The young leader immediately ordered his men to pull up the rope.
As the rope gradually moved upward, the head of the man who had gone down the well emerged. Then, supporting himself on the well’s edge, he climbed out, rolled onto the ground nearby, and sat there, gasping for air.
The man’s bare upper body was muscular, with glistening water droplets streaming down. However, his hands were empty, clearly indicating he had found nothing.
The middle-aged monk who had previously tried to stop these people chanted Buddha’s name once, his tone rather stern: “If you patrons don’t leave now and stop disturbing the temple’s tranquility, we’ll have to hand you over to the authorities!”
More than ten young monks had gathered at some point, each holding clubs. By their attire, they were warrior monks. For a prosperous temple like this, even in a small town, the donations received were a substantial sum, naturally warranting the employment of warrior monks to protect the temple’s safety.
The young leader’s face darkened, and he stammered, “Since we couldn’t find my younger sister, I’ll go look elsewhere—”
“There’s… there’s someone—” the man who had climbed out finally caught his breath, instantly making the already tense atmosphere even more charged with his words.
“What do you mean there’s someone?” The young leader’s expression changed, his earlier timidity instantly vanishing.
The man pointed down the well, his voice relatively steady: “There’s someone down in the well!”
Naturally, anyone the young leader brought to search for a body in the well had some courage.
As soon as the man spoke, the middle-aged monk’s face changed, and the crowd of onlookers suddenly erupted into heated discussions.
The young leader’s face also fell, and he shouted, “If there’s someone, why didn’t you bring them up?”
Heavens, had his sister drowned in the well? How would his parents take this news?
Under the young leader’s questioning, the man smiled bitterly: “I couldn’t move them, and I was afraid the rope wouldn’t hold—”
People glanced at the rope wound around the man’s waist and fell silent for a moment. The rope looked sturdy, but who knew if it could support two people? If it broke midway, that could be fatal.
The young leader showed some quick thinking. After a brief consideration, he ordered another rope to be prepared: “You hold onto this rope. Go down and secure the… person in the well with this rope, then shake the rope around your waist. We’ll pull you up first, then bring up the person from the well.”
This arrangement seemed reasonable. The man quickly went back down the well. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, the rope moved.
“Pull them up!”
At the young leader’s command, two experienced servants immediately began pulling the rope, while two others holding the second rope tensed up.
Soon, the man was pulled up, sitting on the wet ground with a pale face, looking exhausted.
The other rope began to be pulled up.
This time, everyone felt as if time had slowed to a crawl.
Jiang Zhan held his breath in tension, staring intently at the well’s opening.
The ghost was about to emerge. He wondered if it would be as frightening as in his dream…
Finally, under everyone’s silent gaze, a dark shadow appeared.
“Good heavens, what’s that?” someone involuntarily screamed.
The two servants pulling the rope faltered, and the rope dropped a bit.
Everyone’s hearts were already in their throats, about to see clearly what had been pulled up, but this setback felt like a breath caught, unable to go up or down.
This suffocating feeling made people forget their fear. Someone grumbled, “What’s there to be afraid of? There are so many of us here, and it’s holy Buddhist ground. Even if it turned into a ghost, it wouldn’t dare cause trouble…”
“Right, I just saw clearly, it’s just a bunch of hair.”
Because of the large crowd, what should have been a terrifying scene instead filled people with eager anticipation.
“Haven’t you eaten enough?” the young leader barked.
The two servants exchanged glances and pulled together with all their might.
Time seemed to slow down again. Finally, the dark shadow emerged once more, followed by a body…
With a thud, the corpse that had been pulled up fell to the ground. The sound seemed to hit people’s hearts, and for a moment, there was dead silence.
The young leader staggered forward a few steps, closed his eyes, and cried out, “Sister, what a terrible death you’ve suffered—”
People looked at the young man, then cautiously at the corpse lying on the ground, maintaining an eerie silence.
Finally, a servant who had come along couldn’t help but say, “Young Master, this is a male corpse—”
“Waaah—huh?” The young leader nearly choked, his crying abruptly stopping.
He opened his eyes wide to look at the corpse on the ground. Even though the person’s messy hair obscured their face, the body shape and clothing indicated it was a man.
Why was it a man?
At this moment, Jiang Zhan was also asking this question.
He involuntarily took two steps forward, rubbing his eyes hard.
Where had the female ghost gone? How had it become a man?
Jiang Si reached out and pulled her elder brother back into the crowd.
Now was not the time to stand out; it was safer to blend in with the crowd.
However, this situation was indeed unexpected.
She couldn’t help but look towards Yu Jin.
The youth’s face was calm as he looked ahead, with a kind of detached indifference.
As if sensing Jiang Si’s gaze, he turned his head to meet her eyes, finally melting that indifference like a spring breeze, and revealing a faint smile.
Jiang Si withdrew her gaze and looked forward again.
At this time, a commotion arose in the crowd, with someone exclaiming, “Look, there’s a stone tied to that person’s body!”
By now, although the sun had set, the sky was still bright. In this open area behind the mountain, it was even brighter, so people could see a stone tied to the male corpse without needing any light.
The man who had gone down the well suddenly realized why.
No wonder he couldn’t move the male corpse in the well no matter how hard he tried. It was because of this stone’s weight. When he was tying the rope to the corpse in the well, he was too nervous and had no light, so he hadn’t noticed it.
“This… this is murder!” someone in the crowd cried out in shock.
By now, the faces of the temple monks had become extremely grim.
If it had just been a body retrieved from the well, they could have said it was an accidental fall, and the temple would at most be criticized for inadequate safety measures. But now, with a corpse tied to a stone and sunk into the well, it could only mean one thing: this was undoubtedly a murder!
To think that a flourishing temple like Lingwu Temple had a pilgrim murdered, and more importantly, the body was pulled up in front of everyone—this was an extremely heavy blow to the temple!
At this point, the expressions of the onlookers changed.
Originally, the people from Da Yang Town looked quite hostile, ready to fight at any moment. Now, they all turned to look at the temple monks, their eyes filled with wariness.
“This is a homicide case, shouldn’t we report it to the authorities?”
“Of course, we should report it. Oh my, it’s terrifying!”
People discussed among themselves, but no one was willing to leave at this moment.
Finally, someone suggested, “This should be a young man, right? Let’s see if anyone recognizes him—”
The young leader decided to see this through to the end and gave a nod to the man who had gone down the well.
The man squatted next to the corpse and gently brushed aside the hair covering the dead man’s face.