Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

Chapter 104 Liu Shoucai

When Chen Mo returned to the courtyard, he found that Fatty and the others were frantically repairing the door.

The old wooden door at the entrance of the courtyard leaned against the door frame, some of the hinges were loose, and the whole door panel hung crookedly.

"This door looked pretty sturdy normally, how come it came off so easily?"

Li Jinrong stood at a distance, acting as if it had nothing to do with me, and tried to shift the blame, saying, "It must be Shen Bao's posture that's wrong."

He Songling squatted down to inspect the door hinges. "These hinges are so rusted! They should have been replaced a long time ago. Anyone would have had to pry them off after what we did just now."

"The main problem is that the fat guy used too much force; he hung up there completely—" Shen Bao muttered softly, "With his physique, even if the hinges didn't rust, they wouldn't be able to hold up."

Li Jinrong glared at him: "Bullshit! Aren't you clinging to it too?"

"I was clinging to you, but I didn't jump upwards like you did!"

"But I can't reach it!"

The two were arguing when He Songling looked up and saw Chen Mo walking over. He quickly stood up and clapped his hands.

"Chen Mo, you're back? Um—we'll fix the door in a bit."

Li Jinrong, no longer caring about arguing, rolled his eyes and leaned in with a grin: "Chen Mo, what did those two women want with you just now? What did they talk about afterwards? We only heard the first few sentences, and didn't hear the rest."

Shen Bao also pricked up his ears, looking very curious.

Although He Songling didn't speak, his movements as he repaired the door noticeably slowed down, and he glanced in this direction.

"She didn't say anything, and I'm not familiar with her."

Chen Mo glanced at them sideways and said disdainfully, "Why are you grown men being so gossipy? You'll get corns."

"Didn't she say anything? You're not familiar with her?"

Li Jinrong looked incredulous. "Why would someone you don't know make a special trip? Why would you stand there chatting for so long if you didn't know them?"

Chen Mo walked past him into the house, saying, "I really didn't say anything."

Li Jinrong followed behind, persistently pressing, "Didn't she say anything? Why were you standing so close? I saw her face turn red just now, did you scold her?"

Chen Mo didn't even turn his head: "Why would I curse her?"

"Then why is she blushing?"

"From the sun."

Li Jinrong choked.

He Songling stood to the side, suppressing a laugh, and pretended to hammer nails while holding a hammer.

Shen Bao muttered under his breath, "The sun has already set, why bother sunbathing?"

Chen Mo stopped and looked back at him.

Shen Bao immediately shut up and lowered his head to concentrate on studying the door hinge.

Li Jinrong was still not giving up and leaned closer to persuade him, "Chen Mo, does she have feelings for you? That Miss Liu, although she has a bit of a fiery temper, is indeed quite good-looking and comes from a good family."

"If you really get involved with her, you'll be set for life. The Liu family has quite a bit of wealth—"

Chen Mo looked at him expressionlessly, "If you're so interested, why don't you go yourself?"

Li Jinrong shrank his neck. "Then forget it—I'm afraid I'll get beaten up by her temper."

He Songling finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"You're afraid of getting beaten up, but I'm not?"

"She definitely wouldn't want to hit you."

"roll."

At night, the red moon rose as usual, casting a faint crimson hue over the entire courtyard.

The courtyard was completely silent.

There were no barking dogs, no chirping insects, and even the wind had stopped.

Inside room number seven, the sounds of snoring rose and fell.

Guo Huai'an's snoring was still deafening, one long snore followed by another short one, like a saw being pulled back and forth.

Shen Bao's teeth grinding sounded fine and rhythmic, like a mouse gnawing on a bed leg.

In the courtyard outside the window, I wonder which room's brother is still talking in his sleep.

. . . . . .

Li Jinrong turned over, and the hard bed creaked under the weight.

Guo Huai'an's snoring stopped abruptly, Shen Bao's teeth grinding ceased, and he mumbled sleepily, "Ground..."

...An earthquake?

Only Chen Mo stared at the upper bunk bed with his eyes open, his lips twitching.

After a brief silence, Guo Huai'an smacked his lips and began snoring again, even louder than before.

Shen Bao's teeth grinding resumed.

The brother in the other room was silent for a few seconds, then began talking in his sleep again: "Er Gouzi, don't run away..."

""

Chen Mo took out his pocket watch and checked the time by the pale red moonlight; it was already four in the morning.

He tucked the pocket watch back under his pillow, put his hands behind his head, and continued to stare at the upper bunk.

The scenes from the daytime flashed through my mind again.

He carefully recalled Liu Ruyan's expression, tone of voice, and subtle gestures when she spoke.

It wasn't an act.

Having been a doctor for so many years in my previous life, I've seen a lot of people.

He knew exactly what a liar was like.

Liu Ruyan is the kind of person who can't keep secrets. If she really did something, she wouldn't have reacted like that.

"Half of the three souls and seven spirits is missing, occupying one side in the mortal world and the other in the underworld."

The sentence lingered in his mind for a while.

The Liu family's fortune telling is professional; they shouldn't be spouting nonsense.

wrong...

Chen Mo suddenly thought of a question: When did Liu Ruyan have her third uncle calculate her birth chart?

If it was calculated after I traveled through time, then everything makes sense.

But what if it was before we traveled here?

Chen Mo frowned...

This question is too convoluted; it's giving me a headache.

He changed his approach.

Regardless of what happened to the original owner, the question now is, who harmed him?

Chen Mo narrowed his eyes and decided to use the most rudimentary method: whoever benefits is the most suspicious.

After Chen Dachuan disappeared, the original owner of this body became the only bloodline of the Chen family.

If the original owner of this body also dies, then who will inherit the Chen family's possessions?

He suddenly remembered something.

Just a few days after I transmigrated here, the owner of the Fushou Coffin Shop across the street came to my door, saying he wanted to buy their shop.

At the time, he didn't think much of it, assuming that Liu Shoucai wanted to expand the store.

Looking back now, the tone of the other person's voice was indeed a bit strange.

"Your father probably won't be coming back. This shop is just sitting empty anyway, so why don't you sell it to me? You can have some money and live a better life."

Chen Mo didn't respond at the time, only saying that he would think about it some more.

As Liu Shoucai was leaving, he turned back and looked at him one last time, and the look in his eyes was...

Looking back now, there was a certainty in that person's eyes, as if he was certain that Chen Dachuan would not come back.

But at that time, her adoptive father had only been missing for a month.

A month is neither a long nor a short time.

When an ordinary person goes missing, their family will report it to the authorities, inquire everywhere, and offer a reward for their search. Many people will go through all that trouble for a year or two before finally giving up.

But when this person arrived, his tone was so confident that it seemed he knew some inside information.

Fu Shou Coffin Shop, Liu Shoucai?

Chen Mo secretly memorized the name and decided to go back to Linhe County after the training camp was over.

. . . . .

The backyard of Fushou Coffin Shop in Linhe County.

The moon was mostly obscured by clouds, with only a few rays of dark red light shining down on the coffins lying haphazardly in the courtyard.

Liu Shoucai squatted under the eaves, holding a wine pot in his hand, and took sip after sip from the spout.

The liquor was cheap sorghum liquor, so spicy that it made his eyes red.

Behind him was a side room with its doors and windows tightly shut. The cracks in the doors and windows were sealed tightly with yellow paper soaked in cinnabar, and when the moonlight shone on it, it shone with an eerie dark red hue.

"Chen Dachuan is back." He said to the door, his voice low, as if afraid of being overheard. "The whole family is back."

"After Master Liu died, the sect hasn't contacted us for a long time."

There was no movement from inside the door.

Liu Shoucai took another swig of wine.

"And that short-lived Chen Mo, do you know what he's up to?"

He stared at the door, a forced smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "The Bureau of Strange Things, he's entered the Bureau of Strange Things."

"Isn't that weird? A person who was already dead suddenly came back to life and even entered the Department of Strange Things."

It remained quiet inside the door.

Liu Shoucai put the wine jug on the ground, took two steps forward and then stopped, not daring to approach the door any further.

"I have to go." His voice trembled slightly. "Did you hear me? Chen Dachuan is back, and that kid has also joined the Zhenyi Division. Sooner or later, they'll find out about me."

"I have to go, I'm leaving tonight."

He turned to leave when he suddenly heard a noise coming from inside the door.

It was very light, like something slowly crawling on the ground.

Liu Shoucai froze on the spot, then turned around with a look of fear on his face.

Through the crack in the door, the yellow paper sealing the door moved slightly.

It felt like something was pushing out from the inside.

"Don't come out." His voice trembled violently. "I didn't say I was going to take you away, I just—I just wanted to tell you."

The wriggling sound inside the door stopped.

A voice squeezed out from under the door.

It sounded like someone was covering their mouth and speaking indistinctly, "You said—where are you taking me?"

Liu Shoucai's legs went weak, and he almost knelt on the ground.

Although the voice belonged to his wife.

But that's not entirely true.

It was as if someone was imitating his wife's speech, and they were about 70-80% accurate, but the remaining 20-30% was mixed with something else.

"I, I—" He took a step back and bumped into a pillar, wincing in pain.

The voice from inside the door rang out again, this time in a different tone, like laughter.

The laughter was muffled behind the door, intermittent and sounded like something mimicking human laughter rather than human laughter; the more you listened, the more creepy it became.

Liu Shoucai, emboldened by some unknown source, knelt down with a thud and kowtowed to the door.

"Xiuying, don't blame me. I've taken care of you for a year, providing you with good food and drink. I haven't mistreated you."

"But you look like that—how can I take you away looking like that? If the Zhenyi Division sees me on the way, won't they skin me alive?"

He looked up, his face covered in tears and snot.

The yellow paper moved again through the crack in the door.

This time, they pushed even harder, and a corner of the paper curled up, revealing a dark crevice inside.

Liu Shoucai glanced at it and almost jumped out of his skin.

Something was squeezing out from the crevice.

It looked like a finger, flesh-colored and wet, covered with tiny wrinkles.

But those fingers were too long, they didn't look like human fingers.

There was more than one.

Those fingers squeezed out from the crack in the door, one after another, each seven or eight inches long, groping on the yellow paper, making a rustling sound.

Liu Shoucai wanted to run, but his legs wouldn't obey him, and he could only watch helplessly.

More flesh-colored flesh peeked out from the crack in the door, and that's when he noticed.

That wasn't a finger at all, it was a tongue.

A dozen or so long, soft tongues wriggled and intertwined on the door panel, making a sticky, wet sound.

Liu Shoucai finally let out a miserable scream and scrambled backward, all the way to the center of the courtyard, where he knocked over a coffin.

He collapsed to the ground, staring at the door.

Through the crack in the door, the tongues continued to squeeze out, more and more, pushing the yellow paper to pieces.

Countless tongues intertwined, writhing and twisting...

Then, the voice rang out again.

"Didn't you say—we'd never be apart, even if it meant death?"

Liu Shoucai rolled his eyes and fainted.

The moon hid behind the clouds, and the courtyard was pitch black.

Only the tongues were still wriggling, pushing down the last few sheets of yellow paper, scattering them all over the ground.

The door finally opened a crack without anyone noticing.