Chapter 7 Chapter VII

Before last night, he was a man who had been seen by Hirosuke. He stayed in a cheap hotel at the Ofuna transfer station for a whole day. In the afternoon of the next day, he boarded the train that arrived at T City just at nightfall. Became a third-class passenger.I think you have already guessed that he wasted a precious day doing nothing but waiting for the newspaper that published the news of his suicide to be published to determine whether the suicide drama was successful or not.Obviously, he succeeded. He dared to board the train to T city at this time, saying that the content in the newspaper was exactly what he wanted.The headline of the report was "Novelist's Suicide" (by the blessing of death, he finally won the title of novelist).Even if the space is small, every newspaper has published the news of his suicide truthfully.Some reports are more detailed, clearly pointing out that among his relics is a miscellaneous notebook, signed by Hirosuke Hitomi, with words about world-weariness and suicidal thoughts written on it.This case may be that someone first discovered a piece of white cloth hooked on a nail on the side of the ship. It was speculated that it was accidentally hooked when someone threw himself into the sea. After careful identification, it was found that it seemed to be torn from his clothes. Find out the identity of the deceased and the motive for suicide.In other words, his plan worked.

Thankfully, he has no loved ones to mourn and cry over his fake suicide.Of course, there is an elder brother in his hometown who has already married and started a business (when he was studying, his elder brother sponsored most of his tuition fees, but now he has undoubtedly been given up).In addition, he has two or three relatives. If these people receive the news of his unfortunate death, they may feel sorry for him and mourn for him. He will feel guilty about this, but only a little, because he already has Mentally prepared, so I don't feel particularly guilty. After successfully erasing himself, an indescribable sense of loss appeared in his heart, feeling very at a loss.His name has disappeared from the country's household registration book, and he no longer has a place in the world.In this unaccompanied world, he didn't even have a name, and became a veritable stranger.Thinking of his own situation, he looked at the passengers sitting in the front, back, left, and right sides, the scenery outside the window, the trees, and the houses, all of which looked like they were separated by glass, which was very unreal, as if he was in another space inside.Thinking of this, he felt like a newborn, all situations and moods were clear and refreshing, but on the other hand, he felt lonely, and this lonely man had to practice a great cause beyond his ability.The indescribable loneliness almost caused him to shed uncontrollable tears.

But the train ignored his feelings completely, and kept running forward from station to station. This is reality.Not long after dark, they arrived at the destination T City.People who used to see Hirosuke rushed to the Bodhi Temple of Komoda's family as soon as he got out of the station.Fortunately, the temple was built in a wild field on the outskirts of the city, and after nine o'clock, there was no one around. As long as you were careful not to be seen by the management personnel of the temple, there was no need to worry about his actions being exposed.There are some traditional farmhouses scattered nearby, and they are used to not closing their doors at night. It is very convenient to steal a shovel or something from the farmhouse warehouse.

A sparse fence surrounded the field path, and through a hole in the fence, the cemetery he was looking for was in front of him.There was no moon on this day, but the sky was full of stars and very bright.He had done a survey beforehand, and it was a breeze to find the new tomb of Gensaburo Komoda.He walked through the stone pagoda forest, entered the main hall of the temple, and peeked inside through the closed rain door.There was no sound in the main hall, the place is remote, and people in the monastery had to get up early, and everyone was already asleep by this time. After making sure that his surroundings were safe, he returned along the field path he had come from, tiptoed into a nearby farmhouse, rummaged around, and got a shovel without any difficulty, and then turned back to Genzaburo's cemetery.It took a considerable amount of time as all the action had to be done like a cat and in the dark.It was almost eleven o'clock when we came to the cemetery.And this is just the right time to execute the plan.

Next, he was finally going to wield a shovel in the invisible cemetery and start a thrilling grave digging activity.It doesn't take much effort to dig a new grave, but when he thinks about the buried things, even though he has gone through a lot of storms these days, even though he is driven almost crazy by greed, he still can't help but feel the unspeakable fear and trembling .It's just that he couldn't care about so much anymore, because he only swung the shovel a few times before he could see the coffin lid. Now there was no room for hesitation or fear.He could only muster up the courage to push away the dirt on the white wooden board that was still glowing white in the dark, and then inserted the shovel into the gap between the boards. With one force, "squeak...", there was a bone-piercing sound, I didn't expect the lid to be opened so easily.At that moment, there seemed to be a ghost, and the surrounding mud walls seemed to collapse, and the sand and soil fell into the bottom of the coffin, scaring him almost out of his wits.Moreover, as soon as the lid was opened, an indescribable stench rushed into his nostrils.It has been seven or eight days since he died, and Genzaburo's body must have begun to rot.Before seeing the corpse, he was repelled by the stench first.

He wasn't particularly afraid of the grave, he was calm until the grave was dug up, and he was able to come step by step, but when he took off the coffin lid and faced what could be said to be another corpse of himself, he felt a strange terror The monsters seemed to creep up from the depths of his soul without a sound, he almost screamed in fright, and wanted to run away immediately.That kind of horror is very strange, and it is definitely not brought to me by ghosts. If I must describe it in words, it is a more realistic, specific, and inexhaustible horror, compared to being alone in a large dark space with candlelight. The horror of seeing yourself in the mirror is several times deeper.

Under the silent starry sky, the stone pagoda forest is like countless figures standing quietly, and the dark cave is like the mouth of an unknown beast.It's like a treacherous picture scroll of hell, and at this moment I have become the person in the picture.In the darkness, at first glance, the dead person lying at the bottom of the tomb, whose face could not be seen clearly, was none other than himself.Because he couldn't see clearly, it made him feel even more frightened.At the bottom of the cave is a sutra curtain, which is faintly glowing with white light, and the exposed dead man's head is integrated with the darkness. This hazy effect can actually make people tremble in the imagination.Perhaps the actual situation is exactly as he planned-although the possibility of happening is extremely low, Komada didn't really die, but came back to life when he dug the grave.

He tried his best to suppress the trembling that was gushing wildly in his body, his heart was empty, his belly was pressed against the edge of the cave, he stretched out his hands, gritted his teeth and poked into the bottom to feel for the corpse.The first thing he felt seemed to be the shaved head, which felt like a prickly patch of fine hair.When he pressed lightly, he found that it was strangely soft and rotten, as if the skin would burst immediately if he pressed hard.The touch was so disgusting that he quickly withdrew his hand in fright. After his emotions calmed down, he stretched out his hand again. This time, what he touched seemed to be the mouth of a dead person. The hard teeth felt from his fingertips. It's cotton, and while it's soft, it doesn't feel the same as fast-rotting skin.With this, he became more courageous and continued to explore around his mouth. The strange thing was that Komada's mouth was more than ten times bigger than before.His lips are like the mouth of a ghost mask, grinning to both sides, the molars are completely exposed, stretched up and down, and even the gums are exposed.This is definitely not an illusion in the dark, because he has already touched it.

At that moment, another wave of fear that terrified him came to him.He was not afraid that the dead man would suddenly open his mouth to bite his hand, but he knew why the dead man would open his mouth so wide. He was frightened by the reason. Although the five internal organs stopped functioning, the dead man still wanted to breathe, so the muscles around the mouth were extremely tight. Shrinking, forcing the lips to open, to the extent that living people cannot reach, this frightening scene of dying struggles kept flashing before his eyes. These initial experiences alone had already fed up Hirosuke Hirosuke in the past, and he was exhausted.He hated himself again for the foolish, ill-conceived plan he would have to carry out next, and the still more jaw-dropping work he would have to do afterward.