Chapter 36: Seeking the Corpse for Longevity

The more things pile up, the more chaotic everything becomes.
A powerful sense of foreboding weighed on my heart, making me reluctant to act rashly or stir up false confusion. I knew that if one more uncle who carried my grandmother’s coffin died, then my father’s prophecy before his death would become irrefutable.
Villagers would soon learn that my grandmother’s passing had brought an incomprehensible terror upon us.
Then, my mother and I would become targets of everyone’s wrath.
I dared not imagine what actions the villagers might take under such a shroud of fear.
Though I did not know which of the five remaining men would be next, I recalled how Brother Li’s temperament changed drastically before his misfortune—an obvious sign. Whoever among the five was next, their temperament would surely shift.
This sign could help me identify who it would be, so I could intervene before another tragedy unfolded.
I also realized that, despite my father’s prophecy, nothing was truly certain until it happened.
With these thoughts, a glimmer of hope rose within me. Perhaps I could break my father’s final prophecy by stopping the next suicide.
If I could prevent it, maybe something would change, and this curse of death would end.
With a viable plan and faint hope at last, I drew a deep breath and said, “Old man, let’s begin. Use the secret method you mentioned—I’ll be the corpse seeker.”
“Are you sure? You’ll lose a year of your life,” Xu Buhuo looked at me with a complicated expression.
I forced a smile and replied, “Who knows how long I’ll live anyway? You know my situation. Maybe I’ll actually gain something from it.”
I meant to mock myself and ease the tense atmosphere, but my words only made the room colder. Everyone hesitated, unsure of what to say.
Looking at Fatty and Stone, knowing their involvement was still shallow, I didn’t want them to get caught up in this any further. With a hard tone, I said, “This has nothing to do with you two anymore. Go home. I won’t invite you to stay for dinner.”
Back in school, the three of us were closest friends. Saying this hurt me deeply, but I knew it was necessary. My intuition was clear: if they kept following me, trouble would surely find them.
The deaths of Old Woman Wang, Mad Liu, and Grandpa Qin showed that the third person lurking in the shadows was ruthless—killing was as effortless as cutting grass.
If they stayed by my side, disaster was inevitable. I didn’t want to open my door one day and find one of them kneeling motionless.
“Ziwu, you’re burning your bridges! You called us here for help, now you want to drive us away?” Stone stared at me, disbelief burning in his reddened eyes.
Fatty spoke up, unhappy, “Yeah, we came because we’re brothers. Now you treat us like dogs—call us when you need us, kick us away when you don’t.”
With things at this point, I knew their personalities; if they knew the reason, they’d never leave. I turned cold, shouted, “I am burning bridges! I am treating you like dogs! If you’re unhappy, come hit me!”
Both clenched their fists, gazing at me with gritted teeth. I turned and strode into the house.
Once inside, tears burst out. I squeezed my fists tight, silently saying to them: Good brothers, I’m sorry.
“Damn it, Chen Ziwu, I don’t have a brother like you.”

“From now on, don’t let me see you again.”
Fatty and Stone vented their anger and left. I slumped to the floor. Though eighteen years old, I wept like a child.
The crying did ease the pain in my heart. Mother came to my side, urging me to cry it out, assuring me it would help.
When I finally calmed down, Xu Buhuo had already prepared Brother Liu’s birth chart and drawn eight yellow talismans, each inscribed with a different spell.
As I walked over, he said, “Kid, I didn’t misjudge you. Letting them stay would have harmed them, though your method was a bit harsh.”
“No choice, time’s short. If I explained, they wouldn’t leave.”
Xu Buhuo didn’t dwell on it. He went on to draw a large ritual circle on the floor, had me sit in the center, then arranged the eight talismans around me.
The talisman with Brother Liu’s birth chart was placed in my mouth. Xu Buhuo then drew a spell on my forehead and palm.
Once everything was set, Xu Buhuo took a corpse incense stick from his bag and lit it, instructing me to hold it with both hands.
The secret ritual required him to perform ceremonies: lighting three yellow incense sticks, he walked around me in ritual steps, his fingers constantly forming intricate gestures, touching my head and back.
After three circuits, the corpse incense in my hands burned twice as fast, its thick smoke descending onto the eight talismans.
“Rise.”
With a low command, the eight talismans stood upright, as if held by the smoke. I tensed; Xu Buhuo kept moving, the incense burning at an unnatural speed, smoke swirling around the talismans, keeping them upright.
The whole process lasted about ten minutes. As the corpse incense finished burning, the eight unsupported talismans—standing vertical—suddenly ignited.
At that moment, I felt the talisman in my mouth heat up and turn bitter, so bitter my vision blurred and darkness took me.
In a dazed state, I dreamed of Brother Liu suddenly rising last night. My gaze followed him out to the yard, then up the hill to the cemetery.
Though night, Brother Liu rushed to grandmother’s grave, stood like a wooden stake. Near dawn, he moved again, ran down the hill, scaled the old house wall, and jumped into the well in the yard.
The vision ended there. I jolted awake to find Xu Buhuo standing before me, smoke still lingering in the room—it hadn’t been long.
“Did you see it?”
I nodded. Xu Buhuo pressed a finger gesture to my forehead, signaling I could move.
As soon as I tried, a wave of pain swept through me, a needle seemed to stab my head, forcing me to groan and collapse.
So the corpse-seeking ritual ended. Thinking back, the process wasn’t so complicated. Was a year of life gone just like that?
Xu Buhuo fetched eight corpse nails, asked where Brother Li last disappeared. Looking at the burned old house, I said, “Next door, in the well.”

My answer stunned Xu Buhuo.
We’d searched everywhere for Brother Li, yet who’d have thought he was hiding in the well next door.
To retrieve him, someone had to go down. Xu Buhuo brought a rope, fixed it in place, preparing to tie it to himself, but I grabbed it away.
“I’ll go.”
I said little, tied the rope around my waist, climbed to the well’s edge, and descended slowly.
The old house’s well was dug when grandfather and grandmother first moved to the village. It was shaped like an upside-down funnel: the mouth small, the space widening as you went down.
I remembered that though the well was there, I’d never seen grandmother use its water. She forbade us from using it, drove away anyone from the village who tried.
One year during drought, all village ponds dried up, drinking water scarce. Not wanting to fetch water from another village, I tried to draw water from the old well—just as I was about to drink, grandmother caught me.
Mother once said the old house well water was sweet, but since my birth, for reasons unknown, grandmother never allowed us to use it. She scolded me harshly when I protested that we used to drink from it. She slapped me twice, angrily declaring that now, even if we died of thirst, we couldn’t drink from the well.
I remembered this so vividly because grandmother always doted on me; this was her fiercest moment toward me.
Outside it was hot, but inside the well, it was freezing. Before even touching the water, my teeth chattered. Once submerged, the cold made me groan.
“What’s wrong?” Xu Buhuo called down.
“It’s too cold—bone-chilling.” I couldn’t stop trembling; after only a minute, my limbs felt numb.
“Aren’t well waters usually warm?”
Hearing Xu Buhuo’s mutter, it struck me—the well seemed abnormal.
Ordinary wells are warm in winter, cool in summer. It was summer now; the well shouldn’t be so cold. Inside and outside the well felt like two worlds.
This abnormality reminded me of grandmother’s fierce reaction when I touched the well water as a child, and my unease grew. I was about to ask Xu Buhuo if something was wrong with the well, when his head appeared at the mouth.
“Hurry, bring his body up—the well is dangerous.”
Xu Buhuo was panicked.
It was the first time I’d seen him so afraid since meeting him.