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In the archive room of the Textile Factory, Chen Guohua flipped through the yellowed employee registration forms, his finger pausing at the emergency contact section for Zhou Fulai. His mother's name was listed as Zhou Linshi, but the address pointed to the Mound of the Unburied at Forest Station in the western outskirts of Qinghe Town. Faded red ink along the edge of the form read: "Deep sibling affection; younger sister died young."
"That Zhou Linshi has long since passed," said Old Wu, the archivist, adjusting his reading glasses. "I heard she was sold to a traveling troupe for Yin Marriage performances when she was just nine. Later..." he lowered his voice suddenly, "she was buried in her family's coffin shop backyard."
Chen Guohua recalled the familial connections noted in the Charred Corpse DNA report. He pulled out Li Xiuyun's household registration file, and in the father's section, he found the name Zhou Linsheng—an equivalent name to Zhou Fulai's mother—marked as "missing" over twenty years ago.
At the Zhenxi Mass Grave, crows startled and sent snow tumbling from branches as Chen Guohua stepped cautiously between the Grave Mounds. The wooden cabin at Forest Station had collapsed on one side, and a blood-painted comb symbol adorned the door, identical to a mark on Zhou Fulai's almanac.
Ashes from unburned paper money piled up in a clay stove. Chen Guohua picked up a piece of partially burnt tin foil, which bore the inscription "Zhou's Funeral Makeup Shop." Suddenly, a scratching sound came from beneath the bedboards, accompanied by a childlike whimper.
"It's a raccoon raised by Fulai," said Old Zhang, the forest ranger, appearing with a shotgun that trembled slightly in his hands. "That child has a kind heart and always shares offerings with wild animals."
Chen Guohua pried open the bedboard with his baton, and a musty odor mixed with Huaihua Fragrance wafted out. Neatly arranged in a hidden compartment were forty-nine carved wooden combs, each entwined with hair of different colors between their teeth. At the bottom lay a bound book, its cover inscribed in blood with "Yin Zhuang Ten Essentials."
"Ding Hai Year, March Third; take three inches of hair from an unmarried girl for Heavenly Spirit Cover and soak it in corpse oil..." Chen Guohua's hand suddenly froze. A yellowed ticket slipped out from between the pages, printed with "Zhou Family Troupe Yin Wedding Tour," dated exactly seven days before Li Xiuyun's murder.
In the backyard of the coffin shop, frozen earth sparked under his shovel as sweat soaked through Chen Guohua's cotton coat. Digging down three feet deep, his shovel struck something hard—it was a Lipstick Coffin. The coffin lid was secured with seven peach wood nails arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper.
"Captain Chen!" Xiao Zhao exclaimed, her hand trembling as she held up her camera.
As soon as the coffin lid was removed, a stench mixed with Huaihua Fragrance erupted forth. Dozens of wooden combs stood upright like swords thrust into skeletal remains. The right hand of the skeleton was missing; its pelvic structure indicated it was male, but there was a neatly drilled round hole at the skull where Heavenly Spirit Cover would be placed, its edges serrated as if made by a specialized tool.
Chen Guohua examined the edge of the hole with a Magnifying Glass and suddenly noticed a few strands of silver Hair embedded in the bone seams. This was identical to the elderly Hair sewn onto Li Xiuyun's corpse, and what was even more chilling was that the diameter of the hole was just right to fit that half Carved Wooden Comb.
In the late-night interrogation room, Zhou Huaisheng, the owner of the Coffin Shop, shrank back in the iron chair, his right pinky adorned with a Jade Ring, its face engraved with a Yin Shu pattern.
Chen Guohua placed the photos of the remains on the table. "Explain the forty-nine Yin Shu in Zhou Fulai's workshop."
"Officer, that child just loved to carve little trinkets..." Zhou Huaisheng rubbed his thumb against the ring, the jade glinting with blood-like streaks under the cold fluorescent light. "He said he wanted to comb the hair of every girl who died an untimely death before sending them off."
Suddenly, Chen Guohua pulled back the evidence cloth, revealing the skull from the Lipstick Coffin. Zhou Huaisheng's pupils constricted sharply, and his ring fell with a clatter onto the iron table. The teeth of the Yin Shu Comb perfectly matched the holes in the skull.
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