Chapter 138: The Resurgence of the Malicious Ghost

After about the time it takes to draw a breath, nothing strange happened.

Everyone felt a wave of relief.

A woman let out a long sigh and was about to speak when, right at that moment, a soft "squish" sound was heard.

The sound was faint to begin with, but along the banks of the Shangjia River after nightfall, with the entire population of Kuailiang Village gathered here, everyone had been holding their breath and focusing intensely in absolute silence, which magnified this subtle noise tenfold.

Before everyone's eyes, many people clearly saw Lady Zhuang's hair twitch and wriggle slightly.

"Ah, ah, ah!!!"

The scene instantly erupted into utter chaos.

"Ghost!"

Someone let out a piercing scream, and many hastily raised their torches and turned to flee.

In the panic, people shoved, trampled, and scattered like headless flies.

Many people further back, who had not seen Lady Zhuang's hair move, had no idea what was happening. Just as they were craning their necks to look forward, they heard someone shout "ghost."

In the dead of night, they were carrying out a lynching, and Lady Zhuang's death had been far from glorious; moreover, she seemed to have passed away with deep resentment, unwilling to close her eyes.

Judging by how Third Brother Kuai and the others had repeatedly pushed her corpse into the river and dragged it back up, the execution tonight had clearly not gone smoothly.

Hearing the word "ghost" pop up was a terrifying prospect for the villagers.

Many people shoved the person in front of them, desperately trying to escape.

At a time like this, no one cared about watching the spectacle, nor could they afford to look after their own family members or friends.

In an instant, those with slightly slower reactions were shoved to the ground. Before they even had time to scream, the panicked crowd fleeing behind them trampled right over them.

Total disorder reigned.

Many people even dropped their torches and ran.

Meanwhile, Third Brother Kuai, who was closest to the corpse, had also witnessed the wriggling motion in Lady Zhuang's hair with his own eyes.

Seeing movement on a dead body scared him so badly he nearly wet himself.

Lady Zhuang was his sister-in-law, and he bore some responsibility for her death; when the incident first happened, he had felt a measure of dread.

However, his greatest fear was not encountering a ghost.

The first thought that flooded his mind was that after this ordeal, the villagers might ostracize his family.

With such a major event happening tonight, if anything truly befell the villagers, they would inevitably end up resenting his household.

It was normal for everyone to pitch in when watching a spectacle, but if that spectacle turned into a disaster, the situation would be entirely different.

At the mere thought of such consequences, Third Brother Kuai felt true terror welling up from the depths of his heart.

This dread even surpassed his fear of malevolent spirits, causing him to stand rooted to the spot, staring unblinkingly at the corpse without moving an inch.

Precisely because he was staring at the body, he was the first to notice something was amiss.

By the light of the surrounding torches, he noticed something crawling and squirming amidst Lady Zhuang's strands of hair.

At the sight of this dark shadow, a thought struck Third Brother Kuai. Suppressing his terror for the moment, he lunged forward and parted Lady Zhuang's hair, only to find a small, palm-sized fish with a grayish-black back and a white belly entangled in the locks.

Lady Zhuang had possessed a fine head of hair during her lifetime, and after her death, her long hair drifted loosely in the water. Presumably, the fish had mistaken it for water weeds and burrowed into the strands, only to become trapped by the dead woman's long hair.

"Stop running, it's not a ghost, it's a fish, it's just a fish!"

Third Brother Kuai shouted with a hint of excitement. "It's not any ghost, a fish burrowed into Lady Zhuang's hair, that damn thing caused the commotion just now, stop running!"

Sixth Uncle, fleeing blindly in panic, had been knocked to the ground and was spinning in confusion when he heard someone shouting again: "It's not a ghost, it's not a ghost."

Those words finally managed to pierce through his daze.

After Third Brother Kuai repeated the shouts several times, the panicked crowd finally began to calm down.

"It's really not a ghost?"

Someone asked doubtfully. Third Brother Kuai answered with absolute certainty:

"It's really not a ghost."

With that, he took a step forward and parted Lady Zhuang's hair again, revealing her corpse-white face tinged with a bluish hue.

She had been rather delicate in life, but a dead person never looked pleasant—especially since she had been forcibly drowned, harboring bitter grievances before death that imparted a greenish tint to her complexion, making anyone who looked at her deeply uneasy.

"If it's not a ghost, then fine. Let's dispose of the body quickly, I want to go home—"

"I want to go home too—"

"Where is Sixth Uncle? Sixth Uncle, come out and preside over things."

The crowd chattered noisily, gradually losing their composure.

Mist was beginning to rise over the river.

The fog grew heavy. Having experienced two rounds of frights with wild emotional swings, everyone was drenched in sweat, both on their bodies and in the palms of their hands.

A night breeze blew past, rapidly stripping away their body heat.

The people of Kuailiang Village no longer wished to linger by the riverbank.

Everyone began searching for Sixth Uncle. Amidst the earlier panic, many had neglected his presence, and now, with numerous people trampled on the ground, the injured and frightened wailed aloud, sending the situation spiraling out of control once again.

After a long while, someone finally called out:
"Sixth Uncle is here."

Sixth Uncle, who had been knocked to the ground, groaned as he was helped up, and villagers immediately asked him to preside over the aftermath.

Having weathered all these twists and turns tonight, Sixth Uncle no longer had the mood for any superfluous theatrics. Just as he was about to speak, Sixth Uncle's wife walked over to his side with a child and gently advised him:
"Dear, why don't you just let people bury her and be done with it."

"My heart is fluttering and my eyelids are twitching nonstop; I feel like something terrible is going to happen, we should just bury her quickly."

"She cannot be buried!"

Fifth Brother Kuai suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs.

He had hidden out of sight earlier and lacked the courage to step forward when trouble struck, but the moment the discussion turned to Lady Zhuang's funeral arrangements, he immediately reappeared.

"She is not allowed to be buried! This bitch dared to cuckold someone and bring shame upon the Kuai family; she cannot be buried, how could she get off that easy?"

Sixth Uncle's wife was so infuriated by him that her teeth itched, and she retorted sharply:
"What's the use of you saying all this now? If we keep messing around like this, I foresee a disaster—"

Fifth Brother Kuai, who had previously lacked the nerve to go into the water to drag out the corpse, now appeared stubbornly defiant in the face of Sixth Uncle's wife's words. Puffing out his chest, he argued dismissively:
"What kind of disaster could happen? A mere woman, has she really turned into a ghost? If she truly became a ghost, I'd like to ask her if she has any shame left—"

"You—"

Sixth Uncle's wife wanted to curse him out, but Sixth Uncle, utterly exhausted in body and mind, shouted:
"Enough, stop arguing."

He wiped his face and sat on the ground to ponder for a moment:
"Lady Zhuang cuckolded her husband; burying her just like that would indeed let her off too lightly—"

Before he could finish speaking, seeing his old wife about to open her mouth, he glared at her warningly:
"However, everyone has been tossing and turning all night and is truly exhausted. Why doesn't everyone go home, fetch some firewood, and burn her corpse?"

That way, regardless of whether Lady Zhuang turned out to be a bane after death or not, it would be once and for all settled.

Upon hearing this, the crowd nodded in agreement one after another.

However, some women felt a pang of reluctance over their own firewood:
"This is clearly a matter concerning Fifth Brother Kuai's family, why should our household have to provide firewood?"

"Exactly—"

"Forget it, women have no foresight. Stop bickering and get on with it quickly."

"Eh? The fog is getting thick."

"What's so rare about a heavy fog? Making a fuss over nothing—"

Everyone chattered amongst themselves as they headed home, completely devoid of any sense of impending doom.

Only Sixth Uncle's wife felt a woman's extraordinary sixth sense warning her that Lady Zhuang's death with lingering resentment would likely bring misfortune to Kuailiang Village. Her eyelids fluttered wildly as she glanced at the grandson cradled in her arms and silently chanted a prayer: Heaven protect us.

Before long, the villagers returned one after another, carrying bundles of firewood.

Many hands make light work, and in a short while, a pyre of firewood was constructed.

Everything was ready; all that remained was to toss the corpse into the pyre.

Several strange occurrences had taken place regarding Lady Zhuang's death tonight, making everyone rather hesitant to touch her body.

Yet leaving the corpse lying about was not a solution either.

Driven by fear, an extraordinary courage was instead catalysed within the crowd. Third Brother Kuai, Kuai Pengju, Kuai Baichuan, Kuai Changliu, and others worked in concert to hack apart the bamboo cage and drag Lady Zhuang's corpse out from within.

Strangely enough.

Though she had been drowned not long ago, her corpse was unusually rigid, her limbs curled up tight. Several grown men joined forces, trying to pull her limbs straight, but they simply could not budge them.

The crowd exerted themselves to the utmost, yet pulling at her felt less like handling a woman's flesh and blood and more like trying to move a human-shaped stone.

Before dying, she had curled up tightly, her hands crossed over her chest and her long legs bent as if trying to shield her naked body from view.

"Sixth Uncle—"

Third Brother Kuai panted heavily with exhaustion and called out.

"If you can't straighten her, forget it. Throw her into the fire and burn her directly."

His words brought a sense of relief to Third Brother Kuai and the others. Together, they lifted Lady Zhuang's corpse—

"One, two, three—"

The crowd chanted in unison, "Heave!"

The moment the command fell, the corpse was thrown forcefully, landing with a heavy *thud* inside the pyre.

"Light the fire!"

At Sixth Uncle's command, several people tossed the torches they held into the pyre. The moment the torches landed, the flames roared to life upon contacting the dry wood.

In an instant, the fire swelled, quickly engulfing Lady Zhuang's corpse.

Seeing this sight, everyone felt a weight lift from their hearts.

It was as if, along with the blaze, all sins, malice, and terror would be consumed and reduced to ashes by this fire.

The raging flames leaping toward the sky seemed to dispel the oppression brought by the boundless night, driving away the thick fog that had crept in from who knows where.

Waves of heat rushed forward with the flames, chasing away the bone-chilling cold of the night.

"Now it's over."

This thought arose in everyone's mind: "Tonight's business has finally come to an end."

Yet right at that moment, a crisp, distinct sound rang clearly in everyone's ears.

*Drip-drop.*

It was the crisp sound of a water droplet hitting the ground.

It sounded as though deep within a silent, empty mountain, a hidden spring was dripping water, exceptionally clear and crisp.

However, being by the river, the sound of water was nothing out of the ordinary.

Initially, the people of Kuailiang Village paid it no mind; some even stood around the bonfire watching.

Gradually, however, the dripping sounds grew denser:
*Drip-drop, drip-drop—*

And increasingly urgent.

Meanwhile, the previously raging flames were shrinking at a visible rate, and Lady Zhuang's corpse, which had been completely enveloped by the fire, reappeared before everyone's eyes.

"This—what is going on here?"

Seeing the fire dwindle, someone asked in startled confusion.

Sixth Uncle shuddered violently, then snapped back to his senses:
"Perhaps someone's firewood was damp?"

"That shouldn't be—"

"Whose household brought damp firewood? Did they do it on purpose?" someone muttered with dissatisfaction.

Right at that moment, the young child held by Sixth Uncle's wife suddenly spoke up:
"Grandma, why does Fifth Aunt's body look kind of red?"

"Child, stop talking nonsense—"

Sixth Uncle's wife was already deeply unsettled. Hearing the child speak thus, she hurriedly brought her palms together and bowed twice toward the sky:
"Children speak without malice, children speak without malice."

Though adults often acted as though nothing was taboo, they had after all taken a life, and weird occurrences had transpired tonight. Outwardly, everyone appeared fearless, but in truth, each person harbored a guilty conscience and dared not look at Lady Zhuang's corpse.

Children, on the other hand, knew no fear in their ignorance; tonight's events merely seemed like a fun and lively spectacle to them. Consequently, they kept staring at Lady Zhuang and were the first to notice something wrong.

The moment Sixth Uncle's grandson finished speaking, someone mustered the courage to look toward Lady Zhuang. Upon doing so, they indeed discovered the bizarre truth:
"No, something is truly wrong, Lady Zhuang's corpse really has turned red!"

Prompted by that adult's cry, the others forced back their terror and looked toward Lady Zhuang's corpse as well—

There upon the pyre, Lady Zhuang's corpse lay curled up. Having burned for a large part of the day amidst such fierce flames, not even a single strand of her hair seemed to have been scorched away.

Her long hair, thoroughly soaked with water, coiled and wrapped tightly around her body, dripping water *drip, drip, drop*.

The dripping sound everyone had heard earlier undoubtedly came from the water falling from her hair.

And the most terrifying part was her corpse.

Before her death, to punish her, the people of Kuailiang Village had deliberately stripped off her clothes to humiliate her before everyone, meaning that even in death, her pale skin was clearly visible to all.

After being scorched by the flames, her body had assumed a crimson color as vibrant as fresh blood. She no longer resembled a corpse at all, but rather a human-shaped iron ingot that had been left in a furnace for too long, glowing fiery red.

Despite such a massive fire, her corpse was not destroyed, yet it burned red while her hair continued to drip water—

Even the most blockheaded fool would have realized by now that a ghost was at work.

An atmosphere of sheer terror instantly enveloped the riverbank of Kuailiang Village.

Everyone stared with wide-open eyes, not daring to make a sound.

*Screeech—*

Then, a bizarre, sticky scraping sound began to ring out, as though someone with bare feet were trudging laboriously through thick mud.

Paralyzed by extreme terror, the crowd's minds went blank and their bodies stiffened, as if all capacity for thought and movement had been stripped away.

The flames were still burning, but they were dwindling rapidly.

Black mist shrouded the entire surface of the river at some unknown point, eventually swallowing the village nestled within the mountain valley as well.

*Thump, thump, thump—* Sixth Uncle's heart hammered like a drum. Just as anxiety gripped him, a crisp *pop* suddenly rang out.

It sounded as though something had burst open.

Atop the pyre, Lady Zhuang's corpse melted under the fire like molten iron, turning into an intensely thick pool of blood that slowly seeped and poured into the stack of firewood, vanishing from sight right before everyone's eyes.

The fire on the pyre instantly went out, and the torches held in many people's hands were simultaneously snuffed out by a heavy, oppressive aura of malevolence.

Total darkness fell before everyone's eyes, plunging them into pitch-blackness.

Caught in a terror fierce enough to frighten one's soul right out of the body, they were robbed of even the ability to cry out or flee.

Everyone stood frozen in place like wooden puppets.

After a long, long time, a piercing, lingering, and trembling shriek pierced the dark night like a specialized alarm siren:
"A ghost!"

"A ghost—"

"Ghost—"

"Ahhhhh—"

The screams transformed into long, echoing wails that reverberated back and forth across the surface of the river.

It sounded as though someone was letting out a resentful, lingering sigh over the water, a sound that refused to die down.

The long night belonging exclusively to Kuailiang Village had finally arrived.