FH Chapter 50: 童子身
[Young Lad]
Before the trip, the head of the dart gave Xiao Lingchuan five hundred silver tickets, after the return trip, another five hundred, until it reached the place,and paid it over there.
The head of escort threatened him, if he is talking nonsense, in the future, they will disband, don’t ever think of earning even one more cent of silver in his place. People who work there, every trip, is to take their life for the silver money, many people leave in high spirits, but never come back.
Generally only valuable items, merchants will spare silver, the road is bumpy, but also depends on luck, if their luck is good, then the transportation is smooth, they will earn money, if you run into bandits, dead, disabled, are usually the most common. The silver earned use to see the doctor and treat injuries are not even enough to use.
So this trip, pay one thousand taels, this price, and even lighting the lantern are difficult to find; in the bodyguard company, there are two unmarried boys, but has been betrothed, close to the wedding date, for security reasons, for fear of catching something bad, they refused it.
“And no one informed them of the truth, I was the only one who put the ice blocks on the bodies. I guess it’s also a good thing not to know.”
He planned to work harder himself; those three people just need to stay out of trouble and follow honestly, and not play a wicked trick then arriving at the customer’s ancestral home in fifteen days or so, the return journey would be much more relaxing.
Li Haitang nodded, she had already guessed this part of it, the savage was not a talkative person by nature.
“Because of transporting the casket, you can only stay in tents along the way, so you can’t stay in the inn.”
Even if it is an empty coffin, the innkeeper will turn them away. Doing business, the most afraid of attracting bad luck, especially the ancients. On this aspect, it was the same superstition.
The first few days, Xiao Lingchuan put the ice blocks, for fear of corpses rotting, every seven or eight hours, and must be changed once, often because of the purchase of ice, he had to give up the quickest way, and detour into the city.
Perhaps his behavior was sneaky, and attracted the attention of the other three. Those people did not ask openly, but secretly gathered in one place, suspecting that there is a treasure inside the coffin.
Many rich rich merchants, maybe they have a quirk, afraid of attracting the attention of bandits, use the coffin to transport jewelry, so that it is safer, if there is really gold inside, this sneaky action of his, not knowing how much advantage he is taking, behind somebody’s back.
For a month, each person a hundred taels plus a set of small courtyard, combined into silver, still quite a lot of money, transporting empty coffins, can give so much? They just went for a few days, and three small smart people suddenly awakened, more and more determined that there is something fishy behind.
That night, coincidentally, a group of people in the city after buying ice, properly stored, should be enough for three days, and then back to the trail, day and night, just in time to catch the first day of the tenth lunar month, the folk of the Winter Clothing Festival.
As we walked, a fog suddenly fell, the road ahead could not be seen clearly, vaguely from the sky fell a few paper made to resemble money and burned as an offering to the dead; the air floating with the black ash of the paper money burned.
On both sides of the road, a cemetery, vaguely floating ghost fire aka the phosphorescent light, they could not discern the direction, only to stop and rest.
“And then, you met something unclean?”
Li Haitang remembered reading a book, which described that the fog that appeared around the Ghost Festival is actually a kind of miasma. Don’t walk between the graveyards at night, small children are easy to be scared out of their souls, and adults are easy to meet ghosts hitting the wall.
It is said that the ghost hitting the wall is the ghosts and monsters’ favorite joke, you, no matter in that direction, can not go out of a sth. strange and hard to shake off; strange cycle, wandering around, or will return to the starting point, this time you can not go forward, otherwise a foot will step into the gate of hell.
“Can’t walk out, then we’ll just stop.”
Xiao Lingchuan returned to the tent, too tired to rush in the daytime. He fell asleep in no time.
In the middle of the night, he was woken up by screams. He went out of the tent to see, the three joined forces to open the coffin, staring at the long-dead young lady inside the coffin, staying still and expression dull.
The oil lamp was thrown on the grass not far away, and the oil inside spilled out, lighting up the grass and illuminating everything around them.
The three people remained motionless, like they had been cast in a stasis, and their eyes wouldn’t roll, Xiao Lingchuan probed his nose and realized that none of the three people were dead, only then he felt at ease.
“The screams I heard, it was clearly not the three of them, it must be a woman.”
After he finished, Li Haitang felt chills on her back and hurriedly hid under the quilt, in the middle of nowhere, it had just rained, it was eerie, after she heard it, she automatically brainstormed the scene at that time, and she only felt chills all over her body.
“You, you make it short, just tell me the result.”
The middle process could be omitted, the savage obviously didn’t have any talent for language, but why was it so scary after rendering the atmosphere? He didn’t do it on purpose, right?
Xiao Lingchuan’s face was serious, and he continued with a single glance, Li Haitang was afraid and ignored the deepness in the bottom of his eyes, “I dragged them into the tent, then they woke up early in the morning of the second day.”
Three people woke up, alarmed, they were actually curious. They want to see whether in the coffin there is treasure or not, seeing the female corpse, unprepared, one of them insists emphatically that the female corpse opened her eyes and screamed.
People scare people, scared to death, claiming to see the female corpse open her eyes, this is not a big problem but the other two people got a high fever later, dizzy, almost died, only then that last person told the truth, everything is their own fabrication, there is no such thing.
The head of the dart is too unkind, obviously a thousand taels of silver was deducted by him, each person can take a maximum of two or three hundred taels, the rest of the silver is swallowed, hide the truth yet let them be grateful.
“I did hear the women screaming, but didn’t tell them.”
Xiao Lingchuan drew the corners of his mouth, otherwise, it would not be a simple case of two people falling ill, he did not want to take three sick people on the road with him.
Resting for two days on the road, the four of them went on the road again, every night, the three of them would be like birds that starts at the mere twang of a bow-string—a badly frightened; hiding in the tent and not going out, adding ice also all rely on him alone.
“Brother Xiao, the casket was delivered safely in the end, right?”
Nothing to do yet they lift up a person’s coffins, disrespectful to the dead, it is best to apologize and repent, although, not necessarily useful. Many times, frightened people are too rich in their own imagination, they scare themselves.
“Delivered safely, but after three people went back to their home, they started a high fever again.”
Xiao Lingchuan sighed, he did not manage to say anything from the beginning to the end.
“The two people who were scared into a stupor before said that on the night of the Cold Clothing Festival, they did hear a woman’s scream coming from the coffin…”
So, that one before who lies to seek for fun, also not sure whether they see it or not, hear it or not hear, and finally sick too. It is said that one hundred taels of silver, inviting monks, inviting Taoist nun, inviting the sorceress, finally cured, the family in turn owed a debt.
Xiao Lingchuan also hides a point, those three people, although not married, 14 or 15 years old and mingle or fool around with women, no one is a virgin, and behave dishonorably; bad conduct, so they were followed by the female ghosts, not wronged.
