Apart from these, the rest of the book contained only coffin diagrams. All other information, including internal structures, had been completely torn out.
Old Bachelor Grandpa had treasured the *Manual of Exotic Coffins* as a family heirloom, keeping it on the ancestral offering table on ordinary days; he would never have had the heart to tear it apart.
The destruction of the *Manual of Exotic Coffins* made me even more certain that Old Bachelor Grandpa's death was definitely related to the ordering of that coffin.
The crucial clue was the "Seven-Absolute Coffin" recorded in the *Manual of Exotic Coffins*.
Under Old Bachelor Grandpa's strict compulsion, I had long since memorized the *Manual of Exotic Coffins* backward and forward.
The Seven-Absolute Coffin is crafted from seven different kinds of wood, with each wooden plank providing only seven tree rings. This is commonly known as a seven-level pagoda, signifying the bringing of karmic cause and effect to a close.
Additionally, the wood must be soaked in black dog's blood for forty-nine days, meant to seal the seven apertures and lock away the realms of yin and yang.
The manufacturing conditions are extremely demanding. Even finding ancient trees a hundred years old—from which planks can be cut using just seven growth rings—is a matter of rare fortune, something to be sought rather than expected.
Generally, those buried in such coffins are individuals who have accumulated countless unrighteous killings and ruined their karmic virtue.
According to Old Bachelor Grandpa, the Seven-Absolute Coffin was passed down from the Bai family of Great Qin. Bai Qi, who slaughtered four hundred thousand Zhao soldiers, carried far too much blood on his hands, and after his death, his family was constantly plagued by misfortune; within half a year, all three of his sons fell victim to strange illnesses. Later, a yin-yang master well-versed in Daoist arts offered his family a solution.
They dug up the corpse and reburied it in a Seven-Absolute Coffin, and only then did the Bai family enjoy peace for a few years.
Following Bai Qi, many generals with heavy blood debts were buried in Seven-Absolute Coffins.
After the Kangxi-Qianlong Golden Age, which lasted for more than a hundred and thirty years, virtually no one ordered Seven-Absolute Coffins anymore.
To find the person who ordered the Seven-Absolute Coffin was to find the key clue pointing to the real murderer.
Nowadays, the country enjoys peace and prosperity, and few people even know what a Seven-Absolute Coffin is.
Trying to find the person who ordered a Seven-Absolute Coffin was like searching for a needle in a haystack, but I had to take the initiative.
I placed the *Manual of Exotic Coffins* before Grandpa's spirit tablet, locked the door, and left home.
Returning to the city, I called my best brother, Anzi.
The moment we met, Anzi asked me why I hadn't taken the remaining two exams, and even reproached me, asking if I didn't want my diploma.
"Anzi, I need money!" I didn't answer him, cutting straight to the point.
"How much?" Anzi paused for a moment and asked.
His reaction deeply moved me. This was what it meant to be brothers: when help was needed, there were no questions asked, nor was any reason required.
"Conservatively estimated, two hundred thousand. I'm going to open a coffin shop, and I need to rent a storefront and buy tools!" I replied.
"Crap! Jiang Feng, have you lost your mind? Didn't we agree that after graduation we'd go into business together, make it big, and crush the An family?" Anzi's eyes bulged wide, wearing the aggrieved expression of a jilted woman.
I sat there gloomily and said nothing.
Anzi paced back and forth in front of me a few times. Seeing that I wouldn't change my mind, he pulled out a bank card, threw it into my lap, and stormed off angrily.
Anzi had a very unusual background. Out of the six guys in our dorm, I was the only one who knew he was the illegitimate son of Andelin, the head of the multinational conglomerate the An Group.
Precisely because of his status as an illegitimate son, a contract had been signed when he was born granting him no share in the An Group's stock and no right of inheritance. However, his living expenses every year were said to be quite substantial—though exactly how much, I had never asked.
Yet he had told me more than once that he wanted to go into business with me.
He had even sworn that he would make the business bigger than the An Group and crush the An family.
He wanted to show everyone in the An family that he, An Xiaohai, needed no inheritance rights to still make a magnificent storm in the business world.
We had once shared grand plans to conquer the commercial sea.
Unfortunately, I had run into this disaster.
I had no choice but to let him down.
Clutching the bank card Anzi had given me, I ran to the antique street and rented a storefront.
As for carpenter's tools, I wasn't in any hurry to buy them; instead, I ordered an extra-large plaque.
To lure out the person who had ordered the Seven-Absolute Coffin as quickly as possible, I deliberately carved the diagram of the Seven-Absolute Coffin onto the plaque as our trademark.
On opening day, although Anzi was still in a huff, he still came running over to deliver a congratulatory gift.
He specifically inspected the plaque—which was completely out of proportion to the size of the storefront—and, pointing at the Seven-Absolute Coffin diagram, declared it was too ugly.
I merely smiled and offered no explanation.
In my heart, the shop and the plaque were secondary; the Seven-Absolute Coffin diagram was what mattered.
Nowadays, few people knew about the Seven-Absolute Coffin, and those capable of crafting one were even rarer than phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.
I firmly believed that the person who had commissioned Old Bachelor Grandpa to make a Seven-Absolute Coffin would surely show themselves the moment they saw this pattern.
I originally intended to return the bank card to Anzi, but he flatly refused, saying it was his investment and that once we made money, the two of us would split it fifty-fifty.
After the Coffin Manual opened for business, every day I eagerly watched and waited for the person ordering the Seven-Absolute Coffin to come knocking.
Yet after waiting a full week, not a single customer appeared.
On the eighth night, just as I was about to close up, the door was shoved open with a heavy push.
Several people in black suits and dark sunglasses appeared in the doorway.
They looked very much like bodyguards.
I looked outside and saw a pale-faced young man tilting his head back to gaze at the Seven-Absolute Coffin diagram on the plaque, studying it very intently.
He stared at it for a full minute before stepping inside with large strides. He sat down in a chair as if no one else was there and crossed his legs.
The lackey beside him immediately hurried over and lit a cigarette for him.
He exuded absolute airs of importance.
He was finally here!
Staring at the Seven-Absolute Coffin diagram like that, he definitely wanted to order a Seven-Absolute Coffin.
Perhaps he was the very person who had ordered one from Old Bachelor Grandpa.
I felt an urge to rush right up to him and demand answers about Old Bachelor Grandpa's cause of death.
Yet he had seven or eight bodyguards surrounding him.
I could only forcefully suppress the impulse in my heart, pour him a cup of tea, and plan to slowly fish for information step by step.
"You understand Seven-Absolute Coffins?" He picked up the teacup, glanced at it, and then set it back down on the table with a look of disgust. From beginning to end, he never once looked at me, giving off an extremely arrogant vibe.
The Seven-Absolute Coffin!
He really did know about the Seven-Absolute Coffin.
I was certain he was the person I was looking for.
"Of course I understand. But seven types of centenarian ancient trees aren't easy to find, and with the planks needing to be soaked for forty-nine days, it requires at least half a year of construction time!" To make him believe I understood the Seven-Absolute Coffin, I immediately rattled off key information regarding its manufacturing process and materials.
"It seems you really do know your stuff; I've found the right person after all. It's not as troublesome as you make it sound. I don't need you to build a new Seven-Absolute Coffin from scratch. I just need your help repairing one, and it won't take much time! Name your price!" He flicked his cigarette ash, finally deigning to look me in the eye, and spoke.
I thought I must have misheard.
Once a thing like a coffin was built, it was buried in the grave; I had never heard of anyone needing to repair a coffin.
"What? Can't you do it?" he asked.
"Of course I can do it. Two hundred thousand!" To dispel the other party's doubts, I put on the face of a businessman, demanded money straight out, and named an exorbitant price.
He didn't refuse. Instead, he waved at one of his subordinates, who immediately ran back to the car, retrieved two stacks of hundred-yuan bills—a full two hundred thousand—and laid them out before me.
"Get in the car, we leave tonight!" Before I had even recovered my wits, he stood up and issued his demand.
I had finally found this clue with great difficulty, and I certainly couldn't let it break here. Hurriedly locking the door, I got into his car.
The car sped toward the outskirts. After driving for more than two hours, when it finally stopped and I stepped out, I found myself in the pitch-black wilderness of barren mountains.
A trace of misgiving stirred in my heart: surely he wasn't going to make me crawl into a grave to fix a coffin, was he?