The Grim Reaper's Banquet (3) Part 2

"What sounds?" Lin Banxia looked completely baffled.

"Shh, shh..." Mou Xinsi said. "Be quiet and listen carefully..."

So Lin Banxia fell silent and listened carefully, but he heard nothing. Seeing his blank expression, Mou Xinsi got anxious. "How can you not hear it?! It's coming from over there." She pointed a finger at the coffins placed in the corner.

Lin Banxia paused, then said, "You're saying the coffins are making noise?"

Mou Xinsi nodded heavily, her expression somewhat neurotic. "Listen carefully. The person inside is knocking."

Lin Banxia glanced at Mou Xinsi, then at the coffins. He turned and walked to the front of one. "This one?"

Mou Xinsi shook her head. "The one furthest in."

Lin Banxia then took a few more steps inward. The wood of the coffin was quite good, coated with a thick layer of black lacquer. However, due to the rain, some undried water stains had collected on it. It was unclear if water had seeped inside.

Lin Banxia slowly lowered his head and pressed his ear against the damp coffin wood. In the silence, his nose caught the pungent smell of paint.

There was no sound at all. Lin Banxia raised his head and said, "There's no soun—"

Before the word was fully out of his mouth, he heard a faint thumping sound. In the quiet courtyard, the noise was so jarring that even if Lin Banxia wanted to ignore it, he couldn't. The source of the sound was the coffin right beside him.

"Did you hear it? You heard it, right?!" Seeing the change in Lin Banxia's expression, Mou Xinsi knew he must have heard it too. She was so happy she almost jumped up from the ground. "I wasn't hallucinating! I really heard it!"

"Thump, thump, thump..." Another three consecutive soft sounds came from inside the coffin. Lin Banxia's expression gradually grew solemn, and he turned to walk back toward the house.

Mou Xinsi asked him where he was going.

"I'm going to get He Huai'an," Lin Banxia said. "Let's open the coffin and see."

"You can't open it!" Mou Xinsi said in terror. "Aren't you afraid of seeing something you shouldn't after you open it?"

Lin Banxia said strangely, "What is there that shouldn't be seen?"

Mou Xinsi got anxious and tried to stop Lin Banxia. "How can you have no common sense? Even for a Watcher—our inspiration value is limited! If you see what you shouldn't see, or hear what you shouldn't hear, you'll go crazy!!"

Lin Banxia indeed lacked this common sense; he had just been brought along by Song Qingluo to do a job. So, hearing Mou Xinsi's rebuke, he simply retorted with a question, "If we don't open it, how will we know what's inside? What if it's related to the village's secret? Wouldn't we have come here for nothing?"

Mou Xinsi was at a loss for words.

"Are you okay?" Lin Banxia frowned.

Mou Xinsi stood rooted to the spot, silent. After a moment, she said in a low voice, "You go ahead. I'm not a qualified Recorder."

Lin Banxia entered the house and told He Huai'an what had happened, asking him to come out and help open the coffin to see what was going on inside.

After listening to Lin Banxia's description, He Huai'an was slightly stunned. He said, "Are you sure you heard it right? It's really coming from inside the coffin?"

Lin Banxia said, "Yes, I'm sure I heard it."

He Huai'an was much calmer than Mou Xinsi. He stood up and said, "Let's go, we'll take a look together." The two returned to the yard.

Just as Lin Banxia had done, He Huai'an pressed his face to the coffin and listened carefully for a moment. The expression on his face changed. "There really... is."

Seeing his expression, Lin Banxia joked, "Why so scared? It's not like the dead can come back to life, right?" He had only said it as a casual joke, but when He Huai'an and Mou Xinsi heard him, both their faces turned grim.

He Huai'an forced a smile. "Mr.... Lin, this is your first mission, so you might not know, but we have indeed encountered situations like this." He wiped the cold sweat from the tip of his nose and tried his best to calmly explain the situation to Lin Banxia. "The dead coming back to life isn't uncommon in our line of work. It's just... we never quite get used to seeing it."

Only then did Lin Banxia remember the matter with Cheng Yuliu. It seemed that was indeed the case. It was normal for an ordinary person to feel uncomfortable in such a scene.

"So, should we still open it? Or wait for Song Qingluo to come back?" Lin Banxia asked considerately, seeing his pale face.

"No, no, no, let's open it now," He Huai'an said. "We don't know when Mr. Song will be back."

As he spoke, he grabbed a corner of the coffin lid and gave Lin Banxia a look. Lin Banxia understood, grabbed the other side, and then, together with He Huai'an, they used their strength to lift the heavy lid. The moment the lid was opened, a foul stench of decay wafted out. Lin Banxia peeked inside and, unsurprisingly, saw a lifeless corpse. Perhaps because of the rain, a considerable amount of water had accumulated inside the coffin, and the body was already somewhat swollen from being soaked.

He Huai'an took one look before painfully turning his head away, his Adam's apple bobbing as he tried hard to suppress the urge to vomit.

Lin Banxia, however, remained calm. His eyes carefully scanned the inside of the coffin, and he soon found the source of the strange noise. In a corner of the coffin was a small green frog. It stared with its dark eyes, puffed up its little cheeks, and would occasionally jump upward.

"It's not a person, it's a frog," Lin Banxia said.

He Huai'an said, "A frog? How could there be a frog in a coffin..."

Lin Banxia said, "It probably fell in by accident during the rain." As he spoke, he took the frog out of the coffin, bent down to place it on the dirt, and watched it hop away out of sight. Just as Lin Banxia was about to straighten up, he saw some strange marks on the coffin lid that was placed to the side. He froze for a second, thinking his eyes were playing tricks on him. However, when he crouched down to examine it closely, he realized he hadn't been mistaken.

The inside of the coffin lid was covered with dense scratch marks, accompanied by dark red bloodstains that were particularly glaring.

The wood was very hard; it would take immense force for a person's fingernails to leave marks on it. Lin Banxia stood up in silence and looked back at the decaying corpse in the coffin. Although the corpse's fingers were white and swollen from being soaked in rainwater, clear injuries were still visible. His fingernails were almost completely broken off. Just one glance was enough to imagine his despair.

"How is this possible..." Lin Banxia murmured. "The coffin clearly wasn't nailed shut. How could he not push it open?"

Hearing Lin Banxia's words, He Huai'an also understood something. He took a step back and said in a low voice, "Could there be something wrong with the villagers here?"

Lin Banxia was silent for a moment, then shook his head, indicating that he didn't know either.

The atmosphere froze. Just as Lin Banxia was thinking, the Village Chief's voice came from behind them. He was shouting angrily in a local dialect, clearly furious about them opening the coffin on their own. He brandished his fists as if about to strike them.

He Huai'an quickly explained, "Village Chief, please don't be angry. We opened it because we heard a noise coming from inside."

"A noise in the coffin?! How could there be a noise in the coffin!!" the Village Chief roared. "You outsiders, why must you desecrate the dead?! He's already gone, can't you let him rest in peace??"

Lin Banxia quickly said, "Village Chief, we found something in the coffin."

The Village Chief said coldly, "What?"

Lin Banxia said, "He wasn't dead when he was put in the coffin."

The Village Chief froze.

"Look." Lin Banxia pointed to the incredibly obvious scratch marks on the coffin lid. "Look at these scratches. He's the one who left them."

The Village Chief looked where Lin Banxia was pointing, and his expression changed immediately. His chest heaved violently as he said hoarsely, "How could this be, how could this be!!"

Lin Banxia and He Huai'an exchanged a glance. He said, "Should we open the other coffins to check as well?"

The Village Chief's face was ashen. He didn't speak for a long time.

It was He Huai'an who spoke up, "Let's open them and see, for peace of mind."

Seeing that the Village Chief didn't stop them, the two got to work.

Lin Banxia and He Huai'an slowly opened the other coffins. With each one they opened, the Village Chief's face grew a shade paler, until finally, it was as white as a corpse. Every single coffin lid in his yard was covered with dense scratch marks. Clearly, all three people were alive when they were placed in their coffins. They had lain there, helplessly clawing at the lids above them, but were unable to push them open... and so, they died in fear and despair.

The Village Chief's legs gave out, and he collapsed in the yard, splashing dirty mud all over himself. Seeing this, Lin Banxia quickly helped him up and shot a look at He Huai'an, signaling him to put the coffin lids back on.

"Village Chief, what exactly is going on?" Seeing the Village Chief's reaction, it seemed he was unaware of this. Lin Banxia asked.

"I don't know, I don't know! They were definitely dead," the Village Chief said, his voice trembling. "No breath, no heartbeat, isn't that what being dead is?"

Lin Banxia carefully helped him into the house and said, "Can you tell me about it in detail?"

The Village Chief's face was covered in sweat. He said, "This family, they're my relatives. People die often in the village, so everyone is used to it. A few days ago, the man in their family died suddenly in the fields. Just after his funeral was held, the others met with an accident." His voice trembled badly. "Their deaths were very strange. They were fine one day, and the next, the whole family had stopped breathing. By the time they were discovered, their bodies were already cold. The village is running out of coffins, so I took it upon myself to put them in coffins first, thinking I'd find an auspicious day to have them carried out for burial."

Lin Banxia said, "So that's how it is... Was there anything unusual about the coffins?"

"No," the Village Chief said. "Originally, the coffins were supposed to be kept at Old Master He's place, but there were too many people, and there was no more room there, so I thought I'd just keep them in my yard for a few days." He looked dazed. "How could this be, how could this be..."

Lin Banxia asked, "Did you check what they died from?"

The Village Chief shook his head and said with a bitter smile, "The causes of death in the village are all sorts of strange things. It's hard to find the reason for every one of them. But they had no external injuries..."

Lin Banxia fell into deep thought.

On the other side, He Huai'an put the coffin lids back on and returned, covered in sweat. Mou Xinsi followed behind him, looking somewhat dazed. Seeing her pale face, He Huai'an asked if she was feeling unwell.

"A little cold. I think I have a cold." Mou Xinsi sneezed and rubbed her nose. "I probably got caught in the rain a bit on the first day..."

He Huai'an was quite concerned about her. He said, "Let me go make you some medicine to drink."

"Okay, thank you." She sat listlessly to the side, looking lethargic.

The Village Chief was still trapped in his grief. Lin Banxia comforted him in a low voice, saying these things were just coincidences and he couldn't be blamed.

"Coincidences? How can there be so many coincidences," the Village Chief said numbly. "It's just because our village is cursed."

"But there must be a reason for the curse, right?" Lin Banxia said. "Don't you have any theories at all?"

The Village Chief shook his head and said nothing.

Over there, He Huai'an made the medicine for Mou Xinsi and told her to drink it and go to sleep. After drinking the medicine, Mou Xinsi said she still felt a little cold and wanted to take a hot shower.

"Go ahead. Call me if you need anything." He Huai'an was a little worried about his new partner.

Mou Xinsi nodded.

Although the bathroom in the village was a bit crude, it at least had a water heater. It just needed to be heated up for a while beforehand. Mou Xinsi waited for the water to heat up, took her change of clothes, and went into the shower. She turned on the water heater and let the hot water pour over her face.

The steaming heat drove the chill from her body, making her sigh in comfort. She lowered her head, letting the hot water wash over her hair, when she suddenly felt an itch on the top of her head. She paused slightly and reached up to scratch—then she felt that she had caught something. Mou Xinsi looked closely and saw strands of black hair between her fingers, slowly falling with the flowing water onto the slippery floor.

The moment she saw the hair, a bone-deep chill rose in Mou Xinsi's heart. If an ordinary person saw hair, their first reaction might be to worry they were sick, but Mou Xinsi couldn't deceive herself like that, because right before she came, she had dyed her black hair a bright yellow...

So, where did this black hair come from? Mou Xinsi's neck stiffened. She slowly raised her head and saw the old, dilapidated ceiling above her. From the ceiling, strands of black hair were hanging down like a spider's web, falling onto her face, her body...

The author has something to say:

Lin Banxia: In the one hour Song Qingluo was gone, I successfully pried open someone's coffin.

Song Qingluo: ...Take it easy.