Chapter 44
Chapter 44
Just as dawn broke, Chief Zhou visited the house once again.
“Old Auntie, Brother Wang San, I’ve come to scrounge a bit of breakfast from you all.”
Deaf Granny smiled with a particularly kind and gentle expression. “Xiao Zhou, take a seat and rest for a while. I’ll have my daughter-in-law fry up a few eggs for you.”
“We didn’t know you were coming, so we haven’t prepared anything special.”
Chief Zhou carried a package of braised pig’s head meat he had brought with him into the kitchen. “Old Auntie, I’ll have a little drink with you in a bit.”
“In this line of work, there’s never a moment of leisure. Today, I’ll consider this a bit of personal business mixed in with my official duties.”
Chen Daji walked out of the inner room while letting out a long yawn. “Oh, Uncle Zhou, you’ve come to pick us up this early?”
“School doesn’t even start until tomorrow.”
Chief Zhou gave Chen Daji a light, playful rap on the head. “Who has the time to come pick you up? I’m only here because someone in the village called the police!”
“Old Fourth Tian, the one who died yesterday-his grave has been robbed.”
Wang San was stunned by the news. “That can’t be right, can it? Nowadays, no family puts anything valuable inside a coffin. What’s the use of digging up a grave?”
Chief Zhou let out a heavy sigh. “The strange thing is exactly that!”
“We just finished investigating the scene. There’s a large hole broken into the coffin, and the body is missing.”
“The way it looks, it doesn’t seem like someone else dug it up. Instead, it looks like the person inside crawled out on their own!”
“I led my men along the footprints and tracked them all the way to the front of Old Fourth Tian’s house, and then the footprints just vanished.”
“Truly, strange things happen every year, but there are especially many of them this year!”
“I’m already worrying about how I’m going to write the official report when I get back!”
Deaf Granny was startled by what she heard and spoke up. “Xiao Zhou, take me to the graveyard to have a look immediately.”
Chief Zhou was taken aback. “Do you mean to say there are filthy things involved?”
Deaf Granny shook her head slightly. “I’ll have to go and see it before I can know for sure.”
Chen Daji was the most interested in these sorts of bizarre and peculiar occurrences.
The boy took the initiative to support Deaf Granny and squeezed his way into Chief Zhou’s car.
To protect the scene of the crime, the graveyard had already been cordoned off with police tape.
A crowd of curious villagers had gathered around the perimeter to watch the excitement.
When everyone saw that Deaf Granny had arrived, they consciously stepped aside to make a path for her.
“Granny, please have a look and tell us what’s going on here.”
Old Fourth Tian’s wife and daughter were already huddled together, weeping uncontrollably.
It was unclear whether they were overwhelmed by grief or simply terrified, but regardless, their faces were all deathly pale.
When Tian Zhigang saw Chief Zhou, he immediately stepped forward and spoke. “Chief Zhou, you must solve this case as quickly as possible and recover my father’s remains.”
“If I ever find out who did this, I’ll kill the bastard!”
Supported by Hua Jiunan and Chen Daji, Deaf Granny walked a full circle around the grave mound.
Things were indeed exactly as Chief Zhou had described them. Only the top of the grave had been broken open with a hole, while every other part remained completely intact.
This hole wasn’t particularly large, looking just big enough for an adult to pass through.
Chen Daji, being a boy who couldn’t keep still, picked up a stone and tossed it into the hole.
A dull thud echoed from within, which instantly drew the attention of everyone present.
Facing the anger of the Tian Family, Chen Daji gave a series of sheepish, awkward grins.
“It’s for the needs of the investigation, hehe… for the investigation…”
Turning around, the boy whispered softly to Hua Jiunan, “Big Brother, did you hear that? When I threw the stone in just now, it made the sound of hitting wood.”
“That proves the dead person inside really has disappeared!”
Chief Zhou scolded him in a low voice, “You brat, settle down!”
“I don’t need you to tell me that. I already used a flashlight to look inside myself!”
Deaf Granny scooped up some of the soil from the ground and held it to her nose to sniff it.
“This is bad. It’s a Corpse Rising!”
Of course, her voice was very low, and only Hua Jiunan and the few people closest to her could hear it.
Chen Daji asked with great impatience, “Granny, what’s a Corpse Rising?”
“Is it like those hopping zombies you see on television?”
Deaf Granny’s brow furrowed deeply. “We’ll talk about it after we get back!”
“Xiao Zhou, hurry and disperse the crowd of onlookers.”
“Furthermore, notify every household that starting from today, no one is allowed to go out at night!”
A Corpse Rising is also known as a Walking Corpse.
It refers to a state where a person, after death, gets up again to wander around aimlessly, posing a great danger to the living.
This state is neither a true resurrection nor a simple reanimated corpse; it is a very special kind of existence.
Similar mysterious and terrifying phenomena occur primarily in remote and frontier regions, where they are also known as “Ro-lang.”
Just as Hua Jiunan was about to help Deaf Granny back into the car, he suddenly felt something tugging at the bottom of his pant leg.
He looked down and saw a large gray rat.
He immediately understood that Old Sixth Hui had some business and was looking for him.
Thus, Hua Jiunan spoke up and said, “Daji, you help Granny back first. I have something I need to take care of.”
Deaf Granny looked down at the rat by Hua Jiunan’s feet and understood the situation instantly.
“Xiao Jiu, go and come back quickly. Granny will wait for you to eat breakfast.”
“I know, Granny!”
While Hua Jiunan answered, he chased after the large rat as it ran into the distant woods.
Chen Daji was left completely in the dark and asked blankly, “What business does Big Brother have?”
“Is he in a hurry to find a place to poop and too embarrassed to say so?”