Chapter 18 Corpses

Following the water flow, Yu Chengmu finally stopped in front of the very thick white candle.

It was the one the watchman had emphasized.

"Dong—"

The sound of the bell rang again, but this time, Jiang Cheng stared at his phone, a strange expression appearing on his face. Then he stood up, walked quickly to the door, and looked outside through the crack.

Fatty couldn't help but ask, "Doctor, what did you find?"

"The timing doesn't match up," Jiang Cheng said without turning his head. "The time between your two bell rings was about half an hour, and Lei Mingyu's was about the same, but Yu Chengmu's time interval was 44 minutes."

"That long?" Fatty was a little surprised, and after recalling, he quickly explained, "I observed the incense sticks, and they were all about the same. There's no reason Yu Chengmu's incense should burn that much longer than ours."

"Yeah, so what exactly did he do in the mourning hall during that extra time?" Jiang Cheng turned his head, looked at Fatty, and a hint of worry appeared on his face.

"Dong—"

Another bell rang.

Pang Xiaofeng stepped into the gate of the mourning hall. His steps were unsteady, and he looked around nervously. Lei Mingyu had already briefly told him about the layout of the mourning hall after returning. Fortunately, there were no major problems.

He took a deep breath and prepared to light the incense as Lei Mingyu had said, then sit in front of the incense burner, and not listen, look, or care about anything that happened.

That's right, that's it!

Trembling, he took the incense and lit it on the thickest candle, then inserted it into the incense burner. Pang Xiaofeng then entered silent mode.

At this moment, his mind couldn't calm down. When he came just now, he ran into Yu Chengmu. Chen Hao had told him that this old guy was not easy to deal with, so he didn't even bother to greet him.

But strangely, when passing by him, Yu Chengmu stared at him intently, a strange smile appearing on his wrinkled old face.

Recalling that smile, Pang Xiaofeng couldn't help but shiver.

"Could Yu Chengmu have been replaced by a ghost?" A thought suddenly popped into Pang Xiaofeng's mind. He didn't have much experience. The strange things in these missions were all told to him by Chen Hao and the others, as a crash course.

He slowly reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone. If he really encountered something he couldn't solve or understand, he would ask Chen Hao and the others for help.

Although Chen Hao had reminded him that the person on the other end of the phone might not be a human.

Thinking of this, he reached deeper into his pocket, and after feeling a hard little object, the heart he was holding in his throat relaxed slightly. It was something the watchman had left for them, saying it was for use at a critical moment.

"Creak—"

A strange sound instantly pulled him back to reality. Pang Xiaofeng swallowed and lowered his head even further, as if as long as he didn't look around, those messy things wouldn't come looking for him.

"Creak—"

"Creak—"

The sounds came one after another, like several people lined up in a row, making sounds as they stepped on the waterlogged floor.

Pang Xiaofeng's heart clenched suddenly. He didn't understand why such a terrifying scene would appear in his mind. He raised his head jerkily. The sound was coming from behind the white curtain.

Lei Mingyu had told him after returning that he had also heard strange noises, but Pang Xiaofeng clearly remembered that he said there was only one sound, and after he ignored it, it never happened again.

But... why was it that when it was his turn, the strange noises kept ringing, as if they wouldn't stop unless he went over there!

Pang Xiaofeng was afraid, because he heard that the sound was gradually changing, turning into a wet, dragging sound, like the feeling of shoes that had been soaked for who knows how long slowly rubbing against the ground as they moved forward.

And it was getting closer and closer!

He really wanted to turn around and run, run out of the mourning hall, run back to the厢房 *xiangfang* (side room) to find his teammates, but the remaining bit of reason told him not to. He was sure that as soon as he left the door of the mourning hall, even a celestial being descending to earth wouldn't be able to save him.

Since he couldn't run, then he would face it bravely. Pang Xiaofeng thought about the experiences Chen Hao had told him, and a touch of ferocity rose in his heart. He took out the little gadget the watchman had given him and slowly approached the curtain.

Then he suddenly lifted the curtain!

The scene he was most worried about didn't appear, but what still made his face pale was that behind the statue of the god, several large coffins were arranged side by side. There were quite a few coffins, extending into the darkness.

At the same time, all the strange noises disappeared.

Everything just now seemed to be an auditory hallucination caused by excessive tension.

He slowly calmed down and began to look at the scene in front of him. The coffin lids were opened to the side, and the corpses inside were bloated and unrecognizable. Each corpse had a piece of yellow paper covering its face.

The yellow paper was soaked with water, and he could vaguely see the swollen outline of the corpse's face underneath.

At first glance, the atmosphere was extremely eerie.

Pang Xiaofeng's eyes swept across, and suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a slight reflection on the edge of the coffin, like water. He didn't dare to get too close, so he couldn't see it very clearly.

Suddenly, it seemed as if he had thought of something. He compared the positions where there was water on the edge of the coffins and found that they were all near the hands of the corpses. Gradually, a bold guess exploded in his mind.

Could it be... could it be that the sound he heard just now was real, that these corpses opened the coffin lids, grabbed the edge of the coffins with their hands, stood up, then stepped out of the coffins and walked behind the statue of the god.

And when he lifted the curtain, they laid back down again.

This idea was too terrifying, but Pang Xiaofeng felt that it was very likely!

To ask him to go back now, to go back to the incense burner and pretend that nothing had happened, that would definitely be deceiving himself. He was unwilling, and he didn't dare to sit still and wait for death. So, after a brief thought, he made a bold decision. He slowly retreated, then quickly took out his phone, took a picture of the coffins and the corpses inside, and then turned around and ran.

He ran to the statue of the god, knelt down without saying a word, kneeling right in front of the very thick white candle. This was the place he thought was the safest and brightest in the mourning hall.

It was said that cameras could capture things that the human eye couldn't see. Pang Xiaofeng's hands trembled as he looked at the phone screen. "Whew—" He took a deep breath. Fortunately, the corpses on it were lying obediently in the coffins, not moving, and not baring their teeth at him or anything.

After thinking it over again and again, for the sake of prudence, Pang Xiaofeng sent this photo to Chen Hao, asking him to help take a look to see if there were any problems.

After receiving the photo, Chen Hao and the other two didn't see any problems, but after all, Lei Mingyu hadn't been behind the statue of the god, and hadn't seen the coffins, so they weren't sure if there were any changes in between.

"I didn't hear too many strange noises before. Something's not quite right with Xiaofeng's situation," Lei Mingyu frowned.

"Besides you and Xiaofeng, only that Wang Fugui and Yu Chengmu have been to the mourning hall," Du Moyu's expression also looked worried. "Yu Chengmu is not trustworthy. I suggest contacting that Wang Fugui to ask him if he knows about those coffins."

Chen Hao was a man of action, and immediately dialed the phone number that Jiang Cheng had left.

But as soon as he dialed, it was immediately hung up.

He dialed again, and it was hung up again.

It wasn't until the third time that Chen Hao first sent a message before calling, but even so, the other end of the phone didn't say anything, not even the faintest sound of breathing could be heard.

After some back and forth, Chen Hao finally added Jiang Cheng's WeChat. "Mr. Jiang, our man is in trouble in the mourning hall. Please help ask Mr. Wang if the coffin lids in the back of the mourning hall were open from the beginning?"

"That's right, they were open," Jiang Cheng replied. "And there are corpses in every coffin."

Now Chen Hao finally felt relieved and quickly sent a message back to Pang Xiaofeng inside the mourning hall.

"Wait," Du Moyu, who was standing to the side, took Chen Hao's phone. After thinking about it, he sent the photo directly. Chen Hao's face suddenly changed when he saw it. "What are you doing? You'll make them misunderstand by doing this, and you don't even know if there's anything wrong with this photo. If there's a curse or something, aren't you harming them too?"

Du Moyu was used to writing supernatural novels. He had no feelings. He only cared about his friends surviving.

Jiang Cheng was also stunned when he saw the photo. Before he could react, Fatty had already crowded over, staring at the photo and nodding his chin, "Doctor, that's right, that's what I saw. I... huh?" Fatty seemed to have discovered something strange, frowning, his face gradually approaching the screen, but the next second, Fatty's pupils suddenly shrank, and he took a step back.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Cheng stood up as well.

"Doctor!" Fatty pointed at the screen, trembling, his face pale. "Those corpses... those corpses are not right, the direction is wrong!"

"Direction?"

"That's right! I remember that the corpses were facing the statue of the god with their heads, but in the photo... in the photo, it's their feet, their feet are facing the statue of the god!" Fatty's voice was trembling. "The corpses... the corpses turned around in the coffins!"