My great-grandfather died on a rainy night.
On the night of the wake, the coffin board opened on its own. He opened his eyes, tilted his head, and pointed at the bottom of the coffin with dead fingers.
Four words are engraved on the bottom of the coffin: Bury first to respect.
And underneath that coffin, there was a black coffin.
My grandfather said, don't touch the Shen family's affairs. My father said that the Shen family would not survive forty-two. The only relics of the great-great-grandfather were a copper key, a blood book, and a last word - "Find Zhang Qishan."
The graduate student in the Department of Archeology was silent, never thinking that he would go to the grave. Until he discovered that the nightmare he had had repeatedly since he was twelve years old was true.
Someone at the bottom of the pit was calling his name.
Called from Guixu.
The blood of the Shen family for four hundred years and seven generations was buried in the mountains of western Hunan. What they want to hold down is not a tomb, but a door. Behind the door is the deleted history, the living forbidden woman, the sleeping bones of Emperor Jun, and a drop of breathing blood.
And I have the blood of the Shen family flowing in my body. There are fragments of Guixu in the blood.
They call me "Key".
But the great grandfather wrote on the last page of the blood book - there is more than one key.
Nan Xie's blood talisman, Bei Chen's spell, the Zhang family's Qilin blood, and the unpaid debts of Jiumen.
When the words "Bury First as a Respect" on the black coffin lit up again, I understood:
It is not the dead who are buried first.
It's me.
Reader comments
It looks okay, but it looks awkward to use the first person here.
It looks okay, but it looks awkward to use the first person here.