The woman woke up from a long sleep and found darkness in front of her.
She groped around, and there was coldness everywhere she could reach, as if she was trapped in a small box. Her lower body was all greasy, and she seemed to be able to feel the blood flowing out of her body bit by bit.
"Let me out, let me out." She tried her best, but could only make a little sound. She was too tired. The birth had taken too much energy from her.
Sudden. There was a sound outside. Then, a crack was removed above her head.
"You're still alive…" someone said above her head.
Recognizing the person, she shouted: "It's me, it's me, help me…"
In the end, her voice became weaker and weaker, because the crack was firmly covered again.
Asking suddenly, she remembered the strange legend circulating in this mansion: ghost coffins cannibalize people.
At this moment, she seemed to hear a woman's sigh above her head, but when she listened again, there was no sound…
1. The poisonous ghost
Today is the day when my uncle Qin Zheng is ordained and becomes a monk.
I followed the old lady, my grandmother, and everyone from the Qin Mansion to stand at the entrance of the Main Hall to say goodbye to my little uncle.
The Qin Mansion is a flower-growing family in Linlang Mountain. The flowers it produces are extremely beautiful and are specially used by the royal family. The late emperor once gave the Qin Mansion a gold plaque with a letter written by the late emperor himself: Wealth brings flowers.
It's a pity that the Qin family is not very prosperous. The old man died of illness at an early age, and the old lady only has two sons, one is my father, and the other is my uncle who is tonsured today.
My mother died suddenly after giving birth to me. My father was depressed because of my mother's death and eventually died with her. My uncle never married, but he had a child named Qin Shengyu who was left behind after a night of confusion. But the fate of Shengyu’s mother is unknown.
"Send flowers, send flowers." The little uncle stood at the door of the hall and waved to me. I glanced at the old lady, saw her nodding, and then walked over.
Qin Zheng stroked my face and murmured to herself: "The older I grow, the more I look like Lan…"
"Zheng'er!" the old lady shouted angrily, and uncle's obsessed eyes suddenly became clear. He glanced at the old lady, and then whispered in my ear: "Shenghua, leave quickly and stay away from this home."
After saying that, he pushed me away. After signaling to the master who had been standing quietly in the distance, the whole ceremony really began…
The group of people returned to the Qin Mansion in a mighty manner, and I followed the team. Although I was the honorary lady of the Qin Mansion, the old lady never liked me.
"Miss Shenghua, the old lady asked you to go to the front yard." The maid said to me.
I put on my makeup and walked out of the courtyard.
When I passed by the front garden, I saw Shengyu and a man. I bowed to them, and the man bowed back.
"Why do you salute her?" Shengyu grabbed him angrily, "You are my husband-in-law, why should you salute her?"
"We are not married." The man said calmly. Rang Shengyu blushed.
"You are actually helping outsiders, I will ignore you!" After Shengyu finished speaking, he stomped away.
"This is Xiao Yiran."
"My name is Lan Shenghua."
"Aren't you a young lady from the Qin family? Why are you named Lan?" As soon as the words came out, he immediately felt something was wrong, "I'm sorry, I…"
I smiled and said, "My mother's surname is Lan. In order to commemorate her, my father gave me the same surname as Lan. Did you come to the Qin Mansion to marry Shengyu?"
"No." He retorted immediately, then looked at me for a long time before saying, "It's the old lady who came to me for a poison that I will never give out."
"What poison?"
“Beautiful flowers—poisoned beautiful ghosts.” He whispered in my ear.
2. Human flower seeds
But I didn't expect that the old lady would actually give Xiao Yiran to me as my husband, and Xiao Yiran actually agreed.
The old lady nodded with satisfaction: "In that case, you can get married in three days."
As soon as I returned to my room in the side courtyard, I asked Xiao Yiran: "Why did you do this?"
"I just fell in love with you at first sight."
I stared at him: "The old lady invited you to the Qin Mansion for poison. You didn't take out the poison, but you accepted the old lady's marriage offer. Do you think I will believe you?"
"You are indeed as smart as your mother Lan Ruoli."
"……who are you?"
"My name is Xiao Yiran, also known as Lan Yixiao, and I am your mother's apprentice."
"apprentice?"
"Yes, nineteen years ago, your mother came to the Central Plains and met your father. A year later, she had you, but she died." He told me something that no one in the Qin family could ever say. matter.
"My mother is not from the Central Plains?"
"Lan is a popular surname in Southern Xinjiang."
"Southern Xinjiang?" I whispered, "Then why did you come just now?"
He smiled at me, and that smile made me blush and my heart beat: "I came to the Central Plains a few years ago, and I didn't know she had a daughter. I chose to come now, firstly, because you are old enough to know the truth; secondly, Some things should be destroyed."
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard someone banging on the door.
As soon as the door opened, Shengyu rushed in like a gust of wind, and then slapped me hard. The gold ring on her hand scratched my face, which immediately hurt.
"You vixen, you actually stole my husband-in-law! You are as much trouble as your mother!"
When she wanted to slap her a second time, Lan Yixiao grabbed her hand tightly, and he said sternly: "Qin Shengyu, how dare you!"
Just these five words made Shengyu stunned.
Soon, many people poured into the house. The crowd parted to both sides. The old lady walked in from the crowd. The leading crutch first touched the ground, and then hit Sheng Yu hard on the body.
"How dare you do this to your sister! How dare you harm such a beautiful and flawless skin?" She only cared about my skin.
Lan Yixiao touched a piece of brocade handkerchief on my face, and my wound suddenly became cold: "Don't touch it, there is medicine on it."
After scolding Shengyu, the old lady told me to have a good rest and led everyone out.
"The old lady is really cruel. She is so cruel to her own granddaughter." Lan Yixiao said to me while cleaning my wounds.
I smiled slightly and fiddled with the flowers at hand and said: "Since I can remember, the old lady always seems to be calm at all times. She neither laughs nor gets angry. Except for today, it seems that the old lady was angry once nine years ago. That time was because of the old lady. die."
"Then do you know how the old man died?" He stopped what he was doing and said suddenly.
"I heard he died suddenly – just like my mother." Thinking of this, I laughed, with tears in my smile. "The old man and his mother died suddenly. His father died of depression, and Shengyu's mother disappeared…"
"Maybe the old man didn't die suddenly." He suddenly said this, and I looked at him sharply.
"A few days before the old man passed away and paid tribute to the Qin Mansion, I heard that after the old man died, the old lady paid tribute to a strange flower. This flower is indigo green. The leaves are white and the roots are black. It has a light fragrance. The concubines do not like it, but it is only for the emperor and the emperor. Men like princes only love this flower." He took out a booklet from his arms, "This is the manuscript left by the master, and it was originally brought to the Central Plains by her. It contains strange flowers and magic. One of them is It's called 'Human Flower Seed'."
When I heard this name, my heart skipped a beat.
"Flowers grown with human fat will bloom beautifully and look like human figures. They are the best flowers…" He read one of the paragraphs, "But because the manuscript in my hand is not complete, I don't know the specific method."
"You mean that the old man was made into flower fertilizer, cultivated flowers, and paid tribute to the emperor?"
Maybe, it's exactly what Lan Yixiao said, but I just don't want to believe it.
The flowers under my palms have withered at an incredible speed.
Since I was a child, I have discovered that I have this ability. My body seems to be able to control flowers. No matter when I laugh or when I am angry, the emotions seem to turn into nutrients and penetrate into the body of the flowers.
3. Midnight murderous intention
At midnight, when everything is silent, the moon is dark and the wind is high. A man held a steel knife in his hand and gritted his teeth and entered the small room in the side courtyard.
The room is full of fragrance.
She snorted from her nose, slowly approached the bedside, and then raised the knife!
At this moment, the candlelight in the room suddenly lit up. A familiar voice sounded at the same time.
"Shengyu, you actually want to kill your sister?" Lan Yixiao stood in the corner with a calm expression, as if he had expected it.
"Xiao Yiran? Why are you growing flowers in this room?" The rich fragrance made her a little confused.
"You actually want to kill your own sister." Lan Yixiao found a seat and sat down.
"No…no, I'm not such a cruel woman, it's just…" At this point, Shengyu faltered.
Lan Yixiao approached her and looked at her affectionately, confusing Shengyu and saying, "Just what? Can Shengyu tell me?"
"Grandma has always doted on me the most. Even though my father doesn't love me, a few days ago I hurt Shenghua's face, but grandma scolded me and threw me into the woodshed in the backyard."
"Is it just because of this?" Lan Yixiao asked, raising her chin.
Of course it's not that simple.
When Shengyu was locked up in the woodshed, the housekeeper's wife, the cook, came to her crying and claimed to be her grandmother. She said that Shengyu was her only relative and she could not let Shengyu be killed by the old lady. She wanted Shengyu to escape.
It turns out that many years ago, the Qin Mansion was just a jade-picking family that made a fortune from jade. It is said that there is a treasure in the house, but no one can see it.
Nineteen years ago, a stunning woman came to the Qin Mansion, it was Lan Ruoli. This woman caused an uproar when she appeared in Linlang Mountain. She fell in love with the eldest young master at first sight and became the eldest mistress of the Qin Mansion. At that time, although the Qin Mansion was not as famous as it is now, it was still a wealthy family where a young lady fell into trouble . The old lady was naturally very disgusted with the marriage, but this changed because of Lan Ruoli's words.
"What did Lan Ruoli say to the old lady?" Lan Yixiao asked.
"She said to the old lady, 'I have a way to make Qin Mansion famous all over the world just by using the ghost coffin of Qin Mansion.'"
"Ghost coffin!" After hearing these two words, Lan Yixiao stood up suddenly, "What happened next?"
"The old lady naturally didn't want people to know about the ghost coffin. She only said that Lan Ruoli was talking nonsense. But one day, Lan Ruoli came out of the old lady's dormitory – the old lady never allowed others to enter her room. of.
When she came out, she was holding a flower in her hand. The flower was extremely beautiful. Later, Lan Ruoli had someone hold this flower while walking near Linlang Mountain, and met the emperor who was paying a private visit incognito. As a result, the flower in the Qin Mansion became the royal flower. "
"It's actually like this." Lan Yixiao murmured to himself, "But what does this have to do with growing flowers?"
"Do you know how the flower was grown?" Qin Shengyu asked him, "As soon as the flower came out, something happened to the Qin Mansion – one of the most beautiful maids disappeared."
"you mean……"
"That flower uses human life as nourishment."
Lan Ruoli died suddenly the year she gave birth, but passed the method on to the old lady. Shengyu's father, Qin Zheng, became his sister-in-law because of Lan Ruoli. He drank heavily all day long. Once when he was drunk, he got confused and touched into a maid's room, so he got Shengyu.
That maid was Shengyu's mother. It is said that the maid disappeared as soon as she gave birth to Shengyu. The flower that was sent as tribute that year was pure white in color, but its roots were blood red, and the whole flower exuded a faint frankincense… It was also that flower that pushed the Qin Mansion to the top.
That flower was probably cultivated by Shengyu's mother… Although both of them understood it, neither of them said it explicitly.
"It's Lan Ruoli you should hate, not Lan Shenghua." Lan Yixiao said.
"But Lan Ruoli is dead, and now Lan Shenghua looks more and more like her mother, and even now she has snatched you away!" Shengyu held his hand tightly, "Did you know , what is the cook saying to me? The triennial tribute is about to begin again, this time. Grandma may turn me into flower fertilizer. After all, the flowers grown by my mother are so beautiful. She wants I'm running away from this home, Miss Yiran has hit a ghost , come with me!"
That's too late.
There was a voice outside the door. Lan Yixiao stood up suddenly, picked up the steel knife she was still holding in her hand, slashed her left arm cruelly, and shouted outside: "Here comes someone, Shengyu will kill him." …”
4. Death of Shengyu
Since that day, I have never seen Shengyu again.
"Did you hear what Sheng Yu said next door?" Lan Yixiao asked me. His wrist was tied with a thick cloth band and there was blood on it.
I nodded.
He stood up and used his uninjured right hand to unbutton his clothes with difficulty. I frowned and tried to stop him, but he revealed his smooth chest to me. There was a beautiful flower tattooed on his left chest near the heart. : "This is the colorful flower."
"But this…" It's clearly not a flower.
"I once had a heart disease. Master planted colorful flowers into my heart when I was a child to repair the small wound. Unknowingly, a flower grew on the skin of my chest."
"What are you showing me this to tell me?" I asked strangely.
"I'm afraid that in order to get this seed, the old lady will do whatever it takes, even if she disembowels her." He put on his clothes and said to me, "I know you have always had doubts about me, and I tell you now You just want to explain that I will not joke with my life."
"I'll see you in the old lady's dormitory at midnight tonight." I said to him.
There was no wind or moon that night, only dark clouds filled the sky. Just after the third watch, I saw a figure appearing under the dormitory.
"Quite on time." Lan Yixiao said to me.
"I've been here many times. Although this is the old lady's dormitory, she never stays here and doesn't allow others to come near her," I pointed to the room on the second floor and told him.
We went up to the second floor together, opened the door, and a strange fragrance hit our noses.
Lan Yixiao pressed a certain switch, and the wall opened. There was no light in the secret room behind the wall, but it revealed a green color, like countless will-o'-wisps floating in the air. The strong smell became stronger and stronger, and I couldn't help but frown.
There is a coffin made of jasper in the secret room. There is only a coffin but no lid. Various ghosts and ghosts are carved around the jasper.
"This is the ghost coffin of the Qin Mansion." Lan Yixiao said, "It is said that when the ancestors of the Qin Mansion dug out the Jade Mountain, they dug out a piece of beautiful jade. Later, this jade was carved into a jasper coffin. However, every person lying in the coffin The corpses inside will disappear. Rather than disappearing, it is better to say that they have turned into corpse liquid. The Qin Mansion ghost coffin can eat people. "
He and I slowly approached the coffin and looked inside… "Shengyu!" I screamed.
It was Shengyu who was lying in the jasper coffin, but Shengyu's body had become a little thin, not thin. Rather, it was thin, as if her entire body had been flattened off a little.
Just when I was surprised, suddenly, Shengyu, who was lying in the jasper coffin, opened his eyes.
"Ah…" I almost screamed, but Lan Yixiao covered my mouth.
"Shengyu, how did you end up like this?" I was about to take Shengyu out of the coffin, but she laughed out loud.
"It's useless. When you lie down in this coffin, your whole body will be sucked in, and then it will start to turn into water from the back, and then to the chest. When it all turns into corpse water, it will be the best fertilizer for growing flowers." Sheng Yu He said coldly, "I've tried countless times, but I can't get out."
"But why?"
"Why? Just to make you end up like this." Suddenly, she seemed to see something, and a big laugh broke out on her lips. At the same time, Lan Yixiao groaned, fell forward, pierced his chest with a sharp weapon, and then quickly took it back.
It's the old lady! The murder weapon was the dragon-head crutch in her hand. She squeezed it hard and the murder weapon was actually inserted into the crutch!
The moment Lan Yixiao fell down, Shengyu in the coffin didn't know where he got the strength. He suddenly sat up, grabbed his body, and dragged him into the coffin. I saw that Shengyu had rotted cleanly. On the back and the half-cut back of the head, I also saw the internal organs and surging brains inside…
This time, Shengyu is really dead and will be with Lan Yixiao forever.
5. Secret book
The old lady put her hand into the wound on Lan Yixiao's chest. After groping for a while, she took out a black seed the size of a small finger. After wiping the blood stains on it, she put it into her arms.
"This child Shengyu is cruel, but too stupid. When I put her into the coffin, she looked shocked, just like her mother." The old lady's sinister face looked even more terrifying under the green light. , "Her mother had just given birth and was put into a ghost coffin. I thought she had died, but unexpectedly there was a sound in the coffin. I opened the coffin a crack, and she actually asked me to save her. It was really funny. …”
I backed away slowly.
"The same goes for your grandfather. He actually said a few years ago that he was unwilling to do such a sinful thing anymore, even if he didn't want the glory of the Qin Mansion… So I also put him in the coffin. You know how many green flowers were planted that year? Isn't it beautiful?" She approached step by step, "Your father, when he saw that I was going to make your mother into a flower pot, he rushed up and accidentally hit the ghost coffin and died…"
The old lady has gone crazy.
"Does Lan Ruoli think I'm really that easy to talk to? I took advantage of her giving birth to get the secret book. Guess what's in it? There are strange flowers written there: Use people to fatten flowers, and the flowers will bloom. Extremely beautiful, the flowers are like human-shaped flowers, the best among flowers. However, I thought of planting strange flowers. They are not flower fertilizers. The flower seeds and flower pots are all the best in the world. The flower fertilizers are human fertilizers. The flower seeds are the most poisonous seeds in the world. The flower pots are The body of a woman who swears by Miao.”
I stared at her with wide eyes…
She pressed a certain switch in the room, and the lid of the coffin that had been hanging on the roof slowly fell. I saw the slender and shriveled body on the lid of the coffin, "This is your mother. It's a pity that her time is running out. Plant it out." The flowers are becoming less and less popular with the Emperor."
I took a step forward and stroked my mother's thin body.
"Look, all this is in line with God's will. Lan Yixiao brought seeds, raw jade turned into flower fertilizer, and you, a flower pot with the blood of a Miao girl. Isn't this God helping my Qin Mansion?" She pressed He took off the dragon-headed crutch, revealing the sharp blade inside, and slowly approached me.
At that moment, I felt the hand of the body under me move and push me hard! But when I touched her nose again, there was no breath at all. My mother died like this.
Until her death, she wanted me to stay away from this place of right and wrong. In an instant, I thought of death. After I die, there will be no so-called flower pot, and the old lady's purpose can no longer be achieved.
But when the old lady's crutch pierced my limbs, I didn't even bite my tongue.
She slowly picked me up, tied my limbs to the lid of the ghost coffin, opened a hole in my belly, and slowly buried the seed with Lan Yixiao's body temperature into my skin. , I feel that Shengyu’s corpse liquid is slowly seeping into my body through this ghost coffin…
I still didn't bite my tongue, not because I was afraid of death – if I died, I wouldn't be able to escape this overwhelming hatred.
6. Flowers scatter and people die
I think that my mother, like me, has the ability to make flowers feel her own feelings. However, she knows that I exist, so she has been silently enduring it. I am different because I have nothing.
This year, the flowers sent as tribute by the Qin Mansion were astonishingly beautiful. The Qin Mansion has regained its former glory because of this flower.
The emperor gave this flower to his favorite concubine, Concubine Xiao.
Concubine Xiao was never separated from the flower. Whether she was eating or sleeping, they were always together.
On this day, it was three o'clock in the morning, but Concubine Xiao had not yet gotten up. Her confidant eunuch slowly opened the door of her palace. When he saw the scene inside, he was so frightened that he fainted.
When the emperor arrived, he saw this scene: his favorite Concubine Xiao was still lying on the bed, so quiet and lovely, but without her head.
And that flower was still so beautiful and attractive, but there were two rows of sharp teeth on the stem, and those sharp teeth were still slowly biting Concubine Xiao's skin.
The blood dyed the bed under Concubine Xiao red little by little, and also dyed the emperor's eyes red little by little. The emperor was furious.
When the old lady heard the news, she immediately thought of the only living person in the dormitory. She lit a fire outside the dormitory. In the raging fire, it seemed that she could still hear her painful moans, but there was an unconcealable smile in her moans.
"What are you laughing at? What are you laughing at?"
Suddenly, the wind picked up. The fire quickly spread along the wind and spread throughout the Qin Mansion.
The old lady's surroundings also began to be spread by scorching red, but she didn't seem to feel it at all, and still asked: "What are you laughing at? What are you laughing at…"
In the end, no one answered her…