novel
| ← Ch.258 | Ch.260 → |
Xiao Li searched the rooms in the underground corridor of the Sun house but failed to find any crack nearby. Perhaps such a dimensional crack couldn't be seen with the naked eye or perhaps the source of the Sun family's abnormality wasn't here.
Sun Qilin was tightly tied up with Wang Huai's rope and was unable to scream or struggle. Wang Huai was standing to one side while frantically contacting people.
Xiao Li walked out of the underground area. He stood at the door of his room, watching the raindrops fall on the eaves and straight down. It blended into the rain and could no longer be distinguished from each other.
Shen Chenzhi stood beside him."What are you thinking about?"
"Many things." Xiao Li replied after a long time passed as he slowly reached out to catch a drop of rain falling from the eaves. The raindrops broke apart and hit his shoes."Still, everything is almost over."
For better or worse, reality would come to an end.
"However, we won't end." Shen Chenzhi declared as he leaned against the door frame.
There were hurried footsteps behind them. Xiao Li turned his head to find Luo Shan coming in a hurry, Wang Huai with her. Gong Mingming and the Ye brothers had stayed below to 'take care' of Sun Qilin.
Luo Shan instinctively shrank back when she met Shen Chenzhi's eyes that seemed like a hunter's eyes but she soon adjusted her emotions and told Xiao Li, "The police will come soon. We should leave here first before they come."
Once involved, they would inevitably face a long process and time was what they lacked the most right now.
"Go back?"
"No, go to one of the funeral homes here first." Wang Huai spoke while typing something on his phone."This is the largest and only funeral home in the neighbourhood. We should go there and ask. Maybe the funeral home will have a clue to the corpse.
Wang Huai seemed to understand something after Xiao Li said the 'crack'. He was no longer anxious to go to the mountain and chose to solve the curse of the meat first.
***
The funeral home he mentioned was located in the outer suburbs at the bottom of a mountain by the seaside. Standing at the door, they could directly see the view. In normal times, it should be a good view. Now due to the continuous heavy rain, it was in danger of being buried by a landslide.
The entrance of the funeral home had a huge sign: Blue Sky Funeral Home.
The door was closed. The dark door became more ominous due to the constant rain.
Wang Huai knocked on the door in a familiar manner."Anyone here? We came for business!"
His voice was loud but due to the rain and the funeral home's door, it couldn't pass through at all.
Xiao Li fumbled for the microphone. Fu Zige didn't need him to speak at all to understand the current situation. He cleared his throat and called out happily in a high-pitched voice, "Is anyone here? A guest has come!"
"—Is there anyone here? A guest has come!"
"Open the door, open the door, open the door."
The KTV ghost's voice completely penetrated through the door and shattered the sound of the rain around them. It was an amazing volume. Soon, a young man opened the door from the inside."Fuck, who would come to us at this time?"
He was a young man, tall and strong with a crew cut hairstyle. He was full of yang air at first glance. There was a bit of nervousness on the young man's face but he sighed with relief when he saw a group of living people."What are you doing today? We are closed and not open to the public."
"What are you nervous about?" Gong Mingming asked after noticing his expression.
"Why can't I be nervous? Your voice was so loud and you said that you are guests. Don't you know that guests of our funeral home are basically dead people?" The young man spoke in a very straightforward manner and his voice was loud. He directly blurted out these words then he didn't feel it was right so he put on a smile."I didn't mean you. You must understand, the current rain and the recent reports about the world being haunted have made me afraid."
"You're still here? You didn't go home?"
"I'm a foreigner here to work. Can I live in a dormitory? The rain is heavy, tickets are expensive and many transportation methods have stopped. Renting a place is also expensive. I want to save money to get married so the boss let me live here. If I work overtime then he pays me three times the salary." The young man rarely met alive people and he became a chatterbox."By the way, what are you doing here? Do you have an appointment to pick up the ashes of the dead?"
"We are here to investigate something." Gong Mingming took out a bank card from her pocket."It has been hard on you. Don't worry, we are just asking a few questions. No one will know."
"... What are the questions? Let me tell you first, I won't do anything that violates the rules."
"Don't worry, I just want to ask. Do you often receive some, uh, unclaimed bodies and give them to the Sun family in the city?"
The moment Gong Mingming mentioned the 'Sun family', the young man's expression changed on the spot."I don't know, we don't do this type of thing. I don't know."
"We aren't enemies of the Sun family. We are their colleagues." Gong Mingming opened her palm to show a five."The card has this many digits on it and the password is the same number. We also want to book some of these 'guests'. You just need to answer a few questions. We won't betray you."
The young man fell into a fierce struggle. The Sun family was terrible but this sum was equivalent to two years of working here. In the end, he glanced at the surveillance system that was turned off, took the bank card from Gong Mingming's hand and gritted his teeth."Follow me in."
He walked forward and led the reincarnators into the main hall of the funeral home. The background had black and white tones intertwined and the wooden chairs were separated by white flowers. Xiao Li didn't know if it was his illusion but the smell of soot seemed to float in the air.
"Sit down, " The young man told them."Ask, ask me quickly. Then leave after you ask."
Wang Huai didn't care about this attitude. He just needed to make sure the other person was telling the truth."What corpses did the Sun family buy from you recently? I want to know their origin?"
"Let me think about it." The young man didn't ask questions after receiving the money for fear of getting into trouble. He lit a cigarette, held it in his mouth and recalled the facts."There have actually been many corpses recently but there are only two that the Sun family was interested in. One died in a car accident and the other..."
He shuddered and took a breath before continuing."It was burned to death."
"Burned to death? Then why are you so scared?"
"Can I not be afraid? Sister, let me tell you the truth. Since I started my career here, I've been thousands of corpses, not hundreds. However, this corpse was strange. The Sun family was interested in it because it wouldn't burn!"
Luo Shan repeated, "It can't be burned?"
"Yes, it can't be burned."
The young man's hand holding the cigarette trembled slightly.
"It's original is also very strange. I don't know where it comes from. It was discovered by a nearby resident at the entrance of the vegetable market. No identification was found with it. There were no identity documents on its body and the face was burned. It was like the face was smashed with a frying pan when alive. There were also scars all over the body." The young man smoked faster at the mention of this."After investigating a few days, nothing was found. The body was going to rot so it was sent here to us. I planned to burn it quickly."
"I still remember that day. I pushed it in and closed the lid of the incinerator. I waited for it to burn but as time passed, there was a banging sound."
"It was like this nameless corpse wasn't dead. It was calling for help inside and constantly beating on the incinerator."
"I was shocked and quickly stopped the fire. I pulled it out only to find there were no traces of burning on the corpse. Then at this point, the smell of meat suddenly wafted out."
"I tried several times that day but couldn't burn it successfully. I even tried to pour oil on it to burn it but the body was unscathed. Later, the boss was scared and asked me to quickly dispose of it. Once the Sun family heard about this, they demanded the corpse."
"Is it a man or a woman? Where was it found?" Gong Mingming questioned.
She didn't sound scared. The young man glanced at her with surprise and found that this group of people seemed calm. He spat out a smoke ring."Female, at the entrance of the Nanmen vegetable market. The first stall was set up at dawn and people discovered it then."
Ye Zeqing seemed to be fidgeting while Gong Mingming was questioning the young man. He kept looking back and he finally couldn't help poking Xiao Li.
Xiao Li wondered, "Do you need to urgently pee?"
"... Why would I look for you if I need to pee?"
"You are afraid so you want me to come to the bathroom with you?"
"No, don't use your thinking on me. I'm not a primary schoolboy who still needs someone to go to the bathroom with me." Ye Zeqing defended himself in a dissatisfied manner. He turned his head and glanced at the door on the left."I feel a ghost."
Ye Zeqing spoke gravely, "A very heavy and powerful ghost just appeared."
Gong Mingming was still asking the young man for details when Xiao Li suddenly interrupted them."I'm sorry to interrupt but what is that place over there?"
He pointed in the direction that Ye Zeqing mentioned.
"That place is known as the morgue. It is where the dead bodies are placed, " the young man replied.
Xiao Li requested, "Can I go in and see?"
"What do you want to see over there? There are currently no bodies. They were either burned or taken away." The young man asked suspiciously.
"That is better. I'm just curious and want to see it." Xiao Li spoke calmly.
The young man didn't want to agree but Gong Mingming saw the matter clearly and added more money. The young man stuffed the money into his pocket and stood up."Okay, come with me."
***
The morgue in the building was a bit like the underground corridor of the Sun house.
However, it was a bit rougher than that. Here, the human-shaped trolleys were arranged in order. Each one was separated by white gauze. The moment the door opened, the gauze flew. This scene was like they had strayed into the underworld.
There were no people on the first row of trolleys, only empty partitions. The background of the partitions were originally snow-white but they were covered with some stains. These were the marks left by the corpses.
Xiao Li walked in front with Ye Zeqing to his left. He told them, "Still inside, a bit more inside."
Xiao Li reached the fourth row and stepped because a person appeared on the trolley in front of him. Or rather, it was a corpse. It was covered with a white cloth from top to bottom. The body had obvious depressions and yellow-black liquid stuck to the white cloth on its face. The entire corpse was motionless.
Luo Shan saw the corpse and sucked in a breath.
The young man of the funeral home who followed them wasn't so calm anymore. He saw this and took a big step back. He hit a trolley behind him but he had no time to care."H-How did it get back here?! W-Wasn't this taken by the Sun family?! Fuck!"
"T-This, it is so fragrant... ah!"
He was in shock and didn't notice the strand of hair behind him. The hair dealt a blow to the back of his neck and knocked him out. The hair that belonged to the doll easily wrapped around the young man so that he wouldn't fall to the ground. Then it played him on the edge of a trolley.
Xiao Li faced the eyes of the people around him and told him, "Avoid trouble."
Thinking about it, he added, "He won't have an accident until we get out of here."
"This is also very good. It is clean and neat." Wang Huai was the first to agree. He really liked Sherlock's style of behaviour. This person never procrastinated and Wang Huai was absolutely at ease with such a person as a teammate."However, according to his words, this corpse had been given to the Sun family. Why is it here again?"
Xiao Li didn't answer him and examined the body.
There was a wind blowing through the room, as if to blow up the white cloth covering the corpse. Xiao Li's fingers were eager to try but due to a certain mentality, he didn't directly lift it. He continued to observe and finally half crouched down."Maybe it took the initiative to come back here."
Ye Lingshi wondered, "What to do when coming back?"
"... Send a message." Xiao Li reached out and took a note from the clenched hand of the nameless body and spoke with interest."It seems like it is eyeing us."
He unfolded it and saw this message on the greasy and water-stained note:
[Eat my meat, why don't you eat my meat? You will die, you will die, you will die—]
Xiao Li read it out. Before he could see the other people's responses, he felt his head spinning. Once he returned to normal, he found that he had come to a residential building. He stood outside an apartment, facing a green anti-theft door. This... was it the domain transfer belonging to the nameless corpse? It was just like Zui Tian's house. Zui Tian had sealed off that floor. Then what about the others? Would they also be here?
Xiao Li stood at the door for a moment when a hand reached in front of him. It held a key and opened the door for him. Xiao Li looked back and found that Shen Chenzhi was behind him. Shen Chenzhi smiled at him like a husband returning to see his wife didn't have the key."Why aren't you going in?"
At this time, a man came up the stairs. He lived next door to Xiao Li's place and was about to pull out his keys. Then he abruptly turned his head and glanced at Xiao Li."I say, who are you two? Wasn't another family living here?"
Xiao Li was making up a random excuse when he heard Shen Chenzhi reply in a happy and gentle tone, "We are a couple who newly moved here. I am his husband."
Shen Chenzhi usually disliked talking to others but at this time, he was particularly active. He couldn't wait to announce their relationship to the world.
Xiao Li, "......"
It was upgraded from boyfriend to husband?
Proofreader: Tofu
| ← Ch. 258 | Ch. 260 → |