Si Ren reached an agreement with the ghost entity inside the coffin, so the journey went relatively peacefully and he reached his destination smoothly.
However, upon arrival, his heart leapt into his throat.
Directly ahead of him was a large group of people dressed in white mourning clothes, their faces completely concealed by hoods. It was impossible to make out their features, let alone tell whether they were the living or the dead.
Si Ren glanced over them—there were more than twenty people. If all of them were ghost entities, his hundred-plus pounds of flesh wouldn't even be enough between their teeth.
He initially didn't want to get out of the car, but in order to investigate the customer's identity, he reluctantly unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed the door open.
The crowd immediately swarmed around him, the oppressive atmosphere making Si Ren feel somewhat suffocated.
Gathering his courage, he shouted, "Step aside, everyone! If you don't let me through, how am I supposed to open the trunk and get the coffin out?"
The crowd parted to clear a path for Si Ren.
He opened the trunk, stepped aside, and called out, "A few of you, come and carry the coffin out."
Following his words, two people stepped out from the crowd and lifted the coffin out.
The two pallbearers walked in front, with the rest of the crowd following behind. As for Si Ren, absolutely no one paid him any attention.
Si Ren closed the trunk, hesitated in place for a moment, gritted his teeth, and set off to follow behind the crowd.
After walking for about five minutes, they arrived at a cemetery.
The crowd showed no intention of stopping and walked straight in.
Yet Si Ren, trailing behind, found himself in a difficult dilemma.
The cemetery was reeking of ghostly aura; if he went in, wouldn't he be walking right into the tiger's den?
He got cold feet.
Watching the crowd gradually move further away, he stamped his foot and quickened his pace to catch up.
"Damn it, I'll risk it! So what if I die? I'll just turn into a ghost anyway. Whoever kills me, I'll pay them back double!"
The crowd stopped in front of a tombstone, and the two pallbearers carefully lowered the coffin into the dug grave.
The two men didn't climb out, but stood stiffly on either side of the coffin.
The others began shoveling dirt into the grave.
Si Ren's eyes widened in shock—were they going to bury the pallbearers alive?
He didn't even dare to breathe heavily, clamping his hand tightly over his mouth for fear of disturbing the others.
At last, the crowd finished burying the coffin and lit a fire in front of the tombstone, continuously tossing Underworld Banknotes and gold ingots into it. Suddenly, flames blazed into the sky.
The previously calm night was abruptly whipped up by a fierce Kuangfeng.
The Underworld Banknotes and gold ingots in the flames were swept up by the wind and vanished.
This gust blew for a full minute before finally dying down.
The crowd resumed tossing Underworld Banknotes and ingots into the fire.
Si Ren found this wind extremely peculiar. It started blowing the moment the paper money was burned, and it only swept away some of the Underworld Banknotes and gold ingots—it gave him the distinct impression that someone was collecting protection money.
Yet what happened next left Si Ren utterly dumbfounded.
He watched as these people in mourning clothes walked into the flames one by one.
As they stepped into the fire, they instantly ignited.
The fire reached their hoods, revealing the faces underneath, and Si Ren panicked inwardly.
"What the hell? This group of people are paper effigies? That is way too freaking creepy."
As the last paper effigy leaped into the sea of fire and turned to ash, the surroundings instantly plunged into silence.
The fire, which had been burning so fiercely moments before, vanished without a trace.
With no time to dwell on it, Si Ren hurried over to the tombstone, hoping to find some clues.
His risky trip had been worth it: the tombstone was inscribed with the name of his granddaughter, Li Wenjing.
Knowing the names of both grandfather and granddaughter would make the subsequent search much easier.
Besides, the dates of birth and death of the old man were also on it.
With this information, Si Ren prepared to leave the cemetery, but after taking only two steps, he sensed something was not quite right.
When Li Jiacheng died, his children should have erected the monument for him; no matter how one looked at it, it shouldn't fall to his granddaughter.
Unless her entire family was dead, leaving only her.
According to traditional domestic funeral customs, a family should be buried together, neat and complete.
He turned back and checked the surrounding tombstones.
Sure enough, next to Li Jiacheng's tombstone was one for a 68-year-old woman named Wang Wenjuan, and the inscription on the monument was also Li Wenjing.
Moving his gaze to the adjacent tombstone, the name Li Shengli was carved upon it, inscribed by Li Wenjing.
Next, he intended to look for the tombstone of Li Wenjing's mother.
Yet after searching for a long time, he found nothing.
That left only two possibilities.
First, Li Shengli and his wife had divorced long ago.
Second, the murderer who killed their entire family was his wife.
Combining this with the dates of their deaths, Li Wenjing's father died first, followed by her grandmother, and finally her grandfather.
By this deduction, the killer should be Li Jiacheng's daughter-in-law.
Having gathered useful information, Si Ren didn't linger and turned to leave.
This graveyard was truly too terrifying.
Just as he was about to step out of the cemetery, he felt a heaviness on his shoulder, as if something had straddled his neck.
Immediately afterward, he felt his face covered by a piercing chill.
The sound of a child's giggling echoed from the back of his head.
"Hee hee hee."
This sudden turn of events caught Si Ren completely off guard.
He forced a smile that was uglier than crying and said with a trembling voice, "Little ancestor, spare me."
The child didn't speak, just kept giggling away.
As time passed, he felt colder and heavier by the moment.
Staying like this was no solution; he lifted his legs and sprinted toward his car. As long as he could escape this cemetery, he might still have a glimmer of survival.
The child behind him seemed to sense Si Ren's intention.
It stopped giggling and instead let out a piercing, screeching wail, like fingernails scraping across a blackboard.
Si Ren dropped to his knees, covering his ears with both hands, but that still couldn't stop the sound from piercing his brain.
Glancing at the car not far away, he let out a roar, mustered all his strength to dash toward the vehicle, flung the door open, and climbed in—all in one fluid motion—yet he lacked the strength to pull the door shut.
His consciousness gradually blurred. Glancing abruptly at the bottle of Niulanshan on the passenger seat, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him. He quickly unscrewed the cap and hurriedly poured it down his throat.
The moment the liquor hit his throat, the chill on his body was swept away. A wave of warmth spread through him, and even his body felt significantly lighter.
Seeing this, the petty ghost on his neck had no choice but to depart in resentment.
Taking in the fierce and malevolent expression of the petty ghost, Si Ren hurriedly slammed the car door shut, stomped hard on the gas pedal, and fled.
Having survived the ordeal, Si Ren looked at the half-bottle of Niulanshan in his hand and couldn't help offering a wry smile.
"Who would've thought drinking could really save my life? What's the logic behind this? Does white liquor ward off evil spirits? I've never heard of such a thing."
In his panic just moments ago, Si Ren had chugged half a bottle—and this was a one-pound bottle, meaning he had downed half a pound in a single breath.
As the alcohol gradually took effect, his vision began to blur, his brain's reactions slowed noticeably, and his foot on the accelerator lost all sense of restraint, rocketing his speed up to 140.
Fortunately, it was the dead of night and he was in the suburbs, so no other vehicles passed by.
With his last shred of reason, after confirming the surrounding environment was safe, he parked the car on the side of the road, turned on his hazard lights, and fell into a heavy sleep.
To think he wouldn't die at the hands of a ghost entity, only to die from drunk driving—what a pathetic way to go.