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The sound of weaving came from downstairs. Xu Wenshan pried open a gap in the floorboards and saw Widow Lin hurriedly working at the Sewing Machine, crafting a Shroud. Her left hand pushed the fabric in an oddly contorted manner, her fingers bending backward as if she were manipulating a marionette.
What was even more horrifying was that the needle of the Sewing Machine was threaded with Gray-White Strands, and with each penetration of the fabric, Blood Beads oozed from the needle's eye.
"Come out," Widow Lin suddenly looked up, her whites gleaming with an eerie blue light in the darkness. "The client for the seventh Comb has arrived." At her feet lay a bamboo basket piled high with seven Shrouds, each adorned with different styles of Braids at the neckline. Xu Wenshan recognized that the latest one was made from the hair of the Tea House Old Shopkeeper's granddaughter.
A gust of wind blew open the attic door, and Xu Wenshan turned to collide with the Hair Combing Old Woman. The Old Woman had replaced her wooden comb with Tailor's Scissors, their blades stained with several pieces of scalp bearing Hair Follicles.
As Xu Wenshan rolled to evade her, a dressing mirror suddenly shattered, sending forty-nine Acupuncture Needles flying out and forcing him into a corner.
"The one in your pocket is the Yin Hun Shu," Widow Lin's voice echoed distantly. "The Zhou Family uses it to track Yin Debt; each Comb Tooth has been stained with the blood of seven girls." She lifted the bottom panel of the Sewing Machine, revealing six Jade Thimbles arranged in a hidden compartment, each embedded with half a wooden Comb Tooth.
Xu Wenshan reached for a clothesline by the window and tossed a Shroud towards the Old Woman. As the fabric unfurled in mid-air, he saw that its lining was painted in blood to depict a constellation formed by forty-nine wooden combs.
As the Old Woman's scissors shredded the Shroud, Xu Wenshan crashed through the window into the rain curtain, feeling his wooden comb suddenly heat up against his chest, branding him with a scar shaped like the character for "death."
In the Eastern Gravefield of Chaos, Xu Wenshan stumbled through rows of tombstones, guided by the comb as it led him through Grave Mounds tracing out the Big Dipper's trajectory. His phone's GPS indicated he was nearing an abandoned well at Qinghe Hydrological Station, but every few steps, branches from Sophora Trees snagged at his comb.
When he fell into a muddy pit for the fifth time, he finally realized that every unmarked grave contained remnants of Lipstick Coffins buried within. Digging through the loose soil of the latest grave, Xu Wenshan felt something warm—a Jade Thimble. The inner side of the thimble was inscribed with Bazi, marking his Lunar Birthday.
Suddenly, a White Bone Hand reached out from the grave pit, clutching an Oiled Paper Umbrella sewn with Braids—the Umbrella Ribs carved from Human Rib and its Canopy painted with Hair-Combing Specters.
"On Bing Shen Year, March Third, Xushi Shengren," Zhou Huaisheng's voice came from beneath the Umbrella Canopy as the Hair Combing Old Woman's figure gradually solidified in the rain. "Mr. Xu, this Yin Fa you have is enough to complete Forty-Nine Calamities." The Old Woman's Comb scraped against the Umbrella Ribs, stirring up a chilling wind that lifted Seven Red Lacquer Coffins; each Coffin was piled high with hair used to tie Rebirth Knots.
Xu Wenshan pulled out a Swiss Army knife and cut open his palm, smearing blood on the wooden comb. The Comb Teeth suddenly grew long and pierced into the nearest Coffin Board. At that moment when the Coffin Lid exploded open, he saw Zhou Fulai from twenty years ago lying inside, cradling a Jade Thimble—within which was sealed Widow Lin's current visage.
"Fudi was burned down to nothing but hair back then," Zhou Huaisheng emerged from the rain, his hands entwined with Human Bone Prayer Beads. "I used forty-two Yin Shu to extend her life; now..." He abruptly tore open his Tang Suit to reveal circles of Braids stitched into his chest; each strand connected to a Lipstick Coffin. "We still need your Yin Hun Shu."
As Widow Lin's scissors lunged at him from behind, Xu Wenshan raised his wooden comb to block it.
At that moment when the Comb Teeth snagged on his Jade Thimble, a thunderous shout rang out through the downpour: "Stop!" Chen Guohua's voice boomed as his grandson Chen Yu aimed his gun; however, the bullet passed through Zhou Huaisheng’s body and shattered what he held—a Wenwan Walnut—which turned out not to be a walnut at all but rather a wax-covered Young Girl's Skull.
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