Chapter 23: The Magistrate's Tomb

Hearing my words, Er Pang was also taken aback, then asked: "What? What do you need me to help with?"

As he spoke, his gaze went vacant.

It’s no wonder people say he and I are both big idiots; my eyes used to be clear and foolish, while his were always glazed over.

I said to him, "There’s no time to explain in detail. Just follow me."

With that, I grabbed him and started walking outward. Er Pang was confused, just letting me drag him along.

As I headed toward Qingqiu Mountain, I asked, "I might need quite a few people. Do you know anyone else?"

Hearing this, Er Pang scratched his head and said, "Tiangang, I’m just like you. Nobody wants to hang out with me. I don’t have any friends."

Right. I shouldn't have even asked. A big idiot asking a second idiot if he has friends...

But the coffin fungus is an extremely cold substance; if it isn't passed back and forth, I’m afraid something bad will happen. There was another way, but it was a bit disgusting, and I honestly couldn't bring myself to do it. It involved the two of us passing it back and forth mouth-to-mouth, kissing all the way there.

The mere thought of kissing Er Pang to transport the coffin fungus made me feel nauseous. It would be equivalent to eating, vomiting, and eating again. And that wasn't even the end of it; after all that, we would still have to place it into the female corpse’s mouth.

That was a bit much...

I walked up the mountain, my head aching. Little did I know, something was following behind me. I didn't notice it at all; it was as if, for that moment, my senses as a village guardian had failed me.

By the time I entered Qingqiu Mountain, my pace had quickened. The sky was gradually darkening, and I’d be lucky to finish one thing before nightfall. I couldn't help but curse the female corpse under my breath for not telling me sooner. She was clearly making things difficult for me, just because she didn't want to break off the engagement. But then, on second thought, she was so powerful—what could she possibly want from someone like me? I couldn't help but berate myself for being shameless.

When I reached the mountainside, I suddenly stopped in my tracks. Er Pang walked straight into me. He then asked, "What's wrong, Tiangang? Why did you stop?"

I stared blankly at what was in front of me, scratching my head in disbelief. Why was the hot spring pond gone? This was the place where I used to peek at Old Lady Er’s daughter bathing. Now, there was no mist, just a shallow, foul-smelling ditch—or not even a ditch, just a few small mud pits filled with rainwater that hadn't evaporated from the recent storm.

I asked, "Where did the pond go?"

Er Pang looked ahead, puzzled. "What pond? Our village has been in a drought for years. A pond? The water in there is only there because of that rare, heavy rain we had a while back. How could we have a pond here?"

Hearing this, I was even more confused. I had seen it clearly before. Could it be that Old Lady Er’s daughter had cast a glamour on me? Dead bodies certainly didn't have that ability. Could it be that she was different from the others, that she had become a ghost? But I clearly remembered her skin feeling cold; she was tangible.

"Tiangang, what’s wrong with you? Aren't you in a hurry? Why are you just standing there?"

Er Pang's words jolted me back to reality. There were too many mysteries here; there seemed to be many clues, but they wouldn't connect. I had to focus on the task at hand. Nothing was more important than the female corpse waking up!

Er Pang and I quickened our pace again. We didn't run into Old Lady Er’s family on the way; it seemed they really had been taken care of by that large white rat.

Half an hour later, Er Pang and I stood before the graves of Old Lady Er’s family.

"Old Lady Er is dead?!" Er Pang was stunned, then looked at me.

I couldn't explain it. I quickly recalled what the female corpse had said. The coffin fungus was in the ancestral grave of Old Lady Er's family, but this was a new grave—a new grave for her whole family. I needed to find their actual ancestral tomb. This was a job for a feng shui master; finding an ancestral grave was child's play for them. But the knowledge I had gathered over the years was mostly about fortune-telling; I only had a superficial understanding of this.

I tried to walk ahead a few steps. Usually, it wasn't that hard to find a commoner's ancestral grave; it was typically the first one above the others. But Old Lady Er’s plot was on the edge, and it was well-maintained, with walls built on both sides and a small stone enclosure. That was even more wrong. The whole family was gone, yet someone was still maintaining the cemetery so well.

I climbed upward, using my hands for support. Further up, the graves looked more ordinary. Old Lady Er’s husband was named Liu Deshui, a very honest man in the village who was henpecked because his wife was a shrew. He did whatever she said. According to local custom, no matter how strong-willed a woman was, she eventually ended up in the husband's ancestral grave. So, this whole area was the Liu family’s burial ground.

The head I had seen when I came down the mountain earlier—though it was disgusting—wasn't hard to identify as the husband's. The grave slightly further up belonged to Liu Deshui’s older brother. The Liu family had two sons and one daughter. The daughter had married into the city and, to help her brother, had taken her niece to the city to study. That must have been the girl I had met earlier.

Liu Deshui’s brother, Liu Dewang, had a bad temper and often fought with villagers. Later, he had an affair in a field and died unexpectedly on top of the woman. I had been the first one to go to the Liu house when the news of his death came. So, Liu Deshui was the last of the Liu line, and now he too was gone, leaving not even a corpse behind...

I sighed helplessly and climbed further. Qingqiu Mountain, as the name implies, is a mountain range, so burials are arranged from top to bottom by seniority. The higher up, the greater the seniority. Finding the first person of the Liu family buried here should lead me to the ancestral grave the mysterious female corpse mentioned.

Sure enough, further up was the grave of the old Liu patriarch. He had two wives; it was said that the Liu family were once landlords and very wealthy, but after the reforms, their land was redistributed, and the family declined. Now it seemed the village rumors were true—otherwise, who could afford to marry two wives?

I kept climbing. Because of the heavy rain, the mud on the mountain was still slippery, especially where there was grass. I almost fell several times, so my progress was slow. When I passed the three Liu family graves again, I finally reached the very first one. There was nothing further up.

I squinted to look. It was a very old stone, its surface relatively flat but weathered by the elements, leaving behind many tiny holes and the marks of time. Even so, the inscription was still clear, written in small seal script. It clearly wasn't a modern tombstone or a modern grave. Fortunately, because I had studied ancient texts, I could still read it.

It was engraved with a few large characters: "The Tomb of Magistrate Liu Xianguang!"

There was also a small line of signatures. The large characters were clear, but the small ones were faded. I leaned closer to the stone tablet and finally managed to make them out: "—Presented by the common people."

Good heavens, an ancestor of the Liu family had been a magistrate! No wonder the female corpse said it was here. This had to be the place!

Just as I was feeling a wave of excitement, I felt something drip onto the top of my head while I was pressed against the tombstone...