When he said these three words, the little fatty's pupils clearly contracted. Then, without waiting for me to speak, he pulled me impatiently and said, "Don't ask so much, hurry up and ask for leave. Come with me to my house tonight."
I understood what he meant.
Fatty's father was a carpenter. Although he was a carpenter, he could only do one kind of carpentry, which was making coffins.
People in our village called his father the 'coroner.' When someone died, they would ask his father to deal with it. From collecting the corpse to arranging the burial, his father would take care of everything.
Our village wasn't the only one like that. The neighboring villages also had this kind of 'coroner.' It was our custom.
Fatty's surname was Lin. Sometimes, people would call his father Coffin Lin. As for his real name, I had never heard it before.
Since his family was in this line of work, he would more or less come into contact with some mysterious things. When I first met the red shadow, Fatty was able to make the peach wood sword and give me those ideas. It had something to do with his family's background.
Now that Fatty had said that, I was sure he knew something. That was why he was in a hurry to ask me to go home with him.
I was a little hesitant. "Fatty, what about the other people in our dormitory?"
Fatty hesitated for a while. "It's okay if we both ask for leave at the same time. If everyone in our dormitory asks for leave at the same time, the teacher won't agree. Moreover, I don't think our classmates will listen to him. It's pointless."
Fatty persuaded me to ask for leave. We took a taxi back to the village. On the way back, I asked him, "What's a ghost shaving? Is it when a ghost comes to shave your hair in the middle of the night?"
Fatty shook his head. "It's not that simple. I don't know the details, but I know it's scary."
When we returned to the village, it was already dark. Fatty and I went to his house.
Fatty's house was located in a small forest on the east side of the village. There were no other houses on the other side of the road. It was a lonely house.
During the day, I didn't think much of it. However, at night, from a distance, I felt scared.
Speaking of which, I grew up with Fatty, but I've never been to his house. The only time I went was when I wanted to play with Fatty when I was young. In the end, before I could even reach the door, I was dragged back home by an old man in the village. My dad gave him a good beating.
Since then I have learned another taboo in our country, that the house of a "coroner" is inauspicious, and is not to be visited at will.
When I arrived at the door, I saw the door of the fatty's house and felt a little strange.
Although the village was poor, most families had installed iron gates. Who would have thought that Fatty's house would still have a wooden door? Moreover, it was a wooden door made of a row of broken wooden planks. There was not even a lock on the door, so there was no fear of thieves breaking in.
The fatty walked in front and pushed the door open. Just as I was about to follow him in, I lifted my head and saw two green eyes staring at me.
Caught off guard, my legs went soft and I almost fell to the ground. My back was instantly covered in a layer of sweat.
The fat man didn't stop. He took two steps forward and waved his hand, signaling for him to leave. Then, I saw a shadow dash forward and disappear into the courtyard.
Then, I realized that it was just a cat.
However, I still felt a little strange. I knew that Fatty didn't have a mother, and he and his father only had each other at home. It sounded strange for two grown men to have a cat.
Following Fatty into the courtyard, Fatty stretched out his hand and fiddled with the courtyard wall a few times before turning on the courtyard lights.
When the lights were turned on, I was startled again. The fatty's yard wasn't big, but there were five or six coffins arranged neatly in the yard. They were all black, which was quite scary.
I now understood why the fat man didn't care about the broken door. Since there were so many coffins in the courtyard, if a thief sneaked into the house in the dark, he would be scared out of his wits. There was no need to guard against thieves.
The fat man smiled and explained to me, "These coffins have just been painted. They need to be left outside for a while. Don't be scared."
While talking, he knocked on the coffin lid and put it in his mouth. I felt a chill down my spine.
Just as I was about to ask him, a weak voice came from inside the house. "You fool, why are you back?"
I lifted my head and saw that the fat man's father was standing at the door. He asked the fat man, but his eyes were fixed on me.
I had heard from my parents that the fat man's father wasn't that old. He was around forty years old this year. However, he looked really old. His body was thin and his back was hunched. The wrinkles on his face were so deep that they looked like they had been cut by a knife. From his appearance, people would believe that he was in his seventies or eighties.
The fat man hurried to explain to his father why we were back. His father was holding a tobacco pipe and smoking it. When the fat man mentioned the word 'ghost shaved', the pipe in his father's hand fell to the ground.
"What did you say? Ghost shaved?"
The fat man's father's squinted eyes opened wide for the first time, revealing a pair of dim, yellow eyes.
The fat man nodded and told his father everything that had happened in the morning. His father stooped to pick up the tobacco pipe from the ground. He sat on the doorsill and smoked in silence. Then, he stood up and asked us to wait for him there. Afterward, he went back to his room alone.
Shortly after, his father came out with a clay jar in his hand. He stooped to pour the contents out of the jar, forming a line in front of the doorsill.
I squinted and saw some gray powder. I couldn't tell what it was.
After pouring the powder, the fat man's father waved his hand and asked us to step over the line.
The fat man was standing close to the line. He wanted to go first, but his father pulled him back. "Let me go first."
I didn't know what was going on. I wanted to ask, but seeing the stern face of the fat man's father, I didn't dare to open my mouth. I could only follow him and step over the line, entering the house.
At first, I thought something strange would happen, but when I walked over, everything was normal. Nothing had happened.
I exhaled in relief and lifted my head to look at the fat man's father. He furrowed his brows even deeper.
At this moment, the fat man had also reached the line. He lifted his foot and stepped toward me. However, before he could reach me, I heard a scream.
It wasn't the fat man's scream.
I didn't know when the cat I'd seen when I entered the house had run to the fat man's father. The cat was arching its body, and its fur was standing on end. It stared at the fat man's feet and shrieked mournfully.
I followed the cat's gaze and saw that the white line the fat man's father had poured out had turned black. The middle part of the line had turned black, and it was spreading to both sides.
The lights in the courtyard were dim, so I couldn't see clearly. However, I felt that the black line looked like thick blood.
The cat shrieked mournfully again. Then, it stomped its feet and jumped toward the white line.
Fatty's father bent down to grab the cat and threw it into the yard. Then, he took out a shovel out of nowhere and scooped up the completely blackened white line and put it into a box.
The box looked strange. It was around ten centimeters long and looked like a pocket-sized coffin. However, its color was different from the coffins in the courtyard. It wasn't black, but it was bright red.
After putting the black powder into the box, the fat man's father put the coffin box away and took us to the house.
That night, the fat man's father didn't ask anything. He directly asked us to sleep in the fat man's room.
The fat man was a heartless man. As soon as he laid down, he started to snore.
It made sense. He had grown up in a pile of coffins, so it was normal for him to be bold.
However, I couldn't fall asleep. I kept thinking about Guo Mingming's bald head and the coffin in the courtyard. I felt a chill run down my spine.