My name is Li Yang. I was born on October 15th, 1987.That day was the Xia Yuan Festival — the Water Official relieves misfortune.It was supposed to be a good day.But my father said it was the most tormenting, and also the most horrifying day he had ever experienced.The torment came from my mother having a difficult labor — she screamed from morning until night.The horror came from a coffin that suddenly rushed into our home without warning.To say "without warning" isn't entirely accurate.Because that day, it had been pouring rain since morning, and by evening, the river water had already reached our doorstep.Most villagers had moved to higher ground early on, but our family was trapped because of my mother's labor.Around ten o'clock at night, my mother's voice was already hoarse from screaming.The midwife from the neighboring village came out and told my father to prepare for the worst.Just then, a bolt of lightning tore through the darkness, followed by a deafening crack of thunder.As the thunder faded, the sound of my crying came from inside the house.But before anyone could celebrate, the front door was suddenly slammed open —a pitch-black coffin was swept in by the floodwaters, coming to rest silently in the courtyard.Faced with the sudden arrival of the coffin, my grandmother froze for several seconds, then cursed loudly and grabbed a bamboo pole from the yard to chase my grandfather around with it.Her reason for beating him was simple.Because I wasn't supposed to be born on that day.To explain that, we have to go back a few years.My grandfather had studied at a private school — he was one of the rare educated men of his time, and was widely regarded in the village as a promising young man.But later, he somehow got his hands on a book about feng shui and fortune-telling. From that moment on, he changed. He carried that book with him everywhere — whether he was walking or eating.The farm work at home was left undone, and all the labor fell on my grandmother's shoulders.
A few years later, after picking up just a half-baked understanding of the subject, my grandfather started offering feng shui and fortune-telling services to others.
In today's words, he was "bad at it but obsessed with it."The result was predictable — within a few years, his reputation was in ruins. Even when he offered his services for free, people from the surrounding villages avoided him like the plague.So, he turned his attention to our own family's ancestral graves.It's said that within the span of just over a year, he moved the Li family's ancestral tombs eighteen times. It caused such a stir that several of my uncles cut ties with him completely.It wasn't until my mother got pregnant with me that my grandfather seemed to turn over a new leaf.He stopped doing readings and stayed at home all day, muttering to himself, doing who-knows-what.As my mother's due date approached, the family finally discovered that my grandfather had been calculating my birth date and time — trying to pick an auspicious day to change the Li family's fate.To make it happen, he even had someone bring him two doses of labor-inducing drugs from the city.My grandfather might have been unreliable and reckless, but he was still the head of the household.Neither my father nor my mother could go against him — and that's how it all led to my grandmother chasing him around with a stick.Beating was one thing, and shouting was another — but the coffin in the courtyard still had to be dealt with.There's an old saying: "A cat brings poverty, a dog brings wealth, but a coffin at your door means your bloodline ends in three generations."That's why coffins are always something the family fetches themselves when needed.Even if a coffin shop offers delivery, they'll only bring it to the doorstep — never inside the house.But now, here it was — a coffin lying directly in our courtyard.And it seemed to be an ancient coffin washed down from the mountains.It wasn't empty.While the whole family stood there helpless and unsure of what to do, my grandfather suddenly laughed. He said it was the Water Official delivering me a wife, and that I was destined for wealth and fortune.
In my dad's words, Grandpa had already gone mad by then — his head was filled with strange and bizarre thoughts.No one in the family could win an argument with him, and in the end, the coffin was kept and placed in Grandpa's room.Luckily, nothing bad happened afterward, and over time, the coffin became something people just stopped mentioning.Still, because of that incident, my grandparents began sleeping in separate rooms.When I turned five, my dad was planning for a second child, so I was moved to sleep with Grandpa.That's when I found out — Grandpa worshipped that coffin every single day.And just a few days after I moved in, he tricked me with a piece of candy, made me hold up a red cloth, and had me kowtow three times in front of the coffin.Back then, I was just a kid — I didn't know what it meant. I only thought it was fun, and I got candy out of it.By the time I realized how absurd the whole thing was, it was already too late.Besides that, Grandpa also started teaching me the things from that old book of his.And once he started, it went on for ten years.That year, I turned fifteen.
Grandpa had grown old — his hair was gray, his eyes cloudy.
I knew he didn't have much time left.As for how I knew that — naturally, it was something I'd learned from the book.But I didn't dare say anything and kept it hidden from the rest of the family.In his final days, Grandpa spent long hours alone in his room, speaking strange words to the coffin.It felt to me like he was having a conversation with someone.But aside from me occasionally going in and out, the only thing in that room was the coffin.On the last day, I saw two streaks of light — one black, one white — slowly drifting from Grandpa's forehead.That was his soul light and spirit energy fading away.Once those were gone, so was life itself.That day, Grandpa stopped talking to the coffin. Instead, he called me to his side and gave me two instructions.The first: after his death, I had to use the roo—…use the coffin in his room for his burial. He also warned me that someone would come to steal it, and told me I must protect it no matter what.The second thing — he told me to treat my wife well and protect her.The first request was easy enough to understand, though I really didn't think that old coffin was anything worth stealing.As for the second… even after all these years, I still had never seen what was inside the coffin, so I was confused.But Grandpa didn't give me a chance to ask. He gripped my hand tightly, repeating over and over that I had to remember.Seeing how worked up he was — like he could run out of breath at any second — I quickly nodded and agreed.And just as I nodded, the two streaks of light at the center of his brow vanished…My father had been an honest, dutiful man all his life. When I told him Grandpa's final wishes, he agreed.Together with my uncle, they pried open the coffin in Grandpa's room.We had made preparations beforehand.
After all, when the coffin first arrived in our home, we already knew it wasn't empty.
So my father had prepared a brand new coffin in advance, to properly reinter whatever dried remains might be inside.
But when the lid was opened, everyone froze.
Inside the coffin was not a pile of old bones, but the lifelike body of a young woman —
Her corpse showed no signs of decay. She was stunningly beautiful, like a sleeping beauty.
I took one look at her, and my thoughts started to drift.
I couldn't help thinking — if she were alive, and I could marry someone like her, it'd be worth losing ten years off my life.
But sadly, she was dead.
Thinking back on everything Grandpa had done… it all just seemed way too absurd.
But before I could dwell on it any longer, a strange fragrance began to waft out from the coffin — a scent that lingered and refused to fade.
In just a short while, that fragrance had spread throughout the entire village.
My expression changed instantly.
It was corpse fragrance.And according to Grandpa's old book, it was recorded very clearly:
"When corpse fragrance spreads a hundred miles, demons will fight, ghosts will scramble, and a thousand corpses will bow in worship."
It was only at that moment that I truly understood the two things Grandpa had told me.And the second one — was going to be the most difficult of all.