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Buy a coffin?

If you've seen "XXX Paranormal Investigation Agency," don't be surprised if you see something familiar here, as these two are from the same series.

If you haven't read them, that's okay, because these two articles tell completely different stories.

If you're looking for horror, I can't guarantee my skills will be truly terrifying, but I will try my best.

If you have any insights into what I've said, I'd love to hear them.

If you find this article unpalatable, I would still appreciate you clicking on the first chapter.

The following contains numerous "ifs" omitted. Thank you all for your support!

The coffin will not be sold until the person dies.

Xianglian was from another village. She lost both her parents at the age of three and was raised by her elderly maternal grandmother. At the age of sixteen, she married a Zhang family in her own village. As a child from a poor family, her dowry was low, which was exactly what Zhang's mother-in-law valued, so she sent a matchmaker to propose marriage.

After marrying into the family, Xianglian followed the rules and acted with propriety. She got along well with her husband, Zhang Erhu, and they had two sons. Although Zhang's mother-in-law had recently passed away due to illness, in this patriarchal village, the tradition of a mother's status rising with her sons allowed Xianglian to live a life full of happiness.

Unfortunately, the good days didn't last long.

Since it's a literary work, there must be a story to tell.

Time can be easily struck by lightning. One rainy night, thunder and lightning struck. The location was Xianglian's three-bedroom apartment.

Xianglian turned over and suddenly felt a cool sensation on her fingers.

A flash of lightning ripped across the sky, followed by a deafening clap of thunder. Xianglian jolted awake, worried about her two sons. Although her eldest son was already twenty, her youngest was only five and naturally afraid of thunder. But the constant rumble of thunder masked the children's cries.

“…Child…his father…” Xianglian stared intently at the window that had been blown open by the wind.

Zhang Erhu slowly sat up. "What's going on in the middle of the night?"

Before she could finish speaking, Xianglian ran out of the house. Zhang Erhu stood there for a long time before following her out.

The eldest son, hearing the commotion in the dead of night, woke up to the sound of thunder mixed with Xianglian's painful screams.

The next day, the Zhang family hung up white lanterns.

The youngest son of the Zhang family died, and the village woodcutter told others that the wound on his neck was caused by an axe.

The case was a murder, but Xianglian, who was not very literate, had no idea what the government offices in the county town dozens of miles away did. Gaunt and heartbroken, she spent her days in tears.

The burial was reportedly quite a grand affair.

In this remote and impoverished village, if someone dies, they are simply wrapped in a mat and buried in the ground. Since the village chief was born, he has never seen anyone in the village bury someone in a coffin.

The cost of a coffin was no small sum for them. Especially since the coffin was produced by the mortuary in the city.

Speaking of the coffins in this mortuary, they are made of solid iron.

However, no matter how aptly named some things are, people will avoid them even if they are related to the word 'death'.

Could the death of Zhang's youngest son be related to the Zhang family's hidden wealth? This topic became the talk of the village. Witnesses even described Zhang Erhu frequently traveling to the county town, speculating that he might be involved in some big business.

Men like to calculate who can earn more money, while women prefer to gossip and spread rumors. The news spread like wildfire, and the word "vixen" reached Xianglian's ears.

Xianglian suddenly felt physically and mentally exhausted. A woman's entire life is nothing more than "supporting her husband and raising her children".

She thought she was lucky, but she ended up separated from her husband and children. Fortunately, God had mercy and left her with a son to take care of her in her old age.

Children from poor families don't know how to have high expectations. She should be content.

Sometimes Zhang Erhu would stare blankly at the sunset and smile foolishly, and she learned to ignore it; her husband spent less and less time at home, and she learned to use work to forget her pain.

She compromised only to seek peace of mind so that she could raise her eldest son to adulthood.

She asked herself honestly, she had never done anything to wrong anyone, but God is far from being as fair as people imagine.

"My son..." Xianglian was overwhelmed with grief. She clutched her eldest son's clothes and refused to let anyone put her only son into the coffin until she fainted from crying.

The rumors among women spread even more fiercely.

"That Zhang family is really pitiful. The old man just passed away, and then the two young ones followed one after the other."

"Alright, don't say that. I think that Erhuzi from the Zhang family is really weird. A few days ago, I heard the head of the Li family next door come back and tell his wife that he saw Erhuzi standing blankly at the entrance of the mortuary in the county town, grinning like an idiot."

"Oh, so you've been traumatized and gone mad?!"

"Shh..." A woman glanced around. "Keep it down. She's not stupid, she's infatuated with that guy."

"What kind of nonsense is this?"

"Hey, you really shouldn't mention it. That place is creepy!"

A story is just a story, and Xianglian has to hear the gossip among these women.

She went to see the village chief, who firmly believed that his villager was honest and kind.

Simple and honest? Xianglian learned to sneer. She had verified with the village woodcutter several times that the wound on her neck was indeed from an axe.

The village chief smiled and shook his head, still firmly believing that there was no murderer among his villagers.

Xianglian returned empty-handed.

At her doorstep, the woodcutter who had performed the duties of a 'coroner' many times was quietly waiting for her.

"There is a way that can help you."

The county officials lived off the money, and the county magistrate was so fat that watching him walk with a limp made everyone worry about his official chair in the courtroom.

"Wei..." The constables yawned in unison and continued, "Wu..."

"Ahem..." The county magistrate cleared his throat. At this moment, he needed to remind everyone to maintain the image of the yamen. However, his slender, pig-hoof-like hands, which he struggled to reach the gavel, greatly diminished the pretense he had just put on.

The advisor always played the clever role of the assistant at such times, handing over the gavel with a fawning smile.

"Bang—" A loud sound of slamming the table. "Who is beating the drum? Quickly state your name."

The naive and inexperienced Xianglian was stunned by the magistrate's earlier display of power.

"The master is asking you a question. What's your name?" The clerk smiled broadly when he saw that she was a beautiful young village girl.

"Fragrant, fragrant lotus."

"What injustice has been committed?" The county magistrate performed his duties in a procedural manner.

"The magistrate is asking you if you have been wronged in any way?" The clerk relayed the magistrate's words with an air of self-importance, as if he knew this village girl had never been to a government office before.

"Yes." Xianglian swallowed hard and forced herself to calmly recount what had happened.

After a stick of incense had burned, the county magistrate sent men to arrest Zhang Erhu, along with the 'vixen' that Xianglian had described as having bewitched Zhang Erhu and was suspected of murdering her son.

The county magistrate slept for the full time it takes for an incense stick to burn before he yelled at the returning bailiffs, "A bunch of useless idiots! You've been looking for someone for so long, and what woman did you go looking for this time?"

The constable, feeling guilty, retreated to his position.

The county magistrate looked Zhang Erhu up and down, noting his plain appearance. Compared to himself, who was rich, powerful, and influential, Zhang Erhu didn't seem like the kind of man any woman would be interested in.

But this vixen... The county magistrate stood dumbfounded in his official chair, lost in thought: What kind of vixen is this, a man?

The crowd gathered at the entrance to watch the spectacle was already sighing in disbelief. When did this city mortuary change owners? And a handsome young man who seemed untouched by worldly affairs at that?

In the noisy and bustling courtroom, Mu Yan, dressed in pristine white robes, seemed to exist in another world, his gaze drifting to the heavens beyond. Throughout the entire interrogation, the only word to describe him was silence.

The county magistrate's fat, oily mind couldn't come up with any motive for the crime, and Xianglian's conjectures had no evidence whatsoever.

The details of the case are unclear, and it was left unresolved.

Back home, Zhang Erhu became violent towards Xianglian for the first time.

Zhang Erhu couldn't understand how Xianglian, who was illiterate, knew how to go to the county town to beat the drum, until the woodcutter came to him to boast about their lovemaking one night.

The woodcutter underestimated Zhang Erhu, and his foolishness easily cost him his life.

Xianglian regretted her momentary lapse of judgment, believing the woodcutter and losing her reputation.

However, when she saw the axe Zhang Erhu used to kill the woodcutter, she realized she had misjudged her husband even more.

The axe was hidden in the stove, and there were still mottled bloodstains on the handle.

She recalled that rainy night, the icy feeling she touched as she turned over—it was rainwater.

She remembered that her husband's trouser legs were wet that night.

That night, her youngest son collapsed in the rain.

"Why?"

Xianglian thought that her husband must be the fourth person whose blood had been stained with this axe.

Blood gushed out. Zhang Erhu never expected that he would die at the hands of the next corpse he had planned to kill. It was hateful that he no longer had the chance to use the excuse of buying a coffin to get close to that person.

Xianglian's mind began to wander, and she suddenly recalled some bloody scenes.

The axe fell high into the air, the sound of a neck snapping echoed, the two sons' heads lay alone, and her husband's face, splattered with blood, was still smiling...

Her vision flickered between light and darkness. Xianglian shook her head violently, only to find a row of lifeless coffins before her, exuding a chilling eeriness in the twilight.

The sound of a zither drifted over, as if an invisible thread was guiding Xianglian into the mortuary.

In a corner of the mortuary where the coffins were placed, there was a blurry white figure. Xianglian recognized it as a person.

Perhaps, it wasn't a person.

Xianglian was horrified by her own thoughts until she realized that it was the man she had falsely accused of being a 'vixen' in court.

It was doubt, it was fear, it was dread.

Why is she here? She just killed someone, and the body hasn't been disposed of yet. Was the door locked? Could someone have seen her?

The music stopped abruptly, and she saw the man move his lips.

"Do you need to buy a coffin?"

The ethereal voice struck Xianglian's heart, and she turned and fled frantically.

The next day, the entire village gathered in front of the Zhang family's house.

The woodcutter's head rolled under the table, Zhang Erhu's neck remained attached to his body like a broken lotus root, and Xianglian was nowhere to be found.

Rumors of supernatural powers and strange occurrences spread, and to put their minds at ease, the whole village prepared coffins for the two corpses, sealed them securely with peach wood nails, and buried them.

The clerk was sorting through the case from a few days ago, humming a little tune leisurely.

The county magistrate was shelling melon seeds when he seemed to remember something.

"My lord, when did the mortuary in our county start selling coffins?"