The trip to Yunnan was incomplete, but with only a few days left, they had to revise their plans. Instead of traveling all over Yunnan, they decided to visit the relatively closer Xishuangbanna. The settlement money Eaves Under Water Pig received was just enough to cover their expenses, allowing them to enjoy themselves without worry. It turned out that the setback wasn't entirely in vain; as the saying goes, fortune and misfortune are intertwined.
They drove towards Xishuangbanna, and the beautiful scenery along the way nearly filled up the large-capacity memory card in Eaves Under Water Pig's digital camera. However, they didn't dare venture too deeply into Xishuangbanna, as it was a paradise for wild animals, and encountering a dangerous species could be risky.
Although they missed the lively Water Splashing Festival in Xishuangbanna, they unexpectedly witnessed a Dai funeral.
The Dai funeral had a solemn but not heavy atmosphere. When the coffin arrived in front of a bamboo house, a woman in her fifties emerged from the house and placed a wax strip on the coffin.
After inquiring, they learned that placing a wax strip was a way for the Dai people to signify divorce from the deceased. Witnessing this practice was quite an eye-opener for him. Later, he also saw a small but fierce-looking vulture perched on the shoulder of one of the mourners.
Watching the funeral procession leave, Eaves Under Water Pig, almost impulsively, took out the bone flute from his backpack. While everyone's attention was on the procession, he blew into it.
He didn't expect the sound of the bone flute to be so piercing, almost as if it could rupture an eardrum. Even more unexpectedly, when the bone flute's sound filled the air, the vulture that had been motionless and seemingly asleep suddenly flew towards them. Its menacing posture suggested it might peck their throats out at any moment!
His colleagues were stunned by this turn of events. After a moment of shock, they screamed and fled in the opposite direction. Eaves Under Water Pig was a step behind them, but the vulture was incredibly fast, and in an instant, it was just inches away from him!
Eaves Under Water Pig regretted his actions immensely, but regret was of no use now; he had to escape. Two colleagues had already jumped into the car and were waving for him. He ran with all his might towards the car. In the chaos, the bone flute fell into the grass by the roadside, but he didn't dare to stop and pick it up.
Once in the car, his colleague floored the accelerator. It was only after they had driven a considerable distance that the vulture turned around and flew back. They all breathed a sigh of relief, and his colleague slowed the car and gave him a few punches.
They spent two days in Jinghong City, wandering around. While strolling, Eaves Under Water Pig came across a small stall where someone was reading fortunes.
The stall owner was dressed in a peculiar manner, probably to attract attention. However, his outfit reminded Eaves Under Water Pig of the girl in strange clothes he had seen in the Si Xiang Inn. The stall owner also had a small drum placed on his legs. Although it was different from the skull drum he had seen in the inn, it emitted a familiar and unsettling aura. Thus, he found himself drawn to the stall.
The stall owner was a man in his fifties with a somewhat accented Mandarin, but at least Eaves Under Water Pig could understand him.
The man asked, "What do you want to know?"
Eaves Under Water Pig replied, "I don't want my fortune read. I just want to know if this is a skull drum and its origin."
He then took out two hundred yuan and placed it in front of the stall owner.
The stall owner smiled slightly but did not speak or make any move. Eaves Under Water Pig took out another two hundred yuan.
This time, the stall owner accepted all the money and began to speak.
A long time ago, there was a type of sorcery that could make a deceased person's spirit return to a corpse. However, this sorcery had very strict conditions. First, a hundred people's ashes were needed to grind into a bone flute. When the bone flute was polished to a jade-like smoothness, it had the power to capture souls. Additionally, a drum made from the flesh of a relative of the resurrected person was required.
The bone flute could capture souls, while the skull drum could trap the soul inside, but only up to a hundred souls. However, only those with deep karmic debts, or sins, could have their souls captured by the bone flute. Thus, the process was very long and uncertain.
Once the conditions were met, these two items could be used to bring the dead back to life.
The failure rate of this sorcery was very high. If it failed once, everything done before would be wasted, and the practitioner, due to their extensive karmic debt, would also face a grim fate.
After hearing this, Eaves Under Water Pig suddenly recalled Mr. Qin's despairing eyes. Did he know his plan had failed and that he would face a bad outcome, which was why he looked so desperate?
At that moment, Eaves Under Water Pig suddenly heard his colleague calling him, so he turned around. When he looked back, he found a different person in front of him, impatiently saying, "Are you getting your fortune read or not? If not, get out of here and don't hinder my business."
Eaves Under Water Pig was bewildered, immediately stood up, and searched around, but he couldn't find the person he had been speaking with earlier.
He asked the man who was now reading fortunes, "Where did the person who was sitting here just now go?"
The man looked at him as if he were crazy and said, "This is my stall. There was no one else here."
The street was bustling with people and vehicles, but Eaves Under Water Pig felt like he was in a dream.
He couldn't uncover the true nature of the events, but connecting what he knew about Mr. Qin's situation, he had roughly figured out the answer. He just didn't understand why he had escaped this danger.
After thinking for a long time, he concluded that it was probably because he didn't have much karmic debt, so his life was spared.