Emperatrices transmigradas (hombres y mujeres)

Capítulo 64

"Sigh..." Old Chen sighed softly. He turned around and went into the next room. The phone call next door was interrupted, and he vaguely heard Old Chen tell Zhao Lianpu that Yu Guang and the others were leaving, then he responded softly and hesitantly a few times before returning to the dining room.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Zhao is currently on a very important phone call and cannot personally see you out of the mansion. I'm truly sorry."

"It's alright, it's alright," Yu Guang quickly smoothed things over. "Actually, we've been bothering Mr. Zhao. If we didn't have important business tonight, we would definitely have drunk ourselves into a stupor." Escorted by Old Chen, the group walked through a long, winding corridor. Darkness had fallen, the sky like a vast, black curtain about to be drawn. In drama, drawing the curtain signifies the end of a good show. But for tonight's night burial, this curtain meant a live drama was about to begin.

Walking along the corridor, influenced by the environment, everyone fell silent, with only the sound of shoes hitting the ground.

In the small house next to the villa, the large German Shepherd named Blackie still barked softly. Although one couldn't see the dog's face, one could imagine it must be a majestic dog with erect ears and glossy fur. Opening the brass door, several people stood in the dim sunlight outside, waiting for them to emerge.

Wang Laomo hurriedly said, "These are the coffin bearers for today. I told them to wait for us here a long time ago. Now we'll go to Lü Guihua's house to make preparations."

Sure enough, there were several people standing, sitting, or squatting haphazardly outside, anxiously waiting for them.

Wu Yong and Shen Tian hurriedly searched for the familiar face among them—Wang Mingsheng. Strangely, neither of them could find him; there were only seven people in the open space. "Where's Wang Mingsheng?" Wang, the model worker, realized this as well. "Seven people won't do! You're carrying an eight-person coffin! Where did he go? You, go and call him!"

Yu Guang quickly said, "Why bother? We're going back to the village street anyway, we can just call him on the way."

“Alright, Professor Yu makes sense,” Wang Laomo nodded. So the large group marched down from the mountainside towards the village. On the way, Yu Guang and Wang Laomo walked at the back of the group. Yu Guang suddenly remembered a question: “Village Chief Wang, aren’t you supposed to not say a word during the night burial? What if there’s an urgent matter you want to communicate?”

Model worker Wang smiled and said, "We have our own traditional methods, passed down from the older generation. We tap bamboo poles with hard objects and use the sounds to express our meaning. For example, two long taps mean there is a flat road ahead, two short taps mean there is an obstacle ahead, one long and one short tap means turn left ahead, one short and one long tap means turn right ahead, and a series of cracking sounds means take a short break. There are many other codes, which I can't explain to you in detail, but we all have our own ways of communicating."

"Hehe." Yu Guang praised, "Perfect! This is the most primitive code word. The wisdom of our ancestors is truly boundless." As they spoke, the group had already walked onto the long street, and soon they arrived at Wang Mingsheng's house.

11

The door to Wang Mingsheng's house was tightly closed. It was a mottled wooden door with peeling paint, which looked even more eerie in the dim sunlight.

For some reason, Wu Yong had a bad feeling. Wang Mingsheng's words kept replaying in his mind: "Once I find the evidence, I will release it to the public and ruin that beastly bastard's reputation!" Who exactly was this beastly bastard? Was there really a conspiracy involved? Was Lü Guihua really murdered? The door was tightly closed, and not a sound could be heard.

One of the coffin bearers shouted Wang Mingsheng's name, the piercing cry breaking the almost stagnant silence. But no one answered.

The other coffin bearers called out Wang Mingsheng's name, their calls like a summons to his soul, one after another, rising and falling, only to be met with a long silence, with only the mountain wind whistling past in a helpless response. "Something seems off," a burly coffin bearer said tremulously, "Something seems eerie..."

"Shut up!" Wang Laomo roared, clasping his hands together and saying, "Children's words are innocent, good fortune comes to them! Children's words are innocent, good fortune comes to them! Children's words are innocent, good fortune comes to them!"

Wu Yong quickly said, "Something really seems wrong. He told me and Shen Tian earlier today that he suspects someone harmed Lü Guihua and he wants to investigate the matter on his own. He's not home now. Could something have happened to him?"

Immediately, an uproar erupted outside Wang Mingsheng's house. Everyone started talking at once. "Nonsense!" Wang Laomo shouted, "Lü Guihua never had any grudges against anyone. Everyone knows she committed suicide. Her husband was having an affair, and she couldn't bear it, so she threw herself into the water. Wu Yong, although you are guests, you absolutely cannot say such baseless things! This is completely fabricated and spreading rumors! If you continue to say such things, I will not hesitate to tell you that you are not welcome in Evil Curse Village!"

"We're telling the truth!" Shen Tian retorted without hesitation, his eyes filled with murderous intent, almost bulging out as he stared intently at Wang Laomo. After all, he was the main center-back of the university's football team, known for his fierce tackles, with strong arms and a muscular build. His gaze immediately silenced Wang Laomo.

Yu Guang quickly tried to smooth things over: "Everyone, please be quiet for a moment and say less. We don't know what happened yet, let's try to open the door and see what's going on inside..."

Suddenly, Yu Guang stopped talking because he was standing in front of the wooden door. At that moment, he smelled a fishy smell coming from inside the door.

It was a faint, almost imperceptible fishy smell, barely noticeable unless you paid close attention. But he caught it out of the corner of his eye, because his nostrils were right next to the wooden door.

An ominous feeling immediately filled his mind. "Something's happened!" Those were his first three thoughts.

As a history professor, he had traveled to many places. He still vividly remembered a social survey he conducted in an ancient town in western Hunan, where he learned about the primitive slaughtering industry. He entered an abandoned slaughterhouse, where no pigs had been slaughtered for years, yet the walls were stained a filthy dark red with pig blood. From the cracks in the bricks, he faintly smelled a stench almost identical to what he smelled now. The locals accompanying him said it was a murderous aura that had transcended time; even though no knives had been used for years, this aura had been preserved in its original form. Yes! Now, right outside Wang Mingsheng's wooden door, Yu Guang smelled that same scent again—an uncontrollable murderous aura. Yu Guang stared blankly at the wooden door. The door seemed frozen, the surrounding air still. Yu Guang began to feel stifled. He unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, but cold sweat still poured out, instantly soaking his undergarments.

In Yu Guang's silence, everyone was infected by his presence, staring at the wooden door without uttering a word.

"Kick the door open!" Yu Guang coldly and sternly ordered Shen Tian. Shen Tian raised his foot and kicked the wooden door.

With a loud bang, the door was kicked open. In an instant, a strong stench filled the air!

12

In fact, it's possible that only Yu Guang noticed the sudden surge of the fishy smell, since the others didn't show any unusual behavior; they were probably not very sensitive to the smell.

Yu Guang left Weng Beibei outside, worried that she might see something she shouldn't, and he had little confidence in his niece's courage. Because there were no windows, Wang Mingsheng's room was dark, and it was impossible to see what was happening inside. Wang Laomo waved his hand and ordered one of the burly coffin bearers, "Three men, go and light the oil lamp."

The coffin bearer, named San'er, went into the house, lit a lighter, fumbled around to the oil lamp, and then lit it.

The oil lamp's light was dim, but it was clear that the room was empty, with few decent pieces of furniture, let alone any appliances. The peeling plaster on the walls told everyone how poor Wang Mingsheng was.

In the very center of the room, the table lay overturned on the floor, bowls and chopsticks scattered everywhere. A dark green thermos flask lay overturned, its glass shards strewn about. It was as if the room had just been the site of a catastrophe. The three children stared in disbelief at the scene. One of them murmured, "Something's happened... Wang Mingsheng is missing... He's been taken away by a vengeful ghost..."

"Shut up!" Wang Laomo roared, "Stop inciting people here! If you keep spouting nonsense, I'll have the clan chief lock you up in the water dungeon to feed the fish!"

Ignoring the village chief's threats, the three children continued muttering to themselves, their eyes unfocused: "They must have been captured by a vengeful ghost. This is the ninth one in the past six months..."

"You bastard! You still dare to talk back!" Wang Laomo was furious. He walked up to the three boys and slapped them hard across the face. Although the room was dimly lit, five clear, stinging finger marks immediately appeared on the three boys' faces.

"Wait a minute..." Yu Guang hurriedly asked, "Village chief, the three of you just said that nine people have disappeared here in the last six months, and that they were taken away by vengeful ghosts? What's going on?"

The village chief paused, then turned to Yu Guang with an embarrassed expression and said, “Professor Yu, don’t listen to these people’s nonsense. Here’s the situation: in the past six months, eight people from our Cursed Village have indeed left without saying goodbye. I suspect they couldn’t stand the loneliness of the village and went to work elsewhere. Because they were afraid the villagers wouldn’t approve of their departure, they didn’t leave a single word. Perhaps they weren’t doing well outside, so they didn’t send any letters. Because of this, some malicious people in the village have spread rumors that these eight people were taken by a vengeful ghost that cursed the village and used as substitutes. These are all baseless rumors. I’ve also conducted a small-scale investigation with the town’s police station, and the town agrees with my hypothesis, saying that these people secretly went to work elsewhere. The government has already made a conclusion on these matters. Professor Yu, please don’t believe these rumors.” Yu Guang composed himself and said, “Regardless of what happened to the previous disappearances, Wang Mingsheng’s disappearance is undeniable. We must call the police immediately!”

Model worker Wang quickly replied, "That doesn't necessarily mean he's missing. He could have secretly gone out to work. This Wang Mingsheng is always suspicious, acts mysteriously, and speaks incoherently. You never know what strange things he might do."

Shen Tian was very displeased by the tone of Village Chief Wang's voice. He retorted rudely, "Village Chief, you're so sure that Wang Mingsheng isn't missing. Do you have some kind of shady secret in your heart?"

Wang Laomo's expression changed, and he asked coldly, "You, surnamed Chen, what do you mean by that? What secrets could I, a village chief, possibly have? Watch your words. Even if you're a guest, you can't speak so casually!"

Shen Tian sneered, "Then call the police and let them come into the village to investigate and see what's going on!"

Model worker Wang quickly said, "There is no concrete evidence to prove that Wang Mingsheng is missing. If I file a false report and am held responsible later, who will I appeal to?"

"But right now, there's no evidence to prove that Wang Mingsheng isn't missing!" Shen Tian pressed on.

“But there’s no evidence to suggest he’s simply disappeared…” Wu Yong didn’t participate in the argument between Shen Tian and the village chief. Instead, he stood with his hands behind his back, carefully observing the scene inside the house. As a fan of mystery novels, he knew that after a crime occurs, the perpetrator will always leave some clues, more or less. The key isn’t whether these clues exist, but whether they can be discovered by someone with a keen eye.

When Wu Yong reached the wooden door with the large hole kicked in it by Shen Tian, he stopped. His eyes lit up, and he shouted to the village chief and Shen Tian, "Stop arguing! I'm sure Wang Mingsheng is missing, and he left the house under duress!"

Wang Laomo's body trembled as if struck by something heavy, then he turned around and asked, "What evidence do you have?"

Wu Yong pointed to the back of the wooden door and said, "Look here!" There were several faint scratches on the door, very fine, almost invisible unless you looked closely, revealing pale white wood shavings behind them. Next to the scratches was a lock hook, with a few strips of blue cloth still attached. "These scratches were left by fingernails," Wu Yong said, running his fingers along the scratches. He then removed something from the scratches and examined it closely under the oil lamp; it was half a fingernail. "The fingernail was pointing downwards, which means Wang Mingsheng was knocked unconscious and carried away from here, and the fingernail scratched here. The scratches are so deep, indicating his body is already stiff; this doesn't seem like a good omen..."

"Maybe it was left behind by him before, maybe he scratched the door and played with it when he was bored," said Wang Laomo.

"Save your breath, Village Chief Wang," Shen Tian said mockingly. "You're probably the only one who would scratch the back of a door with your fingernails when you're bored, right? The wood stubble behind the scratch is still light white. Even I, a layman, can tell that this is a new mark, it must have been made today."

“Yes!” Wu Yong continued approvingly, “There are still blue strips of cloth on this hook, which must have been left when we carried him out and it got caught on his clothes. I clearly remember that when we met Wang Mingsheng this morning, he was wearing a blue sea-striped shirt.” “But…but…but why is that? And who would want to harm Wang Mingsheng?” Village Chief Wang murmured.

“I already told you, this morning Wang Mingsheng told us that he suspects Lü Guihua was murdered, and he's going to find evidence against the killer on his own. Now that he's disappeared, it must be that bad guy who discovered his actions.” Shen Tian said, glancing at Wang Laomo with ill intent. Wang Laomo looked at his two clever disciples with approval; he had long harbored suspicions, especially after smelling the strange, fishy odor in the room, though it seemed only he could detect it. “Then what do we do? Did the previous eight people disappear like this?” Wang Laomo's tone lowered.

"Stop talking nonsense and hurry up and go to your house to call the police!" Shen Tian shouted anxiously.

"Okay, okay, okay! Let's go to my house to make the call now!" Wang Laomo waved his hand, and a group of people left the mud house.

Section 5

13

It was already dark when Wang Laomo, while working, complained, "It's almost time for the night burial, but we still have other things to do. Honestly, if I had known it would be like this, I wouldn't have asked Wang Mingsheng to be a coffin bearer. What a hassle, I really don't know how to explain this to Lü Guihua's brother."

As they walked, Yu Guang asked the three children, "What kind of people were the eight who went missing before?"

The three scratched their heads and replied, "They're all around our age. They were laughing and drinking with us the night before, and then they just disappeared the next day. They didn't leave a single word. Even if, like the police said, they went out to work, there's no reason they wouldn't tell us, their best buddies."

“They’re all young people? Who would kidnap them? They’re all rural laborers, surely they wouldn’t kidnap them to make them farm for free…” Yu Guang pondered, completely baffled, his mind filled with one huge question mark after another. Upon entering the village chief’s house, Wang Laomo first lit an oil lamp.

Yu Guang was puzzled: "Village chief, since you have a telephone here, it means you have electricity, so why don't you use an electric light and instead use an oil lamp like this?"

"Sigh... The village is poor. This telephone was installed for me by the town so I could contact people for work. We used to have electric lights here, but the power was insufficient, and they always flickered. It was much more comfortable to use an oil lamp."

As they were talking, Wang Laomo led Yu Guang into the inner room, where an old-fashioned black dial telephone sat on the kang (a heated brick bed).

Yu Guang picked up the receiver, and just as he was about to dial 110, he suddenly froze.

The phone was completely silent, not a sound, not even a dial tone. Once outside, Wang Laomo told the three men to light torches.

Looking up, a white telephone line hung limply on the roof like a headless corpse.

"Someone cut my phone line! Damn it, who's so bold as to cut my phone line! If I find out, I'll make them wish they were dead!!!" Wang Laomo shouted.

"Stop acting..." Shen Tian sneered from the side.

"What do you mean?" Wang Laomo turned his face and glared at Shen Tian.

"Who would dare to cut your phone number here? You're the kind of person who's quick to lock people up in a water dungeon to feed the fish."

"Are you trying to say I cut this myself? What do you mean? Why would I do that? I'm not crazy!"

Shen Tian chuckled: "If it wasn't you, then who was it? You were trying to convince us that Wang Mingsheng wasn't missing, but had gone to work in another village. We told you to come back and call the police, but you kept nagging and making excuses the whole way. Tell me, if you didn't cut it yourself, then who else could it be?"

Wu Yong interrupted Shen Tian, saying, "Xiao Shen, don't doubt the village chief so easily. He didn't know we would find out that Wang Mingsheng had been kidnapped, so he has no reason to cut his own phone line. Besides, the village chief has been with us all afternoon; he can't be in two places at once, so why would he cut his own phone line?"

Wang Laomo glanced at Wu Yong, feeling a warmth in his heart. Shen Tian sullenly shut his mouth, then quickly tried to smooth things over with his peripheral vision: "We shouldn't suspect others so easily. The most important thing now is to find a way to notify the town's police station. Since Wang Mingsheng is missing, we can be sure he was carried out of his house. We don't know if he was knocked unconscious or murdered, but the murderer can't have gone far. If we can't get through to the village chief, we can try calling Mr. Zhao's mansion. Let's go to the Zhao family mansion now!"

“It’s no use,” Wang Laomo said dejectedly. “There are only two telephones in the village, connected by a long telephone line. If my line is cut, Mr. Zhao’s line will also be cut off.” “…Then what should we do?” Shen Tian asked anxiously.

"The only way now is to find a strong and capable laborer immediately and get to the town as quickly as possible to call the police. However, it will be late at night when we get to the town, and the police will have to respond by tomorrow morning. The earliest they can get here is tomorrow afternoon," said Wang, the model worker.

"Who's going to call the police?" Model Worker Wang shouted to the group of coffin bearers outside. "I'll go!" A burly coffin bearer stepped forward, standing at attention. "Wang Mingsheng and I are good buddies, we've known each other since we were kids. If I don't go, who else can?"

“Okay, then hurry back. I’ll give you the flashlight from the village. Be careful on your way!” Model worker Wang handed a flashlight to the three men. As soon as he turned it on, a beam of light, like an arrow, illuminated the surroundings. “So what should we do now?” one of the coffin bearers asked hesitantly.

"Now that we've taken care of the living, it's time to deal with the dead," Wang Laomo said slowly. "The time for the night burial is almost here, and we promised Lü Guihua's brother that we would help her with the night burial today."

“But, but, but…” the coffin bearer asked again, “Wang Mingsheng has disappeared, and the three of them went out of the village to report it. According to the rules, there should be eight people to carry the coffin, but now there are only six left, we are still short two…”

Wang Laomo pondered for a moment, then pointed at Shen Tian and Wu Yong and asked, "Are you two virgins?"

Weng Beibei chuckled to herself. Shen Tian and Wu Yong nodded sheepishly.

"Alright, it's the two of you. Tonight, you two will have to make do as coffin bearers," Wang Laomo instructed.

Shen Tian was about to explain when he was stopped by Yu Guang's gaze. Yu Guang hadn't forgotten their initial purpose in coming to the Cursed Village: to investigate the custom of night burial. Although a strange crime had suddenly occurred, as a scholar, he was still inherently interested and curious about scientific research. "Alright! It's settled then! Let's go to Lü Guihua's house now! Her brother must be getting impatient!" Village Chief Wang said loudly.

A group of men outside stood up and walked out onto the long street, shouting as they went.

14

A chilly gust of wind swept across the long street, and Yu Guang couldn't help but feel goosebumps inexplicably rising on his body.

A flash of light suddenly streaked across the sky, followed by a deafening rumble of thunder from the distant horizon. It was going to rain. That's how the climate is in the southwest region; it's unbearably hot during the day, but at night it can rain without warning.

Shen Tian looked at Wang Laomo with a puzzled expression and asked, "It's about to rain, are we still going to the night burial?"

Model worker Wang nodded and replied resolutely, "We must go! If we miss this time, we don't know when it will be appropriate to hold the funeral. We must hurry, everyone."

Upon hearing this, Wu Yong turned and glanced towards the mountainside outside the village. Just then, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, making the white walls of the Zhao family mansion on the mountainside stand out like a fortress amidst the dark green trees, appearing exceptionally striking. On the way to Lü Guihua's house, Shen Tian asked Yu Guang, puzzled, "Professor Yu, telephone lines aren't actually that complicated. Why didn't we climb onto the roof and connect the wires? That would have been so much easier; we could have just made calls immediately. Why did we have to make the three of us walk five hours up the mountain?"

Before Yu Guang could answer, Wu Yong continued, "You really didn't notice. That telephone line was limply draped over the roof, and it's unclear where it broke off. But I looked closely, and there wasn't a telephone line hanging on the nearest telegraph pole. Whoever cut the line must have cut off a long section. In this village, who would leave an unused section of telephone line for emergencies? So we had no way to reconnect the power. The reason I didn't suspect Village Chief Wang is because I didn't think he had the intelligence to commit such a crime." The coffin bearers lit their torches but remained silent, moving their bodies like ghosts down the long street. The air seemed to freeze, filled with an eerie atmosphere.

The long street was icy cold; my feet thumped noisily against the hard flagstones. Lü Guihua's house was at the other end of the street, deserted and empty. The door was closed, with only two large white lanterns hanging from the eaves. Half a white radish lay upside down outside, with a few sticks of incense sticks stuck in it. The incense had only burned a few centimeters; it seemed freshly lit. Next to the radish was a brazier, filled with ashes of burnt paper money, emitting a bitter, acrid smell—the smell of death.

Suddenly, Weng Beibei felt a lump in her throat, a strange sense of sorrow washing over her. After all, she was still young, and had never truly experienced death; it seemed so close to her own life. "Brother Tugen! Brother Tugen!" Wang Laomo knocked on the door, calling out loudly for Lü Guihua's younger brother. For a long time, however, no one answered.

Yu Guang sniffed the air, a shadow falling over his brow. He smelled that strange, faint, almost imperceptible fishy odor again. Like a persistent nightmare, each appearance of this scent was linked to some strange event that Yu Guang couldn't yet fathom. Thinking of this, Yu Guang's heart tightened suddenly, as if a needle had pierced its very core. The gathered coffin bearers whispered amongst themselves, someone muttering, "Why isn't anyone opening the door? Where's Lü Tugen? Has he disappeared too?"

In the torchlight, Wang Laomo's face darkened, turning a grim, purplish-red hue. He pounded on the door, nearly smashing through the thin wooden frame, but still no one answered.

Enraged, Wang Laomo kicked the wooden door hard. With a bang, the door was kicked open. He took a torch and went into the house. There was no one inside, only a black paulownia wood coffin in the center of the main room, with a pale white candle on each side, casting a ghastly white light.

Behind the coffin hung a black-and-white portrait on the wall; it was Lü Guihua. She was looking at the crowd in the main room with a half-smile, her lips slightly upturned, her features distinct. It was clear that she had indeed been a first-rate beauty in life.