Zhixi and I didn't talk much during the rest of the journey.
When I got to the village, I rushed home as soon as possible.
However, the house was empty.
There is even no sign that anyone has been here.
I felt strange, so I took out the letter and read it again.
The letter only said that Uncle Li was in danger and asked me to return to the village, but did not mention where in the village I was.
At this time, the door behind him was pushed open, and Zhixi walked in while holding her stomach and breathing heavily.
"I said, can you consider my feelings?"
"I'm just a girl, how can I outrun you?"
“This journey has made me so tired that I’m even distracted!”
As soon as she walked in, Zhixi complained.
She casually pulled up a stool and sat down, looked around and asked, "Where is your uncle?"
I ignored her and stared at the letter again and again. Suddenly, I thought of something and my heart skipped a beat.
Through the window, I looked in the direction of the mountain behind, and a bad premonition arose in my heart.
"They should be on the mountain now!" I said.
"Ah? We still have to climb a mountain?" Zhixi frowned slightly.
Immediately, she shook her head like a rattle: "I can't crawl anymore, I'm too tired to walk."
"How about, Chen Xian, you can go up the mountain by yourself, and I'll wait for you here? OK?"
"Yeah." I responded, then went out and rushed towards the back mountain.
This journey made me feel extremely tangled and complicated.
As long as I can remember, Uncle Li has told me more than once that he had already chosen a cemetery for himself in the back mountain.
It is a feng shui treasure cave that can bless future generations. Uncle Li has no real descendants, but he stubbornly pressed my birth date into the grave. In this way, the blessings of the graveyard will fall on me.
on the head.
Once, Uncle Li said this to me after he was drunk: "Chen Xian, although I asked you to call me uncle, in my heart, I have always treated you as my child."
"It's a pity that I don't have the ability to give you a good life. If I leave one day, remember to bury me in the chosen grave. I will always watch you in heaven and bless you."
.”
At that time, Uncle Li was very strong, but the word death was really far away... very far away from him.
In addition to my young age and Uncle Li's drinking, I just thought he was talking nonsense and acting like a drunk.
But now, the nonsense of those days is so close, giving people a sense of unreality.
The closer I got to the top of the mountain, the more uneasy I became.
I want to speed up my pace so that I can see Uncle Li as soon as possible.
But I'm worried that this will be the last time I see Uncle Li.
When I reached the top of the mountain, I followed the path in my memory and got into a large bush.
When I was less than a hundred meters away from the cemetery, I heard my uncle coughing violently.
This cough made my nervousness rise instantly. I quickened my pace and walked through the bushes.
When the scene in front of the grave appeared in front of me, I stopped and was overjoyed.
I saw Uncle Li sitting on the ground with a rosy complexion, talking and laughing with the uncle next to him, having a very happy conversation.
Everything looked so beautiful. I was so excited that I wanted to step forward, but I didn't pay attention to the stone under my feet and fell.
When I got up and looked up, all the beauty just now was gone!
In front of the grave, there was a dark brown coffin placed quietly, and a thin, dry old man was curled up, relying on the coffin to survive.
Next to the old man, the uncle was squatting half-crouched and was whispering something to him. However, the old man turned a deaf ear to this and looked ahead with a dull expression.
At that moment, my hands and feet were cold, as if I were falling into the abyss. I completely forgot about the pain of falling, and shouted with a trembling voice: "Uncle Li!"
Hearing my shout, Uncle Li moved his stiff neck, slowly turned his head, and gave me a bitter smile.
"Chen Xian, you are finally here..." Uncle Li spoke with difficulty, his voice was so hoarse that it no longer sounded like him.
But it was this sound that I will remember forever.
Because that was the last thing Uncle Li said to me.
That day was definitely the most painful day I have ever spent in my life.
I watched Uncle Li die in front of me, but there was nothing I could do.
I cried heartbreakingly, and when I suddenly woke up, I remembered the brief beauty I had just seen. It turned out that it was just a paranoid imagination in my heart.
"He refused to leave and said he wanted to take a breath before saying his last words to you."
At this time, my uncle's words caused my emotions to collapse again.
The Uncle Li in my memory was tall and would always stand up immediately and block everything for me when something happened.
But when I carried him into the coffin, he was really light, as light as just a skeleton.
I don't know what happened to Uncle Li during his lifetime, but fortunately, he didn't have any injuries on his body.
Of course, this doesn't mean anything, but at least it makes me feel better.
My uncle and I buried Uncle Li in the cemetery together. By the time everything was finished, it was already two hours later.
When the person closest to you passes away, no one can calm down in a short period of time, and I am the same.
Even for a period of time after this, I often asked myself, is Uncle Li really dead?
Of course, this is not because there is something wrong with my brain and I am acting out of control, but there are traces to follow.
However, these are things for later, let’s not mention them for now, let’s get back to the present.
When I was burying Uncle Li, I discovered that there was more than one coffin placed here.
In addition to the coffin used for Uncle Li's burial, there is another one of the same size placed not far away.
I asked my uncle in confusion what the extra coffin was for.
Uncle Master told me: "That's what I prepared for you."
All of a sudden, all kinds of random thoughts flooded into my brain.
But soon, Uncle Master's next words crushed all these thoughts.
"Chen Xian, you also know that Jiang Shui and I were deceived by that yellow man about what happened this time. Ahem..."
"I have avenged Jiang Shui, but now, your matter is even more difficult. There are only two days left before the disaster when you turn eighteen. In such a short time, you want to find another living dead to take revenge."
You can extend your life, ahem...it's too late."
"So, I can only settle for the next best thing and try a method called secondary burial."
"What is a second burial?" I asked.
Uncle Shi explained that double burial in the traditional sense, as the name suggests, means burying a person's bones twice.
This method originated from the South, which is humid and full of insects and ants. It often happens that the coffin becomes rotten and dilapidated within a few years of burial. Therefore, people will choose to dig out the bones, put them in new coffins, and bury them again.
Of course, the second burial that my uncle planned for me was not in the traditional sense. His plan was for me to lie in the coffin and be buried alive until I passed the catastrophe of turning eighteen, and then exhume me.
Hidden from the eyes of the underworld and the judiciary.
As for the second time, the reason is very simple. I have already died once. Back then, Uncle Li wrapped me in animal skins and sent me to a mass grave in the mountains, turning me into a living dead. That is me.
The first burial, now, this second burial is naturally the second burial.