Chapter 24 Something seemed to be lurking in the shadows of the inner room...
She inquired about the whereabouts of the remains of those killed by evil spirits, and someone told her that the bodies were now kept in the mortuary in the east of the city.
The reason they remained in the mortuary was twofold: first, the families of the deceased dared not collect their bodies; second, even if they were buried, they would be dug up the next day and returned to the doorsteps of some people, which frightened many into illness.
Seeing this, the town mayor had no choice but to send the corpses to the mortuary at the east end of the town, hoping that the pagoda there could ward off the evil spirits.
When Li Chen arrived at the destination, he happened to see an elderly man, who was already in his sixties, walking out while sighing.
The old man's eyesight seemed poor, and he only realized there was a living person in front of him when he was about to bump into Li Chenjin.
He raised his head, squinted at the person in front of him, and stared at her for a long while before saying, "Miss, are you here to claim a corpse?"
“Sigh… You’re so young, you shouldn’t be involved in these shady things. This should be handled by your elders…”
Li Chen said, "Uncle, I am not here to claim the bodies. I have been entrusted by the town mayor to come and examine the bodies of those who were killed by evil spirits."
The old man was taken aback, scrutinized the person before him for a moment, and then coughed as he said, "Oh dear... so you're from the Zen meditation world, are you... Layman Chenjin? Someone came to inform this old man early this morning; the people of town have been eagerly awaiting your arrival every day, cough cough... I just didn't expect you to be so young. Truly a young talent, a young talent indeed, cough cough..."
"Please come with me, layman. The bodies are all in the innermost room, just in case they make any noise at night and frighten people..."
Li Chen followed the old man into the deepest room in the mortuary. As soon as he pushed open the door, he saw a little girl of about ten years old standing inside.
Although the girl looked young, she had white hair and frighteningly white skin. When she stood in the dark, one might have thought they were seeing a ghost.
After leading her inside, the old man introduced her, saying, "Laywoman, this is my adopted daughter. She was born with some strange disease, her whole body is white, and she can't stand the sun. Her family abandoned her at the gate of my mortuary when she was little, leaving her to die. Alas... I felt sorry for her, and I was worried that after I died, there would be no one to carry on the mortuary, so I took her in as my adopted daughter, so that she could learn to do some work and not starve to death in the future."
"But don't worry, although she's young, she's very quick and efficient. She pieced these corpses together herself, starting with the very first one. She knows exactly what these corpses looked like when they arrived. If you have any questions, just ask her."
Li Chen smiled and replied, "Thank you for your trouble, sir."
The old man waved his hand and said, "No trouble at all. You can stay here and watch over things. Someone asked me to deal with a corpse that had come back to life. I should go now, otherwise those young people won't dare to do anything."
Li Chen smiled and agreed again, then watched the old man leave.
Only after the old man's figure disappeared from sight did she turn her gaze to the little girl in front of her.
She crouched down, looked at the little girl in front of her, and said softly, "Did you piece together all fifteen corpses here?"
The little girl seemed to be quite reserved around strangers. Upon seeing Li Chenjin, she appeared slightly flustered, twisting her skirt tightly with her fingers as she slowly nodded.
Seeing that she nodded, Li Chen continued, "Then do you know who these people are?"
The little girl nodded again.
Li Chen smiled with satisfaction, reached to his waist, and took out a flower that was larger than his own palm from a storage bag that was not even the size of a palm.
"Do you like this flower?" Li Chen asked.
The little girl looked at the flowers in her hand and finally said, "I like them..."
Li Chen gently took her hand, placed the red flower, large enough to cover her hands, into her palm, and whispered, "Then I'll give you this flower. Later I might ask you where these corpses came from. Would you be willing to tell me?"
The little girl's exceptionally fair face suddenly flushed red, as if she were extremely happy to receive such beautiful flowers. She smiled shyly and said, "Xiao Cui is willing..."
Li Chen smiled and looked at her gently, saying, "So your name is Xiao Cui. That's a nice name, just like you. You're very pretty."
Xiao Cui seemed to have rarely been praised like this before. After taking the flowers, she blushed and turned her back, as if she didn't dare to look at Li Chenjin for a moment.
This feeling of shyness inexplicably reminded her of the burly man she had seen in the teahouse before. She immediately closed her eyes, shook her head, and shook away the memory that made her feel extremely disgusted.
She lifted the white sheets covering the corpses one by one. In the hot weather, the corpses decomposed much faster than in winter. Some of them had been dead for a long time and were almost just bones. Even the fresh ones were already rotten beyond recognition.
Fortunately, there was a special method of deworming in this mortuary, so no maggots were seen on the rotting corpses, making them somewhat more palatable.
The freshest-looking corpse belonged to a man who appeared to be around thirty years old.
His body was also torn into several pieces, and the fact that he could still be recognized as a human being was all thanks to Xiao Cui who stitched him up little by little with needle and thread.
Xiao Cui looked quite young, but her needlework skills were excellent; her stitches were extremely neat.
She looked the corpse up and down. The body was completely naked, and the fatal wounds should have been obvious at a glance, but from the front, she could not see any fatal wounds.
It wasn't until she turned the body over and exposed its back that she saw the smashed back of the skull.
Judging from the wound, it didn't seem like a fatal blow, but rather like someone had slowly beaten to death with some kind of blunt instrument.
But this is also strange. Why would an evil spirit kill someone with a blunt instrument?
She stared at the back of the corpse's head for a long while before going to examine the other corpses.
Without exception, the fatal wounds on these corpses were all in the back of the head.
Killing people in this way means either someone is deliberately playing tricks, or an evil spirit is learning how to kill people.
If it's the former, many things don't make sense, but if it's the latter, what good would it do besides adding trouble?
Li Chen turned around and looked at Xiao Cui, who was holding flowers and looking at them. He waved and said, "Xiao Cui, can you tell me who he is?"
Li Chen pointed directly to the freshest-looking corpse. Xiao Cui glanced in the direction she was pointing and said, "His name is Jiang Biao. People in town say he's a wanderer... a wanderer..."
"Idle and lazy?" Li Chen replied.
Xiao Cui nodded immediately, then continued, "Xiao Cui only knows that he has no parents, no wife, no children, and nothing else... Xiao Cui doesn't know anything else..."
"Many of the adults in town are afraid of Xiao Cui and don't want to talk to her..."
Li Chen smiled and said in a low voice, "It's alright, what Xiao Cui said is enough. Thank you, Xiao Cui, you've helped me a lot."
Upon hearing Li Chenjin's words, Xiao Cui's mouth gaped open, and she couldn't close it for a long time, as if she had never expected Li Chenjin to say such a thing.
She only slowly came back to her senses after Li Chen patted her head.
Just as she was about to speak, Li Chenjin had already walked out. She could only stand there blankly, watching Li Chenjin disappear from her sight.
Xiao Cui is still young, so it's understandable that she doesn't know many things. However, just because she doesn't know doesn't mean that the local government doesn't know.
After examining the bodies, she went to the yamen to obtain the records left by the coroner after the autopsies. Just as she had suspected, they had all died from blunt force trauma to the back of the head.
The next morning, she borrowed an experienced constable from the yamen and quickly found out all the details about those people.
The homes of the other deceased had already been cleaned up, but the one whose body looked the freshest, named Jiang Biao, had just died the day before. Since he had no relatives, his home had not been cleaned up until today.
His neighbors, fearing they might be tainted by bad luck or possessed by evil spirits, dared not approach him easily, and thus, to this day, the scene from the day he died remains preserved.
Li Chen followed closely behind the old constable, who led the way while saying, "Sir, you originally thought it was someone playing tricks, but since the first murder case, you haven't been able to find any trace left by a living person."
"The brothers even buried those bodies to see who moved them, but guess what? A dozen brothers kept watch all night, and no one showed up! But the next day, those bodies appeared in town, and when they dug up the graves, they were indeed empty! Tell me, if it wasn't an evil spirit, what living person could do such a thing?!"
Li Chen nodded in agreement, saying, "Indeed, indeed."
The old constable continued, "Also, the brothers have thoroughly investigated the man who died the other day. He was a notorious lazybones in our town, with no parents or children, and was known for his gluttony and laziness. He had never made any deep grudges against anyone. The brothers have searched around but can't figure out who could have killed him. It must be an evil spirit."
Li Chenjin nodded again, "Indeed, indeed."
The lazy man lived near the edge of Xicheng Town, where most of the houses were old and far from the market, making it inconvenient to buy things, and therefore the prices were the cheapest.
As soon as Li Chen stepped into the door of the lazy man's house, she felt the light suddenly dim and the temperature drop instantly, making her feel a bit cold.
There were no lights in the house. Although only Jiang Lanhan lived there, it was divided into an inner room and an outer room, separated by a somewhat worn-out curtain.
Through the gap in the curtain, it seemed as if something was lurking in the shadows of the inner room, silently watching the person who entered...
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