After hearing the innkeeper's story, Eaves Under Water Pig was deeply shocked. Looking at the drum, which seemed like a piece of art, he realized it was made from a girl's skin, a severed head, and scraped flesh. The level of bloodshed was truly horrifying.
He couldn't help but lower his gaze to the skull drum on the cabinet and asked, "So, is this drum the same as the one in the story?"
The innkeeper smiled, "Of course not. That drum should have been burned long ago. However, some skull drums did make their way out back then. People would place them in temples as offerings, hoping to bring peace to the souls of the boys and girls whose bodies were made into drums. The monk who gave me this drum said it had been offered for many years and that the malevolent energy had long dissipated. Although it sometimes shows strange phenomena, it won't harm anyone."
Eaves Under Water Pig sighed with relief. He looked at the skull drum silently, imagining Xia Chu's appearance. This story seemed to suggest that Xia Chu took her revenge in her own way, but in the end, she was just a worthless sacrifice. And her sister Yin Lan, who could not let go even in death, probably wouldn't survive long in such dark times.
Lost in thought, Eaves Under Water Pig returned to his room. His colleagues were still sound asleep, and the day's accumulated fatigue quickly overwhelmed him, causing him to fall into a deep sleep.
In his semi-conscious state, he thought he heard the harsh sound of the bone flute again.
The next morning, Eaves Under Water Pig woke up with large dark circles under his eyes, which led to much teasing from his colleagues. He recounted the previous night's experiences, but his colleagues listened with skepticism, suspecting it might have been a strange dream.
Eaves Under Water Pig didn't bother explaining further. After breakfast, the three left the inn. Their goal was to see the most beautiful sights, and if they could fall in love with beautiful ethnic minority girls, that would be even better.
It was September, with clear, crisp autumn weather and a cloudless blue sky. But less than five kilometers after they started driving, the sky gradually darkened. Soon, thick clouds gathered and heavy rain began to pour.
At first, they thought it was just a shower that would soon stop. However, after waiting for a long time, the rain not only did not stop but intensified. Not knowing how far it would be to the next place to stay, they decided to turn back.
After finally returning to the inn, the group stumbled into the building, looking rather disheveled. This was the first rain they had encountered since arriving in Yunnan, and there was usually little rain in this season.
As they took off their rain-soaked clothes and complained about the weather, Eaves Under Water Pig turned his head and suddenly noticed a seven or eight-year-old girl in a corner of the hall, wearing strange clothes and with a pale face that made her dark eyes look like black gemstones. She was staring at him. He was taken aback.
At that moment, a young man, an employee of the inn, came out of the kitchen. Seeing that the group was soaked, he quickly helped them arrange rooms and provided clothes for them to change and showers.
When Eaves Under Water Pig looked back at the corner, it was empty. There was no sign of the little girl.
With some confusion, he went back to his room to shower. The confusion soon washed away with the hot water, and he was only thinking about catching up on sleep.
After his shower, he lay still on the bed. When his colleagues invited him to play cards, he ignored them. The rain was still pouring outside, and he soon fell asleep.
He slept deeply and woke up when the rain had stopped. The sky was dim, and he was ravenous, so he hurried to the dining area to get something to eat.
His two colleagues were missing, but he didn't care to look for them. He ordered a large plate of fried noodles and felt revived after eating.
However, during his meal, he noticed that the skull drum in the hall was gone, replaced by a delicate redwood clock. Moreover, the friendly innkeeper was nowhere to be seen.
Eaves Under Water Pig casually asked a young ethnic minority man about it. The man, who spoke poor Mandarin, took a while for Eaves Under Water Pig to understand. It turned out that the innkeeper had a young daughter who had died from illness years ago. Today was the anniversary of her death, and the innkeeper had gone to a temple several miles away to pray, leaving early in the morning.
Eaves Under Water Pig felt a pang of sympathy, surprised to learn about the innkeeper's sorrowful past. He suddenly remembered the girl in the strange clothes he had seen upon arriving at the inn and asked the young man, "I saw a little girl here earlier. Was she also the innkeeper's child?"
The young man looked at him with surprise and shook his head, saying that the innkeeper's wife was already deceased and he had no other children.
After the young man left, Eaves Under Water Pig remained in place, pondering.
The innkeeper had no other children, so who was the little girl in the hall? Was she a child from a nearby household who had come to play? Given the strong wind and heavy rain, it was careless of the parents.
However, thinking about the little girl's clothes, Eaves Under Water Pig still felt something was odd, but he quickly pushed those thoughts aside.
He looked around and saw one of his colleagues chatting with another inn staff member, a young girl who, though plain, was full of youthful energy. The colleague was seriously holding the girl's hand, apparently reading her palm, while the girl had a look of surprise on her face.
Eaves Under Water Pig muttered to himself, "Beast," and returned to his room.
Later, at dinner, another colleague appeared. The three chatted and laughed for a while when the colleague who had been flirting with the waitress suddenly said, "I heard something interesting earlier. Do you want to know?"
They eagerly encouraged him to continue.
The colleague said that the bone flute mentioned in the innkeeper's story actually originated from the Western Regions and later developed into a peculiar local custom. The bone flute is used for summoning spirits. When someone dies an unjust death, the bone flute is played after the cremation ceremony to call upon wandering souls and ghosts, with the aim of guiding them to the afterlife.
It is said that burning a person's bones in the fire can also summon the deceased souls, but generally, people are unwilling to do this, as inviting ghosts is easy, but sending them away is difficult—a fact that is probably the same everywhere.
The skull drum and the bone flute, long ago, were actually made from the remains of high monks and were considered Buddhist relics. It is said that their sounds can be heard not only by humans but also by ghosts, so ordinary people are afraid to strike or play them casually.
There is also a story about the bone flute:
In the Taklamakan Desert, known as the "Sea of Death," there once was a small country called Tilán that flourished for a time. One day, a monk arrived in Tilán, and at that time, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the king had died from a fall, and the queen fell ill from grief. The monk persuaded the king to make a bone flute from the princess's leg bones.
After the flute was made, the monk played it, and soon people in the palace began to die one after another, including the king. The ministers believed the monk was a demonic priest and sought to kill him, but when they went to capture him, he had already vanished, leaving the bone flute behind. Later, the ministers buried the bone flute as a funerary item with the princess. However, every deep night, the sound of the flute would faintly echo, and as more people died, the entire kingdom perished, with the lonely flute's melody continuing to reverberate under the moonlight... After several centuries, the ancient kingdom of Tilán was left with only the saying: "Under the moonlight, no one remains but ghosts playing the flute."