Ghost Stories - Chapter 10
"Where is that?"
Li Mingsheng suddenly interjected, "You mean Hongshan Cemetery?"
The shop owner nodded, looked at the two, and said, "They've been dead for three days!"
"What?" Lin Feng exclaimed in disbelief. The image of Zhang Daoshi, his back straight and full of energy, flashed before his eyes again. They had only been separated for a few days, and Zhang Daoshi was truly dead. Lin Feng felt a pang of sadness.
Lin Feng asked in a dry voice, "Does he have any relatives?"
The shop owner thought for a moment and said, "I haven't heard of him having any relatives. When he moved here more than 20 years ago, he was just an old man living alone, and no one ever came looking for him."
Li Mingsheng asked, "Then who took care of his funeral arrangements?"
The shop owner said, "It's the neighborhood committee, I guess. Nobody would know if someone died at home. If they hadn't found it early, the body would probably be rotting by now."
Lin Feng felt as if something was blocking his throat, and he couldn't speak. Li Mingsheng gently patted Lin Feng and pulled him towards the car.
Lin Feng said, "Could we go to Hongshan Cemetery for a look?"
Li Mingsheng nodded and drove the car toward Hongshan Cemetery.
Upon arriving at the cemetery entrance, Li Mingsheng and Lin Feng got out of the car and walked into the cemetery. From a distance, they could hear the rustling sound of sweeping, presumably the staff cleaning up.
The two walked toward the place where the ashes were kept. An old man was sweeping the floor at the entrance, his body bent over.
After finding Zhang the Taoist's ashes, Lin Feng took out incense from the table next to him, lit it, bowed several times, and burned two rolls of yellow paper. He wiped the photo on the urn and put it back in its place.
Li Mingsheng took out 10 yuan for incense paper and gave it to the sweeper at the door.
As they came out, a middle-aged man emerged from the small room near the entrance and asked, "When did you go in?"
Lin Feng said, "Just now? You weren't here when we arrived."
The middle-aged man nodded and asked, "Have you paid for the incense and paper money?"
Li Mingsheng said, "I gave it to the old man who sweeps the floor there!"
The middle-aged man's expression suddenly changed drastically. He said, "Where? There's only me here. Where did this old man come from?"
Lin Feng said, "Yes, it's right outside the door of the room where the urn is kept!"
The middle-aged man said in a daze, "I've been working here for ten years. It's just me. There's no one else but me who does the cleaning and stuff."
Li Mingsheng said, "If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself. It's right over there. Let's go together so you don't think we're trying to cheat you by using incense and paper money."
The three of them walked together to the house, where there was no old man. There was only a broom lying across the doorway, with 10 yuan under it.
The middle-aged man glanced around, feeling a chilling atmosphere, and involuntarily shrank back. Li Mingsheng said strangely, "Where is he? How come the money is here, but the person is gone!" He stepped forward, picked up the money from under the broom, and handed it to the middle-aged man, saying, "That's right, the money is here, but I don't know where that old man went."
The middle-aged man asked in a trembling voice, "What did that old man look like?"
Lin Feng said, "We didn't look closely, but he had a hunchback and wasn't very tall!"
The middle-aged man said, "Hurry up!" After saying that, he walked briskly towards the guardhouse at his door.
Upon reaching the door, the middle-aged man finally caught his breath, glanced inside with lingering fear, and said, "You must have encountered something evil!"
Lin Feng said in surprise, "Really? How come I can't sense it?" Lin Feng has always had a strong sense of perception for mysterious things. If it were something unclean, there would be no reason why he wouldn't be able to sense such heavy yin energy.
The middle-aged man shook his head and said, "You'd better hurry up and leave! It'll be completely dark soon!"
While Lin Feng was still pondering whether the old man was a ghost in Li Mingsheng's car, he suddenly thought of the corpses in the morgue. A cold sweat broke out on his brow. Lin Feng finally realized that something was wrong with him. First, there was that strange dream, then the three people he saw on the bus who looked exactly like the corpses in the morgue, even their expressions were identical, and then there was the old man sweeping the floor here. He could see them now, but he couldn't sense their eerie aura, so he couldn't tell whether they were human or ghosts.
Lin Feng looked at the red line on his hand, which was so red it was almost dripping blood, wondering where he had gone wrong. Could it all be because of this red line?
Volume 1, Path of Vengeful Ghosts, Chapter 23: Nightmare (5)
Things had taken an unexpected turn, leaving Lin Feng with a terrible headache. He appeared preoccupied and in a very bad mood throughout the journey. He wasn't a deep person; he usually kept things on the surface. This series of events truly baffled him, especially now that Zhang the Taoist was dead, leaving him to fend for himself. He was completely at a loss, and everything seemed so sudden and unexpected.
"Xiao Liu, what would you like to eat?"
"Please bring me some noodles!"
In the monitoring room, Xiao Liu stared at the eight screens displaying the entire police station's surveillance. He and Xiao Zhang were newly assigned intern police officers. They were top students at the police academy, and they were quite dismissive of the recent rumors circulating in the station about paranormal events. Especially regarding Li Mingsheng, the captain of the criminal investigation team, who acted like a charlatan. Even more ridiculous was that quite a few people in the station believed Li Mingsheng's previous claims of "corpse resurrection" and other superstitious tales. They found this lack of rigor utterly laughable. When investigating cases, everything must be based on science—that was the most basic principle. Didn't they know that?
Xiao Zhang said, "Keep an eye on things, I'll be right back!"
Xiao Liu said impatiently, "Okay, go on. I haven't eaten lunch yet!" He glanced at the screen, somewhat dismissive of the station's move to install video surveillance. Who would dare to act so recklessly at the police station? Wouldn't that be asking for trouble?
However, since it's an arrangement, I have to do my best to follow it.
After Xiao Zhang left, Xiao Liu leaned back in his chair, watching the TV screen. After only a short while, the unchanging images on the eight screens made his eyes tired. Xiao Liu rubbed his eyes and yawned. Suddenly, something flashed on the fourth screen, moving incredibly fast, like a human figure. Xiao Liu quickly sat up straight, wondering if he was seeing things. A human couldn't possibly move that fast.
In the corridor shown on the screen, one of the doors was where the station temporarily stored the bodies. Thinking about the rumors surrounding Li Mingsheng and some of his teammates, Xiao Liu couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Could something really be wrong? Although he didn't believe Li Mingsheng's swearing that he had personally seen the "suddenly deceased" corpse, the thought still made him uneasy.
Something flashed on the screen and then seemed to disappear. Xiao Liu breathed a sigh of relief; he must have just been seeing things, staring at the screen for too long.
A short while later, Xiao Zhang returned with some late-night snacks. The two began eating at the table in the monitoring room, chatting as they ate. Xiao Liu said, "Do you think ghosts really exist?" He still felt uneasy about what he'd seen flash on the screen earlier.
"Are you out of your mind? What ghost are you talking about?" Xiao Zhang said while eating noodles.
Just because we haven't seen it doesn't mean others haven't.
"You mean Li Mingsheng and his group?"
"Hmm, do you think what he said is true or false? He's always been known for his rigorous approach to investigations. There's no such thing. If he's just making things up, the chief would probably have tortured him by now!"
"How do you know if they've abused us or not? They're the leaders; they wouldn't let us know even if they had!"
That's true.
As Xiao Liu spoke, he took a bite of noodles and glanced at the monitor next to him. That glance almost made him choke on his noodles. With his mouth full of noodles, Xiao Liu suddenly grabbed Xiao Zhang, who was enjoying his meal, and pointed at the monitor screen.
When Xiao Zhang saw it, he immediately felt a chill run down his spine, as if his hair was about to stand on end.
Three people walked out of the room where the body was temporarily kept, as shown on the fourth monitor!
All three people had their heads down, standing in a straight line, following the person in front, walking slowly forward without any disorder. Their pace was slow, their steps heavy, and their movements stiff. Xiao Zhang and Xiao Liu stared in surprise, their unfinished noodles falling from their mouths.
These are three corpses, the three bodies that died of sudden heart attacks stored in the morgue. Their bodies have purple or red spots, which Xiao Zhang knows are livor mortis.
Both of them were shocked and frightened, their hands and feet went weak, and they were speechless for a moment.
The three corpses walked up to the camera, and the first corpse suddenly looked up and smiled at the camera.
The two were startled; the entire screen was filled with the corpse's terrifying face. Its eyes were wide open in anger, but the corners of its mouth were turned up in a bizarre and chilling way.
After the body passed under the camera, staring at the empty screen, the two of them remained stunned for a full ten seconds before suddenly saying to each other in unison, "What do we do?"
In the end, Xiao Zhang said, "Let's call Captain Li. Nobody else will believe us if we tell them. Captain Li has had this experience before, so he might come!"
Xiao Liu agreed, "Okay, hurry up and call! I...I...I..." He kept saying "I" three times but couldn't quite get the words out. He was just too nervous.
Xiao Zhang picked up the phone and dialed Li Mingsheng's number. His trembling hand dialed the wrong number twice. On the third try, he finally got through, but the phone rang with a dial tone indicating that someone was waiting to answer.
Xiao Zhang breathed a sigh of relief. The call connected, and Li Mingsheng said "Hello!" on the other end. Just as Xiao Zhang was about to speak, there was a burst of static on the phone, followed by a sinister voice chuckling twice.
Xiao Zhang was startled. Why was Li Mingsheng laughing like that? But he didn't think much of it and shouted, "Squad Leader Li, the body in the morgue walked out by itself!"
A muffled voice came through the phone: "I haven't left yet."
Startled, Xiao Zhang let out a scream and dropped the phone, staring blankly at Xiao Liu.
Xiao Liu asked nervously, "What's wrong? Don't scare me!"
Xiao Zhang's eyes were filled with terror as he said, "I just called Squad Leader Li, but I don't know what happened, it seemed like the corpse answered the phone!"
"Ah?" Xiao Liu was already pale with fright.
Volume 1, Path of Vengeful Spirits, Chapter 24: Nightmare (6)
Li Mingsheng said "Hello" into the phone, followed by a burst of noise and then silence. He glanced at the number; it was the control room of the bureau. He said "Hello" a few more times, and after a moment of quiet, a sinister laugh came through. "Hahahaha," the voice was like that of a demon from hell, sending chills down one's spine.
Li Mingsheng realized something was wrong and asked in a deep voice, "Who are you?"
The phone suddenly went dead with a "beep, beep, beep" sound.
Li Mingsheng said to Lin Feng, "Something might have happened at the bureau, let's go check it out!"
Lin Feng nodded and said, "If something goes wrong, the problem might lie with those three corpses!"
Li Mingsheng dialed the control room while driving, and it took quite a while before someone answered.
Li Mingsheng asked, "Hello, who just called?"
A tearful voice came through the phone: "Squad Leader Li, come quick! Those three bodies walked out by themselves!"
Li Mingsheng slammed on the brakes and exclaimed, "What?"
Xiao Zhang was on the verge of a breakdown, saying, "Xiao Liu and I saw those three corpses walk out with our own eyes!"
Li Mingsheng asked, "Where did they go?"
Xiao Zhang said, "How would I know? None of us dared to go out and see. We saw it on the screen in the control room."
Li Mingsheng said, "Wait there, I'll be right there!"
After hanging up the phone, Li Mingsheng said, "Those three bodies left on their own!" He then took out the police lights, placed them on the roof of the police car, and sped towards the station, worried that the two new officers might be in danger.
Upon arriving at the control room, they found Xiao Zhang and Xiao Liu sitting there in fear, their bodies still trembling. Seeing Li Mingsheng and Lin Feng enter, the two reacted as if they had seen saviors, describing the terrifying scene they had just witnessed.
After hearing this, Li Mingsheng said to Lin Feng, "Shall we go take a look?"
Before Lin Feng could answer, Xiao Zhang and Xiao Liu blurted out, "No, zombies kill people!"
Lin Feng smiled faintly and said, "Then you guys stay here, Captain Li and I will go!"
Li Mingsheng had worked as a criminal investigator for many years, dealing with countless vicious criminals and facing death several times. Lin Feng, on the other hand, had encountered numerous paranormal events and was quite experienced in them. Naturally, their tolerance for such things was much greater than that of others.
The two walked towards the morgue, one after the other. Opening the morgue door, they found it empty; under the cold, dim light, the three corpses were nowhere to be seen.
Li Mingsheng and Lin Feng looked at each other, bewildered.
Night had fallen, and it was past two in the morning. Some of the streetlights had already gone out, and only the lights on the main road were still on.
Wenliang cursed his heartless boss for making him work so late. Luckily, the company was close to home, only a 7 or 8-minute walk away. Thinking of his warm bed at home, Wenliang felt like all his bones were about to fall apart; all he wanted to do was lie down on that warm, comfortable bed as soon as possible.
Walk across this small street, and you'll see Wenliang's studio apartment. He bought it with a down payment of 50,000 yuan and a mortgage; it will be another four years before it's completely his own. He works hard so that he can live more comfortably in the future.
Halfway there, three people approached, looking rather strange in the moonlight. And yes, their gait seemed very stiff.
Could they be disabled? Wenliang thought to himself, it's the middle of the night, and it's quite pitiful if they have mobility issues. But he didn't have time to help them. After a long day of work, all his energy had been drained by that wicked boss, and he had no energy left to help others.
As he approached, three people suddenly blocked his path.
"We've run into robbers!" That was Wenliang's first thought. However, he was quite confident in his skills, after all, he had studied Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) for many years and could easily take on three to five ordinary people.
"What do you guys want?" Wenliang coldly looked at the three gloomy-faced, ragged men. He took out 500 yuan from his bag and said, "Take this if you need money." Wenliang waved the banknote in his hand; it was best not to resort to violence if possible.