DA chapter 82

The cat cautiously asked, “U-under… beneath you?”

Lin Jia said, “No.”

He was lying flat, so he knew clearly whether there was anything beneath him. He could feel that beneath him was only a rigid wooden board, not a corpse.

Of course, there were no evil ghosts or cursed spirits there either. Otherwise, from the cat’s perspective, it would have noticed immediately. If there really were something there, the cat would have been scared out of its wits long ago instead of quietly lying beside him, listening to his breathing.

The cat looked at Lin Jia in confusion.

Lin Jia had proposed the idea, and now Lin Jia was rejecting it. The cat couldn’t understand what Lin Jia was trying to say.

Under the beam of the flashlight, the cat thought it saw a slight upward curve at the corner of Lin Jia’s lips.

“Oh, oh, oh—you’re smiling!” The cat became embarrassed and angry. “You did that on purpose to scare me!”

Lin Jia paused for a moment, the curve of his lips quickly falling. “No.”

“You did.” The cat felt wronged. “Why are you scaring me?”

Lin Jia had only wanted to scare the cat a little—it wasn’t really about finding amusement in hardship. It was probably because the cat had responded when he called “Yan Xu,” letting him, for the first time, clearly feel that the cat really was Yan Xu.

So… he just wanted to tease it a little.

Lin Jia: “…”

“Panic and impatience only increase oxygen consumption. I’m finding some amusement to calm myself down. What’s wrong with that?” Lin Jia explained. “There’s nothing beneath me. But whether there’s something under the wooden layer is hard to say. Instead of blaming me, you might as well use that time to pray that this peach wood coffin was made specifically for us.”

The cat grumbled and asked internally, “But we’re both alive—how could a peach wood coffin be made for us?”

Living beings wouldn’t need a peach wood coffin.

The debuff from the darkness had completely faded, leaving only the discomfort from the stifling air behind. Lin Jia had rested enough. He raised both hands above his head and felt along the wooden wall above him. “If I were to be suffocated alive, I wouldn’t mind becoming a vengeful ghost.”

The cat thought about it—given Lin Jia’s personality of holding grudges, if he really suffocated to death in a coffin, he might actually become a vengeful ghost.

With such immense resentment, the peach wood coffin would indeed serve a purpose.

The cat said, “But the coffin is sealed shut. How do we get out?”

Lin Jia had already tried pushing the coffin lid earlier but failed. There was little air left inside—if brute force couldn’t open it, it would only make things worse.

He began feeling around bit by bit, searching for a weak point.

The weakest parts of a coffin are generally at the two ends—the head and foot—because they use mortise-and-tenon joints, which are structurally weaker under force.

Lin Jia found a joint. Tilting his head back, he examined the interlocking structure. The excessive upward angle made him dizzy, so he straightened his head and rested briefly.

After several attempts, he located the tenon and mortise.

There wasn’t enough air left inside for him to carefully dismantle the joint, so he could only use his fists, striking forcefully to separate the tenon from the mortise.

After a few strikes, a faint smell of blood spread inside the coffin.

The joints of his fingers split open and bled, but he didn’t stop. The cat tried to help, but Lin Jia waved it away.

“Don’t get in the way.”

The cat asked worriedly, “Can you really break it open?”

As it spoke, the cat felt the metallic smell of blood choke its throat. It had no idea how much Lin Jia was bleeding.

Lin Jia didn’t answer, holding his breath as he continued striking the joint.

Normally, mortise-and-tenon structures were designed for balance and stability. However, coffins were made with slightly looser joints to allow for easier usage and storage.

With enough force, the joints could separate.

But his position was awkward, which made it difficult to exert strength. He couldn’t guarantee that each strike would hit the joint precisely. That’s why it took time and caused more injury.

Bang, bang, bang.

With each strike, Lin Jia could feel blood sticking to the wood.

Bang—

Finally, the tenon slipped out of the mortise with a crisp sound.

Lin Jia pushed at the coffin lid again. This time, the cat lent its strength too. Together, they forced open a gap.

Fresh air rushed in through the crack, but there was no light.

Outside, it was pitch black.

Lin Jia dimmed the flashlight to avoid attracting anything, then widened the gap slightly.

“Take a look,” Lin Jia said to the cat.

Cats naturally have excellent night vision. Although Yan Xu’s consciousness occupied the body, the structure of its eyes hadn’t changed.

The cat placed its paws on the edge of the coffin and carefully poked half its head out to look around.

Lin Jia waited and waited before the cat finally pulled its head back.

Seeing the cat’s serious expression, Lin Jia asked, “What did you see?”

Wherever the peach wood coffin was stored couldn’t be a good place. But Lin Jia needed to know: Was it a mourning hall? A mortuary? Or somewhere else? He needed to prepare accordingly.

The cat said, “I didn’t see anything.”

Lin Jia wasn’t surprised; he had already guessed that the coffin was in another space. The cat not seeing anything was to be expected.

“But…” the cat added. “There are several very thick iron chains on the ground. I counted—if I didn’t mess up, there are nine.”

“Nine?” The number made Lin Jia frown instinctively.

The cat grew tense. “Nine chains… Is that bad?”

“Let’s get out first,” Lin Jia said.

First, the cat jumped out of the coffin. Then, Lin Jia pushed open the lid. It slid to the ground with a heavy thud, startling the cat.

Lin Jia supported himself on the coffin’s edge and flipped out.

Unlike the cat, he didn’t care if the noise attracted something. If sound could attract danger, his earlier pounding would have already done so.

He pushed the lid to the ground on purpose—he wanted to use the sound to gauge the space.

A dull echo. It seemed this space was enclosed as well.

Landing on both feet, Lin Jia turned on his flashlight and searched for the nine thick iron chains the cat had mentioned. Under the beam, he quickly found them.

Around the peach wood coffin were iron rings the size of fists. The chains, like towing chains, were hooked onto nine of these rings.

Lin Jia circled the peach wood coffin. In the center of the top of the coffin was one iron chain, and there was one chain at each of the two pointed corners. There were two chains on both sides of the coffin and one chain at each of the two pointed corners of the tail.

He counted—just as the cat had said, there were nine chains in total. One end of each chain was hooked onto iron rings, while the other stretched into the darkness, lying against the ground with no visible end.

His gaze returned to the peach wood coffin. Judging by its base’s shape and size, the wooden board he had been lying on was solid—there was no space underneath to hide anything else.

The peach wood coffin had most likely been prepared specifically for him—to suffocate and permanently imprison him. It seemed as if someone held a deep grudge against him.

“We need to leave here quickly,” the cat said. It hadn’t expected getting out of the coffin to not mean escape. “The smartwatch is almost out of battery.”

Only with light could Lin Jia think clearly. Without it, he would be trapped there to die. In fact, he might not even last until he suffocated—his stress response alone could take him down.

Lin Jia glanced at the coffin again. Aside from the nine iron rings, he couldn’t find any other clues. He shifted his attention to the chains, using the strongest setting on his flashlight to shine it along one of the chains, trying to illuminate something in the distance.

But he saw nothing. Beyond the limited beam of light was pure darkness.

As the cat had said, it hadn’t seen anything.

Lin Jia looked into the distance one last time, then lowered his gaze to the chain at his feet.

The echo from the coffin lid hitting the ground indicated that the space was enclosed. If it was enclosed, then the chains must end somewhere.

The cat couldn’t see the ends because its long-distance vision wasn’t very good.

The cat asked, “Do we have to find a way out through these chains?”

Even the cat understood that they were at a deadlock. To break through, they had to start with the nine chains of unknown purpose. “Do we have to pick one out of nine? It’s like defusing a bomb—only the correct wire is safe.”

The cat tried to find a “special” chain, but after circling the coffin, it couldn’t identify any differences among them.

So it looked to Lin Jia.

The cat saw Lin Jia choose the chain at the center of the coffin’s head. That made sense—the other chains were symmetrical; only this one stood alone.

The cat hurried to follow Lin Jia, but the more it walked, the more something felt off.

Could it really be that simple—to find the “correct wire”? Could following the chain really lead them out?

The cat grew less confident. It jumped onto Lin Jia’s shoulder, seeking confirmation. “Can we really get out just by following the chain?”

Lin Jia answered quickly, “No.”

They had expended tremendous effort just to escape the coffin—how could leaving this place be so simple?

The cat: “…”

It fell silent for a moment. “Then why are we following the chain?”

Lin Jia had already dimmed the flashlight to conserve power. “Do we have any other option?”

The peach wood coffin offered no more clues. If they wanted to leave, they would have to try their luck at the end of the chains.

The faint glow illuminated Lin Jia’s face. The cat glanced at the smartwatch, which was now giving a low battery warning, and then at Lin Jia’s profile.

There was no panic on his face, nor any expression that could be called “thinking.”

It was as if Lin Jia already knew what awaited at the end of the chain and was just walking along it to confirm it with his own eyes.

The cat asked, “Do you know what’s at the end?”

Sure enough, Lin Jia said, “I’ve guessed a bit.”

The cat pressed, “What is it?”

But Lin Jia didn’t answer.

The cat grew anxious. One end of the chain was attached to the peach-wood coffin. No matter how it looked, the other end felt dangerous. “So, what is it exactly?”

Lin Jia said, “A carriage.”

“What do you mean?” The cat didn’t understand. Since Lin Jia refused to explain, the cat tried to figure it out itself, but it was too slow. “Why would the end of the chain be a carriage?”

Lin Jia replied, “A horse-drawn carriage needs ropes. If the rope is the chain, then what do the carriage and the horse represent? Think for yourself.”

The cat slowly fit the known elements into Lin Jia’s “formula.” “If the chain is the rope pulling the carriage, then the carriage must be the peach wood coffin!”

The cat brightened. “I get it! The end of the chain is the ‘horse’ pulling the coffin.”

“But then, what exactly is pulling the coffin?” The cat was still confused. “And why are there nine directions pulling it?”

Lin Jia sighed. As he walked, he began typing on his phone.

The cat watched his fingers tap the screen, becoming even more puzzled. “Why not just say it?”

Lin Jia said, “Taboo.”

After he finished typing, he showed the screen to the cat.

The cat leaned in curiously to look. The moment the cat saw the character Lin Jia had typed, its fur stood on end again.

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