The red spider web left a line of words on the door. Strangely enough, when the old man turned to look, the words dissolved into blood water and slid down.
"You've been looking for Jiang Ling's sister's body. Have you done something wrong to her?" Chen Ge heard guilt and self-blame in the old man's words.
"Come in." The old man hung the lamp at the door. The secret that he had kept hidden for so many years had been discovered, and he was quite flustered.
After seeing Chen Ge walk in, he stood inside the second wooden hut and gave a long sigh. "Actually, I know who poisoned the couple to death."
"You do?" Chen Ge stopped at the door with the hammer and did not move further into the room.
"I can guess." The old man pulled back the wooden bed, and there was a coffin hidden under it.
It was smaller than a normal coffin, and it was pure black.
"You placed the coffin under the bed?" Chen Ge's curiosity was piqued.
"The coffin was prepared for the eldest daughter of the Zhu family." The old man pushed open the coffin lid and took out an unfinished tablet. On it was written three words — Zhu Xinrou.
"Why would you prepare a coffin for her? Is her disappearance related to you? "
"If we really want to talk about this, we have to start a long time ago." The old man looked at the tablet in his hand. "When I was young, I heard from the adults in the village that there was a Coffin Village deep inside Mount Jiujiang. The village never interacted with outsiders, and the villagers looked strange. They had many strange customs, like every family had a living coffin inside their house, but no one knew what it was for."
Chen Ge could understand the first half of the old man's words. The village was deep inside the mountain, and they did not interact with outsiders. Marriage between close relatives would have a high chance of birth defects.
However, Chen Ge did not understand the second half of the old man's words. What did he mean by every family had a living coffin? It was too unlucky to have a coffin inside a house.
"Sir, is the village still there?" Chen Ge closed the door and asked softly.
"At first, I thought that the village was just a legend. After all, no one had seen it before, but who knew that strange things really happened." The old man put down Jiang Ling's sister's tablet and reached into the coffin to search for something. "Coffin Village in the mountains was hit by a disaster about ten years ago, and a few families managed to escape."
"The people who escaped all looked like normal people, and they didn't have the strange habits described in the legends, so the Bai Village at the foot of the mountain took them in."
"But who would have thought that in the same year, a plague would strike the Bai Village as well." There was some regret in the old man's voice. It seemed that someone had objected to taking those people in, but they didn't care.
"Did those people bring the disease out of the mountain?"
"Who can say for sure? Out of the ten houses, nine of them were empty. Instead, the few families that escaped from Coffin Village settled down here. Later, they changed the name of the village, which is Lin Guan Village that you see now. " Master Bai finally found what he was looking for in the coffin. He took out a black robe from it.
"I made this robe for the eldest daughter of the Zhu family. Those who died outside have to wear a black robe when they enter the coffin. That way, the blood won't stand out too much." The robe in the old man's hands had another unique feature. There were four sleeves around the ribs and the back that were one-fourth the length of a normal robe.
"Don't you think this robe is weird? The eldest daughter of the Zhu family looks like this. " The old man's voice lowered, and Chen Ge could hear the pain in his heart. "The child's parents escaped from Coffin Village, and her mother was pregnant with her at the time. In other words, the child is the last 'seed' of Coffin Village."
"This level of abnormality is not something that can be explained by a close relative marriage. There's a big problem with that Coffin Village!"
Chen Ge didn't expect that answer. Looking at the robe, he could imagine what Zhu Xinrou looked like.
"I don't know whether there's a problem with Coffin Village or not, but I do know that the child lived a painful life. Her parents were afraid of the villagers seeing her. When she was young, no matter how hot the weather was, they wrapped her up tightly, but when she grew up, she couldn't hide anymore. They locked the child inside the room and refused to let her out. "The old man folded the robe and placed it on the coffin lid. Soon, the robe would come in handy.
"And then?"
"Paper can't wrap fire. The villagers still found out about the Zhu family's eldest daughter. What surprised me the most was that the people who escaped from Coffin Village not only didn't speak up for the couple, they even planned to kill the eldest daughter."
"Their words were harsh, and in the end, it was the people from Bai Family Village who showed up to calm the situation. Everyone decided to chase the couple out of the village.
"The eldest daughter's father was a coffin maker, and he was very familiar with carpentry. After they left the village, they stayed near the peach forest and lived a hard life.
"The days passed, and everything returned to normal. I heard that the couple gave birth to a second daughter.
"Just as everyone thought the incident was over, the couple ran back to the village, saying that their eldest daughter had gone missing and warning everyone to be careful.
"You didn't hear it wrong. They didn't ask for help to find their daughter; they just told everyone to be careful.
"A few days later, the eldest daughter was found at the back of the mountain. Her parents hung her up and gave her a beating.
"After a few months of silence, the eldest daughter of the Zhu family escaped again. Every time she was found, her parents would beat her up."
"You probably haven't been to the wooden hut that was built deep inside the peach forest. That hut was used to lock up the eldest daughter, and her father even made a special set of equipment for her.
"The eldest daughter was treated like a monster by the villagers, and her own parents hated her. Of everyone around her, only the younger sister treated her well and treated her like family.
"There was something strange about the youngest daughter's body, but it wasn't as obvious as the eldest daughter's. Furthermore, she had a cute face and was very likable. She was very sensible."
The old man sighed. "My land was next to the peach forest, and I interacted with the little girl a lot. She wasn't afraid of strangers, so we got to know each other.
"One time, when I was working in the field, the girl ran to me crying and begged me to save her sister. I knew about her family's situation, so I didn't go."
At this point, the old man could not continue. His murky eyes stared at the black clothes on the coffin, and his hands gripped his knees. "I should have stood up for her, even if she was a monster.
The girl left in tears. I was worried, so I personally went to the peach forest to take a look.
"I saw the eldest daughter in the fourth hut, and that was the last time I saw her. Her body was stuck by wooden planks, and her hands were dangling from ropes. There were many wounds on her body, and she was dying.
"I really couldn't imagine what she had been through. She begged me to save her, but I was too afraid, and I wanted to leave as soon as possible.
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