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墨書 Inktalez
Living Funeral
Recently, there have been many reports online about corpses piling up in funeral homes, with some bodies left unclaimed for over a decade or two. I can't speak for other funeral homes, but the situation at the one where I work is even worse.
Our funeral home is located in a remote area, and it was established before the reform and opening-up period. After some renovations, this old funeral home has managed to survive until now.
Due to the lack of advanced preservation techniques, many bodies, while not completely decomposed, have accumulated significant amounts of fluid, making them almost unviewable.
Additionally, there are several dismembered bodies that have not been preserved well. However, all these bodies share one common trait: they remain unclaimed.
About half a month after I started working at the funeral home, we received a directive from the Civil Affairs Department regarding the handling of unclaimed bodies. Once the directive was issued, the staff at the funeral home were quite pleased; finally, we wouldn’t have to deal with these disgusting corpses every day.
With this directive in place, we could process these bodies on-site.
Previously, we had been too afraid to handle them, worried that family members might come looking for their loved ones and create a difficult situation. Now that we had orders from above, we could finally take action.
That day, we worked from morning until night, exhausted and panting as we nearly finished cremating the "piled-up" corpses in the funeral home.
I was so worn out that I collapsed onto the ground without caring much about anything else.
Brother Li walked over and handed me a cigarette. I took it and lit it up. I asked Brother Li if we could go home now.
Brother Li glanced at me without responding but instead called out to my roommate, Zhang Fatty.
Zhang Fatty is an old employee at the funeral home.
Before long, Zhang Fatty came running over and asked Brother Li what was going on.
Brother Li glanced at Zhang and then at me, saying, "Fatty, you should take care of the last body from the Flying General later."
Upon hearing this, Zhang's expression changed. "It's already so late, and Old Wang hasn't mentioned anything about handling that body!"
Brother Li immediately replied, "Old Wang hasn't said he won't handle it either! We've been working under Old Wang for so many years. Even if he doesn't want to do something, we still have to take care of it, right?"
I listened quietly from the side without interjecting.
Zhang took a drag from his cigarette and fell silent, as did the other two employees, not uttering a word.
After a moment of contemplation, Zhang said, "Alright then, to be fair, let's all go together. Old Wang has treated us well; we should do this thoroughly as a way to repay him. What do you all think?"
At this point, no one stepped forward to disagree, and we reached a consensus.
I thought to myself, isn't it just handling a body? Do we really need to make such a fuss about it? Zhang and I could manage just fine, but since I was new here, I didn't feel it was my place to speak up.
After Brother Li extinguished his cigarette butt, we headed toward the old building of the funeral home. The exterior of the building had an elegant style that clearly indicated it was from the Republic of China era.
At that moment, I felt curious. I had been on the job for over half a month but had never been inside this building or heard that there were bodies stored here.
Initially, I thought it was an abandoned old structure.
Brother Li unlocked the door with a key, and we climbed the stairs to the morgue on the second floor. As we entered the room, a chill swept over us.
The morgue was supposed to have refrigeration; however, this one lacked any storage cabinets for bodies. There was just an iron bed, and we walked over to it.
The lights in the room seemed old and dim, casting an eerie glow that made the place feel somewhat sinister.
The corpse was covered with a white cloth, and Brother Li lifted it, revealing the body beneath. It was dressed in what looked like a robe, with hair tied up and secured with a wooden stick. The cheeks were sunken, and the face was devoid of color, giving it a somewhat eerie appearance, though it was relatively well-preserved.
After taking a glance, Brother Li quickly covered the body again.
"Let's lift it," he said.
As everyone prepared to move, Zhang the Fat stepped forward and said, "Wait." He took the Guanyin Pendant hanging around his neck and placed it on the corpse. "This will ward off any bad luck."
Once Zhang finished, Brother Li instructed the four of us to carry the stretcher. With Old Wang absent, Brother Li was in charge of the funeral home, and we had no objections to his authority.
After placing the body on the stretcher, Zhang and I took the rear while Brother Li led the way, mumbling something under his breath that I couldn't quite catch.
As we lifted the stretcher, Zhang handed me a yellow talisman. "Hold onto this," he said.
I looked at him and asked, "Aren't you the least superstitious? Why are you giving me this?"
But today, Zhang wasn't joking. He replied firmly, "Less talk, more action." His words left me speechless.
We carried the body and eventually cremated it. I didn't feel anything particularly special about it, but Zhang seemed as if he had fallen into a pit of filth.
After returning to our dormitory, he immediately took a shower and scrubbed his plump body with pomelo leaves several times until his skin turned red.
I asked him what he was doing.
Zhang replied, "Fei, you should also scrub yourself with pomelo leaves afterward."
I scoffed at him. "Are you crazy? We just moved a few corpses! You never acted like this before when handling bodies; back then, you didn't even bother to take a shower."
I was exhausted, and after taking a shower, neither Zhang the Fatty nor I felt like talking. Before long, I fell into a deep sleep.
In the morning, as I climbed down from the upper bunk, I saw Zhang the Fatty wrapped up tightly in a thick blanket.
I thought to myself, is this for real? In Great Xia, how could Zhang the Fatty be under so many blankets? The top one was mine, which I had brought for winter.
How did he manage to pull my blanket out? At this rate, he would end up getting sick from overheating.
After calling out to Zhang the Fatty several times with no response, I went over and gave him a push, but there was still no movement.
Could he really be sleeping that deeply? Reluctantly, I decided to lift off the two blankets pressing down on him. But once I did, I was stunned.
Zhang the Fatty's face was ashen, his eyes bulging out, and his tongue was sticking out a bit. There seemed to be finger marks on his neck; he looked just like a corpse. I reached out to check for his breath and was so startled that I fell back onto the floor.
He’s dead! He’s really dead! Panic surged through me as my mind went blank. I hurriedly ran out to find Brother Li and the others.
When I reached Brother Li's dormitory, I was met with an even more horrifying scene: all three of them were buried under thick blankets.
I was completely dumbfounded.
I didn’t dare approach; I stood frozen at the door, my heart racing and my scalp tingling. Once I regained my senses, I fumbled for my phone and quickly called Director Wang.
Director Wang was the Old Wang that Brother Li and the others mentioned.
I was frantic as I shouted into the phone that something had happened—people were dead; Brother Li and his friends were all dead.
After my voice fell silent, Director Wang replied calmly, "Fei, listen to me. Don’t call the police just yet. First, tell me something: did they also handle a body from the old building?"
I let out a sound of acknowledgment, yes.
Director Wang's breathing on the other end became heavy as he said, "Why does Li Qiang insist on being so stubborn?"
I asked what was wrong.
Old Wang didn't answer my question directly; instead, he told me not to act rashly and that he would be over soon, urging me to wait for him.
I suppressed the fear rising within me. After the call ended, my palms were soaked with cold sweat. I waited for quite some time.
An old man dressed in a black Zhongshan Suit appeared. In the half month since I started, I had only seen Old Wang once.
The heat was oppressive, yet my body trembled with chills.
Old Wang approached me and immediately asked where their bodies were. His face was incredibly grim, and his voice carried a hint of darkness.
I replied that they were in the dormitory building.
Old Wang carried a black bag on his back. After we went upstairs, unexpectedly, he suddenly pressed his hand against my forehead and chin…
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