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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 one or two decades. 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 built 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, some 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 corpses share a common trait: they are 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. Upon receiving this directive, the staff at the funeral home were quite pleased; finally, we wouldn’t have to deal with these repulsive 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, and everyone was exhausted and panting as we nearly finished cremating the "piled-up" bodies in the funeral home.
I was so tired that I felt like collapsing and just sat down on the ground without thinking much about it.
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 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 up.
Brother Li glanced at Zhang and then at me, saying, "Zhang, you should take care of that last body with the Flying General later."
Upon hearing this, Zhang's expression changed slightly. "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 wouldn'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 thought, 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 over 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 entered this building or heard that there were bodies stored inside.
I initially 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 be cold, but this one lacked any body cabinets. There was just an iron bed, and we walked over to it.
The lights in the room seemed old and hadn't been replaced in years; their dim yellow glow cast an eerie atmosphere throughout the space.
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 pale, giving it a rather ghastly 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 off the Guanyin Pendant hanging around his neck and placed it on the body. "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 orders.
After placing the corpse on the stretcher, Zhang and I took hold of the back while Brother Li led the way, muttering 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 completed the cremation. I didn't feel anything particularly special about it, but Zhang seemed as if he had fallen into a pit of filth.
Back at the dormitory, he spent a long time showering and scrubbing his plump body with pomelo leaves repeatedly 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, "Are you serious? We just carried a few corpses. You didn't act like this when we dealt with bodies before; back then, you didn't even bother to wash up."
I was exhausted, and after taking a shower, neither Zhang Fatty nor I had the energy to talk. Before long, I fell into a deep sleep.
In the morning, I climbed down from the upper bunk and saw Zhang Fatty wrapped up tightly in a thick blanket.
I thought to myself, is this for real? In Great Xia, how could Zhang 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 Fatty a few times with no response, I went over and gave him a gentle push, but there was still no movement.
Could he be sleeping that soundly? Reluctantly, I decided to lift off the two blankets pressing down on him. But as soon as I did, I was stunned.
Zhang Fatty's face was pale, his eyes bulging out, and his tongue was sticking out a bit. There seemed to be finger marks on his neck; he looked like a corpse. I reached out to check his breathing and was so frightened that I fell back onto the ground.
He’s dead! He’s really dead! Panic surged through me, and 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 sight: all three of them were buried under thick blankets.
I stood there dumbfounded.
I didn’t dare approach them, frozen at the door with 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 terrible had happened—people were dead; Brother Li and the others were all dead.
After my voice echoed in the silence, Director Wang replied calmly, "Fei, listen to me. Don't call the police just yet. First, let me ask you something: did they also take care of a corpse from the old building?"
I nodded, yes.
Director Wang's breathing on the other end became heavy, and he said, "Why does Li Qiang refuse to believe in the supernatural?"
I asked what was wrong.
Old Wang didn't answer my question directly but told me not to act rashly. He would be there soon and asked me to wait for him.
I suppressed the fear rising in my heart. After hanging up the phone, my palms were soaked with cold sweat. I waited for quite a while.
An old man dressed in a black Zhongshan Suit appeared. In the half month since I started working, I had only seen Old Wang once.
The heat was intense, yet my body trembled with chills.
Old Wang approached me and immediately asked where their bodies were. His face was dark and gloomy, and his voice carried a hint of menace.
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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