Phantom Skeleton Painting

Chapter 20.2 The Banquet of Death

It was a dreamless night, and the next day, it was still raining heavily.

When he woke up in the morning, Song Qingluo beside him had disappeared. Lin Banxia quickly changed his clothes and went to the main room in front. Sure enough, Song Qingluo was sitting in the corner of the main room having breakfast. He saw him waking up and said hello to him.

“Did you buy it?” Lin Banxia took a biscuit and gnawed it with relish.

“Yeah.” Song Qingluo said, “I just asked the village chief where the dead people were kept. He said it was in the wasteland at the east end of the village. Let us be careful when passing by and try not to run into the villagers.”

Lin Banxia said: “What is the structure of this village?”

Song Qingluo said: “I don’t know, I will have to go look around a bit.”

While the two were talking, He Huaian and Mou Xinsi also came. There were bruises under their eyes. They looked like they didn’t sleep well. When they saw the dry biscuits, they had no intention of eating them but reluctantly ate two mouthfuls.

“You go and find out the general terrain of the village. He and I will go to the cemetery in the east.” Song Qingluo gave them a task, “Try to avoid people. The village chief said that it is raining heavily outside right now, so the villagers should not go out.”

“Okay.” He Huaian responded.

Mou Xinsi also nodded.

“How did you sleep last night?” Song Qingluo asked.

“Not bad.” He Huaian replied with a wry smile.

“I always felt like there’s something outside the window.” Mou Xinsi whispered, “It’s been running around…”

Song Qingluo looked at He Huaian: “Did you hear it?”

He Huaian shook his head.

Song Qingluo said: “Even if you didn’t hear it, please pay attention. When you go to the village later, you must put your safety as your first priority. If you notice something is wrong, run away quickly. Do you understand?”

He Huaian and Mou Xinsi said yes in unison.

Lin Banxia stood by and ate the biscuits with gusto but seeing that none of the three of them had eaten, he felt a little embarrassed. He filled his mouth with the last piece and said vaguely: “Okay, let’s go.”

Song Qingluo put on his raincoat and boots and brought an umbrella, and then he and Lin Banxia went out. The two teams headed in opposite directions with He Huaian and Mou Xinsi heading west, and Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia heading east.

The rain was heavy, and there was no one on the road in the village. As they walked further, the surrounding buildings became sparse, and the road under their feet gradually became dilapidated.

Halfway through, Lin Banxia, ​​who was immersed in walking, was suddenly pulled by Song Qingluo. He was stunned, turned to look at Song Qingluo, and said, “What?”

Song Qingluo said, “Did you hear anything?”

Lin Banxia frowned: “What sound?”

Song Qingluo raised his index finger and made a shushing gesture.

Lin Banxia stopped talking and listened attentively. Sure enough, in the sound of rain, he heard the faint sound of music. Among the sounds of music, the most ear-catching thing was the harsh sound of the suona, accompanied by the sound of gongs and drums, playing a sad and solemn music. The sound of music was getting closer and closer, right behind them.

Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia looked at each other, and in tacit agreement, they found a place to hide in the bushes nearby.

About a minute or two later, a dozen people appeared in front of them, all dressed in white mourning clothes. A few people in the front were playing mourning music, and a dozen people in the back were carrying the coffin. Lin Banxia initially thought this was just an ordinary burial procession, but he soon realized that this procession was unusual because there were too many coffins.

One, two, three coffins, big and small, in different colors. The figures in white clothes were blurry in the rain, holding the coffins that looked particularly heavy firmly on their shoulders. Carrying coffins one after another, they walked slowly past Lin Banxia.

The sound of mourning gradually faded away, but the procession carrying the coffin seemed to have no end.

Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo stood hidden behind the tree, watching this weird scene.

They didn’t know how long they waited, but they finally arrived at the last coffin. The coffin was black and was carried by a few thin young people. They braved the rain and stepped on the muddy path, carefully walking forward step by step. Just when they were about to pass by Lin Banxia, ​​an accident happened suddenly.

The young man walking at the front seemed to have tripped over something and fell to the ground. The people behind him had no time to react. The heavy coffin instantly lost its center of gravity and hit him hard on his waist. The coffin was extremely heavy, directly smashing the man’s waist into the ground, the young man screamed, and a large mouthful of blood began to overflow from his mouth, and in an instant, he was about to breathe his last.

The others didn’t care about anything else as they shouted and dragged the coffin from the young man. Unexpectedly, the lid of the coffin was not tightly closed, and it fell off of the coffin after being lifted by the group of people. The moment the coffin lid fell off, a round object rolled gurglingly not far from Lin Banxia. Before he could react, he felt Song Qingluo behind him cover his mouth with a cold hand.

“Don’t scream.” Song Qingluo said softly. After he said this, he realized that Lin Banxia was different from ordinary people, so he relaxed and whispered helplessly, “Sorry, I’m used to it.”

Lin Banxia blinked and said it didn’t matter. He lowered his eyes and saw the whole thing clearly. It was actually a person’s head. He didn’t know how long he had been dead. It was rotten to the point of being unrecognizable. His protruding eyes were pale and lifeless. Staring intently in Lin Banxia’s direction.

There was a roar in the crowd, and people finally moved the coffin and saw the young man’s lower body. There was a moment of silence in the crowd, followed by people crying: “Gone again, gone again!!”

Although he was far away, Lin Banxia still saw the tragic situation of the young man. His waist and lower body were actually smashed in half by the coffin. His upper body was vomiting blood, and his lower body was still struggling and twisting. The scene was extremely terrifying for a moment, but the crowd only made noise for a moment before returning to calm.

The people seemed to be numb and began to clean up the scene quickly. The person who came to find the head was a young girl in mourning clothes. She numbly picked up the rotting head on the ground and did not forget to wipe the mud on it.

“Ruonan, come back quickly.” Someone in the crowd waved to the girl.

The girl hummed, then carefully returned with the head in her arms, and put it back into the coffin. That skilled movement seemed to have experienced this kind of thing thousands of times, and that calm look made people feel inexplicably uneasy.

The author has something to say:

Lin Banxia: Why are you covering my mouth?

Song Qingluo: I’m afraid you’ll scream.

Lin Banxia: There is no way I can scream.

Song Qingluo: Really?

Lin Banxia: Really…ahhhhh, don’t take my money, please ahhhhh!!!

Song Qingluo: Isn’t that a nice call?

Lin Banxia: QAQ are you a devil???

Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia are both monitors, and their two partners are the recorders. To explain, the monitors handle things, and the recorders cooperate and record. This is easy to understand~

Hahahaha As for why Song Qingluo is also poor, I will explain it later!

 

Translator’s comments:

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