The Creatures that We Are

Gao Yang nodded. “Tell me what you want in return, Sister Xia. I’ll do it as long as it’s within my ability.”

“No rush.”

Xia Li took off her badge and handed it to Gao Yang. “With this, you can go anywhere you want in the funeral home. Start your investigation first. I’ll leave you to it. Come to my office on the first floor once you’re done.”

“Alright.”

Gao Yang took the work badge and had a look.

Xia Li, Director of Crematory, Northbound Funeral Home.

The woman in the photo was as pretty and cynical-looking as the real person.

Gao Yang searched through all the morgues on the floor. Amid the chilling atmosphere, he found himself drenched in cold sweat.

He had examined all the windows. None had been broken.

It seemed that the culprit had gone up to the metal gate openly and punched in the code, entering the morgue exclusively storing Guild members and leaving with the twelve bodies in the freezer cabinets.

But how did someone transport twelve bodies that couldn’t walk on their own without anyone noticing?

Gao Yang went to the security office and asked the guard for the surveillance footage.

Based on the cameras that were broken, Gao Yang could more or less mapped out the path the culprit had taken.

The culprit—no, Gao Yang believed it was a team that had committed the theft. They destroyed cameras as they snuck into the morgue on the second floor at midnight, and batch by batch, they orderly carried the cadaver bags out through the side door, vaulting over the wall and loading the cadavers onto their truck before leaving.

Gao Yang checked the walls around the facility, and as expected, he found traces left of the escape. On the other side of the wall was an asphalt road. Gao Yang followed it along and reached a crossroad after walking three hundred meters, where there were traffic lights and working surveillance cameras.

Gao Yang had a rough idea of what to do next.

He decided to contact Gray Bear tomorrow and ask him to retrieve the surveillance footage of this crossroad with the resources available to a police officer. All large and small trucks going through the crossroad 24 hours before and after the crime should then be examined further.

After a preliminary investigation, Gao Yang returned to the first floor of the funeral home and opened the door to Xia Li’s office.

It looked like any other office for administrative staff. There was a cheap leather sofa for guests and a glass tea table. Beside it were the file cabinets, copy machines, and office desk. There was another room further in, which was most likely Xia Li’s living quarter.

Xia Li sat on the sofa while using her phone. There was a cup of coffee on the table before her.

She looked up at Gao Yang with some surprise. “Done already?”

He had been pretty quick with the investigation, finished in less than an hour.

Gao Yang nodded with a smile.

“Any progress?”

“Some.” Gao Yang decided not to tell Xia Li the details. In theory, even she was a suspect.

“Want some coffee?” Xia Li asked.

“I’m good.”

“Alright.” She rose and strode into the room inside.

Gao Yang stood where he was, confused.

A few seconds later, Xia Li popped her head out of the door. “What are you waiting for? Come on in.”

“Oh.”

Gao Yang walked into her room without asking another question.

It was quite small, and it seemed like a commonplace single room for employees.

There was a bed, a simple closet, a stool, and a vanity table filled with women’s everyday items. The window on the farside of the room wasn’t big, and the curtains were half drawn.

Gao Yang guessed that this was Xia Li’s on-call room, and she didn’t stay here often.

“Turn off the light,” Xia Li said.

Gao Yang paused, but did as she said. The room was immediately awash in darkness. Only by the moonlight streaming through the window could he make out the silhouettes of things in the room.

Xia Li sat down by the bed and patted the seat beside her. “Come here.”

Gao Yang frowned. What’s going on? It can’t be that, can it?

“Elder Vermilion Bird…” Gao Yang was both embarrassed and panicked. “We met each other for the first time today. Isn’t this inappropriate?”

“Come here already!” Xia Li raised her voice, sounding irritated.

Gao Yang took a deep breath and walked up to sit down on the bed, keeping a polite distance from her.

Xia Li kicked off her heels and tucked her legs in, grabbing a pillow to hold in her arms. Her eyes flickered with excitement.

“Now, tell me a ghost story. I want something really strange and really scary.”

“Huh?” Gao Yang was stunned.

“Are you trying to catch flies with your mouth? Tell me a ghost story!” Xia Li sounded like a petulant child. “Remember, the scarier the better, but there can’t be actual ghosts!”

Gao Yang tried his best to control his facial muscles. With disbelief, he asked for confirmation, “So, what you want in exchange is for me to tell you a ghost story?”

“Yes!” Xia Li nodded. “Isn’t it exciting to listen to ghost stories late at night?”

“I suppose, but I don’t know any ghost stories.” Gao Yang took out his phone. “Why don’t I find you an audio book…”

“I’ve listened to too many. It gets old,” Xia Li grumbled. “And it’s more immersive to have someone tell the story in person.”

“Well, then I’ll recommend you go to a session of murder mystery game or an escape room.”

“Oh, I know those!” Xia Li seemed interested, but then she quickly turned dejected. “But I don’t like grouping up with strangers, and I can’t exactly ask people I know to go with me.”

“Why not?” Gao Yang asked.

“Ahem.” Xia Li glanced at him. “You know, I’m an Elder. The hobby will undermine my image, which will be bad.”

“Um.”

He supposed that was a valid reason.

Xia Li smiled at Gao Yang. “You’re different. Now that you’re an Elder-candidate, we’re basically equals. Come on, tell me a story.”

Gao Yang couldn’t possibly turn her down after all the justification she had made.

Licking his lips, he repeated Xia Li’s wishes. “It has to be strange and scary, but there can’t be real ghosts in the end.”

“Yeah yeah yeah.” Xia Li was already picturing a story in her head, and she tightened her arms around the pillow.

Gao Yang thought about it. Wouldn’t the Gu Family's Village be the perfect fit?

Although Xia Li should know the Rune Cave, she wouldn’t necessarily know what had happened inside.

“Do you know…the tragedy of the Wang Family’s Village?”

Xia Li shook her head.

Gao Yang cleared his throat and lowered his voice, adopting the role of a storyteller. “It was thirty years ago. A household in the Wang Family’s Village was slaughtered and cut into pieces overnight. The murderer was never found. And a few days later, the whole village disappeared without a trace…”

Having played with a table for murder mystery, Gao Yang had learned from the GM a trick or two on how to scare people.

As he spoke, he lifted his phone to his chin.

“Thirty years later, a few young people visited the Wang Family’s Village late at night, and there, they discovered…the terrible truth!”

He turned on the flashlight of his phone, aiming it at his face.

“Ah!”

Xia Li screamed and cowered in a corner of the bed, squashing the pillow in her arms.

Gao Yang snorted silently. I’m just getting started, Sister Xia.

And why would someone dealing with corpses every day without even batting an eye be scared of the supernatural? How does that work?

Gao Yang then fished out his home’s key from his pocket as prop.

“It all started with a mysterious brass key. It’s the key to the ancestral hall of the Wang Family’s Village, housing the memorial tablets of the villagers.”

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