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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 11: Bloodstained Shroud
As I was about to see the terrifying corpse, I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down, and strode inside. It was cold in there, chilling me from head to toe. I gritted my teeth and straightened my back, determined not to let myself falter.
A person dressed in a White Shroud and wearing a mask saw me and handed me a pair of plastic protective gloves, casually asking, "You’re here?"
I couldn’t see his face, but I caught a glimpse of his sharp eyes. I nodded and followed him deeper inside.
We stopped in front of a door. He pushed it open, his hands also gloved.
I stepped inside.
The smell of blood hit me like a wave, nearly making me vomit. The floor was slick, as if it had been mopped but not dried properly. At the same time, goosebumps instantly covered my skin. I focused my gaze; in the room was a Mortuary Table, with tools for Cleaning the Body placed beside it—alcohol, fresh towels, and tweezers among them.
A small figure was covered with a red cloth.
"Be careful while cleaning," the masked man instructed before leaving.
I was left alone in the cold, eerie room.
So this is my job—Cleaning the Body?
Since the moment I stepped out of the door, I had been thinking about what my grandfather used to do at the bureau. I had assumed he brought me here to help guide spirits or perhaps for some other purpose.
I never imagined it would be Cleaning the Body.
Steeling myself, I slowly began to lift the shroud. As my fingers touched the fabric, I immediately felt its thick stickiness. Upon closer inspection, I realized it wasn’t a red shroud at all; it was a white one stained red with blood.
I was secretly shocked as I caught sight of an extremely horrifying corpse revealed on the Mortuary Table.
She was female, with a deep and fatal gash across her throat that nearly severed her neck. The object that had cut her neck was an incredibly sharp piece of glass, which lay bloodied on a specialized shelf beside the Mortuary Table.
The corpse was covered in blood. Especially the neck, which was a gruesome sight, flesh torn and skin turned inside out. The veins and nerve ligaments in the neck were also smeared with blood. Strangely, despite the bloodiness below the neck, her face was as pale and translucent as rice paper.
The time of death had already been five hours; if it weren't for the freezing period, this body would have started to rot and stink.
At the station, there was a request to clean the body quickly, as the family wanted to send it to the funeral home for makeup before cremation.
I used alcohol to meticulously clean her bloodstains. The body, having been frozen, felt like ice—cold and piercing. Yet she was not ice; she was a human corpse, her face bearing a terrifying expression of despair, and her naked form exposed before me.
Seeing this body, honestly, I might develop a sense of aversion towards women in the future.
Was this a murder or an accidental death?
With doubts lingering in my mind, I slowly and methodically cleaned every inch of her skin, afraid that I might accidentally sever a ligament in her neck and cause her head to fall off.
I trembled as I cleaned the corpse, not daring to breathe too loudly, my hands shaking uncontrollably.
Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed mine. I was terrified, my scalp tingling as I witnessed an unbelievable scene. The corpse sat up abruptly, looking at me with wide eyes and smiled: "She has come for revenge... I don't want to die... help me."
Gasping for breath, I struggled to calm myself, convincing myself that what I saw was just an illusion.
Was it an illusion?
I dared not look at her fierce gaze; instead, I lowered my head and closed my eyes earnestly: "I promise you, I will find out who caused your death."
Silence enveloped me as the cold wind continued to blow. When I opened my eyes again, the female corpse lay still in its original position as if it had never moved at all; only her facial expression had softened slightly.
When I got up, those waiting outside couldn't believe that I had finished cleaning the female corpse in such a short time.
As Zhang Ke saw me off, he told me that the payment would be transferred to my grandfather's account and then quietly asked, "How did you do it?"
"What?"
"I checked, and she no longer has excessive bleeding; the cleaning was done well."
"Oh."
At a glance, when the forensic expert was cleaning, did the female corpse bleed profusely? If that were the case, it would indeed be problematic. Generally, a dead person's blood coagulates, sealing the orifices, and bodily fluids do not leak out, which prolongs the preservation of the body.
Zhang Ke's expression was strange, a flicker of fear passing through his eyes. I could easily imagine it. When they were cleaning and examining the corpse, blood continuously flowed from her nostrils, staining the covering cloth and pooling on the ground, creating what could only be described as a river of blood—a crimson carpet.
Of course, all of this was merely my speculation and deduction; I couldn't know the details unless Grandpa were here. His old face still held some value at the station.
Back at the funeral home, I didn’t dare go anywhere else and just sat dumbly in the shop, picking up a book that Fat liked to read.
After a while, I felt my face flush. The book was titled "Dengcao Monk," telling a story about a monk who jumped out from a wick and entangled with a woman, bringing misfortune to her daughter.
It was filled with many illustrations. Even though we had covered anatomy in class, seeing these images still made me feel somewhat restless and stirred. Unconsciously, my body reacted in ways I didn’t expect. I quickly closed the book and tossed it into an old box, sitting cross-legged with my eyes closed to calm myself.
After a while, as things quieted down, my face remained warm. I then went inside to play on the computer. I logged onto QQ to check for new orders in the mortician section but found none. So I casually opened QQ.
I had many friends on QQ—classmates, friends, and also salespeople I was nurturing.
If I wanted to expand Ma Wu Funeral Home, I needed to cultivate salespeople online.
I wasn't aiming to monopolize the global funeral business; at least I wanted to extend my reach a bit. It wasn't about going international; it was simply about improving our business to perfection so that the living would be satisfied and the deceased would have no complaints.
My purpose for logging on was to see if Mi Li was online.
Mi Li had mild depression. As I opened the page, I accidentally saw her name and thought it looked nice, so I added her as a friend.
After she agreed to add me, she remained silent. I sent her several smiley face images, but she ignored them all.
Then suddenly, she sent a message: "I want to die. Do you understand Yin and Yang? Can you recommend the easiest way to die?"
Her words startled me, and I quickly replied, "Hi, please don't say that. Actually, I've been looking for a way to die peacefully and without pain."
Mi Li responded with a big question mark: "?"
I sent her a question mark back: "?"
Then Mi Li asked me, "Why are you thinking about dying? I see your signature mentions Yin and Yang and that you understand everything. Why would someone like you want to die?"
"Even capable people are still human. They have emotions and desires, and they face unavoidable troubles."
"Then tell me, what are troubles?" Mi Li countered.
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