Phantom Skeleton Painting

Wang Jinqiao was a person who did not believe in evil. He did not believe in the afterlife and did not believe in gods and ghosts. He only knew that death is like a lamp going out. No matter how powerful he was in life, he would just be a handful of loess after death. He had been working in this industry for some years, and he had seen as many as eight hundred corpses, from diseases to accidents, suicides, and homicides. At first, he would still be moved after seeing some scenes, but then he became numb.

In Wang Jinqiao’s eyes, a corpse was just a piece of lifeless flesh. Would the body move? Wang Jinqiao has never doubted this issue. Dead people naturally cannot move. Even if they occasionally move, it can be explained by physics. So that night, when he heard the noise coming from the freezer, his first reaction was that something alive had fallen inside.

Wang Jinqiao didn’t think much and walked to the freezer carelessly. He raised his hand and pulled open the compartment containing the corpse. He searched it carefully, but he didn’t find what he thought he had accidentally locked in.

The body bag lay quietly on the grid, blocking people’s sight so that no one could see the appearance of the corpse inside. Wang Jinqiao suddenly noticed that the zipper on the body bag had been opened slightly. When he saw this, he began to curse under his breath, guessing that it must be the new staff who acted recklessly and even forgot this.

Wang Jinqiao zipped up the zipper smoothly, pushed the freezer back, sat on the chair outside again, and played with his mobile phone to keep watch for the night.

The funeral parlor was extremely quiet at night, and the fear of death made most people reluctant to get close to it. Wang Jinqiao thought of the family that was sent there during the day and thought how miserable they were. There were five people in the family. Except for the wife, the man, his parents, and his children all died in the same car. Not to mention the condition of their death, it was the worst Wang Jinqiao had ever seen recently.

After the body was delivered, they also contacted the family to inquire about the subsequent funeral arrangements.

Wang Jinqiao was deeply disturbed by this family member. She was a young and beautiful woman, but she looked gloomy and uncomfortable. When he asked about the funeral situation, the woman was absent-minded. It was not until he asked when the cremation was scheduled that the woman came.

“There’s no rush.” ​​Her face was pale, but she was wearing bright red makeup. At first glance, she looked like a corpse with heavy makeup in a funeral parlor. She said, “There’s no rush to cremate it.”

“But leaving it like this might be a problem.” Wang Jinqiao spoke very carefully, fearing that it would touch the sore spots of the lady, he said, “It’s safer to bury them as soon as possible.”

Unexpectedly, when the woman heard what he said, she laughed loudly. There was a puzzling sarcasm in the laughter. It was more like she was sarcastic towards herself, rather than taunting Wang Jinqiao. She said: “Safe? If you put them in the soil, will it really be safe?”

Wang Jinqiao was stunned.

The woman spoke coldly and asked him to keep the body. She did not consider cremation for the time being. Before Wang Jinqiao could ask why again, she turned and left, muttering something as she left. Wang Jinqiao did not hear it clearly, but vaguely heard words like “Come back, together.”

There were many people who had strange reactions after losing their loved ones, so Wang Jinqiao didn’t take it to heart. It wasn’t until just now that he sat back in front of the computer and suddenly remembered that the corpse that made the sound just now was the family member of the deceased woman.

Thinking of this, Wang Jinqiao’s mouth felt a little dry. He licked his lips with his tongue and turned up the volume on his mobile phone.

The office was extremely quiet, and the sound of funny videos on the phone echoed on the walls, but in the exaggerated laughter, a weak but harsh sound began to torture Wang Jinqiao’s nerves.

The sound was thin and small, coming from deep in the room. It was sticky and soft, like some kind of mollusk crawling on the ground.

Wang Jinqiao became anxious. He wanted to ignore the sound, but the sound was like tarsal maggots, constantly drilling into his ears and knocking on his eardrums.

“F*ck!” With a curse, Wang Jinqiao slammed his phone on the table, stood up angrily, and walked towards the room where the freezer was kept.

“What the hell, get out!” Wang Jinqiao cursed and turned on the light in the freezer room again. The moment the light came on, Wang Jinqiao’s eyes darkened, and he was a little uncomfortable with such a dazzling light. When everything in front of him became clear, his breathing paused momentarily.

The freezer in front of him was opened, and the corpse inside was gone. The empty shelves stung Wang Jinqiao’s eyes. When Wang Jinqiao saw the missing body, his first reaction was that someone had come in and stolen the body, but after he observed the traces around the freezer, a thin layer of cold sweat quickly appeared on the tip of his forehead and nose.

The freezer was opened, the zipper of the body bag was also opened, and an exaggerated blood trail spread along the grid toward the ceiling.

Wang Jinqiao thought of something. His whole body was shaking like chaff, and he let out a desperate low moan due to excessive fear. He slowly twisted his neck and raised his head.

There he found it! The broken body was found, hanging on the ceiling, with the only remaining eye still blinking at him.

A drop of blood fell and hit Wang Jinqiao on the cheek. He felt a sharp pain in his heart, and then his vision wavered, and everything went black.

“F*ck, f*ck!!!!” When Liu Xi saw this, he screamed and almost threw the phone away again.

Fortunately, Lin Banxia reacted quickly enough and stopped his movement.

“Ah!!!!Ah!!!Why did he die? What happened?” Liu Xi said, “What on earth did he see?”

Lin Banxia was much calmer than Liu Xi, who was trembling with fear. From their perspectives, they only saw the scene of Wang Jinqiao’s sudden death. They did not see what was on the ceiling, but thinking about it, it was nothing pleasant.

Lin Banxia felt that this was not possible and said in a deep voice: “Call the police.”

Liu Xi said: “Yes, call the police.” Before Lin Banxia could stop him, he grabbed the phone and wanted to dial 110.

“Wait!” Lin Banxia said, “I will use my mobile phone to record this surveillance video first.”

Liu Xi said: “Yes, record it.” His mind was in confusion, but when his phone returned to the previous page, the surveillance was gone.

Lin Banxia sighed upon seeing this, thinking that this thing was really mysterious.

“Why is it missing?” Liu Xi realized that he couldn’t find the video no matter what, and suddenly panicked, “Why is this thing missing?”

“Don’t worry.” Lin Banxia said, “This is just a video…”

Liu Xi smiled bitterly and said: “Brother Lin, I don’t want to be anxious, but no one has ever encountered such a thing.”

Lin Banxia thought to himself: My friend has just had his bad luck. It’s your turn now. However, he just thought about it and couldn’t say that. He said: “I’ll go to the funeral parlor after work. You should go back early. Rest. Think about it, if something happens, it will happen in the funeral home, what can happen to you?”

Liu Xi thought about it and didn’t say anything. Just looking at his troubled expression, he had probably recalled the horror movies he had seen a hundred times.

The next half of the night was particularly difficult. Liu Xi, who was still a little dazed, was restless and couldn’t calm down.

Lin Banxia didn’t try to persuade him. It was impossible to calm down when encountering such a thing. Ji Leshui was the best example.

After finally getting off work, Liu Xi hurriedly left. Before leaving, he persuaded Lin Banxia not to go to the funeral home. He felt creeped out when he thought of the open freezer in the video.

Lin Banxia waved his hand to Liu Xi, signaling him to go home quickly. Liu Xi sighed and trotted away.

It was already dawn, and people around him started to move around one after another, but most of them were at work, only Lin Banxia was slowly getting off work. He got on the bus to the funeral home, sat by the window and recalled the video he watched last night.

As he was reminiscing, Lin Banxia suddenly realized that he had overlooked a key detail.

After getting off the bus, Lin Banxia went straight to the funeral parlor, which had much tighter security because of the death and body thefts. Fortunately, Lin Banxia was a familiar face and he quickly got in.

The murder scene was still sealed off at this moment, and Lin Banxia couldn’t get in, so he could only stand by the window and watch. He looked through the glass and scanned the room, and soon found what he was looking for – the location of the surveillance camera.

The funeral home was a special place after all, and the camera arrangements were still in place.

There was one in Wang Jinqiao’s office and another in the freezer room where the corpses were stored, but no matter which one, it was not the angle he and Liu Xi saw in the video.

That video cleverly showed the two rooms so that they could not clearly see what was going on in the freezers stored there, but they could clearly see that Wang Jinqiao was indeed hit by something from above his head after entering the freezer room and was scared to death.

So, the source of the video was not a camera at all? Someone recorded it live?

Lin Banxia took a step back. He was now unsure of the angle from which such a video could be taken. The only thing he could confirm was that the angle from which he looked down was not within reach of ordinary people. And if there was someone filming with a mobile phone above his head, how could Wang Jinqiao not notice it?

Lin Banxia was watching when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned his head and saw a young face. The owner of the face was wearing a police uniform and was looking at him with suspicious eyes.

“Hello, uncle policeman.” Lin Banxia straightened up and shouted sincerely.

“Uncle, forget it.” The young policeman said, “I’m not much older than you, what are you doing?”

Lin Banxia said: “Looking at my former friends.”

The policeman said: “Aren’t they all dead? Can you see them here?”

Lin Banxia said: “Maybe one is lying on the ceiling?”

Police: “……”

Lin Banxia: “Haha, I was just kidding.”

The policeman took out the handcuffs and said, “Friend, let’s take a walk.”

Lin Banxia: “…” He really shouldn’t be so sarcastic.

 

Translator’s comments:

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