Chapter 73 - 62 Zombie Talks About the Past
Before the fair-skinned young man began telling the story, the group of traveling merchants couldn’t help but laugh.
"You’re a scholar, what good stories could you have? Are you going to invent a female ghost and have a romantic encounter with her in an abandoned temple?"
The person speaking was a carter responsible for transporting goods for the merchants. His words immediately caused everyone to burst into laughter, filling the small, solitary temple with an air of joy.
The fair-skinned young man had originally intended to tell a lighthearted story, something like the tale of ’The Painted Skin’ or ’Xiaoqian.’ However, upon hearing the jesting of the traveling ruffians, he decided to choose the most appropriate story for the occasion.
It was said that there was an old man in Yangxin County who lived in Caidian Village and ran an inn. One day, four traveling carters came to his inn seeking lodging, but unfortunately, the inn was full. The only place left was the mourning hall of the old man’s recently deceased daughter-in-law.
The four carters, not deterred by superstition, decided to rest in the mourning hall. As they were about to fall asleep, the corpse of the deceased woman, which had been lying under a mat and a paper quilt for a long time, suddenly lifted the quilt and crept towards their bed...
Xu Qing’s gaze was ghostly as he narrated the story of the reanimated corpse calmly and unhurriedly.
The tale involved a corpse coming back to life, spraying water, and wild dogs—a compilation of some of the more terrifying stories from ’Strange Tales.’ Among them, the reanimated corpse fit the current setting of them lodging in a small temple, adding to the eerie atmosphere and giving the listeners a feeling of being in the story themselves.
In the tale, the four carters had intruded upon the resting place of the female corpse, and in the end, three of them were drained of their life essence by her, leaving only one survivor.
Now, they were in a remote place, wasn’t it similar with a group of people intruding upon a small temple?