Corpse Retriever

While he was checking the messages here, the taxi driver over there was also talking on his radio.

From the voices coming through it, Tan Wenbin gathered that some taxi driver had just gotten into an accident. His cab had slammed into a dump truck, and he was covered in blood and had been rushed in for emergency treatment.

“Heh, hahahahaha, serves that beast right!”

The radio channel was filled with a happy, peaceful atmosphere.

Tan Wenbin asked curiously, “Master, isn’t that your coworker?”

The driver replied, “Ah, you don’t know what kind of animal that bastard is. Back when he was gambling and couldn’t even afford food, one of our senior brothers helped him out, often brought him home for meals, and even helped him scrape together his cab dues.

“Then that bastard got involved with the senior brother’s woman, and after she divorced, she moved in with him.

“Let’s not even talk about how that woman cheating already made her no good. But doesn’t that bastard make her look almost decent by comparison?”

“That’s true.”

“Tonight Heaven finally opened its eyes. That bastard finally got his punishment.”As he spoke, the driver pressed the sign at the front of the car, and the meter stopped as well.

“Hey, Master, what’s this?”

“I’m not charging you. A few of us were already planning to head to the Eighth Hospital. After that thing happened to our senior brother, he got so angry it messed up his health. He’s been hospitalized there these past few days. We bought some food and drinks, and tonight we’re going to have a good drink with him to celebrate, hahaha!”

“Then thank you.”

“What’s there to thank me for? When you said you were going to the Eighth Hospital, I was already thinking of stopping by the ward to visit him. Who knew I’d hear such good news halfway there? I’ll just count it as borrowing your good luck.”

“Haha.” Tan Wenbin laughed too. “All right then, same joy to both of us.”

When the taxi reached the Eighth Hospital, Tan Wenbin got out first at the entrance, while the driver had to take the car into the parking lot.

Just as he pulled up outside the lot, he happened to see a young nurse hurrying by with something in her arms. Her foot twisted, and she fell to the ground.

The young driver immediately got out and stepped forward to help her up. “Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?”

“Thank you.”

“It’s fine, I’ll help you pick your things up.”

As he gathered up her belongings and handed them back, the driver suddenly realized how sweet and pretty the nurse looked. For a moment, he stared in a daze.

The little nurse shyly turned her head aside.

“Sorry, sorry, you’re just too pretty. My fault…”

“They say taxi drivers are all smooth talkers. Looks like it’s true.”

“I’m really not. I mean it sincerely. You really are too pretty.”

…

Tan Wenbin found Runsheng’s hospital room. When he pushed the door open, he saw Runsheng on the bed, wrapped up like a mummy.

“Pffft… hahahaha!”

Tan Wenbin burst out laughing.

Runsheng had his eyes closed, looking like he was fast asleep.

Yin Meng shot him a glare.

Lin Shuyou, who was peeling an apple, looked at Brother Bin with some envy. He had thought it was funny too when he first saw it, but he had been afraid of hurting group unity, so he hadn’t dared laugh.

“Tsk, I say, Marquis Runsheng, wake up and look at me. I rushed over here as fast as I could, afraid I’d miss my last chance to see you.”

Runsheng opened his eyes helplessly and asked, “Little Yuan didn’t get hurt, did he?”

“He’s fine. Little Yuanhou’s that capable. How could anything happen to him?”

Tan Wenbin took the apple Lin Shuyou had just peeled and bit into it. He did not tell Runsheng that Little Yuanhou had been injured.

Among the four of them, only Runsheng did not call Little Yuan “Brother.”

In his heart, Runsheng truly treated Little Yuan like his own younger brother. If he found out Little Yuan had been hurt, he would think it was because he had been useless, and he would blame himself terribly.

As Tan Wenbin ate the apple, he recounted everything that had happened this time. Once it was about time, he dragged Lin Shuyou back to school, leaving Yin Meng behind to take care of Runsheng.

Before leaving the room, Tan Wenbin tossed out one more teasing remark:

“Mengmeng, make something tasty and give our Marquis Runsheng a good nourishing meal.”

…

After finishing that can of Jianlibao down to the very last drop, Li Zhuiyuan fell asleep.

He had originally planned to wash up at Granny Liu’s place, change into clean clothes, then sit down and tell Ah Li about what had happened today.

But he was simply too tired. The moment he sat down on the blanket, he fell asleep.

Ah Li had wanted to carry him onto her bed, but she was afraid of waking him, so she could only gently lower him onto the carpet.

In the process, Ah Li discovered that the boy’s right hand was injured. It was no longer bleeding, but it was still a mangled mess of flesh.

She walked to the bedroom door and opened it.

Aunt Liu was standing about three meters away from the door. Even that distance was only because, when she heard Ah Li’s footsteps approaching, she had hurriedly moved back on purpose. Before that, she had practically been pressed right up against the bedroom door listening.

Ah Li pulled Aunt Liu into the bedroom. Aunt Liu was puzzled too. When she had seen Little Yuan earlier, she had not noticed any injuries on him. Then she realized that when the boy came in, his right hand had been clenched into a fist and hidden inside his sleeve.

This child really was something.

Aunt Liu brought over the medicine kit. Seeing the girl kneeling beside him and watching her, she slid the medicine kit in front of the girl and pointed in turn to the cleansing solution, the wound medicine, and the bandages.

Little Yuan’s right hand had simply been burned by an explosion. The injury was serious, but not difficult to treat.

The girl had never done anything like this before, but since her hands were already so skillful with handicrafts, doing this was naturally no problem for her.

She carried out every step with great care, afraid of hurting him and waking him.

Aunt Liu had the noble cause of supervising and teaching on site, so she stayed crouched beside her the whole time watching. Every now and then, she gave a small nod of approval at the girl’s technique, while inwardly feeling utterly delighted.

Only after Ah Li had finished treating the wound did Aunt Liu carry the medicine kit back out.

After closing the door, she stood outside and gently patted her chest. She had clearly eaten dinner long ago, yet somehow now she felt even fuller.

After putting away the medicine kit and pouring out the herbal medicine into a bowl, she carried it upstairs. She did not see the old lady on the rattan chair in the open second-floor room, so she went up to the third floor.

She pushed open the door to the Spirit Hall. The window was open, and the old lady was standing by it.

“It’s windy outside, and you’ve been coughing lately. Please don’t stand in the draft.”

“My body isn’t that frail.”

“Yes, yes, yes, but you still need to drink your medicine.”

“Little Yuan is back.”

“Yes, he’s back. He got a little hurt, but Ah Li has already treated it for him.”

“Where is he?”

“Asleep.”

“In Ah Li’s room?”

“Yes.”

“Looks like the child is worn out.”

Aunt Liu could not help finding it funny. She remembered how back then the old lady had said with complete certainty that she would never go looking for someone too clever to bring into the family. And now the boy was sleeping in Ah Li’s room. True, one was on the bed and the other was on the carpet, but with the old lady’s old-fashioned temperament, the thing she lamented was actually that the child was tired.

“That day when I went into Ah Li’s room, I saw her drawing clothes, so I added a few strokes for her, making them a bit more practical and attractive.

“And by chance, I saw Ah Li’s picture album frame, so I casually flipped through it.”

“That picture album frame is something Ah Li usually keeps under her bed. She would never just leave it sitting on the desk. What do you mean by happened to see it and casually flipping through it?

“No wonder your cough hasn’t gotten better lately. So that’s where the problem is. You should know perfectly well what things can be looked at and what things we need to avoid now.

“When Ah Li walked the river before, you even specifically lectured me about it.”

“You girl, your temper really is getting worse. Now you’re even lecturing me.”

The old lady muttered unhappily, but she still reached out on her own initiative, took the medicine bowl, and drank it.

“Ah Li and I are still young. Even if we actively shoulder a little of it, it doesn’t matter. But you’re different.”

“All right, all right. I already finished the medicine, and you’re still going on and on here.”

“What did Ah Li draw in that picture album frame?”

“I’m only coughing. If I told you, wouldn’t you cough up blood?”

“You…”

“I’m not telling you. Go downstairs and cook me a bowl of lotus seed soup. This medicine is too bitter. If I don’t have something sweet to balance it out, I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

“How can you be like this!”

“Go. Make the soup.”

Aunt Liu sighed, took the empty bowl, and went out.

After the door closed, Liu Yumei turned around and looked at the memorial tablets.

She thought of the vow Little Yuan had made that day when he walked the river, holding Ah Li’s hand as they came downstairs.

But it was only after looking at that picture album frame that Liu Yumei truly realized what Little Yuan was actually doing.

The second wave was connected to Liu Qingcheng of the Liu Clan. Ah Li had already drawn half of the Five Yin Beasts of the first and third waves, and Liu Yumei had also seen the clues.

She had once sighed that meeting someone too good and too clever at too young an age was not necessarily a good thing.

But what kind of childhood sweethearts were these two supposed to be? In what family of innocent childhood companions would an eleven-year-old pick up a blade and go out to butcher, one by one, all those who had bullied you?

She knew of the existence of those filthy things, but she had no way of finding them. Every one of them was hidden extremely well. Some had even lain dormant in reality for hundreds of years. You simply could not find their traces or clues.

The more something hid itself away in places that could not bear the light, the more it was often able to make the dirtiest noise.

Not to mention that there was no one left in the family now. Even back when there had been more people, who among those who walked the river would ever have thought of a method like this?

Let the river water push them one by one right in front of him, and then deal with them all one by one.

Liu Yumei’s gaze swept over the memorial tablets, and she said bitterly,

“It’s all because you people didn’t handle things cleanly and thoroughly back then. Now the child has to help you finish the cleanup!”

…

Ah Li drew the curtains in the room shut so that the morning sun would not wake the exhausted boy too early.

First that pig disappeared, and then the other four vanished as well.

The faint mist of clamor that had been pressing closer suddenly retreated, fell quiet, and grew thicker.

When her world suddenly became quiet again, she knew he had succeeded.

He had said that he was getting topics from her in order to exploit a loophole in the river water, and that she was the one helping him.

But this time, she could tell. Because of her, the river water itself seemed to have changed too, as if it were targeting him.

That was also why, when he came that afternoon, she had been unwilling to place her hand in his.

She did not want to become a burden to him.

Even though she knew that when he woke up tomorrow, he would definitely tell her yesterday’s story again with complete confidence, and tell her that they should keep doing this in the future because it was a good method.

The girl lowered her head. She felt so useless. There was so little she could do to help him. Even walking just that short distance to buy him a can of the drink he liked had almost driven her mad. The instant she returned to the courtyard, her whole body had been drenched in sweat.

The girl climbed onto the bed and gently moved to its edge. Hugging her knees with both arms, she turned her head and looked at the boy lying asleep on the floor beside the bed.

The outside world was truly terrifying.

It was nowhere near as simple or easy as it sounded in the stories you told me.

The girl looked down from above at the sleeping boy’s face. As she looked, she smiled.

It was as though she had gone back more than a year, to when he had sat in the corner of the second-floor terrace, also with his head lowered, looking down at her from above.

You really are amazing.

Though the drawn curtains shut out the moonlight outside, the bedroom was still filled everywhere with the soft flowing glow of the moon.

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