Unyielding Bone of Dust

Perhaps because they had been traveling day and night, the three itinerant merchants fell into a deep sleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Only Lin Suqing, no matter how hard he tried, simply couldn't fall asleep.

The room was a small space, later partitioned with long wooden boards, quite narrow, almost the same size as Afu's main house, and now it had to accommodate all four grown men.

The bed they slept on was actually made by piecing together several long benches, which was extremely uncomfortable and painfully prodding at their bones.

All four men lay side by side, with the tall man at the head, followed by the skinny one, then him, and beside him on the right was the muscular man. The snoring noise next to his ear was deafening, and he couldn't quiet his mind enough to sleep.

His mind wandered non-stop as he tried to piece together the cause and effect.

The daughter-in-law of the Xu Family had died, just yesterday, and yesterday was also the day he had found the young master of the Ye mansion. Such a coincidence was hard to believe, and he couldn't help but want to examine the corpse of the Xu Family's daughter-in-law in the mourning hall to look for any obvious wounds or signs of poisoning.

As he was contemplating this, planning to turn over and get up, he suddenly heard rustling sounds outside the curtain.

Listening closely, the sounds were like the rubbing of straw mats, as if that female corpse had sat up… Could it be that the corpse had come back to life?!

Lin Suqing quickly scrambled up and tiptoed to the door, quietly moving the cotton curtain just enough to peek outside.

He saw that the corpse had indeed sat up!

Under the mourning hall, on top of the straw mat, the corpse covered in white cloth had suddenly sat up! Feigning death? Reanimating? Lin Suqing watched in terror, momentarily stunned.

The female corpse was moving her neck and shoulders. Her complexion was ghastly pale with bluish-black tones, her lips bloodless, and her eyes devoid of pupils, clearly not those of a living person.

After a moment of shock, Lin Suqing snapped back to reality and hurriedly retreated, frantically waking the three brothers. But those three were deeply asleep, no matter how much he tugged and pinched, they only scratched as if bitten by a mosquito and continued sleeping.

"Wake up, wake up, we're in trouble if you don't," Lin Suqing hissed in their ears, keeping his voice low to prevent the female corpse outside from hearing.

Just then, there came more rustling and the sound of footsteps getting closer, as if someone was walking barefoot, the hem of a robe brushing against the floor. Was that the female corpse getting up?

He hurriedly returned to his place and lay down as before. Hardly had he done so when he caught sight of the female corpse entering through the door curtain in the darkness.

The female corpse seemed to glance their way, startling him into feigning sleep. He clenched his hand tightly, the one painted with talisman, his heart pounding, constantly reminding himself to stay calm in his mind.

The female corpse walked around them several times before returning to the tall man at the head. His snoring was the loudest, almost as if it would shake the entire roof, but it stopped abruptly as the corpse walked past him.

What an odd and eerie thing, Lin Suqing thought as he cracked one eye open just a slit, sneakily looking to his left.

He saw the female corpse leaning over the skinny man's face, sniffing his face as if she were smelling freshly baked buns. But just from her sniffing, the skinny man, who previously snored like a cat, suddenly stopped snoring. Lin Suqing was about to take a closer look when the female corpse suddenly stood up, startling him into pretending to sleep again.

He tightly pursed his lips, holding his breath, but intentionally let his chest rise and fall to simulate breathing. True to form, the female corpse leaned over him, inhaled deeply a few times near his nose and mouth, then went over to the muscular man.

Obviously, the female corpse could not tell whether she had actually breathed anything in, so why was she doing this?

Once she moved away, Lin Suqing immediately resumed breathing, careful not to let his breaths come too quickly and alert her.

After the female corpse had finished inhaling from the muscular man, she left the room and went back to lie down in the mourning hall.

At this moment, the rooster crowed repeatedly, hinting at the approach of dawn; it was almost light.

Lin Suqing, taking advantage of the female corpse lying back down in the mourning hall, cautiously turned over and got up. Almost as soon as he did, he heard the female corpse get up again! Once more, there was the rustling of the straw mats.

He had to feign sleep again, praying continuously in his mind not to be discovered. He assumed he evaded another of the female corpse's inhalations.

Over and over, the female corpse came and went several times. Lin Suqing figured out the timing and, just as she had returned to the mourning hall to lie down, immediately got up, braced himself on the window frame, and jumped out through the window.

No sooner had he landed than the female corpse came back to the room and immediately noticed his escape, chasing after him with bared fangs and claws. When the female corpse had initially risen, she moved stiffly, but now she was quite agile; flipping her hand over, she vaulted out the window even faster than Lin Suqing's movements.

Lin Suqing thought himself adept at escaping but now found himself relentlessly pursued by the female corpse. She was almost at his heels. He had to abandon running in a straight line, constantly changing direction in a zigzag pattern.

"Help!" he screamed as he ran, his cries awakening many villagers, who gradually began lighting candles in their homes.

Dawn was breaking, the sky outside already showing the first light of day, the crowing of roosters growing more frantic. Yet the female corpse showed no signs of retreat; on the contrary, she was determined not to stop until she had captured Lin Suqing.

Sitian County was a very small place where villagers primarily survived by selling to one another; nearly every household was a business. Thus, aside from the street in the middle, both sides were lined with two- or three-story buildings. The layout was generally the same, with lofts upstairs for living and shops occupying the entire ground floor.

Upon hearing the cries for help, occasionally someone would open a window upstairs to look down, but no one intended to come down to investigate, let alone come out to help him.

Seeing that his cries for help were being ignored, Lin Suqing simply tore at his throat and bellowed, "Fire! Fire! Someone is setting fire to the houses! Someone is setting fire to the houses!"

Instantly, many households, not even bothering to light lamps, were heard hurridly opening their doors and running out.

Just at that moment, Lin Suqing caught sight of the female corpse lunging at him, and he immediately leaped to the side, landing next to a tree.

As the female corpse lunged at him, he quickly stepped aside, and the female corpse missed him and crashed into the tree. She then turned to grab him, but he swiftly stepped behind her and struck her with his palm.

The hand that bore the talisman suddenly flashed with a brilliant gold and red light, piercing through her spine. She staggered forward several steps, then let out a hysterical roar before suddenly falling to the ground, stiff and motionless.

Lin Suqing looked at the stiff corpse on the ground and then at his own palm, suddenly bewildered—was that considered subdued?

Gradually, people came out from their homes, coincidentally witnessing the fight, and because Lin Suqing had earlier shouted about a fire, Government Officials rushed over from a distance, carrying sabers and hurrying forward.

The day had already begun to brighten. The morning light was gentle, with the sun just rising.

A group of people surrounded Lin Suqing and the stiff corpse on the ground, pointing and discussing animatedly. Someone immediately recognized the identity of the corpse.

"Eh? Isn't that Old Xu's daughter-in-law?"

"Didn't she die suddenly yesterday? How come she is here?"

"Dead? I just saw her running fast chasing this young man. Eh? Why isn't she moving now?"

"Could it be that he killed her with one palm strike?"

There was a rush of various opinions, and Lin Suqing stood there in a daze.

...

The government officers quickly arrived, parted the crowd, and went forward to carefully examine the female corpse. Her fingernails were deeply embedded in the stones below, and almost all her fingers had sunk into them.

The leading constable, with his sword at his waist, walked over to Lin Suqing and bluntly asked, "What happened here?"

Before Lin Suqing could answer, Old Xu suddenly ran out in a panic, shouting, "It's terrible! There's a dead person! There's a dead person!"

Sitian County's layout was very simple, just north to south, east to west, forming a straight line from one end of the street to the other, thus creating one long street going north-south and another crossing it east-west.

Old Xu ran out of his house and headed straight forward, immediately seeing the crowd, the constable, and also Lin Suqing standing next to the constable.

From a distance, he loudly yelled, "Catch that lad! Don't let that boy escape! He's a murderer!"

The head constable, upon hearing this, immediately moved to seize Lin Suqing, his eyes glaring as he demanded, "Did you kill someone, boy?"

Lin Suqing, completely bewildered, hurriedly explained, "I didn't kill anyone. There must be some misunderstanding."

He had merely used the power of the talisman to strike down a female corpse, and she was already dead. He had simply turned her from a walking corpse back into a regular corpse. How could that be considered murder? Moreover, Old Xu should have known that his daughter-in-law had already been dead!

Amidst the confusion, Old Xu ran closer, panting for a while before catching his breath, then pointing at Lin Suqing, he said to the head constable, "Constable sir, it's him. He's the murderer. Quick, catch him!"