In the past, there has been no fixed place to put the coffin for ordinary people. They just dig wherever, put the body inside, cover it, and it's finished.
Anyway, in those years of disorder caused by continuous military operations, the poor people didn't care about it at all, but the rich and the officers had money and could do it better.
The guard said: "At the time, the people didn't pay attention to it too much because many workers also had the experience of digging up coffins, and they just opened them.
"Even for the poorest family, we could find some jewelries or small things too, and those workers also wanted to earn extra money." The guard said again: "But when they opened that coffin, they found a woman in a costumed robe."
"Then?" I asked him.
The guard continued and said, that woman in the costumed robe had a complete body like a normal person, and she was very beautiful and sexy, with good figure.
It was abnormal. Usually, when the body was buried in a coffin, it began to decay, and it would be nothing but bones after only one or two years.
But this woman in the coffin was so intact, it was scary.
At the time, those workers were so scared they backed away several meters.
However, those people were all brave, and they were only scared for a while.
Later, they went back and checked the woman in the coffin. There seemed to be nothing unusual since the body didn't decay.
One of them was even more brave, he just grabbed the woman on the breast, and after that he told to the other workers — what soft breasts this woman had.
The guard told me, "At the time, conditions were not as good as they are now. There are now so many places where there are many women they could enjoy, at any KTV, clubs and bars at only several hundred Yuan, but you must imagine the situation at the time. It was a time when there were even no TV sets."
Those workers left their hometowns, and they went outside to earn money. Most of them had no chances to meet their wives, so they had some 'ideas'.
"What's more, that woman was really very beautiful. It was in the evening when she was dug out of the coffin, and as a result, the workers had some evil thoughts, so they just removed her clothes and… "
The guard paused.
It was easy to imagine what happened later.
I asked the guard, "What happened next, then?"
He said: "The next morning, those workers all died at the site."
In the next morning, many people crowded there and that guard went there too.
He told me that woman was indeed beautiful, but looked demonic, giving off a feeling of "evil."
Those dead workers were all black all over, with froth running from their mouths.
But it was rather strange, those workers were naked and only that female body was in clothes.
The guard told me: "My little brother, to be honest, I couldn't resist the physiological reaction when I saw that female body that morning… By the way… there must have been more than one person that couldn't resist that reaction; she was rather beautiful and sexy with the robe split and exposing her white legs."
I stopped him immediately… Damn, how could he have a physiological reaction even to a dead body?
"So, brother, what next?" I asked the guard.
He said that at that time, they didn't dare to turn to superstition in public, so in the evening, the Dragon Villa leader called a Taoist priest who had a certain degree of skill.
That Taoist priest said that the body was amazing, and he suggested to put it back where she was.
So the leader called some brave men and told them to get the body back into the coffin. Each worker was paid fifteen Yuan.
At the time, fifteen was a large amount of money since most of the people only got eight or nine each month, those who were paid more than ten would be praised anywhere.
There would always be brave men when there was big reward, and the guard was one of them.
So those four men put that woman back into the coffin, resealed it, and buried it underground.
At the same time, that Taoist priest buried five talismans to counteract evil forces, sealed in glass, one inch below the place, and that was the end of that story.
But it couldn't be used for building houses… It seemed strange when there was a big empty place in the Dragon Villa where the mark was buried.
It should have been the end of this story.
But the owner of the Paint Pen Garden Villa came and bought the land.
That boss brought with him a geomancer and set a Feng Shui place, which was exactly the place where the coffin was buried.
That geomancer said that that place was the eye of the dragon… it was the finishing touch place, so the first villa should be built on that spot to get a big fortune.
And when they dug the earth, they found that coffin again.
This time, the geomancer got somebody and burnt that coffin directly and continued to build the villas.
The guard had tried to persuade the boss and told him not to disturb that place, but that boss wouldn't take his advice and he only listened to what that geomancer said.
Since that coffin had been burnt, there have been strange things happening each year.
The one who lived in the 25th block would surely become pregnant the first year when they moved in.
After becoming pregnant, they would go to the hospital, but they wouldn't be able to find the location of the kid. It was B ultrasound previously and the technology was not so high, and there were not so many problems found, but it might be a big problem when they still couldn't find anything with the latest four-dimensional ultrasound.
The guard said in the first three days after the baby was born, the hostess of the house would disappear and the man would become weak, then die after about half a year.
I asked him: "Was there anybody still living in that villa?"
"At first, many people didn't believe it, but when there were so many ghost things happening in that 25th block, the price went down and down again." The guard said: "According to the current market situation, it should cost at least fifteen million, but now nobody wanted to buy it even at one point five million."
The guard said: "The people who were going to buy the house were not fools… They would get a geomancer to check the place first."
"So how was the house sold now?" I asked the guard.
The guard shook his head and said: "I didn't know clearly, maybe that family was foolish."
Then the guard took out a photo from the drawer and handed it to me: "Come on, man, look at this."
It was a black and white photo, and in it was the coffin and the woman's body.
I couldn't recognize the woman's body, but according to its figure, it must be the one we saw in the villa.
After a few glances, I said: "No, this body is in the ancient robes of the Tang Dynasty, but she was in a coffin made in recent times."
"Wow, you know something about coffins?" Feng Chunsheng asked me.
I told him I had some business with them.
The business was about tattoos for dead people. There were many people in Minnan who liked tattoos, and whenever they had some family members die, they would call me to give them a tattoo such as "rich and honored" or "cyprinus carpiod" to show a good sign for the future, so that the dead people could have a good afterlife.
I got this tattoo business, and at the same time, I became familiar with various coffin styles, and I had the chance to know the famous coffin craftsman, Mr. Guan.
I knew something about coffins.
"This woman's body is strange, it has been there for decades and ordinary people cannot figure it out. Let me check first; the only way to win a war is to try to know your prey completely," I told Feng Chunsheng.
He was stunned, but after a long time, he stuck up a thumb: "Cool… Shui, you're very studious; you were just talking like a great master."
Feng Chunsheng asked me about the coffin, and got some information about that body through it.
It would have been a little careless to act without knowing where the body came from.
Of course, we could ask Chen Yuhao to join us.
This brother had good skill, it would be easy for him to figure it out.
But he was a big shot, we wouldn't ask him to help unless it was necessary.
Feng Chunsheng and I went outside of the guard's room, then caught a taxi to go to Mr. Guan.
I asked for his telephone number when we left the guard.
…
We took the taxi and arrived at Mr. Guan's shop.
Feng Chunsheng asked me, "Can we find that coffin craftsman? He usually does his job in the day time and not in the evening. Don't you feel afraid when it happens at night?"
I explained to him that Mr. Guan was a strange person and he always worked in the evening.
"Some reasons?" He asked me.
I waved and said, "I didn't ask him, and I even thought all of the coffin craftsmen worked only in the evening."
I only knew one coffin craftsman - Mr. Guan.
"Oh, very good, you always know so many weirdos."
We arrived at Mr. Guan's shop.
"Mr. Guan, it's me, Shui." I knocked and shouted, which was the rule set by him. He told me I should call his name, or else, he could be scared since he thought it might be a ghost.
"Coming, I'm coming."
Then came the slow steps from the shop.
Later, the rolling shutter door was opened.
When he saw us, he asked: "So, Shui, you wanted a coffin?"
"No, No. I just want you to help us check something." Then I handed that photo of the coffin and the body to him: "Mr. Guan, can you help me? Just check when that coffin in the photo is from."
Mr. Guan took the photo far away, glanced it and said: "I can't see clearly, I need to wear my presbyopic glasses."
Then he went inside, and Feng Chunsheng and I followed him.
When we entered, Feng Chunsheng asked his questions: "Mr. Guan, why do you make coffins in the evening and not in the day time?"
"This is my rule." Mr. Guan turned and gave him a look, saying: "There are so many ghosts and deaths; those ghosts try the coffin and tell us whether it is suitable or not… Those coffins are made for the dead, after all."
Feng Chunsheng lowered his voice: "You test the ghosts in the evening. May I know what the relationship between you and Mr. Chuizi of Liuzhou is?"
Mr. Guan measured Feng Chunsheng again in his eyes and laughed. He passed a cigarette to him and said: "Brother, you also know the business. So you also know something about the coffin?"
"I just want to know about the relationship between you and Mr. Chuizi from Liuzhou." Feng Chunsheng became more serious in his tone.