Corpse Retriever

“You two, father and son, what took you so long?” Zheng Fang complained, carrying several large and small bags in her hands as she spoke to Tan Yunlong and Tan Wenbin.

The coach she had taken had arrived ages ago. She had already been waiting here quite a while, so long that she was sick of being pestered by the illegal cab drivers soliciting passengers.

“I got to your son’s dorm building at noon,” Tan Yunlong said.

“Our son wasn’t in the dorm?”

“He was. I even happened to see him come out.”

“Then you…”

“He came out and went off with a girl to eat and take a walk, so I waited for him to come back.”

“Well… then yes, you should have waited.”

Zheng Fang patted Tan Wenbin, who was loading her luggage into the car, and asked, “Son, what kind of girl is she? Tell your mom.”

“Mom, it’s not what you think. She’s just a friend.”“Isn’t every couple just a friendship that went bad?”

“Mom, listen to yourself. Can’t there be pure friendship between a man and a woman?”

“So the girl is ugly?”

“Mom, really, it’s nothing. The luggage’s all loaded, get in the car. Dad, drive. Let’s take Comrade Zheng Fang to a restaurant and give her a proper welcome meal!”

“What restaurant? Haven’t you already eaten? Let’s go back to the place your dad was assigned first. I can tidy it up for him. Living alone, who knows what kind of pigsty he’s made of it.”

“Exactly,” Tan Wenbin immediately chimed in. “Mom, you have no idea how sloppy Dad is. It’s still not cold yet, but if it were winter, he’d probably wear the same stinky socks so long they’d turn into police batons.”

Tan Yunlong, who was driving, shot his son a glare through the rearview mirror and said, “I can’t live without your mother in this life. I’ve got your mother to look after me. What about you?”

“That’s right, son,” Zheng Fang said. “Where’s that girl from?”

“Mom…”

“She’s from Nantong too,” Tan Yunlong answered.

Zheng Fang clapped her hands. “That’s wonderful. Then during holidays you can travel home together. After graduation, whether you stay in Jinling or go back to Nantong to develop, it’ll all be convenient.”

Tan Wenbin rested his forehead against the car window, feeling a little helpless.

Zheng Fang continued, “Which part of Nantong? The city proper, Tongzhou, or Rugao, Hai’an?”

“Shigang,” Tan Yunlong said.

“Hah.” Zheng Fang burst out laughing. “Not bad, son. Work hard and win her over…”

At that point, she stopped, looked toward her husband in the front seat, and asked, “Zhou Yunyun?”

Tan Yunlong rolled down the window, preparing to light a cigarette to wake himself up. He had stayed up late the previous night finishing off the work on hand so he could free up today to pick up his wife.

He pulled out the cigarette pack. Empty.

Tan Wenbin leaned forward and placed a cigarette in front of his own father’s mouth, then slipped the nearly full pack he had left into his father’s jacket pocket.

Tan Yunlong looked at his son in surprise, then silently lit the cigarette.

“Is it Zhou Yunyun or not? Is it?” Zheng Fang said, lightly patting the back of her husband’s seat.

Tan Yunlong exhaled smoke out the window and said nothing.

Tan Wenbin could only answer, “Yes, it’s Zhou Yunyun. We had an old classmates’ gathering today. It was normal, just some fellow townspeople sitting together for a meal.”

“Fellow townspeople eating together, and the girl came all the way to your school specially? And waited for you downstairs outside your dorm? Son, it’s not like your mother was never young.”

“Mom, why did you bring so much stuff?”

“This time when I came, Zhou Yunyun’s mother asked me to bring her some clothes and snacks. I added a few things myself too. I’d been planning to find time to deliver them to her school, but this works out perfectly. Son, you can take them to her.”

Back in their senior year of high school, Zheng Fang had learned by eavesdropping on conversations between father and son that there seemed to be something a little unusual between her son and their class monitor, so she had gone out of her way to get to know Zhou Yunyun’s mother.

Shigang was just a town. No matter how you looked at it, it was only so big. If you specifically wanted to get acquainted with someone, it was not hard.

Zhou Yunyun was an only child. Both her parents worked at a textile mill in town, a very simple and honest couple.

Once they got to know each other a bit, Zheng Fang mentioned that her son was in the same class as their daughter. The couple immediately showed resistance and distance.

Girls in the countryside often talked marriage early, but they hoped their daughter would get into university and have a good future and good prospects, so they did not take the hint.

Zheng Fang herself had just been too idle when work was slow, and later on her son was mostly staying at Grandpa Li’s house anyway, so she let the matter drop. After that, it turned into the two families exchanging gifts on holidays and festivals now and then, neither exactly relatives nor exactly friends.

Once the two children had both gotten into university, Zhou Yunyun’s parents’ attitude changed immediately. They became proactive and warm.

A great many parents in the country guard strictly against puppy love before the college entrance exam, only to start urging marriage the moment the exam is over.

Before, a daughter’s male high school classmate was some hateful yellow-haired punk. Now, that same high school classmate was a childhood sweetheart who had grown up with her.

The old Tan family’s circumstances were considered quite respectable in town. If the children of the two families could get together, then both families would know each other well. Even from the couple’s own point of view, it would help with their future life in old age.

“That suitcase there, the one with the pull handle and wheels. I picked it out myself at the department store downtown and even stuck some cartoon decals on it. You can take it to Zhou Yunyun later.”

“Mom, then where’s my suitcase?”

“What do you need a suitcase for? Put in some effort and try to get it so that when you come home, the two of you can put your things together and wheel back one suitcase between you.”

“All right, enough,” Tan Yunlong said. “The child will make his own decisions about his own affairs.”

“You shut up. If our son had even a little of the initiative you had back then, would I still have to worry about whether he can win Zhou Yunyun over as my daughter-in-law?”

Tan Yunlong honked twice and passed the tractor in front of them.

When they reached the apartment assigned by Tan Yunlong’s work unit, it was not large, but it still had three bedrooms and a living room. The conditions were actually quite good.

Originally, as an outside transfer and with Tan Yunlong too lazy to cultivate connections, he would not have been assigned a place this quickly. But lately he had piled up too many meritorious deeds, being commended every few days, and the leadership had repeatedly taken an interest in his living conditions.

After entering, Zheng Fang said in surprise, “I didn’t expect it to be this clean.”

Tan Wenbin glanced around the living room and said, “Dad hasn’t lived here at all.”

Zheng Fang immediately turned to Tan Yunlong. “Have you just been sleeping in the office and muddling through?”

Tan Yunlong smiled. “The place is too big. Without you at home, I can’t be bothered to come back.”

Zheng Fang reached out and punched her husband lightly.

Tan Wenbin rolled his eyes.

Sometimes he truly admired his father’s methods. He was often so busy with cases that he was never home, and he had even gotten himself transferred from the city down to a township police station. Even so, he still maintained such a good marital relationship with Comrade Zheng Fang. In any other family, the home would have exploded long ago.

The place really was unoccupied, and there were no vegetables to cook. Zheng Fang took out the youtazi she had brought from home.

She broke them apart into three bowls, boiled some water, then added a little brown sugar and let them soak and swell.

The family of three sat around the table and made do with a simple meal.

After that came a thorough housecleaning. Tan Wenbin helped too, and the speed and efficiency with which he worked genuinely shocked both his parents.

Zheng Fang could not help teasing, “Tan Yunlong, look at you, clumsy even at this little bit of work. Then look at your son, how quick and capable he is. Son, when did you learn to do this?”

Tan Wenbin washed out a rag as he replied, “I didn’t learn. I just see what needs doing.”

In the past year, there had been two mules at Grandpa Li’s house.

One was called Runsheng, the other Zhuangzhuang.

Tan Yunlong nodded. “That’s good. This way, Li Zhuiyuan can be taken care of better too. Your son’s benefited from Li Zhuiyuan’s good fortune. The two of them share one big dorm room, and it’s spacious inside.”

“Brother Zhuiyuan doesn’t need me to take care of him. We take turns cleaning.”

Once the house was cleaned, Tan Wenbin went out with Zheng Fang to buy groceries. By the time dinner was ready, it was completely dark, and the family of three had their first proper reunion dinner in Jinling.

After dinner, since it was too late, Tan Wenbin did not go back to school. He took a bath and slept at home.

Early the next morning, father and son were both up very early.

They reheated the leftovers from last night in the pot, added some pickles brought from home, and that made breakfast.

“Come on. I’ll drop you off at school, then go to the bureau.”

After getting into the car, Tan Wenbin patted the seat and asked, “Captain Tan, does this count as using a public vehicle for private business?”

“I paid for the gas myself.”

While driving, Tan Yunlong lit a cigarette and said, “Whatever your mother says, that’s her business. Your matters still have to be decided by you. As parents, at most we can support you from underneath. We won’t interfere with your life.”

“Understood.”

The car stopped at the school gate, and Tan Wenbin got out.

“The suitcase,” Tan Yunlong said.

“Haha, I deliberately didn’t bring it down from the apartment.”

“Mhm. And I deliberately brought it down from the apartment and put it in the trunk.”

“Dad, and this is what you call letting me decide my own affairs?”

“When parents say something nice, and you actually believe it?”

“All right then. Drive carefully.”

Dragging a suitcase covered in cartoon designs, Tan Wenbin crossed the campus. Even though it was the weekend, there were still quite a lot of people around, and many of them stared at him.

On the way, he passed a group of men wearing white shirts and loosely hanging ties. They had intentionally yanked open their collars, exposing a large area of skin below their necks.

When they walked, they kept both hands in their trouser pockets, leaned forward, walked on the tips of their toes, tossed their heads every few steps, then lowered them and lightly patted their bangs with one hand.

These five people were only tolerable because they were encountered on school grounds in broad daylight. If Tan Wenbin had seen them at night in Min’an Town, he would only have suspected they were possessed by malevolent spirits.

At the time, there were two mainstream avant-garde styles. One was brightly dyed hair, leather jackets and pants, tattoos and piercings, middle fingers raised, eyes glaring, and voices deliberately hoarse as they shouted, “Rock will never die!”

The other was long hair that always covered one eye, walking as though their bodies had no bones, and even on the way to urgently use the toilet, they still had to perform what melancholy looked like.

Clearly, these five belonged to the latter school.

As he passed them, Tan Wenbin heard them cursing:

“This guy’s actually hiding like a turtle. No guts at all!”

“Relax, A-Can. A coward like that won’t be liked by girls. You’ll definitely beat him.”

“Exactly. The morning classes don’t matter anyway. We’ll skip them. After breakfast, by noon I refuse to believe he still won’t come out.”

“Let’s wait till he’s alone. We’ll keep watch outside the dorm building. The people in his class are pretty united, damn it.”

“Come on, breakfast is on me.”

The five centered around the one in the middle called A-Can. His clothes were brighter than the others’, and he wore a necklace around his neck and a watch on his wrist.

“Tch. What kind of fetish is that suitcase?”

“Hahaha!”

One of them pointed at Tan Wenbin’s suitcase and mocked him, making the others burst into laughter.

Tan Wenbin ignored them and kept walking.

He entered the dorm courtyard and reached the first floor. As he was going upstairs, he ran into two boys from his class. The moment they saw him, they hurried over and said:

“Class monitor, a bunch of guys from another school just came looking for you.”

“Yeah, they said you were a toad lusting after swan meat and that they were going to teach you a lesson.”

“Huh?”

Tan Wenbin was a little puzzled. He truly could not understand why something like this had fallen on his head. Just hearing it gave off a childish, water-in-the-brain kind of stupidity.

“Class monitor, didn’t you leave yesterday with the class monitor from the class opposite us at the mixer? Could it be because of her?”

“Right, right. That group just now seemed to be from her school, though not from the same department.”

Because of Zhou Yunyun?

Tan Wenbin could not help laughing. It seemed their old class monitor was very popular at her school.

To be honest, when he said yesterday that she had become prettier, it had not been empty flattery.

She had already had a good foundation to begin with. After going to university and learning how to dress herself up, she was like a luminous pearl that had been stripped of its shell, glowing brilliantly.

“I think I ran into them just now,” Tan Wenbin said, “but they didn’t recognize me.”

“Class monitor, how about you just call out once? We’ll gather everyone from our class in the dorm and go teach them a lesson together.”

“Exactly. Just now they came to ask for your dorm room number. When they were about to knock on your door, we all came out together and confronted them, asking what crap they wanted to spew.”

“If Lin Shuyou hadn’t talked us down, we would’ve started fighting right there in the hallway!”

“Hahaha, thanks, everyone. I owe you one. But if something like this happens again, call the security office instead. Let them deal with it.

We’re still students. If a fight gets out of hand, it could ruin everyone’s future.”

“Class monitor, just say the word and we’ll do it!”

“Right, we’re not afraid of them!”

After soothing them down, Tan Wenbin went up to the third floor, where most of the boys from his class lived. Along the way, quite a few classmates brought up what had happened earlier and all suggested he gather people, grab brooms and dustpans, and go out to fight.

Tan Wenbin had actually done a rather poor job as class monitor. He barely took part in military training, and after school started he had also taken leave.

But first, he had a police commendation certificate that had been announced schoolwide, and second, he was generous with money and often treated the whole class to drinks and snacks. So everyone in the class still trusted him deeply. If he shouted once, dozens of boys really would howl and follow him into a group fight.

After returning to his dorm room, he put the suitcase inside.

Tan Wenbin let out a breath. Fortunately, every morning Brother Zhuiyuan went to Granny Liu’s house to find Ah Li, so when those people came earlier, they had not disturbed Brother Zhuiyuan.

His role was to shout at the prow of the Dragon King’s boat, to help the Dragon King keep outside affairs handled cleanly. If he let this sort of trash trouble be brought over because of himself, that would be a serious dereliction of duty on his part.

Most importantly... did those five little idiots have any idea what would happen if they angered Brother Zhuiyuan!

The five had not left the school yet. It looked like they still planned to block him.

Tan Wenbin left the dorm, intending to go find the school security office.

At the time, security offices in work units held a great deal of power, sometimes no less than the local police station.

Just as he was about to head out, Tan Wenbin looked toward his desk. On it were paper, a pen, an answer sheet, and a huge mug that was obviously not his.

“Huh, where’s A-You?”

…

Beneath the bicycle shed.

The five of them had each found a bicycle to sit on. Breakfast in hand, they shared cigarettes and drinks while chatting and cursing.

Whenever female students or female teachers passed by, the five would turn their profiles toward them and let their bangs search for the wind.

They were more cultured than hooligans, yet softer than hooligans.

They had come to block someone, but had not even figured out what that person looked like.

Still, their mouths never stopped. The other four kept flattering the wealthiest one, A-Can, while helping him fantasize about a beautiful future with Zhou Yunyun.

Above the shed.

Lin Shuyou held a paint palette in his left hand and a brush in his right, painting his face.

In the dorm earlier, a clash had nearly broken out.

The reason it had not was, first, because the other side had gotten a little scared upon seeing how many people there were here, and second, because Lin Shuyou had stepped in to mediate.

But Shuyou’s purpose in mediating was not to defuse the conflict. It was to resolve the conflict in his own way.

Because Brother Zhuiyuan had not been in the dorm at the time, but he had.

He had been sitting at Brother Binbin’s desk, beginning the torment of today’s problem-solving. He had only just started to get somewhere, as if he had found a bit of the right feeling, when the shouting and door-kicking started outside.

Li Zhuiyuan had given Lin Shuyou problems to solve in order to push him into a state of reflection and slowly temper him, then use him to conduct a series of experiments targeting White Crane Child and other Yin gods.

It could be said that whether Lin Shuyou could solve the problems or not would not change Li Zhuiyuan’s plans. What he needed was merely Lin Shuyou’s attitude. It was really just a warm-up for him.

But in Lin Shuyou’s eyes, this was the Dragon King’s test for him!

Only by passing the test could he earn Brother Zhuiyuan’s approval and gain the chance to go further.

So in Lin Shuyou’s eyes, these five people who had come looking for trouble and interrupted his train of thought were enemies of the grand developmental strategy of all the Officers of the Command Banner in his hometown’s various temples!

Then let them bear the wrath of the Officers of the Command Banner.

He finished painting his face.

Lin Shuyou’s gaze darkened.

His body dropped and landed beneath the shed.

The five who had still been talking were instantly startled.

“What the hell is that?”

“An opera performer?”

“In broad daylight, trying to scare people?”

“Let me see what the hell it is, male or female.”

One of them took the initiative to walk toward Lin Shuyou with a mocking grin, reaching out to touch the painted mask on his face.

Lin Shuyou grabbed his wrist.

“Hm?” The man exerted force, but not only could he not pull free, he could not even make the slightest movement, as though he were clamped in a vise.

Crack!

His arm broke.

“Ahhhh!!!”

The man dropped to his knees, screaming.

Bang!

Lin Shuyou drove a knee into his face, and the man’s face instantly split open like a smashed box before he fell backward to the ground.

With Three-Step Praise, Lin Shuyou arrived before another person. The other person had been sitting on a bicycle. Lin Shuyou kicked out.

Crack!

His lower leg broke.

“Ahhhh!!!”

Then, with the same motion, Lin Shuyou shoved the bicycle, sending it toppling rapidly and dragging the other three down to the ground with it.

Lin Shuyou walked over to them one by one. An arm here, a leg there. Apart from their necks, he randomly broke one of each of their limbs.

After breaking four sets of limbs, only A-Can remained.

“You... you... don’t come over... don’t come over!”

Anyone in society with real guts would not become a thug who bullied people in a group.

As for schoolyard thugs, because the people they bullied were even more obedient and weaker, they were even less impressive.

Crack!

Crack!

“Ahhh! Ahhh!!!”

Lin Shuyou crippled A-Can’s right arm and left leg.

Then he turned around, intending to begin a second round.

Two of those with broken legs were still crawling on the ground.

And the two whose arms had merely been broken were already on their feet, crying and shouting as they tried to flee.

The corners of the painted mask curved upward.

An Yin god had once been a ghost king, not some merciful saint. Influenced by the temperament of the Yin god, Lin Shuyou now felt nothing but a heartfelt joy inside.

Next Chapter >