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墨書 Inktalez
I was startled, my adrenaline surging, giving me a sudden boost of strength. I yanked my foot free and turned to run.
After a few steps, I found myself back at the entrance of the village with Dog Sheng.
Looking down, I realized my shoes were gone, and now I was barefoot. On my feet were several clear fingerprints!
I gasped for breath and glanced at Dog Sheng.
He was sitting on the ground, his shoes also missing. On his feet, five fingerprints were even more distinct, and they had turned a dark black color! It looked as if his ankles were rotting!
“She won’t let us leave,” I swallowed hard.
Dog Sheng stood up, his face pale. “Let’s go, Song Fei. We need to find that old dog Xu Bansian! He must be behind all this!”
I certainly knew Xu Bansian; he was known as Xu Ziwen, the most educated person in our village. Over the years, I was the only one from our mountain village to attend university. After my college entrance exams, Xu Ziwen came to my house specifically to tell me that I could study philosophy or traditional Chinese medicine.
At that time, I didn’t know much about majors, and I wasn’t very interested in philosophy, so I followed his advice and enrolled in traditional Chinese medicine. Xu Bansian seemed quite excited back then; he believed I would have a bright future.
So based on these experiences, I thought of Xu Bansian as a good person.
Xu Bansian was quite old, at least seventy or eighty years old. He had apparently fled to our village during the Cultural Revolution. Our village was remote and had been affected by the revolution. Not only could Xu Bansian read and write, but he also understood arithmetic and knew how to farm. Most notably, he was skilled at assessing properties and choosing burial sites; he even had some knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine. In short, Xu Bansian was considered a living deity in our village—there was no doubt about it.
When I heard Dog Sheng wanted to find Xu Bansian, I asked him, “Why look for Grandpa Xu? What does he have to do with Lian?”
Dog Sheng limped forward, wiping rainwater from his face. “You don’t know, Song Fei? This Yin Marriage was arranged by Xu Bansian. Think about it: Lian died three days ago and nothing happened until yesterday when she was buried and you became her husband. Then she turned into a Zombie and came after me and Big Pillar for revenge, even trying to kill you! There’s definitely something fishy going on with that old dog Xu! He must have done something to Lian’s corpse.”
Hearing this made me angry too. Damn it! So it was Old Xu who orchestrated the Yin Marriage. But I didn’t believe that Xu Bansian could turn Lian into a Zombie. “Alright then, let’s go find Grandpa Xu and get some answers.”
I stopped walking with Dog Sheng and turned towards the village. By the time we reached the entrance of the village, it was around six o'clock, and due to the overcast sky, it was already completely dark.
Xu Bansian had no children and lived alone in a tile-roofed house at the northern end of the village.
As Dog Sheng and I approached the door, Dog Sheng knocked loudly, thumping on it.
"Who is it?" Xu Bansian came out and opened the door.
Seeing that it was me and Dog Sheng, Xu Bansian looked a bit surprised, then smiled at me. "Fei, you're back."
I nodded at Xu Bansian and called him Grandpa Xu.
At that moment, Dog Sheng was quite anxious. He suddenly pushed Xu Bansian, saying, "Old Xu, why are you trying to harm us?"
Xu Bansian, being old, was pushed into the water by Dog Sheng.
I quickly helped Xu Bansian up and felt a bit displeased with Dog Sheng. "Alright, Dog Sheng, let's talk properly. Come on, let's go inside."
Xu Bansian wasn't angry; he closed the door and went into his house. The place wasn't large but was very clean and had an artistic vibe to it.
Once inside, under the electric light, Dog Sheng plopped down on the floor. He rubbed his foot and exclaimed, "It hurts so much! Is my foot going to be useless now?"
I looked over and saw that Dog Sheng's entire foot was blackened.
Seeing his foot startled me as well. I quickly looked down at my own feet; when we crossed that water earlier, I had also been grabbed by something beneath the surface.
My feet were covered in mud, and my toes were bleeding profusely. I hadn't worn shoes and didn't even know where I had gotten hurt. I had been too tense during our escape to notice the pain.
However, aside from the broken toe, my foot was fine, and the fingerprints on my ankle had disappeared. But Dog Sheng's foot had already turned black.
"Corpse Poison?" Xu Bansian was immediately drawn to Dog Sheng's foot. "What happened to you two kids?"
"It's all your fault! Xu the Old Dog, this is because of you!" Dog Sheng started cursing again.
I pushed Dog Sheng lightly. "Can you speak properly?" Then I turned to Xu Bansian. "Grandpa Xu, here's the thing: Lian has turned into a ghost. She killed Big Pillar last night and came after me. She was wearing a wedding dress and has become a Zombie."
Xu Bansian's hand trembled slightly. "What does this have to do with Big Pillar and Dog Sheng?"
So I recounted the events involving Dog Sheng and Big Pillar.
Xu Bansian tapped his fingers on the table and sighed. "Ah, this is truly strange. To be honest, Fei, when I saw Lian's body being pulled from the water, I knew there was still Resentment in her chest. It definitely wasn't a suicide or an accident. However, I had already given her Cinnabar soup at that time, and I was worried she would undergo Corpse Transformation, so I arranged for her to marry you in a Yin Marriage. I knew that girl liked you; marrying you would give her some peace of mind. I just didn't expect it would turn out like this..."
I was taken aback for a moment and then forced a bitter smile. "Grandpa Xu, what exactly are you playing at? Lian doesn't like me; even if she did, would a Yin Marriage really eliminate her Resentment?"
Xu Bansian waved his hand dismissively. "Of course it can! And technically speaking, I did help her resolve some of her Resentment and gave her Cinnabar too; it shouldn't have happened at all. As for the Yin Marriage, it was just a formality."
I immediately replied, "A formality? Grandpa Xu, you have no idea! When I woke up yesterday and went to the spirit hall, it had turned into a wedding chamber! There were big red wedding decorations everywhere; they were just missing firecrackers! It scared me half to death!"
Dog Sheng sat on the ground, shouting loudly, "Old Xu, Song Fei, stop with this nonsense! What are we going to do now? Lian will definitely come looking for me tonight; what should we do?"
Xu Bansian stood up with a dark expression on his face. He paced back and forth a few steps and said, "This shouldn't have happened at all; something must be wrong! The spirit hall turning into a Wedding Hall means Lian has latched onto you, and her powers are much stronger than an ordinary Zombie."
Both Dog Sheng and I looked at Xu Bansian.
With Xu Bansian saying this, Dog Sheng didn't dare call him Xu the Old Dog anymore. He sat on the ground and said, "Xu Bansian, think of a way to save us! This whole mess is your doing; you can't just ignore it."
Xu Bansian walked around a couple more times, glancing at the sky. "There's no way to summon a master tonight. We can only make do for now. If we can get through tonight safely, I’ll have to hurry and find someone skilled tomorrow. I’ve read a lot about feng shui and understand a bit, but I'm not a Taoist priest; I can't deal with Zombies or Evil Spirits."
I quickly replied, "Grandpa Xu, we need to get through tonight first."
Xu Bansian nodded. "Alright, let's give it a try. Zombies are afraid of Black Donkey Hoof, but there are no donkeys left in our village. So, let’s find blood from Rooster Comb, Black Dog Blood, and some peach wood branches. I'll go get the Cinnabar. We can only try to manage for one night..."
Dog Sheng was genuinely terrified. After hearing Xu Bansian, he didn’t say a word and immediately headed outside.
I wanted to help, but then thought better of it; if I killed our rooster, my dad would definitely be furious with me.
"Ah!" Xu Bansian sighed.
It was just the two of us left in the room. I looked at Xu Bansian and said, "Grandpa Xu, it seems like you don't have much confidence."
Xu Bansian shook his head. "It's not that; I just think Dog Sheng is doomed."
"Ah?" I was taken aback.
Xu Bansian took out a brush and some Cinnabar from inside the house and spread several sheets of yellow paper on the table. As he began drawing incomprehensible symbols on the paper, he said, "Dog Sheng has been poisoned by Corpse Poison. Even if he isn't bitten to death by the lotus tonight, he won't survive. Corpse Poison is very potent; if you get poisoned, you must immediately cut open the wound to release the toxic blood and apply Glutinous Rice to it for a chance of survival. But now, there’s no way to save him."
Hearing this made me panic; I quickly lifted my foot onto the table. "Grandpa Xu, look at my foot! A ghost grabbed it too, but it hasn’t turned black."
Xu Bansian examined my foot and said, "There’s just mud on your foot; there’s nothing else."
I sighed in relief and then showed him the wound on my shoulder. "Look, Grandpa Xu! The lotus bit me here."
Xu Bansian touched it lightly and said, "You silly child, there's no wound at all; it's very smooth."
"Ah?"
I was taken aback for a moment. Just this afternoon, when I showed it to Dog Sheng, it was still there. I touched it myself, and indeed, there was nothing. Even the scar had disappeared, and there was no trace of any injury.
"Hey? How strange! It was all bloody and messy in the morning, but now there's nothing at all." Although I felt puzzled inside, I still breathed a sigh of relief.
Xu Bansian dipped a brush into Cinnabar and swiftly wrote out a Yellow Talisman. I couldn't understand what was written on it at all.
Xu Bansian set down the brush and said, "Maybe Lian just came to take revenge, so she didn't mean any harm to you. Perhaps she wanted to get close to you."
I sighed, "If that's really the case, I'd be even more miserable. Grandpa Xu, what on earth are you drawing?"
"It's a Taoist corpse-restraining talisman. I learned a bit about it before, but since I never truly entered a master’s school, the talismans I draw don't have much power; they can only scare ghosts," Xu Bansian replied as he drew two more.
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