Chapter 4: The Little Devil Comes Knocking

  "What? What?" Just entering the crematorium and before she could even feel the sudden chill of the environment, Akane suddenly blurted out these words.

  He turned around and looked at me in a standard posture with his back straightened up, body upright, eyes staring directly at me.

  "He said: 'Do you remember that policeman who jumped off a building three months ago?'"

  I still remember it vividly, and when I returned to my hometown, I had nightmares for several days. Every time, I dreamed of that policeman who was smashed on the ground without a face suddenly having a mouth full of blood, opening and closing it to say something to me.

  This dream repeatedly made me think it was an illusion, because I had dreamed of it many times before, and later even suspected that he was standing beside me watching me sleep...

  He also said: "Didn't you ask me if I thought that policeman was watching you? It's true."

  I was speechless and couldn't believe what I was seeing. What a joke!

  At first I asked Xiangrikua, didn't he tell me not to think wildly? Now three months have passed and I almost forgot those terrifying feelings, but he actually told me it's true! Really?!

  However, he ignored me and turned his body around, continuing forward. Next, I asked him a question, but he ignored me again.

  The next day.

  Xiangri Hua made me continue carrying the corpse with him, I was naturally unhappy and asked why.

  He said that since I left, every porter couldn't get through the night, either seeing ghosts at night or suddenly falling and getting injured. After spreading the word, no one dared to come again.

  So for more than two months afterwards, he was the only one carrying corpses, no longer lifting but actually carrying them. Because of a shortage of manpower, they could only put the bodies on their shoulders to carry, or on their backs to carry.

  So this time I'm back and don't think about leaving, continue being a porter of corpses.

  I certainly don't buy his account and still think I can be free and easy. I have hands, feet and a stable job, why should I carry a corpse?

  "You're a yin corpse, if you don't carry the dead here, you'll die." He said suddenly.

  I stared at him in disbelief, not believing what he said.

  "Don't try to scare me with your fake police warning, I'm not afraid!"

  Xiang Rihua simply looked at me coldly and then turned around to carry the corpse away.

  I stood still, feeling uncomfortable all over. I didn't know what the Yin warning was, but ever since carrying the corpse, I had been feeling strange.

  I keep having the same nightmare over and over again, I feel like someone is watching me. Also, I suddenly became interested in some police TV dramas and books.

  I looked at Xiangrikui and chased after him.

  Just pretend to be dead and ignore what he says is true or false. Wait for a while and see if nothing happens, then leave this haunted place.

  "Later, tell the people around you who need protection that if they want to turn around and look at you, they must tell them to stand up straight and turn around, with their body and head turning together, and their eyes fixed on the person speaking to you. Otherwise, they will be unlucky, their souls will be damaged, and you will involuntarily consume their lifespan."

  Just a few steps away, Xiangrikua suddenly said.

  "Huh?"

  I'm still confused about the situation, and it suddenly reminded me of how he just stood up straight and turned around to look at me. Is this also because of that reason? But I still suspect in my heart that he's playing a joke on me...

  But what happened in the following days made me no longer doubt that Huajun and I were joking.

  On the first day, I followed Xiangrikua to three places and brought back three corpses. One was an unidentified male corpse, which meant that he had no name and no family members and died outside. He was sent to a flat house, a place specifically for storing unclaimed corpses.

  A small child's corpse, reportedly picked up a lollipop and died after eating it. When I went to collect the body with Xiang Rihua, we saw that the child had seven orifices bleeding, eyes wide open as if filled with resentment.

  There was another corpse, a young woman who had drowned. At the time we went to carry the corpses, they were still soaking in the water, face up, with their bodies spread out in a "big character" shape.

  He also muttered something about the vengeful spirit of a drowned woman being the most severe, but he spoke to himself in a very vague manner, and I didn't pay much attention.

  Logically speaking, these three corpses are not very scary, compared to the scenes I saw when I was doing part-time jobs before, it's completely a small trick seeing a big trick.

  However, the strange thing was that when I got up to use the bathroom that night, I saw all three of them standing outside the window looking at me. From short to tall, a child, a young woman, and an unidentified male corpse.

  When I took a deep breath and rubbed my eyes to look again, there was nothing to see.

  The next day was still carrying corpses.

  This time the corpse is a bit special, it was carried back from the tomb.

  The deceased was originally buried in the ground, but later on, for some reason, his family suggested digging him up and cremating him. Then I went with Xiang Rihua to do it, first prying off the coffin boards and then picking up the corpse.

  When the coffin was first opened, it smelled incredibly foul, and taking a sniff almost made me pass out. I felt like my internal organs were rotting and emitting this stench as well.

  However, Hyuga was not affected at all, and he squatted down to start scraping off the rotten meat attached to the bones with a small knife. In the end, I had no choice but to learn from him and started scraping off the rotten meat as well.

  It was also at night, after being woken up by the urge to urinate, that I saw a thin and weak middle-aged man bowing to me outside the window, seemingly expressing gratitude. When I looked again with my second glance, the window was empty, where had the person gone?

  The third day, still carrying a corpse.

  At night before I go to sleep, I dare not drink water anymore. Because I'm afraid that in the middle of the night I'll have an urge to urinate again and then get up to see someone standing outside my window once more.

  But I still got up, also because of the urgent need to urinate, and once again saw someone outside the window, still the corpse that I had touched with my hands on the same day.

  What's even stranger is that later when I went to the bathroom, I didn't have any urine at all. It was as if what woke me up earlier wasn't my need to go to the bathroom, but just a habitual feeling.

  The fourth day...

  I've already gotten used to waking up in the middle of the night and seeing the corpses I touched that day standing outside my window, staring at me. I've also started believing everything Hyuga said.

  He said: "You are a yin police, so you can see some things that others cannot see."

  He also said: "You'd better not go out in the future, because you are still very weak."

  He also said: "Don't casually talk about strange things in the crematorium, if something happens and I'm not by your side, go find the cremation technician and the funeral director."

  He only said three sentences, and then he didn't say anything else. Even when I had questions for him, he ignored me. Finally, I suddenly thought, could this be because the crematorium can't find anyone to work, so they're using this kind of talk to keep me here to carry corpses?

  After all, carrying a corpse is not a job that anyone can do, nor is it something that everyone is willing to do.

  So on the fifth night, I didn't sleep. I lay in bed pretending to be asleep, covering half of my head with a sheet, staring fixedly at the window outside. No matter what, I just couldn't believe that there were ghosts in this world.

  The night is deepening, and a chill is rising.

  I huddled up and perked myself up to look out the window, but after holding on for so long without seeing anything unusual, my eyelids became heavy as lead. Then somehow I fell asleep.

  When I was woken up by the urge to pee again and slowly opened my eyes, I saw someone looking at me outside the window, then disappeared. At that moment, I was stunned, and even before I could react, I was originally waiting for them to appear...

  In short, I'm getting more and more of a weird feeling about this place.

  On the eighth day, when I returned with the corpse and was about to rest, I suddenly felt someone blowing air on the back of my neck. It was as if someone had blown a breath on me unintentionally. But when I turned around to look, there was nothing. Then my scalp started to feel numb.

  This isn't a bungalow, why is someone still blowing air at me? The first time I came to the crematorium and passed by the bungalow, someone blew air on my neck and I never dared to go there again. But now they're starting to blow air on my neck again...

  On the ninth night, I deliberately touched the outside of the flat house, wondering what would happen here.

  I really can't stand it here, so I want to find out all the mysteries that make me suspect and solve them. Some people say that many times people are just scaring themselves, actually nothing is happening, it's just because there are ghosts in their hearts.

  So I came and stood outside the flat house to eavesdrop.

  At first there was nothing, quietly terrifying.

  Then the wind picked up, making me feel cold. Originally, even on a summer evening, no matter how hard the wind blew, it wouldn't be cold enough to chill to the bone, but now I was so cold that my teeth were chattering.

  Then suddenly there was a sound. First, it sounded like something opened with a "click". Then came several more "clicks", as if many things were being opened. After that, people started talking.

  It was like a chat, one voice finished and another started, you said one sentence and I said one. They spoke vaguely like in a dream, even if I stopped to listen carefully, I couldn't hear what they were saying.

  Just as I was plucking up the courage to take another step forward, I suddenly felt someone behind me. At that moment, my body stiffened and my legs were rooted to the spot, unable to move.

  I slowly turned my head and glanced sideways to see who was behind me.

  Suddenly a big hand landed on my shoulder with great force, and as it did, my body stumbled forward.

  "What are you doing here at midnight?" He spoke up, and it was only then that I saw clearly it was Old Man Huang.

  "It's nothing, it's okay."

  "It's nothing, just go back." Old Man Huang said coldly and walked towards the flat house.

  I gazed at his back, cursing him. Just now when he put his shoulder on mine I almost knelt down. At this moment, I found that there was a whip on his hand, which I didn't know when it appeared, a black long whip.

  I watched him, hiding on one side to see what he would do next.

  "Slap"

  Only to see Old Man Huang standing in the middle of the bungalow, picking up a long whip and lashing at the air, the fiery sound filling the entire bungalow. Suddenly, the previously noisy bungalow was instantly silent, eerily quiet.

  I stared blankly, thinking about what was going on. But at this time, Old Man Huang suddenly turned around and, just like Yang Ronghua before, turned his neck and body together to look at me, with a strange smile floating in the corner of his mouth again.

  ……

  To sum up, it's no longer as quiet here as when I stayed for three days. If there must be a difference, one is reality and the other is the underworld.

  This feeling is getting stronger and stronger, so strong that I'm starting to become numb. Even when I see someone's shadow passing by the crematorium sometimes, I don't feel even a little surprised, it's just habit.

  Half a month later, I had already gotten used to this kind of life. Just like what Xiangrikui said, in that half month, I never stepped out of the crematorium once.

  I had never felt the fragility of life before, but over the past half month, I gradually came to realize the brevity of life and the fragility of life, and also knew that so many people die every day.

  Every day there are people dying, sometimes one or two, and sometimes over a dozen. This is just the bodies that I and Xiang Rihua have handled, not including those sent directly by some funeral companies.

  "Wang Hu, come with me."

  One day, Xiangrikua spoke to me again and took me to the place where he first took me to have my fortune told, and I saw Mengyao once more.

  Half a month's time hasn't been enough to affect someone's appearance, but the Dream Jade in front of me now is somewhat different from the one I saw half a month ago.

  A kind of indescribable feeling, similar to temperament in general.