“I’m thinking about things at home.” Lin Banxia said, “My roommate seems to be possessed.”
Liu Xi said: “Poisoned by evil spirits?”
Lin Banxia thought for a while and explained the situation in their community to Liu Xi. After hearing this, Liu Xi stared and said, “Are you serious? The usual work is so exciting, and living in an even more exciting place, no normal person can stand it.” After he finished speaking, he saw Lin Banxia lowering his eyes to his phone and said tentatively: “But it seems that you are not too afraid of these things.”
Lin Banxia said slowly: “Actually… I’m not not afraid.”
“Then why didn’t you react at all?” Liu Xi said, “My former colleagues said that they vomited for a long time when they first went to the scene, but nothing happened to you.”
Lin Banxia stopped talking.
Liu Xi said: “What, brother, why don’t you say anything?”
Lin Banxia said: “Then did they tell you that I haven’t eaten meat for more than half a year?”
Liu Xi scratched his head.
“It’s not that I’m not afraid, I just react slowly.” Lin Banxia sighed, “It’s like…if you were walking on the road and something tapped your shoulder. When you turned around, you didn’t see anyone. Most people would be scared, but I… It might take me an hour to react to it.”
Liu Xi looked at Lin Banxia speechlessly, as if looking at a monster.
Lin Banxia said: “This has been going on for a long time.” He held his hand out of the car window, feeling the cold night wind. At this time, a light rain began to fall outside, drifting in along the car window and hitting Lin Banxia’s cheek.
Liu Xi suddenly shivered and said, “It’s so cold, Brother Lin, please close the window.”
Lin Banxia hummed and raised the window.
“When did you realize that you became like this?” Liu Xi continued the topic.
Lin Banxia said: “When I was in college, there was a girl… She said, ‘Lin Banxia, I don’t want to celebrate Singles’ Day anymore.”
“Then what?” Liu Xi asked.
Lin Banxia said: “Then I said, Double Eleven is just too much of a loss.”
Liu Xi: “…”
Lin Banxia said: “She repeated it again, I said no, no, no, I can’t pass any festival, except Double Eleven.”
Liu Xi: “Then?”
Lin Banxia said: “Then it disappeared.” He paused and added with emotion: “I suddenly understood what she meant when I was celebrating Double Eleven last year…”
Liu Xiyang sighed loudly and said, “Brother Lin, Brother Lin, now I finally understand why you don’t have a girlfriend. Look, even someone like me has a girlfriend!! Fortunately, you are handsome and have a good temperament, but you are surrounded only by female mosquitoes.”
Lin Banxia glanced at him and said, “You have a girlfriend? I don’t believe it.”
Liu Xi: “Oh, I will bring her here in a few days for you to see her!”
He was showing off vigorously when he heard something and looked at Lin Banxia hesitantly: “Brother Lin, did you hear anything?”
Lin Banxia listened attentively: “Is it the back?”
The two looked at each other, and Liu Xi felt the hair on his back rise. There was no one in the back at all, only a few crushed corpses. The sound was a bit like something rubbing against a body bag, which made people get goosebumps all over their bodies. Instantly, he was freaked out.
“Damn it, do you want to stop the car? What is it?” As the noise got louder and louder, Liu Xi couldn’t stand it any longer, and his foot on the accelerator shook violently.
Seeing him like this, Lin Banxia knew he couldn’t drive any further, so he asked him to pull over and wanted to go to the back to take a look.
Liu Xi asked tremblingly: “Brother Lin, do you want me to go with you?”
Lin Banxia said: “No need.” Seeing Liu Xi like this, he was really afraid that he would pee immediately.
Lin Banxia jumped out of the car, walked quickly to the back, raised his hand, and opened the door, revealing several body bags inside. When they carried the corpses into the car before, they arranged the corpses neatly with the feeling that the dead were the most important. However, the corpses in front of them were stacked on top of each other, as if someone had moved them. And that strange sound came from among the stacked body bags.
Lin Banxia climbed into the car and carefully arranged the body bags neatly. Under normal circumstances, body bags are leak-proof, but it was unknown if the bodies were too broken. Liquid continued to seep out and drip into the car.
Lin Banxia had just arranged the body bags one by one, when he found that the crackling sound had also stopped. Lin Banxia lowered his head and searched carefully but found nothing. However, with his peripheral vision, he noticed a detail. The zipper of the bottom body bag had been unzipped.
He would never make such a mistake. Liu Xi had also been there for several months, and it was unlikely that he would forget to unzip the zipper. Lin Banxia stared at the zipper for a while, then silently raised his hand to close the zipper. Then he stood up as if nothing had happened and closed the carriage door tightly.
“What’s wrong? What’s the sound?” Liu Xi asked nervously when he saw Lin Banxia coming back.
Lin Banxia said: “A mouse entered the carriage. I only saw a shadow, and it disappeared. Forget it, leave it alone. Let us send the corpses over and look for it slowly.”
Liu Xi breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Oh, it’s a rat. It scared me to death…” He muttered, saying that he knew there were rats in the unit. The rat poison he bought before was really useless, and the rats weren’t all gone. Instead, they climbed into the car.
Lin Banxia rolled down the window again, holding the window with his right hand and remaining silent.
Liu Xi asked strangely: “Brother Lin, what’s wrong with you?”
Lin Banxia shook his head: “It’s okay, I’m just craving for cigarettes, can I have one?”
Liu Xi smiled and handed him one.
Lin Banxia actually didn’t have any craving for cigarettes and only smoked one occasionally. During the second half of the journey, he leaned on his seat and dozed off with his eyes squinted. The carriage kept making a loud noise. Liu Xi glanced at Lin Banxia uncomfortably several times, but finally didn’t say anything. He didn’t say anything, but he stepped on the accelerator, wanting to fly to his destination immediately.
When we arrived at the funeral home, the receptionist was already waiting inside.
This was also an acquaintance. His name was Wang Jinqiao, and he often cooperated with them. He was probably not in a good mood since he started work in the middle of the night, so he often cursed. Liu Xi smiled and handed over a cigarette. After chatting with the man for a few moments, he slowly walked over and opened the back to unload the bodies.
Some traffic accidents require an autopsy, but in this traffic accident, the liability was obvious, and there was nothing suspicious, so the autopsy process was omitted. The funeral home waited for the family members to come and complete the procedures before cremation.
While asking them about today’s situation, Wang Jinqiao walked to the back of the car, stretched out his hand to open the carriage, tilted his head and said to them: “I heard they are a family?”
After he asked, he glanced into the carriage, his face suddenly turned pale, and he couldn’t speak for a long time.
Liu Xi saw that his expression was wrong and was about to ask what was wrong when he heard Wang Jinqiao yell angrily: “What’s going on with you? Why are you pretending? What the fuck…”
Translator’s Notes:
Hey guys, I’m the translator for this novel. If you have any questions or thoughts feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to answer everything. If you notice any inconsistencies or errors, drop a comment and I will fix it. I am new to this, but I want to learn and give the best translation that I can to the readers. Thanks so much for reading Phantom Skeleton Painting, I hope that everyone enjoys the novel.
