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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 444: Human Skin Puppet (Part Seven)
What the hell! That damned Qin Jian must have said something to her. The girl looked as if she had found treasure, smiling brightly and being overly attentive to me.
I went out to find Xie Ke, who had just been nearby on the phone. The Riverside area wasn't wide, but it stretched long like a ribbon along the street, with many fish displayed along the roadside, and even hanging fish that filled the air with a strong fishy smell.
We stepped out of the Riverside Family private room and immediately called Xie Ke.
Xie Ke quickly answered and asked where I was.
"I'm at the entrance of Jiang'an Family Bridgehead Hotpot Restaurant."
There were two stone lions at the entrance, and I stood next to one with Ling Juan. Xie Ke said he would be there soon.
Xie Ke was supposed to arrive quickly, but Ling Juan and I waited in place until a hearse came to take away a body, and then we saw Qin Jian walk out and spot us. Yet, Xie Ke still hadn't shown up. What was going on? I checked my phone repeatedly; it had been three hours since I contacted him, and it was getting dark, but he was still nowhere to be seen.
I dialed Xie Ke's number again—this time, the message said: "Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service."
How could this be possible?
Qin Jian and Ling Juan asked in unison, "What's going on?"
"I don't know. Let me try calling Thank You, Master," I said decisively as I dialed Thank You, Master's number. While waiting for him to pick up, I had a nagging feeling that something was off.
Finally, Thank You, Master answered. Before I could say anything, he urgently said on the phone, "Seven is in trouble. You need to come quickly."
"Where are you?"
"Back home, there's Xie Ke... he... he's dead."
What does this even mean? So much has happened in such a short time, and so many people have died. My mind went blank for a moment, and I fumbled with the phone, unsure of what to do. Qin Jian noticed my dazed expression and answered the call, asking Thank you, Master what was going on.
Thank you, Master might not have expected someone else to be with me. He hesitated for a moment, but upon realizing it was Qin Jian on the line, he relaxed and said, "I don't know where Xie Ke got a corpse from; he planned to bury it late at night, but something went wrong—he's dead... the body has been stolen and its whereabouts are unknown."
Hearing this, Qin Jian quickly comforted him and promised to head over immediately.
The three of us—Qin Jian, Ling Juan, and I—got into the car and headed straight for Thank you, Master's hometown, Anong Village Group Four.
Anong Village Group Four is adjacent to B City, located in the most remote mountainous area of City A. The journey was quite long. On the way, I confirmed again what Thank you, Master had said: the night before, Xie Ke had hurriedly borrowed a car without telling him where he was going, and they each drove back to Anong Village separately.
Thank you, Master is a son-in-law who married into the family. After his mother-in-law passed away from liver ascites while he was working as a police officer, he took care of Xie Ke, playing both father and mother roles. Later, he left the police force to start a business, thinking he could enjoy his later years surrounded by grandchildren. Little did he know that Xie Ke would die like this.
The most painful and hardest thing to accept in life is when a white-haired person sends off a black-haired one.
As a Mortician, I've seen so much of this that I've become numb to it.
"Lao Qin, have you seen that inflatable doll movie? It's Japanese."
Qin Jian, mindful of the girl in the car, merely snorted in response without directly answering me.
I glanced at her through the rearview mirror. Ling Juan, being a police academy graduate, wore an expression of calm indifference as if she were used to such things. Several times she opened her mouth as if to say something but held back. I wondered if she wanted to join in on the discussion about Japanese movies featuring inflatable dolls. This time I deliberately called out to her: "Juanzi, have you seen that movie? Can you tell us about its plot?"
"I... haven't seen it..."
Ling Juan's voice grew softer, her face nearly buried in her collar from embarrassment. Qin Jian shot me a glare, and I protested with my eyes. Why was he glaring at me? I hadn't meant to make Ling Juan uncomfortable; I had just asked a casual question.
It's quite strange how a conversation between two men and one woman could drift to the topic of inflatable dolls, creating an inexplicable feeling that was entirely new to me.
I knew I had to suppress this feeling; if it surfaced, Qin Jian would surely beat me to a pulp.
So, I closed my eyes and pretended to doze off. The car fell into a deep silence.
After the awkward moment passed, Ling Juan seemed unfazed and busied herself with her phone, the sound of beeping indicating she was likely playing some mobile game. The road to Thank You, Master’s hometown was becoming increasingly difficult to navigate. Even with my eyes closed, I could tell the bumps were getting worse.
The car swayed left and right, up and down, lurching this way and that. I could hear Ling Juan exclaiming in discomfort. I glanced back at her; she was holding her head, grimacing. I chuckled, “If you buckle your seatbelt, you won’t be tossed around like that.”
“Oh.”
Ling Juan was probably around twenty-one. A girl’s age is often a secret unless she feels particularly close to someone and decides to share it. Since our acquaintance was brief, there was no need for me to ask about her age. With nothing else to say and the road becoming increasingly treacherous, Qin Jian focused intently on driving, leaving the car enveloped in silence once more.
I tried to break the ice: “Isn’t there a single road here that people can walk on?”
“Our country is vast, and there are many remote and underdeveloped areas. This place might actually be considered better,” Qin Jian replied. He spoke as if he were an authority on the matter; if this was good, what did the worst look like?
Before I could argue his point, Ling Juan chimed in: “A long time ago, I heard that in a very distant mountain range lived people who were almost completely cut off from civilization. They had never stepped out of those mountains or even seen a car. So when someone drove into the mountains one day, those people shouted that a monster had arrived—‘Look at how big that monster is! And it has two huge glowing eyes!’” As Ling Juan recounted this story, she laughed heartily without waiting for our reactions.
Girls are truly whimsical; they don’t delve too deeply into serious thoughts. The people living in those mountains are still human; why shouldn’t they enjoy better conditions? It’s simply due to their isolation from transportation. One day, when travel becomes easier, those mountain dwellers will also witness prosperous cities and the state of civilized society.
As for Thank You, Master’s hometown, it remained a Dirt Road—potholes everywhere and wild grass growing along the sides. Most houses hidden among the trees were Straw Houses. Occasionally, there would be one or two Brick Houses. On the hillside, children around eleven or twelve years old tended to cattle, their gazes filled with envy and longing as they looked at us.
These children are treasures in the big city, sitting in classrooms wearing brand-name clothes, yet they still complain and act spoiled towards their parents. Skipping classes is quite common among them.
I was puzzled. What was Xie Ke doing here, far away from the comforts of the big city?
In front of us was a three-way intersection. Qin Jian asked me slowly while driving, "Lao Qi, which village is Thank you, Master from? Which group?"
"Anong Village... I think it's Group Five... no, wait, it seems like..." I scratched my head, struggling to remember which group Thank you, Master belonged to.
"Group Four," Ling Juan answered promptly.
I laughed. "You have a good memory, young lady. Us old folks should take notes."
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