, colleague Xu Ming invited him to dinner, but Hong Jun refused without hesitation.

  In the scorching summer, this small northern city was like being put into a huge steamer, surrounded by mountains on all sides. The small town in the wooden basin had not a single breeze, and it could only endure the scorching heat with resignation. The heat waves rolled in from all directions, scorching every inch of land, making people breathless. Even the local dogs that would normally bark at people just lay there listlessly, tongues hanging out, without their usual ferocity.

  "Hey kid, got something going on? Ah, is it a date with a beauty? Don't exhaust yourself." Xu Ming's teasing voice came over, and Hong Jun cursed, locking the factory door tightly. He walked resolutely towards the dormitory.

  The sun had set, but it was still sweltering. The tall banyan trees in the green belt above emitted a cacophony of cicada sounds that made Hong Jun's heart feel anxious and restless. It was too hot, although he was only 300-400 meters away from his dormitory, every step he took felt like torture in the heat. He slumped down on the curb, enjoying the slight breeze brought by passersby.

  As a refreshing fragrance wafted by, Hong Jun's spirits lifted, and he looked up to see a couple walking on the sidewalk. The girl had brick-red hair, a green top, and a black mini-skirt that tightly hugged her curvaceous figure, accentuating her ample buttocks as she walked by, drawing his gaze with her until a passing electric bike blocked his view. Only then did he shift his attention to the short, scrawny figure beside her. The hippie's jeans and shirt hung awkwardly on his body, and his long, unkempt hair framed a face that belonged to a less-than-1.6-meter-tall skinny monkey. At this moment, his left hand was stuck in the back pocket of his pants.

  Hong Jun suddenly thought of "cow dung", although as soon as he thought of cow dung, he couldn't help but feel nauseous. However, he still felt that cow dung was more lovable than the hippie in front of him.

  Why not run over and kick the cow dung into the trash can, and take its place? Hong Jun thought painfully, his heart suddenly aching. He was 25 years old, 1.8 meters tall, handsome and elegant, a graduate of a famous university, a small leader in the company. Even cow dung had flowers stuck on it, but he still hadn't found his other half. Forget about the flowers, but what about dog tail grass? Hong Jun looked around, ah, finding dog tail grass was even harder than finding a flower in this steel and concrete city. He glanced at the rose bush in the green belt next to him, which was blooming beautifully at that moment.

  Hong Jun had never been in love, he wasn't in a hurry, because the old village head Liao once said something that made sense: everything in this life is about fate, if the fate isn't there, don't force it, otherwise, it will harm both oneself and others.

  Lao Jie Tou was a mysterious fortune teller in the village, and Hong Jun believed his words.

  "Slap", a loud slap on the shoulder, freed him from the painful choice of whether to step on cow dung or not. "What are you looking at?" A big head came up, it was Xu Ming.

  "Aren't you going out for dinner? Why do you have to go back to the dorm?" Hong Jun shifted his gaze from the cow dung.

  "What's wrong with this meal? Isn't it still before payday? I'm short on cash, can't even afford pickled vegetables." Xu Ming had a sour look on his face.

  "Then why did you ask me to dinner earlier? Hmm? No, you little brat, are you trying to find a scapegoat to pay for your meal?" Hong Jun suddenly remembered the last time Xu Ming had dinner and left without paying, causing him to lose 100 yuan.

  "This, this..." Xu Ming realized he had misspoken and looked uncomfortable. "You see, we grew up together in the same village, I've been calling you brother for over 20 years. Now that I'm having trouble thousands of miles away from home, who else would I ask for help? Besides, can you bear to watch me go hungry?"

  "Get out, you still haven't explained what happened last time you peed your pants."

  "I...huh, who threw away the seal?" Just as Xu Ming was about to explain, he suddenly changed direction, took two quick steps forward, bent down and picked up something from the ground. He was about to continue scolding Xu Ming when Hong Jun saw the black object and swallowed back all his curses.

  "Not a seal," Xu Ming swallowed his saliva, "I thought I had picked up a treasure!"

  "Treasure? Can just the two of us still find treasure? Let me see." Hong Jun took it over, and as his hand came into contact with this object, this unknown thing suddenly shone brightly and became completely transparent.

  "What is this?" Hong Jun and Xu Ming widened their eyes, the light on the black object suddenly burst out, twisting its eerie and colorful body like a snake, slowly rotating in Hong Jun's palm.

  "It might be a treasure indeed." Seeing the object glowing, Xu Ming's eyes also lit up, and he quickly snatched it over, fondling it lovingly. "I've never seen anything that can emit black light in my entire life."

  Before he finished speaking, he was suddenly scorched by a flame and jumped up, wanting to throw away the small object in his hand, but this thing seemed to have taken root and no matter how hard Xu Ming waved his hand, he couldn't shake it off.

  "It's alive, this thing is alive!" Xu Ming shouted. Hong Jun sneered and laughed, Xu Ming loved to talk nonsense in the factory, everyone knew that, now he was acting like a madman again, talking gibberish with himself.

  But when his gaze fell on Xu Ming's palm, he felt as if someone had suddenly appeared behind him, and fear took over his mind.

  At this time, the small object in Xu Ming's palm suddenly changed. The original regular cuboid had become one end big and one end small at some point. On the larger end, a snow-white "Dian" was written.

  The black rectangle turned into a small coffin.

  Hong Jun's mind suddenly flashed to the small coffin in the hand of the female ghost in the Hong Kong horror movie "Coffin Baby", his heart tightened, and he hastily raised his hand to slap Xu Ming's hand, causing the small coffin to fall out of Xu Ming's palm and roll onto the sidewalk.

  A burst of black smoke suddenly rose from the small coffin, carrying a pungent smell that enveloped Hong Jun. Hong Jun wanted to avoid it, but his legs felt heavy and he couldn't move half a step, as if his shoes were nailed to the ground.

  As the black smoke rushed to his face, Hong Jun instinctively closed his eyes. His head spun and a cold female voice echoed in his ears: "Hong Jun, 60 years have passed, it's time to settle our accounts."

  The temperature around him dropped rapidly, and Hong Jun's teeth chattered with fear. He opened his eyes, but didn't find the source of the sound. Instead, he saw Xu Ming's mouth stuffed with what looked like a duck egg, round and bulging, his two eyes staring intently at the ground.

  Following his gaze, Hong Jun was also stunned. On the ground, the small coffin that had been there just a moment before was gone, replaced by a pool of bright red blood that was slowly flowing and forming into a finger-thick stream, crawling on the ground like a snake.

  Although the surroundings were bustling with people coming and going, Hong Jun still felt that he and Xu Ming had become glass people, with no one noticing them or the abnormalities happening around them. The two of them didn't dare to blink, standing quietly as they watched the stream flow, converge, diverge, and transform into a bright red character - "Must".

  The temperature was still dropping, and Hong Jun felt like he had been suddenly stuffed into a refrigerator. The air coming out of his nostrils condensed into white mist in front of his mouth, and he couldn't help but shiver.

  The character changed again, with the middle "丶" slowly crawling like a thread being pulled out of a cocoon, forming a line that crawled to Hong Jun's feet and flowed towards his shoes.

  Hong Jun struggled desperately to move his body, trying to avoid the blood line, but his body wouldn't listen, no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't budge an inch. Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of him, a woman wearing a Japanese military uniform, no, it should be said that she was a female ghost, with long hair covering her face, the ends of which were dripping with red ***, and her mouth was making strange "giggles".

  "Hahaha, sixty years have passed, and this game of chess has also reached its end." The female ghost shouted loudly, her long hair fluttering as she made a claw-like gesture with her hand towards Hong Jun's face. Her pale fingers were less than ten centimeters away from Hong Jun's eyes, and he could already feel the chill emanating from her fingertips.