Chapter Thirty-Five: The Small Coffin Again

  Lao Jie Tou smiled and nodded in approval as Hong Jun poured water for him, but inwardly cursed: "You little rabbit, I've been sitting here for almost an hour and you're only now thinking of pouring me water? You don't even know how to show respect to your elders." However, he continued to recount the events: "After this slap, my sister-in-law let out a mouthful of air and finally came back to her senses. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said, 'Older brother, the child is gone.'"

  I hastily persuaded her, "Sister-in-law, don't cry first, quickly tell us what's going on. Was Little Sanzi taken away by a Taoist priest? If so, we can go after him."

  Sister-in-law saw that I was right, stopped crying, looked at the baby on the bed with fear, and then looked at us two big men. Her courage increased a bit, and she said, sniffling, "No, the child wasn't taken away by someone. He...he just vanished into thin air."

  Vanish into thin air? I didn't understand what this sentence meant, so I asked again, Sister, what do you mean by this?

  Just now, my sister-in-law pointed at the swaddling clothes, mine and Dazhu's, was holding the child to feed him milk, don't know what happened, just saw a white light in front of eyes very dazzling, immediately after, hands suddenly lost weight, I saw the child in the swaddling clothes, like steam, little by little disappeared. In my arms, I watched him turn into a wisp of gas and disappear within a few seconds."

  "Turn into gas and disappear?" Hong Jun looked at Third Uncle, who was drinking water, and except for the hot air rising from his cup, he couldn't equate this five-foot-tall man with thin air, even though Third Uncle had been plagued by illness all these years. In his eyes, he was still a living person, not thin air, so how could he turn into gas and disappear?

  "I was also very regretful at that time, how could a person possibly turn into air and disappear? However, my sister-in-law had personally experienced this scene, was frightened, and spoke incoherently. When I asked her again, she didn't say anything else. At this moment, I suddenly remembered the quilt on the bed. If the child really evaporated, the quilt that wrapped him just now should have left some marks, right? A block of ice turns into water and will leave a watermark." Old Jia's tone was quite proud of his own cleverness, "I walked over to pick up the quilt and took a look, and indeed didn't guess wrong. Inside the quilt, there really were clues left behind." Saying this, Old Jia suddenly stopped talking, lit a cigarette, and smoked with satisfaction.

  "What clue?" Hong Jun knew that anyone who was good at telling stories, at this time, had to have someone say a word, otherwise, he would lose interest in telling the story.

  As expected, when Hong Jun asked the question, Old Zhai's interest immediately returned, and he didn't smoke anymore. He looked at Hong Jun, then glanced at Rui Xin, lowered his voice, and said in a thief-like manner: "A piece of paper, and a small package."

  "A note and a package?" Hong Jun furrowed his brow.

  "Yes, there was no child in the swaddling clothes, but a piece of paper and a small package about the size of a fist." Old Jia said, "I first picked up the paper to see what was written on it.

  It was just an ordinary piece of paper, folded together. I opened it and saw only one line of words: "Child, I have taken him away, thirty years later, go to the village entrance to pick him up. - Lin."

  "Lin? Isn't he that Taoist?" Hong Jun asked.

  "Yes, I thought so at the time. In my heart, I extremely admired Lin Daozhang's ability, he could actually make someone turn into mist and disappear. At the same time, my mood also sank, if it was really Lin Daozhang who took away Xiao Sanzi, just because of his ability to take people away from a distance, unless he himself sent the child back, otherwise, even if all the villagers went to ask for him, I estimate that we would not be able to get him back."

  I handed the note to my elder brother, and he sat on the edge of the bed, wiping away tears. I consoled him, "Brother, don't cry. Isn't it clearly written on this note that in thirty years, he will return our third son? Besides, didn't sister-in-law say before she passed away that our third son is not an ordinary person and someone will come to take him away, and we shouldn't stop them?"

  "Did my grandfather just accept the fact like this?" Hong Jun asked.

  Lao Dai shook his head: "How can it be so easy to accept, after all, that's one's own son. He immediately ran out of the door and chased after him, I pulled one hand but couldn't hold on, and also followed him running out. Unexpectedly, big brother's speed was so fast, in a flash, he had disappeared into the darkness. Seeing no way to catch up, just about to go shout for help to chase, suddenly thought of something, and returned to the house."

  "That little package, you remembered that little package." Rui Xin shouted.

  "Haha, really clever," Old Qi nodded his head. "I remembered that package, I think even if we want to chase after it, let's first take a look at what's inside the small package before chasing after it, it won't be too late. Besides, with our limited abilities, even if we catch up, how can we possibly deal with them? So, I walked over to the bed and picked it up."

  It was a small package wrapped in a handkerchief, very light in weight, and it seemed to be wrapped around something rectangular. I curiously untied the knot of the handkerchief, opened it up, and inside there was another layer of handkerchief, which I also untied. Then, what was inside was revealed, and I stared blankly at it.

  "What's that thing?" Rui Xin asked curiously.

  "It was a small, rectangular black object, about one centimeter wide and high, approximately three centimeters long, with a glossy black finish that made it impossible to tell what material it was made of. Moreover, it was extremely light, almost weightless, as if it were hollow, and when shaken, something inside seemed to be rolling around, but there was no way to open it..." Old Chai said.

  "Yes, it's a small coffin." Rui Xin exclaimed.

  "Little coffin? How did you know?" Old Jia's head didn't expect Rui Xin to know what he was holding at the time, and he jumped in fright, staring tightly at Rui Xin as if looking at a rare animal. His body shifted, moving away from Rui Xin, tensing up, with every intention of fleeing immediately if things took a turn for the worse.

  Seeing Lao Diao's expression, Rui Xin smiled and pointed at Hong Jun: "Don't worry, I have nothing to do with Little Coffin. As for how I knew you were holding the little coffin, it's because someone else has seen it too."

  "Has anyone seen him? Who is it?" Old Jia Tou asked.

  Rui Xin pointed at Hong Jun: "It's him, he has seen this thing."

  Hong Jun nodded, and in his mind appeared the strange scene he saw that afternoon: a small coffin transformed into a black smoke, then a female ghost appeared, and after that, the small coffin turned into fresh blood, forming the word "must". Later on, in a series of strange events, he met Rui Xin, this beautiful and considerate girl.

  Thinking of this, he was instead grateful for the small coffin. If it weren't for picking up the small coffin, the female ghost would have appeared and forced him to stay in the hotel, and in the same small town, he might have missed Ruixin, which would be a lifelong regret.

  "Have you seen a small coffin?" Old Qi asked Hong Jun, and then Hong Jun told him about the strange things he had encountered over the past month, which left Old Qi stunned.

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Old Chui also didn't understand. Hong Jun smiled and didn't continue the conversation, as the person involved himself didn't know what this character meant, let alone others?

  "Is that small coffin still there?" The people in the house were still savoring Hong Jun's story when he asked cautiously, his heart full of conflicting emotions. He both wanted to see it and was afraid to see it, filled with curiosity about the small coffin yet fearful that it might suddenly transform into a female ghost and harm him.

  "It's here with me." The Third Uncle, who had been silent all along, suddenly took over the conversation. At the same time, he fumbled and pulled out a small, rectangular black object from his body, which Hong Jun recognized at a glance as the small coffin he had seen before.

  He was originally still afraid to see the small coffin, but at this time, the small coffin was in his third uncle's hands. Due to his feelings and trust for his third uncle, plus the crowd of people in the room, his fearful mood had weakened a lot.

  He hesitated for a moment, then still stretched out his hand and took the small coffin from Third Uncle.

  As soon as he got it in his hands, he immediately discovered that this small coffin was exactly the same shape and color as the one he had seen before, but it was absolutely not that small coffin.