Stranger Danger

Chapter 359: The Coffin

“This isn’t right. This isn’t right! You’re already dead!”

Lu Hui suddenly came back to his senses and let out a furious roar. Astral qi washed out of his body as he eyes grew bloodshot. “Who the fuck is pretending to be my family and making me hear all these? Show yourself!”

Lu Hui abruptly turned around and looked behind him, but neither his father, mother and brother were there. There was only the fog.

Ding ding dong dong chiang chiang bam!

Suddenly, the familiar noise of instruments came from the fog. A bunch of imps stepped into the open. Some of them were beating the drum, some were hitting the gong, and some were dancing a strange dance that Lu Hui didn’t recognize.

Behind the imps were another group of imps, but these ones were blue-faced, long-fanged, and extremely muscular. They were carrying a coffin that was much bigger than your usual coffin, and it was constantly changing shape as if it was made of fog.

When Lu Hui looked at the coffin, many faces suddenly appeared on its surface. They were all wearing a wide, contorted grin on their faces, but he still recognized them as his parents, his brother, his sister-in-law, his nephew, and his niece. Every single face was a family member he had killed with his own hands.

“Come to your father, Hui’er. Come to me.”

“It’s been so long since I saw you, Hui’er. Show mother how big you’ve grown.”

“Uncle... Uncle... Ying’er really missed you!”

“Brother Lu, I thought we’re going for a drink at Ruyi? Come on, man!”

The faces kept calling out to him. Lu Hui was snarling, but his eyes were full of fear. “No... No... You’re all dead. You’re already dead. I’m not scared of you! I’m not scared of you!”

Creak!

Suddenly, the coffin lid was pushed away with a creak, and an arm covered in white hair reached out from within. As soon as the arm appeared, Lu Hui felt as if he was dunked in a pool of ice. Fear flooded every part of his body, and he wanted to turn around and run as far away from the arm as possible. He found himself frozen in place, however. He couldn’t move a muscle.

The hairy hand pointed a finger at him, and his vision abruptly turned pitch black. When next he opened his eyes, he found himself lying inside a small, narrow, airtight space.

“Am... Am I inside a coffin?” Lu Hui touched his surroundings until the horrifying truth dawned upon him. “I am inside a coffin. Am I inside that coffin?!”

Lu Hui pushed the coffin lid with all his might, but it didn’t budge in the slightest.

“Phew...”

He sucked in a deep breath and attempted to cut the coffin in half with his sword qi, but all he did was cut the surrounding fog in half. The coffin itself remained perfectly intact.

“Ah! It hurts!”

“It hurts so bad... so bad...”

“Why did you attack us, Hui’er?”

The next moment, a bunch of faces appeared on the coffin. It was his father, mother, brother, sister-in-law, family and more.

“You... You.. No... Let me out! Let me out of here!”

Lu Hui’s face turned deathly pale as he swung his fingers all over the place. His sword qi cut the faces into pieces, but it only took a moment for them to reform.

“Why did you kill us, Hui’er?”

“Why do you want to leave? Don’t you want to be together with your friends and family?”

“Yeah! Stay with us!”

“Stay with us...”

“Stay with us...”

The faces smiled from ear to ear before pouncing toward Lu Hui.

“Stay away! Stay away!!!”

Forgive me! Forgive me! No... no...”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

......

“I... I can’t hear anything anymore. Is he...?”

At the front, Fu Hengcong gulped audibly and stuttered out a question.

“Who knows? Do you want to take a look?” Song Qingyu taunted.

“Hmph. You can take a look yourself!” Fu Hengcong grunted. If he was suspicious of Ye Qing’s words before, now those suspicions had fully evaporated.

“Brother... Brother Fu... Let’s not talk and keep going, please?” Ruyan hugged Fu Hengcong tightly with her eyes closed.

“Of course, of course. Don’t worry. It will be fine,” Fu Hengcong consoled her before looking at Ye Qing and asking, “Hey you. If you know we shouldn’t look back when we’re getting off the boat, you must know how we can leave this place, right?”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I have no idea.” Ye Qing shrugged. In fact, he didn’t want to leave the boat so quickly. He wanted to stay for another eight to ten hours.

“You... You’re not lying to us, are you? Trying to kill us all before going off on your own?” Fu Hengcong couldn’t help but question.

“Kill you?” Ye Qing let out a cold chuckle. “If that was the plan, I wouldn’t have warned you earlier. Use your brain for once.”

“What... What should we do then?” Fu Hengcong stuttered with pale lips.

“Amitabha, you are dumb as shit. He already said he doesn’t know where the exit is. Why do you think he can answer that question?”

Jing Xin chanted “Amitabha” under his breath before adding, “Stop shaking! You’re shaking the piss out of my bladder! Be a man, will you?”

“But I’m scared!” Fu Hengcong argued.

“Coward!” Jing Xin rebuked him before declaring, “I’m scared too! So keep moving!”

In the end, they had no choice but to suppress their fear and temptation and keep walking forward.

An indefinite amount of time later, just when everyone thought that they were stuck in this hopeless place for eternity, their surroundings suddenly brightened considerably. The fog faded, the ferry point and city came into view, and the deathly whispers and instrumental noises ringing in their ears were gone.

“We... We’re safe?” Fu Hengcong exclaimed with unbridled joy and relief.

“Phew... Buddha be praised! I knew I’m a lucky monk.” Jing Xin was laughing loudly as well.

Out of everyone, Ye Qing was the only one who hid a sigh of disappointment. Dammit, that’s too fast!

“Lu Hui is gone!” Greenlake walked up to Ye Qing and whispered into his ear.

“He’s gone?” Ye Qing looked back. Of course, he only did it because he knew it was safe now.

Both the boat and the ferryman were nowhere to be seen. The River of Forgettance had also returned to its normal appearance: turbulent, smelly, and covered in fog. So long as he didn’t set foot into the river himself, its dangers could no longer touch him. It was almost as if everything had returned to normal.

It wasn’t though. Corpse Vulture was taken by the River of Forgettance, and Lu Hui had vanished into thin air. He at least knew what happened to Corpse Vulture, but he had no idea what happened to Lu Hui. One moment he was screaming about his dead family, and the next, there was nothing. The man hadn’t even left behind a body. It was scary to say the least.

Speaking of which, I don’t see Corpse Vulture’s body anywhere... is it still on the boat? Ye Qing rubbed his nose thoughtfully. He had a feeling that the ferryman was plotting to do something with the body.

......

At the River of Forgettance, the ferryman wasn’t standing in front of the boat and pushing the boat forward as usual. Instead, he was sitting crosslegged on the bow with his setting pole placed on top of his legs.

Right now, the ferryman was tilting his head and looking at Corpse Vulture’s body quietly. Only he knew what he was thinking about.

The ferryman muttered to himself. “What a shame I couldn’t trap that cunning boy. Otherwise, he could’ve made me so much money. What a shame!”

He regretted being stupid enough to tell the boy the rules of the River of Forgettance. If not for that, the boy might’ve died, and he could’ve exploited his soul for his own use.

“Stupid mouth, stupid mouth, stupid mouth...”

The ferryman grew so frustrated he slapped his own mouth again and again.

“Wait a second. I might not have the boy, but I can find someone else to play his role!”

Suddenly, the ferryman’s eyes burned much brighter. “Yeah! I can find someone to beg for my help when the real passengers are in danger. They’ll pretend to pay me and prod the others to do the same.”

“This way, I’ll be able to earn money much faster without having to break the rules! It’s killing two birds with one stone!”

“Yes, I’ll do that. I’m a fucking genius, hahaha!”

The ferryman extended a bony hand, grabbed a soul from the River of Forgettance, and tossed it into Corpse Vulture’s body. A few breaths later, Corpse Vulture suddenly opened his eyes and wobbled to his feet. He thanked the ferryman profusely, “Thank you, my lord! Thank you for saving me! Thank you!”

“Save it. I have things I need you to help me with. If you perform well, I can send you to the cycle of reincarnation sooner. If not, I’ll leave you to rot forever in the River of Forgettance. Understand?”

“Yes, yes. Whatever you say, my lord!” Corpse Vulture answered in a hurry.

“Now, I want you to do this... and that... and then... Did you get everything?”

“You idiot! I’ll repeat one more time. Like this... and this... no, not like that!”

“Do you get it now? Good, good. Without further ado, let’s go make some money!”

“Hahaha... I’m a fucking genius[1]...”

......

“What do we do now?”

After they entered the city, Fu Hengcong, Song Qingyu, Jingxin and Ruyan said their goodbyes and left, and unlike the outer market, the inner market seemed as dead as a dodo. That was why Ye Qing looked to Greenlake for directions.

“No worries. Follow me.” Greenlake smiled mysteriously before walking up to a stone lion beside the street. Then, she held out a hand toward Ye Qing and said,

“Give me a yin gold please, husband.”

“Why do you need it?” Ye Qing asked with a frown. Are you so poor you couldn’t even afford a yin gold?

“You’ll find out in a moment.” Greenlake smiled seductively at him.

Despite his annoyance, Ye Qing still handed Greenlake a yin gold. She put it inside the stone lion’s mouth, and—

Crack!

Ye Qing watched in shock as the stone lion abruptly opened its tightly shut eyes and crushed the yin gold between its teeth. After swallowing the ingot in one gulp, it boomed in a cold, stiff and thunderous voice,

“Ask away!”

“It... what the fuck... it can speak?!” Ye Qing blinked rapidly. His senses were telling him that the stone lion was one hundred percent an inanimate object, and yet it somehow swallowed his yin gold and spoke out loud. Just how was this possible?

“What shops are open in the inner market tonight?” Greenlake asked.

“Ten yin gold,” The stone replied.

Greenlake looked at Ye Qing, and Ye Qing looked at his poor wallet. Why me?

His mind was rebelling, but his body was honest. He took ten yin gold from his wallet and placed it in the stone lion’s mouth.

Crack! Crack!

Ye Qing was honestly impressed. The yin gold were metal ingots, and the stone lion was made of stone. Despite this, it was chewing through the metal like it was chicken, crunchy and delicious.

When the stone lion was done, it answered Greenlake’s question dutifully, “A total of thirty six shops are open in the inner market tonight. They are the Yin Lifespan Gambling House, Ruyi Haunt, Ghost Tower, Pawn Shop No. 8[2], Bank of Heaven and Earth, Feng Park...”

1. Once again, Ye Qing made life for all others who came after him worse. ?

2. Dum dum dum! ?

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