Chapter 1 I Want to Lie in the Coffin with Your Dad

"Forget it, let's send Dad off first." The younger brother stubbed out his cigarette and returned to the edge of the pit.

The older brother also pulled on the rope. "Dad, I know I'm not an obedient son, let alone a successful one. I haven't brought glory to the family or made you proud. I'm sorry."

"Dad, you're a generous man, so don't hold it against us brothers. Go in peace. Look at Third Aunt, she passed away on the same day as you, and she's already lying down peacefully, buried properly. Dad, please have mercy and let us brothers off the hook. I'll burn more paper money for you in the future."

"Dad, I beg you."

The brothers chanted as they tried to lower the coffin evenly.

This filial son didn't know how else to persuade his father. Did dead people compete over who had the best burial? If his father heard that, he'd probably slap him across the face.

Besides, his father had his reasons for not wanting to lie down.

Everyone who entered this graveyard became a Zhang Gui (伥鬼, literally "tiger's accomplice," a ghost controlled by a tiger or other powerful entity) of the snake demon. Of course, he was afraid.

I hesitated for a moment, then patted the slightly older filial son. "Can you do me a favor?"

The filial son looked at me with a wry smile. "You see our situation. It's not that we don't want to help, it's that no one can help anyone. I can't even send my own father off. How can I have the ability to help you send off anyone?"

I said, "I know. I can help you lower your father's coffin and let him lie down properly, but I have a request."

The filial son didn't have much hope, but he casually asked, "What's your request?"

"Bury me with him. I want to lie in the coffin with your dad. This coffin is so spacious, there's no problem fitting two people."

The filial son then looked at me seriously. "What do you want to do?"

I didn't hide anything and told the truth. "There's a problem with your village's ancestral坟地(fén dì, graveyard), and your whole village has a problem. I want to know exactly what the problem is."

"You want to lie in the coffin to see what that evil thing does to the dead at night, is that it?" Third Aunt's family passed by us after burying her.

"Yes, that's what I want to do," I said honestly.

"Aren't you afraid of death?"

"I think I can give it a try. Besides, I don't think I'm going to be a short-lived person."

Third Aunt's son then looked at me seriously. "Okay, come with me."

I subconsciously glanced at the recently buried Third Aunt. This kid wouldn't be so bold as to dig up his mom and have me lie in a coffin with her, would he?

Although this village was already in a mess, there probably weren't many sons who would dare to do that.

"Don't get me wrong. My mom was a widow at a young age and raised me with my great-grandmother. She was pure and chaste her whole life. She definitely wouldn't sleep in a coffin with a strange man when she died. I would never do something disrespectful like that."

"However, my great-grandmother's corpse was struck by lightning in the graveyard some time ago, and the coffin was shattered. I tried to rebury her without success, so I temporarily brought her home. Since you want to enter the graveyard with a dead person, I'll make another coffin for my great-grandmother and send you two in together."

"My great-grandmother lived to be ninety-nine years old. If she hadn't encountered this accident, today would have been her one-hundredth birthday."

"At one hundred years old, there's no difference between men and women. Besides, my great-grandmother was killed by that evil thing. If you can get rid of the evil thing in the village, not only will she not be angry, but she will definitely be very grateful."

"Is your great-grandmother the midwife who went to Mei Gu's house that day?"

"Yes, my name is Lin Dacheng. My great-grandmother was the one who delivered Mei Gu's baby that day, injured Mei Gu with a bowl, and saw at a glance that Mei Gu gave birth to an妖孽(yāo niè, evil creature)."

"Okay."

I followed Lin Dacheng home. The old lady's body was placed in an empty room. Lin Dacheng took me to see the old lady's body and then asked me to make a coffin with him.

"I'm a carpenter, not a coffin maker, but the village is in such a state that you can't even buy wreaths, let alone coffins. I made the one for my mom myself. I have to make another one for my great-grandmother."

"No problem, I know how to make coffins."

I really did know how to make them. I not only knew how to make coffins, but I also knew how to make urns. They sold pretty well a couple of years ago, but not anymore. More and more people were being cremated, and the urns were monopolized by the crematoriums. Even Second Aunt, who specialized in making coffins, had to rely on Zhao Tian to help her promote them, let alone me.

Fortunately, my main job was to help people with spiritual matters. My shop just sold some funeral supplies and paper offerings. It looked like a business, but I didn't rely on it to make a living.

No sooner said than done, we started sawing planks, nailing the coffin, and applying paint. Everything went smoothly. Before dark, we had finished the coffin.

Without waiting for the next day, Lin Dacheng found a few people and carried the coffin containing me and the old lady into the graveyard while it was still light.

When we arrived at the graveyard, the two brothers we met in the morning were still working hard.

To make the coffin lie down smoothly, they had enlarged the grave pit, and part of the surrounding坟头 (fén tóu, grave mounds) had been cut away. If they dug any further, they might even expose the coffins next to it.

But even with such a big pit, they still hadn't been able to bury their father. The coffin seemed to have flipped over once, and the lid had cracks.

After Lin Dacheng buried me and his great-grandmother and went home smoothly, I wondered what those two brothers thought as they watched Lin Dacheng bury another one.

The sun finally set below the horizon, and the graveyard slowly darkened.

The old man who refused to be buried finally got tired of struggling and lay obediently in the pit, letting his sons bury him.

The two brothers finally breathed a sigh of relief and left, dragging their exhausted bodies.

The moon rose above the treetops, and the graveyard rustled, as if countless snakes were crawling on the ground.

I lay quietly in the coffin, emptying my mind and sensing the outside atmosphere.

Although I couldn't see, I knew that Mei Gu had come to the graveyard. She was standing next to a big snake, and a thin, withered boy who wasn't even a month old was sitting on the snake's head. Countless small snakes were clustered around the big snake, looking up at the boy as if he were a god.

"I'm sorry, child. It's Mom's fault. Mom is just an ordinary person and not noble enough. Although I could give birth to you, I can't provide you with milk. I can only let you eat some crude living people's生气 (shēng qì, life force)."

The boy was very docile in front of his mother. He cooed and rubbed against Mei Gu, a picture of maternal love and filial piety.

But soon, the mother and son had acted out enough of their touching scene. A fierce light began to appear in the boy's eyes, and although he was still cooing, his tone was completely different.

I knew he was starting to summon the ghosts in the graveyard. The souls here had become his slaves, and they went out every day to help him capture living people to devour.

I wasn't in a hurry to do anything. I still lay quietly in the coffin. The old lady beside me had already gotten up. Her soul left her body, which had been struck by lightning, and knelt respectfully in front of the boy.

The two brothers' father also went out. Although he looked unwilling, he didn't have as much power as the boy, so he could only kneel obediently in front of the big snake.

Looking at the Zhang Gui (伥鬼, literally "tiger's accomplice," a ghost controlled by a tiger or other powerful entity) all over the graveyard, the boy finally smiled. He raised his head, intending to command the ghosts to enter the village and capture people.

But then, the weather changed.

Just now, the moon was bright and the night breeze was gentle, but suddenly the wind became violent, howling and causing the souls in the graveyard to have to hide back in their coffins. The clouds in the sky quickly gathered, and the moon was soon invisible.

The wind swept through the dark clouds, but it didn't rain. Instead, there was rumbling thunder, as if it were about to strike something.

This妖孽(yāo niè, evil creature) had absorbed so much life force from living people that it was intolerable to the heavens. Heavenly lightning was about to strike him.

If heavenly lightning took action, then I wouldn't have to worry about it. Tomorrow, I could just help clean up and perform some supernaturally good deeds in the village. It would be like getting a free wave of merit.

What was originally a dangerous situation had turned into a good thing. The corners of my mouth turned up, but before the smile could spread across my face, my phone rang.

The boy was very alert and immediately noticed the sound coming from my direction. He told Mei Gu to come and check.

Mei Gu stared at the坟头 (fén tóu, grave mound) for a couple of seconds and picked up a shovel from the side and started digging.

Since I was exposed anyway, I didn't hide. I directly struck the coffin lid with a palm, and the coffin lid and the dirt on top flew off.

To avoid suffocating me, Lin Dacheng hadn't buried the coffin very deep, but I was quite surprised that I could still get a phone signal in the coffin. The signal in this village was unusually good.

"It's you again. I already let you go once, but you didn't take the road to heaven and insisted on barging into hell. Since you want to die so much, I'll grant your wish."

As she said that, the woman raised her kitchen knife and was about to chop me again.

"Wait!" I quickly stopped her before she could act.

"What trick are you trying to play now?" Although Mei Gu's expression was fierce, she still gave me a chance to speak.

"My phone is ringing. I can't escape anyway. Can you let me answer the phone first before we start fighting? I have to see which grandson is calling me in the middle of the night and causing me to be exposed." I said with a grin.

Mei Gu stared at me coldly. "Okay, I'll let you scold your猪队友(zhū duì yǒu, pig teammate, someone who is bad at teamwork) before you die."

"That's exactly what I mean."

I immediately pressed the answer button. My intuition told me that if someone was calling me in the middle of the night, it must be something important. It definitely wasn't someone playing a prank and telling me that my sleeping posture was wrong and I needed to get up and go back to sleep.

Sure enough, I heard Old Zhao's voice as soon as I answered the phone.

You all remember Old Zhao, right? The owner of the paper offering shop across from my shop.

"Qian'er, where did you find that dragon skin? I always said you were lucky, but I didn't expect you to actually encounter a dragon."

I was a little confused at the time. "Old Zhao, what nonsense are you talking about? When did I encounter a dragon? If I really encountered a dragon, would I still be answering your phone? I'd either be going to heaven with the dragon or be swallowed by it."

"No," Old Zhao said anxiously. "I really wasted a classic paper-making book on you. You probably didn't even read it carefully, did you? Otherwise, how could you not even recognize Zhu Long? My paper-making book has images of all the ancient mythical beasts."

I was stunned again. "Zhu Long? The ancient mythical beast, Zhu Jiuyin?"

"Yes, the skin in the photo you sent is Zhu Long's dragon skin. Although it's not 100% pure-blooded Zhu Long, it's at least 90%. Where did you find it?"

"It's said that this kind of thing can't even be born now, let alone survive. How did it survive to the point where it could shed its skin? Although it's still a small dragon, it must have found a way to续命(xù mìng, prolong life) to live to this day. Maybe it can really grow up."

"Wan Qian, this is no small matter. An ancient mythical beast. No one knows what will happen if this thing appears in the human world again."

"Qian'er, be careful. I can't help you much."

"After seeing the picture you sent me, I tried to contact some major玄门(xuán mén, Taoist) sects, hoping they could come forward to deal with it, but no one believed me."

"Everything is fate, I guess. If the catastrophe really comes, there's nothing we can do. Let's hope we're all still alive tomorrow."

After saying that, Old Zhao hung up the phone.

Old Zhao's open-mindedness surprised me a little, but then I thought about it. Based on just a picture of a snake skin, there wasn't really anything he could do. Anyway, if the catastrophe really came, we'd all die together, so he might as well pretend he didn't know anything. Besides, he was already old.

The clouds in the sky were getting thicker and thicker, and lightning flashed densely overhead, as if searching for a target.

But the boy didn't show any fear. Instead, he stared directly at the sky, and two beams of light seemed to pierce through the clouds.

"You owe me!" The boy roared at the sky, his eyes filled with resentment and unwillingness. This time, it wasn't just cooing. I clearly understood him.

No wonder the abacus sensed that it represented light. No wonder I felt that the snake skin was full of divinity. No wonder Mei Gu's knife was so powerful just from being stained with the boy's blood.

So this was Zhu Long, the ancient mythical beast Zhu Long.

Zhu Long, also known as Zhu Yin, Zhu Jiuyin, Tuo Long, and Fire Essence, was one of the four ancient divine dragons.

The *Classic of Mountains and Seas* records: "The god of Zhongshan is named Zhu Yin. He sees and it is day; he closes his eyes and it is night; he blows and it is winter; he breathes and it is summer. He does not drink, he does not eat, he does not breathe. When he breathes, there is wind. His body is a thousand miles long. He is east of Wuyao. As for his form, he has a human face, a snake's body, and is red in color. He dwells below Zhongshan."

Later, a book from the Ming Dynasty mentioned: "Xianying... forever illuminates with Zhu Long's grease."

The general meaning is that on the island where the immortals live, they use Zhu Long's grease to illuminate it.

That's all I could remember. Wasn't this thing captured by those great gods in the mythological era and turned into a candle in the sky? How could there be a small Zhu Long here? What exactly was that beggar? Could it be that he wasn't an evil spirit at all, but a large Zhu Long?

However, these things were no longer important. What was important was that I had angered this small Zhu Long.

From the constantly flashing electric light in the sky and the small Zhu Long's unwilling eyes, I knew that this time things had gotten out of hand. The small dragon was probably doomed, and I was doomed too.

I also knew why Mei Gu was so careful when she was preparing to dig out the coffin I was lying in.