Chapter 23 The Banquet of Death
Lin Banxia’s eyes lit up.
“I came to fetch water that day.” Jiang Ruonan said, “I saw him slipping by the stream, and then… his head got stuck in the gap between two stones. I wanted to help, but I couldn’t pull it out.” She lowered her eyes, with a hint of trembling in her tone, “I don’t know how such a coincidence happened. Those two stones seemed to be alive, and they were firmly stuck to his head… Later he died, and I was afraid that other people would misunderstand me if they knew about it, so I didn’t say anything.”
Song Qingluo said: “Did he also come to the river to fetch water?”
“Probably not.” Jiang Ruonan replied, “I didn’t see any tools for collecting water by the river.”
Song Qingluo pondered for a moment and then asked another question. He said, “Have the cause and place of death of everyone who died in your village been recorded?”
“I have written it down.” Jiang Ruonan said, “They are all at Grandpa He’s house. He is senior and knows how to treat diseases. Usually the corpses are carried to him first.” She said, “But I don’t recommend that you go. Over there, he… doesn’t like foreigners very much.”
Song Qingluo said: “By the way, when did the first person die?”
“In the middle of March,” Jiang Ruonan said, “I remember it very clearly. The weather was particularly good that day, and the snow on the mountains began to melt… The man was walking back after washing clothes by the stream, but he slipped halfway. One fall and he broke his neck.”
After Jiang Ruonan finished speaking, the water in the jar was full. She carefully picked up the jar and prepared to go back. Lin Banxia looked at Song Qingluo: “Do you want to go?”
“Go.” Song Qingluo nodded.
Although the two of them didn’t say where they were going, they already knew.
***
He Huaian was unable to wait until the sky lit up. After Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia went out for about an hour, it started to rain. The huge raindrops fell down mercilessly, leaving small holes in the soft ground.
Mou Xinsi changed her clothes, packed her luggage, and sat quietly next to He Huaian. She looked out the window, her eyes filled with melancholy, and it was unknown what she was thinking.
He Huaian said: “Let’s go.” It seemed that the weather was not going to get better.
“Where are we going?” Mou Xinsi asked.
“Of course I’ll take you out of the village.” He Huaian was a little anxious, “Just wait, I’ll find the rain gear and I’ll be back soon.”
Mou Xinsi hummed and watched He Huaian push the door open and go out.
The rain was still falling, like a thick curtain, blocking the light and enveloping the whole world. In the sound of rain, Mou Xinsi’s ears caught another strange sound, like crying, wailing, or an inaudible whisper. She knew that the sound she heard was real. Just like the sound of the coffin and the door panel being knocked, the sound that existed behind the door was also real.
“Come out…come out…”
“Come out…come out…”
Like a whisper, like a call, the voice seduced Mou Xinsi, forcing her to stand up and move forward step by step. He walked with great difficulty. Her instinctive fear of the sound and her strong curiosity about the unknown formed a fierce conflict, but in the end, curiosity prevailed.
Mou Xinsi came to the window and saw a woman standing outside.
The woman’s back was facing her, and she was pulling her hair. She was pulling so hard that she kept pulling strands of black hair to the ground, and even exposed her bloody scalp, but even so, the woman’s movements did not stop. With no hair left to pull, she began to tear at her skin, as if she were taking off her clothes – the glaring red flesh revealed white bones.
Mou Xin wanted to scream, but she couldn’t move. Her body seemed to have solidified into a lifeless statue, and she couldn’t even do such a simple action as closing her eyes.
The woman continued. In the pouring rain, she finally tore off her skin and flesh with satisfaction and turned into a gloomy white skeleton.
She turned around, revealing her face that had changed beyond recognition and her black eyes. Mou Xinsi stared at her blankly, unable to look away for a moment. The woman showed a weird smile to Mou Xinsi. Mou Xinsi couldn’t understand why such a smile appeared on the face of a skeleton. Her eyes began to sting, and her head became like a filthy quagmire.
The cold wind howled. Mou Xinsi tried her best to blink her eyes, and then the woman in front of her disappeared from her sight.
Everything returned to its original appearance, and the person in the courtyard disappeared, as if everything just now was just Mou Xinsi’s hallucination. She breathed a sigh of relief and felt her heart beating rapidly, as if it was about to jump out from her throat. However, before Mou Xinsi could finish her relieved breath, she felt a pair of cold, sticky hands holding her cheeks. The bloody and skeletal face slowly stretched out from beside her, smiling. Then it asked her: “Can I take it off for you, too?”
The moment she heard this voice, Mou Xinsi felt that something in her body was broken. Her body became dead silent, and all sounds disappeared.
At this moment, her life finally returned to peace.
He Huaian ran to get the umbrella, which was placed next to the toilet. It only took him three minutes to come back.
It had only been three minutes, so nothing would happen to Mou Xinsi.
He Huaian thought so, but his steps were still much faster when he came back. He ran back to the house and saw Mou Xinsi looking out the window expressionlessly. Outside the window was the yard, empty, with nothing but the curtain formed by the heavy rain.
He Huaian felt relieved when he saw that Mou Xinsi was still fine. He lowered his head and picked up his luggage and said, “Xiao Xinsi, let’s go.”
Mou Xinsi did not move.
“Xiao Xinsi?” He Huaian thought she didn’t hear, so his voice was a little louder.
Mou Xinsi still didn’t move.
A terrible premonition hit He Huaian’s heart. He stepped forward, his hands shaking, and patted Mou Xinsi’s arm gently, while speaking in a trembling voice: “Xiao Xinsi, what’s wrong with you?”
Mou Xinsi looked out the window calmly. There seemed to be something in the rain curtain that absorbed all her thoughts. No matter how He Huaian shouted, he couldn’t get any reaction from her.
“Xiao Xinsi!!!” After He Huaian realized that something was wrong with Mou Xinsi, he immediately panicked. He called Mou Xinsi’s name, held her cheeks hard, and shook her body, trying to get her out of her stiff state.
Mou Xinsi finally reacted. Her eyelids trembled violently, and she made a frightened hiccup sound in her throat. Then, as if she saw something, her pupils suddenly contracted and began to expand.
He Huaian has seen dead people, so he naturally knows what the eyes of dead people look like. He watched as Mou Xinsi’s pupils lost the color of life, slowly began to spread, and her eyelids slowly drooped. She was originally stiff, but then her body quickly softened, like a pile of boneless flesh, piled in front of He Huaian’s eyes.
“Mou Xinsi!!! Mou Xinsi!!!” He Huaian called her name in fear, put her down on the ground, began to press her chest hard, and continued to perform CPR in an attempt to wake her up. However, his actions and common sense were all in vain at this moment.
Mou Xinsi’s skin gradually became cold, and her pulse, heartbeat, and breathing all stopped.
In just three minutes, she turned into a cold corpse that He Huaian couldn’t resuscitate.
He Huaian stopped moving his hands and no longer tried to press Mou Xinsi’s chest. Instead, he slowly sat on the ground. He turned his head blankly and saw the yard behind him. There was nothing there, only the heavy curtain of rain. .
Why did Mou Xinsi keep staring at the yard before she died? Could it be that something there took away her life?
He Huaian couldn’t figure it out.
Mou Xinsi’s body lay quietly on the ground. The fear and stiffness disappeared from her body. She became peaceful, her body soft and calm, as if she had just entered a peaceful sleep. He Huaian picked her up and carefully placed her on the bed.
He didn’t know how long it took, maybe an hour, maybe two hours. When he regained consciousness again, he heard someone calling his name. He Huaian raised his head and saw the face of the village chief. The village chief also saw the lifeless girl on the bed. There was sadness in his eyes and he whispered: “Young man, what happened to your friend?”
“She’s dead.” He Huaian heard his own voice.
“Dead? How did she die?” the village chief asked.
“I don’t know.” He Huaian said numbly, “She was already dead when I came back.”
“Oh, I told you to leave earlier.” The village chief glanced at Mou Xinsi, with some pity in his eyes, and sighed, “Look at this poor child…”
He Huaian didn’t know what to say. He seemed to be unable to think for a while.
The village chief whispered: “What are you going to do next?”
“I don’t know.” He Huaian said blankly, “I don’t know either.”
“Would you like to have something to eat first?” the village chief said, “I made chicken soup…”
He Huaian whispered: “No, I want to guard her here and wait for my friend to come back. Thank you for your kindness.”
“We aren’t made of iron, so we can’t do anything without eating.” The village chief said, “Wait here, I will bring you some food.” He coughed twice, then retreated from the house, planning to get some food for He Huaian.
He Huaian didn’t say yes or no, but he suddenly remembered something and said hesitantly: “Village Chief, someone was hung at our door yesterday. Do you recognize that person?”
The village chief paused and asked vaguely: “Where is the person?”
“The body was placed in the main room, didn’t you see it?” He Huaian asked doubtfully.
“I didn’t pay attention.” The village chief said, “Just stay here and I’ll go take a look first.”
***
Grandpa He was an old man from Sanshui Village. He was eighty-six years old this year. He had two children, a boy and a girl, who unfortunately died in infancy. Fortunately, he learned medical skills when he was young and cured many villagers’ minor ailments, so he was considered highly respected.
Jiang Ruonan said that after the strange things happened in the village, Grandpa He had always resisted the village chief asking for help from outsiders, saying that the people in the village had offended the mountain gods, causing the disaster. At first, the villagers did not take Grandpa He’s words to heart. It was not until the situation gradually got out of control that more and more people began to think that what Grandpa He said was right.
Because he was the only doctor in the village, almost everyone who died had to be seen by him, so he was also the only person in the village who had death records for all of the villagers. Jiang Ruonan told Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo where the He family’s grandfather lived, then left carrying her water.
Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo went to the place she mentioned and met the Grandpa of the He family.
However, they were unlucky today and couldn’t go in, because there happened to be a funeral procession. Coming out of the house, the person at the end of the procession was an old man with a cane and a gloomy look. Although they couldn’t see his face clearly through the rain curtain, they could vaguely feel the frailty of an old man from his body.
It rained heavily again today, and the funeral procession was a lot more deserted. No one was carrying the coffin, they just wrapped the person in cloth. There were too many people here. Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia did not dare to go up for fear of conflict with the villagers. It happened to be getting dark at this time, so they thought of coming over tomorrow when there were less people.
The two of them returned to the village chief’s house despite the heavy rain. Although Song Qingluo tried his best to wrap himself up tightly, some of his hair was still wet. When they entered the house, Lin Banxia first went to find a dry towel and carefully helped Song Qingluo wipe the water from his hair and said, “Do you want to warm yourself up by the fire? Your face doesn’t look very good.”
“It’s okay.” Song Qingluo said, “It’s a little cold.” He lowered his dark eyes and looked more tired than usual.
Lin Banxia said: “The village chief must be back. The coffins in the yard and the body in the hall are gone.”
Song Qingluo said: “Yeah.”
“I just don’t know if He Huaian and Mou Xinsi have left.” Lin Banxia said, “Would you like to go and have a look?”
Song Qingluo said: “That’s fine.”
Next, the two went to He Huaian and Mou Xinsi’s room. Seeing that there was no one in the house, Lin Banxia breathed a sigh of relief: “It seems they are gone.”
“No.” Song Qingluo’s expression changed, “They didn’t leave.”
Lin Banxia was stunned.
Song Qingluo pointed to the corner of the room and saw a suitcase placed there. It was the one Mou Xinsi brought with her.
“They didn’t leave?” Lin Banxia immediately became nervous, “Did something happen?”
Song Qingluo frowned: “Let’s look for them separately.”
The two started searching in the yard. Fortunately, the yard was not big. Lin Banxia quickly found He Huaian in another room, but before he could relax, he noticed something was wrong with He Huaian’s expression.
“What happened?” Lin Banxia asked He Huaian after entering the house.
“Mou Xinsi is dead.” He Huaian said softly.
Lin Banxia thought he had heard wrong, so he asked again in disbelief: “What did you say? What happened to Mou Xinsi?”
“Mou Xinsi is dead.” He Huaian said. As he spoke, he glanced behind him. Lin Banxia followed his eyes and saw Mou Xinsi lying motionless on the bed.
Lin Banxia’s heart suddenly went cold and he walked to Mou Xinsi’s side in a few steps. Mou Xinsi had her eyes closed and her expression was peaceful. She didn’t look like she was dead, instead she seemed to be sleeping. However, when Lin Banxia carefully probed her pulse, the remaining hope was shattered. Mou Xinsi’s wrist was cold and her pulse had stopped beating. She was indeed dead.
“What’s going on? What happened?” Lin Banxia turned to look at He Huaian.
“I don’t know, I don’t know.” He Huaian’s smile was extremely bitter, as if he was about to cry. “When we were about to set off, I went to the yard to get the umbrellas. When I came back, She wouldn’t…”
Lin Banxia said: “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” He Huaian repeated these three words and shook his head. “I don’t know what happened to her. I only know that she kept staring at the yard. As she watched, she fell down.”
Lin Banxia didn’t understand either. If Mou Xinsi saw something terrible and was frightened to death, then at least there would be some signs of being frightened to death on her face, but at this time, her face was calm, as if she was at peace. Like someone who died in their sleep.
“What’s wrong with Mou Xinsi?” Just as Lin Banxia was thinking, Song Qingluo also came. After he entered the room, his eyes also fell on Mou Xinsi, who was already lifeless.
“Dead.” He Huaian repeated it again.
Song Qingluo glanced at him, but without asking why, walked directly to Mou Xinsi, briefly checked her vital signs, and said calmly: “Describe to me in detail what happened.”
He Huaian said: “Okay…”
Then, he told Song Qingluo everything that happened after they left. When he mentioned that the village chief appeared after Mou Xinsi died, Song Qingluo frowned slightly and said, “The village chief was here? Where is he now?”
“I don’t know. He left after cooking for me.” He Huaian said, “I don’t know where he is.”
“Have you eaten?” Song Qingluo asked.
“Not yet.” He Huaian said, “I have no appetite.”
“Don’t touch the food in the village, including the water.” Song Qingluo said, “There may be problems with everything here. I have a general idea now, but I need to confirm it tomorrow. Tonight… you will sleep by us.”
“What about Mou Xinsi?” He Huaian asked blankly, “She is afraid of the dark, so we can’t leave her alone in the room…”
Song Qingluo said: “It’s okay, just put her in our room. I’m not afraid, are you?”
He Huaian smiled bitterly: “The dead have nothing to be afraid of.” The scary thing was the unknown things that made them die.
Although Song Qingluo had a premonition of danger and asked He Huaian to send Mou Xinsi away as soon as possible, it was still a step too late. In just a moment, something unknown took away Mou Xinsi’s life. She was still young and should have had a better future and should not have ended up in such an embarrassing end.
The night was getting deeper and the village chief had not returned yet, so the three of them were not in the mood to eat. However, in order to maintain their strength, they reluctantly ate some compressed biscuits they carried with them to satisfy their hunger.
Mou Xinsi’s body was wrapped in a quilt by Lin Banxia and placed in the corner of the room. The three of them didn’t talk much while sleeping, and the atmosphere was a bit heavy.
He Huaian was lying on the bed, but he couldn’t fall asleep. He tossed and turned, and all that appeared in his mind was the scene of Mou Xinsi looking blankly at the courtyard in the morning. What on earth did she see that caused her to die suddenly? Did people lose their lives just by looking at these things? Was that why the villagers here died so bizarrely? He Huaian was supposed to be calm, but he found that he couldn’t do it. No matter how many times, he still couldn’t calmly deal with the death of his companions. This was probably the biggest gap between a recorder and a monitor.
Recorders were just ordinary humans who were afraid and frightened. Their only purpose was to leave all the information they knew before their death to pave the way for those who came after them. The monitors on the other hand, were the puzzle solvers who use this information to solve the mysteries. Only they could guard those heretical things from the darkness. Thinking of this, He Huaian rubbed his dry eyes heavily.
The rain outside the window seemed to never stop, the air was filled with moist water vapor, and there was a disgusting, musty smell on the bedding. The sound of even breathing came from He Huaian’s side. Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo were both asleep, and they seemed to be sleeping well without even moving.
He Huaian carefully looked at the screen of his mobile phone. It was already three o’clock in the morning. If he didn’t sleep, it would soon be dawn. He thought for a while and slowly sat up from the bed. He didn’t put on any shoes, and just groped like a blind man until he reached the table, wanting to drink some water to calm down. The table was right next to the bed and was easy to find. He Huaian carefully walked to the table and found the water bottle placed on the table.
As soon as He Huaian opened the lid, he heard a muffled sound in his ears… thunder. He reflexively glanced towards the yard. It was pitch black outside the window, with no light source at all. It was as if there was a black cloth covering the window, and nothing could be seen.
A bright lightning suddenly appeared in the sky, pulling out a long golden thread and illuminating the dark courtyard. He Huaian, who was drinking water, seemed to see something. He thought he had seen it wrong, and was a little confused, so he brought his face closer to the glass. There was another dazzling lightning, and He Huaian saw a pale face appear outside the originally dark window. The owner of the face pressed his cheek against the glass. There was only a fist distance between them. .
“Ah!” He Huaian was frightened and took a few steps back. When he looked at the window again, the face was gone. Seeing this, He Huaian rushed out of the house, but the dark courtyard was empty, there was nothing.
“What’s wrong?” This movement woke up Lin Banxia, who was sleeping soundly. He opened his eyes in confusion and saw He Huaian standing at the door with a panicked look on his face.
“I seemed to have seen the village chief just now.” Although he was frightened, He Huaian still clearly remembered the owner of that face, “It was the village chief I saw during the day.”
“Village chief?” Lin Banxia asked in confusion, “What is he doing here?”
“I don’t know.” He Huaian whispered, “When I woke up, I saw him peeking from outside the window. When I chased after him, he was gone. Is that person really the village chief? Hewas lurking outside our window. What was he looking at? Was he worried that something would happen to us too? “
Lin Banxia naturally couldn’t answer He Huaian’s series of questions, and felt that the village chief was strange. Instead, Song Qingluo said softly: “Go to sleep first and we’ll talk about it tomorrow.” His tone was comforting.
“Okay…” He Huaian returned to the bed in despair and wrapped himself in the quilt. After he finished this action, he realized that he seemed a bit like Mou Xinsi last night…
The author has something to say:
Lin Banxia: These things that hurt others are really excessive. I never hurt others.
Song Qingluo: Look at your house number and say it again?
House number 1303: Wuwuwuwuwu, I tried my best to scare you, but I made a wedding dress for another charming beauty!!
Lin Banxia: 0.0
Hou, while writing this, I suddenly remembered something that happened to me when I was a child. When I was walking past a building, suddenly all the dogs in that building started barking, and then four men carried a stretcher from the building. When I came out, I happily ran behind those people. Later, my mother told me that the person they were carrying was a dead child… a shadow of childhood.
Let’s explain the dice again. Two dice with ten sides from 0 to 9. One represents the tens digits and the other represents the single digits. The dice can produce 00-99. 00 represents 100. As mentioned before, 0-100 is a bug, and I fixed it.
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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