Chapter 271
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Chapter 271: Wedding Coffin
When Chu Jiang entered Green Cloud Mountain, in another direction, there was an old man with a mustache, perhaps around fifty years old, leaning on a cane, gazing towards the direction of Green Cloud Mountain.
There were two people beside him, a man and a woman.
The man had a cross on his back, and the woman had a pale face with makeup done by an undertaker for the deceased.
After observing for a while, the old man said with a hint of worry, "We had everything arranged well. The Zhang family helped us explore the way, and then we could dig up the coffin and take it away."
"But now the situation has become a bit troublesome. Green Cloud Mountain suddenly got blocked by fog."
"Is it because the ghost inside the coffin has revived?" asked the man in a hoarse voice.
"No, Zhang Dafu called me before and asked about the situation. He said the strangeness appeared from within the fog."
"So what do we do next?" asked the woman. Her voice was stiff and lacked inflection, sounding just like a dead person.
The old man hesitated for a moment, "Let’s wait a bit. I asked Zhang Dafu to take some people down the mountain before, but he disagreed and said we should wait."
"Then let’s wait here too. It seems like he’s hiding something from me, and he doesn’t seem foolish either."
The man sneered, "Driven by greed, how clever could someone like that be?"
……
On Chu Jiang’s side, he stood at the foot of the mountain and observed for a while, making sure there weren’t any significant changes before heading over to meet Zhang Dafu and the others.
The group of people found a good spot, not on the mountain top but halfway up. The slope here isn’t too steep, or else the excavator wouldn’t be able to come up, and they would have to dig manually.
When Chu Jiang silently appeared by his side, Zhang Dafu was startled, "You, you, I…"
Chu Jiang looked around, "No need for small talk, are all the living people here? How many in total?"
This is a slope halfway up the mountain, and in terms of terrain, it is indeed good.
Surrounded by mountains and near a flowing stream, the lush vegetation here creates a beautiful scenery. During the day, if you stand here and look into the distance, you will surely feel the magnificence of the mountains and rivers, and a sudden sense of clarity.
Zhang Dafu and seven others are gathered beneath a pine tree, with a few dim lanterns hanging nearby. Since they are working secretly, they dare not use bright lights with high wattage.
Not far from here, there is a long-arm excavator parked, with a rectangular pit in front of it. It’s too dark to see clearly what’s inside.
If someone who didn’t know comes over and sees this, they might think that this group of people are tomb raiders.
"Everyone is here, all eight of us." Zhang Dafu quickly stands up and asks everyone to come closer.
"This is my uncle, this is my second cousin, and this is my third cousin."
The first of these three individuals is an elderly man close to sixty years old, and the other two are middle-aged men who resemble Zhang Dafu to some extent.
"And these four are the professionals we hired: one operates the excavator, and the other three provide labor."
The excavator operator is quite young with blonde hair, looking just as troubled as Xu Shengtian, seemingly with a furrowed brow and a sad face.
The other three look like farmers. Their skin is dark from the sun. They are holding tools like hoes, pickaxes, and shovels, and they also look worried.
"Excuse me, sir, are you a police officer? This matter has nothing to do with us."
"Yes, yes, we’re not here to steal graves. It’s these people who said they wanted to relocate a grave and they offered a high price. That’s why we came so late to this spooky place to dig soil."
"We were also deceived. Now we just want to go back…"
Several farmers spoke in not very fluent Mandarin, pouring out their grievances to Chu Jiang.
Chu Jiang raised his hand. "I understand, no need to panic. I’ll take you down the mountain in a moment."
After saying that, he looked at the old man. "At this time, why are you following a young man to dig graves on the mountain?"
The old man, with half-gray hair, felt a bit embarrassed. "Relocating graves is a big matter. The first son, second son, third son, and fourth son of each family should at least have one person present. I had no choice…"
Chu Jiang shook his head. "Where is your great-grandfather’s coffin?"
Zhang Dafu said, "It hasn’t been delivered yet. We planned to remove any dirty things that might be in the tomb before doing anything else. But unexpectedly, we dug it out."
He pointed nervously at the rectangular pit.
"Take me over there to have a look, and bring the others too," said Chu Jiang, leading the way towards the tomb. Zhang Dafu clenched his teeth and rushed ahead.
……
"This, this is it."
The sound of the wedding procession from outside the mountain still echoed. Zhang Dafu stood next to the tomb, holding a lantern in his left hand and pointing to the dark red coffin underneath, which was still covered in dirt.
The Zhang family didn’t have the courage to dig out the entire coffin. They only cleaned the top and the sides, leaving the coffin lid closed and leaving the part that was combined with the soil and rocks untouched.
Chu Jiang’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of this coffin.
On top of the coffin, there was actually a big [囍] character carved?
This is unusual, because the words and patterns carved on the coffin are mostly about "ceremony" or "long life" and "happiness". It is almost impossible to have the "double happiness" symbol representing marriage.
Although there is also the saying of "joyful coffin" among the folk, it refers to an ancient custom still preserved in rural areas of certain regions in the country.
The locals would prepare a coffin in advance while the elderly person is still alive at home.
This type of coffin is called a "joyful coffin," symbolizing "promotion and fortune." Some joyful coffins are even specially made for the elderly who are sick to bring them good luck.
In short, these coffins are all meant to ensure that the elderly live peacefully and reach a ripe old age, different from what is seen now.
Moreover, although the pronunciation of "happiness" and "double happiness" is the same, their meaning is different. The "double happiness" character means a happy marriage and is generally only used at weddings.
Zhang Dafu nervously looked at Chu Jiang, "Big brother, do you think it’s the King of Hell sending ghost soldiers to come and marry the bride?"
"Don’t talk nonsense," Chu Jiang retorted and lightly descended into the grave.
Even at this moment, he couldn’t be sure if it was the Ghost Bride inside the coffin, so he wanted to get closer to take a look.
The coffin is beautifully made, and it seems to be made of a special type of wood. This means that the person inside the coffin must have come from a wealthy family.
It’s strange that there are no tombstones or mounds above this tomb. Perhaps it’s because it’s been a long time, or maybe the descendants have fallen on hard times and couldn’t take care of the ancestors.
After inspecting the coffin, Chu Jiang was surprised to find that it wasn’t an ordinary coffin. It seemed more like a seal of some kind.
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