Chapter 22: The corpse changes

It was another cold night in the mountains. Old Sun led Sun Kui silently along the mountain path. The two of them were not at ease. It had been five days since they met that man named Old Li. The two of them dreamed of meeting him again.

Why? Because he had casually said that there was something wrong with the fifth corpse. The master and apprentice had not taken it seriously, but since the day before yesterday, the fifth corpse had been acting more and more strangely.

The small things like trembling hands and feet are naturally not worth mentioning. Today, there have been several times when it has become uncontrollable and tried to break free from the straw rope. The most terrifying time was when the two of them stopped halfway to rest and drink some water, and the corpse suddenly turned its head and roared at Lao Sun.

It almost scared Sun into peeing his pants!

After all these years of transporting corpses, Lao Sun has never encountered a corpse that has come to life. He has never seen anything like this. The corpse was covered with a straw hat, and Lao Sun thought that if the face had not been covered, he might have peed his pants.

People say that ghosts are scary, but if you want to talk about scary images, it’s definitely the zombies.

However, even a diamond needs a diamond to polish it. When it comes to dealing with a corpse that has come back to life, Lao Sun is not completely helpless. The solution is very simple: he stuffs glutinous rice into the corpse’s seven orifices every day.

There are countless folk remedies for dealing with zombies, but Lao Sun, who is a professional in this field, knows that the most useful and simplest of these remedies is definitely glutinous rice, which is at least the best thing to prevent a zombie from rising.

The so-called “rising of the corpse” does not only refer to the process of the corpse sitting up, but also to the recovery of consciousness.

“Master, I think this fifth corpse is getting out of control again. Let’s stop for a while and change some glutinous rice.” Sun Kui was walking behind and could see clearly that when the corpses were originally being driven, they all followed the bell in a straight line, and there was no question of them straying from the group. At this time, the fifth corpse began to sway and wanted to break out of the group.

Lao Sun’s heart sank, and he quickly said, “Let’s stop in front.”

After walking a few steps and coming to a large stone, Lao Sun put away the bell and stopped the team. He saw the fifth corpse trembling at a glance. Lao Sun, without thinking, sprinkled a circle of glutinous rice at its feet, then sat down next to Sun Kui. At this time, he dared not change the glutinous rice in its seven orifices. What if it was bitten?

Sun Kui took a sip of water and asked, “Master, how long will it take us to reach the borders of Xiangxi? If we find the Grand Master, there is still hope for this matter.”

The so-called Da Si, of course, are born as corpse-drivers, but in addition to driving corpses, they also know various methods and a little bit of witchcraft and sorcery. They are much more respected than corpse-drivers and are even the spiritual leaders of a village.

Sun Kui was very worried about this matter and of course hoped that it could be resolved as soon as possible. Of course, the responsibility for changing the glutinous rice fell to the apprentice. The glutinous rice that had been changed the day before had turned completely black. How could Sun Kui not be worried?

The black color can only mean one thing: the corpse’s qi has already reached the sky, and the glutinous rice can no longer contain it. It will turn into a corpse at any time.

You have to know that only a vampire can cause the glutinous rice to turn black. If the glutinous rice is used to suppress a vampire, it will turn black, which can only mean that it is a vampire, a vampire that is about to rise at any time.

Facing Sun Kui’s question, Lao Sun sighed and said, “The road is difficult to travel, and we are traveling to a remote place. Although we have been traveling for six days, it will take at least two more days to get to the village in Xiangxi. If we encounter a delay due to rain, it will be even more difficult to calculate the days. Now we can only use glutinous rice to delay it as much as possible.”

Sun Kui’s face was also quite heavy. He took a bite of dry food and said to Lao Sun, “Master, who is the fifth corpse? How did it turn into a corpse? We take our jobs very carefully. How could we encounter this?”

“This fifth corpse…” Lao Sun took out a pipe and smoked a puff, then began to think back. Suddenly, his eyelids twitched, and he looked at Sun Kui in horror, saying, “It doesn’t make sense. It’s impossible!”

“Master, what’s wrong?” Sun Kui stopped eating his dry rations. Seeing his master’s expression, he knew that something was wrong!

“You know, our business is either done by ourselves or by the Chongqing office. Of the seven orders, four were actually picked up by them. I remember the fifth corpse was a man who died of a cold while doing business in Chongqing. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it. It wasn’t one of the taboo corpses that we don’t rush. Moreover, the order was picked up by Lao Man for me. When I took over, Lao Man had already disposed of the corpse once. Do you think that makes sense?”

Sun Kui was also stunned by Lao Sun’s words. There were several officers in the office, some of whom were purely there to take on business and had no knowledge of the art of corpse transportation, while others were born as corpse carriers. Lao Man was born as a corpse carrier, otherwise he would not have been able to help Lao Sun dispose of the corpse in advance.

In fact, it is normal to handle the corpse in advance to prevent it from rotting.

In addition, Lao Man and Lao Sun have a very close relationship, so Lao Sun thought of this and said that it doesn’t make sense.

Sun Kui was a simple man, and when he thought about it, he also felt that it was impossible. So he said comforting words: “Master, the corpse changing thing is always unpredictable, and there is no pattern to follow. Maybe it’s just our bad luck.”

Sun narrowed his eyes and took a couple of puffs of his pipe, saying, “Yes, it’s our bad luck.”

After a while, the corpse was completely quiet, and Sun Kui had just finished eating his dry rations. He patted his hands and said, “Master, I’ll go change the glutinous rice, and then we’ll hurry up and get going.”

Old Sun nodded, but he didn’t say much. Although he was willing to believe it was a coincidence, he still had a thorn in his heart. How could it be a coincidence to this extent? He was not Sun Kui, and he had been wandering the world for many years, so he had more practical experience than Sun Kui.

“Gee… Master, look…” Sun Kui was now using a bamboo skewer to remove the glutinous rice from the corpse’s seven orifices. Seeing the color of the glutinous rice, Sun Kui couldn’t help but let Lao Sun take a look.

Yesterday the glutinous rice was black, but it was all black in the middle of the rice, and there was still a layer of white shell on the outside. Today, when I looked again, the whole glutinous rice was black and translucent.

When Lao Sun saw it, his heart sank again. He thought to himself, if it really can’t be helped, this corpse will have to be burned on the road. Even if he is punished in the village when he returns, he can pay compensation in front of the guests. In this way, he is afraid that he will not be able to last for two days.

Sun Kui didn’t think about it too much. Anyway, his master was there. After he finished playing with the glutinous rice, Sun Kui took a handful of it out of his bag and was about to stuff it into the corpse’s mouth when he saw a man coming out of the woods.

“Who? The corpse-walker is passing by, so stay away from him.” Old Sun immediately shouted in alarm. The corpse he had originally brought had already turned into a corpse, and he was even more unlucky. Old Sun was unwilling to bear the consequences of being cursed by a stranger.

You have to know that this time, the decision to burn the corpse is a big taboo for the corpse-chasing people. The punishment for going back is not known to be heavy, and the amount of money to be paid is not a small amount. More importantly, his reputation will also plummet. Lao Sun’s mood was not good, and his tone naturally became stiff.

When Lao Sun shouted, Sun Kui’s movements stopped unconsciously, and his attention was drawn to the person.

But the man had obviously heard what Old Sun had said, but he did not back down, instead he walked over to them and shouted, “If I were you, I would never stuff more glutinous rice into the corpse’s mouth. Be careful of being bitten, it’s a hassle to remove the poison!”

The voice was unfamiliar and young. It wasn’t the old Li who had warned them the other day. Sun Kui was a little suspicious and, clutching the glutinous rice in his hand, looked unconsciously towards the corpse.

The eyes of the corpse were originally closed, even if they were closed in death. Generally, the corpse removers would find a way to keep them closed, or close them with their hands, or close them while persuading the corpse removers, and they would never allow the corpse to have open eyes, because that would be inauspicious.

But at this moment, Sun Kui turned his head and found that the corpse was staring at him blankly. The pair of lifeless eyes were particularly terrifying.

Sun Kui was suddenly scared silly, and his hand holding the sticky rice was shaking uncontrollably. He could only stammer out, “Master… Master… it…”

At this moment, Lao Sun suddenly stood up. He knew that it was bad, the corpse had risen.

The young man shouted, “Be careful,” and then rushed over.

Suddenly, Sun Kui saw the corpse’s expression was very strange, because it opened its mouth, and the stiff muscles made it open its mouth in a very strange expression…