Chapter 9

Chapter 6

There were children laughing upstairs in the morgue.

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"Too damn eerie, do you think there are ghosts there? No mistake, many novels have such words."

After listening to Lin Fei recount his experience of apprenticing at the morgue this morning, An Kang stared at Lin Fei as if he had just heard a ghost story.

"There shouldn't be...," Lin Fei was also very hesitant about this matter. Although he had never seen a "ghost" with his own eyes, he had encountered some things that science couldn't explain, so he didn't dare to make a definitive judgment.

"Better to believe in their existence than to deny it!" An Kang said, "Do you remember the ghost story at the medical school when we were in college?"

"That was just a rumor, used by guys to scare girls when they were trying to get close to them!" Lin Fei shook his head.

"Anyway, I think your master, Old Hu, seems quite capable! Just like the ghost-catching Taoist in the movies!" An Kang's eyes twinkled, "If he really is a Taoist, wouldn't you become a little Taoist by following him?"

"Ha ha!" Lin Fei said expressionlessly, "That joke isn't funny at all!"

"Anyway, I have high hopes for your master! It's a pity he chose you. Otherwise, I would have followed you to the North District Bureau to see what it's like. Maybe I could even learn a few tricks!"

As An Kang rambled on, Lin Fei just sighed repeatedly.

It wasn't because he was worried about what An Kang said: "Are there ghosts? What is Old Hu's true identity?"

But because he was worried about the problem he would face the next morning!

...

The next day, Lin Fei, who hadn't slept well all night, arrived at the morgue early. After the apprenticeship ceremony, the first thing Old Hu asked him to do was to light incense and candles at the morgue before the end of the hour of the Rabbit.

The morgue was located in the back yard of the North District Bureau. Originally, it was a large warehouse for storing miscellaneous items. According to Old Hai, a strange incident occurred in the North District Bureau ten years ago, so the morgues of the major bureaus were all abandoned...

The new morgue building was constructed by the previous bureau chief, who saw that the warehouse was quite large and thought it was a waste to use it just for storing items. He discussed with the other bureau chiefs and decided to demolish the warehouse and build a new morgue building for the entire city's police stations, with two floors.

The upper floor was used for temporary storage of bodies and office space, while the lower floor was used for long-term storage. Especially the largest morgue room, which could hold up to thirty-two bodies, occupying more than three-fifths of the room's maximum capacity!

Lin Fei went to Old Fan, the night watchman of the police station, to get the incense and candles that Old Hu had prepared in advance. Old Fan, who was over sixty, was a retired police officer with no children. Since he was laid off, he had stayed at the North District Bureau as a night watchman.

He looked at Lin Fei's new face. Since there weren't many people in the police station, the old man had naturally heard about the new arrival.

Lin Fei observed Old Fan. Although his face looked old, his body was very strong! Especially when Old Fan went upstairs to get the incense and candles, Lin Fei was about to help him, but the old man disappeared in a flash and then easily "jumped" down the stairs.

"My god! Has this old man practiced lightness kung fu?" Lin Fei picked up a basket of incense and candles, scratching his head, his eyes constantly moving, feeling very curious about Old Fan.

Just as he was about to leave, Old Fan hurriedly said, "Little Lin! You're new, let me tell you a few rules!"

"Mr. Fan, go ahead!"

"When you enter a temple, you pay respects to the Buddha; when you enter a house, you greet the people. When you enter our morgue, you should also pay respects to the old residents, so use this incense!... There's no place to light incense on the second floor, so you can find an incense burner at the stairwell. Put two small bundles of incense, sixty in total, there!"

"On the first floor, put the incense in the largest morgue room at the end! But remember, you must light a large bundle of incense, one hundred in total, and don't break it!"

"Then, after lighting the incense, when you walk back, stay close to the wall, don't walk in the middle, got it?"

"Why can't I walk in the middle?" Lin Fei asked curiously.

"The middle is for them to pass through. If you walk in the middle, you'll block their way!" Old Fan looked at the clock in the room, pushed Lin Fei, and said, "Go quickly! Go quickly! It's already 6:30! Don't waste time!"

Despite being over sixty, Old Fan's push was stronger than that of a young man, making Lin Fei think: Was Old Fan even stronger when he was young?

Sigh... Lin Fei sighed. Although he had many questions, he felt like he was going crazy when he was about to ask.

Who is the middle path for?

Am I crazy, or is Old Fan crazy? First Old Hu, then Old Fan, why are the people in this police station so strange?

Seeing that it was almost the end of the hour of the Rabbit, Lin Fei hurriedly ran to the morgue. Stepping into the morgue again, Lin Fei still felt a strange feeling in his heart!

After following Old Fan's instructions and completing all the procedures, he looked at the empty first-floor corridor, where only his own shadow was visible. He suddenly felt a strange sense of fear, especially when he stood at the stairwell, feeling the cold wind constantly passing by, making him wrap himself tightly in his coat.

He remembered what Old Fan said: don't walk in the middle. He carefully walked along the wall from the morgue room back to the morgue entrance. Although the cold wind was still there, it gave him a bit of security.

He took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, lit one, and leaned against the wall next to the entrance, feeling somewhat depressed. He asked himself, "Is it worth coming to such a place for money?"

Regardless of whether there were such things here or not, just looking at the eerie corridor was already scary; not to mention the strange sound he suddenly heard:

"Sweep the streets, take big steps! The old man with white hair washes diapers...

Pick up garbage, throw away garbage! The old man on the tricycle loves to be confused..."

This sound?

Lin Fei moved away from the cold wall, and the sound became faint but still audible.

The sound wasn't eerie but rather cheerful, like a group of carefree children playing. The problem was, this was the morgue! Where did the children come from...

Lin Fei hesitated, his brows furrowed, looking at the stairs leading to the second floor.

It was already early spring, and the sky was getting light earlier! Although the sun hadn't risen, it brought a bit of light to the eerie morgue! The motion-activated lights on the second floor had gone out, making the stairs darker!

Lin Fei kept telling himself: don't go up! don't go up!

But humans are inherently conflicted! Curiosity often drives people to do things they fear but want to understand...

He had already walked to the bend of the second-floor stairs, where the light was flickering! It looked very eerie. Lin Fei looked at the second-floor corridor, and the flickering light was caused by the wind blowing the candles he had just lit!

He approached the incense burner, and the candle flame, for some reason, became unstable, as if being attacked by a swirling wind. He immediately thought of what Old Hu had told him: "In our line of work, I don't require you to be overly respectful to your master, but you must respect the dead!"

Lin Fei seemed to have an idea.

He seemed to remember the scene from the previous night when he was lighting the incense in the largest morgue room! What if there really were ghosts?

He hurriedly bowed to the incense burner and said respectfully, "Dear brothers and sisters, I accidentally disturbed you! Don't be offended!"

He called them "brothers and sisters" because the sound he heard was like the "nursery rhyme" that children often sang on the street. But this nursery rhyme was very unfamiliar to him...

Soon, Lin Fei's actions received a response! The flickering candle flame gradually calmed down and stopped moving!

Lin Fei looked up at the second-floor corridor from the stairs, and seeing that it was empty and nothing was wrong, he breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to turn back.

At this moment, two "squeaking" sounds stopped him!

He perked up his ears and listened. The sound came from very close to him, but it only sounded twice and then stopped!

Lin Fei looked at the still calm incense and candles, and silently encouraged himself: go and check, it should be fine!

He tiptoed onto the second-floor corridor, remembering Old Fan's instructions to stay close to the wall.

He pressed his back tightly against the cold wall and slowly... slowly moved forward...

After a few steps, Lin Fei stopped!

He looked up at a room door, which was open...

He didn't know if the staff had forgotten to close it when they left yesterday, or if the lock was broken!

The only thing he knew was that when he approached the room, a cold wind came out of the door and quickly disappeared.

He quickly turned back and looked at the incense and candles, seeing that they were still calm! He felt relieved and slowly turned to look up...

"Archive Room?"

Lin Fei hesitated for a moment, stepped into the room, and turned on the light switch by the door! Everything in the room became bright!

Two long cabinets, filled with documents of varying thickness.

Lin Fei's eyes immediately fell on the only desk in the archive room, where a thick file lay open.

The cover read "North District Bureau," and Lin Fei casually flipped to the page with a pen:

"December 31. On the eve of New Year's Day, a traffic accident occurred on Fumin Road, resulting in the death of a seventy-year-old man and four children! According to the traffic bureau, the accident was caused by the man driving in the wrong direction."

"Huo Youwang, 70 years old. Chest bone shattered, heart crushed to death by an external object!"

"Lu Man, 7 years old, obvious tire marks on the abdomen, ribs connecting the upper and lower body completely crushed."

"Zhang Tingting, 7 years old, same cause of death!"

"Li Xiaowei, 6.5 years old, same cause of death!"

"Liu Kangkang, 5 years old, same cause of death!"

By the time he read this, Lin Fei's body was already trembling, the initial fear gradually turning into anger. The more he read, the angrier he became:

"Postscript: After the incident, the traffic bureau refused to disclose the real identity of the driver! Investigations suggest the driver was the son of a high-ranking official in the province..."

"Clearly a cover-up!" Lin Fei's face turned red with anger, "Hmph! Even if this person escapes this time, they will eventually face retribution! But what about the old man and the children... who will seek justice for them?"

His face was grim, his fist tightly clenched, his nails digging into his palm, leaving red marks.

Continuing to read the contents of the file, he realized that this seemingly ordinary diary-style file recorded a series of "covered-up wrongful cases" in recent years.

The victims were mostly ordinary people...

"Who wrote these?" Lin Fei pondered.

He didn't know the purpose of the person who wrote these, but he believed that the person must have felt the same anger as he did at that moment.

He remembered the nursery rhyme he had heard earlier and flipped back to that page. Looking at the names of the four children, he unconsciously sang, "Sweep the streets, take big steps..."

"Could it be those children..."

At that moment, he wished more than anything that ghosts really existed! He wished the spirits of these children were in front of him, and he could heroically say, "Tell me, who harmed you, and I will seek justice for you!"

But no spirits appeared in front of him!

Even if they did, he knew better than anyone that he was just an ordinary citizen, while the person who killed the old man and the children had a very powerful background. How could he fight against them and seek justice for these children?

He stared blankly at the file in front of him, not noticing that the door of the archive room had quietly closed...

He sighed deeply, feeling helpless.

When he put the file back, the door quietly opened again without his notice...

...

"Be careful!"

Attracted by the sudden noise from downstairs, Lin Fei got up and ran out of the archive room. Passing the incense burner, he instinctively clasped his hands and bowed twice!

He seemed to be pondering something.

After hesitating for a moment, he immediately ran downstairs.

Lin Fei's figure disappeared from the second floor, and the door of the archive room, which he had forgotten to close, strangely closed again after he left. At the moment it closed, the familiar yet cheerful nursery rhyme could be heard again:

"Sweep the streets, take big steps! The old man with white hair washes diapers...

Pick up garbage, throw away garbage! The old man on the tricycle loves to be confused..."

The page turned, and the advertisement began.

The page turned, and the advertisement ended.