A Natural Death

The two men unloaded the carrying pole.

The man behind him untied the sheepskin bag from the carrying pole, carried it with one hand, and headed towards the front room of Gonpo.

The leather bag felt light in his hand, swaying as he took long strides.

The deceased inside must have weighed very little when they died.

"Put it here, on top of the stack."

Gonpo led the three into the front room and had the man place the leather bag on a square, raised platform made of Shitou in the corner.

This platform base is what is known as the "stanchion".

The edges of the stack were stained with dark brown marks, the blood left by the dead on the stack.

What was the deceased's name?

"What are you two to the deceased?"

Gonpo beckoned to Zhou Yang, signaling him to stand behind him, and then asked the man carrying the leather bag.

The man was all smiles, but when he heard Gonpo's question, he seemed a little lost and turned to look at the other man carrying the shoulder pole. The other man scratched his head and grinned as well. "The child is too young, we haven't had time to name him yet."

The slightly overweight man with a felt hat who had led the two over stopped turning his prayer beads. He slowly put the beads away, took out a prayer wheel from his bag, and started turning it without stopping. With his eyelids drooping and without looking at Gonpo, he spoke, "Let's call her Zhuoma."

"In our area, girls are called Zhuoma, and boys are called Nyima."

"This deceased child will be named Zhuoma."

"Alright, let's call her Zhuoma." Gonpo had no objection and nodded.

As the deceased's father and relatives, the two men smiled and agreed, accepting the name.

It's like giving a puppy that's about to be given away a random name.

"The dead sent to the platform must have their names!" Gonpo turned to Zhou Yang and instructed him.

Zhou Yang nodded.

"What are your roles to the deceased? What are your names?"

"Who is the deceased's father?" Gonpo asked the two men again.

The man carrying the shoulder pole then answered Gonpo's question, "I am the deceased's father, my name is Naren, this is my younger brother, and he is the deceased's uncle, his name is Quzeng." Quzeng, standing beside the leather bag, kept laughing.

If it weren't for the leather bag beside him, Zhou Yang would probably have thought they were there to sell their grain in Gonpo after a bumper harvest.

"Naren, when this child was alive, you loved her very much, didn't you?"

She was put in a sheepskin bag.

"Many people came to deliver bodies, and each one only needed a sack."

Gonpo observed the leather bag in the corner, smiling as he spoke with the Naren Brothers.

"Yes, yes," Naren nodded repeatedly, "When she was alive, we loved her very much."

"Go take a look." Gonpo pointed to the sheepskin bag, said to Zhou Yang behind him, and then smiled at the two brothers, "This is my new apprentice, named Aji."

"He then learned the art of dismantling corpses from me."

"Oh my, what a fine apprentice!" Naren looked at Zhou Yang and praised him, using his limited vocabulary.

"Oh dear."

Gonpo responded with a smile. Zhou Yang walked to the stack and faintly smelled a trace of blood.

He frowned and reached out to untie the straw rope on the sheepskin bag.

At this moment, Quzeng, who had been standing next to the sheepskin bag, suddenly stepped aside and blocked his way.

Quzeng still had a smile on his face, "You've seen it, haven't you?"

"We've seen it, we can go up the mountain now."

"I haven't watched it yet!"

Zhou Yang immediately sensed something was amiss and tried to bypass Quzeng to untie the sheepskin bag.

Quzeng stopped them again, still all smiles, repeating his previous words. "You've seen it, haven't you? You've seen it, we can go up the mountain now."

That bright and enthusiastic smile blocked Zhou Yang's view.

A surge of inexplicable anger welled up within him, and he suddenly reached out and grabbed Quzeng's shoulder, shoving him to the ground. "Get out of the way!"

"If there are any people who died violent deaths in the sheepskin bag, they cannot go up the mountain today!"

As Gonpo watched Zhou Yang's actions, his eyes showed even greater approval. He then called out to Zhou Yang, "Aji!" He turned to Naren and Quzeng, whose expressions had changed, and said with a smile, "You know, corpses of those who died violently cannot be offered to the Dakini. Their virtue is insufficient, and they are not allowed to enter the cycle of reincarnation."

"Only by opening the leather bag can we see what the deceased looked like."

"To find out if she died a violent death..."

As Gonpo spoke, Zhou Yang's hands flew, and he finally managed to untie the ropes that were tightly binding the leather bag.

He held the leather bag by the two corners, then opened it with his hands.

The body inside was revealed.

A strong stench of blood wafted towards us!

Zhou Yang stared wide-eyed into the leather bag, only to see a sea of blood!

When he held his breath and could clearly see the corpse in the leather bag, his pupils suddenly trembled!

Inside the sheepskin bag was a tiny person, seated inside.

This little man was covered in blood.

Beneath the endless flow of blood, not a single patch of intact skin could be seen. Go to Bing search engine to see the latest chapter!

Upon seeing her, Zhou Yang was immediately reminded of the skinned human form that A Fu had transformed into.

The human skin that once covered Zhuoma's body was no longer there in the leather bag.

Where did her skin go?

Zhou Yang's pupils were still contracting sharply. He abruptly turned his head, staring intently at Naren, Quzeng, and the person spinning the prayer wheel, and demanded, "Where did her skin go?!"

"Pee... pee-what?!"

Gonpo subconsciously repeated Zhou Yang's words, uttering two words before he suddenly realized what he had said!

The smile on his face vanished instantly. He rushed over to Zhou Yang and peered into the open sheepskin bag: "Hiss—"

Gonpo gasped in shock!

His shoulders started to tremble!

He suddenly understood why these two men, who seemed indifferent to children and hadn't even given a name to their child, had so extravagantly wrapped "Zhuoma's " body in a sheepskin bag after her death.

Such leather bags can only be discarded after use! The reason why the Naren Brothers did this was because their children had no skin left when they died.

Therefore, they borrow a skin from a sheep so that the child can be sent into reincarnation by the Dakini, thus earning blessings for those who are still alive!

The room was deathly silent; you could hear a pin drop!

In the complete silence, only the man in the felt hat continued to spin the prayer wheel in his hand.

His barely audible chanting of mantras was amplified infinitely in the silence. "Om Mani Padme Hum, Om Mani..."

Inside the prayer wheel are sacred scriptures.

It is said that each rotation is equivalent to reciting a scripture, bringing boundless merit.

Such merit is far more valuable than saving many lives.

"Whoosh!"

The scene inside the sheepskin bag was too horrific for Zhou Yang to bear, so he quickly closed the bag.

The two brothers still had smiles on their faces.

Zhuoma's father, Naren, laughed as he said, "Zhuoma has been gifted since she was little. She recognizes the name of the golden statue and can recite the mantra 'Om Mani Padme Hum.' She was chosen by the temple to carry the 'secret image.'"

"This is a wonderful thing, a blessing for our family."

"She was picked up yesterday. The morning she left, she ate buttered tsampa, and I even gave her a bowl of wine."

She skipped and hopped as she walked, which showed how happy she was.

"What a great blessing it must be for her to do this voluntarily and create such a blessing—to carry the secret images in the Zongcha Gompa Dharma Temple!"

"Having accumulated such great merit, and doing it voluntarily, how can she be considered to have died a violent death?"

"Zhuoma's death wasn't a violent one, was it?"

Quzeng was also overjoyed. He pointed to the sky and echoed his brother's words, "That's right, it can't be considered a violent death."

"The monks in the temple all said that she only had nine years to live, and now that her lifespan has ended, she has gone back to heaven to enjoy happiness!"

My child died of natural causes!

Hearing the two brothers' words, Gonpo shook his head repeatedly. "No, no, no!"

He pulled Zhou Yang in front of him and said to Zhou Yang on the spot, "I just told you that there are two kinds of people who died violent deaths, and you must not give alms to the Dakini! One kind is people who have lost their heads."

"The other type is the person whose skin is gone!"

"Dakini eat them, they will taste the strange flavor in their flesh, and experience their hatred and suffering—then the Dakini will stop eating them, and their souls will not be able to be smoothly carried to heaven, but will fall to earth, mountains, and lakes, and will grow into Tsen Demon!"

Absolutely not!

"This job, if you can't do it, absolutely not!"

Naren and Quzeng exchanged a glance upon hearing this.

The child couldn't return to heaven smoothly and couldn't bring them blessings. The smiles on their faces gradually faded, and they all looked at the fat-faced man spinning the prayer wheel.

The chubby-faced man finally stopped chanting scriptures with his eyes lowered.

He looked up at Gonpo and slowly began to speak, "I am a tantric practitioner from the nearby ' Zongcha Gompa Monastery,' my name is Deqin."

"Oh dear." Gonpo looked at Deqin, a smile quickly spreading across his face. "Tashi Delek."

Deqin then looked at Zhou Yang, who remained silent.

Gonpo pulled Zhou Yang aside. Zhou Yang nodded casually, "Tashi Delek."

"Zhuoma died of natural causes, not a violent death," Deqin said calmly. "It's not something I said, it's not something they said randomly, it's something my master, the lama ' Jiawang Riba,' said."

"My master said that when Zhuoma was dying, she had a smile on her face and her hands were clasped together."

She died a virtuous death, not a violent one.

"A dead person like her should be offered as alms to the Dakini."

"If you do not give her to the Dakini, that will be your misfortune."

"That's a disaster for everyone!"

As he spoke of the later parts, Deqin's eyes suddenly turned cold.

The prayer wheel in his hand stopped spinning.

He stared intently at Gonpo, waiting for Gonpo reply.

Gonpo was so frightened that cold sweat instantly broke out on his forehead!

Gonpo had anticipated that refusing this matter would be troublesome; Deqin, who had remained silent until now, would surely be difficult to deal with. However, he hadn't expected things to be so complicated, so complicated that it involved the monastery's head lama! The lama!

That was a noble monk, someone as dark-skinned as him, whom he would normally prostrate himself on the ground and bow like a dog to!

Gonpo's mind was immediately thrown into turmoil.

Deqin didn't produce any proof; he simply mentioned the name of the lama in the temple, which made it clear to him that he couldn't refuse this offer!

"This... this... this is the first time in many years that I've been asked to dismantle a body that has no skin..." Gonpo looked at Deqin again, his eyes pleading, but he didn't know how to beg the other to let him go and send the body elsewhere.

After saying those words, his lips trembled, and he was unable to speak for a moment.

Zhou Yang, who was behind him, immediately realized what was going on when he heard his words.

Zhou Yang spoke up, "Here, there are many people who use leather to carry secret images every day, aren't there?"

Why weren't those bodies sent for sky burial?

Gonpo replied in a low voice, "The temple handled those bodies themselves."

"We don't need to do this work."

"That's the usual practice, that's always been the case..." he said, then looked at Deqin.

Aji's words brought him to his senses, and he knew how to speak to Deqin, "Normally, the temple would handle such deaths directly. We have never done anything like this before."

"No one has ever been delivered into our hands without their skin intact!"

"The master said that when Zhuoma dies, she cannot be buried by water, cremated, her body abandoned, or buried in the mountains; only a sky burial is permitted," Deqin said coldly. "You have hesitated for far too long!"

"It will be dark in a few hours."

"Even if it gets dark, you must bring Zhuoma up the mountain and give her a sky burial in the darkness!"

Gonpo trembled all over, nodding and shaking his head repeatedly. "Oh dear, oh dear--why did they have to choose me for this job? Oh dear, why me of all people?"

"Everyone says you're a good cook." Deqin smiled, but there was little warmth in his smile.

At that moment, he noticed the young man's fixed gaze again, turned his head, and met Zhou Yang's eyes.

Zhou Yang stared at him, thinking to himself:

"It must be that the lamas in the temple couldn't handle Zhuoma's body, so they sent her here!"

"What happened to Zhuoma at the temple?" It seemed that he couldn't refuse this matter—in this strictly rule-bound place, there was nowhere to run away with Ajia.

"Guan Village is a place where ghosts try their best to act like humans. Sometimes, you can even really feel that they have human skin and human emotions."

"But in this place, things that people inadvertently reveal are like evil spirits!"

"It looks like a human, but it's actually like a ghost!"

"Deqin is like this, Naren is like this, Quzeng is like this—each of them has flesh and blood, but their souls seem to have become ghosts!"

For the first time, Zhou Yang felt that this place was even inferior to Guan Village!

"Oh dear, oh dear..."

Gonpo unconsciously uttered some interjections.

Under Deqin's increasingly cold and impatient gaze, he knew that delaying was useless, so he turned to look at Zhou Yang, his lips trembling.

This was his first time dismantling a corpse with his apprentice, and this terrible thing happened!

He couldn't just let his child be a burden like this.

Thinking this, Gonpo turned back to Deqin and forced a smile, "I... I'll go find my corpse carrier Jiekan." "No need for anyone else to carry it. This matter shouldn't be known by too many people!" Deqin shook his head, his mocking gaze fixed on Zhou Yang. The young man's direct gaze made him very uncomfortable; he had already offended him!

He pointed at Zhou Yang: "Isn't he your apprentice?"

"He's tall and strong, let him carry the corpse!"

Gonpo's face immediately turned pale.

Zhou Yang nodded. "Alright, I'll carry the corpse!"

His gaze remained fixed, level with everyone.

As a tantric practitioner, Deqin usually only received contemptuous and aweful gazes. Few people could look him in the eye. He found this Aji even more annoying and held a deep grudge against him.