I froze completely when I saw what was inside the black coffin!!
I had already imagined countless possibilities for the living thing inside it.
I had practically guessed my way through all of nature, but never had I imagined that the coffin actually held someone I knew!!
And this person was someone who terrified me beyond measure.
Liu Yunbo!
How could Liu Yunbo be inside this black coffin?
I had pushed the lid open, and Liu Yunbo stood bolt upright inside with his eyes tightly shut. Beneath the pitch-black night sky, the moonlight faintly revealed his paper-white face. It was utterly eerie!
No wonder the coffin shop owner bowed to this black coffin every day. There was a powerful evil ghost hidden inside!
I stared at Liu Yunbo in the coffin and backed away again and again. Suddenly, his tightly closed eyes slowly opened, and he gave me a cold look.
That one look sent goosebumps rising all over me, and I turned to run.
"Aren't you going to ask why I'm here?"
Liu Yunbo had opened his mouth and spoken!
As he spoke, he dragged his short, fat body out of the coffin.
I straightened up and spoke as I backed away:
"Don't think I don't know. The person who burned to death in the fire at Residential Community No. 2386 ten years ago was you, not Liu Qingzhu!"
Liu Yunbo gave a cold laugh at my words.
With this gloomy room and his low, cold laughter, the atmosphere dropped to freezing.
"I know you've been spending time with that old fellow lately, but do you know him?"
Liu Yunbo's question struck a nerve. All I knew was that Old Liu was a decent man, and I trusted him. But honestly, I really didn't know him. I knew nothing about his background or his past.
"It doesn't matter if I don't know him, but I know you. You used to be called Guan Jun, then changed your name to Liu Yunbo. Thinking about it now, you were the one who buried all those paper coffins that keep appearing in the village, weren't you?"
Liu Yunbo walked unhurriedly to the showroom door and put his hands behind his back.
"That's right. I buried all these burial-companion paper coffins ten years ago. Far too many of these villagers deserve to die!"
After saying that, Liu Yunbo continued slowly:
"I came to this village with my mother when I was ten. These villagers shunned outsiders. We kept giving in and endured nothing but contempt. Outsiders had no land, so my mother worked from dawn till dusk for over two months, clearing and tilling a plot on the eastern mountain. But just a few days later, Auntie Li, our neighbor behind the house, forcibly took it from her. Tell me, didn't she deserve to die?"
As Liu Yunbo told this story, his tone was even. He didn't grit his teeth to express his feelings, yet that calm voice brimmed with murderous intent.
Anyone would feel uncomfortable hearing about a fatherless child and his widowed mother being bullied.
"If Auntie Li wronged you, taking revenge on her might be understandable. But these paper coffins have been delivered to villagers' homes nonstop over the past few days. Surely not every villager bullied you?"
With his back still turned, Liu Yunbo spoke in that same even tone:
"They did! I was sickly from childhood. My mother tried every folk remedy she could find, but nothing helped. Later, an old gentleman taught me some arts, and they worked wonders. Though those arts were somewhat unorthodox, I never hurt anyone. Yet every one of these ignorant villagers decided I was practicing evil arts to harm people. They came to our house to make trouble over and over, and in the end, they drove my mother to her death!"
I had left home as a child and felt deeply attached to my mother. Hearing this, I couldn't help being moved, and I felt some sympathy and understanding for the Liu Yunbo standing before me.
A mother wasn't just anyone. Hatred for those who abused and killed your mother truly was irreconcilable!
Liu Yunbo turned to look at me and said:
"I've strayed a little off topic. You trust this Liu Qingzhu so much now, but you don't know him at all. Think about it. I helped you before because of Sixth Uncle. Why would Liu Qingzhu risk everything to help you? And when you go back, ask him whether he was the one who started that fire at Residential Community No. 2386 ten years ago, the one that killed half a building's worth of people!!"
"What!!"
Liu Yunbo's words shook me to the core!
Old Liu had started that fire back then??
At this point, Liu Yunbo handed me a yellow paper figure and said:
"Young man, I'll help you one more time for Sixth Uncle's sake. This yellow paper figure can save your life. Keep it close to your body, and don't let him find it!"
I was completely stunned by Liu Yunbo's words. Sixth Uncle again!
Before coming to Tangwazi, I had kept worrying that it would be trouble if Sixth Uncle and Old Liu met in the village. But I had been here for several days now, and Sixth Uncle had never shown himself.
Just what kind of person was this Sixth Uncle?
I walked shakily out of the coffin shop. Thinking back over Liu Yunbo's two points, I found that they weren't without reason.
Why was Liu Qingzhu helping me?
That was right. Old Tang had introduced me to Old Liu, but Old Tang was a ghost who had been dead for ten years!
Even if Old Liu was different from Old Tang, he had risked danger along the way without asking why, seemingly saving and helping me all this time. But what was he after??
Out of kindness? That didn't hold up.
I had never thought carefully about this before. I had simply assumed Old Liu was cold on the outside but warmhearted. But in this world, who besides your parents treated you well without expecting something in return!
And had he really started the fire that killed half a building's worth of people ten years ago?
Was Old Liu still worthy of my trust?
When I returned to the room, Old Liu was snoring loudly. I clutched the yellow paper figure Liu Yunbo had given me, not knowing what to do.
After daybreak, Old Liu saw the dark circles beneath my eyes and asked coldly:
"You went looking for the coffin deliverer last night, didn't you? Did you see who it was?"
I nodded.
"I did. It was that fat woman surnamed Guan who lives in front of Auntie Li's house. On the surface, she acts as though she hates Liu Yunbo's guts, but they're still family, and they've been keeping each other informed!"
Old Liu didn't seem very surprised. He took a few steps, leaning on his stick.
"Old Liu, I want to ask you something. How did the fire at Residential Community No. 2386 start?"
As soon as I blurted this out, I clearly noticed a change in Old Liu's expression.
"Oh, the security guard was careless. A cigarette butt started it!"
After saying that, Old Liu asked me in return:
"Why are you suddenly bringing that up?"
"Nothing. I was just curious!"
As soon as I finished speaking, the village chief came into the room and told Old Liu that another household in the village had discovered a burial-companion paper coffin. The two hurried off.
I sighed. Old Liu had just lied!
After spending so much time with Old Liu, I knew him fairly well. He always looked cold and composed unless he encountered something shocking enough to shake him.
Just now, when I mentioned the fire, he had been distinctly unnatural. Clearly, he hadn't told the truth.
Old Liu really was hiding secrets!
Now, the coffin burier, the coffin digger, and the coffin deliverer had all been found.
The village chief led a group to the fat woman's glazed-tile-roofed house and found a large number of burial-companion paper coffins. That more or less dealt with the source of the paper coffin crisis that had thrown the entire village into panic.
Before I could say anything, Old Liu took the initiative to arrange our return to the city.
"Things are settled here. It's time to head back. Remember to bring me that book when you get home!"
A book?
I was taken aback at first, then remembered that I did have a book, the one I had swiped from Old Wu, which he had found in the Demon Cave on Tiger Waist Mountain years ago.
Why did Old Liu suddenly want that book?
I still remembered Bai Fan saying that the book was called the Wondrous Art of Dream Stealing, while Old Liu had told me it was Tales of Yin and Yang Dwellings, merely a book about assessing the feng shui of houses.
I suddenly remembered that when I went to the Demon Cave with Old Liu, he had said he was looking for a book, so I asked:
"Old Liu, I remember you said you were looking for the second volume of that book when we went down into the Demon Cave. I passed out afterward. Did you ever find it?"
Old Liu said:
"No. Liu Yunbo got there before us and had already swiped it!"
"If that book is just about assessing the feng shui of houses, what use do you have for it, Old Liu?"
Old Liu didn't answer me directly. He merely said lightly:
"You wouldn't understand even if I told you. Pack your things. We'll leave in a little while!"
Old Liu seemed unwilling to explain much to me, which only intensified my suspicions:
Was that book what he was after by helping me?
When the village chief heard we were returning to the city, he saw us all the way to the roadside, following behind Old Liu and thanking him nonstop for his help over the past several days.
Yet he didn't offer me a single word of praise. I had worked from dawn till dusk, faced danger alone, and provided all the information. But just because the village chief hadn't seen it, I got no credit at all.
Society really was like this. Do three parts and talk seven, and you were a hero. Do seven parts and talk three, and you were a fool.
While Old Liu and I waited for a ride by the road, I asked him tentatively:
"Old Liu, aren't you concerned about the coffin shop owner or that black coffin that can move?"
Old Liu snorted coldly and said:
"The coffin shop owner has little ability. He can't stir up much trouble. As for that coffin..."
At this point, a rare smile appeared on Old Liu's face.
"The person inside that coffin must be Liu Yunbo."
Old Liu's words snapped me to attention again. I had seen Liu Yunbo inside that black coffin with my own eyes, but Old Liu had been running around the village all day. How could he know?
"Why do you think that?"
Old Liu glanced at me and took the paper figure I had swiped from the table in the coffin shop owner's bedroom a few days earlier out of his pocket.
"This Coffin-Affixed Paper Figure is an ancient evil cursing art. The coffin shop owner doesn't have that kind of knowledge. But it happens to be a specialty of that old bastard who keeps crossing swords with me!"
A hint of smugness appeared on Old Liu's cold face after he said this, and he continued:
"I'm certain that the coffin shop owner is merely working for someone else. Quite a few people have died because of the paper coffins lately. If that black coffin can move, it forms precisely the arrangement of 'a man hides in the coffin, ghosts enter the door.' That old fellow is using yin energy to cultivate!"
I couldn't help freezing when I heard Old Liu's words.
A man hides in the coffin, ghosts enter the door. Just hearing it was terrifying.
"Then if we just leave like this, what if Liu Yunbo comes out and keeps hurting people?"
The pupil of Old Liu's emerald-green right eye visibly widened, and he said unhurriedly:
"I've already told the village chief what to do. Tonight is when that old fellow dies!"
At the mention of having a way to kill Liu Yunbo, I noticed that Old Liu's expression had twisted.
I had never seen that before.
Was he still the cold-faced, kindhearted Old Liu I trusted so completely?