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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 36: The Haunting at the Funeral Hall
Hearing this strange matter, I was indeed very surprised, but I was even more worried about the Paper Figurine. If what the old man said was true, then it was very likely that the White Boss had infused his soul into that Paper Figurine; otherwise, the White Boss's shadow wouldn't have disappeared.
If the Paper Figurine became animated, things would get troublesome. At best, it would scare people; at worst, it could harm and take lives. One must understand that Paper Figurines are originally made by the living to be burned for the dead, and they would not willingly be burned. Therefore, they generally harbor resentment in their hearts and would naturally act like Evil Spirits, causing harm to others.
Seeing that I was quite anxious, the old man said that the Paper Figurine had already run down West Street of the town and had directly left the town; he didn't know where it had gone. He asked if that wasn't strange!
Upon hearing this, I thought to myself that this was indeed a bad situation. If we didn't find the Paper Figurine soon, there might be disasters happening in the surrounding area before long.
While I was thinking about this, a police officer from the shop came out and began taking notes from the crowd of onlookers. I leaned forward into the shop and took a glance at the corpse on the ground. Just as the old man had mentioned earlier, the White Boss's death was truly horrific. He was dressed in paper clothes, with a bloody Bamboo Stick piercing through his body, which was quite eye-catching. It looked as if a Paper Figurine had been skewered on a Bamboo Stick.
Seeing the terrifying corpse of the White Boss, I realized that this matter was indeed not simple. It was highly likely that it wasn't human-made; more than likely, it was done by that Paper Figurine. One must know that an ordinary person cannot easily pierce someone from below to above with a Bamboo Stick; it would require immense strength!
It would have been one thing if I hadn't encountered this incident, but now that I had come across it, I naturally couldn't stand by idly. The old man had told me that the Paper Figurine had run westward, so I didn't delay any further and headed west in pursuit...
I chased for quite a while and eventually left the town. By nightfall, I arrived at a small grove. Seeing that it was pitch dark all around, I thought to myself that it seemed unlikely to catch up with that thing today.
So I considered not pursuing any further tonight; after all, it would be hard to see in the dark. Instead, I decided to find a place in the grove to rest for the night and search again after dawn.
I found a spot under a large tree, set my bundle down at its base, and leaned against the tree to sleep. However, unknowingly, I kept hearing a faint sound in my ears—a sound that resembled music from a suona (a traditional Chinese horn), playing mournfully...
I found it strange how there could be someone playing a suona in such a wild area. At first, I thought my ears were deceiving me, but upon listening closely, I realized I wasn't mistaken; that faint sound indeed came from a suona, and judging by its melancholic tune, it must be music played for a funeral.
At once, I followed the sound of the suona and made my way through the grove. Soon enough, I discovered that the music was coming from a farmhouse at the foot of the hill in the forest.
I saw that the farmhouse down the mountain was brightly lit in the night, with smoke rising from the kitchen. Outside the yard stood a row of white wreaths and paper figurines, and the sound of a suona (a traditional Chinese horn) could be heard, indicating that the family was holding a funeral.
However, at that moment, I suddenly noticed a white shadow quickly darting towards the house. The white shadow then directly passed through the courtyard wall and rushed into the house...
I was startled and had a vague feeling that this white shadow must be the paper figurine I had been chasing. So I hurriedly dashed out of the woods and ran towards the farmhouse.
Before long, I finally arrived at the front of the house where the funeral was being held. It was already late at night, and there was no one outside; it was empty. Two white lanterns hung above the entrance, swaying in the night breeze, while a white funeral item placed in front of the door looked somewhat eerie.
The door was wide open, so I peered into the yard. Inside, there were large white lanterns hanging, but no one could be seen.
I thought for a moment; although it was impolite to enter someone else's home like this, I knew that the paper figurine had entered this house. To prevent any further misfortune from occurring to this family, I decided to walk into the yard.
The courtyard was not large and had no electric lights—only a few lanterns for illumination. At that moment, on an Eight Immortals table, there were suonas and drums; evidently, those who had played funeral music had already gone to sleep. The entire courtyard was silent, with no sounds at all. I scanned around and wondered why I couldn't see the white shadow despite having clearly seen it enter.
So I crossed through the courtyard and came directly to the living room. There, I saw a large black coffin placed in a prominent position above. On either side of the coffin stood a pair of yin-yang paper figurines—young men and women dressed in white mourning clothes were dozing off at an altar in front of the coffin.
Finally seeing some people, I prepared to greet them so they wouldn't think I had bad intentions for barging into their home. But just as I was about to approach them, a sudden "cough" echoed in the silent living room—a man's cough that sounded very jarring in such a quiet place.
I froze for a moment, thinking there might be other people in this hall of mourning. However, looking around revealed no one else present. The two young guardians who had been dozing off were startled awake by that cough; they looked up with puzzled expressions before suddenly letting out a scream!
I also jumped back in surprise when I saw that above us, in that coffin, an old man dressed in funeral garments had sat up straight without me noticing!
The old man's face was pale as wax and covered with corpse spots; he stared at us with wide eyes...
This scared the two young guardians so much that they fell off their chairs onto the ground. They scrambled to get up and tried to run outside but turned around only to see me quietly standing at the entrance of the hall. They screamed again in terror and then collapsed onto the ground...
Looking at the Ground and the two Young Men trembling in fear, unable to move, I suddenly felt like I understood something. I wanted to say, "Brother, little sister, please let me explain..."
However, I knew that at this moment, I had no time to explain because the corpse that had sat up straight from the coffin was now crawling out of that dark coffin!
I didn’t dare to delay any longer and rushed into the living room. Just then, from the side room, a panicked couple burst out, likely having heard the screams of the Young Men.
I glanced at them; both appeared to be in their fifties and were probably the parents of the Young Men. Upon seeing their children collapsed on the Ground and noticing me, a stranger standing in the living room, they immediately wanted to question me. However, when I pointed towards the altar, they quickly understood most of what was happening.
At that moment, the woman screamed in terror, while the man was also frightened but stammered, "Dad... Dad... how... how did you come back to life..."
I told them that wasn't their father and urged them to quickly carry their children outside; otherwise, they would be in big trouble. Indeed, the old man before us had a face covered in corpse spots; he was as dead as one could be and could not possibly come back to life.
Upon hearing this, the couple didn’t dare to hesitate. They hurriedly each picked up one Young Man and rushed towards the yard...
At this moment, the old man who had suddenly risen from the coffin angrily tore apart a pair of Yin Yang Paper Figurines beside the coffin, cursing as he did so. "You Paper Figurines, you Paper Figurines, I will turn all of you who make Paper Figurines and burn Paper Figurines into Paper Figurines..."
Hearing what this old man was shouting as he crawled out of the coffin sent chills down my spine because I remembered how the White Boss from that town’s paper shop had died; didn’t he look just like a Paper Figurine?
The two Paper Figurines were quickly torn to shreds by him. Then he turned his gaze towards me, and with a face full of corpse spots, he grinned eerily and let out a strange "hee hee" sound!
Then he picked up the longest bamboo stick from among the shredded Paper Figurines and walked towards me with an unsettling demeanor...
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