Simultaneous travel: City, infinite evolution

Chapter 158 The Mystery of Old Master Ren's Corpse

The waiter served the egg tarts.

To salvage the awkward atmosphere, Wencai quickly grabbed an egg tart, added two spoonfuls of sugar, and poured in some milk.

He even greeted Ren Tingting warmly, "Come, come, Miss Ren, how many spoonfuls of sugar would you like?"

"No need," Ren Tingting politely declined.

"Oh, so you like plain egg tarts." Wen Cai thought he had found the reason and was smug.

Just as Uncle Jiu was about to follow suit, Chen Hong stopped him with a look.

Uncle Jiu immediately realized that he had almost made a fool of himself again, and gave Chen Hong a grateful look.

Everyone picked up an egg tart and took a bite.

Wencai picked up the egg tart dipped in sugar and milk and gulped it down in one go.

then.

His face became a meme.

It was so wonderful.

"Master, it's too sweet."

Wencai covered his face with his hand and secretly groaned to Uncle Jiu.

Uncle Nine rolled his eyes at him. "Just eat it like candy."

Wencai painfully finished the egg tart.

Ren Tingting covered her mouth and chuckled, then looked at Chen Hong and started chatting with him, trying to find out about his situation.

As the conversation deepened, Chen Hong's unintentional display of knowledge and eloquence quickly won over Ren Tingting, earning her her utmost admiration.

Chen Hong also learned that Ren Tingting's mother started teaching her makeup when she was twelve years old.

After her mother passed away, she went to the provincial capital to study makeup, where she was exposed to a lot of Western culture and broadened her horizons.

He is eighteen years old this year and is teaching girls here how to do makeup. He plans to work in the makeup industry for the rest of his life.

Chen Hong suggested that she open a makeup training class to teach wealthy girls how to do makeup, and then open a cosmetics store, or even a high-end cosmetics store in the provincial capital.

Chen Hong provides the formula, which will surely crush this era. He can even learn from Bali's approach, create his own brand, and open a chain of high-end cosmetic stores.

His speech about idealistic revenge and a free woman indeed deeply attracted Ren Tingting.

It made her feel excited, as if she had found a career that belonged to her, and her affection for Chen Hong increased rapidly.

It has to be said that Ren Tingting of this era is really too naive.

Ren Fa's decision to let his daughter learn makeup is considered progressive in this era; he's not some old-fashioned person.

He had no aversion to Chen Hong's knowledge and eloquence, nor to his encouragement of his daughter to go into business; on the contrary, he was very satisfied with Chen Hong.

He himself is a businessman, and in Renjia Town, he is considered one of the most knowledgeable. His business acumen, honed over many years, is keen.

He saw in Chen Hong something far more advanced than himself in every aspect.

Therefore, his thoughts became even deeper.

Three days after the dinner party ended.

Uncle Nine, along with Chen Hong, Wen Cai, Qiu Sheng, Master Ren, Ren Tingting, and security captain Awei, went up the mountain to the cemetery.

After offering sacrifices and incense, Ren Fa said with some pride, "Uncle Jiu, this burial site is very hard to find; it's a good spot."

“Not bad.” Uncle Nine looked at Master Ren. “This acupoint is called the Dragonfly Skimming Water Acupoint.”

"The cave is 34 feet long, but only 4 feet are usable."

It is thirteen feet wide and long, but only three feet are usable.

Therefore, the coffin cannot be buried flat; a proper burial method must be used.

Master Ren immediately gave him a thumbs up in admiration.

“Amazing, Uncle Nine, it’s exactly the same as what that feng shui master said back then.”

"A legal funeral?" Wen Cai looked bewildered. "What is a legal funeral? Is it a funeral rite?"

"Nonsense!" Uncle Nine glared at Wencai speechlessly.

Chen Hong chuckled and said, "A traditional burial is simply burying someone upright."

Ren Tingting, dressed in the traditional Chinese attire of a young lady from a prominent family, immediately looked at Chen Hong with admiration.

"Chen Hong, I never expected that in addition to being knowledgeable in various languages, humanities and geography, architecture and painting, agriculture and medicine, as well as music, chess, calligraphy and painting, you would even know about feng shui and geomancy."

"Little by little, just a little bit."

Chen Hong humbly held up two fingers.

"Break ground!"

At Uncle Nine's command, the farmhands began to dig, removing the tombstone and opening the grave.

For a time, everyone was extremely busy.

With nothing else to do, Mr. Ren and his companions started talking about the tomb.

“Nephew, you have a good eye. The feng shui master once said: If the ancestors are buried upright, the descendants will surely be great.”

"So, does it work?" Chen Hong asked with a smile.

Ren Fa gave an awkward smile.

"To be honest, my dear nephew, over the past twenty years, the Ren family's business has not been going well and has been getting worse and worse. I don't know why."

“I think that feng shui master has a grudge against your Ren family,” Uncle Nine interjected.

"Have a grudge?"

"Did the old master have a grudge against him before he died?" Uncle Nine asked.

“This burial site originally belonged to the feng shui master. My father knew it was a good site, so he spent a lot of money to buy it.”

"It was just enticement, not coercion?" Uncle Nine seemed to have seen through everything.

Ren Fa could only give an awkward smile.

"I think it must have been coercion," Uncle Nine sneered, pointing at the grave. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to harm you."

"How could a feng shui master cover the entire 'dragonfly skimming water' burial site with cement?"

"Then what should we do?" Ren Fa asked humbly.

"It should be like snowflakes covering the top and dragonflies skimming the water."

"The coffin's head won't even touch the water, so what's the point of adding water?"

"He still has a conscience; he told you to exhume and rebury him in twenty years."

They might ruin your life for half a lifetime, but not your whole life.

"If you harm one generation, you'll harm eighteen generations."

Ren Fa immediately broke out in a cold sweat, his heart pounding with fear.

"It's been dug out!"

The farmhands shouted, and everyone rushed over to see what was happening.

One end of a coffin was visible.

The farmhands brought over their tools, tied ropes to one end of the coffin, and used a pulley system to pull the coffin out.

As expected, he was buried upright.

The coffin was hoisted out and placed on flat ground.

Uncle Nine shouted, "Loosen the rope, lift the nail." "Everyone, today is the day when Ren Gong's might is seen again. Anyone aged 36, 22, 35, or 48, or born in the year of the Rooster or the Ox, please turn around and leave."

As soon as he finished speaking, some people turned away.

"Avoidance complete."

"Everyone, straighten your clothes and open the coffin!"

As the coffin lid was lifted slightly, a breath escaped, and countless crows and birds in the vicinity were startled and fled for their lives.

A sense of foreboding suddenly welled up in Uncle Nine's heart.

Sure enough, after the coffin was opened, a human body was revealed.

It's been buried for twenty years, and the flesh hasn't even rotted.

It looked like a living person covered in black coal ash.

"father!"

"grandfather!"

Ren Fa and Ren Tingting immediately knelt down.

"I have disturbed you, sir; I am an unfilial child."

"Uncle Jiu, this acupoint is alright..."

Seeing what Ren Fa meant, Uncle Jiu shook his head.

"Like a dragonfly skimming the water, it touches the spot repeatedly, never touching the same spot again."

This acupoint is now useless.

"What should I do?"

"I suggest that they be cremated on the spot."

"Cremation?" Ren Fa shook his head repeatedly. "No, my late father was most afraid of fire. I can't do that."

Uncle Nine, feeling helpless, patiently advised, "Master Ren, if you don't cremate him, there might be trouble."

"Anything is fine, just no cremation." Old Master Ren was somewhat blindly filial and refused to agree no matter what.

Chen Hong, however, stared intently at Old Master Ren's body, secretly using his supernatural ability to see through walls to perceive and observe the body.

"Interesting. It actually has densely packed Taoist seal script engraved in its body, forming an array that absorbs the boundless evil energy of the earth for twenty years."

Moreover, it seems that a secret technique was used to imprison the soul of this old master Ren within the corpse, tormenting him with the evil energy of the earth for twenty years, making him extremely ferocious.

Moreover, the soul has completely merged with the zombie's body, making it impossible for the zombie to reincarnate in the underworld.

This sounds a bit like the barbarian shaman of the Chiyou tribe in southern Xinjiang.

What kind of Pinduoduo-style corpse-raising method is this?

"Interesting, really interesting."

"It seems there's someone pulling the strings behind the scenes."

Chen Hong decided to wait and see who was behind this.

Uncle Nine, lacking Chen Hong's extraordinary ability to see through walls, couldn't examine the situation carefully in front of so many people and was still communicating with Master Ren.

"Since you insist on not cremating, sir, then you can have your remains stored at my mortuary for now. I hope I can help you find a suitable burial site tomorrow."

"Alright." In the end, Master Ren agreed to this compromise.

"Carry Old Master Ren to the mortuary."

Ah Wei gave a shout, signaling the farmhands to carry the coffin away.

Ren Fa also followed his daughter down the mountain in a bamboo sedan chair.

Ren Tingting wanted to say something to Chen Hong, but with so many people around, he could only remain reserved and silent.

"You two light some plum blossom incense in front of the graves. Tell me how it goes when you get back," Uncle Nine instructed Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai. "Make sure to burn incense at every grave."

"Oh." Wencai and Qiusheng nodded obediently.

Uncle Jiu followed Chen Hong down the mountain.

Qiusheng and Wencai lit incense for every grave on the mountain.

Qiu Sheng saw a woman's tombstone, on which was written:

“The Tomb of Dong Xiaoyu, who died in the 27th year of the Xiantong era.”

Qiu Sheng sighed, "He died at the age of twenty, what a waste. Let's burn some incense."

Unexpectedly, after offering incense, I heard a girl say, "Thank you."

"Huh?" Qiu Sheng was a little doubtful that he had misheard.

"Thank you," the girl's voice rang out again.

This time Qiu Sheng was certain, and he was so frightened that he ran away in a panic.

After taking the incense from Old Master Ren's grave, He Wencai hurriedly went down the mountain.

Upon arriving at the mortuary, Uncle Nine shook his head and sighed:

"People are most afraid of three long and two short, and incense is most afraid of two short and one long. It just so happens to burn like this."

"If this kind of incense is found in a house, someone must have died."

"Is this the Ren family's house?" Wencai couldn't help but interject.

Uncle Nine glared at his good-for-nothing apprentice with annoyance. "Could it be this place?"

Having said that, he turned around to examine the coffin.

"Will Master Ren's daughter be in trouble?" Qiu Sheng muttered to himself.

"Oh, it's none of my business, so I won't worry about it." Wen Cai had just said that when he suddenly realized, "Tingting?"

Wencai was in a hurry to leave, but Qiusheng stopped him.

"You said it's none of my business, and I don't care."

"Well, that's true, but if I can save my sweetheart's life, then marriage won't be a problem."

"Hey, let's compete fairly."

The two delusional toads immediately rushed to Uncle Nine.

"Master, please think of something."

“I had already thought it through, otherwise I wouldn’t have had Mr. Ren carry it back.”

"Is there something wrong with the coffin?"

"It's not the coffin that's the problem, it's the dead person," Uncle Nine retorted irritably.

“Yes, it’s been twenty years, and the body hasn’t even decomposed.” Qiu Sheng also expressed his doubts.

The two hurriedly opened the coffin lid, and what they found inside was quite shocking.

Wow, you've gained weight.

When Uncle Nine came over, he was shocked to see that the zombie's face had swollen up and its fingers had grown long blue fingernails.

"Cover it up quickly."

"Prepare paper, pen, ink, sword, and knife."

"What?" Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai, two half-baked experts, asked naively.

"Yellow paper, red pen, black ink, kitchen knife, wooden sword," Uncle Nine roared irritably.

(End of this chapter)