The first volume of the funeral Chapter 13 Good brothers should live and die together
Everyone was speechless.
What kind of person and what kind of hatred would curse an entire family to the point of having no descendants and the entire family extinct?
They even did not let go of the last dead person in the family. The person had become a corpse and was lying in a coffin, but they still wanted him to be struck by lightning.
"Perhaps the signature or seal is hidden in the truth behind the whole thing." The doctor said, "Perhaps if we find the person who cursed this family, we can find the seal."
"How do I find it? It's dark now, there's no way to find it!" Liu Yufei pulled his hair angrily and anxiously, and the greasy braid behind his head was twisted into a mess.
"I'll go and pull that old man out to question him." Ke Xun said as he strode to the door of the inner room and knocked hard a few times, but there was no movement at all.
"Smash! Break the door open!" Liu Yufei was so anxious that his eyes turned red. He picked up a chair in the room and rushed over, swinging it hard on the door.
Ke Xun was nearly hit by him and took two steps to the side, letting Liu Yufei bang on the door like crazy. However, the wooden door was as hard as iron. The chair in Liu Yufei's hand was smashed into pieces, but he was unable to cause any damage to the wooden door.
"It's no use," the doctor shook his head slightly, "Looking at this situation, there's no way the door can be forced open. Look at the time."
Ke Xun took out his cell phone from his pocket, but it still showed no signal. It was already past nine o'clock.
"At nine o'clock in the evening, we officially enter the so-called 'ren ding' period in the twelve-hour zodiac." The doctor said, "Ren ding means that it is late at night and people stop moving and prepare to sleep and rest. No matter how hard we knock on the door, the old man has entered the 'ren ding' state and can no longer move . We have missed the time to question him, so we can only wait until tomorrow."
"How can I wait until tomorrow! I will be dead tomorrow!" Liu Yufei roared, still kicking the wooden door desperately.
The doctor shook his head and looked at the others: "At this time, even if we ask other villagers, no one will show up."
“What should I do…what should I do…” Wei Dong looked at Ke Xun in despair with trembling lips.
"Since when are we not allowed to walk outside the designated areas?" Ke Xun asked Mu Yiran.
"I'm not sure." Mu looked at him with a smile. "The first two paintings I entered are different from this one. But in principle, you can't walk around freely after eleven o'clock at night. After eleven o'clock, it's already midnight."
"I'll go look under the locust tree again." Ke Xun said and strode out the door.
He believes in fate, but never resigns himself to it. He always believes that fate can be changed by oneself.
Mu Yiran stared at his back for a long time without moving.
Wei Dong wiped his eyes with his hands, then staggered out of the room. Mu Yiran turned around to look at the rest of the people, then also walked out of the room.
The remaining few people followed them out of the door one after another, leaving only the frantic Liu Yufei, who was still smashing the wooden door desperately.
The village was so dark at night that one could not see one's hand in front of one's face. The air was filled with thick fog and the odor of an impending thunderstorm.
Ke Xun found the locust tree with the help of the light from his cell phone. In the faint light, the thousands of ghost faces on the locust tree seemed to be alive, pale and hideous.
Ke Xun climbed up the tree, scrambling dangerously among the branches, trying hard to find any suspicious traces. The people who followed him did not dare to waste any more time and split up to search.
In the atmosphere of depression, anxiety, tension and fear, time passed by at an unknown speed until a cell phone rang coldly. The doctor paused and sighed softly, "It's only 20 minutes until 11 o'clock. Let's find this place. If we don't have time to go back, we might be in danger."
These words sounded extremely cruel to everyone.
No matter how unwilling he was, he couldn't delay any longer. If he went back, he might still be able to survive, but if he didn't go back, he would definitely die.
Everyone was silent for a moment, and finally walked with heavy steps to where they should go.
Wei Dong was in a state of disorientation and couldn't move his legs for a long time.
Ke Xun clenched his fist and smashed it hard on the tree trunk. His chest heaved heavily for a while. He gritted his teeth, came over, put his arm around Wei Dong's shoulders, and led him to the Li family's house. After entering the courtyard, he did not let go and ran straight to the direction of the mourning hall.
Mu Yiran sensed something was wrong, grabbed Ke Xun's arm, and asked him in a deep voice: "What are you doing?"
"I will accompany Dongzi in the mourning hall tonight." Ke Xun said word by word.
"You are looking for death." Mu Yiran stared coldly into his eyes.
"Even if I don't seek death, death will seek me. It's all the same." Ke Xun met his gaze expressionlessly.
"Acting on impulse won't solve any problems." Mu Yiran said coldly.
"Maybe." Ke Xun also said coldly, "But I can't watch my brother die. I would rather die with him. Before I die, I want to figure out what kind of shit wants to kill me. Even if I can't resist, I'm going to spit blood on its face before I die."
"Listen," Mu Yiran let go of his arm, suddenly grabbed his front, and pulled him in front of him with just a little force, "I don't care how you want to die, but if it involves me, I won't agree. If it is stipulated that two people should be in the woodshed, then both of them must be in the woodshed, unless one of them has died in advance, otherwise the other person will also suffer multiple backlashes. Of course, you are not obligated to be responsible for what will happen to me, so in the case of such a disagreement, there is only one way to resolve it."
Before Ke Xun could ask a question, he saw Mu Yiran's other hand suddenly swung and chopped at the back of his neck at lightning speed. Ke Xun didn't even have time to dodge and fell on Mu Yiran without a sound.
Mu Yiran grabbed him and looked at Wei Dong who was trembling all over.
"I'm sorry." Mu looked at him with joy. "I think you and he should have understood long ago that from the moment we entered the world in the painting, our lives have been hanging by a thread. If we don't die this night, we may die the next night. What's even more hopeless is that even if you leave this painting, you will enter the next one, just like me, and you don't know when it will end. What if it never ends?"
Wei Dong's body trembled violently and he could hardly stand.
"If that's the case, then there seems to be no point in struggling to live." Mu Yiran's voice was still cold and calm, "But we have to try. Maybe after leaving this painting, there won't be another one. So, in my opinion, as long as we can continue to live, there is hope. If we can't continue to live, it may not be a kind of relief. I hope what I said can make you feel a little better."
"...I..." Wei Dong opened his mouth, but could only utter a trembling and vague syllable.
"Go in, there's not much time left." Mu Yiran was calm to the point of being cruel.
Wei Dong seemed to have completely lost his subjective initiative. After hearing Mu Yiran's words, he turned around and staggered towards the mourning hall.
Mu Yiran watched him take a few steps, then looked down at Ke Xun, who was unconscious in his arms with a frown on his face. His eyes flickered slightly, and he held him and chased after Wei Dong. He whispered in Wei Dong's ear, "After entering the house, lie down in a corner and tuck your head into your collar. Don't let anything outside your collar, including your hair, show. Don't move at all. No matter what you hear or what touches you, don't move. If there is any movement around you, try to hold your breath."
Wei Dong tilted his head hesitantly and looked at him.
"It's just a guess I made. It hasn't been proven, so I'm not sure if it will work." Mu Yiran said in a calm voice, "Don't hold your hopes too high. This is just a last-ditch guess."
Wei Dong turned around and staggered into the mourning hall.
Ke Xun was awakened by a thunder.
When I opened my eyes, it was pitch black. Just as I was about to move my hands and feet, a hand held me down. A very soft voice came into my ear: "Don't move. It's coming."
Ke Xun instantly recalled what happened before he fainted. He became furious and struggled to sit up, but Mu Yiran grabbed his throat with one hand and pressed him to the ground.
"Weidong won't die. If you move again, I will knock you out again." Mu Yiran's voice was so low that it was almost inaudible, but one could still feel the chill in his voice.
Ke Xun forced himself to calm down and lay motionless on the cold ground.
After a moment, the noises around him slowly reached his ears.
It was a strange, rustling sound.
It wasn't the sound of paper, or the sound of wind blowing through dead branches or a door. Instead, it sounded like something was slowly moving.
Mu Yiran's hand silently let go of Ke Xun's throat. The moment his fingertips left Ke Xun's skin, Ke Xun felt the slight coolness on his fingertips.
It turns out that this person can also be nervous. Ke Xun thought, it seems that the thing that made the squirming sound is of a higher level than the pair of paper figures.
For some unknown reason, Ke Xun reached out and held Mu Yiran's hand.
As soon as the two hands touched, Ke Xun was stunned, and noticed that Mu Yiran's body also stiffened.
Ke Xun was not prepared for the body's stress response due to fear. Fortunately, this was a critical moment, otherwise Mu Yiran might have strangled him.
However, Ke Xun and Mu Yiran did not move, because the wriggling sound was already very close.
The two of them breathed softly at the same time. Ke Xun could feel that Mu Yiran had asked them to hide behind a pile of firewood. The sound was moving slowly outside the pile of firewood, as if it was patrolling, and suddenly stopped at the position of their heads. The surroundings suddenly fell into silence.
Ke Xun's scalp tingled and he immediately held his breath.
It was so quiet that he could hear his heart pounding against his chest.
Ke Xun began to worry that the heart was beating so violently that the "thing" outside the firewood pile might hear the sound.
In the dead silence, every second that passed was slow and sticky. An invisible, huge, ominous premonition pressed down on Ke Xun more and more heavily.
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
Just when Ke Xun's lungs were running out of air and he was almost unable to hold back his breath, there was a "click" sound.
A piece of firewood that was blocking my sight fell down by itself.
