Gu-Gift

Kapitel 16

"Hmm, how many guards are left in the morgue?" I asked, fiddling with my quill pen.

“There’s only one guard left. It was supposed to be a three-shift system, but two of them left. There are other employees, but they are only responsible for carrying the bodies and don’t stay in the morgue for long periods of time…” Fu Weiping replied.

"Was your morgue set up together with the hospital?" I had to rule out feng shui issues first.

"Yes, although many hospitals no longer have morgues, we still keep them here because we have medical students doing internships." After receiving his affirmative answer, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Generally speaking, things don't easily happen in places like morgues and crematoriums. This is because when these places are built, certain measures are taken, and because these places are filled with evil spirits, ghosts and monsters don't even have time to avoid them, let alone cause trouble.

However, once trouble arises, there are only two possibilities.

First, the protective measures weren't adequately implemented during construction, or the protective elements were damaged. The possibility of damage is usually extremely small, as the common protective measure is simply placing a large, sun-exposed bluestone about two meters long and wide under the foundation. This is why I asked Fu Weiping about the morgue's construction date. If it was built later, there might not have been a foundation stone, and other methods might have been used, which would have made damage possible. If that's the case, I would have to abandon this deal worth three times the price, because the accumulated negative energy from many years leaking out due to the damage to the amulet would be a very troublesome matter.

Secondly, something other than people may have entered the morgue. The people who work in the morgue are usually widowers or widowers. Some of these people are trained to be sensitive to foreign objects, while others are naturally less sensitive to them. Moreover, the wages for this job are relatively high and it is a lifetime position, so the staff do not change jobs frequently. Over time, the aura they emit becomes different from that of ordinary people, and it will not have a significant impact on the corpses in the morgue.

“Mr. Fu, if possible, I will come to your hospital around four o’clock this afternoon,” I said, putting down the quill pen on the table and standing up.

"Oh, okay, okay, here's my business card. Please contact me," Fu Weiping stood up and handed over his business card.

After seeing off this "Deputy Dean Fu," I gave Yao Yao a few instructions and then went out.

I need to go to the prince before noon; there's something he might have.

(VI) The Morgue, Chapter Two: The Endless Lamp

Because it's winter break, the prince usually only appears in five places: my bookstore, my grandma's place, Lü Hantian's place, his own home, and the gym downstairs from his house.

No one answered his phone, and no one answered the phone at home, so he's probably at the gym!

"Miss, how can I help you?" The gym staff greeted her as soon as she entered.

"Oh, I'm looking for someone." I looked the boy up and down. He must still be a student. Although it was winter, I could still smell the sunshine.

"Who are you looking for? Let me check for you," he said, leading me to the front desk.

"prince"

"Oh, Mr. Wang is in the mechanical section. You can go up the stairs on the left."

I really like the design of the staircase; the completely transparent material gives it a great feel.

"Weiyang," the prince saw me and got off the treadmill, drenched in sweat.

"Why did you come so early?" I asked, taking off my coat and draping it over the machine next to me.

"Well, there's nothing to do, so I'm just idling around anyway," the prince said, wiping his sweat.

Even when he's drenched in sweat, he still looks so refined; there's really nothing you can do about this man.

"It's not like we haven't seen this before, why are you looking at it like that? How did you find this place?" The prince asked with a smile when I didn't speak and just looked at him.

"Oh, look what's wrong, are you going to charge me?" I found myself a little funny.

“But seriously, I need your help with something,” I said as I sat down.

"Hmm?" The prince handed me a bottle of water.

“I need something, I don’t know if you have it?” I took a sip of water and continued, “The Endless Lamp, the Ninth Lamp.”

The prince paused for a moment upon hearing my words, then shook his head and said, "The ninth lamp signifies death and rebirth in heaven; I do not have it."

There are ten "Endless Lamps," each with its own symbolic meaning. The first eight are made from ox bones, while the ninth and tenth are made from the remains of deceased Buddhist monks, making them very difficult for ordinary people to obtain. I had thought that the professor of religious psychology might have some, but I was disappointed. It seems that this is the only way I can go about my work this afternoon.

“However, perhaps I can lend you one,” the prince said, patting me with a slight smile as he saw me frown.

"F University's heartthrob is no joke, Professor Wang," I couldn't help but tease him as soon as we came out of F University's research lab.

The teacher on duty in the research lab was a woman in her thirties, with the face of a political education director. Being on duty at the end of the lunar year was already depressing, and this made her face look like a cabbage frozen in the snow. But what I didn't expect was that this woman, upon seeing a prince, would actually call out in a coquettish voice, "Professor Wang!" Those three words coming from her mouth gave me goosebumps. Although I was nothing special, for the sake of this lightbox in my hand, I decided not to argue with her…

In F City, it gets dark around 5 PM in winter. So when I arrived at the People's Hospital at 4 PM, the sun had already lost its luster, hanging lazily in the sky, hidden in an orange-yellow halo.

After Fu Weiping led me to the morgue caretaker, he left in a hurry; it seemed that he also had reservations about this place.

"Sit down, sit down. Why is it a young girl?" the old guard murmured after seeing me.

"Grandpa, what's your name? My name is Zuo Weiyang." The old man was about sixty-five or sixty-six years old. He was wearing a light blue work uniform, his back was a little hunched, and the wrinkles on his face were as deep as the folds in his work uniform. He was wearing a pair of black cloth slippers.

"My surname is Qian (meaning money), but unfortunately, I've never been able to amass any great wealth in my life." The morgue was very close to the old man's rest room, but thankfully it wasn't very cold.

"Uncle Qian, I heard that two of the guards have left. Can you manage all the work by yourself?"

"Actually, I'm not that busy, and I don't have anything else to do, so I just moved in." In the old man's rest room, there was a folding bed and a large iron cabinet like the ones hospitals use to store syringes. There were still corners of cloth stuck in the gaps of the cabinet door, so it must have been used as a wardrobe by Grandpa Qian.

"Aren't you afraid? Dean Fu said it's not very quiet here at night."

“How could it not be quiet? Do you think the dead will get up and fight? Besides, they’re all freezing,” the old man said to me in a very strange way.

"But……"

“That’s because they have too many things on their minds, that’s why they’re scared,” the old man said, taking the teacup and turning it around in his hand. “But, a few days ago, Da Liu and Shunzi, you know, those two guards, kept saying they heard cats meowing when they left, but I couldn’t hear anything at all last night.” After saying that, the old man shook his head in disbelief.

It seems that this person has a very low level of spiritual sensitivity. In fact, there are about 20% of such people, which is still quite a lot compared to the 10% of people with a very high level of spiritual sensitivity.

The morgue doorknob felt sticky, which made me uneasy. This stickiness wasn't due to any dirt, but rather because the morgue had absorbed other things besides the dead. All metals, due to their molecular structure, initially react to these unbalanced spirits; some rust, some melt. But most metals, like iron and copper, if mixed with other metals, usually just feel slightly sticky when you touch them.

Outside the morgue were several beds, and on the table next to them were some tools for sewing up corpses. Inside was a cold storage room with metal cabinets in each compartment, truly living up to its name as a "peaceful" place.

From the moment I stepped into the morgue, the obsidian in my hand grew increasingly hot. In a morgue where the average temperature is -18 degrees Celsius, this made no sense. And as I entered the inner room, I increasingly felt that there were other living beings in the room besides myself…

So, I originally planned to start after dark, but now I've decided to light the Endless Lamp before dark...

"Endless lamps burn, life ends and one ascends to heaven, above the nine heavens, one returns to Nirvana in vain..."

As the endless lamps were lit, a foul stench immediately filled the morgue, mixed with a faint crackling sound...

(VI) The Morgue, Chapter Three: The Cat in the Morgue

The crackling sound continued for quite a while until it was completely dark before it disappeared.

"Young lady, young lady!" At that moment, Grandpa Qian suddenly burst in, carrying a military overcoat.

"It's cold, young lady; put this on," Grandpa Qian's sudden intrusion interrupted the endless lamplight. But when I received the army coat, I was still incredibly grateful.

"Uncle Qian, didn't I tell you? I'll keep watch for you tonight. You can go out for a drink and a meal, don't come over," I said as I put on my military overcoat.

"Oh dear, how can we leave a young lady like you here all alone? The food is all ready, go and eat first," Grandpa Qian said stubbornly.

It seems I can only apologize to him.

"Sure, sir, let's go have some food at your place first and then come over." Before leaving, I glanced at the Endless Lamp. The firelight was orange-yellow and the halo was natural, so there shouldn't be any problem.

“Girl, what are you doing staying here all night?” Grandpa Qian took a sip of wine and continued, “Dean Fu said you came to inspect the freezer, but I don’t think you are.” Grandpa Qian peeled two peanuts and threw them into his mouth.

"Grandpa, what do you think I should do?" I put my hand on the talisman bag. It was almost 7 p.m., and I didn't want to stay up until dawn, otherwise I would really have to spend the night in this morgue with those dead people.

"I can't tell, I can't tell at all. If a person could see everything, they wouldn't be human," Grandpa Qian said, taking another sip of his drink.

"When I first started working here, I was only in my thirties. Back then, the guard here was called Old Zhou. The first night he told me ghost stories, and I was so scared that I couldn't sleep a wink all night. But now, I don't do that anymore," the old man said. Perhaps he had been here for too long and had become accustomed to the silence. Even the tone of his voice sounded quiet.

"Hmm, I remember Old Zhou telling me back then that cats should never jump over a dead person, otherwise, the corpse will come back to life." This made me put the talisman I had already pulled out back in.

"Have you ever seen anything like this?" As soon as he mentioned "cat," I remembered what Dean Fu Weiping had said about the "cat's meow." Maybe this old man really does know something.

"That's all nonsense. There's no such thing as a zombie coming back to life. Just over ten days ago, they brought in a little girl who jumped off a building," Grandpa Qian said, shaking his head with a sigh. "A perfectly healthy child, how could she jump like that? Her arms and legs were broken. Her arm was bent like a pretzel under her body. I had to stitch it up a couple of times to straighten it out." The old man took a big gulp of wine, poured himself another glass, and looked at me, saying, "Don't you want some?" Seeing me shake my head, he paused and said, "Right, it's good for girls not to drink. After I cleaned up the little girl, I was about to go to the bathroom when, as soon as I opened the door, a kitten suddenly darted in and jumped on her. It scared me half to death. I immediately remembered what Old Zhou said: what if she really came back to life? My old bones would be finished!" The old man laughed for a while before saying, "At my age, really, nothing happened at all. Before I could even react, the cat was gone." After the old man finished speaking, he shook his head and smiled, his wrinkles deepening.

It was only then that I realized that the old man was still alright because he had repaired the little girl's arm. In fact, even ghosts love beauty.

"Grandpa, what does that cat look like? How big is it?" If the cat is just an ordinary cat, then it's easier to handle.

"Wow, that cat is huge! With its tail, it must be this long, all black and shiny. At first glance, I thought it was a roe deer." The old man gestured with his hand, indicating that it was over a meter long.

"Black, is it all black?" After hearing what Grandpa Qian said, my heart skipped a beat. How I wished it was a little tabby cat! Of all the colors, why did it have to be black?

"Hmm, so dark, but those eyes are so bright," the old man said, brushing the peanut shells that had fallen on him.

Actually, a cat jumping over a human corpse doesn't cause it to rise from the dead. However, it can possess the body and return to life. It seems this little girl was startled by the black cat, disturbing her "earthly soul." Humans have three souls—heaven, earth, and human. The heavenly and earthly souls are mostly in a wandering state during a person's life. The heavenly soul resides about three feet above the head—what people often refer to as "the spirit three feet above the head"—but that's not a spirit; it's yourself. Therefore, when a person dies, the heavenly soul disperses. However, the earthly soul returns to the body after death and disperses after seven days. This is why there's the saying "burning the seventh day after death." During these seven days, the earthly soul lies dormant within the body, remaining even after burial or cremation, until the "day of return of the soul," commonly known as the "first seven days," when the human soul returns. Only then does the earthly soul disperse, and only then can the person be considered truly dead.

Among all cats, the black cat has the highest contrast in its eyes and the best night vision, naturally making it the most perceptive. Other animals, including humans, generally have the highest perceptiveness only in their youth, but the black cat's perceptiveness increases with age; that is, the older the black cat, the higher its perceptiveness. The higher the perceptiveness, the stronger its ability to absorb "earthly souls." In other words, that cat is now not just a cat, but a demon, a demon that has absorbed the earthly souls of humans.

"Then, what about that little girl? How did she die?"

"I heard it was suicide. When the body was brought over, I heard them mention it..."

"By the will of Heaven, I shall sleep for now and seek peace, so be it!" Before Grandpa Qian could finish speaking, my talisman had already been cast. By the time the old man woke up, the night should have long passed.

The person who commits suicide naturally harbors the greatest resentment, especially a minor child, particularly a girl. A minor girl who commits suicide can be considered a vengeful spirit, while a black cat is a yin beast. When yin and yin collide, it becomes Taiyin. The spirit of Taiyin can be destroyed, but the vengeful beast of Taiyin is probably more difficult to destroy. The existence of a physical body is the biggest obstacle.

Pushing open the morgue door, my head suddenly felt heavy, and the endless lights went out...

(vi) The morgue, Chapter 4, estimated errors

The entire room was cold and dark, with only the metal door of the inner freezer compartment reflecting a faint glow. When the light switch was turned on, only the hissing sound of electricity could be heard, but no light was produced.

It seems this guy isn't going to accept my offer.

"Snap!" Just as my hand was about to touch the extinguished Endless Lamp, a gust of cold wind swept past my arm. Luckily, it was winter, and I was wearing thick clothes, but the sleeve of my down jacket was completely ripped open, the down inside spilling out, and my arm was also scratched. Most importantly, this Endless Lamp made of human bones—shattered!

The Endless Lamp was shattered, leaving only half of the oil pan; the rest had turned to dust.

My arm was wet, so it must have been bleeding, but the darkness here made it impossible for me to see the color of the blood. However, judging from the level of pain, it seemed to be just a common external injury. What hurt me was probably not the cat, but some tool in the house.

"Above, the red umbrella of the East shines; below, the red soldiers of the South Sea are illuminated. Red helmets, red armor, red feathers—what kind of demon has revealed its true form?" The shattering of the endless lamp truly enraged me. Originally, I thought, "She's just a little girl. I don't want to make things difficult for her. I'll just send her to her death." But since she has openly challenged me, how could I possibly tolerate her?

A demon-slaying talisman was thrown, but it turned to ashes within a meter. This suddenly made me feel terrible. Had I misjudged the situation? Even if a vengeful ghost who committed suicide had possessed a cat's body to return to life, it couldn't possibly suddenly have such abilities. The paper of these demon-slaying talismans was specially made with glutinous rice paste. Let alone a newly deceased little ghost, even a hundred-year-old wandering spirit probably wouldn't have the ability to render all these talismans ineffective.

Before I could even gather my sword's energy, I heard the clanging of metal all around me. Before I could even react, I was already covered in cuts. I dodged the remaining attacks in a sorry state until a scalpel, gleaming with a chilling aura, grazed my leg, but by then I was already forced into the outer room.

"Thump, thump, thump..." The knocking sound came from the inner freezer. It seems this guy is preparing to summon "scattered spirits" into the bodies of the corpses, using these bodies that have been dead for who knows how many days to block me.

I stood up, but before I could even engage in battle, the pain in my leg made me tremble. If those corpses were truly possessed by "spreading spirits," I feared I wouldn't have the strength to fight them. But what exactly was this thing? A mere ghost beast probably wouldn't have the ability to summon spreading spirits, and besides, it didn't seem to intend to confront me head-on.

The worst thing about this kind of business is encountering people like this. They resolutely refuse to show themselves and even summon their henchmen. Once I've dealt with those guys, I'm pretty much done for too. Onmyoji are human too, with flesh and blood. If they could really do anything, they'd be writing novels and making movies.

Therefore, I've decided to stop here for today.

"Fire-eating pearl, fire-slaying snake, fire-awakening tiger, fire-blocking wall, attack!" I threw a line of fire made from pig and dog blood to seal the door to the inner room, just enough to stop the corpses possessed by "dispersed spirits" from rushing out.

Using the light from the corpses crashing into the fire, I picked up the remaining half of the Endless Lamp's fire plate and rushed out.

Covered in wounds, I was in so much pain I had no strength left. Even though I'm in a hospital, I'm a summoned sorcerer; if people saw me like this, I'd lose face, and how would I ever face them again? I can't go home; I can't let the old lady see me like this. Another problem is that the Endless Lamp broke; how am I going to explain this to the prince? What will we use tomorrow?

"Weiyang, get in the car," I finally decided to call Lü Hantian.

"Wow, that's fast," I said, limping as I climbed into the back seat.

"Honey, what happened to you?" Lu Hantian turned around and asked anxiously.

"Baby my ass, hurry up and go, or I'll turn into a dried-up corpse," I said, half-lying on the back seat, both annoyed and amused.