The next morning, when Lin Banxia got up, he didn’t see Song Qingluo, but he saw Ji Leshui who was energetic and ready to go to work.
Ji Leshui still didn’t dare to enter the house and didn’t even dare to knock on the door. Instead, he called Lin Banxia to meet outside.
The two left the community chatting and bought breakfast at a nearby bus stop, eating with gusto. Lin Banxia asked Ji Leshui if he saw anything last night. Ji Leshui shook his head and said that he slept well and didn’t see anything. He just woke up once in the middle of the night and seemed to feel that someone was moving around in the living room, but he didn’t feel scared and fell asleep again soon.
When Lin Banxia heard this, he was instantly relieved, thinking that Song Qingluo indeed had some abilities.
However, Ji Leshui looked a little worried. He took a bite of fried dough sticks and said vaguely: “Brother Lin, what do you think is in Song Qingluo’s house? And why did I see such things in our house?”
Lin Banxia said: “I don’t know either.”
“It’s a bit scary if you think about it carefully.” Ji Leshui hesitated, “Brother Lin, when this is over, you’d better move out with me. You really can’t live in this house for a long time.”
Lin Banxia said: “I’ll think about it.”
Ji Leshui knew Lin Banxia, so when he heard his tactful rejection, he sighed deeply and finally gave up persuading.
The bus happened to come, and the two of them got on the bus separately.
The working hours of Lin Banxia’s unit are usually from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., with one day which was yesterday. If there are not many things going on that day, you can leave early.
Lin Banxia arrived at the unit and saw Liu Xi. Liu Xi did not greet him as usual. Instead, he sat on his seat with an ugly expression, lowering his head and playing with his mobile phone.
Lin Banxia walked up to him, patted his shoulder, and said, “You came so early today?”
“F*ck!!!” Liu Xi was so frightened by Lin Banxia that he almost jumped out of his chair. He covered his chest and glared, “Brother Lin, don’t scare me. I’m scared. I’m scared to death!”
Lin Banxia said: “What’s wrong? Why are you so surprised today?”
Liu Xi said: “You don’t know yet, right?”
Lin Banxia: “What do you know?”
Liu Xi lowered his voice: “Wang Jinqiao is dead…”
Lin Banxia was stunned, remembering that he had seen this person the day before yesterday. Although that person had a bad temper, he was still very capable at work. How could he die suddenly? So, he asked naturally: “How did he die?”
Liu Xi said: “I don’t know. The police are also investigating at the moment. They said that he suddenly suffered a heart attack and died during the vigil last night…”
Lin Banxia frowned when he heard this.
“However, if this was the only thing I wouldn’t be so bothered.” Liu Xi whispered, “Do you remember the bodies we transported there that day?”
Lin Banxia nodded.
Liu Xi said: “I heard from the gossip that… the bodies are missing.”
Lin Banxia said in disbelief: “Gone? We already sent it to the funeral parlor; how can it disappear?”
Liu Xi slapped his thigh: “You can’t believe it, can you? I think it’s scary too!! These corpses have already been sent to the funeral parlor, who can transport the bodies away without anyone noticing?”
Lin Banxia: “With so many surveillance systems, didn’t they call the police?”
Liu Xi said: “How could you not call the police?! After discovering the dead person, the police went over immediately. The most bizarre thing is that after the police went over, they found that all the surveillance cameras that could see the crime scene were broken…”
Lin Banxia stopped talking. He felt that this incident was too coincidental. He thought of the noise that he and Liu Xi heard in the car again. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell Liu Xi what happened, but that he really didn’t know how to explain what happened. Even if he knew what to say, was he going to tell Liu Xi that those corpses that could not be broken further were moving? Even if he said it, no one would believe it.
“Who could be so bored that he would come to steal such a corpse? It’s not like we didn’t see what the corpse looked like at the time. What’s the use of stealing it back?” Liu Xi rubbed the goosebumps on his arms with a panicked look on his face. “Tell me, what’s going on?”
Lin Banxia shook his head, indicating that he didn’t know.
Liu Xi sighed.
The funeral home where Wang Jinqiao worked, worked closely with their unit. After Wang Jinqiao’s accident, the police also came to investigate the situation and questioned several people who had been in contact with Wang Jinqiao. Lin Banxia was also asked. He had nothing to hide and explained the situation in detail. The police found nothing wrong and went to question other people.
Lin Banxia felt that the room was a little stuffy, so he called Liu Xi out of the room and stood outside to take a breath.
Liu Xi was a big smoker, so he lit up a cigarette and smoked it with gusto. Lin Banxia lowered his head and sent Ji Leshui a WeChat message. Ji Leshui responded quickly. It seemed like nothing bad had happened today.
Liu Xi was smoking a cigarette when he suddenly said: “Hey? Who do you think that is?”
Lin Banxia raised his head and looked in the direction Liu Xi was looking at, and saw a thin figure standing next to the police car not far away. It was the woman who survived the car accident that day. In just one day, she lost weight, her cheeks were sunken, and her eyes were dark. At this time, she was looking in their direction. Although she was far away, her gloomy and cold eyes still made people feel uncomfortable.
Liu Xi’s eyes met hers for a moment, and then he quickly moved away uncomfortably. He lowered his head, feeling his scalp crawl, and said, “Brother Lin, this person is so scary.”
Lin Banxia next to him ignored him.
“Brother Lin?” Liu Xi glanced at Lin Banxia with his peripheral vision and found that Lin Banxia was frowning and staring at the woman attentively. His eyes were very strange, as if he had discovered something.
“Brother Lin?” Liu Xi called again.
Lin Banxia finally came back to his senses and asked what was wrong as if nothing had happened.
“What did you see?” Liu Xi asked.
Lin Banxia said: “It’s nothing.” After he finished speaking, he said, “Go back” and turned back to the house. Of course, he saw something. The thing that had been following the woman like a shadow no longer followed her. This time, she lay on the woman’s back in a twisted posture. Her head hung on the woman’s shoulder, and her long black hair mixed with the woman’s long hair. At first glance, she looked like a person with two heads.
When Lin Banxia was looking at her, the woman also raised her head and cast a look at him. The look was lifeless, but also seemed crazy, which made people feel very uncomfortable.
After Lin Banxia left, Liu Xi quickly followed him into the building. The woman stood there and stared at the place where Lin Banxia and Liu Xi disappeared for a long time.
After Lin Banxia entered the house, he casually asked the policeman who was still taking notes why the family member was outside. The police didn’t even raise their heads and said they were not called by the police. After the woman heard that her family members’ bodies were missing, she insisted on coming to the funeral home and Lin Banxia’s unit to check on the situation. After all, this was not illegal, and the police could do nothing about it.
This seems to be the case, Lin Banxia thought, if it were him who found that the bodies of his loved ones were missing, he would definitely look around for it too.
Nevertheless, Liu Xi was a little restless. He became a little anxious after entering the building. From time to time, he would go to the window and look outside, wondering why she hadn’t left yet.
Lin Banxia said: “What are you looking at?”
“Why doesn’t she leave?” Liu Xi rubbed his hands, a little nervous, “Every time I see her, I feel uncomfortable. Brother Lin, do you feel this way?”
Lin Banxia said: “A little bit.”
Liu Xi said, “It’s not just a bit…” He stood at the window, lit another cigarette, and muttered, “Why is she here? The body did not go missing from our place.”
Lin Banxia patted his shoulder comfortingly.
There was no work all day today. It was not until the evening that he received a call saying that someone had jumped from a building, asking them to send two people over to clean up the scene.
Two of the colleagues who were on duty with Lin Banxia and the others left, so only Lin Banxia and Liu Xi were left in the office.
Liu Xi leaned back on his seat and watched videos on his mobile phone. Lin Banxia had nothing to do and dozed off on his chair.
The room was quiet, there was no sound, Lin Banxia was asleep, Liu Xi, who was sitting next to him, suddenly shook violently, and his next move was to scream and throw the phone away!
The mobile phone was thrown on the table in front of Lin Banxia, and the sound woke him up directly. He rubbed his hazy sleepy eyes and said inexplicably: “Liu Xi? What’s wrong with you?” This mobile phone was newly bought by Liu Xi. He treated it like a treasure, it had a phone case and a tempered screen protector, so why did he just throw it away today?
Lin Banxia got the phone and wanted to return it to Liu Xi, but as soon as he handed it over, Liu Xi jumped up as if he had seen a ghost and shouted: “No, no, no, no!!!! Don’t give it to me! Look!”
Lin Banxia: “What?”
Liu Xi said: “Look, look at the mobile phone screen! Mobile phone screen!!”
Lin Banxia turned over the phone in confusion and saw a video paused on the screen. The video was very clear, and it could be seen at a glance that it was indoors and there was nothing scary about it. When he clicked the play button and watched carefully for three seconds, Lin Banxia understood the source of Liu Xi’s terror.
This video was captured by a funeral home camera.
In the video, a person was sitting on a chair and resting. Although it was a little blurry, Lin Banxia was able to identify him from his clothes – it was Wang Jinqiao who died suddenly in the funeral home last night.
Lin Banxia was slightly startled and said, “Isn’t this the video from the funeral home? Why is it in your mobile phone?”
“I, I don’t know.” Liu Xi said tremblingly, “And it is said that all their surveillance cameras have been destroyed. How could this video appear in my mobile phone?”
Lin Banxia pondered: “Do you want to call the police?”
Liu Xi said: “Call the police? I don’t know… if we call the police, will they arrest me directly?”
While the two were discussing, Wang Jinqiao in the video seemed to be attracted by some sound, stood up from his chair and looked around.
Liu Xi trembled: “He…heard something?”
Lin Banxia didn’t make a sound. The two of them stared at the phone screen and quietly observed what happened next.
The author has something to say:
Lin Banxia: Why does that woman’s eyes make people feel uncomfortable?
Song Qingluo: Why?
Lin Banxia: Could it be…
Song Qingluo’s encouraging eyes.
Lin Banxia: Does she look down on the poor?
Song Qingluo:……
Woman: I’m not, I didn’t, don’t talk nonsense.
Translator’s comments:
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.
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