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墨書 Inktalez
Living Funeral
The person lying on the bed was already frozen stiff, yet their facial expression still seemed to carry a hint of fear.
Before me was Old Wang, or rather, the person impersonating Uncle Gao Ling. A ripple of unease washed over me as I felt the chilling sensation seep into my bones.
In the dimly lit room, I glanced at Zhang Xun. I asked him, "When was the body discovered?"
Zhang Xun replied, "Three days ago."
I continued to stare at Old Wang, inspecting him again, but I found no obvious wounds. However, the terror etched on Old Wang's face was undeniable. Could it be that he died of fright?
It seemed unlikely; how could Old Wang be scared to death?
I kept looking and noticed a pattern on Old Wang's arm. Upon seeing it, I froze for a few seconds because this pattern was different from the one I had seen before. It was clearly tattooed and stained a deep crimson. At that moment, it looked quite unsettling.
As I examined the pattern, Zhang Xun approached. I told him that this pattern seemed strange and that the recent eerie occurrences were related to it.
I suspected that Zhang Xun knew the meaning behind the pattern, but he probably wouldn’t share it easily. Zhang Xun glanced at the tattoo on Old Wang's arm and touched it with his hand. However, in the next moment, he quickly pulled his hand away, but I still noticed that his hand appeared to be stained with red blood.
Zhang Xun swiftly drew a knife and sliced open his own fingertip. To my shock, the blood that dripped from his finger was black.
I hurriedly asked with concern, "Are you okay? How could this happen?" Just moments ago, I had seen Zhang Xun merely touch the pattern, and now his finger looked like that—it was as if he had been poisoned.
Zhang Xun shook his head. "I'm fine."
The pattern truly was eerie and even somewhat seductive. As my gaze fell again, I suddenly noticed that Old Wang's arm began to rot—specifically, the area where the pattern was located. The decay progressed at a visible rate while the rest of his body remained unaffected.
I stood there in shock but dared not reach out to touch it; Zhang Xun had already served as a cautionary tale.
Yet, deep inside, I still felt a strange tremor; it was as if I had self-destructed, truly eerie! Zhang Xun had already taken care of the wound and said to me, "This pattern might represent some kind of code!"
"A code?"
Zhang Xun replied, "It’s very likely a code—perhaps a password to unlock something or a secret that some organization has been guarding."
I recalled the content of the disc I had seen earlier. The people in it seemed to be in a state of panic, as if facing an unprecedented enemy, all trying to escape. It was during that moment that I noticed the eerie pattern.
This fat man definitely had a purpose in giving me this information. I still doubted whether that photograph was real, but there was one point about it that I couldn't explain: the date—198 years. Those four digits simply did not match up, so I could only conclude that the photograph was fake.
Moreover, both Zhang Xun and I were involved in this matter, and since both of us denied its authenticity, it should be false.
Now Old Wang was dead, but who could have killed him? The pattern on his hand was certainly not something he had just acquired at the moment of death; it must have existed for a long time. Perhaps the Director Wang who impersonated Uncle Gao Ling was someone from this organization, but now there was no way to prove it.
Someone was silencing witnesses. Of course, it was also possible that the murderer wasn't human but a ghost instead.
I glanced around; the silence here was terrifying. This old house was truly frightening! I asked Zhang Xun if he had discovered anything else.
Zhang Xun directly told me, "No, this corpse is enough to prove that Wang Kun wasn't a good person."
I understood that Zhang Xun meant to imply that we were the good ones. I asked him, "What do we do now?"
Zhang Xun replied, "Let's handle the urn first." His tone was somewhat grave. I had carried this urn for so long; I was fed up with it. Zhang Xun and I exited the old house and arrived in the courtyard of the funeral home.
Zhang Xun told me to wait a moment while he went to get something.
I stood in the courtyard with the urn on my back, not daring to turn off my flashlight for illumination. I hadn't been at this funeral home for long, yet such a horrifying event had occurred. What was even more terrifying was that I had been drawn into it.
I wanted to leave now, but it seemed utterly impossible.
Zhang Xun went up to the second floor and quickly entered a room. However, as soon as Zhang Xun stepped inside, the lights went out.
I was startled and immediately called out for Zhang Xun, but there was no response.
After waiting for about ten minutes, I decided to head upstairs. The second floor was our living area, but there weren't many people in the funeral home, so most of the rooms were locked and unused.
We only occupied two rooms; the rest were sealed off.
The room that Zhang Xun had just entered appeared to be where we slept. As I ascended to the second floor, my footsteps echoed with a "thud thud thud," especially in the eerie silence of the night.
I kept calling out Zhang Xun's name, but it felt as if he had suddenly vanished without a trace; there was still no reply.
I began searching room by room. Given that this place was filled with the dead, I felt increasingly uneasy. No, it wasn't just that people had died here; it was more accurate to say that those who had interacted with me were dead here. But that didn't seem right either—Zhang Fatty and Brother Li seemed alive!
My mind was in chaos, and I felt like my head might explode. What on earth was Zhang Xun doing?
Just then, I suddenly heard a loud "bang." In the stillness of the night, the sound was particularly pronounced. My gaze quickly darted over, and I saw a figure emerge from the old house.
I was momentarily stunned; my heart raced with anxiety.
No way! How could there still be someone in that room? I hadn’t received any response from this side, yet someone had come out from there! Could it be Old Wang rising from the dead? I had just entered with Zhang Xun and came out together; when we went in, there hadn’t been any living person inside!
Moreover, when the Civil Affairs Department issued their notice earlier, we had already cleared out all the bodies inside!
So I could almost confirm that at that moment, it was just me and Zhang Xun as the two living people along with one corpse inside.
How could anyone possibly come out of there? Unless it's a ghost or a corpse, my heartbeat began to quicken. What on earth was Zhang Xun going to get? I called out his name, but there was still no response.
I looked through each room until I reached the last one, where I finally saw a figure. I panicked and shouted, "Zhang Xun, what are you doing?"
Just as I was about to call out again, someone emerged from the old house. This person walked toward me and said, "First, give me the Urn."
At that moment, I didn't shine my flashlight directly into his eyes and asked, "What do you need it for?"
Zhang Xun replied, "Before burying it, I need to do something in this room."
I felt an overwhelming sense of anxiety. I told Zhang Xun that it seemed like another person had appeared downstairs, but he urged me not to panic and insisted, "Hurry up and give me the Urn; otherwise, it will be too late."
I was completely at a loss! In a hurry, I handed the Urn over to Zhang Xun. The moment I relinquished the Urn that I had been wanting to get rid of for so long, I surprisingly felt a sense of relief. Zhang Xun took the Urn through the window.
However, as soon as Zhang Xun received the Urn, I suddenly remembered that both Old Wang and Zhang Xun had previously handled it. The Urn should not be touched by anyone other than me! Back then, when the Urn fell to the ground, Zhang Xun didn't even use his hands to catch it; he used his foot instead and refused to touch it at all.
Now he was taking it directly! The more I thought about it, the more uneasy I felt...
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