Corpse Retriever

“Mengmeng, come on. It’s dark and the road’s slippery. Stay with me, ow!”

Zheng Jiayi had barely finished speaking when she slipped and fell herself.

Yin Meng stepped forward, helped her up, then with a sharp click switched on the waterproof high-beam flashlight she carried with her.

“Mengmeng, you really did think this through better than I did.” Zheng Jiayi laughed and brushed off her pants.

Yin Meng looked at her with a bit of helplessness.

She was a bright, kind, strong, sensible girl, and pretty too.

On the way here, her mouth had either been chattering nonstop or letting out cheerful little laughs. Yin Meng’s ears were almost tired from listening, yet strangely, she did not find it annoying.

Up to this point in Yin Meng’s life, she had once watched over the coffin shop, and after coming to Nantong she had gained companions, but she had never really had a true best-friend type of girl by her side.

Zheng Jiayi fit that role quite well.

Yin Meng felt that in the future, she would probably be seeing her often.Of course, that was assuming she got out of this place alive.

Little Yuan had analyzed it before: Fatty Wu was far too slick and worldly. A person like that would have a hard time making genuine friends quickly, and as a counselor, he had little of value he could use in a mutual exchange of interests with Luo Gong’s students.

That meant Fatty Wu’s thread lacked a figure capable of really setting things in motion. Tan Wenbin had mentioned Fatty Wu’s pretty girlfriend, and Little Yuan had followed that up by predicting and filling in her image.

Yin Meng realized that Little Yuan’s guesses had been almost entirely correct.

Still, she did not take this as proof of some miraculous genius on Little Yuan’s part. The boy’s intelligence showed itself in many ways; this was hardly the only one.

Yin Meng had more or less grasped his thinking. He had used reverse deduction to “shape” an image that their team would find compelling.

Tan Wenbin would fall for that sort of thing.

And she... would too.

“Mengmeng, my eldest uncle’s house is just ahead. Very close, right? He lives right at the edge of town.” Zheng Jiayi giggled.

Perhaps because of how Yin Meng had behaved back in the hospital ward, the girl felt extremely safe now. Her mood was light. She believed that as long as she returned home and found the root of the problem, her parents’ illness could be completely resolved.

Bang, bang, bang.

Zheng Jiayi began knocking on the door.

Creak...

The moment she knocked, the door opened, as though the person had been standing just behind it the whole time.

Startled, Zheng Jiayi shivered and hurried back down a couple of steps.

Yin Meng lifted the flashlight and shone it upward. It was a woman, dressed in a yellowed white shirt that did not fit her very well.

“Auntie, it’s me, Jiayi.”

“Jiayi...” The woman raised a hand to shield her eyes from the light.

Yin Meng switched off the flashlight.

“Come inside, Jiayi.”

The woman turned and walked inward. She wore plastic slippers, and they made a soft shuffling sound against the floor as she moved.

The house was pitch-black inside. The woman led the two of them into the main hall.

There was a large table in the hall, but it was piled with odds and ends. Farther in was the kitchen, where a smaller table and chairs stood. Normally the family ate there. The large table in the hall was only used when entertaining many guests.

A wooden staircase ran upward along one wall. The bedrooms were upstairs.

The woman took out a match. With a sharp scratch, she lit a candle. A dim, wavering light appeared in the hall, but instead of brightening her face, it seemed to make it look even darker.

“Jiayi, where are your parents?”

“My parents didn’t come. I came back by myself this time. Auntie, I’d like to stay here a few days.”

“All right. Stay, then.”

On the way here, Yin Meng had already instructed Zheng Jiayi that the root of her parents’ illness would need to be investigated slowly and could not be rushed. Zheng Jiayi had not fully understood, but she chose to trust a professional practitioner of Chinese medicine.

The woman moved the candle toward Yin Meng and asked, “Who is she?”

“She’s my friend. Her name is Mengmeng. She came with me.”

Yin Meng nodded. “Hello, Auntie.”

“Hello.” The woman then moved the candle back again. “Jiayi, have you eaten?”

“We ate on the road, so we’re not hungry right now. Auntie, you should go upstairs and rest.”

“I’ll take you upstairs.”

Holding the candle, the woman started up the stairs.

Zheng Jiayi and Yin Meng followed behind her.

The wooden staircase kept giving off sharp creaks. Several steps shifted noticeably underfoot. It had probably gone a very long time without maintenance.

When they reached the second floor and passed the master bedroom, a man’s voice came from inside.

“Who’s here?”

“Auntie” answered, “Jiayi’s here.”

“Did my second brother and his family come too?”

“No.”

Zheng Jiayi called out, “Uncle, I brought a friend back to the old home. We’re staying a few days to relax.”

“All right. Have you eaten?”

“Yes.”

“Mm. Get some rest early.”

The voice from inside fell silent.

Yin Meng pricked up her ears and listened carefully. When the voice had come through earlier, it had sounded almost as if the man were standing right up against the bedroom door.

And now she heard no sound of him walking away from the door back toward the bed.

Was it because he was barefoot?

But with these floorboards, even bare feet should have made noise.

Yin Meng felt only suspicion, but she could not be certain. What a pity. If only she had hearing as sharp as Little Yuan’s.

The woman kept carrying the candle and leading them farther inward.

As they passed another bedroom, a voice again came through the door, pressed close against it.

“Is that little sister Jiayi?”

“Yes, Brother Daqiang, it’s me.”

That was the end of the exchange. It felt as though the conversation existed only for the sake of having a conversation.

The woman led them to the guest room. After pushing open the door, she set the candle on the table inside. “The house wiring burned out. There hasn’t been time to fix it yet. Use the candle if you need to get up during the night.”

“All right, Auntie.”

“Rest early.”

The woman turned to leave.

After setting down her backpack, Yin Meng slowly retreated to the doorway. From that angle, through the thin moonlight, she could make out the woman’s vague figure stopping in front of the master bedroom door.

Just as she was about to open it, the woman’s body suddenly twisted, and she turned her head to look back this way. The moonlight caught her eyes and gave them a faint gleam.

Yin Meng averted her gaze and reached out to close the door.

The instant she shut her own door, she heard the sound of another door opening and closing over there as well.

Yin Meng looked at Zheng Jiayi and asked, “Has your aunt always been like this?”

“Yeah. As far as I remember, my uncle’s family has always been like this. Even when my parents came, they acted the same way.”

“Your uncle’s family has only one son?”

“Right. Brother Daqiang. He’s five years older than me.”

“Not married?”

“No. Mengmeng, sit here a bit first. I’ll go downstairs and bring up some water. We can wash up a little and then sleep. Sorry, it’s too late now, and the conditions are limited. We can’t bathe tonight.”

“You stay here. I’ll go get the water.”

“I should go. If there’s no water by the stove or in the thermos, then we’ll have to draw well water from the yard.”

“I’ve spent more time living in the countryside than you have. Stay put. Don’t move.”

“Take the candle with you.”

“No need. I have a flashlight.”

Yin Meng opened the door and walked out. As she passed Zheng Daqiang’s bedroom, she paused slightly, but heard nothing. Passing the couple’s bedroom was the same: not a sound.

She went downstairs and headed first to the kitchen. In the recessed space below the kitchen counter sat four thermoses, two red and two green.

Normally, a rural household boiled water according to daily use. Freshly boiled water was for drinking, while the warm water left over the next day was for washing.

Yin Meng hefted the thermoses one by one. The first three were empty. The last one was full, but it felt oddly heavy.

She pulled out the stopper.

A squeaking, scratching sound came from inside, and a swarm of rats burst out. Yin Meng immediately jammed the stopper back in.

As for the rats that had just bolted out, they had already vanished somewhere.

She tipped the thermos sideways. There was no damage at the bottom, which proved that the rats inside had all been caught and stuffed in there by someone.

Why catch rats like that?

The stove had long since gone cold. Yin Meng tried her luck and lifted the small lid between the two large pots. There was water inside, but it too was cold.

She picked up a large plastic basin and walked to the well in the yard. She dropped in the metal bucket, letting it sink below the surface. As she began to haul it back up, she thought she heard something from upstairs.

The second-floor rooms were arranged so that the couple’s bedroom and Zheng Daqiang’s bedroom both faced the sun, which meant they faced this yard. The guest room where she and Zheng Jiayi were staying faced the back, away from the yard.

In other words, the two second-floor windows she could see now belonged to the couple’s room and their son’s room.

Without betraying anything, Yin Meng drew up the first bucket of water and poured it into the basin. When she dropped the bucket in again, she switched on the flashlight and shone it toward the upstairs windows.

Behind the window on the right, two human silhouettes appeared. Behind the window on the left, there was one.

When the flashlight beam swept away and then back again, all three silhouettes were gone.

But Yin Meng was sure she had not imagined it. Just now, while she had been drawing water, Zheng Daqiang and his parents had each been standing behind their respective windows, pressed right up against the glass.

In the past, she would never have stayed in a house like this.

If Little Yuan had been here leading the group, then judging by his temperament, he might have directly ordered her and Runsheng to charge upstairs, drag all three people out, and see what exactly was going on with them.

But she could not do that now. Her task this time was to push this clue-line through to the end, so she could not make any moves that were too extreme.

After filling the basin, Yin Meng carried it back upstairs.

There was also a staircase leading to the third floor here, probably up to an attic.

She did not go up to take a look. Instead, she returned to her own room and pushed the door open. Zheng Jiayi was sitting against the bed, eyes closed, her head nodding over and over.

After traveling for so long, she was both exhausted and sleepy.

“Ah, you’re back.” Zheng Jiayi got to her feet and walked over.

“Just sit there and wash up.”

Yin Meng took several bottles of mineral water and a towel out of her hiking pack.

“Mengmeng, do you like hiking? Your backpack looks packed with all kinds of stuff.”

“Mm.”

“It looks really heavy too. What else is inside?”

“Some books and some tools.”

Mostly corpse retriever tools.

The two girls washed up as best they could, then lay down on the bed. Zheng Jiayi slept on the inside, and Yin Meng on the outside.

The room smelled a little moldy, and so did the bedding, but it was barely usable.

“Mengmeng, where’s your hometown?”

“Sichuan.”

“Is Rongcheng fun?”

“My home is closer to Shan City.”

“No wonder your skin is so nice, so fair and smooth.” Zheng Jiayi reached out, hugged Yin Meng’s arm, and rubbed it. “I’m so jealous.”

“You’re not bad yourself.”

“Not even close compared to you. Oh right, do you have a boyfriend?”

“No.”

“Why not find one?”

“I’m not thinking about that yet.” Yin Meng turned her head toward Zheng Jiayi and asked, “Do you like your boyfriend?”

“Yes. He’s really a very good person. Chubby too. So cute.”

“All right.”

“And he’s ambitious too. It’s really hard to get the chance to stay on at school, but he managed it. He also said he’ll keep working hard.

The two of us are both from ordinary families in Jinling. I like little animals, and I like children too. I do a lot of things that other people think are pointless.

He’s willing to let me do those things. He’s very tolerant of me. I do plan to marry him one day, because in a family, if there’s already one person like me, then the other one has to work even harder.”

“Heh.”

“Mengmeng, what are you laughing at?”

“You’ve really thought it through.”

“What about you? What kind of man do you like?”

“I haven’t thought about it.”

“Then what kinds of people do you usually spend time around? Is there anyone things could go somewhere with?”

“Enough talking. Sleep. We’ll be busy tomorrow. We need to go look at your family’s ancestral graves, and we also need to... inspect this house. We should try to find the root of your parents’ illness as soon as possible.”

Besides that, once it was daylight, Yin Meng also planned to ask where Xue Liangliang’s home was. Little Yuan and Runsheng had probably already arrived.

Zheng Jiayi fell asleep the moment she said she would. Like a kitten, she nestled against Yin Meng’s side.

Yin Meng closed her eyes as well.

But before long, her eyes opened again. She had an itchy, prickling sensation she could not quite describe, only that it felt deeply unpleasant.

Lying there in bed, her gaze swept slowly around the room, until finally it settled on the door.

Wooden houses naturally tended to crack. If they were not repaired regularly, the gaps everywhere only grew wider.

The gap between the room’s door and the wall beside it was quite large.

Keeping her breathing steady, Yin Meng slowly reached toward the flashlight lying beside her.

Click!

The flashlight switched on and shone at the door.

Two reflective round points appeared, then quickly vanished.

That meant someone had been standing outside the door just now, leaning sideways so their eyes could peer through the crack and spy on the room.

…

“No, Brother Hu, do you even know where her house is?”

The car could only be parked on the main street. It could not drive into the alleys on either side.

After getting out, the two of them had gone into one alley, only to come back out again.

Fine. The first time, Tan Wenbin figured Hu Yiwei had just taken a wrong turn, which was normal enough in the pitch dark.

But the second time, the third time, the fourth time... he had followed Hu Yiwei through all these alleys for nearly two hours now, and they still had not found the home of Hu Yiwei’s ex-wife, Zeng Miaomiao.

Hu Yiwei said apologetically, “To be honest, over all these years, I’ve only been to her house once.”

“Only once?”

“Her parents died early. At home, she had a grandmother and an older sister. Her sister had gotten married, but not long after the wedding, her husband died too.

When she was in college, she worked part-time to support herself, and life was pretty hard for her.”

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