Chapter 42: The Ashes of the Mausoleum

  After getting off the car, I saw a stone archway in front of the cemetery with "Anling Garden" written on it. I called Ze Heng and asked where they were, but they said they hadn't left yet... "Don't come anymore." It was so speechless, still arguing to come and play, I directly didn't let them come, and followed Zhang Ting and Teacher's pace.

  Is this really a memorial for revolutionary martyrs? What I see are just tombs, row after row of tombstones standing there. This is clearly a cemetery, just a place to lay urns... The atmosphere here is quite eerie, with the tombstones quietly standing there. It's okay during the day, but at night...

  I could feel Zhang Ting holding me very tightly, apparently she was also scared by this scene.

  "Don't be afraid, everyone. The place we're going to is still up ahead," the teacher leading us said as he took us through the tombstones and walked straight up. Only then did we see a large stone monument standing above with the words "Martyrs' Glory" engraved on it. The procedure the teacher told us was just to go up and offer some flowers, but after offering them, he also asked us to sweep the place clean. Upon looking around, I saw that there were quite a lot of fallen leaves."

  I originally thought it was just sweeping this monument to the martyrs, but then that teacher said to help clean up the tombstones below. "What's going on? We're only here to pay respects to the revolutionary martyrs, do we need to do these things?" I was the first to be dissatisfied, and in my heart, it felt like finding fault where none existed. But then some people agreed with me. What were they thinking?

  "Qingming is approaching, we students should do more public welfare activities." Is this what you call public welfare? What a joke!

  I pulled Zhang Ting out, planning to go back directly. Isn't this just tricking us into being laborers? Seeing other classmates was quite enthusiastic, one by one cleaning up the tombstones.

  "Where are those two classmates going!" We were stopped by the teacher while walking down the stairs. "Even if you don't do it, you have to wait for everyone to leave together." The teacher seemed angry too, I took Zhang Ting to find a quiet place to sit down and quietly watched them clean up.

  "Tingting, are you afraid?" I looked at Zhang Ting.

  "A bit... I'm really afraid of seeing these things now."

  Not far from where we sat, there were some tombstones. I found some strange phenomena. Some of the covers behind the tombstones are open? Because under these tombstones, there is a small space for placing urns, but they are all covered. You see, the space is small, but this place with an area of less than one square meter is still very expensive!

  This made me quite curious, I asked Zhang Ting to wait for a while, and I went down to take a look. There was nothing inside, could it be that the ashes hadn't been placed yet? But on the tombstone, there were carvings of a person's birth and death dates, and even a photo... Hmm, don't mention how good-looking the person on this tombstone is, still in her 20s, died from a car accident? What a pity. I found that all the ones in this row were like this, which was a bit strange. When I almost reached the end, there were one or two covered up, what's going on here?

  "Zihe, hurry back, what are you doing?" Zhang Ting seemed to be even more afraid when she saw me like this. Never mind, it's none of my business, I ran back and pulled her to find the big group. Seeing them still cleaning up, they were quite serious about it, sweeping past one by one. Some people were still playing, and two people were betting in front of a tombstone whether or not they dared to kiss a photo...

  I took a look back then, and the owner of that grave was quite good-looking too. When I saw him kiss her, I admired him as well. However, after he kissed her, I felt something was off. His lips seemed to have brought something with them... I saw his lips had an invisible black aura. This dead person, he dared to offend, probably would get sick too. With so many people around, I couldn't help him either...

  Soon after sweeping, we started preparing to return to school. After getting on the bus, Zhang Ting seemed to be in a pretty depressed mood, as if coming to this kind of place was not good at all. This teacher didn't even tell us that there were martyrs' monuments on top of the tombstones! It felt like we had been cheated!

  Back to school, looking at Zhang Ting's depressed look, the best way is to take her to the supermarket! Sure enough, as soon as they entered the supermarket, she smiled brighter than anyone else.

  After sending Zhang Ting back, I didn't return to the dormitory either. Instead, I went to find Ze Hong and Shi Teng. As a result, these two people were not in the hotel. I made a phone call. "Where did you go?"

  "Zi Jiang, I was just looking for you... We're at Director Jiang's place, come on over, something's up." What's going on again?

  "Okay, I'm on my way."

  As soon as I entered the police station, I went straight to Director Jiang's office. When I pushed open the door, I saw the three of them sitting on stools saying something.

  "Zihe, you're here! I just called you, but it didn't go through." Director Jiang saw me and greeted me loudly. Didn't my phone call get through? I remember the signal was full at that time, could it be because we were in a cemetery? There is such a phenomenon, sometimes when you are in that kind of place, your phone won't go through because too many dead people's yin energy gathers there, interfering with the electromagnetic waves. The dead can interfere with electromagnetic waves? You might think I'm talking nonsense, but Master told me that vengeful spirits have this ability, they make you see things by interfering with the electromagnetic waves in your brain, just like a radio station, it's because of the same frequency.

  It's just a cat.

  "What's wrong? You just said something was up on the phone?" I walked in and sat down, seeing that they looked very serious.

  "Let Director Jiang and you talk." Zehong lay on the sofa, I also looked at Director Jiang, what's going on that's so embarrassing?

  "Zi River, yesterday received a report that something happened in Anling Garden in our city." Looking at Jiang's expression, it seems like the matter is quite serious. Anling Garden? Didn't I just go there today? What happened?

  "Is it haunted?" I asked subconsciously.

  "It's not just haunted, it's even more disgusting. Some of the deceased's ashes were dug up and eaten." I felt nauseous when Ze Heng said this with a calm expression!

  "You're not kidding, are you? And people actually eat the ashes?" I recalled the strange phenomenon I saw today, many tombstones had their lids opened, which meant that they were dug up and eaten. The thought made me want to vomit.

  "Yes, that's right, Zi Chuan, Ze Hong said it correctly. There really are people who eat human ashes, and the remains of several deceased individuals have already gone missing." Looking at Director Jiang, he didn't seem to be joking either.

  "That's impossible! I just went there today, how did you know it was eaten by someone?"

  "It was the person in charge of the Anling Garden who reported the case, saying that he saw someone gnawing at the ashes last night." I said that I went to Anling Garden today and didn't see a single staff member inside.

  "What's going on?"

  "That person said last night when he was on patrol..."

  "Wait, do we have to patrol for this too?"

  "Hmm, every profession has its own rules. Otherwise, those people wouldn't spend so much money to put the deceased there. If the service is poor, what's the difference between it and a burial in the ground?" I nodded for Director Jiang to continue speaking.

  "Last night, that person was on patrol. It was still a bit windy, making him feel a bit chilly. He thought he would just patrol casually and then go back to the studio at the entrance to sleep. However, when he went downstairs, he heard someone eating. He thought to himself that there was only one person in the entire cemetery, although there were two workers, they were on shift duty, so it was impossible for anyone to be there."

  He walked over with the flashlight, but didn't shine anything on that road. However, the sound was getting louder and louder. He continued walking, but still couldn't find anything. The sound of something rustling seemed to be right next to his ear. He shone the flashlight around and finally saw a black shadow behind the tombstone in front of him...

  "He slowly walked over, shining his flashlight, and saw someone scooping up ashes with their hands and putting them in their mouth. The person was startled by the flashlight but didn't stop, instead continuing to chew on the ashes while staring at the security guard... The security guard was terrified, dropped the flashlight and ran away, but the person eating the ashes didn't chase after him. He quickly came to report it to us, but when we arrived, there was nothing left except for some scattered ashes on the ground."

  After listening to Director Jiang, I felt even more disgusted. In the middle of the night, seeing someone eating human ashes can be terrifying, right? But what happened last night, why did he still take us there today? I asked Director Jiang my doubts, but he said that this news was blocked, otherwise it would spread out and the families of the deceased would be disturbed.

  "Is he a madman?" People who eat ashes are either mad or neurotic, although the two are synonymous.

  "It's best if he's crazy, I'm just afraid..." Ze Hong became restless.

  "Afraid? You don't want me to say that the people of the Yin Soul Sect also like this?" Seeing Zhe Xuan say this, I suddenly remembered the Yin Soul Sect.

  "It shouldn't be, although the Yin Soul Sect mainly cultivates soul nourishment, there is also some residual yin energy in the ashes. Supplementing yin energy by eating ashes is an unpalatable method, they would rather go and seize people's souls, so it shouldn't be the Yin Soul Sect."

  "What are you afraid of?"

  "I'm afraid I'm a ghoul..." Ghoul? I've never even heard of a ghoul, but I do know what a zombie is.

  "Is eating corpses zombies?"

  "It's also one of them, zombies have many types, Jiangshi, Jumping Corpse, Flying Corpse, Corpse King... and the Jiangshi is further divided into many types, including the Flesh-eating Jiangshi."

  "Are there zombies in the cemetery?" I was scared, and I felt like I was encountering stranger and stranger things.

  "It's not that simple, zombies are usually not formed after death, but are made by humans, I suspect there are people who raise the dead in this city. Or maybe it's just a madman." Looking at Akira Kanzaki like this, it seems that this matter is quite serious. Although I've never seen a zombie before, from watching movies with Uncle Seiichi since childhood, the zombies in them were quite frightening...

  "What do you plan to do?"

  "It seems that we will have to go with the police tonight," I thought so too, in case it's a madman, but if it's a zombie, we'll still have to deal with it. After discussing this, I called Zhang Ting and informed her that I had official business to attend to tonight, and since she found out that I was an undercover agent, she has been understanding of my actions.

  "Zihe River, be careful tonight." Hearing Zhang Ting's concern for me, I was satisfied.