Otherworldly Merchant

At first I thought that either Li Mazi or Senior Shu were rolling in their sleep, so I wanted to push that person away. However, my body was completely unresponsive when I tried to move my hand. I could only try to open my eyes to see what was going on.

My eyelids also felt very heavy, as if they were made of lead. I could only vaguely see someone on top of my body; he had a gray goatee and was wearing a red and green attire, like the traditional clothing of the Miao people. Wrinkles crossed his face and a pair of opaque eyes were looking at me.

I was surprised. “What do you want?”

The old man with a goatee answered with a sneer, “The Perpetual Joy Coffin doesn’t bring perpetual joy. Go back home.”

I was startled again. “Did you also come here to find the Perpetual Joy Coffin?”

The old man only gave me a mechanical response, “Leave, otherwise, you’ll die without a proper burial!”

I was fearful, knowing that this man was also here to compete for the Perpetual Joy Coffin. I immediately tried to break free, but I couldn’t move at all.

I squirmed like an ant on a hot pan, then I suddenly felt someone shaking me hard. My eyes opened after some time, and I finally noticed it was Li Mazi who was shaking me.

Li Mazi seemed concerned as he looked at me. “Are you okay?”

My head was clearing up. I sat up and looked around drowsily. The old man with a goatee was nowhere to be seen.

It turned out I had just experienced sleep paralysis.

I exhaled and felt relieved. “Nothing. I just had a nightmare…”

The sky was getting brighter. Senior Shu was doing some stretching out with the “Exercise of the Five Animals.” This exercise was said to have been left behind by Hua Tuo, a doctor from the Han dynasty. The old man looked somewhat cute while imitating bear movements.

Seeing that we were up, Senior Shu gave us two packs of hardtack. “The road ahead will be difficult to walk through.”

We ate the biscuits and drank mineral water before we followed Senior Shu to go up the mountain.

We didn’t expect that the Miao’s area would be this desolate. I had thought we would arrive at our destination after crossing this mountain. However, we had to cross five mountains more to finally see traces of the Miao Village.

The journey had worn me out; I couldn’t walk anymore. We had climbed mountains and walked for seven or eight hours already. Even if I were a soldier, I couldn’t endure this much.

We rested for a moment to eat something to recover our strength before we continued.

I noticed something was off as we went further. Senior Shu had become silent and secretive, which was a drastic change when compared to his enthusiastic attitude on the previous day. I didn’t know what he was up to.

Curious, I asked Senior Shu, “Are you worried about the Perpetual Joy Coffin?”

Senior Shu looked at me skeptically. “Kid, did a ghost press you down yesterday?”

“Yes,” I said, “How do you know?”

Senior Shu wasn’t in the car when I felt the ghost pressing me.

Senior Shu hesitated for a while and waved his hand in the end. “No, nothing.”

I knew he was hiding something from us, so I kept pestering him.

Eventually, he took out his phone and showed me a picture.

The old man used a counterfeit, old-fashion phone whose keypad was so worn out that we couldn’t see the letters. He showed us a photo on its small screen.

“Have you seen this man?” asked Senior Shu.

I carefully looked at the photo. It was an old man with a wrinkled face, an aquiline nose, and a goatee…

He reminded me of the bearded man who gave me the warning!

I was startled. “Senior Shu, h-he… He’s the one who was pressing me down yesterday.”

“So it seems.” Senior Shu sighed helplessly and said, “He’s the one who was supposed to guide us, and also the one who had found the Perpetual Joy Coffin first.”

I arched my brows. “Don’t tell me that he’s already dead.”

Senior Shu said gloomily, “Better be ready for anything. Oh, did he tell you anything while he was pressing you down?”

I tried to think but I only remembered a few vague words. I did share the sentence I’d heard: ‘The Perpetual Joy Coffin doesn’t bring perpetual joy.’

Senior Shu looked even gloomier once he heard that. Not commenting further, he asked us to prepare well and get ready to continue.

“Prepare ourselves well? Prepare for what?” I asked Senior Shu but he didn’t want to talk; he just kept walking.

We entered the Miao village territory after crossing another mountain.

The name of this Miao village was Hidden Dragon Village, which sounded like the name of a bandit lair. However, the villagers were really friendly and full of curiosity; they flocked and surrounded us since we came from a foreign place.

Their hospitality cooled down the moment Senior Shu told them his name. They scattered shortly after.

I guessed that Senior Shu had done something bad in this village. Li Mazi loved to gossip so he asked him about it. Senior Shu snorted and said, “They are resentful because I married the beauty of their village. That’s why they gave me the cold shoulder.”

I had a hard time believing what he said. You could tell that he wasn’t good-looking when he was young. How could he marry the most beautiful woman of the village?

Senior Shu didn’t care about their attitude, and he directly led us to a tattered, wooden house.

The house was at the outer edges of the Miao Village. We could see the white, funeral couplets and the unique Miao masks hanging at the door from a distance. My heart raced. Crap, is that man really dead? 

No wonder Senior Shu had repeatedly asked us to prepare ourselves. Now I understood what he meant.

If the person I met yesterday was truly dead, it meant I had really seen a ghost! I shuddered at the thought.

Senior Shu pushed the door open. The house was deserted and littered with garbage. It seemed nobody had lived there for a while.

“Old Han?” Senior Shu called out impatiently.

However, no one answered him.

Senior Shu’s face changed drastically. He directly charged into the house. Li Mazi and I didn’t dare to enter, so we waited at the door.

Senior Shu searched around and then got out with his head hung low. “My old friend is really dead.”

I became anxious. “Senior Shu, is his death related to the Perpetual Joy Coffin? I think this coffin is not good at all. We should let it go.”

The courtyard’s door opened as soon as I said that. A young man wearing white clothes came out and looked at us, his eyes focusing when he saw Senior Shu.

He asked in a cold tone, “Which one of you is Old Shu?”

Senior Shu clasped his hands behind his back. “Oh, Nephew, you should be calling me Uncle Shu.”

“My father’s gone. Before he passed away, he asked me to tell you that the Perpetual Joy Coffin doesn’t bring perpetual joy. He escaped a natural disaster but couldn't escape the supernatural one. You should leave right away! Otherwise, your ending wouldn’t be different from my father’s.”

Then, the young man turned and left.

Senior Shu’s face darkened after he heard his words. He looked at the back of the young man, and he chased after him as soon as he returned to his senses. “Where did you bury your father? I want to see him for the last time.”

The young man took a deep breath. “The 36th hanging coffin on the cliff of hanging coffins. You should leave after you see him! My father’s death was really strange.”

“How did he die?” Senior Shu asked.

“Hmph, you should ask him if you want to know…”

Then, the man left in a hurry. He didn’t look back, no matter how loud Senior Shu called his name.