Chapter 133: Throwing a corpse to ask for directions
Chapter 133: Throwing a corpse to ask for directions
March 2018, 07, early morning.
Fine raindrops as fine as cow hair fell from the sky, soaking the soil turned up by the plow and making it moist and soft. An old cow was tied with a hemp rope under a willow tree on the river bank, chewing the tender reed stems that it regurgitated from its stomach.
Two or three people walked along the path along the river with umbrellas in hand. The round raindrops on the green grass slid down along the unique veins of the Poaceae plants, wetting the trouser legs of the pedestrians.
Wisps of green smoke rose from the shore not far away, like a woman's needle and thread sewing the damp sky and earth together, and even the wind became quiet. White square tombstones half a person's height stood in the misty rain, and the soft rain covered the white cemetery with a layer of hazy gauze, rustling, rustling.
The fair-skinned boy, wearing a pure black tweed cloak and carrying a shovel, walked leisurely along the straight road between rows of tombstones. Sheets of yellow paper burned into ashes under the tombstones on both sides of the road, and then melted into mud at his feet by the rain.
The Qinzhou Prefecture's decree to ban burials has been in effect for many years, and remote areas like Gubei Town have also built cemeteries to house urns. Out of considerations for humanity, old tombs where people have been buried in the past will not be forcibly dug up, but newly deceased people can only choose to be cremated.
Although the deceased has turned to ashes, the people in the town still retain the custom of burning yellow paper to commemorate the dead after burial was banned. The withered yellow paper flutters and curls in the white cemetery, and finally turns into pale ashes.
"Ning Xunhuan...Xie Tian...Li Zimu..."
Ning Zhe whispered the names on the tombstones, as if he was looking for something. Fine raindrops fell on his body and condensed into strings of tiny dewdrops.
Soon, his footsteps stopped, and strings of raindrops slid down his cloak and fell, and he found it.
"...Tian Chengyun."
Ning Zhe stopped in front of the newly erected tombstone with the name "Tian Chengyun" engraved on it, squatted down, and looked at the photo in the center of the tombstone for a moment, confirming the identity of the tomb owner.
After returning to his hometown by flight as Zhang Yangxu, the first thing Ning Zhe did was to go to the cemetery by Taojiang River and find Tian Chengyun's tombstone, but he was not there to pay tribute to the dead.
He has something to ask Tian Chengyun.
With Taiyi's ability, Ning Zhe obtained two memories, recording two versions of the cause of death of Tian Chengyun.
One is Yu Ziqian’s memory.
In Yu Ziqian's memory, he used the rules of Ye Yao to kill Tian Chengyun with his own hands. It was a direct beheading without any delay, and Tian Chengyun died on the spot. After realizing that the special agent was not with Tian Chengyun, Yu Ziqian left immediately and turned to hunt down other survivors of the Bishuiwan Manor incident.
The second is the memory of Tian Zaixu, who is Tian Chengyun’s biological brother.
In Tian Zaixu's memory, Tian Chengyun died of suicide. He suffered a huge mental shock in the power failure accident in Bishuiwan Manor and had some delusional and manic tendencies. The doctor prescribed some sedatives for him to assist his recovery.
However, Tian Chengyun, who was emotionally unstable, swallowed a whole plate of pills at once. The overdose of sedatives made him fall into a low depression, which led to his suicide.
Tian Chengyun committed suicide in front of his brother and sister-in-law. Tian Zaixu and his wife witnessed him stabbing a fruit knife into his throat, and the warm arterial blood spurted all over the coffee table like a fountain.
In Yu Ziqian's memory, he killed Tian Chengyun with his own hands.
In Tian Zaixu's memory, he saw Tian Chengyun commit suicide in front of him with his own eyes.
Both memories were so real, and both causes of death were witnessed by one's own eyes, but generally speaking, the same person would not die in two different ways. This means that one of Yu Ziqian and Tian Chengyun's memories was false.
So whose memory is false? Is it Yu Ziqian? Or Tian Zaixu? What was the cause of Tian Chengyun's death?
The confusing truth is hidden behind the obscure puzzle, but Ning Zhe has a more convenient way to bypass the tedious investigation and reasoning process and directly approach the original appearance of the matter.
If you want to know how Tian Chengyun died...why not ask Tian Chengyun himself?
Ning Zhe half-knelt in front of the tombstone, reached into his cloak, and touched the life-saving money in the inside pocket.
Ning Zhe currently holds 7 copper coins
宁哲原本有36枚铜钱，那是兰仕文在季伯尝的葬礼上交给他的，进入羊牢村后宁哲花费了2+4+16=22枚铜钱买命回到现实，冯玉漱则花费了1+2+4=7枚铜钱。带着殷离伤从羊牢村中出来后，宁哲身上还剩下7枚铜钱。
"It's a little less, but it's enough to buy Tian Chengyun's life." Ning Zhe took out a copper coin from his pocket and stood up in front of the tombstone.
Walking to the back of the tombstone, Ning Zhe held the shovel with both hands and thrust it downwards into the gap between the two stone slabs - there was no traditional loess mound in the Gubei Town Cemetery. The urn was directly pressed under the tombstone, and the ground around it was sealed with stone bricks and stone slabs.
Ning Zhe pried open the stone slab and dug up the covering soil. It didn't take him long to dig out a square black lacquered wooden box from under the tombstone, which exuded the scent of camphor.
People in Qinzhou like to use camphor wood to make coffins, and Tian Chengyun's ashes were also placed in a camphor wood box.
Ning Zhe placed the shovel against the tombstone, brushed off the loose dirt on the wooden box, held Tian Chengyun's urn in one hand and a copper coin in the other, and stood up.
The inverted copper coin with a square outside and a round inside was held in the middle by the young man's white and slender knuckles. Dense raindrops fell one after another. Ning Zhe's face under the cloak changed quietly. He would buy Tian Chengyun's life in the identity of security guard Lao Li.
Ding----
It was the sound of coins falling to the ground.
“Please ask the God of Wealth to show up.”
A burnt sound came from the middle-aged man's throat. As Lao Li's voice fell in the rain, a figure as ethereal as smoke and chaotic as ink quietly emerged from the rain.
The old man had a skinny body and no head on his shoulders. He held a purse in one hand and a head in the other. His thin Confucian robe was open at the chest, revealing a striking lightning-struck wood tattoo on his chest.
These are one of the three immortals enshrined in Juxian Garden, the Emperor Wenchang who enjoys eternal blessings, and the God of Wealth Wutong.
Ning Zhe looked down at the God of Wealth's white eyes and placed a copper coin on the urn: "I will buy his life."
——It was the first time that Lao Li met Wutong. The price of a new customer’s life was 1 copper coin.
The God of Wealth stood there, motionless.
Ning Zhe frowned. Not enough money? No... it couldn't be not enough. He had never used Lao Li's identity to make a deal with the God of Wealth. The price of a new customer's life was undoubtedly 1 copper coin...
But to be on the safe side, Ning Zhe took out another copper coin and placed the two coins together on the urn.
"I'm buying this man's life," he said.
The God of Wealth stood there, motionless.
Ning Zhe hissed softly, somewhat puzzled. A man and a ghost stood face to face in front of the tombstone. The scholar's robe on the God of Wealth was soaked by the rain. The thin cloth stuck to his skin, outlining his horrible skinny figure. The head held in his hand was also shaken slightly by the wind.
Drip, drip, rancid blood dripped from the cross section of the God of Wealth's neck.
Ning Zhe thought for a moment, placed the urn upright on the ground, picked up the shovel and stabbed it downwards, forcibly prying open the camphorwood box that had been nailed shut with bamboo nails. With two clangs, the bottom and lid of the box fell onto the stone slab, making the crisp sound of hardwood colliding with stone.
The sound of the box opening was very crisp and not dull at all.
Tian Chengyun's urn is empty.
(End of this chapter)