Things in the Coffin (Revised)

The coffin is very common, probably the usual style found in coffin shops. Many elderly people would probably like it when they choose one themselves. The front is slightly arched and the middle is concave, resembling the auspicious shape of a gold ingot. The coffin is entirely black and looks quite old, with peeling paint. You can vaguely see that the inside is just cedar wood commonly used by ordinary families. This kind of coffin is very cheap and can be easily purchased by ordinary families in both the past and present.

It is neither catalpa wood, nor Phoebe zhennan wood, nor the mast wood from Huang Sea Iron Net Mountain.

"At the beginning of this century, the mainland leaders presented the Song family genealogy of Taiwan with a box containing the genealogy, made of Phoebe zhennan wood." Liu Chang'an patted the coffin and said with some regret, "I thought this coffin would have some significance, but it's not even made of Phoebe zhennan wood. It seems there are probably no burial objects inside, so it's not worth investigating."

"Is... is this the important point?!" Liu Chang'an walked into the small temple. Zhu Juntang didn't dare to leave on her own, much less stay outside alone. She could only grab his hand, but he dragged her inside. Hiding behind Liu Chang'an, she stammered, "I think... I remember... in Lin Zhengying's movies, something quickly opened the coffin lid and jumped out, dressed in the clothes of a high-ranking Qing Dynasty official, with a talisman on its forehead."

"Aren't you a fairy? Fairies aren't afraid of zombies and the like!"

"I... I am now... an Immortal Sheep."

Liu Chang'an ignored her, staring intently at the coffin before him. The desire for life and vitality he felt was even more pronounced at this moment. After carefully sensing it, he felt that it was different from the bronze coffin he had stood in before Shangguan Dandan's... It was as if he were a thirsty traveler in the desert, barely clinging to life, gazing at the oasis in the mirage ahead. No matter what longing his eyes revealed, no matter how much he needed the water that was so close at hand, he no longer had the strength to take another step.

This is an extremely strong desire and obsession, but without the power to fulfill it... It's different from Shangguan Dandan's bronze coffin. Shangguan Dandan ate quite a few hens back then and even wanted to eat the goose Liu Chang'an bought. If Liu Chang'an hadn't gone to great lengths to feed her, she probably would have eaten the entire neighborhood. The coffin in front of her is clearly there, yet she can't absorb even the slightest bit of life force or blood energy that's right next to her. For example, an ordinary person like Zhu Juntang, who has no resistance, can feel something watching her, but in reality, she is completely unharmed.

This coffin is not in the same league as Shangguan Dandan's. Liu Chang'an could even sense that the thing inside the coffin was in the final stage of life, about to be annihilated.

Looking back, he noticed that the bats that had been hanging upside down under the eaves had all spread their wings, their big, bright eyes fixed on Liu Chang'an.

"You adorable little things, did you lure me here to rescue your master?" Liu Chang'an thought for a moment and realized... These bats might not be from the same nest as the bats that used to monitor him.

There are many intelligent beings in this world, just with different numbers of neurons. Just like Liu Chang'an looking at Zhu Juntang, and an ordinary person looking at a husky, it's actually the same mentality. Someone can control bats, which may seem unbelievable to ordinary people, but in Liu Chang'an's view, it's not much different from training other animals.

"Are there vampires in here?" Zhu Juntang lowered her voice, feeling as if her heart was about to jump out of her chest, as if someone was pounding drums next to her eardrums.

"How would I know? I've never seen a vampire before." Liu Chang'an was also somewhat looking forward to it. Whether the thing in the coffin was driving these bats, or these bats had lured Liu Chang'an here, it was going to be interesting.

"Can you beat a vampire?" Zhu Juntang asked nervously as she saw Liu Chang'an preparing to lift the coffin lid.

"How do you know if you can win if you haven't fought it?" Liu Chang'an often talked nonsense, but talking nonsense and bragging are two different things. Liu Chang'an believed more that practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. He wouldn't be too confident about something that had no experience or proof.

"What if you release a vampire? We can't even defeat it. What if we end up as a pair of star-crossed lovers? And we'll be drained of all our blood! Oh my god, we'll look like dried chickens, dried geese, dried birds!" Zhu Juntang imagined it. That would be too awful. She didn't want to die like that. A fairy like herself, even if she died, should lie on a bamboo raft, surrounded by flowers, drifting along the tranquil lake into the eternal space to await resurrection.

To die like a dried-up wax, drained of blood, is a death Zhu Juntang would rather die than do.

"Mandarin ducks, those describe lovers and couples. We're at most fugitives and their mounts. You've turned into a preserved lamb. Have you ever eaten preserved lamb?" Liu Chang'an waved his hand. "Use your brain. If the thing in here had the ability to kill us, could this broken coffin have trapped it? It would have jumped out and killed you long ago... Also, your combat power is zero. Don't put yourself on the same level as me. 'We' and 'us' doesn't make it sound like you can do anything."

Hearing Liu Chang'an say this, Zhu Juntang breathed a sigh of relief and decided not to take Liu Chang'an's slanderous statement that his combat power was zero seriously.

Liu Chang'an lifted the coffin lid.

"Whoosh!"

With a fluttering sound, the bats under the eaves released their claws, flapped their wings in the air, and flew into the sky in groups.

Under the moonlight, above the woods and around the small temple, bats swarmed everywhere.

Besides the bats in the small temple, there seemed to be many more bats hiding in the surrounding woods, which then flew out and hovered in the sky.

The moonlight appeared even brighter and clearer.

Zhu Juntang nervously raised her finger to cover her eyes, leaving only a slit to observe.

The coffin lid fell to the ground.

The thick, swirling dust made Zhu Juntang instinctively cover her mouth.

The moonlight seemed to shift its angle at that moment, illuminating the scene inside the coffin.

There were no dry bones in the coffin, no bones left from naturally decaying corpses, no cotton wadding or burial items, and no owls, weasels, or similar creatures.

A woman who was clearly not of East Asian descent lay in the coffin. Her face was as white as if it had been coated with lime. Her features were deep-set, her eyes were deeply sunken, and the surrounding area was a deathly gray-black. There were faint crow's feet at the corners of her eyes. Her nose was still high and straight, but her lips were chapped.

"It's a dead man!" Zhu Juntang clung tightly to Liu Chang'an's arm, wishing he would press his hand against her chest to prevent her heart from exploding. Zhu Juntang trembled, her legs pressed tightly together, and her teeth chattered incessantly. She felt like she was about to pee from fright.

Liu Chang'an observed that the woman looked to be around forty years old, still charming, with almost no life force remaining in her body, and it was constantly fading away, as if she would completely perish at any moment.

The bats outside seemed to sense this as well, growing increasingly agitated, their wings flapping in a irritating manner.

Liu Chang'an spat in the woman's face.

"What are you doing?" Although Zhu Juntang was only a little scared of the night, the environment, and the dead body, and didn't have any particular idea of respecting the dead, she still felt that spitting on a dead body was a bit too much.

"She's dying, my saliva can save her," Liu Chang'an explained.

Zhu Juntang was stunned for a moment. Saliva could save people? He couldn't help but overcome his fear and look at the woman in the coffin. It seemed that Liu Chang'an's saliva had been absorbed. The woman's dry lips had regained some color and were no longer as black as charcoal. The black around her eyes had also lightened. Even though her face was still as white as lime, she no longer looked like a motionless zombie.

Seeing this, Zhu Juntang couldn't help but spit a little saliva on the woman's face.

There was not a sound.

Liu Chang'an looked at Zhu Juntang with disbelief.

Zhu Juntang was slightly embarrassed. Fairies don't usually spit, but wasn't it out of curiosity?

Liu Chang'an knew Zhu Juntang was a curious child, but he still gave her a light tap on the forehead. "You know what? Seeing you reminds me of those movies and TV dramas where they always have a good-for-nothing sidekick who does stupid things that lead to disaster."

"It's not like we're facing any major disaster..." Zhu Juntang said, holding her head in grievance. Liu Chang'an's hits always hurt so much.

Liu Chang'an ignored her and reached out to part the woman's lips. Her lips were not soft, like orange peel that had been left out for a long time and had lost its moisture. He inserted his fingers into her lips and pushed them, but her teeth still separated easily... After parting her teeth, he finally felt a little bit of moisture and softness on her tongue, and there were still signs of life.

She wasn't truly dead; she was just in a stage where her life force was constantly fading and she could die at any moment. Liu Chang'an's saliva just now gave her a little longer.

Liu Chang'an is not a saint; he will not immediately save someone's life just because they need him to.

Although he will eventually save the person, after all, such an unusual life form is more valuable to live than to die.

Liu Chang'an withdrew his hand and then pried open her eyelids.

There were no normal eyes beneath the eyelids; the pupils were bright red, blood-red, and a full circle larger than normal, giving the impression of wearing large-diameter colored contact lenses. The whites of the eyes around the pupils were covered with fine black filaments, resembling the state of dried-up and constricted capillaries.

Liu Chang'an pressed on her body again, and naturally there was no heartbeat. He originally wanted to scratch her skin with his fingernails, but considering her current condition, he decided against it and instead checked her overall condition by examining other parts of her body.

"You... you pervert!" Zhu Juntang leaned against the wall, suppressing her intense, wicked excitement, and stared in disbelief as she condemned Liu Chang'an, who, in her eyes, was nothing more than a corpse.

"I was just checking her physical condition." Liu Chang'an was completely unfazed by Zhu Juntang's sudden accusation. This guy had been watching with great interest, but after he finished checking, he started rambling. If he really thought Zhu Juntang was a pervert, he should have stopped him from the beginning.

"What did you find out?" Zhu Juntang stopped scolding him. After all, her curiosity was growing and everything seemed new and interesting to her.

"Her physical condition is worrying. My examination just now was to determine whether she can still absorb the life force I am about to give her... If the examination results show that there is no possibility of recovery, I will have to give up on her." Liu Chang'an's essence can of course not be wasted casually. Only living people and those in a dying state who can be revived are worth saving. If he finds that her physical condition is completely unable to absorb his essence, he will not do anything in vain.

"Is it possible or not?" Zhu Juntang asked anxiously. Ordinary people still have the benevolent heart that saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda, after all, the other party looked like he was about to die and there was no sense of threat.

"I'll give it a try." Liu Chang'an nodded.

Zhu Juntang immediately widened her eyes, ready to witness a miracle.

Liu Chang'an bit his tongue, causing a cut. A drop of blood, less than a millimeter in diameter, rolled out from between his teeth and clung to his lower lip.

Zhu Juntang felt something spreading from Liu Chang'an's lips, like smelling a fresh scent.

These things entered Zhu Juntang's body like scents. Zhu Juntang felt like a sapling being watered, bathed in warm sunlight, absorbing nutrients from the soil, and every cell in her body was joyfully eager to grow.

The swarm of bats outside the small temple became agitated, swarming past the temple gate in droves. Zhu Juntang's eyes shone brightly at this moment, sparkling in the moonlight. As he watched, the bats suddenly swelled up, their original palm-sized bodies now the size of washbasins. Their ugly, shrunken rat-like faces took on a ferocious, beast-like appearance.

The moonlight gradually shifted, and on the ground outside the temple gate, scattered weeds were growing wildly. In the autumn season, they grew as lushly as if nourished by spring rains. The surrounding trees rose up from the ground, spreading their huge canopies under the moonlight, densely blocking every inch of moonlight that tried to penetrate through the gaps in the leaves.

Zhu Juntang's breathing gradually became heavy, as if something was pressing down on her. She withdrew her gaze from the astonishing scene and looked down to find that her chest had swelled up. Her once cute size had become like Qin Yanan's. She exclaimed and pressed her chest, feeling that her bra had torn. Her white dress now looked like an adult wearing a child's clothes, completely unsuitable.

Just as Zhu Juntang was feeling an incredulous surge of joy, a sharp pain shot through her forehead. Liu Chang'an had actually... had actually hit her on the head again!

Was he trying to provoke her because he saw her big breasts? With this last thought, Zhu Juntang fainted.

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