Volume 1 Chapter 17: Strange Dream
"This kid falls asleep so fast!" I heard Liu Zining's chuckle passing by my ears, and then he pulled the quilt over me. I smelled a faint sweet fragrance, and my whole body tensed up, and my heart beat fast. I leaned inward, not daring to move, and at the same time I felt a strange sense of guilt in my heart. I was still thinking to myself, I was still a child, how could I have such a dirty thought, is it because I have been in contact with corpses too much, and I am a little abnormal?
The night was very quiet. I could hear Liu Zining lying beside me, breathing evenly. My mouth felt dry, my whole body was tense, and even my palms were sweating. I heard a rustling sound, probably because Liu Zining turned over and her arm touched my back. I suddenly stiffened, feeling the smoothness and warmth of her arm, and dared not move.
Although I was very sleepy before, I couldn't fall asleep after lying on the bed. My eyes were wide open in the darkness. I don't know how long it took, but I felt that Liu Zining had fallen asleep. I deliberately exhaled, pretended to turn over in my sleep, and turned over.
I opened my eyes a little and vaguely saw Liu Zining sleeping soundly facing me in the darkness. I was so nervous that my whole body was stiff. I slowly moved towards her and could feel the breath from her mouth gently spraying on my face.
I felt nervous and scared at the time, wondering how I could be like this, feeling so mean and dirty. Later, when I grew up, I realized that I was gradually entering puberty, and it was normal to have some thoughts.
But I was really scared at the time, afraid that I would be a pervert or a bad person when I grow up! Then, probably because I was too sleepy, I gradually fell asleep while leaning against Liu Zining.
But not long after falling asleep, he was awakened and heard Liu Zining beside him suddenly shouting, "Grandma, don't!"
I was about to call out, "Sister Ning?" when Liu Zining came up to me and hugged me tightly. I froze in an instant, unable to utter a word.
"Grandma, no... I didn't see anything..." Liu Zining said intermittently in my ear.
I was confused and wondered what Sister Ning had seen, and whether the old woman from the Liu family had done something immoral again. But Liu Zining was hugging me tightly at this moment, and my whole body was pressed against her. Even my mind was frozen, and I couldn't think at all.
At this moment, I suddenly heard a strange rustling sound outside the house, as if someone was sweeping the floor with a broom. I have been guarding Liu Nan's body at home for a while, and I am used to it. I can't help but jump with fear at the slightest movement. I wanted to get up and take a look, but Liu Zining was holding me, so I couldn't move.
But after Liu Zining talked a few words in her sleep, I don't know what she dreamed about, she suddenly cried out "Ah" and woke up from her dream. I pretended to be woken up , rubbed my eyes and asked, "Sister Ning, what's wrong with you?"
Liu Zining let out an "ah" and probably realized that he was hugging me, so he immediately let go and said, "I just had a nightmare, it scared me to death! Did I wake you up too?"
I said, "I'm almost asleep anyway." I pricked up my ears and listened. The rustling sound seemed to still be there, but it was getting farther and farther away. I hushed and said, "Sister Ning, did you hear any noise outside?"
Liu Zining listened for a while and said that she also heard someone sweeping the floor. But who would sweep the floor at this time of night?
I said let's go down and take a look. Liu Zining was brave and got out of bed immediately. Without turning on the lights, we quietly opened the door and went to the corridor. Although the weather was bad and there was no moonlight, the Liu family was a wealthy family after all, and they also turned on the corridor lights in the middle of the night.
So when we followed the sound quietly, we found a man in front of us walking slowly to the end of the corridor, dragging something in his hand. The thing was too big and he was dragging it on the ground. The "rustling" sound was the sound of the thing dragging on the ground.
"Look!" Liu Zining covered his mouth, pointed at the ground, and lowered his voice to ask me to look quickly, his voice full of fear. I looked and saw a bloodstain on the ground, coming from the other end of the corridor, passing by our door, and winding all the way. There was a strong smell of blood in the air.
I immediately realized that the person being dragged on the ground in front of me was most likely a person! Seeing that figure staggering and about to disappear at the end of the corridor, I winked at Liu Zining, asking her not to call for help yet, and quietly followed.
But when we went up, the figure had disappeared, and we searched everywhere but couldn't find him. Liu Zining looked pale and said, "What should we do?" I said, "Let's go find my uncle first."
We found the front hall, but found no one inside. Only the coffin containing Lin Wenjing was parked in the middle. The black dog blood on the coffin had turned dark black. Three incense sticks were inserted in front of the coffin, and smoke was curling. The seventy-two copper coins were still standing strangely on the ground, tightly surrounding the coffin.
I looked around and wondered why there was no one guarding the coffin. Where had all the people gone? Liu Zining was also a little panicked and asked, "Could something have happened?" I saw that there didn't seem to be any accidents in the hall, so I said to look somewhere else.
After all, Liu Zining was familiar with the road. After we walked around for a while, we saw that there was a light on in one of the rooms. The light shone through the window, and we could vaguely see several figures in the room.
Seeing that they were acting so mysterious, I ran to the window and quietly peeked in. Liu Zining also squatted there with me, craning his neck to look inside.
I saw several people standing in the room, including Dead Face, my third uncle, Liu's father, Liu Zi'an and other male members of the Liu family. A group of people were surrounding a table. Looking through the gap, it seemed that there was a person lying on the table. Dead Face stood there expressionlessly, holding a finger-wide, three-inch-long knife in his right hand, with blood all over the snow-white blade. The other hand was wearing a leather glove, holding a red, bloody object.
When I saw the appearance of that thing clearly, I was shocked and Liu Zining next to me screamed "Ah".
"Who?" The people inside were immediately startled, and Liu Zian opened the door and rushed out with a few people. Seeing that it was the two of us, Liu Zian breathed a sigh of relief and said in a slightly blaming tone: "Xiaoning, why are you here?"
"Brother, we ..." Liu Zining bit his lip, not knowing what to say for a moment. I was too lazy to talk nonsense, so I rushed in, only to see Dead Face and Uncle San concentrating on checking a corpse.
It was the cousin named Cai. He was stripped naked and lying on the table. There was a long cut from his chest to his abdomen. It seemed that the surgeon was the dead man. His chest was also opened, and a bloody mass was taken out and was held in his hand.
When I entered the room, no one looked at me, but just stared at the thing. I wanted to say something, but when I saw the thing, I couldn't help but be attracted.
I have been following my uncle to sew up corpses and mend wounds since I was a child, so I am not unfamiliar with human organs. The dead face took out Cai's heart from his chest. But I have never seen a heart like this before. It has been broken into seven or eight petals, and it looks like a flower.
I went over and tugged at Uncle San's sleeve, saying, "What the hell is going on? Why is this guy's heart broken? Did you do this to him?"
Uncle San glanced at me and said, "What nonsense! He did it himself."
I couldn't help but laugh: "You must be kidding. How could this person break his own heart? And break it into pieces like a flower?"
The dead face said grimly: "This man was frightened to death."
I have also carefully observed the body of Mr. Cai, and I admit that the dead face theory is somewhat true. Judging from Mr. Cai's facial features, he does look a bit like those people who died of fright, except that his death was more horrible and his expression was more exaggerated. But even if this person died of fright, it wouldn't be so frightening that his heart would break, right? This is simply nonsense.
But the dead face and Uncle San's expressions were very grim, and they didn't seem to be joking. Uncle San asked me, "Why aren't you sleeping so late?"
I just remembered and immediately told him what I saw in the corridor. Uncle San asked me to lead the way and take a look. Dead Face put his heart back into the chest of the man surnamed Cai, took off his gloves, and followed the others to go with us.
The bloodstains in the corridor were still there, and they looked shocking. Father Liu was so anxious that he jumped up and down. A group of people followed the bloodstains and found that they came from a room. The door was ajar, but not locked.
Father Liu looked at the dead man's face and Uncle San, and seeing that they did not make any special gestures, he immediately led his men in. When he turned on the light, he saw that the room was empty, with no one in it. The bed and the floor were splattered with blood, and the whole room was filled with the smell of blood.
The young men who came in later were so frightened that their faces turned pale. Liu Zining stood beside me, covering his mouth. He took a look inside the room and exclaimed, "This is my uncle's room!"
The uncle Liu Zining was talking about was her mother's youngest brother, who was less than 30 years old. This room was occupied by Liu Zining's uncle and his newly married aunt.
Father Liu and the others were so angry that they immediately sent people to wake up everyone in the house and searched the whole house. Finally, they found the bloody aunt in a pile of firewood. The woman died with her eyes wide open and her face full of fear. Her throat was cut deeply and her body was cut into pieces.
Liu Zining burst into tears. Although she and her aunt-in-law had not met often, they had always had a good relationship. Liu's father was furious and shouted, "Find him for me! Find him for me quickly!" He wanted to find Ning's uncle as soon as possible.
The dead face said coldly: "No one is allowed to leave the house. Tie up the person immediately if you find him!" Liu's mother rushed over after hearing the news. She almost fainted from fright. Liu Zining quickly helped her mother go in to rest.
The entire Liu family mansion suddenly became chaotic with all kinds of chaos.
