Corpse raising

Chapter 10

"Huh? How could that be! Of course not..." Bo Xiaoxue was flustered when Mao Weiwei saw through her thoughts.

"You're lying! It's written all over your face! Do you think I'm crazy?!"

Mao Weiwei's accusations threw Bo Xiaoxue into a panic. Using the act of setting out the dishes, Bo Xiaoxue forced herself to calm down. "No...you've misunderstood..."

"...Never mind, it's no wonder you all think that way. Even I'm starting to believe I've really gone crazy." Mao Weiwei murmured, leaning back against the wall again. Her voice was soft, but loud enough for Bo Xiaoxue to hear.

"I clearly remember killing that thing by throwing it, but when I looked back... I found that thing was still there. Where's my Erguai? Where's my own son? At that moment, I really thought I was going crazy..." Regardless of whether Bo Xiaoxue was listening or not, Mao Weiwei continued speaking. She suddenly asked Bo Xiaoxue a question, "Were you one of the people who delivered my baby?"

Bo Xiaoxue nodded gently.

"So you saw it all, then tell me, how many children did I have back then?"

"...There are two."

"What about the third one seen during the ultrasound?"

"That..." Bo Xiaoxue hesitated when she said this. She remembered it. Although she had almost treated it as a special phenomenon that might be encountered by chance during surgery and pretended to have forgotten it, the memory resurfaced in her mind with great clarity when Mao Weiwei asked about the situation at that time.

The third child...it really is...

"It was born...but..."

Cheng Rui's bloodied hand reappeared before his eyes, and upon seeing it, that strange expression returned to Cheng Rui's face. That situation was indeed eerie, wasn't it? Why doesn't anyone mention it? Perhaps it's because it's too bizarre that they deliberately avoid talking about it…

"But what?"

If the source of this bizarre event were interrogating you... would you say something?

"But it was stillborn, and... that child didn't have an umbilical cord!" Bo Xiaoxue chose to tell the story of that day.

I feel much better now... Sure enough, even though I tried to forget what happened that day, there was still something stuck in my heart that was making me feel like I had a fishbone stuck in my throat. I guess that's part of the reason why I've been feeling this way these past few days.

"No... umbilical cord?" The one who was initially the aggressive questioner, Mao Weiwei, was stunned!

Mao Weiwei blankly repeated what Bo Xiaoxue had told her, her face filled with shock.

"So... the dream I had that night really was real... that child really was strange..." Mao Weiwei hugged her arms, and even though it wasn't a cool summer night, she still felt small goosebumps rising on her arms.

Mao Weiwei stood up agitatedly and paced back and forth in the room.

Bo Xiaoxue was a little dizzy from the woman's swaying figure, and that feeling of nausea came back. Unable to resist her physiological instincts, Bo Xiaoxue ran into the private toilet in the special ward and hugged the toilet to vomit.

I'm still gagging.

According to general practice, most people should stop experiencing morning sickness by the fifth month, but mine was getting worse every day.

He stood up coughing, but when he turned around, he was startled by the figure behind him. It was Mao Weiwei; he didn't know when she had appeared behind him again.

"Pregnant...right...you're pregnant..." Mao Weiwei's expression suddenly became very subtle, as if she were glaring at the ghost in her heart. Bo Xiaoxue subconsciously hugged her stomach, but as if confirming Bo Xiaoxue's panic, Mao Weiwei's gaze suddenly turned fierce when she glared at Bo Xiaoxue again.

"I know... 'It's' here with you... 'It's' afraid of me, so it ran into your stomach... Let go, I'm going to pull 'it' out..."

Mao Weiwei spoke gently, but the content was terrifying! Bo Xiaoxue realized with horror that Mao Weiwei's gaze was fixed squarely on her... stomach!

"No!"

Bo Xiaoxue instinctively pushed aside Mao Weiwei, who was blocking the doorway and trying to grab her, and ran outside with all her might!

"Don't run away! I'm trying to help you... otherwise you'll end up like me... don't run away!"

Hearing Mao Weiwei's calm voice as usual, Bo Xiaoxue was horrified to discover that Mao Weiwei's movements were no slower than hers.

Bo Xiaoxue rushed to the door first, locked it from the inside, and then, panting, looked at Mao Weiwei inside through the specially designed observation window.

Mao Weiwei's face suddenly slammed into the glass. Although she knew she couldn't possibly break the glass, Bo Xiaoxue was still startled.

Staggering, Bo Xiaoxue took a few steps back. Looking at Mao Weiwei pounding on the door, Bo Xiaoxue was a little scared. She called for the doctor in the main building.

"Mao Weiwei's condition isn't right, please come over as soon as possible..."

Having promised to stay here until he arrived, Bo Xiaoxue could only continue standing outside the door, watching Mao Weiwei, who was completely out of control, frantically banging on the door.

Is this... really just madness? What did she understand? Did she really see something?

Mao Weiwei's actions left Bo Xiaoxue feeling uneasy and began to suspect other things.

Suddenly... she was drawn to Mao Weiwei's next move: Mao Weiwei smiled.

Mao Weiwei stepped back, seemingly saying something to herself. Then, Bo Xiaoxue watched as Mao Weiwei reached her hand towards her lower body, something she couldn't see...

No……

A terrifying thought flashed through Bo Xiaoxue's mind. She wanted to open the door, but her body wouldn't move. She could only watch Mao Weiwei inside the door smiling at her—that chilling smile—and then…

Bo Xiaoxue watched as the red liquid seeped out from under the door, flowing from Mao Weiwei's room into the hallway where she was...

Bo Xiaoxue fainted. The last thing she saw was Mao Weiwei's smile, which seemed to be a sense of relief after she had gone to the extreme of madness.

Chapter Seven: Corpse Raising Technique

"Her lower body...she pulled an umbilical cord out of her body..."

When Bo Xiaoxue woke up, she found herself in a place that wasn't unfamiliar.

"This is..." Bo Xiaoxue frowned, slowly sat up, and subconsciously touched her stomach.

"It's Xu Yao's home."

A familiar voice came from beside her. Bo Xiaoxue looked up and saw that it was Xin Nuo. She had just felt thirsty, and a glass of warm water had been brought to her immediately. Bo Xiaoxue remembered...

The person who handed her the water glass was Xin Nuo's older brother with a different surname, I think his surname was Duan...

"You fainted, and the dean told me to take you home, but I couldn't find your house key, so I could only bring you here first," Han Xinnuo explained, scratching her head.

Holding her water glass, Bo Xiaoxue hesitated for a moment before her voice came from beneath her thick bangs, "Where's Mao Weiwei?"

"..."

There was no answer. A jolt went through her mind, and Bo Xiaoxue knew that her worst fears had come true: "She's dead."

Bo Xiaoxue used a declarative sentence, and then she heard Xin Nuo softly say "Mmm".

"She..." Xin Nuo didn't know how to describe the bizarre method of her suicide, but then, as if suddenly remembering something, she added, "Her lower body... she pulled an umbilical cord out of her own body..."

Even without being there in person, just imagining the scene made Bo Xiaoxue feel nauseous, and she found herself gagging again.

Emerging from the bathroom, Bo Xiaoxue noticed Xin Nuo's unusual gaze and nodded gently. "I'm pregnant."

Han Xin Nuo looked at the woman, sighed, and stopped asking her questions. Han Xin Nuo arranged for her to sleep in the master bedroom, but the woman firmly objected.

Suddenly remembering something, Xin Nuo glanced at her brother, ran to the guest room where Duan Lin and the others were staying, called out Mu Zi, and then settled the woman in.

Now only three men are left sitting on the sofa in the living room.

Turning on the TV and setting the volume to a level that wasn't too loud but also not too quiet, Xin Nuo began, "Senior's boyfriend is Senior Xu Yao. They're dating very discreetly, so many people don't know, not even the dean. I think..."

Quietly glancing at the room where Bo Xiaoxue was, and recalling her refusal to go to the master bedroom, Han Xinnuo sighed, "I think that child is probably Xu Yao."

A woman became pregnant out of wedlock, but the father of the child recently committed suicide... It's really true...

Duan Lin glanced sympathetically at the room where the woman was, but Mu Zi's expression was peculiar. She was watching TV and seemed completely oblivious to what Xin Nuo had just said.

"So much has happened these past few days, brother, would you like to hear about it?" Finally unable to hold back any longer, Xin Nuo looked to Duan Lin for help. Actually, she wasn't expecting help, but she had encountered too many incomprehensible things during this time, and she wanted to tell anyone.

Duan Lin nodded. "Speak, since you're here, just tell me."

As if encouraged by her brother's words, Xin Nuo finally spoke up, "At first it was just crying. After finding the dead baby in his own bathroom, my senior said he kept hearing the baby crying."

"At first, the senior suspected that the sound was coming from the neighbor's house, but after asking around, no one in the neighbor's house had a child crying. Apart from the senior, no one else heard the child crying. It seemed that the crying could only be heard from the senior's room. Isn't that strange?"

"The senior started having insomnia and began to live in fear every day, afraid of the crying that could be heard every night."

"The senior has finally confirmed it: the crying is coming from his own house, from his own room..."

"If it were just crying, it might be okay, but then the senior felt someone staring at him from outside. He... seemed to actually see something, so he stopped going out and eventually fainted here."

"My senior is a very proud person and won't ask for help unless absolutely necessary. That day when I called him, he suddenly asked me to come and stay with him. I was shocked, and then he suddenly fainted. I pieced together all of this while taking him to the hospital. But…"

"I heard that crying too. I couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from, it seemed to be coming from all directions, but it was definitely right here in this house. Brother, you don't know, I was scared too! That feeling..."

As she spoke, Han Xinnuo clutched her head, her face filled with panic, completely losing her usual spirited demeanor.

"I asked the building manager to check, and there are no newborns in any of the surrounding houses. That crying... it's like it came from nowhere, right in our house. It's really... so eerie."

"I can't take it anymore either. I don't want to become like my senior, but I don't dare to abandon him. So... I can only come to you."

With a beginning, things became easier. Xin Nuo slowly recounted all the things she had encountered, both understandable and incomprehensible.

Finally, he asked the question that had been weighing on his mind for a long time, "Brother, can you really see those things? Do you think ghosts really exist?"

In the end, Xin Nuo looked at her brother with expectation, as if hoping for an answer from him, yet also as if hoping for a negative answer.

Duan Lin opened his mouth, but ultimately chose to shake his head.

"Ghosts... do exist. Not simply as the dead, but as a way of life... I think ghosts definitely exist."

Upon hearing this, Xin Nuo froze, her expression a mixture of fear and relief.

"Is there? That's good..."

That makes sense. If the events mentioned earlier can be explained by the existence of ghosts, then the crazy actions of those people I know can be seen as unconscious behaviors that are not their own intentions, which would make me feel much better.

"I think this matter is not as simple as just about ghosts."

The unfamiliar voice startled Xin Nuo. After a while, she followed her brother's gaze and realized that the person who spoke was Mu Zi, who had rarely spoken since arriving here.

"The things you just said, when put together, are less like a ghost encounter and more like a curse."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Duan Lin was the first to react. Having spent a considerable amount of time together, Duan Lin had basically gotten used to the other party's impromptu "kindness".

"Have you ever heard of adopting a corpse?" Mu Zi's next words were once again beyond the brothers' comprehension.

Seeing the puzzled expressions on their faces, and completely unconcerned, Mu Zi continued, "It's very popular in Southeast Asia, and it's considered one of the most powerful ghost-raising techniques. When I first heard that a child's corpse had been found here, I suddenly thought of this. By the way, Duan family's younger brother, do you know approximately how old the child your senior found was?"

"I heard... it's an unborn baby..." Xin Nuo suddenly shuddered at the thought.

"The so-called 'corpse raising' first requires finding a suitable corpse. The fetus that has not been contaminated by the world has the strongest ability, so the best adoptee is the infant corpse that died in the womb. Take that thing out of the mother's body, and then soak it in medicine, perform rituals and chant incantations. After a period of time, it will shrink into something the size of a palm. That is the corpse that can be offered up."

"That's not all. The corpse raiser must feed the corpse with their own blood. The power of the corpse raiser is great. Its most important functions are blessing and cursing. It can bless the corpse raiser with success and safety, and curse the corpse raiser's enemies. If it is powerful enough... it can curse those people to death."

Mu Zi spoke lightly, but those who listened were terrified.

"So... this is a curse caused by raising corpses?" Duan Lin looked up at Mu Zi.

"Not necessarily, but seeing children all the time... does seem like the kind of thing described in the book about raising child corpses."

"What? You're not sure?" Xin Nuo breathed a sigh of relief, as if she'd been granted a pardon. "I can hardly believe it..."