Chapter 63

Chapter 63

Of course, Wu Xiaojiu knew that one head had been smashed.

He awkwardly turned his face away and went on, “It was smashed, but there were still some scraps and fragments left, weren’t there? Back then, didn’t they collect the liquid on the floor and test it for DNA?”

The intern shook his head, saying he hadn’t even joined the force yet and had no idea what had happened.

“Still, the special backdoor access you got me is impressive. Not only did you hand over the records room key, but we can move freely through the entire police station. Want to take a look at the Mortuary? We can check whether that one is still intact and run a DNA test while we’re at it.”

The two of them set off immediately.

But just after Wu Xiaojiu stepped out of the records room, he pulled out his phone, opened the familiar chat window, typed out a whole string of messages, hit send, and didn’t even wait for a reply before locking the screen.

[What a lover’s tear, one drop and you’re drunk,
A sentimental heart, one squeeze and it breaks. You’re worried about his current condition too, so why aren’t you hurrying to his side, instead of dawdling over some case?]

System complained in his mind, and Wu Xiaojiu spat back in displeasure.

[I’m not saying my status isn’t worth a thousand times more, but my appearance fee is high enough too, okay? I’m the Wu Family’s eldest young master. A trip to a bar or KTV can easily run into several tens of thousands. If it weren’t for Bo Suihan, and if I didn’t really treat him like a friend, who would go to a hellish place like the Mortuary?]

That was what he said, anyway.

But his body was very honest. Wu Xiaojiu followed behind the intern and headed down the stairs.

The Mortuary was usually on the second basement level. Underground, damp, and dark.

By the time they reached the corner on the first floor, Wu Xiaojiu was still arguing with System in his head when the intern in front suddenly stopped. He almost crashed into the man’s back.

“What is it?”

Wu Xiaojiu came back to himself a little. By now, a damp chill was already clinging to the tip of his nose, and a thin film of moisture had fogged the watch screen.

“It’s pretty dark downstairs, and there are a lot of unclaimed bodies. The smell is pretty strong too. Are you sure you want to come down with me?”

The intern glanced back slightly. Wu Xiaojiu could only see the tip of his nose and one side of his face.

“This is my first time here too, but I heard from the Senior staff that this place is kind of spooky. There are a lot of bodies and a lot of rooms, so we may have to split up. There’s one thing I need to tell you first.”

The atmosphere immediately tightened.

Wu Xiaojiu still hadn’t fully recovered. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, took a couple of breaths, and finally nodded.

“Go ahead.”

“This is the important part: once you go into any room in the Mortuary and close the door, don’t open it no matter who knocks!”

“Aren’t the bodies numbered? What if it’s you knocking to come in, or what if I need to get out?”

“All right, don’t be so tense. You weren’t saying anything, so I thought you were scared. I was just trying to lighten the mood.”

The intern suddenly laughed.

From the sound of it, the smile should have been bright.

But maybe it was the angle, and the basement lighting really was too dim.

Wu Xiaojiu could only see the sharp line of the side of his nose and the corner of his mouth stretched as wide as it could go.

For no reason at all, his heart gave a jolt.

That uneasiness stayed with him all the way to the Mortuary door.

The basement was laid out like a parking garage, divided into many rooms.

Because the bodies needed refrigeration to keep from decomposing, the place was filled with the low hum of mechanical cooling units, along with a chill constantly rising from beneath their feet.

Wu Xiaojiu clutched at the leather jacket on his body and shivered as he hugged himself tighter.

“You go to the rooms on the left. I’ll go to the ones on the right. I have a little memory of that head. It should be in a separate cube-sized Mortuary Drawer.”

The intern took out a ring of keys and handed them to Wu Xiaojiu, then turned and walked to the right. The basement lighting was so dim that before long, his figure disappeared from view.
Wu Xiaojiu was definitely scared all by himself.

Without any reason, he even wanted to take out his phone and see whether Bo Suihan had sent any messages.

But on the second basement level, forget about the network, even mobile data was useless.

After refreshing for a long time and still seeing only “Network not connected,” Wu Xiaojiu could only curse under his breath and stuff the phone back into his pocket.

Pretending he wasn’t afraid, he strode into the first Mortuary Drawer room with bold, sweeping steps.

Because they had to freeze corpses, and because they also had to provide lighting for the first basement level, the circuit breaker was already under heavy strain, so the lights in the Mortuary Drawer room naturally could not shine very brightly.

On top of that, the voltage was unstable, flickering on and off. As soon as Wu Xiaojiu opened the door, he saw the Mortuary Drawers lined up in front of him.

For convenience, the police station did not equip each Mortuary Drawer with a lock. As long as you reached out and pulled the handle, you could drag the corpse inside out with it.

Wu Xiaojiu kept himself tightly wound, and because he wanted to save time, he went straight up and pulled open the handle of the first Mortuary Drawer. Empty.

That made him let out a breath of relief. He opened the second one even faster, but it was empty too.

He went on pulling open every Mortuary Drawer in that whole row.

Not a single corpse.

Wu Xiaojiu immediately relaxed, and the words the intern had said on the way down the stairs really did seem like a joke to him.

Once he finished opening the drawers here, it was time to go to the second room. The entire underground storage area was fairly large, and as Wu Xiaojiu thought about how long it would take to check the Mortuary Drawers in so many rooms,

he casually placed his hand on the handle of the first Mortuary Drawer in the second row, not caring at all.

He had thought it would be empty.

At least his mental state was very relaxed right now, so he pulled it open directly.

“Clang!”

A soft sound rang out, followed by the rolling noise of something round moving inside the Mortuary.

But that rolling sound was not very smooth. It would pause from time to time, and from the sound of it, the thing rolling inside did not seem complete.

Wu Xiaojiu felt the sticky, fishy wetness on his foot, the cold liquid on his hand, and the stench that rushed out as soon as the drawer was opened.

He froze.

His gaze subconsciously searched the room, but strangely enough, in a room with nothing to block the view, there was only the rolling sound, and nothing else.

Wu Xiaojiu started to panic a little, but the stimulation was too intense, and he couldn’t move.

He could only keep sweeping his eyes back and forth across the room.

The rolling sound was still going on, even close at hand, as if it were right beside his ear.

But the floor was clean and neat. Forget about a spherical object, there wasn’t even a speck of dust to be seen.

Wu Xiaojiu’s breath tightened.

Just as he moved his hand away and stepped toward the center of the room, wanting to scan it again,

the door was knocked on.

“Knock, knock, knock, knock.”

Exactly four times, no more and no less.

Wu Xiaojiu’s heart was pounding. He had heard an old saying before.

People knock three times. Ghosts knock four.

Only something that wasn’t human would knock on the door four times.

At the same time, a streak of bright red liquid began spreading out from the edge of the door. One glance was enough to tell that it was blood!

Wu Xiaojiu felt as if all the blood in his body had frozen solid.

For a moment, he had no idea what reaction he should have.

He could only silently pray in his heart that Bo Suihan would somehow come over at this moment.

But his prayer had no effect.

And the knocking outside grew louder, while the handle kept twisting back and forth.

The scarlet liquid spread more and more, covering half the floor tiles. Wu Xiaojiu remembered what the intern had said.