Corpse Retriever

Li Zhuiyuan ran to the old carpenter’s house in the village. The carpenter lived in a two-story house, quite impressive by local standards.

He used to be a full-time worker at the Xingren Machinery Factory. Though now retired, he still took on occasional work. With both his sons also employed at the factory, their household was considered well-off in the village.

When Li Zhuiyuan arrived, the old carpenter was eating breakfast.

”You’re Li Weihan’s grandson, aren’t you?”

”That’s me, Grandpa. My name is Li Zhuiyuan. My great-grandfather, Li Sanjiang, sent me. He said there’s a batch of tools that need urgent crafting. The sooner, the better.”

The old carpenter took the blueprints, flipped through several pages, and asked in surprise, ”Who drew these?”

The hand-drawn plans were detailed and professional—thoughtfully designed for the builder’s convenience.

Actually, Li Zhuiyuan hadn’t just picked up drafting recently. His mother’s study had always been strewn with blueprints. He had crawled over them since he was little.

”I don’t know. My great-grandfather gave them to me. He said it’s urgent and that he owes you a big favor.”

A favor from Li Sanjiang still held weight in the village, especially among the elderly.Because in the end, no one escapes their final destination—and they’ll all need Li Sanjiang to perform the Sitting Vigil at their funeral.

Li Zhuiyuan didn’t feel like he was abusing his great-grandfather’s name. After all, those guys had gone to Li Sanjiang, and rushing this order was his way of helping out.

”Alright, leave it to me. No problem. I’ll get started right away. I’ve got the materials ready at home. But some of these parts require machining on a lathe…

I’ll have my son take them to the factory and use their machines.”

”Thank you so much. How long do you think it’ll take?”

”This urgent?”

”Yeah!”

”Come pick them up tomorrow morning. I’ll call my two apprentices to help. We’ll get it done fast.”

”Thank you, I’ll be here first thing.”

After thanking him, Li Zhuiyuan ran back home. Just as he was about to go upstairs, Liu Yumei called out, ”Little Yuan, go call Ah Li down for breakfast. We can’t get her to budge.”

”It’s fine, she’s not eating. We’ve got snacks.”

They worked while snacking—no time lost.

Seeing him dash upstairs, Aunt Liu was puzzled. ”What’s gotten into Little Yuan this early in the morning?”

Liu Yumei, sipping porridge, snorted softly, ”Who knows. Maybe he saw a ghost.”

”Should we call Ah Li down then?”

”If that boy doesn’t say so, who could get Ah Li to come eat?”

”True.” Aunt Liu had already tried, but Ah Li didn’t respond. ”No idea what she’s doing in there.”

Liu Yumei sighed. ”Doing what? Working for that boy, of course.”

…

Back in the bedroom, Li Zhuiyuan opened the snacks and set them out in front of himself and Ah Li. They munched away while continuing their work.

Ah Li never talked much, and today, Li Zhuiyuan didn’t have time for words either. Only the sounds of grinding and tapping filled the room.

Materials were steadily processed in their hands, and tiny components took shape.

They skipped lunch, filling up on snacks when hungry.

By dusk, they’d nearly completed all the work.

Li Zhuiyuan collapsed onto the floor. Ah Li surveyed their two days’ effort with no sign of fatigue, almost as if she wasn’t ready to stop.

Then Aunt Liu called from downstairs, ”Little Yuan, the pan-fry’s ready!”

She didn’t call Great-grandpa to take his medicine.

Li Zhuiyuan left the room. Having not slept all night, he felt groggy and leaned against the wall as he descended the stairs.

Tomorrow morning, all he had to do was collect the finished tools and assemble them with the prepared materials. Then, the job would be done.

Just one step left tonight—and then he could sleep.

Downstairs, Li Sanjiang was watching TV with Runsheng. When Li Zhuiyuan came down, he asked, ”Little Yuanhou, what were you up to in your room all day? Didn’t even come down for meals?”

”Great-grandpa, last night at the dinner table—”

”I drank too much and had a dream. In it, someone offered me loads of money to do something illegal. I turned them down.

Ah, my heart still aches over it. That dream felt so real, I nearly believed it. Good thing I asked Runshenghou, who told me I was drinking alone last night.”

Li Zhuiyuan: ”…”

In that moment, he truly empathized with Grandpa Shan.

Li Zhuiyuan went to fetch the medicine.

Li Sanjiang sniffed the bowl and asked, ”Is this herbal medicine? You feeling unwell?”

Li Zhuiyuan took a sip from the rim and said, ”No, Aunt Liu thought I’ve been studying too hard, so she made me a brain tonic.”

”Oh, then drink more.”

Back in the room, just as he set the bowl down, the little black dog trotted over and started lapping it up.

The tonic wasn’t too bitter but wasn’t exactly tasty either. Li Zhuiyuan had planned to force-feed it.

The little dog finished the bowl, waddled back to its cage, and lay down, stomach bulging.

Li Zhuiyuan took a small syringe, knelt by the cage, and waved.

The dog sat belly-forward, one paw holding the bars, the other sticking out through the gap toward him.

Li Zhuiyuan had seen this pose before—back when his parents took him to the zoo. It was how the pandas got their check-ups.

He took the paw, inserted the needle, and drew a bit of blood.

Then dabbed it with a cotton ball.

The little black dog made no fuss, just waited quietly until it was done. Then, it flopped over and went to sleep.

”Why are you so obedient…”

Li Zhuiyuan thought, if Wei Zhengdao ever came back to life and saw such a well-behaved black dog, he’d drool with envy.

He carefully dripped the dog’s blood into each component according to the required proportions. The final step of the process wrapped up quickly.

Now only tomorrow’s final assembly remained. That part would be easy.

”Ah Li, thank you.”

Ah Li walked over and patted his head, then pointed at the wooden bed.

He used to coax her to sleep like that.

”Alright, I’m going to sleep.”

Li Zhuiyuan couldn’t keep going. He’d wash up after waking. Lying down on the stiff bamboo mat, it somehow felt like sinking into clouds.

Just before closing his eyes, he stared at the ceiling and silently vowed:

”The counterattack begins now…”

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