Chapter 075: Unbelievable Events Occur One After Another

An hour and a half later, the once-boiling mugwort water had gradually cooled. The tears and the blood of the closest relatives were already prepared; what mattered most now was the final step.

With a fruit knife in my hand, I crouched down and turned to look at Qin Ruo, who was standing by the side, sobbing uncontrollably. “Sister Qin, why don’t you wait for me outside?” I said. What was about to happen next, I feared she wouldn’t be able to bear.

But Qin Ruo was determined not to leave. Through her tears, she insisted that she couldn’t let her child suffer alone here; she wanted to stay by her side, always.

Seeing her resolve, I could say nothing more and simply set about my task.

I lifted the child’s corpse from the water, and with the knife I made an incision in her flesh. There was no resistance at all. Soon, I had cut away the piece of flesh from her back where the soul-crossing charm had been carved.

At the very moment the charm left the body, the once plump corpse rapidly shriveled, and large patches of livid marks began to appear on the pallid skin.

“My child!” Qin Ruo threw herself before the bathtub, cradling her daughter’s body and wailing in grief.

“Sister Qin, please take your child back to the ice coffin,” I said gently.

Still weeping, she did as I asked. The moment she lifted the corpse from the tub, the talismans I had placed around the edges instantly dissolved, and the water in the tub turned a deep crimson.

I stood aside, placing the piece of flesh into a black bag I had prepared earlier. This flesh could not remain for long; it needed to be cast into water immediately.

Thinking I had nothing further to do here for now, I slung my backpack over my shoulders, picked up the black bag, and bid Qin Ruo farewell. Since it was already late, I told her to come see me at the shop tomorrow at noon.

Just as I was about to leave, Qin Ruo knelt before me once again, pleading with me to let her see her child one more time.

I hurried to help her up; after all, I had promised her this.

Opening a can of milk powder, I took out a bundle wrapped in yellow cloth, reeking of alcohol.

Telling Qin Ruo to stand back, I shook the yellow cloth open with both hands.

A child’s wail echoed throughout the house.

“Linlin! Is it you? Linlin! It’s Mom!” Qin Ruo cried anxiously into the empty air. Seeing her like this, my heart ached. I used a talisman to open her eyes, so that she could see the one she yearned for, if only for a while.

A plume of blue smoke wafted from the yellow cloth, gathering and swirling until it took on Linlin’s appearance from life.

“My Linlin!” Qin Ruo reached out, longing to embrace her daughter, but the living and the dead are divided by fate.

“Linlin… it’s all my fault… I couldn’t protect you…” she sobbed, tracing the outline of Linlin’s face in the air.

This was their final moment together. As an outsider, I knew to take my leave, for I still had things to do.

After taking care of the flesh in the black bag, I took out my phone, about to call Wang Zihao.

Before I could dial, Wang Zihao’s call came in first.

What a coincidence? Were our minds connected?

“Hao, how did you know I was about to call you?”

“You were looking for me? I was just about to contact you,” he replied.

But the same words, spoken by a different person.

After picking me up, Wang Zihao looked at me strangely. “What are you doing here at Lotus Lake in the middle of the night?”

Before I could answer, he frowned and continued, “Do you remember the little girl you saved on the bus a few days ago?”

I nodded. “Of course. That’s exactly why I came to find you.”

“Because of her?” Wang Zihao’s eyes narrowed as he probed, “Did you know the little girl and her mother are both dead?”

“What… what did you say?”

Wang Zihao’s words struck me like a bolt from the blue. I knew the little girl had died, but how could her mother, Qin Ruo, be dead too? Wasn’t she just with me?

Wang Zihao explained that two nights ago, while he was on duty, the hospital reported an incident: a mother and daughter both died suddenly, one inside and one outside the operating room.

“To be honest, this kind of thing is really our responsibility, and now we have to trouble you,” Wang Zihao said, pulling out a pack of Huangshan cigarettes. The way he lit one reminded me of Captain Cui.

As he exhaled a cloud of smoke and turned to me, under the faint streetlight I could clearly see the bloodshot veins in his eyes.

“Do you know how the child died? Or how her mother died?” There was a trace of fear in Wang Zihao’s gaze.

“The child’s skin was unblemished, but her internal organs were burnt to a crisp, her blood coagulated into a massive black clot, and a talisman had been carved into her back,” he continued with a swallow.

“Her mother died right outside the operating room, smashing her head against the wall and breaking her neck.”

“I know it sounds strange, but just now the hospital called to report that both bodies have vanished…”

Wang Zihao looked at me in utter confusion. “Do you know what I saw on the surveillance tape? The child’s mother got up on her own from the morgue slab, found her child’s body, and just walked out of the hospital with it in her arms, bold as you please—then disappeared without a trace!”

“This… how am I supposed to…” He smashed his fist against the car door. “What’s happening to this world? Why is all this strange stuff happening lately…”

I gave a bitter laugh. The world had always been like this; it’s just that most people would never encounter such things in their lifetime.

“You’re saying a dead person got up and walked out of the morgue? Where would she go?”

I sighed, pulling my phone from my pocket as I replied, “Hao, actually, making a corpse move isn’t that difficult. I can do it myself. And if someone with real skill controls the body…”

I offered a sheepish smile and played a video I’d recorded at Qin Ruo’s house for Wang Zihao to see.

At the same time, I said, “Even I would struggle to tell if the person standing before me was actually a corpse…”

The incredible events just kept coming, one after another.