8mi Chapter 34 The dead are gone, the cat-faced old woman
Chapter 34 The dead are gone, the cat-faced old woman
Creating new laws and paving new paths will take time.
Jiang Jun racked his brains for several days, but progress was quite slow, so he simply put it aside, turned on his computer, and went online to find inspiration for compiling a talisman.
The social networking app "Penguin" automatically logs in.
To his surprise, the class group chat, which had been gradually quiet since the beginning of their senior year when classmates started their internships and jobs, was now buzzing with activity.
"Why has it suddenly become so lively?" He clicked on it casually, and as he scrolled through the page, his expression gradually became serious.
Their squad leader, Jia Ke, is dead.
Jia Ke is the son of a local government official and has some connections. Although he likes to form cliques, he is quite competent as class monitor and has fought for many benefits for the class.
Now that he's gone, everyone is somewhat saddened and shocked.
"Beep beep beep!" The roommate group also received a message at the same time.
His three roommates, Kong Lingchen, Wang Wenhao, and Li Cheng, all tagged him, asking if he would go to the funeral home to pay his respects to the class monitor, and if so, to help him send a condolence payment.
Jiang Jun thought for a moment and replied, "I happen to have some free time, I'll go. In Qingjiang, the usual amount for social interactions is two hundred. But we're all students, so let's do what we can afford."
Soon, all three of them messaged him privately, asking him to help pay 200 yuan upfront, promising to pay them back when they returned to school at the end of May to take graduation photos.
Subsequently, several classmates who knew he was a local messaged him privately, asking him to deliver the gift money on their behalf.
He agreed to a few people he was close to, declined a few others, and when he saw that there was nothing else to do, he logged out of the app.
Now, due to the arrival of a strange creature, the spirit has been at rest for only a short time.
The person was taken to the funeral home on the first day, stayed there for a day on the second day, and after the farewell ceremony on the morning of the third day, they lined up to be cremated and buried in the cemetery.
Jiang Jun saw the message the following afternoon.
He and Jia Ke weren't close friends or relatives, so it wouldn't be appropriate for him to attend the farewell ceremony on the third day. Therefore, he changed into a black Zhongshan suit and hailed a taxi.
"Sir, please go to Cemetery No. 7."
Since the arrival of the Abyss of Ghosts, China has strictly and uniformly implemented cremation and burial in public cemeteries.
Cemetery No. 7 was newly built in recent years and is located in the far suburbs. Taxi drivers are reluctant to drive there because they are superstitious about it.
Jiang Jun, not wanting to wait any longer, offered double the price and successfully persuaded the driver.
No sooner had he sat down than the driver, who had just claimed to be afraid of ghosts, began telling eerie stories with great enthusiasm.
"Hey buddy, have you heard? Things' been a bit unsettled around Cemetery No. 7 lately. Someone saw the cat-faced old lady..."
Jiang Jun: "Master, aren't you afraid of ghosts? Now you're talking about it so enthusiastically, aren't you afraid that old lady will come after you?"
"Hey! Every wrong has its perpetrator, every debt its debtor. I didn't harm her, so why is she looking for me?" The driver said nonchalantly, launching into a long and detailed account of the cat-faced old woman's strange tales.
Jiang Jun assumed the extra fare was a tip for listening to the storyteller and listened with great interest.
That cat-faced old woman was a woman with a tragic fate. Her husband died early, and she raised her two sons with great difficulty, which left her with a host of illnesses.
After her two sons got married, they were instigated by their daughters-in-law and became estranged from their mother. When the old lady fell seriously ill and was bedridden, neither of her sons was willing to spend money on her treatment, nor could they even be bothered to bring her a cup of hot water.
The daughter-in-law was even more ruthless, replacing the old lady's life-saving medicine with starch tablets, causing her to suffer in agony for three days and three nights. Finally, a neighbor noticed something was wrong and called the police, but by the time the old lady was taken to the hospital, she had already passed away.
The old lady had a black cat that was very intelligent. After the old lady died, the cat lay in front of her coffin and refused to leave.
Those two heartless sons, finding it unlucky, smashed the black cat to death, then skinned it and stewed it with a snake to make soup.
"Sigh, how can there be such a heartless wretch!" the driver exclaimed indignantly. "The old lady was so pitiful!"
"She's definitely a scoundrel," Jiang Jun echoed, cursing a few times before asking, "And what about that cat-faced old lady?"
The driver lowered his voice, his tone turning sinister: "Well, now the country requires all bodies to be cremated. Those two bastards wanted to secretly dump the old lady in the middle of nowhere, but the community officials found out, so they had to send the body to the funeral home."
"I don't know if it's karma. That day, a child came to the funeral home with an adult. The child was naughty and hid the family's black cat in his schoolbag and brought it in."
"As the child passed by those two ungrateful wretches, they glared at him, and he tripped and fell. His schoolbag fell open, and the black cat jumped out and landed on the old lady's face."
"Guess what? The old lady—she opened her eyes!"
The driver suddenly raised his voice, trying to startle Jiang Jun. But Jiang Jun remained unmoved.
"It's not the kind of slow opening; it's a sudden 'whoosh,' the eyeballs roll first, then the eyelids flip open abruptly, revealing the bright yellow cat eyes inside!"
"The lights in the funeral home went out right then and there. By the time the backup power came on, those two ungrateful wretches and their entire family—adults and children alike—were all dead."
"The scene was horrific. The two ungrateful wretches had their bellies cut open, their flesh and filth removed, and were laid out in the middle of the mourning hall like slaughtered pigs. Their skeletons were still kneeling."
Jiang Jun frowned: "What about the child?"
The driver thought for a moment: "He's probably home. He didn't harm the old lady."
Jiang Jun was skeptical.
Aside from the "Xi Niang Gui" type of monster that kills based on cause and effect, ordinary monsters don't care about gratitude or grudges; they kill anyone they see.
Moreover, there is a stone guardian from the Department of Divine Revelation suppressing evil spirits below the cemetery, and there are staff on duty nearby. If a zombie were to reappear, it would be dealt with on the spot. There is no reason for such a horrific bloodbath to occur.
He looked at the driver suspiciously: "Sir, you made up this story, didn't you?"
The driver got angry when he heard his question: "Hey, young man, how can you talk like that? That old lady is my second aunt's cousin's son's mother-in-law's second aunt..."
Jiang Jun was completely bewildered by this complicated relationship and waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "Okay, okay, I was just talking nonsense. Please continue."
But the driver was no longer willing to share with him, so he accelerated a bit more and dropped him off at the entrance of Cemetery No. 7 a full ten minutes earlier.
"Young man, do you need a ride back? I'll wait here!" The driver only looked at him properly after he paid.
Jiang Jun waved his hand: "No need, I have a way to get back."
The driver muttered a few words to himself, then pulled over and started soliciting passengers. Although he had made double money off Jiang Jun, the thought of driving back empty was worse than death for him.
Jiang Jun ignored him and slowly walked into the cemetery.
The layout here is similar to that of Cemetery No. 3, and a stone guardian with a lion's head and a sword is buried below it to suppress evil spirits and ward off malevolent forces.
Based on the information in the group chat, Jiang Jun located Hall 5 of the funeral home.
Because Jia Ke's father held a high position in Qingjiang City, a constant stream of people came to pay their respects, and the relatives were overwhelmed with entertaining them.
After identifying himself to the emcee and presenting the monetary gifts on behalf of everyone, Jiang Jun slowly approached Jia Ke's coffin.
A young woman with a little boy was kneeling before the coffin. Upon seeing someone arrive, she quickly kowtowed in return. Jiang Jun hurriedly helped her up, saying, "No, no, you mustn't!"
This young woman's name is Zhou Ping. She is Jia Ke's ex-girlfriend, and the child is naturally theirs.
Jiang Jun looked at Zhou Ping kneeling before the coffin and felt a pang of sadness.
He had heard about the mother and child's ordeal from others.
Back then, the Jia family disliked Zhou Ping's poor family background and forced her to have an abortion, while Jia Ke himself abandoned her. Zhou Ping gave birth to the child alone and endured several years of hardship in a rented room.
Now that Jia Ke is dead, the Jia family has suddenly remembered the mother and son. Not for compensation, but because their son is gone, they need to find a woman for a ghost marriage and raise a grandson to continue the family line.
In their eyes, Zhou Ping was nothing more than an object to save face for the dead.
But Zhou Ping had a younger brother who was saving up for a bride price to buy a house and get married. Her parents coaxed and forced her to go to the funeral home.
Jiang Jun looked at the woman whose forehead was red and swollen from kowtowing, and then at the bewildered child beside her, and felt a tightness in his chest.