"What will happen, I don't know," Mu Yiran glanced at him coldly, "The last person who did something similar suffered an exceptionally terrible backlash."
"Fine, then I won't burn it." Ke Xun shrugged, "What if I draw turtles, tortoises, goatees or something on their faces?"
Mu Yiran looked at him with the eyes of someone looking at an idiot: "In Chinese supernatural culture, neither gods nor ghosts can be insulted."
"Then gods and ghosts can insult people?" Ke Xun said helplessly.
After everyone checked, they didn't find anything exciting. Looking at the sky, although it was gray and gloomy, they knew it was already broad daylight, so they closed the main door and went out into the courtyard.
Ke Xun remembered that the old man had told him last night that they had to meet at his place at eight o'clock this morning, so he called Wei Dong, who had been waiting in the courtyard. As soon as they stepped out of
the courtyard gate, they saw the pancake stall owner sitting on the ground, slumped and broken, his face covered in water stains, it was hard to tell if it was sweat or tears.
Wei Dong finally remembered what Liu Yufei had told him last night. He went over and tugged at the pancake stall owner: "Stop doing useless things. You can't escape this place. No matter where you run, you'll eventually come back to where you started. Just stay with everyone else; maybe we'll find a way back today."
The pancake stall owner got up dejectedly and followed the crowd like a puppet.
Ke Xun asked Wei Dong, "How come we always end up back where we started?"
Wei Dong pointed to the distant, hazy depths: "Liu Yufei said that no matter which direction you run, you'll eventually return to where you started. It's like a painting in front of you. The person in the painting runs to the left of the frame, and as soon as they're outside the frame, they reappear on the right side, and then they're back to where they started. You understand? No matter how you run, you can't escape the frame."
"...This is fucking hopeless," Ke Xun sighed.
"What did you see in that house?" Wei Dong asked.
Ke Xun briefly explained the situation to him, then glanced up and saw Mu Yiran walking ahead. He quickened his pace to catch up, putting his arm around Mu Yiran's shoulder and asking, "Little Mu-gege, tell me, what did you find in that mourning hall back then?"
Mu Yiran closed his eyes, and Ke Xun could see a hint of helplessness on his cold, icy face. His expression softened, and he didn't press further, simply tilting his head and waiting quietly.
Mu Yiran lowered his gaze to the face before him. His messy short hair gave him a somewhat lazy and unruly air, but beneath his two striking eyebrows were a pair of eyes that were exceptionally pure and earnest, clear and bright, sparkling with a clear light. Looking
at that face alone, one wouldn't guess that this person possessed such a shameless and goofy nature.
Mu Yiran pursed his lips, shifted his gaze, and said in a low voice, "There's something wrong with the wood in that coffin. Coffins are usually made of woods like nanmu, paulownia, pine, or a mixture of cedar and cypress. But the coffin in the mourning hall is made of pure cypress, without any other wood."
"So?" Ke Xun looked at him.
"In the funeral culture of some parts of China, it's forbidden to use pure willow or pure cypress wood for coffins," Mu Yiran said softly. "Old customs say that willow trees don't bear seeds, so using them for coffins will lead to the extinction of one's lineage. And using pure cypress for a coffin will bring divine retribution."
"Divine retribution?" Ke Xun raised an eyebrow. "Lightning strike?"
Mu Yiran nodded slightly. "You could say that. So, using pure willow or pure cypress for coffins is a funeral taboo. Places with such customs usually wouldn't make such a mistake."
Ke Xun turned to look at the Li family mansion, now far behind them. "But this family broke the taboo, which means..."
"This shows it was intentional," Mu Yiran glanced back meaningfully, "knowingly committing a crime. There's probably only one possibility for this: turning a taboo into a curse."
Ke Xun: "…A curse? Impressive. Why is that?"
Mu Yiran lowered his eyes, seemingly pondering, "Even a painting must be logically consistent, and if it's a realistic painting, it needs to be even more grounded in reality. We, after entering the painting, become part of the characters within it. Among us are guardians of the spirits, woodcutters, granary guards, warehouse guards, grave diggers…"
"It seems like something's missing." Ke Xun looked at the group walking ahead.
Mu Yiran's eyes flickered slightly: "The second protagonist in the funeral ceremony is missing."
"Who?" Ke Xun looked at him.
Mu Yiran's gaze shifted to his face: "The deceased's family."
Ke Xun suddenly realized: "That's right, besides us, there were no other people in that courtyard last night. Wait, could the three dead people be the deceased's family?"
"No." Mu Yiran gestured with his chin towards the group walking in front, "We're all dressed the same. If we were family, we'd be wearing heavy mourning clothes, or even if we weren't, our attire wouldn't be the same. Judging from the 'arrangements' we were made at the old man's house last night, we should be 'villagers.'"
"Then why are the villagers made to keep vigil?" Ke Xun asked.
"In some small villages, when one family holds a wedding or funeral, the whole village has to help," Mu Yiran replied.
Ke Xun asked, "Could it be that you're from a humble farming family, Brother Mu?"
Mu Yiran looked at him coldly: "Read more books."
"I'm a physical education major." Ke Xun showed no shame. "By the way, can books teach you how to identify coffin wood?"
Mu Yiran seemed reluctant to answer, but also seemed afraid of being pestered by Ke Xun, so he reluctantly replied, "I have a friend who's obsessed with woodworking."
This "obsession" is quite telling; usually, obsession is accompanied by a frantic promotion—he's probably been told a lot about woodworking before.
"Then why didn't the deceased's family show up?" Ke Xun tried to get back to the topic. "The deceased was cursed with a cypress coffin, and the family didn't even offer any explanation? And who made the coffin?"
Mu Yiran said calmly, "Find the answers to these questions, and you'll probably be able to leave this place."
As they spoke, they arrived at the old man's house from last night. Upon entering, they saw steamed buns, rice porridge, and bowls and chopsticks on the table in the main room. The old man's lifeless eyes swept over everyone. "Everyone worked hard last night. Have breakfast first. There's no work to do during the day, so you can rest. Come back to my place after dark, and I'll arrange your work for tonight."
After saying that, the old man turned and went into the inner room.
Ke Xun was wondering if the food on the table was poisoned when he saw two or three people already sitting down and eating. Ke Xun looked at Mu Yiran and saw that his face was somewhat somber, but he also walked towards the table and served himself a bowl of porridge.
"Are you really alright?" Ke Xun sat down next to him, watching him scoop up a ladle of porridge and put it in his mouth with elegant movements.
Liu Yufei chimed in sneer, "Eat without worry. If the food was poisoned, there would be no need for all this fuss. They could just throw us in the house and starve us for a month; no one would survive."
Ke Xun still starved Mu Yiran, "Then what's wrong with your face? Is there shit in your porridge?"
Mu Yiran gave him a cold glare, "Want to die in a second? I'll grant your wish."
Ke Xun immediately remembered how he had been pinned to the ground by this man last night, powerless to resist, and said to him, "Stop messing around, eat quickly."
Reaching out, he grabbed two steamed buns and fawned over Boss Mu, offering one to him. Boss Mu ignored him, and Wei Dong snatched it away.
Beside him, Liu Yufei, disgustedly stirring his thin, watery rice porridge with a ladle, continued talking to Ke Xun: "He doesn't look well. I guess it's because those two who went to dig up the grave are dead."
Ke Xun paused, glancing at the heads in the room, and realized that the two who went to dig up the grave yesterday were indeed missing: "How do you know they're dead?"
"Because the old man didn't wait for them to return before letting us eat," Liu Yufei pointed to the inner room, "If they were still alive, the old man would have waited until everyone was here before saying what he just said."
"Damn," Wei Dong cursed under his breath, "Five dead in one night. At this rate, how many of us will be left after today?"
No one answered him; they just ate silently. Some looked numb, some seemed lost in thought, and some were dejected.
The taste of this meal was truly indescribable. The porridge was cold, the steamed buns were hard, and a few pickled vegetable stalks were covered in white mold. The filling of the buns was of unknown origin, tasting like grass and even smelling of horse manure.
But no matter how bad it was, he had to eat it, otherwise he didn't know how long his strength would last.
The unpalatable meal was quickly finished, and Mu Yiran stood up and walked outside.
Ke Xun pulled Wei Dong to follow: "Where are we going?"
"Just going for a walk outside, looking for clues," Mu Yiran replied in a deep voice.
"You can just wander around? Aren't you afraid of running into... you know?" Wei Dong asked.
"Judging from what the painting depicts, it should be fine during the day," Mu Yiran said, "Besides, the old man didn't mention anything about not being allowed outside, so we should be fine."
"We'll go with you," Ke Xun decided to stick close to his boss.
Mu Yiran ignored him, took a long stride out of the courtyard, and headed straight for the north of the village.
The north of the village was a wasteland, and further away, it was still an endless, hazy expanse.
Above the wasteland, the mournful cries of crows echoed, circling a few times before landing beside a small mound.
Ke Xun and Wei Dong followed Mu Yiran briskly over, only to find two corpses beside the mound.
Wei Dong screamed, collapsing to the ground and then stumbling backward seven or eight meters before stopping, pointing at the bodies and trembling.
"Close your eyes, get out of the way," Ke Xun stepped in front of him. He hadn't really wanted to see the state of the corpses, but seeing Mu Yiran walk up and examine them closely, he suppressed his discomfort and glanced at the bodies as well.
What he saw almost made him vomit on the spot.