Chapter 6 summary of the old and new beginning with 800 recommended votes celebration

  That organ showroom

  That book records the inventory of Xiao Luqi's body entering and leaving the warehouse

  That laboratory

  A can of 502 glue

  Just enough to fit into one person's iron cabinet

  An empty iron frame

  A bucket of human oil extracted from a corpse

  A few strands of fake hair scattered in Xiaoluqi's morgue locker

  Wang Yongshun's drawer was cluttered with cosmetics

  ……

  Could it be...

  The first time I went to that morgue, as soon as the iron gate opened, I saw a desiccated corpse, which should have been hanging on the now-empty frame.

  This mummy was not placed in that organ display room.

  Was Wang Yongshun not just putting the mummy into an iron cabinet, covering it with wax, pressing a mold of Xiao Luqi's face onto the mummy's face, then heating and pressurizing it to let the melted wax seep into the mummy's skin, making it swell up and look like a newly deceased corpse, then using 502 glue to stick on a fake hairstyle similar to Xiao Luqi's, slightly making up, thus creating Xiao Luqi's appearance in order to deceive everyone?

  Desiccated corpses, like mummified wet corpses, are extremely rare. I know that in some places in western Hunan, in the hanging coffins on the cliffs of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, and in some tombs from the Republic of China or even earlier periods, such things really exist. I once watched a science program broadcast by CCTV, which was specifically about the mystery of bodies not rotting for hundreds or thousands of years. Many white-haired old scientists spent their entire lives trying to solve this mystery, but most explanations were just hypotheses that kept being overturned. To this day, the reason why desiccated corpses and mummified wet corpses form is still a mystery. People only know that the conditions required for their formation are much more stringent than those for wax-embalmed bodies, and that the skin of wind-dried corpses has very large pores and almost no fat left. If you let wax seep into it, the skin can regain its elasticity. And if you apply some whitening makeup to adjust the skin tone, it's not impossible to make it look like a freshly deceased corpse.

  On the night of Xiao Luqi's death, Wang Yongshun worked overtime. If there were suitable items, it would be easy to make a mold of Xiao Luqi's face using plaster or something else. As for whether the mummified face could become identical or very similar to the mold after warming up, pressurizing and adding wax, I'm not sure. However, this seems to be the only possible way to impersonate Xiao Luqi without arousing any suspicion - because the mummies that have been dead for decades or even hundreds of years no longer have relatives, and no one would come to the hospital to make trouble about the loss of a corpse.

  The only problem is the eyes. The mummy's eyes have completely withered, but to buy two prosthetic eyes and install them in the eye sockets of the mummy, and then cover them with eyelids, who would notice? Not to mention prosthetic eyes, even if you put two ping-pong balls in, would anyone really lift up their eyelids to take a closer look?

  This thing, Wang Yongshun had already done it more than once. Because in the last page of his diary, there was a table with the words "2007 April 15th substitute completed". This thing for him, has been a familiar road, just as the Bible says: "That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun."

  In his notebook, the entry for May 23 also had the words "substitute completed". It was probably referring to the fact that using a dry corpse to replace Xiao Luqi's body had been accomplished.

  So this was the "task" he casually mentioned when he came to my house!

  I went over the whole process again in my mind.

  Xiao Luqi was hospitalized due to illness. On May 24, Wang Yongshun met her (the woman he wrote in his diary as "2007 May 24 Today I saw a beautiful woman, if she wore Xixi's cheongsam, what would it be like", this woman must be Xiao Luqi), thought she was very beautiful, and reported to Chen Ziqi.

  Chen Ziqi agreed to this matter and, like on April 15th, provided Wang Yongshun with a poisonous drug (also known as the "material" mentioned in Wang Yongshun's diary), which was used on Xiao Luqi. Wang Yongshun also found a black cat (also known as MoMo's mother), killed it, removed its already swollen ovaries and dried them using some special method. Then he threw the corpse and MoMo into the morgue.

  Xiao Luqi, who had been poisoned, was declared dead by the doctor at 0:38 on May 26 after failed rescue efforts. At that time, Wang Yongshun was still working overtime. Under the cover of darkness, he made a mold of Xiao Luqi's face and put her in Qianqian's bellyband, making her dance under the control of the ovarian cyst smell. However, when he discovered that Xiao Luqi was a virgin, he didn't dare to take further action on her body, presumably planning to send her to Chen Ziqi for "enjoyment". On the afternoon of May 26, the dry corpse arrived, supposedly as an excuse for some kind of "scientific experiment". During the delivery process, Wang Yongshun inexplicably placed the dry corpse in front of the iron gate, where I stumbled upon it after breaking into the morgue. Then, Wang Yongshun put the dry corpse in the innermost laboratory of the morgue, but heard the noise I made and came to investigate, only to be knocked down by me and lose consciousness.

  I stole out with Xiao Luqi's body, at this time Wang Yongshun had already woken up more than half, chased out, saw that I had got on the taxi, and remembered the license plate number. No wonder when I carried Xiao Luqi onto the taxi, when the car started, I suddenly felt like someone was peeping, it turned out to be Wang Yongshun.

  He immediately contacted the taxi company, presumably using the excuse that he had lost something in a taxi with this license plate number, and got in touch with the driver to ask for my home address. The next day, he came to my neighborhood and asked the residential committee aunt about my specific building and house number (the aunt had mentioned this to me before). Then he found my home, pretended to be mysterious, trying to deceive and intimidate me into handing over Xiaoluqi's body, but unexpectedly was beaten up by me and the "resurrected" Xiaoluqi. Of course, all of the above is just my speculation, without any basis. But I believe that these guesses, even if they are not entirely accurate, will not be far off.

  Bruised and battered Wang Yongshun thought I was also a seasoned "corpse handler". Born in Xiangxi, he must have heard about such things since childhood and deeply believed them. So he made a report to Chen Ziqi, asking if he should get rid of me. Chen Ziqi probably agreed with Wang Yongshun's idea and let him continue, using the corpse to fake Xiao Lüqi's body and deceive everyone.

  I guess that Chen Ziqi didn't come to steal or rob Xiaoluqi's corpse, probably because he was also misled by Wang Yongshun. They thought I was a "Jiangshi" who was even better at controlling corpses than they were, and that Xiaoluqi, controlled by me, wouldn't be affected by the smell of the black cat ovary cyst. But what Chen Ziqi needed wasn't a real corpse, but a living dead person who had been poisoned, was in a state of false death, and could be controlled by the smell of the ovary cyst. So Chen Ziqi wanted to find a way to break my control over Xiaoluqi first, then take back her body. That's why he let Wang Yongshun use a dry corpse to deceive Xiaoluqi's family, covering up the truth, and then deal with me slowly.

  Perhaps in Chen Ziqi's eyes, I am just a flea-like existence. As long as he finds a way to crack my "Corpse Control Technique", he can take me down and snatch back Xiao Lüqi in no time.

  I reckon that eavesdropping device was also installed by him in my house. The purpose is to find a way to crack my "Corpse Control Technique" from the subtle clues of sound.

  Thinking of this, I couldn't help but smile wryly: What "Corpse Control Technique" do I have? Even I myself don't know how I made Xiao Luqi move, and even more so, I don't know why Xiao Luqi didn't obey Wang Yongshun's control the day before yesterday, instead beating him up badly.

  Could it be...

  Is this the power of true love?

  I shook my head with a wry smile. Love? Fate? Don't even mention Xiang Luqi, that goddess - she's not someone I'd ever be on the same path as, just like Chen Xiaochun sang in "No Such Luck". And love, it's something so vague and elusive, you say it exists and it does, you say it doesn't and it doesn't. How can that count? It must have been some reason I don't even know myself, physical or chemical reactions, that made me unintentionally take control of Xiang Luqi's "corpse".

  What is it?

  Suddenly, I realized that I had been immersed in reasoning and thinking for too long. My fingers still had the extremely rotten and smelly corpse wax on them, damn! I bought a watch last year! I stood up and rushed into the bathroom, washing my hands frantically, and finally got rid of the smell on my fingers. But thinking about it still made me feel nauseous.

  When I came out of the bathroom, I saw Momo sitting on the floor, staring at me blankly, with a posture that looked just like a lucky cat in a store.

  Recalling its experience, I couldn't help but feel a chill. Suddenly, there was a feeling that something wasn't quite right, but it couldn't be put into words where exactly.

  Forget it, I've already overused my brain and really don't want to move anymore. Investigating the mortuary again has made me discover many things, and with some reasonable inferences, the restoration of the facts should be about right. Thinking so, I lay down on the bed and started thinking about the next strategy.

  The most critical issue is still to detoxify Xiao Lü Qi and let her revive. So first, I must determine what poison she was poisoned with, then I can find the antidote. Originally, I thought this was an impossible task, but now Chen Zi Qi has bought me enough time, it's not that urgent anymore.

  Since Chen Ziqi has put me and the godfather together, I'll continue to pretend to be a ghost. Thinking of this, I took out my mobile phone, turned the keypad tone to the maximum, dialed 11 numbers, waited for a moment, and said:

  "Hey, Third Uncle, have you been in Changsha recently? Are you doing well? And Auntie is also doing well, right? Yeah, I'm doing fine too. There's something I want to ask you about the ancestral book on controlling the living dead. Does it mention what to do if a living dead person is controlled by two different secret techniques at the same time? How can we eliminate one of them? Oh, okay, got it. These things, I'll prepare when I get back. Hmm, isn't it July 15th on the lunar calendar? Can we perform the ritual then? Must we wait until that day? Oh, I see, so that's Ghost Festival. Yeah, I understand, if we don't do it by then, the living dead person will really die, right? Alright, I won't do anything stupid. Don't worry, I'm safe now and won't be discovered by the neighbors. Okay, thanks Third Uncle, goodbye!"

  I've been talking to myself for half a day, and I'm impressed by my own ability to make up nonsense on the spot. In fact, there's no such thing as three uncles - it was all just me rambling on for the benefit of the person who had installed a listening device. This way, they'll report back to Chen Ziqi, and probably by the 15th day of the seventh lunar month (August 20th), I should still be safe. Heh heh, this listening device is definitely a double-edged sword - it's very useful when the person being listened to has no idea what's going on; but once they discover it, they'll give the most despicable counterattack, just like me.

  Of course, the detoxification of Xiao Luqi is still an urgent matter. Because every extra day means a little less hope for Xiao Luqi's survival and revival.

  I couldn't possibly let the police investigate this matter. Since Xiao Luqi has been declared dead by the hospital, no matter what, I can easily get away with the crime of stealing a corpse by relying on a desiccated corpse, but I definitely cannot jump into the net myself.

  Damn it, I'm the one who's really fighting alone! How does Wang Yongshun have such a big backing supporting him? Why did I, a low-level white-collar worker, get entangled in this mess? If that day I hadn't gone to see Xiao Luqi, if I hadn't gone to the morgue to take another look at her, if I hadn't impulsively stolen her body, none of these things would have happened. I wouldn't have to be on edge here, afraid of being caught and sent to prison, nor would I have to rack my brains to repeatedly risk life and limb, and I wouldn't have a wiretap installed in my home. Isn't this situation, for an ordinary person, a bit too much pressure? I just can't take it!

  Maybe everyone thinks I'm a pervert, necrophilia, yeah, indeed, a complete pervert, and I think so too. So, since I'm a pervert, why do I still have so many complaints, why do I regret sneaking back the corpse?

  I want to ask, if you really introspect, have you never had even a fleeting perverted thought? Those who steal underwear, commit sexual harassment on public transportation, pedophiles, and those who like SM, if you meet them in everyday life, you wouldn't think they're so strange. A person can be an angel with one thought and a devil with another, always wandering back and forth around the boundary. I, Lin You, although temporarily insane and stole back the corpse, am a law master's graduate with a stable job, my parents' pride, with a normal life of my own. When this cold goddess's corpse brings me endless trouble, I also waver, I also think of giving up.

  It's easy to make a vow, it's easy to talk big, you may promise for life because of temporary joy, but how many times will your determination waver back and forth in this lifetime? The key is whether you can persist.

  Every time I waver, I go see Xiao Luqi's face, that angelic countenance gives me courage.

  Looking at Xiao Luqi, my heart calmed down. But I couldn't help but feel a little worried. After all, how deep the other person's water was, I had no idea. What kind of person was this Chen Ziqi? Where was the next clue to continue walking?

  Right, on Wang Yongshun's notebook, there are two addresses recorded. Shouldn't I go and investigate the truth?

  I silently told myself in my heart: "How can I get the tiger cubs if I don't enter the tiger's lair? Lin You, let's go!"

  Ink jumped onto the bed, looked at me, let out a "meow", then curled up into a small ball and fell asleep.

  Momo, are you cheering me up?