I had just woken up and before I could wipe away the sweat, Qin Yong's shout made me sweat again.
What's going on? Widow Chen's body is actually missing?
I quickly pushed the door open and walked out, only to find Qin Yong trotting up to me. Following him were several villagers from Yama Village, the same people who opened the coffin last night.
I walked towards Qin Yong impatiently and said, "What did you just say? How could the body be lost?"
"I do not know!"
Qin Yong's tone was a bit stuttering, and he said uncomfortably, "Last night... we sealed the coffin with peach wood nails according to your instructions, and tied Widow Chen's coffin with ink thread. After that, everyone thought there should be no problem. I ran home and went to bed, but who knew I would find signs that the coffin had been opened when I woke up early in the morning."
The more he spoke, the more excited he became. He almost bit his tongue and said with a trembling voice, "Could it be, could it be Widow Chen herself..."
"impossible!"
I shook my head vigorously, directly denying what he said.
Widow Chen died not long ago, and she was not yet over seven years old. No matter how much she resented her, she would not turn into a ghost so quickly.
What's more, I have trapped her in the coffin with ink lines and peach wood nails. There is no way she can escape on her own.
"Then how do you explain that the coffin is empty?"
Qin Yong was dumbfounded, and several villagers following him also felt extremely strange.
"Go back and take a look first!"
My face dropped, and I once again felt that this village was not simple.
On the way back to the mourning hall, I asked Qin Yong why he didn't leave anyone to guard the coffin last night.
Qin Yong said in a non-calm tone, "If such a weird thing happened, who would have the guts to stay in the mourning hall and watch the night? Besides, there are no outsiders in the village. Who would have thought that someone would touch the coffin..."
I asked him to stop talking. It was my fault when he said it. He knew clearly that Widow Chen died in an evil way, so he shouldn't have left the coffin alone in the mourning hall. It was just that I was too sleepy after walking all day on the mountain road yesterday. , I really never thought that something so evil would happen.
Soon we returned to the mourning hall and found that the whole village was gathered around the mourning shed to watch the fun. The place where the mourning hall was decorated was surrounded by three floors inside and three floors outside. The villagers were chattering about all kinds of things, but no one dared to really say anything. Close to the funeral shed.
The village chief, Mr. Qin, was maintaining order. He ran to me all the way and said, "Brother Zhou, you are here. Please accompany me to see the coffin."
"Don't panic, it's okay."
I reassured Father Qin not to worry, and then quickly walked towards the coffin. When I got closer, I discovered that the ink string tied to the coffin yesterday had been torn off, and there were obvious signs of being pried on the coffin lid.
I looked around the coffin and said in a low voice, "I am sure that someone sneaked here after everyone went home to rest, opened the coffin, and then took out the body trapped inside."
Father Qin was shocked and his voice was obviously shaking, "Who could be so boring?"
I chuckled and said, "I'm afraid the guy who dragged the body away wasn't out of boredom, but because he wanted to destroy the body and eliminate traces of it!"
Yesterday, I saw something was wrong about the cause of Widow Chen's death, so I asked the villagers to seal the coffin. I planned to go to the town to call the police after the fog cleared. As long as the police entered the village, they would be able to find the murderer based on the clues on the body.
The murderer was obviously panicked, so he secretly destroyed my arrangement after everyone left.
He moved Widow Chen's body, obviously not wanting to leave evidence of his own guilt.
This also reflects from the side that Widow Chen’s death is definitely not simple!
After listening to my analysis, Father Qin’s face turned black into ink, and he gritted his teeth and said, “What should we do now?”
I sighed helplessly, shook my head and said that the top priority was to quickly mobilize the whole village to find Widow Chen’s body and try to get Widow Chen’s body back as soon as possible.
"She has a lot of resentment. Once she gets out of this coffin, she will soon turn into a ghost. She will definitely return to the village to take revenge. I'm afraid it will cause chaos in the village."
"Yes, everyone, stop watching the fun and search quickly. We must find Widow Chen's body as soon as possible."
Father Qin hurried to the villagers and yelled at them to help search.
In a place as poor as Yanwanggou, the village chief has great authority. After receiving Father Qin's instructions, the villagers dispersed and looked in different directions in the village.
Father Qin sighed, guarding the empty mourning hall, stamping his feet and sighing, "I have been the village chief for twenty years, and Yama Village has been very peaceful these years. I never thought that something like this would happen when I am old!"
I consoled him, "It's okay, village chief. Yama Village is not a big place. Even if the murderer drags away the body, he won't be able to get far. As long as everyone works together, the body will definitely be recovered."
"I hope so, alas!"
Father Qin sighed from time to time, but his expression was still very bad. It could be seen that he was a very responsible village chief who was always thinking about the reputation of the village.
To divert his attention, I asked a question,
"By the way, Dad Qin, there is a question that I have never understood. Why did the village take the name of King of Hell Village?"
Father Qin said, "This is because the topography of the mountain behind Yama Village is quite special. The mountains are bulging and have no connection with other mountains. From a distance, they look like a penholder, a bit like the tip of Lord Yama's hat. That's why we chose it." It’s called Yama Village.”
Although this name sounds unlucky, it has been called this by ancestors for generations, and everyone has long been comfortable with it, and it has never been changed.
I said oh and asked a second question, "What about the poisonous miasma in the mountains?"
Speaking of this, Father Qin's face became even worse. He looked at me and said in a cryptic tone,
"According to people of my grandfather's generation, there used to be a Miao ethnic minority living in the back mountain area of Yanwanggou. Later, for unknown reasons, the entire tribe died in one night, and no one took away the corpses. That's it. It rotted in the mountain and gradually formed a huge pit."
These rotting corpses breed a lot of toxins and germs, which are washed and soaked by rainwater and slowly deposited into the ground. Over time, this miasma forms.
So that's it.
I suddenly realized that no wonder when I entered the mountain yesterday, I always felt a faint corpse smell in the fog.
They kept watch from afternoon to evening, but the villagers still didn't find Widow Chen's body. Seeing that it was getting dark, I had no choice but to accompany Father Qin to go home to rest.
After working for so long, I didn't even bother to eat, so Father Qin went to the kitchen to get something to eat. I got bored, so I closed my eyes and meditated in the yard.
But not long after I sat down, I heard footsteps coming from outside the yard. I thought it was Qin Yong coming back, so I quickly opened my eyes and planned to ask him if he had found the body of Widow Chen.
Unexpectedly, what walked in was a man I didn’t recognize. He had a scarred head and a slutty look. He shouted loudly as he walked, “Old man, the people in the village are so lively today... Hey, who are you? What’s the matter? Will it be at my house?”
Halfway through his words, the scarred man suddenly saw me sitting in the yard with a surprised look on his face.
I was also wondering who this person was. Just as I was about to stand up, I saw Father Qin walking out of the kitchen with a bowl of poached eggs and said to Lai Scartou angrily,
"You bastard, the whole village is in chaos, and you know how to play cards, but you still have the nerve to come back!"
