???????He should have become an honest farmer, but instead he died an unnatural death.??[First published by .mm, pirated copy]
Little Yi Village was deathly quiet. It was as though every bird had vanished. Yu Xiaoxue and I sat in the graveyard for a long while before finally discussing and deciding to bury Zhang Yidan.
Besides, no one would believe such a bizarre incident if we reported it to the police. Following procedure, they would have a forensic examiner dissect him, and his corpse would be subjected to endless torment.
Dust to dust, earth to earth. Zhang Yidan had suffered enough. It was time to cover him with yellow earth and send him to his grave.
I picked up a discarded hoe abandoned beside a grave and began digging Zhang Yidan's grave. According to ancient custom, youths who died before the age of thirty did not get coffins. They were simply wrapped in a straw mat and hurriedly buried overnight. Before the earth was packed down, a stone also had to be placed on the corpse to prevent the wronged soul from emerging to cause trouble and harm people.
But now, I had no intention of placing a stone, because Zhang Yidan no longer had a soul. After Granny Zhou's soul-sealing talisman and scissors had pierced him, his newly formed soul had long since been scattered.
Moreover, Little Yi Village's feng shui had already been broken. Ghost officers could not enter. Even if they knew Zhang Yidan had died, they had no way to come and bind his soul. Once he missed the appointed time for crossing the Bridge of Helplessness, he would become a lone, wandering ghost.
"Who are you?! Who told you to bury someone? Put your hands up, all of you!"
Just as I was digging a pit