Chapter 31
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
Lou Yan hadn’t walked far in the woods before encountering a girl.
This child was about seven or eight years old, wearing a gray-blue dress with slightly yellowed long hair draped behind her. There were a few blades of grass and leaves tangled in her hair, indicating signs of malnutrition.
She was very thin, weighing only about thirty or forty catties. She was squatting under a willow tree, hugging her knees and looking at Lou Yan as if waiting for someone—she was the girl who had been held in Cai Mo’s arms before her death.
Lou Yan halted his steps, his eyes flashing with bloodshot, furrowing his brow. “What are you doing here? Didn’t I tell you to leave?”
Taking advantage of the moment when Fu Xuezhou killed Cai Mo, Lou Yan seized the opportunity to pick up the little girl, who had been discarded by Cai Mo, and brought her into the woods, instructing her to run as far as she could. He thought she had already left this area of the woods, but he never expected her to be hiding nearby.
She had quite the courage.
Cai Mo told his intern that this girl was his daughter, but Lou Yan didn’t believe that nonsense for a second. He could tell at a glance that the girl’s life wasn’t easy; her dress was old, her shoes didn’t fit properly, she was overly thin, and her demeanor was far more mature and quiet than a normal child. For Cai Mo to take this girl with him when he went out to search for the red coffin late at night, and even holding her tightly while fleeing… There must be secrets about this girl that Lou Yan didn’t know.
The little girl remained obediently still, her dark and bright eyes fixed on Lou Yan, saying nothing.
Lou Yan approached and squatted down, locking eyes with the little girl for a moment. He deliberately softened his voice. “Why didn’t you run away?”
The little girl shook her head.
Lou Yan raised an eyebrow and changed the question. “What is your relationship with Cai Mo? Are the three interns who came out with you dead?”
The little girl shook her head at first, then stretched out both hands to gesture to Lou Yan.
Lou Yan remained silent for a few seconds. “Sorry, I don’t understand sign language, I didn’t know you couldn’t speak.”
The little girl shook her head again, indicating “it’s okay.”
Lou Yan smiled, hesitated for a moment, then reached out and picked the grass and leaves from the girl’s head. The little girl obediently stayed still. After removing the items from her head, she gestured to Lou Yan again.
Lou Yan truly couldn’t understand. He tried to guess the girl’s meaning, but she kept her gestures simple knowing he couldn’t understand sign language. After some guesswork, he finally understood her meaning. “Bridge, under the water…?”
The little girl nodded heavily, then looked around and pointed to the bloodstains on Lou Yan’s body.
Blood?
What did she mean?
Suddenly, a flash of insight came to Lou Yan. “Red, red coffin… Are you saying there might be a red coffin under the water under the bridge?”
The little girl nodded vigorously.
There was only one bridge in the entire Willow Village. Lou Yan thought for a moment. “How did you know?”
The little girl pointed to herself.
Lou Yan wasn’t surprised at all. “As expected…”
Cai Mo brought this little girl because she could find the location of the red coffin, right?
Duan Zege could tell Lou Yan the location of the red coffin because he had divination abilities. Did this girl awaken similar precognitive abilities?
Lou Yan thought of Duan Zege, and inevitably, he remembered the words Duan Zege had said to him.
“There’s a chance to get what you want…”
Ever since Duan Zege told Lou Yan this, Lou Yan had been extremely attentive to it. Especially after his recent failed attempt to kill Fu Xuezhou, Lou Yan paid even more attention to these words.
He had pondered over it many times. The meaning of this sentence was actually quite clear: Lou Yan’s wish was to kill Fu Xuezhou, and Duan Zege’s divination implied that the appearance of the red coffin at midnight tonight might help Lou Yan kill Fu Xuezhou and fulfill his wish.
Lou Yan couldn’t help but feel excited, especially since he had just injured Fu Xuezhou and was now in an extremely excited state. Just the thought of being able to use the red coffin to kill Fu Xuezhou made Lou Yan’s blood boil, and his hands trembled slightly with excitement.
He didn’t care whether he lived or died; all he wanted now was for Fu Xuezhou to die.
Lou Yan silently chuckled, his eyes flickering with red light as he glanced back, revealing a strange smile.
Fu Xuezhou’s injuries should be healing now. When they were nearly healed, Fu Xuezhou would definitely come to hunt him down.
Lou Yan understood rationally that he should escape before Fu Xuezhou recovered completely to avoid retaliation. But emotionally, Lou Yan was eager for a crazy adventure. He wanted to lure Fu Xuezhou to chase him and then lead Fu Xuezhou to meet the red coffin.
Thinking of this, Lou Yan didn’t hurry to leave.
He leisurely chatted with the little girl, his ears always attuned to the sounds behind him. When he heard the sound of trees being broken in the distance, Lou Yan squinted his eyes. Looking back, he saw a slender figure amidst the mist and swaying willow branches.
The hair behind this figure was waving like a venomous snake.
Lou Yan’s breath was hot, and instead of being afraid, he felt eager for the upcoming plan. Lou Yan decisively grabbed the little girl and ran forward swiftly.
When they were about to leave the willow grove, Lou Yan targeted a sturdy willow tree suitable for concealment, climbed up in a few moves, and placed the little girl on the tree. He gestured with his finger to his lips, “Shh,” trying hard to suppress the strange smile, and whispered, “Don’t be afraid. Just stay here quietly.”
Taking the risk of using the red coffin to kill Fu Xuezhou wasn’t suitable with a child. Lou Yan thought the best way was to temporarily leave the little girl on the tree, then lead the most dangerous Fu Xuezhou away from this willow grove, which would be safer.
The tree had many branches capable of securely bearing the weight of a child. After finishing speaking, Lou Yan was about to climb down, but the little girl grabbed his hand.
Her hand was small, not very fair, but very frail and cold. However, for some reason, after the little girl grabbed Lou Yan’s hand, the red light in Lou Yan’s eyes gradually disappeared, and the long-lost calmness returned. The negative emotions in his heart, such as the agitation caused by using the anomaly power, the desire to see blood, and the sight of others in despair, slowly subsided.
But the little girl’s face became even paler.
Lou Yan pressed his eyebrows, and his eyes returned to their usual calmness. He looked deeply at the little girl. “Thank you.”
The girl shook her head, pointed at the blood on Lou Yan’s body, then opened her mouth and bit a few times, making a fierce chewing motion.
Would the red coffin eat people?
Lou Yan chuckled. “I understand. I’ll be careful.”
He rubbed the girl’s head, then jumped down from the tree without looking back and ran to the riverbank in one breath.
The little girl watched his retreating figure from the tree, hugging her knees, and once again fell into blank contemplation.
The muddy ground mixed with water, one pit after another, occasionally stepping into a puddle. The fine rain continued to fall, and the river surface shimmered with faint light as it swayed in the cold wind.
Lou Yan rushed straight towards the direction of the bridge.
The bridge in Liushu Village was called Liushu Bridge, a wooden bridge that had been built for over a decade. The bridge was quite old, and there was a creaking sound of unbearable weight as one walked on it.
Lou Yan had been watching the time on his watch, and finally, he arrived under the bridge at 11:59 PM.
He stood on the bank closest to the river, watching the flowing river. He had seen this river during the day; it was not shallow, at least three meters deep, making it prone to drowning accidents.
As time passed by, when the clock struck midnight, a red coffin suddenly appeared on the surface of the river.
The coffin did not float downstream with the river but suddenly emerged from the bottom of the river, with water cascading down its surface. The red coffin was seven feet three inches long, entirely red, with many golden patterns carved on its sides, and a large “Double Happiness” character in the center.
As the water swayed, so did the coffin, swaying unsteadily as it floated towards the bridge.
At the sight of this coffin, Lou Yan felt a cold, heavy chill.
The river was more than ten meters wide, and the coffin was in the middle of the river. Lou Yan couldn’t reach the red coffin standing on the bank, and he didn’t dare to rashly swim closer to the red coffin.
Lou Yan looked around and caught a rat in the corner under the bridge. He took a few large steps to the Willow Tree Bridge and waited until the red coffin was about to float under the bridge. Then, he threw the rat towards the red coffin.
The lid of the red coffin was tightly closed, but the moment the rat touched the lid, it suddenly opened, allowing the rat to enter the coffin. After “swallowing” the rat, the coffin lid immediately closed again without leaving a seam.
In that brief moment of opening, Lou Yan was able to see inside the red coffin—there was nothing inside, completely empty.
“So, it’s like this…”
Lou Yan murmured to himself.
“Like what?” came a voice from behind.
Here he comes.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of Lou Yan’s mouth, but when he turned around, his expression returned to being expressionless.
Sure enough, it was Fu Xuezhou.
He carried a Tang sword and slowly walked towards Lou Yan.
The closer he got, the faster Lou Yan’s heart raced. It was a kind of oppressive reaction brought on by the continuous approach of a monster. Lou Yan forcibly suppressed the instinctive urge to be cautious and scared, glancing at the red coffin under the bridge from the corner of his eye.
He had to wait a little longer for the red coffin to reach under the bridge.
Finally, Fu Xuezhou reached in front of Lou Yan.
The parts of his neck and hands pierced by bone spikes were no longer bleeding, but the lost flesh and blood had not grown back. These wounds were blurred with flesh and blood, looking gruesome.
Lou Yan noticed that Fu Xuezhou’s complexion was also slightly pale.
Fu Xuezhou looked young indeed, but his aura was not that of a young person. It was as deep and unfathomable as the sea, making it impossible for people to fathom his thoughts or anticipate his actions.
But the current injured appearance made Fu Xuezhou less frightening than usual.
Fu Xuezhou’s lips always carried a faint smile, his complexion devoid of color, “Mr. Lou.”
He tilted his head, and his silver hair hung slightly from his shoulders. Fu Xuezhou said gently, “The game is not over yet.”
Lou Yan looked at him coldly, but after a few seconds, he smiled back at Fu Xuezhou. This smile was extremely bright and exuberant, and he suddenly reached out and grabbed Fu Xuezhou’s collar firmly.
Fu Xuezhou raised an eyebrow slightly, glanced at the hand holding his clothes, and in the next moment, Lou Yan suddenly pulled him backwards.
The old wooden railing couldn’t support their weight and collapsed first, plunging into the river. In the river behind Lou Yan, a red coffin emitting an ominous aura happened to float beneath them.
Fu Xuezhou fell straight down, his clothes swaying in the wind.
But Lou Yan smiled and, at the last moment of their descent, reached out and grabbed the wooden board on the bridge.
Almost a second later, Fu Xuezhou touched the lid of the red coffin.
Lou Yan looked down with a smile, and indeed, the lid of the coffin eagerly opened to swallow Fu Xuezhou. Fu Xuezhou fell into the coffin with his face up, his beautiful face calm as a dead pond, without a hint of expression.
The coffin lid closed at lightning speed. This scene, in Lou Yan’s eyes, was like a slow-motion shot. He didn’t even blink, just stared straight at the coffin lid, watching it gradually cover Fu Xuezhou’s arms, shoulders, and those eyes that were not like human eyes from left to right.
Success!
Lou Yan held his breath in excitement, his smile stretching high, feeling like laughing out loud three times in a row.
“Lou Yan!!!”
Li Sanxin and the others’ voices sounded anxiously not far away. Lou Yan looked over and saw them looking at him with anxious expressions, desperately running towards him.
Just as Lou Yan was about to respond, a strand of silver hair suddenly wrapped around Lou Yan’s waist from below. Lou Yan’s pupils dilated, and in the next moment, this strand of hair also pulled him into the coffin through the last gap.
Almost the moment Lou Yan entered, there was a loud bang, and the red wooden coffin closed completely, sinking back into the river.
<Previous Chapter<Table of Contents>Next Chapter>
