The cart wheels rolled over the bluestone road, making creaking sounds.

Chuntao pulled a cloak from the bundle and draped it over Madam Zhu. “First Madam, lean on this servant and sleep for a while. There’s still half an hour’s journey.”

Madam Zhu lifted the carriage curtain and glanced outside. The man sat on his horse, his back even more somber than the night.

She lowered the curtain and rested her head on Chuntao’s shoulder.

As the curtain fell, Xie Erli turned his head, looking at the swaying carriage, his brow furrowing slightly.

Half an hour later, the carriage stopped at the gate of the Zhu Manor.

Xie Erli dismounted. After Madam Zhu approached, husband and wife lifted their feet to enter the manor together.

At the gate, a steward was already waiting. Seeing the eldest miss and son-in-law arrive, he quickly bowed and hurried to lead them inside.

Just as they reached the second gate, a bolt of lightning split through the night sky without warning.

“Ah—”

Madam Zhu cried out in fright, instinctively stepping back half a pace.

Xie Erli turned around and glanced lightly at Chuntao. “Support First Madam properly.”

Chuntao had also been startled, thinking to herself how there could still be lightning when they were nearly at the Frost Descent season.

Moments later, they arrived at the main chamber.

Xie Erli entered first.

He was so conspicuous that everyone’s gaze turned toward him.

Xie Erli wore a gray robe with a sky-blue cloak over it. Besides his scholarly elegance, he added a touch of steady composure.

“Brother-in-law has arrived.”

The speaker was the Zhu Manor’s eldest master, Zhu Yuanmo.

The Zhu family had three sons and three daughters, all born from the same womb of Lady Mao.

Among the six children, Madam Zhu ranked fourth—above her were three older brothers, below her were two younger sisters.

Xie Erli clasped his fists toward his eldest brother-in-law while unfastening his cloak and asking, “How is Father?”

Eldest Brother Zhu sighed and stepped aside, meaning for him to see for himself.

Xie Erli walked to the bedside and looked. His heart sighed as well.

Old Master Zhu on the sickbed was as thin as a dried corpse. His gray-green face had only a layer of skin stretched over it, his eye sockets deeply sunken, yet his eyeballs protruded abnormally, making him look both ferocious and terrifying.

His mouth hung open stiffly. As his chest rose and fell, strange “heh heh heh” sounds came from his throat.

For three whole months, his father-in-law had repeatedly appeared like this every few days—neither quite alive nor quite dead.

Just when it seemed he would breathe his last, he’d somehow hold on through the night, and this breath would return.

Even the imperial physicians said it was rare.

Night after night, it went on like this, repeatedly, exhausting the entire family.

They say long illness breeds no filial sons, but his father-in-law had always been truly good to people, treating everyone with courtesy. Even exhausted like this, his children never complained.

They only hoped the old man would suffer less and could swallow this last breath cleanly.

Xie Erli looked at Lady Mao sitting dazed by the bedside. “Mother, please go rest. We’re here.”

Lady Mao nodded and was just about to rise when suddenly the man on the bed began shaking violently.

Lady Mao’s scalp tingled, though her face wasn’t particularly panicked. “Eldest.”

Eldest Brother Zhu rushed to the bedside, pressing both hands on the old master’s shoulders, shouting loudly, “Father, Father, wake up! Look at me, look at me…”

Old Master Zhu shook even more violently. The bed frame also began shaking intensely, as if about to fall apart.

The timid female family members dared not watch anymore and shrank back, hiding.

Seeing his eldest brother struggling alone, Xie Erli and the other two Zhu sons stepped forward to help.

The strength of four grown men barely managed to hold Old Master Zhu down.

The person quieted down, but his eyeballs kept bulging outward more and more, looking eerily frightening.

Xie Erli felt somewhat dazed. He looked up at Eldest Brother Zhu, only to find him looking back.

Their eyes met.

Candlelight flickered.

“Everyone let go,” Eldest Brother Zhu said.

All four carefully released their hands at the same time.

But just as they let go, Old Master Zhu suddenly extended a withered, skeletal hand and clutched his own neck.

Using the word “clutch” wasn’t quite right.

More precisely, it was as if something was clutching the old man’s neck. Unable to breathe, the old man desperately clawed at his own throat.

This scene made everyone’s breath catch, instantly chilling them from head to toe.

“Someone, quickly fetch monks and Daoist priests!” Lady Mao decided immediately.

No one died this way—there must be something unclean possessing the old master.

The steward took off running.

Before his footsteps had gone far, the man’s head slowly turned, a pair of murky eyeballs slowly, slowly sweeping over everyone in the room.

No one dared speak.

Everyone held their breath.

Just then, the man’s hand silently slid down, and the “heh heh” sounds from his throat stopped abruptly.

Eldest Brother Zhu was stunned for quite a while before tremblingly extending his hand to check beneath his father’s nose. Then he quickly knelt on the ground, crying out:

“Father has passed!”

In the room, filial sons and grandsons knelt in a mass, their wailing shaking the heavens.

Amid the crying, Xie Erli looked up at his father-in-law on the bed. For some reason, he always felt that his father-in-law’s appearance after death was far more ferocious than before death.

…

When a person dies, the lamp goes out. The funeral arrangements proceeded in an orderly manner.

Everything had been prepared long ago.

Whether it was people to manage the funeral or mourning clothes and shoes—even the coffin had been ready for several months.

Xie Erli walked to the outer room and summoned his personal servant Wei Lin, instructing in a low voice, “Return to the manor to report. Have Master and Third Master come to pay respects tomorrow morning.”

Wei Lin asked, “Master, how much should the funeral gift be?”

“Ask Steward Xie. Follow the usual practice—only more, not less.”

“Yes!”

Wei Lin hurried away.

Xie Erli was about to enter the room when suddenly a raindrop struck his nose. Before he could react, torrential rain poured from the sky.

“Why such heavy rain?”

He ran into the room, brushing the rainwater from his clothes, feeling somewhat worried.

Both happy events and funerals most feared encountering bad weather—it made everything so inconvenient.

…

In less than half an hour, Old Master Zhu’s mourning clothes and shoes were already on.

The mourning hall had also been arranged, just waiting for the coffin to arrive and an auspicious time to be chosen for the burial.

“They’re here, they’re here! The funeral director is here, and the coffin has arrived.”

The funeral director was the person presiding over the funeral arrangements. They’d hired the renowned Liu the Half-Immortal from the capital, who could divine and calculate. Almost all the funerals of prominent families passed through his hands.

Liu the Half-Immortal wore a compass at his waist. He calculated the time, then shouted loudly, “Begin the funeral!”

Hearing this shout, everyone together exerted force, lifting Old Master Zhu onto a door plank.

As the door plank was carried out of the inner room, the previously subdued wailing grew loud again.

Liu the Half-Immortal directed people to cover Old Master Zhu’s body with several layers of waterproof cloth, then shouted again, “Lift—”

Five strong men hoisted the door plank, braving the torrential rain, heading straight for the mourning hall.

The children and grandchildren who had changed into mourning garments rose from the ground, holding umbrellas as they followed. The female family members remained where they were, able to enter the mourning hall only after the coffin was placed.

In the mourning hall.

A top-quality nanmu wood coffin rested on three benches.

The coffin lid had been removed, and brand-new bedding was spread at the bottom.

Liu the Half-Immortal calculated the auspicious time and directed three men to carefully place Old Master Zhu from the door plank into the coffin.

This step was called placing the body in the coffin.

Only after placing the body could guests come to pay their respects.

But just as they placed him inside, before the lid could be put on, several cracking sounds were heard. The fine nanmu wood coffin suddenly split apart, several planks falling to the ground.

This exposed the now-deceased Old Master Zhu, lying alone on the bottom board.

Boom!

Everyone’s souls were scared away.