There is a trick

Chapter 90 Upside Down (4K12)

In the underworld.

Those strange tones that were calling out for seemingly real lives suddenly disappeared in an instant.

Zhou Chang listened to Zhou Sanji's warning, clenched the kite string in his hand, and calmed his mind.

His eyes swept over the coffins.

The next moment, a strong wind suddenly blew up!

The strong wind blew open the lids of the coffins - inside the coffins, there was only darkness, and no other bodies were seen!

In the darkness, some white light flew out and converged towards Zhou Chang, entangled with the red rope on Zhou Chang's right wrist - the red rope that absorbed the smell of alcohol and brought Zhou Chang's bone ring was silent for a long time.

Zhou Chang had never expected that now in the 'Iron Horse Tribulation' in the underworld, as coffins similar to the coffins in front of Yin's biological mother's tomb competed to open their lids, the red rope actually absorbed the white light inside and began to accumulate strength again!
There are coffins everywhere!

Pieces of white light flashed out and entangled with the red rope on Zhou Chang's right wrist.

The red rope was filled with power almost at this moment.

But it was slow to open the next coffin for Zhou Chang - it seemed that there was some power in the underworld that blocked it.

Seeing that the red rope did not move for a long time and the coffins around him began to collapse in pieces, Zhou Chang also focused his mind and stopped paying attention to the red rope for the time being. Instead, he walked side by side with Zhou Sanji in the empty underworld where the coffins collapsed and disappeared.

He walked out of the forest of coffins.

Ahead, a small boat was already waiting there quietly.

"Such a small boat looks like it could capsize at any time.

Who would be willing to board a boat like this?"

Zhou Chang looked at the small boat moving slowly in the underworld. The boat could only accommodate two people. In the endless black wind and vast space of the underworld, the boat looked small and fragile, giving people a sense of precariousness.

However, Zhou Sanji’s expression became more serious when he heard his grandson’s words: “Be careful!

The smaller or larger the land boat is, the greater the disaster it will bring!

Only those ships that look neither too big nor too small are easier to deal with!

The smaller the boat is, the more you will never guess the means it uses to trick you into getting on board - you must never let your guard down just because the boat is small!

How small was that ship you saw?"

Zhou Sanji had not been in the disaster of the iron horse and land boat, so he had no way of seeing the specific appearance of the small boat.

"It can only hold two people...it's a canoe." Zhou Chang looked at the boat, carefully considered his words, and responded to Zhou Sanji.

"Canoe..." Zhou Sanji's expression became more and more serious.

He didn't want to affect Zhou Chang with his mood, so after a moment he forced a smile and said, "It's okay, you just need to calm down and remember not to get on the boat - your uncle Yang is still outside, he will help us.

He must have helped with the iron horse just now!"

"Yes."

Zhou Chang also nodded in agreement.

The coffins pulled by iron horses had already made him lost his mind, and he lost his direction in the forest of coffins.

But later, when he was doing nothing, the lids of the coffins suddenly opened one after another, and wisps of white light flashed out from inside, which actually completed the charging of the red rope. It can be seen that if it were not for the help of Uncle Yang and others outside, he would not have been able to survive this disaster so easily.

At this moment.

The boat slowly stopped more than ten steps away from Zhou Chang.

It slowly gave off wisps of illusory food vapor, and in the midst of the vapor, it slowly transformed into a door with a walnut-colored door frame.

Zhou Chang likes this wood tone, and many of the furniture and decorations in his home are matched with this walnut color.

His eyes passed through the door frame and saw a walnut-colored TV cabinet with an old-fashioned big-butt TV, a tempered glass coffee table, and a bamboo sofa with a floral cushion, all illuminated by the warm yellow interior lights.

The coffee table faces the balcony. Outside the balcony, thousands of lights are shining in the darkness.

On the clothesline on the balcony, there are some spring and autumn clothes for the elderly, as well as a few suits and casual clothes covered with plastic sheets and covered with a light layer of dust.

Zhou Chang looked at the familiar furnishings in this narrow living room. His heart began to beat faster and his mind began to tremble slightly.

This place is the house where my grandfather lives in his hometown!

"grandfather……"

"This is not real, it's all an illusion, don't be fooled..."

Zhou Chang reminded himself again and again in his heart, but his eyes couldn't help but linger in this room.

He heard the slow sound of chopping vegetables and followed the sound into the kitchen.

There was no light on in the kitchen, only the dim light from the living room shining in.

A tall old man stood in the dim and narrow kitchen. Around the small chopping board in front of him were some marinated fish fillets, onions, ginger, garlic, pickled peppers and other side dishes. On the small chopping board was a green and yellow pickled cabbage.

Tonight, the old man is going to prepare a dish of 'sauerkraut fish'.

Zhou Chang looked at the old man's white hair, which he usually combed meticulously. Now it was scattered sloppily on his head. A lot of mist and dust had accumulated on the tortoise-shell framed reading glasses.

"grandfather……"

Zhou Chang called out softly in his heart.

This scene was so realistic that it seemed like a dream he had never had before.

He was afraid that his voice was too loud and would wake the dreamer.

The old man slowly and methodically cut the sauerkraut on the table into slices and placed them in a steel bowl.

Then he lit the stove and put the pot on.

The flames burned the bottom of the pot until it turned slightly red.

Grandpa just stood there looking at the red-hot pot bottom, not moving at all, and suddenly he became stunned.

After a long time, as waves of burnt smells wafted into his nostrils, he finally reacted, hurriedly turned off the fire, looked at the red-hot iron pot, and sighed deeply - he did not continue cooking, but instead picked up the steel bowl containing sauerkraut and placed it on the glass coffee table in the living room.

Afterwards, he went to the kitchen and got a bowl of dry rice.

The rice was leftovers, and the vegetable was sauerkraut that was originally used to make sauerkraut fish.

The old man slowly ate a few mouthfuls of rice with the pickled vegetables.

This will be enough for dinner for the day.

For him, eating is just one of the rituals that he has to perform every day.

And he himself seemed to have lost the feeling of hunger.

After eating and cleaning up the kitchen, the old man put on a thick coat, changed his shoes, and walked out of the house.

"Where is he going at this late hour?"

Zhou Chang was a little worried. He followed the old man as he walked down the stairs, out of the community, across the road, along the river for several hundred steps, and into a small park.

In the park, the street lights cast a yellow light on the ground.

There are wrought iron benches and fitness equipment rooms surrounded by various green plants and flowers, and occasionally two or three elderly people can be seen staying.

The wind in early spring is still very cold, and there are few people in the park at this time. Most of the people in the park are elderly people doing fitness exercises, taking walks, or holding a large brush dipped in water and practicing calligraphy on the floor tiles.

Grandpa did not stop in front of the fitness equipment, nor did he greet the old calligraphy practitioner he knew in the past to borrow a brush to write a few words.

He walked straight to the ticket booth in the southeast corner of the park.

Behind the ticket booth is the river bank, with several large and small sightseeing boats tied to pillars on the shore.

The banks of the stream and even the willow trees are all wrapped with colorful light strips, making the river water finally come alive, not as lonely and gloomy as usual.

On the river, there were two or three sightseeing boats swaying gently in the wind.

The young lovers sat on the boat, cuddled up to each other, looked for places with backlight, and secretly did some blushing and heart-pounding things.

Grandpa stopped in front of the ticket booth window and asked the middle-aged woman ticket seller in the booth: "When will it be closed?"

The ticket seller closed the video he was browsing, checked the time, and casually replied to the old man: "It will be more than an hour. Do you want to take the boat?"

"More than an hour..." Grandpa turned on his phone, scrolled through the screen, found an unfamiliar number and dialed it. When the person on the other end picked up the phone, he frowned and asked anxiously, "How long will it take you to get there? The boat will stop sailing soon!"

"Right away, right away..."

"Don't say immediately, how long will it take?"

"Hey! I'm right behind you!"

Grandpa turned around and saw an old man in colorful clothes waving at him about ten steps away.

The old man was carrying a big bag and walked hurriedly over, waving his hand.

Zhou Chang recognized the old man——

The red string in his hand was what his grandfather got from the "Celebration Altar" that was looked after by the old man.

Yin Shengmu is also a great deity worshipped at the "Qingtan".

Why is grandpa looking for this person?
Zhou Chang became even more suspicious.

He watched his grandfather hand two twenty-yuan bills into the ticket booth and buy two boat tickets.

Under the strange gazes of the ticket seller and staff, two elderly people, who were at least 150 years old in total, boarded the duck boat that only young couples would ride. They each pedaled the bicycle-like pedals on the boat, steered the boat, and rowed it out of the river bank and along the river.

The duck boat swam towards the shadowy area, scaring away one or two couples hiding in the corner.

"Have you brought everything?"

"Bring it with you!"

"Paper money, red ropes, bells, an apricot-yellow flag for the ancestor, a coffin made of soil from Yin Shengmu's grave..." Grandpa had a stern face and read out all the things that were needed.

The old man opposite listened to him, took off the big bag on his back, put a thick stack of paper money painted with cinnabar ink on the table, took out a bundle of finger-thick bells decorated with green rust, three apricot-yellow flags tied together, and a palm-length mud coffin...

"This clay coffin is the most difficult to handle!" the old man said with a bitter face, "Now Yin Shengmu's place has become a tourist attraction.

Not to mention moving the soil on top of the grave, even if you pull out a weed, a staff member will come and reprimand you - even if I'm the temple priest in charge of the Qingtan, it won't do anything!

Moreover, it is difficult to burn this mud coffin, and it is easy to burn... I spent a lot of effort, found several disciples, and received several lectures before I could gather enough grave soil to burn this coffin..."

"I'll give you ten years of my good deeds." With just one sentence, grandpa made the old man stop complaining and smile.

"You are a very lucky person, so ten years of good deeds are nothing to you." The old man looked at the rippling water with a smile, and said, "But even if you are very lucky, isn't it a bit of a waste to do this?
Break the hell, break the hell...

Ah Chang's body is already dead. Even if we break into hell and bring back his soul, it will dissipate in two or three days.

What can you do? When your luck is gone, you won’t have many days of good life left…”

Zhou Chang could understand every word the two old men said.

But the information revealed in their words was something Zhou Chang had never encountered before.

In his impression, his grandfather was never a person who believed in superstitious things about gods and ghosts. Although his grandfather taught Zhou Chang many strange arts since he was a child and took Zhou Chang to understand some folk witchcraft knowledge, he never brought those things he heard into his normal life, or even put them into practice.

And that old man... Zhou Chang clearly remembered that although he was in charge of Qingtan, he was actually just an old widower.

Where are the disciples?

And judging from the old man's tone, he has more than one disciple...

This is completely inconsistent with Zhou Chang's impression.

Is it an illusion evolved from the underworld, which is not real enough after all?
Or was it that I was too superficial in the past and never noticed some things beneath the water?

Zhou Chang was struggling internally.

Obviously, what appeared in this "illusion" was increasingly different from the reality in his impression, but he gradually began to believe in this illusion.

"Achang's death was very strange. You saw it. The longevity lamp I set up for him at the celebration altar has not been extinguished yet." Grandpa looked gloomy and spoke in a low voice.

The old man shook his head: "It's just a light, with oil in it, how can it be extinguished so easily?

Now it’s all about science…”

"These past few nights, I often saw a person standing under the old locust tree in the community downstairs, looking up at my window.

I quietly observed him for a while...

That person looks exactly like Achang…” Grandpa muttered to himself.

When Zhou Chang heard what his grandfather said, his heart skipped a beat.

——Did the other life shells of Yin Shengmu go to the other world and try to get close to grandpa?
The old man sighed: "Achang's death is a huge blow to you. After all, it's the old who send off the young... I think you are too tired, so you have some hallucinations..."

"Sometimes when I fall asleep, I hear Achang crying and calling me grandpa...

This child rarely sheds tears and rarely cries...

He must be having a hard time over there, I want to see him."

"Hey……"

The old man stopped persuading.

Grandpa tied one end of the red rope to the mud coffin, and tied three apricot yellow flags to the other end.

The old man took the apricot yellow flag and stuck it into the crack of the stone under the bridge: "If his soul is really pulled up, this boat will not be able to support his coffin - it is better to stick the flag in the crack of the stone."

"it is good."

"I started chanting?"

"Well, I'll scatter some paper money."

(End of this chapter)