DT |Chapter 1: Nineteen Coffins Part One (Revised)

In the deathly silent corridor, heavy footsteps echoed, the sound of shoes scraping against the floor was clear, each step ascending the stairs like the omen of death’s arrival.

Getting closer.

Getting closer.

The fluorescent light in the stairwell flickered intermittently, and this four-story building, abandoned for years, seemed shrouded in a vast black fog, out of place with the surrounding houses, suffocating.

In the eerie atmosphere of the flickering light, two shadows appeared in the hallway, one broad and stout, the other tall and slender.

“So… that’s it, please… please help us.” The short, stout middle-aged man was respectful, frequently taking out a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe the sweat from his face.

The man in front of him was tall, dressed in a suit, looking no more than twenty years old. The middle-aged man couldn’t help but glance at the snake tattoo on the side of the man’s neck, a vividly realistic venomous snake resting on his neck.

The middle-aged man was entranced, unaware that he was meeting a gaze that was cold and deep. On this hot summer night, he shivered involuntarily.

The cicadas’ cries suddenly ceased, and a chilling aura surrounded the man, making it impossible for anyone to feel any closeness despite his handsome appearance.

After a while, the man took out a cigarette, lit it, and lazily leaned against the window, taking a drag and exhaling smoke that obscured his angular profile.

In the flickering light, no emotion could be discerned.

“You caused the trouble, you hid the situation, and now you want me to clean up your mess. Hong Dechang, aren’t you afraid of retribution?” The man’s words were so indifferent that they seemed unrelated to him.

“But… but we really have no other way now. We’ve invited the master, performed the rituals, burned what needed to be burned… and we’ve closed the coffin lid that was opened. But it just won’t accept it, Leader Sheng… this matter can’t get any bigger… please… please help us.” The middle-aged man trembled more and more, leaning against the wall, almost collapsing.

Sheng Feng didn’t respond, just finished his cigarette.

“You should go back,” Sheng Feng conjured two yellow talismans from thin air, “stick them on your headboard if you don’t want to die.”

Sheng Feng’s lips moved as he carefully instructed, and the middle-aged man took the talismans, nodding repeatedly, then carefully tucked the thin talisman papers into his chest, thanking Sheng Feng as he descended the stairs.

Sheng Feng turned back to the window, gazing at the distant lights until the middle-aged man left the courtyard, then he snapped back to reality.

“From north to south, did you meet the judge below?”

The empty corridor echoed with his words, as if he were talking to himself or conversing with an invisible person in the air.

Suddenly, a gust of evil wind blew, causing the lone light to flicker even more.

From the end of the corridor, a shadow slowly rose from the pitch-black corner. There was no one, only a shadow moving across the uneven ground, stopping less than a meter from Sheng Feng.

“Leader, I met the judge. He said he would send someone to assist soon.” The hollow voice came from the shadow, “I heard this time it’s something fierce?”

Sheng Feng turned, leaning against the window frame, arms crossed, still nonchalant: “It wasn’t fierce originally, but Hong messed it up, and now everything’s in chaos. National Security has issued a strict order to control the situation within a week, or everyone in Group 7 will be fired.”

“Where are Paper Auntie and Little Mayfly? I didn’t see them when I returned to Group 7.”

“I sent them to check the scene. They probably won’t be back for a while.”

…

Ten miles away, police lights flashed in the center of Yunhai University. The once peaceful and quiet meeting place had been dug into a large pit several dozen meters in diameter by a few reckless excavators.

The bottom of the pit was damp and dark, with faintly visible blood-red rectangular objects lying there.

The police had already set up a two-meter-high barrier around the pit, but before they arrived, students had taken photos of the pit and posted them online. However, the distance was too far to capture details, and many thought it was just construction work.

“I just bought new clothes today, and now I’m sent to do this dirty work again.” The paper bride patted her custom cheongsam, wishing she could be further away from the stinking pit.

“The leader asked us to check the scene. Can we leave after looking?”

With a lollipop in her mouth, the ragged Little Mayfly had her back to her. This little girl looked about twelve or thirteen, her unwashed hair sticking messily to her ears, her bright eyes fixed coldly on the pit.

“We need to go down and take a look.”

“Hey!” Before the paper bride could react, Little Mayfly leaped silently into the dark mud pit.

The paper bride rolled her eyes in disdain: “Hey! Just take a quick look, I’m not going down! Let’s finish and report back quickly, don’t keep the leader waiting.”

No response from the pit.

“This little girl, really doesn’t let people rest easy.” Finally, the paper bride took off her high heels, placed them by the pit, stepped back a few steps for momentum, lifted her cheongsam, and jumped into the mud pit.

Landing silently.

The wet mud at the bottom of the pit had dried considerably, filled with a strong earthy smell, damp and cold, seemingly isolated from the outside air and temperature.

It was pitch black all around, with only a few faint red spots visible ahead.

The paper bride first saw Little Mayfly, who had just jumped down, standing in front of one of the red spots, holding a flashlight.

In such a large pit, the flashlight’s beam was minimal, but the sharp-eyed paper bride clearly saw the red, long object Little Mayfly was illuminating—a half-rotted coffin.

“What’s going on?” The paper bride lifted her cheongsam and stepped to Little Mayfly’s side.

Little Mayfly moved the flashlight forward—a dozen blood-red coffins came into view.

Blood-red liquid dripped from the coffin lid seams onto the ground, the dripping sound eerie in the deathly silence.

Little Mayfly took out a compass from her shorts pocket, but it was clearly different from a regular compass, densely inscribed with red characters, the needle unmoving, as if broken, pointing straight ahead.

“Hiss—this thing isn’t broken, is it?” The paper bride tilted her head, looking at the compass direction.

“It’s not broken, there’s something wrong with this place.” Little Mayfly’s voice still had a childish tone, but her expression was serious, not at all like a young girl.

“What’s wrong?”

“Within a few miles, there’s not a single dead soul.”

In fact, since entering Yunhai Avenue where Yunhai University is located, Little Mayfly had been watching the soul compass in her hand.

But strangely, since entering this road, the compass needle seemed dead, pointing straight north no matter the direction.

“This direction…” The paper bride squinted, following the needle’s direction, “It’s Yunhai University’s main teaching building…”

…

Sheng Feng sat idly in the car, scrolling through his phone. The screen flickered, displaying a bizarre news headline: Yunhai University Student Suicide Incident, Is It Really Heartbreak or Ghosts?

Raindrops slid down the windshield, forming transparent threads that made a sound as they fell.

Sheng Feng held his phone, his gaze on the clouds illuminated by lightning. He frowned slightly, picked up his phone, and dialed a number. The call rang for a long time, but no one answered.

Sheng Feng decisively hung up, started the car, and sped off.

“So what do we do next?” The paper bride pulled out a pipe from her waist, lit it with a ghostly flame, and took a deep drag, “Go up and report to the boss?”

As soon as she finished speaking, a sudden thunderclap split the sky. Large raindrops poured down from the sky, the rain coming fiercely, and the excavation workers hurriedly took shelter under plastic tents.

“Really unlucky, why rain all of a sudden?” The paper bride’s long black hair was instantly drenched, sticking to her exposed skin, making her look even paler, “Let’s hurry up and take shelter.”

Little Mayfly agreed, turning to follow her, stepping through the mud and water towards the edge of the pit.

The foreman of the excavation team squatted at the pit’s edge with a flimsy umbrella, his voice almost drowned out by the rain as he shouted to the paper bride at the bottom of the pit: “Miss! Umbrella!”

With that, he tossed the umbrella into the pit.

The paper bride caught it with one hand, opened it, and covered herself and Little Mayfly.

“I’ll get a ladder to get you up…” The foreman’s voice trailed off as his gaze slowly extended from near to far, seemingly fixed on a point, scaring him so much he stumbled and sat on the ground, “That… that… that is… is…”

The paper bride looked at his foolish expression, hands on her hips, helplessly said: “I know, a few coffins scared you like this, is it necessary? Hurry up and find a ladder to get us up.”

“No, no, no… not… not…” His hands shook as if he had epilepsy, pointing to the location of the coffins.

Little Mayfly sensed something was wrong and quickly turned around.

With the weak light of the flashlight, she clearly saw the nearest coffin to them, the lid had been pushed open at some point. Little Mayfly didn’t have time to call the paper bride, rushing alone through the mud and water.

The inside of the coffin was pitch black, with a water stain on the rotted side extending from inside to the ground.

Little Mayfly shone the flashlight into the coffin, and sure enough, it was empty.

“Be careful, something came out of the coffin!” Little Mayfly warned, her gaze coldly scanning every inch of the ground and the remaining dozen coffins.

The paper bride also saw the water stain on the coffin, out of place with the surroundings, and her previously frivolous expression immediately became serious. She held her breath to listen to the surroundings.

Little Mayfly simultaneously turned off the flashlight, plunging the pit into darkness.

Creak.

Creak.

Besides the sound of rain hitting the mud, there was a strange rustling crawling sound, like fabric scraping against the ground.

The two of them tacitly took no action, as judging by the sound alone, the chance of it being human was slim.

Then, accompanied by that strange sound, came a series of coffin lid sliding sounds.

Something else was crawling out of the other coffins!

The paper bride cursed inwardly, today was indeed not a good day for fieldwork.

The next second, she felt something crawl past her, incredibly fast, the fabric wrapped around it brushing against her leg, carrying a rotten smell.

Suddenly, someone turned on the lights at the edge of the pit, illuminating the entire mud pit.

The paper bride immediately saw a grotesque, decayed face staring at her, just an arm’s length away.

That grotesque face also saw her, lunging at her madly, its long red nails clawing wildly in the air.

The paper bride kicked back, flipping away from the grotesque face, instantly putting distance between them.

Looking around, good heavens, a dozen dried corpses, some barely standing, some crawling on the ground like spiders in bizarre postures, some still struggling to climb out of the coffins.

“Damn! Are they all possessed?” The paper bride looked at Little Mayfly, “How can they rise when they’re so dried up?!”

The dried corpses also noticed the two “living people,” rushing forward to tear them apart and devour them.

The paper bride formed a hand seal, a thousand red threads burst out, blocking the dried corpses, but to little effect. The dried corpses were incredibly strong, the threads breaking almost as soon as they wrapped around them.

The paper bride was about to use a fire seal to burn them all when Little Mayfly stopped her.

“There’s still a lot we don’t understand. If you burn them, how will we report back?”

At this moment, the spider-like crawling dried corpse went mad, rushing to bite, and the two quickly separated, each fighting on their own.

The paper bride barely dodged the dried corpse’s deadly attack, retreating defensively, shouting: “Then what do we do? Can’t burn them, can’t kill them, I don’t want to die here with you, little girl!”

The foreman had long since fled in panic, running out of the barrier only to bump into the approaching Sheng Feng.

Sheng Feng’s eyes narrowed, thinking something must have gone wrong. He grabbed the foreman and asked: “What happened?”

“The dead… the dead have risen!”

Sheng Feng immediately released him, running to the pit’s edge in a few strides, seeing the paper bride and Little Mayfly fighting the dried corpses at the bottom, with a few crawling corpses trying to climb up the slope.

“Boss! Help!” The paper bride shouted.

Sheng Feng acted decisively, pulling out a dozen talisman papers from his pocket and scattering them. Each talisman seemed to have eyes, sticking tightly to each dried corpse.

The moment the talismans stuck to the dried corpses, they emitted golden light, transforming into thick chains, wrapping and binding the struggling dried corpses like dozens of dumplings, immobilizing them.

The paper bride collapsed in the mud, giving Sheng Feng a thumbs up: “As expected of the boss, you came just in time.”

The trembling excavation team found a ladder to get the two out of the pit.

Sheng Feng, with a cold face, kicked the two crawling dried corpses back into the pit, then returned to the tent with hot water, sitting across from the paper bride and Little Mayfly.