Chapter 16: The Zombie Says (2)

Under the gaze of the entire village, the thick pile of paper money was finally burning out, and the wax dripping from the red candles in front of the grave had already dyed the small patch of ground red. Meng Dawei sadly threw the last stack of paper money in the air and then bowed three times to the grave.

“Old man, it’s not that I’m not filial, but if you become that thing, it will be the whole village that suffers! This is a rule passed down from our ancestors, and my son has no choice but to follow it. But, old man, don’t worry, if you’ve been wronged, my son will risk his life to get you justice.” These words were almost shouted by Meng Dawei, and the villagers present all heard them clearly.

But no one spoke, and the silence was terrifying. This is not acceptable to anyone, and it is normal to seek justice if you are wronged.

Gao Yan silently helped Meng Dawei up, and the two of them stood to the side. At around 11 o’clock, they would start digging up the grave. The time for opening the coffin was usually at 11:45, which was the time when the yang qi was at its peak. After this time, the yang qi would suddenly turn to yin, and there would be terrible consequences.

The worship was completed at this time, but it was a little after 10 o’clock. Everyone waited silently. Although this does not happen every year, many villages in this area do this once every 2 or 3 years. It is no longer new to the villagers who are watching.

Today, almost no one is working in the fields because the rule is that all male descendants over the age of 5 and under the age of 70 must come to use their yang energy to protect the site, so naturally no one is working.

Gao Bin, Gao Yan’s younger brother and Meng Dawei’s brother-in-law, was also at the scene. He was a man of the world who had worked as a construction worker in several cities. It was hard to come back on vacation and catch this kind of thing. It was also unlucky. The important thing was that one of the eight people who opened the coffin was him. Who could blame him for being Meng Dawei’s brother-in-law?

Seeing his sister and brother-in-law in such a sad state, Gao Bin was a little irritated. He took out a red plum cigarette from his pocket and lit it. He had traveled to many cities, and gradually felt that the rules of the village where he was born were really a bit unreliable. In other places, he had heard of the burning of corpses, but it was far less frequent than here. Even the children here knew what a zombie was. With some knowledge, Gao Bin often wondered if this was a rumor. They make a fuss over every little thing and make people feel so sad.

At this moment, Taoist Yuan happened to walk over and handed Gao Bin a small cloth bag and a mask, saying, “Do you know the rules? Don’t be careless later, be careful not to let the corpse gas rush into your body, that would be difficult.”

Gao Bin took the items with some impatience and said, “I know. Put the cloth bag in the mask and cover your nose and mouth. Don’t worry.”

Yuan Taoist stuffed a handful of glutinous rice into Gao Bin’s breast pocket and said, “You have to do it well. You can’t be careless. Do you know the old man Wang from the next village? He was just showing off. When he opened the coffin, he refused to cover his mouth and nose with a cloth bag. He insisted on smoking his pipe. As a result, he was overwhelmed by the corpse’s breath and went back with his whole body turning blue and white and his face turning black. It was too late to send him to the hospital, and then he died and had to be burned. He couldn’t be buried.”

Gao Bin had heard about this. At the time, Gao Bin was still a child. Not only Wang Laotou, but also several other people in the surrounding villages had been hit by the corpse gas. They were all careless, unlike Wang Laotou, who was arrogant.

Thinking about this, Gao Bin was a little convinced of the rules passed down from his ancestors. He pulled Yuan Taoist over and handed him a cigarette, saying, “Yuan Taoist, are you done? If you’re done, let’s chat for a while.”

After taking a look at the cigarette, Yuan Taoist smiled and put it away, saying, “Right away, there is still one last person who has not been given anything. When it is finished, I will talk to you.”

After a while, Yuan Taoist squatted down next to Gao Bin and asked, “What do you want to talk to me about?”

Gao Bin took a puff and asked, “Brother Yuan, you’ve been a Taoist priest for so long. Tell me the truth. Have you ever seen a vampire?”

“Zombie, how can I see it? Those who can see it are all dead! Are you asking me this because you want to bullshit me?” Yuan Taoist lit a cigarette and took a puff. Obviously, Gao Bin was flattered by Yuan’s brother, so he didn’t talk nonsense, but was very practical.

“Since you haven’t seen it, why do you have to burn the corpse? Isn’t this a bit sorry for the ancestors?” Gao Bin actually couldn’t bear to see his sister and brother-in-law like that.

“You’re wrong. You grew up here, haven’t you heard of the unexplained deaths of animals and people who were bitten to death? How can you say you haven’t seen them when you were a child?” Yuan Taoist didn’t like to hear this. As a Taoist priest here and a native of this area, although he had never seen a vampire, he had heard of them and seen many things.

Gao Bin was silent. He had indeed seen a cow die a horrible death when he was a child. It died inexplicably, with wounds all over its body, and it felt dry and shriveled. It was either the feeling of a mummy or the feeling of being dry and shriveled.

Later, after the cow died, a family in the village heard a noise in the middle of the night and when they got up to take a look, the old sow in their pigsty was also dead. This caused quite a stir and was not resolved until a corpse was burned. At least there were no more so-called zombies in the village.

I heard that when it was at its worst, some researchers came and vaguely told everyone that it was an infectious disease of some kind of livestock. The cows had wounds, but the pigs didn’t, because the cows had struggled before they died.

Just as Gao Bin was thinking about this, Yuan Taoist priest was already shouting anxiously, “Gao Bin, you are also a male member of the village. Don’t say anything else, you must have seen the corpse that was dug up, right? In the 70s, when the situation was so severe, the village also burned a corpse. That corpse was famous. Do you still remember the corpse of Li Huaili?”

Gao Bin’s face turned white. He never wanted to recall that scene in his life. When the coffin was opened, Li Huaili’s body was dragged out into the sun to be exposed. The claws, the teeth, and even the dark red stains on his body were said to be traces of him sucking the blood of livestock!

Some people even turned over the coffin board and saw unclear traces on it, saying that Li Huaili had dug with his claws!

The rumor that Li Huaili had become a powerful vampire had spread throughout the eight villages in the area.

Gao Bin also remembered that when the corpse was burned, there were two inexplicable strange cries, a bit like a toad and a bit like a human being shouting. This memory was somewhat terrifying, and Gao Bin had always been reluctant to think about it. Due to instinctive avoidance, he had almost forgotten it, or it had begun to become unreal.

At this point, Yuan Taoist mentioned this, and he finally remembered, and angrily cursed, “Hammer (Sichuan dialect for cursing, widely used)!” Gao Bin stopped talking.

Seeing that Gao Bin was convinced, Yuan Taoist seemed to have accomplished a major event in his career. He nodded with satisfaction and was about to leave. After all, it is extremely difficult to convince a worldly person to believe in the old ways, isn’t it?

Seeing that Yuan Taoist was about to leave, Gao Bin was unwilling. He still had one big question. He pulled Yuan Taoist over and said anxiously, “Yuan, I just want to understand one thing. Why is it that our area is particularly plagued by zombies? Why is it that there are so few other places like this?”

This question was really tricky. Yuan Taoist was a bit embarrassed and scratched his head. After thinking for a long time, he said, “I haven’t been to other places either. Anyway, many rural areas are also affected, whether it’s the south or the north! Our area seems to be a place where Sichuan is more affected. I think there can only be one explanation. Our area has many places where corpses are kept.”

“What is a ‘corpse-raising ground’?” Gao Bin really didn’t understand the concept.

Yuan Taoist squatted down again and said, “The corpse-raising ground is particularly prone to zombies, but I don’t know why exactly. This has to do with the corpse-raising ground, but also with various taboos related to burials. Anyway, you know that once the corpse rises, those zombies will eat enough livestock and if they want to eat people, the first person they will look for is their own relatives! Don’t be sad for your sister and brother-in-law. This is for their own good.”

Gao Bin nodded with a heavy heart. He still had questions in his heart that had not been completely answered, but given the level of Taoist priest Yuan, it was already quite good to be able to answer to this extent.

Suddenly, Gao Bin remembered a question. The place where his brother-in-law’s father was buried was very close to the place where Li Huaili was buried. His brother-in-law had even had a fight about it!

However, the ancestral graves of the Meng family in this village are almost all concentrated in one area. Seeing that the ancestral grave area is getting smaller and smaller, and there is a lot of arable land, it is also helpless to choose this area. Could it be…

Gao Bin felt uncomfortable again. At that moment, the old man in the village shouted, “Time’s up. Let’s start digging the graves.”