Chapter 122

"And after the woman found the old village chief, she discovered his house was already surrounded by people, all of whom had family members missing. From these people, the woman learned that she wasn't alone; everyone with a missing family member had the same strange dream. The details of the dreams weren't exactly the same, but all of them mentioned the treasure and the lake. Their family members were swallowed by the cold lake water right before their eyes."

"One woman's words were even more shocking. She said she saw them, she saw many people standing in the lake water. Their heads were covered with cloth, so their faces couldn't be seen, but she knew those people were the missing villagers, just like her husband!"

"And when they saw her husband walk to the lake, they stiffly raised their arms, all pointing towards the depths of Chun Shen Lake, as if guiding him."

"And so, her husband walked step by step into the cold lake water, and finally disappeared into the darkness."

"But everyone doubted her words, because... because she shouldn't be able to see anything. She's blind, she's been blind for many years, and her husband always took care of her."

Jiang Cheng didn't take Qian Zhanggui's explanation to heart. After all, some things can be seen even with bad eyes. He was more concerned about the "people" in the lake.

"What were those people standing in the waist-deep water doing?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Their heads were covered, and they were pointing towards the depths of the lake. Right, their covered heads were also facing the depths of the lake. I remember now, I asked someone about it later. They said it's called paitou shi (排头尸), with all the faces facing the same direction. This is a great taboo. These people all died unjustly, filled with resentment."

"Moreover, with their faces covered, they can't find their way home when they return on the seventh day after their death. They'll wander around the village, easily bumping into people. Even if they do find their way home, their family won't recognize them. It's very evil."

"What happened in the village after that?"

Qian Zhanggui swallowed, feeling scared after saying so much. "After this incident, everyone believed it, believing that everything was related to the gold and silver treasure. So, someone suggested returning the treasure to Chun Shen Lake, to the Water Lord, so that maybe... maybe the Water Lord would be in a good mood and send their family members back."

"This time, most people agreed. They rushed home while it was still light, packed up the gold and silver treasure they had picked up, and then walked in a large group to the lake, the same lake where they had found the treasure. Then they threw the treasure in as far as they could."

"After doing this, the strange dreams stopped, but their family members never came back. But on the third day, the village was in an uproar again. This time it was even weirder, with everyone coming to them, chattering as if the sky were falling. Someone said that their mute son suddenly became noisy in the middle of the night, muttering incomprehensible words. Another person said their blind uncle suddenly had a fit, shouting and screaming in bed, and several people couldn't hold him down. He shouted that he saw it, he saw a round moon appear in the depths of the lake, and beneath the moon was a pavilion."

"The pavilion wasn't in the center of the lake, but floating on the surface, a reflection in the water, like a moon in the water. But he was sure that the pavilion was real, because... because he saw it! He saw many familiar figures in the pavilion, the people who had disappeared not long ago!"

"Those people were dressed in fine clothes, watching operas, gambling, watching dances, and drinking wine in the pavilion, enjoying themselves. It was like a paradise..."

"Another family had a deaf woman, and the family woke up in the middle of the night to find her curled up tightly in a ball, hiding in the quilt, trembling constantly."

"It took a lot of effort to uncover the quilt. The deaf woman's face was full of fear. She covered her ears with both hands and kept muttering, 'Stop it, stop it, don't sing, don't dance, the music... stop the music!'"

"It didn't work even after a long time of comforting. Finally, the deaf woman fainted. When she woke up the next morning, she regained some consciousness and tremblingly told everyone that she heard music last night. She had never heard such a sound before, and her body uncontrollably followed the music, eventually arriving in front of a building. The music was coming from inside the building."

"Several people stood in front of the building, dressed gorgeously and possessing exceptional looks. They warmly invited her to come in and enjoy the music with them. She gladly went, but just as she was about to step into the door, she suddenly realized that the building was actually suspended in the air."

"No, it wasn't quite accurate to say it was suspended. The building was standing in a pitch-black body of water. Because the water was so calm, she didn't notice it at first. But through the reflection in the water, she suddenly saw that the men and women who invited her into the building were all soaked, and the skin on their bodies was rotten. Their rotten faces revealed pale bones. Even so, they still waved stiffly, inviting her to come in."

"The deaf woman wasn't stupid and knew she had encountered something evil. She turned around and ran. But to her surprise, those guys didn't chase after her. They just watched her run away step by step. Then, a light and飘飘 voice was carried over by the wind: 'We'll be waiting for you here. No one can refuse the invitation of the Bliss Pavilion (Ji Le Lou).'"

"The voice was a little distorted, and it was even impossible to tell where it came from, but it was like a thorn deeply embedded in the deaf woman's mind, to the extent that it made her panic even when recounting the incident."

Jiang Cheng admitted that it was a somewhat interesting story, but he needed to extract clues from it. Qian Zhanggui's story was logical, but too complicated, making it difficult to grasp the main points.

"Continue," Jiang Cheng said patiently. He still had enough time.

Unexpectedly, Qian Zhanggui, who had seemed relatively calm, took a deep breath and then began to shake his head with a pale face. "That's it. My story ends here."

Fatty was listening intently and was understandably disappointed to be told that the story was over. "What are you doing? It's cut off at the crucial moment. Do you need to recharge?"

Fatty waved his fist, as big as a bowl, convinced that Qian Zhanggui was dishonest and wanted to bargain with them using the information he had.

"No, no, don't misunderstand, both of you. That's really it. Something else must have happened later, but I... I don't know. Because the person who contacted me disappeared."

"After telling me this information, he went back to the village, and then I lost all contact with him. I asked people to go to that village to look for him later, but the village was already abandoned."