When I arrived at the city suburb, a streak of pale fish belly had already pierced the darkness in the sky.
Because it was daylight, Old Gong had long disappeared.
Don't know when, Yu Xiu suddenly pulled on my hem, and her pale, empty face faintly revealed a touch of vulnerability.
In fact, Yu Xiu has always been in such a sickly weakness.
Any normal person would feel sympathetic after looking at her for a while.
Just that, for me, before, whenever I spent more time looking at Yu Xiu, I would definitely feel it was even more eerie.
Now, whenever I spend more time looking at her, I can't help but think of poor Lv Kan.
How could I even dare to look at her any longer?
Pay and get off, then I entered the city suburb.
The dirty street, covered with filth everywhere, children running around wildly, the air filled with the scent of steamed buns, fried dough sticks, and cooked vegetables.
First, I took Yu Xiu to eat a steaming hot breakfast before going to the front door of Tang's family.
Without a key, and since it was the old Tang family residence, I didn't dare to pick the lock directly. In fact, at Tang's place, I could only take a short rest. I decided to give up entering and went straight with Yu Xiu in another direction.
A few minutes later, we arrived at a small courtyard, with a small building inside the brick wall.
The building looked much cleaner compared to the other houses in the city suburb.
There were bamboo arbors in the courtyard, with many Chinese herbal remedies hanging to dry.
A woman with a round face was arranging a medicine rack.
She suddenly turned around and stared at me blankly.
The sunlight shone on her face, highlighting her freckles, which were very obvious and deep.
"Bitter Orange," I called out.
The woman hurried forward to open the door, her face showing a touch of nervousness.
Before, Tang Quan and I lived in the city suburb and had dealings with Bitter Orange.
Her sickly man, along with Old Gong, had heavily looted the wealth from the city suburb.
Later, Tang Quan was possessed by the thing from Wei Youming, and she was also injured.
"First... Mr. Luo?" Bitter Orange obviously didn't know how to address me and grew increasingly anxious.
"You're back... Is there something you need?" she asked cautiously.
I didn't correct Bitter Orange's address; it was just a code, nothing special.
"I want to know where Old Gong is buried," I said directly.
"Old Gong?" Bitter Orange's face changed slightly. She lowered her head and immediately saw the night pot hanging from my waist. She covered her mouth and took a shallow breath.
"Ah," I nodded and emphasized, "Take me there."
"All... all..." Bitter Orange replied stammeringly, closing the courtyard gate and leading me in the direction again.
We walked west along the road, the fewer people we encountered along the way, and behind us, some fields appeared. The terrain suddenly rose, and we saw a few small mountain ranges in parallel.
Under the hill, scattered tombs could be seen, some small enough to have no gravestone, just a pile of earth. Some tombs were built with bricks, and the gravestone was as big as a door panel.
Bitter Orange whispered to me, explaining that the city suburb should have been demolished long ago, but the compensation talks between each household had not been settled, and the relocation of the graves had also not been agreed upon.
I wasn't interested in these matters, and I basically didn't answer.
As we passed by a tomb, Bitter Orange whispered to me that it was her husband's.
Soon, we reached the edge of the hill. Going any further, we would have to climb up the mountain.
In sight, I saw a very pitiful tomb.
A normal tomb is head big and body small, resembling a hill or a person lying down.
However, this tomb was just a round mound of earth, covered with climbing ivy vines, and weeds grew among many small insects.
The tomb had no gravestone and not even a trace of incense burning.
"Old Gong buried a piece here," Bitter Orange said cautiously.
"A piece?" I furrowed my brow, my tone filled with astonishment.
"Mm..." Bitter Orange's face twisted into a smile, whispering an explanation: "That's because... when Old Gong died, he had been dead for too long. When his body was discovered, his head and body had already split apart."
"After everyone took what they wanted from him, what was left was a dry corpse without a head. So, they just buried the body."
"At that time, no one knew where the head was, so they only buried a piece."
After a pause, Bitter Orange whispered again: "But later, I heard that Tang Quan's parents took Old Gong's urinal, and inside it was his head. They seemed to have thrown it up on the mountain."
As Bitter Orange spoke, she pointed to the small mountain range in the distance.
She continued, "After Tang Quan's parents died, Old Gong has been in the Tang family ever since."
"These things are what I heard. Although my husband had dealings with Old Gong, we haven't done anything harmful!"
Bitter Orange cleanly distanced herself from the situation, as if afraid of angering me.
I furrowed my brow again and said, "I understand. You can go now."
"Thank you... thank you..." Bitter Orange looked relieved.
"Wrong," I said again.
Bitter Orange immediately jumped, looking worried.
I then told her that after she went back, I needed her to bring me a shovel and a hoe, and that was all I wanted her to do.
Bitter Orange pursed her lips, turned around, and hurriedly walked back the way she came.
I stood in front of Old Gong's tomb, long without speaking.
In the end, Old Gong's death was pitiful and unjust.
His soul was so terrified by Wu Zhongkuan that he died, his head still in the urinal, and his body divided after death. His ghost was left with only a head.
About twenty minutes later, Bitter Orange brought the items and hurriedly left again.
I then began to dig the grave.
With the sun shining bright and the good lighting, I was able to dig the grave quickly.
I thought that Old Gong was buried relatively shallow, as it was common for people from the city suburb to split his estate and just roughly bury the body. However, I had been digging for quite a while without seeing any remains.
Before I knew it, I had dug down more than a meter, and under normal circumstances, I should have seen the coffin by now!
Not only was there no coffin, but I didn't even see any bone fragments...
My face slightly sank, and I didn't expect any unexpected turn of events in this matter...
How could a body without a head and soul, be able to crawl out and run away?
I continued to dig, holding onto a glimmer of hope.
Time passed, and the grave turned into a two-meter-deep pit. I had been digging for the entire morning, but still didn't see any remains...
In my heart, I knew that Old Gong's body was not here.
There is indeed a twist here.
The sun's rays suddenly intensified to an extreme, the scorching heat pierced through the eyes, and the next moment, it became biting cold.
I shivered, and the coldness was as if the evil qi was piercing into my body.
Silently, Old Gong's head appeared again on the urinal.
His head, without consciousness, raised up. His dry face and lips, uttering dry words.
"Omen of evil... omen of good... omen of evil... omen of good..."
"Master... there is a great omen of evil!"
His voice was especially sharp, as if it was going to break through my eardrums!
My scalp prickled, and a shudder ran through my heart.
It seems... I misunderstood something?
I thought that when Old Gong said these things in the Underworld before, he predicted what was going to happen to me.
In fact, he was talking about himself, not me?
"Ah... Ahh..."
"I seem to hear my heart pounding... sigh..."
Old Gong's tone shifted, and he became even more confused.
