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墨書 Inktalez
When a few people arrived at the crematorium, it was already around ten o'clock at night. The crematorium, as the name suggests, was located in the Old Town District, where buildings typically did not exceed six stories. The area was remote and inconvenient for transportation. Before any developers decided to invest, it would likely have remained desolate.
However, even with a real estate developer willing to invest in this location, there would not be many buyers.
In stark contrast to the bustling and bright scenes of the city center, the streets were nearly deserted at this hour. The shops on either side had closed early, leaving only rows of lonely streetlights shining into the night. The crematorium in the Old Town District occupied a small area and had seen little use lately.
Yuan Jun parked the car by the roadside, and the group got out and walked toward the main entrance of the crematorium.
Two rusty iron gates blocked their way. Jiang He approached to take a look; the gates were chained together but not locked. Peering through the wire gates, he saw a path extending forward into darkness, with no streetlights illuminating either side—an endless black void.
Inside the gates was a guardhouse of about ten square meters, also shrouded in darkness, indicating that it had likely been abandoned.
Yuan Jun stepped forward, tugged at the iron chain hanging from the gate, unfastened it, and then pushed open one of the gates to enter. He leaned closer to the window of the guardhouse, peering into its pitch-black interior, unsure if anyone was inside.
"Knock knock knock," Yuan Jun tapped on the window and called out, "Is anyone there?"
There was no response from within.
Turning back to his companions, Yuan Jun said, "It seems like this crematorium has been left unattended."
Xu Yiman gazed down the dark path and remarked, "It looks like it might be abandoned. I wonder when this crematorium was built; it must still have old machinery that is no longer suitable for today's standards. Modern crematoriums are almost entirely automated now; you just need to press a few buttons on an LCD screen. But looking at this place, it seems they might still require manual handling of bodies for cremation."
As a highly professional forensic expert, Xu Yiman frequently visited mortuaries, crematoriums, and hospital morgues. She understood the processes and operations involved in cremation very well. It seemed reasonable that this crematorium had seen little use; thus, it wasn't surprising that a murderer might hide here.
"Let's go inside and take a look," Jiang He suggested.
As soon as Jiang He finished speaking, Xu Yiman suddenly screamed, pointing at the window behind Yuan Jun. "Yuan Jun! Behind you!"
A face gradually appeared on the glass, and as everyone got a clearer view, they realized it was the face of an old man. He pointed a finger at a candle with his left hand, leaning his head closer to the glass from inside the room, his voice hoarse like a drum that had been passed down through the ages: "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Yuan Jun pulled out his police badge and said, "Police! Here to investigate."
The old man swallowed hard, placing the candle on the windowsill. Moments later, he emerged from the guardhouse wearing thermal pants and a leather jacket. He hunched over, his face weathered, with eyes hidden beneath heavy bags. When he spoke, his yellowed teeth, stained from smoke, were revealed: "Police?"
Jiang He nodded and looked at the hunchbacked old man. "We need to check this crematorium."
The old man glanced at the group and then at Yuan Jun's badge. "I can't read, so I don't know if you're really police. Just do whatever you want inside, but don't disturb my sleep. Anyway, I've sold off all the valuable stuff in there; you won't be able to steal anything."
Then he turned his gaze toward Xu Yiman and leered, "Big butt giving birth."
"Enough," Yuan Jun frowned and asked the old man, "Have any strangers come in recently?"
"Are they dead or alive?" The old man squinted at Yuan Jun and asked lightly.
In this eerie crematorium, shrouded in darkness, combined with such a strange old man, Yuan Jun felt an unsettling sensation creeping up on him. It seemed as if countless spirits were lurking in the dark corners around them.
"Is this crematorium still operational?" Jiang He inquired.
The old man chuckled. "Every second in this world, someone is born and someone dies. But not every newborn gets parental care, nor does every deceased have someone to handle their affairs. In Dragon City, there are always missing people and bodies that no one claims after death."
"The bodies whose causes of death are determined but whose families cannot be found end up here," he continued, narrowing his eyes into slits so that it was unclear where his gaze landed. "They stay here for ten or fifteen days; if their families still can't be found, the bodies are turned into specimens for hospitals to use as dissection tools. Hehe, even in death, there's no peace."
"All that's here are wandering souls. If you're not afraid, feel free to do whatever you want." With that, the old man walked back into the guardhouse. His face illuminated by the candlelight looked particularly eerie against the window. Then he moved his mouth and blew out the candle on the windowsill; instantly, his face vanished, leaving nothing visible in the dark room.
Yuan Jun shivered. "That old man is really strange."
A few people walked down the corridor, and Xu Yiman seemed to be more familiar with the layout, leading everyone straight to the morgue's storage room. As they ventured deeper, Jiang He had to take out his phone for light. In the depths of the corridor, an old sign read "Storage Room."
The door to the storage room was closed. Jiang He pushed against it but found it wouldn’t budge.
"I'll do it," Yuan Jun stepped forward, lifted his foot, and kicked the iron door open.
A chill air rushed out from behind the door, causing everyone to shiver as if a wave of spirits swept over them.
Jiang He shone his phone's flashlight inside and saw that both sides of the storage room were lined with rows of cabinets resembling safes, though these cabinets were tall and appeared quite heavy.
Xu Yiman looked at the ice cabinets and said, "These are the body refrigerators. However, they look quite outdated. They can't automatically adjust the temperature; it seems they are connected by a single pipe running through all of them."
"Can you tell which cabinet has a body in it?" Jiang He asked Xu Yiman.
Xu Yiman shook her head and replied, "I don't know. There isn't even basic information about the deceased on the outside of these cabinets. It looks like they are all bodies that haven't been identified."
Jiang He sighed and said, "If that's the case, we'll have to open them one by one."
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