Chapter 22 The Banquet of Death
“Ah!!” Mou Xinsi screamed in horror. She didn’t care about anything else. She grabbed her clothes and staggered outside. Before she could reach the door, she felt herself step on something. She suddenly slipped and fell heavily to the ground.
Fortunately, she was holding soft clothes in her hands and did not fall on her head, but she still heard a crisp crack from her ankle.
“Ah!!!” Mou Xinsi screamed in pain.
“Mou Xinsi, are you okay??” He Huaian, who was standing guard outside, heard Mou Xinsi’s screams and asked anxiously, “What’s wrong with you?”
“Hair… hair…” Mou Xinsi screamed.
“What hair? Can I come in?” He Huaian asked anxiously.
“No, no, I’m not wearing any clothes.” Mou Xinsi was dying, but she still wanted to save face, “Just wait, I’ll come out later…” She turned over with difficulty and looked at the ceiling above her head. It was completely empty; with no trace of the horrific scene she had just seen.
Her ankle seemed to be sprained. Mou Xinsi put on her clothes with difficulty and limped out.
He Huaian saw Mou Xinsi’s embarrassed expression and quickly asked her what happened.
“I seem to have seen something strange.” Mou Xinsi said vaguely.
He Huaian said: “What?”
“Maybe I saw it wrong.” Mou Xinsi shook her head.
He Huaian wanted to ask again, but Mou Xinsi ignored him, turned around and staggered towards the house. He Huaian looked at her back with worry.
Lin Banxia, who was sitting in the main room, waited for Song Qingluo, who had returned late, and then told him about what happened in the yard today.
After hearing this, Song Qingluo went to check the coffin, including the dead people in the coffin, and finally came to an unpleasant conclusion. These people in the coffin had most likely been starved to death. Inside, he found a few light teeth marks on the side of the coffin. He thought that they were so hungry that they tried to take a bite.
They did not dare to tell the village chief about this conclusion. After all, the village chief was not in a good mental state now and hey knew that this matter would be harmful rather than helpful.
Because of what happened today, no one was interested in having dinner, so only Lin Banxia, Song Qingluo and He Huaian appeared at the table. Song Qingluo asked where Mou Xinsi was, and He Huaian said that she accidentally hurt her foot while taking a shower and was now resting in bed.
“What happened?” Song Qingluo asked, “Why did she twist her foot suddenly?”
“I don’t know, she seems to be in a bad mental state.” He Huaian said, “Maybe she is sick.”
Song Qingluo frowned slightly: “Pay more attention to her.”
He Huaian nodded.
After dinner and a simple wash, Lin Banxia went to bed. The structure of this room was actually somewhat similar to his previous bedroom. There was a tall wardrobe next to the bed. Half of the wardrobe doors could not be closed, so he opened it so that there was a gap. Lin Banxia should have been a little sleepy, but he tossed and turned and couldn’t sleep.
Song Qingluo lay next to him and asked him softly what was wrong.
“The closet is dark.” Lin Banxia said, “It’s a bit uncomfortable to look at. It’s like… I’ve seen this scene before.”
Song Qingluo: “…”
Lin Banxia: “Why do you have such an expression?”
Song Qingluo said: “I was just thinking.”
Lin Banxia: “What are you thinking about?”
Song Qingluo: “Do you want me to tell you where you saw it?”
Lin Banxia thought for a while and said, “It’s better not to tell me. What if I get even more scared when I think about it.” He got up and used a stool to press the gap in the cabinet. Then he felt better. After lying back on the bed, he didn’t feel anything. After a while, the sound of even breathing came.
Song Qingluo thought. He was going to irritate his housemate to death. It tried so hard to scare him so many times, but when he reacted, he happened to not be at home. Thinking about it carefully, it was really sad.
***
As night fell, the village became quiet.
Lin Banxia, who fell into a deep sleep, was awakened by a burst of noise. He opened his eyes dimly and found lights flashing outside, accompanied by the noise of people. He looked at the time. It was only two o’clock in the morning, still long before dawn. Song Qingluo beside him had disappeared. Perhaps he was woken up earlier than him and had already gone outside.
With this in mind, Lin Banxia put on a coat and planned to go see what was going on outside. As soon as he walked to the door, he saw Song Qingluo pushing the door open and entering.
“What’s wrong?” Lin Banxia asked vaguely.
“It’s okay. The village chief had a conflict with his relatives, and they were quarreling outside.” Song Qingluo said, “Let’s not go out. It’s not good if they see us.”
Lin Banxia listened to the fierce quarrel and said hesitantly: “It’s so noisy, will something happen?”
Song Qingluo said: “The village chief said nothing happened.”
“Okay then.” Lin Banxia lay back on the bed again.
He Huaian and Mou Xinsi, who were sleeping next door to them, were also woken up by the quarrel. He Huaian woke up slowly. When he was debating whether to go out and take a look, the sounds outside had stopped. He looked vaguely at Mou Xinsi, who was sleeping in the bed next to him, and found that she was curled up into a ball. He asked in a low voice: “Xiao Xinsi, are you okay?”
“It’s okay.” Mou Xinsi responded vaguely.
Hearing her voice, He Huaian felt much more at ease, closed his eyes and fell asleep again.
Mou Xinsi couldn’t fall asleep. She had been half asleep for the first half of the night. She finally squinted for a while, but the noise made her sleepy again. Her body was already extremely sleepy, but her nerves were tightly stretched, and countless bizarre images were flashing in her mind, making it impossible for her to fall asleep.
The piercing noise made her feel a violent emotion rising deep in her heart. She forced herself to bury her head in the quilt, trying to resist the annoying sound.
She didn’t know how long the noise lasted, but the noise outside finally stopped, and the lights in the entire yard dimmed, lurking in the deep night again.
Mou Xinsi closed her eyes and forced herself to fall asleep.
However, before she fell asleep, her ears caught a strange noise… click… click, someone was knocking gently on their door. The sound was too small, too weak, and it reminded her of the coffin that was knocked on during the day.
“Is…who is outside?” Mou Xinsi asked in a trembling voice, raising her voice.
No response.
Tap…tap…tap…the sound continued, one after another, as if hitting Mou Xinsi’s already fragile nerves.
“Who is it? Can you please stop playing pranks!” Mou Xinsi finally couldn’t stand the torture of this noise anymore. She sat up from the bed with a shudder, bit her bloodless lips, and walked to the door. The door to their room was the most common wooden door in the village. It was not very strong, and there was even a gap where it meets the door frame, so the scene outside the door could be seen. When she checked in yesterday, Mou Xinsi was still complaining about the air leaking through the crack in the door. Unexpectedly, today, the crack in the door made her feel grateful. At least, she could look outside through the crack.
After the noise just now, the yard had returned to darkness and silence. There was no rain tonight, but there was wind. The wind blew through the crack in the door and blew on Mou Xinsi’s cheek. She felt a little cold, so she gently hugged her chest with her arms. She could barely see what was going on outside through the narrow crack in the door. No one was standing outside her door, but the sound clearly came from the door panel.
An unsettling feeling made Mou Xinsi look away. A thin layer of sweat appeared on her skin. Although she saw nothing, she felt an indescribable fear, just like in the dark. There was an unbearable answer waiting for her to reveal, as long as she looked, the ending would be madness.
The sound continued, but Mou Xinsi had no intention of exploring it. With a dull expression, she slowly returned to the bed, wrapped herself in the quilt with all her strength, and stared silently at the wooden door that was still making the sound.
Time seemed to have frozen.
The faint knocking sound was like a sharp knife cutting into Mou Xinsi’s skin, cutting open her skull, along her spine, and to her coccyx. She even had a weird illusion, that the space around her began to distort, and all the sounds she heard were separated by a thick membrane.
When would dawn come? Would it still come? Mou Xinsi opened her eyes and waited desperately.
He Huaian slept peacefully until dawn. His alarm clock rang at 6:30 in the morning, and the familiar music woke him up from his dream. He opened his eyes, yawned lazily, and slowly climbed out of bed as usual.
However, when his eyes touched the other bed in the room, he was startled by the person on the bed. He Huaian took a closer look and found that it was Mou Xinsi sitting on the bed, wrapped in a quilt, her face had no expression and was pale. At first glance, she looked like a doll made of plaster.
Mou Xinsi’s appearance frightened He Huaian. He hesitated and said: “Xiao Xinsi… are you okay?”
After hearing his voice, Mou Xinsi turned to look at him expressionlessly.
He Huaian was a little frightened by Mou Xinsi’s look, and he said tremblingly: “Xiao Xinsi, what’s wrong with you?”
Mou Xin thought: “Did you hear the sound?” Her voice did not rise or fall at all, which made He Huaian feel uncomfortable. He tentatively asked, “What sound?”
“Someone was knocking on the door.” Mou Xinsi said, “Someone was knocking on the door.”
He Huaian forced a smile and said, “Oh… did they?” He heard nothing.
“Yes, listen.” Mou Xinsi grinned with a creepy smile. She raised her finger and made a shushing gesture, “Listen, they’ve been knocking all night, and they’re still knocking…”
He Huaian realized that something was wrong with Mou Xinsi. He quickly put on his clothes and asked Mou Xinsi to go out with him to meet Song Qingluo, but Mou Xinsi refused to move. She shook her head and stubbornly said that the things outside the door were still there. It was still knocking on the door. She didn’t want to go out because she was afraid.
In desperation, He Huaian decided to go out and call Song Qingluo and the others over. He walked to the door in a panic, opened the wooden door, and was about to take a step forward, but suddenly stopped.
A pair of dangling feet appeared in front of He Huaian’s eyes, swaying slightly in the morning wind. He raised his head and saw the face of the owner of the feet hanging from the cantilever, which had turned purple and hideous.
Someone had died.
He hung on the cantilever outside the house, and his feet were blown by the breeze, and hit the fragile door again and again. This was the knocking on the door that Mou Xinsi had listened to all night. He Huaian was caught off guard by the corpse that suddenly appeared in front of him. He took several steps back and fell directly to the ground. His face was white as a sheet. He looked at the corpse at the door, and then at Mou Xinsi, whose eyes were expressionless. He felt a chill running down his back and into his head.
“Look, look, it’s him knocking on the door.” Mou Xinsi, who was silent at first, laughed loudly. She clapped her hands and said in a cheerful voice, “There was really someone outside the door. I’m not hallucinating. No, I’m not crazy!!”
He Huaian didn’t say anything for a long time. He sat on the ground for a while, until his whole body was almost chilled by the wind, then he staggered to his feet and whispered: “Xiao Xinsi, wait here… I’ll call Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia.
Mou Xinsi said nothing and continued to laugh.
He Huaian ran out of the house in embarrassment, with a look of panic on his face, and found Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia who had just gotten up. Lin Banxia had just put on his clothes when he saw He Huaian rushing in disheveled, with frightened eyes and saying: “It’s not good, Mr. Song, something happened.”
Song Qingluo said: “What’s wrong?”
“Someone has been hung at our door!” He Huaian managed to calm down. He had actually seen many dead people, but what frightened him the most was not the hanging man, but Mou Xinsi’s state. He said, “Mou Xinsi’s situation is not quite right either. I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
Song Qingluo said: “Let’s go over and have a look.”
The group of people returned to He Huaian’s residence. The body was still hanging at their door, swaying gently in the wind from time to time. At first glance, it looked as if the person was still alive. As a person who has collected corpses for a long time, Lin Banxia knew that hanging was not a comfortable way to die. Usually, people who are hanged would experience extremely painful suffocation for several minutes. After death, their eyes would bulge and their tongues would extend, which was very hideous. The appearance of the man in front of him completely fit the characteristics of hanging.
“Let’s take down the body first.” Song Qingluo said.
“Okay.” He Huaian nodded.
“Mou Xinsi, are you okay?” Lin Banxia entered the room and saw Mou Xinsi huddled on the bed, wrapping her body in a thick quilt. When she heard Lin Banxia’s question, she just raised her eyes and spat out a vague sentence: “I’m okay.”
Song Qingluo also entered the room. When he saw Mou Xinsi’s appearance, he said nothing and slowly stretched out his hand in front of Mou Xinsi. In his hand, there were two dice, one black and one white. The intention is very obvious.
“No, I don’t want to!” Mou Xinsi, who had no energy at all, seemed to be frightened when she saw the two dice, and stepped back suddenly, “Mr. Song, I’m not crazy. I don’t need to test my inspiration.”
Song Qingluo said softly: “Don’t be afraid.”
“I don’t want to, I’m not crazy, I’m fine…” Mou Xinsi burst into tears and refused to roll the dice, as if the thing in Song Qingluo’s hand was not dice, but a murderous weapon.
Song Qingluo was silent for a moment and said, “You don’t want to die here.”
Mou Xinsi suddenly stopped.
Song Qingluo said: “Come on.”
Mou Xinsi stretched out her trembling hand, pinched the two dice, and then gently threw the two dice on the bed while crying. The dice spins and settles on 9 points for black and 8 for white, 89 points.
Even if Lin Banxia didn’t know clearly, he also knew that this value was very high, but Mou Xinsi laughed and said: “Look, Mr. Song, I’m not crazy, I’m fine, I’m not crazy. ”
Song Qingluo took back the dice, and his next words were to He Huaian: “Send her out of the village before noon today.”
He Huaian said: “Is this… so urgent?”
“Look at her current state.” Song Qingluo said coldly, “Can she survive tonight?”
He Huaian couldn’t refute.
“Let’s go, Banxia, come check the body with me.” Song Qingluo ignored the two of them and called Lin Banxia out of the house.
The two of them did a simple inspection of the body at the door. However, no matter how you looked at it, the man seemed to have committed suicide. There were no traces of external intervention on his body. Lin Banxia said: “Do you want to inform the village chief? This man is from the village so the chief should know him.”
Song Qingluo said: “I’ll go find him.”
He went out for a while and came back soon. He said that the village chief was not at home. He might have gone out in the middle of the night yesterday and had not come back yet.
Lin Banxia said worriedly: “What should we do now? Just leave him here?”
“Carry the body to the main room.” Song Qingluo looked at his watch, “Let’s have breakfast first, and then we’ll talk about the rest.”
So, the two of them went to have breakfast calmly. Of course, they also asked He Huaian and Mou Xinsi if they wanted to eat before eating. Both of them obviously had little appetite. After Mou Xinsi learned that she was going to be sent away, she became quiet. She didn’t smile or speak. She just huddled on the bed in silence, and it was unknown what she was thinking.
He Huaian was also a little hungry, but he was worried about Mou Xinsi and did not dare to leave her alone, so he said he would eat later.
Breakfast was simple compressed biscuits with mineral water. There was not much food, so they could only save on eating. Song Qingluo had a poor appetite, so he only took two bites and then stopped. Lin Banxia was afraid that there wouldn’t be enough left, so he didn’t dare to eat more either. He reluctantly took a few bites, and after eating till he was half full, he asked Song Qingluo what to do next.
“Go and have a look at the stream.” Song Qingluo said, “I went out yesterday afternoon and met the girl we saw in the funeral procession that day.”
Lin Banxia said: “The one holding the head?”
“Yes.” Song Qingluo said, “She told me the specific place where my former colleague died. I want to see it.”
Lin Banxia said: “I will go with you.”
“Okay.” Song Qingluo agreed.
Before the two went out, they visited He Huaian and Mou Xinsi again. Compared with before, Mou Xinsi’s condition was a little better and she began to try to get out of bed and move around. He Huaian was sitting next to her with his head down and taking notes. If the body at the door hadn’t just been disposed of, the atmosphere would have seemed really harmonious.
“Go ahead and pay attention to safety.” He Huaian said, “I will send her away when it gets brighter, but it looks like it’s going to rain soon. Remember to bring rain gear.”
“Okay.” Song Qingluo said, “When you send her back, there’s no need to rush back. Safety first.”
He Huaian nodded and watched the two people leave. At this time, the sky outside the window became gloomy again. It was already morning, but people could not feel the arrival of dawn. The howling wind blew the leaves and blew against the fragile window. He Huaian glanced at the quiet Mou Xinsi, stood up and closed the door.
***
Song Qingluo put on his raincoat in advance before going out with Lin Banxia.
On the way to the creek, Lin Banxia casually asked about the dice and how to determine the value of the dice.
“As mentioned before, the dice refers to the degree of mental pollution, so 1-6 means an excellent mental state, and 96-100 means a dangerous value on the verge of collapse. As long as the number exceeds 96, it means that the person’s mental state is extremely low. Collapse is not far away. In this state, it is very likely to have various hallucinations and do extreme things.” Song Qingluo explained nonchalantly, “Besides, there are other things that are doing harm to people now. The impact… If Mou Xinsi is in that state, and she stays here any longer, her mental level may exceed the dangerous level tonight.”
Lin Banxia snorted and asked, “Why don’t I need to use the dice?”
Song Qingluo said calmly: “Because I don’t want your mentally retarded identity to be exposed to others.”
Lin Banxia: “…”
Song Qingluo: “Just kidding.”
Lin Banxia twitched the corners of his mouth and laughed in response.
As they were talking, the two of them had already arrived at the stream and saw the stream that the villagers were talking about. No, it was more like a river than a stream, with turbulent water rushing down towards the depths of the valley. This seemed to be a mountain spring flowing out of the deep mountains, but because of the abundant rain recently, the amount of water had increased significantly.
Song Qingluo walked to some bare stones and said, “Hao Yongnian drowned here before.”
Lin Banxia looked at it and said: “The water is not deep; how could he drown?”
While the two were talking, footsteps came from the side. Song Qingluo motioned at Lin Banxia, and the two hid in the woods beside them in tacit agreement.
After a while, a little girl carrying a pole appeared on the path in the forest. The girl was young and thin, but she was carrying two huge water jugs. She walked skillfully to the side of the stream and walked slowly and steadily, filling the two pitchers with stream water.
“Hey, it’s her again.” Lin Banxia whispered, “We are really destined.”
“Yes.” Song Qingluo said.
“Want to go out and say hello to her?” Lin Banxia asked.
Song Qingluo thought for a moment and nodded: “That’s right, I have something else to ask her.”
After saying that, the two of them came out of the bushes. The little girl was lowering her head to get water. When she heard the movement behind her, she turned around and saw the two men. She was startled and almost screamed.
“Hello.” Song Qingluo said softly, “I saw you yesterday afternoon.”
The little girl took a closer look: “Oh… it’s you.” When she saw Song Qingluo, her cheeks turned slightly red, and she gently pushed her hair behind her ears with her hands, “Why did you come to the stream?”
Song Qingluo didn’t answer but asked: “Didn’t people die here? Are you still here to get water?”
“There’s nothing we can do about it,” the little girl said. “This is the only water source in the village. It’s not possible to not drink the water here.”
Song Qingluo said: “My name is Song Qingluo. This is my friend Lin Banxia. What is your name?”
The little girl said: “I…my name is Jiang Ruonan.” She glanced at Lin Banxia, ”Aren’t you and your friends…going to leave? You really can’t stay in this village any longer.”
Lin Banxia said: “Do you know anything?”
Jiang Ruonan didn’t say a word, but her hesitant look gave Lin Banxia the answer. Lin Banxia saw this situation and said hurriedly: “We have no ill intentions; we just want to help the village solve the problem. If you know anything you can say, please tell us. What if those little things can provide us with clues?”
Jiang Ruonan was still hesitant, Song Qingluo said softly: “Forget it, Banxia, she doesn’t want to say, don’t force her, she is just a little girl…”
Lin Banxia was stunned when he heard the words. He was thinking that these words were not Song Qingluo’s cold style, but then he heard Jiang Ruonan’s weak voice speak. She said, “I did… see something.” She picked at her fingers, and her voice became lower and lower, “I saw your companions drown in the creek with my own eyes.”
The author has something to say:
Lin Banxia: How can I prevent others from discovering my special identity of being mentally retarded?
Song Qingluo: Are you pretending to be scared?
Lin Banxia: Oops, ouch, what is this? Oooooh! I’m so scared, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh.
Song Qingluo:……
Lin Banxia: Why don’t you look good?
Song Qingluo: Actually, it’s quite good that you are a bit mentally retarded.
Lin Banxia:……
Fix a bug, there is no 0 in the dice, only 1-100
Translator’s comments:
Hey guys, I’m the translator for this novel. If you have any questions or thoughts feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to answer everything. If you notice any inconsistencies or errors, drop a comment and I will fix it. Thanks so much for reading Phantom Skeleton Painting, I hope that everyone enjoys the novel. If you are interested in fluffy BL novels, consider giving the other novels that I am translating a try. They are ‘I’m Really a Dragon’ and ‘The Leader’s Warpet Hamster’. New chapters released everyday.
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