The urns beneath the bed

Tonight's trip had definitely been worth it.

Originally, we had only wanted to find Du Yuwei's remains and have the Seventh Master send her spirit on.

Now, not only had we found her, we had followed the trail and uncovered a whole lot of truths.

We knew how Li Xiumei had really died, where Lü Zhengxian was now, and even the truth behind the family massacre fifteen years ago.

And Lü Zhengxian was tied to every single one of these things. You could say he had orchestrated them all himself.

Even more twisted was that he fucking... he had actually married Du Yuwei!

I figured that when this man died, he would be sent straight to the Eighteen Levels of Hell.

"The police have reopened the investigation into the family massacre fifteen years ago and issued another warrant for Lü Zhengxian's arrest. But I think that warrant is just for show, because Lü Zhengxian no longer exists in this world. There's only Du Ruhai."

The Seventh Master's face was grim. "And a new round of Seven Deaths for a Life has already begun."

As he spoke, he walked toward the bridal bed in the room.

The room was spacious and fully furnished. It even had a bridal bed.

But we simply couldn't imagine what Lü Zhengxian had prepared that bed for.

Could he... come into this room to sleep every night?

Sleep with a corpse in his arms?

Just thinking about it gave me the creeps.

The Seventh Master walked up to the bridal bed, crouched down, and reached underneath it, feeling around for something.

Soon, he pulled out two things that looked like clay jars.

Meng Yifan and I took a closer look, and our faces instantly changed.

Those weren't ordinary clay jars. They were urns...

Each bore a large character meaning "memorial."

"Weren't you wondering where the corpse oil on that evil painting came from?"

The Seventh Master patted the two urns. "I suspect it came from here. This new round of Seven Deaths for a Life has already claimed two victims."

I stared at those two urns as though I were looking at the future homes of Meng Yifan and me.

Before long, the two of us might end up lying inside them too.

Meng Yifan was furious. "He just kills people whenever he wants? Is there no law anymore? We'll take these two urns to the police. This is solid evidence. I refuse to believe no one can stop him!"

"Don't go looking for trouble," I warned him. "Reporting this would be the same as turning ourselves in. We'd be the ones getting arrested."

If the police asked us where we had gotten these urns, what were we supposed to say?

That we had stolen them from Du Ruhai's house?

Then of course we would be the ones getting arrested.

The Seventh Master sighed too. "Don't think it's that simple. Based on my years of experience out in the world, if you report this, here's roughly what will happen."

"The moment you make the report, Du Ruhai will hear about it. He'll immediately send people to move everything out of this room. Then we'll go to prison and die there. After that, Du Ruhai will keep doing whatever he wants, and no one will ever know he's Lü Zhengxian."

"The truth is cruel, but that's how it is."

Meng Yifan wilted at once.

We were all ordinary people at the bottom of society, but we had seen a little more of the world than most.

The methods rich people used really were just like the ones in movies and TV shows.

The Seventh Master certainly wasn't being alarmist.

"Since we've found Du Yuwei's remains, why don't we just send her spirit on?" I said. "Once she's passed on, Du Ruhai won't have any reason to continue Seven Deaths for a Life. We'll be safe, and no one else will have to die. Two birds with one stone."

After all, the Seventh Master himself had said that as long as we found Du Yuwei's remains, he could send her spirit on.

But to our surprise, the Seventh Master dealt Meng Yifan and me a crushing blow.

"I can't send her on."

"If Seven Deaths for a Life hadn't begun, I still could. But two people have already died. Now that it's started, there's no way for me to send her spirit on."

The Seventh Master's words were like a sharp sword plunging into our hearts.

My heart went cold.

"Seventh Master, isn't there any other way?" I asked.

The Seventh Master thought for a moment. "There is, but I'd need Du Yuwei's birth date and time. Do you know them? I doubt even Du Ruhai knows."

I let out a long sigh, and my heart sank further.

Du Yuwei was the sole survivor of the family massacre. Du Ruhai had killed her entire family.

It really was unlikely that Du Ruhai knew Du Yuwei's birth date and time, unless she had told him herself.

But Du Yuwei had only been five or six when the massacre happened. At that age, how would she have remembered her exact birth details?

"I don't think we can assume Du Ruhai doesn't know."

Meng Yifan looked at us. "Why did Du Ruhai spare Du Yuwei back then and take her away? I think he must have taken a liking to her at first sight. We can't understand his twisted mind, but someone as ruthless as him wouldn't have spared her for no reason, would he?"

"Since he liked her, and he looted her home when he committed the massacre, could he have taken her household registration booklet too? Her birth date would be in it."

His words snapped me out of my daze.

I slapped my thigh in excitement. "That really is possible!"

The Seventh Master stood up too. "It's unlikely, but not impossible. We can look for it. Let's search this room first."

Something suddenly occurred to me. "Don't you need the exact birth time too? A household registration booklet wouldn't give that much detail."

The Seventh Master's expression was serious. "We only need her birth date. As for the time, there are only twelve two-hour periods in a day. If we have to, we'll try them one by one."

We got moving right away. Not daring to waste any time, we immediately began searching for Du Yuwei's birth details.

There were so many things in this room that searching it thoroughly would probably take quite a while.

The main problem was the corpse sitting there. Whenever I turned my back on Du Yuwei's body, I got the creeps.

I kept imagining her lunging at me and taking a bite while I wasn't paying attention.

Then there were those paper figures, with their carefully painted faces. In the candlelight, all their shadows fell across the walls. One extra glance at them was enough to make me need to pee.

Just as I finished searching a cabinet, I caught sight of Du Yuwei's remains out of the corner of my eye.

But that wasn't all I saw...

I noticed that her tightly shut eyes seemed to have opened.

Thinking I was imagining it, I quickly looked up at her again.

I would have been better off not looking. The moment I did... our eyes met. Her bluish-purple face hadn't changed, but her eyes were unmistakably wide open, staring straight at me.

"Holy shit!"

I was so terrified I nearly broke down, letting out a scream on the spot.

Meng Yifan jolted in fright and scrambled toward the Seventh Master. "What happened? What the hell are you screaming about?"

The Seventh Master was stunned too, staring at me in confusion.

I raised a hand and pointed at Du Yuwei's remains. "She... she opened her eyes just now! She was looking at me!"