Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 17: The Miserable Fish

Xiao Ran thought the voice sounded familiar, and after a closer look, he asked in surprise, "Uncle Li? Is that you? Why are you... like this?"

In my impression, Uncle Li is a little bald, but with his square face and short hair, he looks very energetic and very decent.

He likes to wear a white shirt, suit pants, and carry a thermos cup on weekdays. At first glance, he looks like a department leader. When many family members see Uncle Li, they often feel that he is reliable and trustworthy at first sight.

It is also thanks to this honest face that Uncle Li is able to thrive among the old friends.

But now, his square face has turned into a chubby one, his cheeks are bulging, and his face is covered with bruises. It's so miserable.

Xiao Ran hurriedly helped him up and asked him to sit on a stool and talk slowly.

"Didn't I call you yesterday? I took an order and messed it up."

Xiao Ran still remembers this incident. At that time, he was cleaning up the old house when Uncle Li called and told him about this matter. After learning that Xiao Ran was not in the city, he hung up the phone in a hurry.

Originally, I wanted to get back early, but I encountered the incident of three naughty kids getting lost, which led to the incident of entering the mystery city.

Only one night had passed, but I didn't expect Uncle Li to become like this.

"No hurry, take your time."

Xiao Ran poured Uncle Li a glass of water and sat aside to listen.

"You said you were not at home that day, and I was worried that the list would be stolen, so I found another person. It turned out that this person was a loser. Not only did he fail to fix the body, he passed out first. He also stuck a pair of scissors into the chest of the corpse. When the family members saw it..."

Uncle Li stopped talking at the end and subconsciously raised his hand to rub his face. It was not difficult to tell from the injuries on his face that the family members were very excited and cared for him very warmly.

"so……"

"Help me, Xiao Ran. I don't want the three-point commission anymore. This order is worth 13,000 yuan in total. I can give you the money in advance. We are old friends who have cooperated with each other several times. You can't just stand by and watch me die."

What Uncle Li said was heartfelt and full of sincerity.

But Xiao Ran just stared at him with narrowed eyes, as if after experiencing the maze city, Xiao Ran now looked at everyone as if they were wearing a mask.

"Show me the information."

Uncle Li quickly took out the deceased's file from his arms and handed it to Xiao Ran.

Xiao Ran picked it up and took a closer look, then glanced at Uncle Li and said, "Hengyu?"

Uncle Li didn't dare to say anything. He just nodded with a smile and stared at Xiao Ran, fearing that he would not agree.

The so-called horizontal fish are mostly people who died accidentally.

There is an unspoken rule in the funeral home that they will not call the "client" by name, let alone discuss the "client's" cause of death directly.

Because some 'clients' don't even know how they died, they just lie there in a daze, still in a daze.

You said on the side that this was Lao Wang. He saw his wife and Lao Sun dancing pole dancing on the bed last night. He couldn't stand the stimulation and died of a cerebral hemorrhage on the spot.

Hey, when Lao Wang was lying there and heard that, he would immediately become resentful and might even pretend to be dead in front of you.

So although this rule sounds ridiculous and absurd, it can be maintained, which shows that there is a reason for its existence behind this absurd rule.

In addition to this horizontal fish, there are also names such as fresh fish, frozen fish, rotten fish, flying fish (suicide), and floating fish (drowning).

As the saying goes, horizontal fish is miserable, flying fish is hateful, and floating fish is evil.

These three types of funeral homes usually perform direct cremation. If you want services such as grooming, body cleaning, or even body massage to allow the person to pass away in a dignified manner, you have to find someone outside.

Uncle Li's help can come in handy.

Of course, Uncle Li only takes a cut of this meal, while the ones who work and earn money are people like Xiao Ran.

This is also why Xiao Ran said that he found a part-time job in a funeral home.

After looking at the information, I found out that the person is called Guo Lingfei.

The cause of death was also very strange. He was walking on the road, and suddenly he went crazy, rushed into the construction site next to him, and when the workers were not paying attention, he plunged into the mixer. When the workers found him...

It is said that the master in charge of the mixer at that time was so scared that he was sent to the hospital.

So people died tragically, and there was a lot of puzzle work and cleanup to do.

Fortunately, the cleaning work was completed by the person last night, and now all that’s left is the puzzle.

After reading the information, Xiao Ran couldn't help feeling a strange feeling in his heart. He always felt that the cause of death above was very strange, a bit like... the strange method used by the old lady in the mystery city.

"By the way, what does this person do? Do you know?"

"Uh... I heard he was a fitness coach."

Xiao Ran knew from Uncle Li's expression that what he said was insincere, but he didn't care: "Take it, play half first, and give me the second half when you're done."

Hearing Xiao Ran's agreement, Uncle Li's chubby face immediately lit up with joy: "Okay, okay, I'll wait for you behind the morgue at 2pm."

As he said this, he took out his mobile phone, scanned the QR code on the counter, and walked out. Not long after, Xiao Ran received a notification that 13,000 yuan had been deposited into his account.

It seemed that Uncle Li was worried that he would go back on his word, so he specially transferred the full amount to Xiao Ran.

"interesting."

Xiao Ran picked up the file, not knowing if it was a sequelae of the mystery city. He felt that Uncle Li did not tell him the truth. However, as the saying goes, a skilled person is daring. Xiao Ran took this order not only because of the money, but more importantly, he wanted to try out the effects of cursed objects and spell patterns in reality.

It would be the best thing if I could gain some other abilities again.

After the 13,000 yuan arrived in his account, Xiao Ran no longer felt like cooking noodles for lunch. He ordered a takeaway of big plate chicken and ate happily while sitting in the store.

"Meow!!"

As if smelling the aroma of chicken, the cat in the box began to grab the box restlessly.

Only then did Xiao Ran remember the cat.

I walked to the box and opened it. I saw the dirty white cat with its upper body raised up. It was making sharp, low meows and its eyes revealed strong alertness and hostility, as if it was ready to go into battle at any time.

Xiao Ran took out his cell phone and called the number the children had left behind, asking them to come and collect the cat.

When Xiao Ran called, a middle-aged man answered the phone. He seemed to be the student's parent. After Xiao Ran explained the situation briefly, the parent said, "Why raise a cat? It's hard for me to raise it. No, no, you can do whatever you want with the cat."

After saying that, he hung up the phone. Xiao Ran looked at the hung up phone and smiled bitterly, but soon he felt embarrassed. If it were any other time, he would just let the cat go, but this cat's hind legs were seriously injured. If he threw it away, he was afraid it wouldn't survive for a few days.

After thinking for a while, Xiao Ran sighed: "Okay, I'll save him to the end and send him off to the west."

He stretched out his hand and grabbed the back of the white cat's neck. The white cat originally wanted to resist, but Xiao Ran's move was so fast and accurate that it didn't even have a chance to resist before he took out the box.

He skillfully shaved off the hair on the white cat's hind legs and took a look at the wound. The muscle had been torn, but it was not a big problem. Xiao Ran held the cat with one hand and picked up the prepared needle and thread with the other hand. With his master-level suturing skills, he sewed up the wound in no time.

After applying iodine, I took out a piece of amoxicillin and put it into the cat's mouth.

"Whether you can survive or not depends on you."

As he said this, he put the cat back into the box and threw in a few pieces of dried fish and a bowl of water.

Looking at the time, it was almost time, so Xiao Ran packed up, symbolically put on his backpack and went out.

Zhuangyuanhong Road is only about ten minutes away from the funeral home, slightly farther than Cuiyun Park.

The old man settled his family here because it was conveniently located to the crematorium.

Still riding a shared bicycle, he rode directly into the gate of the funeral home.

When the security guard at the door saw Xiao Ran, he just nodded and said nothing. It was obvious that he knew Xiao Ran.

Compared to the hustle and bustle of the funeral home in the morning, it was deserted in the afternoon. Except for a few staff members, there was basically no one.

"Uncle Li!"

When I arrived at the door of the morgue, I saw Uncle Li squatting in the corner, browsing his phone and smoking. When he saw Xiao Ran coming, Uncle Li quickly waved at him, with a look of relief on his face.

"Let's go."

Uncle Li didn't waste any time and took Xiao Ran inside. The two of them walked into the morgue door one after the other.

Although it was summer, I could feel a chill when I walked into the funeral home, and when I walked into the morgue, I was shivering with cold.

It’s not that it’s very cold here, but there is a biting chill that seems to be able to penetrate the clothes and get into the bones.

"Old Zhou, open the door!"

Arriving at the duty room, Uncle Li handed a cigarette to the middle-aged man on duty and handed over the file at the same time.

Old Zhou stood up and glanced at Xiao Ran who was standing behind Uncle Li.

He wanted to say something, but then he looked at Uncle Li beside him. In the end, he didn't say the words. He said with a cold face, holding the key and walked inside.

"Remember, you'll be off work at six o'clock. No matter how many you do, you must return the bodies to the freezer. If you can't finish, you can come back tomorrow."

"Okay." Xiao Ran nodded and followed Lao Zhou inside.

Uncle Li himself did not follow in.

I came to a small room at the back of the morgue, and saw a sign on the door that said "Mortem Room".

As soon as I opened the door of the room, I smelled a pungent smell of disinfectant.

I saw that the body had been laid flat on a stretcher and wrapped in a body bag. It was covered with a thick layer of blood and emitted a strong fishy smell.

After Lao Zhou turned on the light in the room, he left without looking back.

Xiao Ran walked forward and opened the body bag, revealing the body of a young man.

Just as the information said, the left half of the corpse was crushed by the blender, and the broken bones pierced the belly, tearing a big hole in the lower abdomen, and all the intestines flowed out.

Xiao Ran checked it carefully. This was the first time he had seen such a corpse. The orders he had received before were all small ones and this one was nothing compared to it.

But for me, this is not difficult.

He put on gloves and a mask, picked up the scalpel beside him, looked back at the protruding bone spur, shook his head, put down the scalpel, and silently picked up the axe beside him...

"Li Peng, you are not authentic."

In the office, Lao Zhou, holding a cigarette in his mouth, glanced at Uncle Li standing beside him.

Uncle Li knew what Lao Zhou meant and took a deep puff of the cigarette in his hand: "Lao Zhou, don't try to play tricks on me. This kid's family is in this business and that's how they make their living."

"Oh, don't try to fool me." Old Zhou narrowed his eyes and sneered, "Then tell him that this horizontal fish has killed two people?"

Uncle Li lowered his head: "It was just an accident."

"What a bullshit accident! This corpse killed someone before, and killed another last night. It's so weird, and you still dare to let someone come here."

Uncle Li's thoughts were exposed, and he could only point at his own face and say, "I regret it too. It was only after I accepted the order that I realized that this corpse was so evil. I can't afford to offend the person who placed the order."

Old Zhou was about to curse with a gloomy face, but when he saw Old Li lowering his head, he was too lazy to continue his anger and just frowned and asked, "How much money did you give him?"

"Thirteen thousand." Old Li lowered his head a little.

"boom!!"

But when Old Zhou heard this, he immediately got angry and picked up the cup on the table and smashed it on Li Peng's head: "Fuck you, you gave me 13,000! Li Peng, you are getting more and more evil."

After saying that, Lao Zhou cursed, picked up the keys on the table and walked out.

Li Peng was startled when he saw this, and hurriedly chased after him and said, "Lao Zhou, Lao Zhou, listen to me..."

Suddenly, Old Zhou, who was walking in front, stopped abruptly.

Li Peng walked forward quickly and wanted to explain himself, but Lao Zhou covered his mouth with his hand.

"Shhh!!"

Lao Zhou just made a gesture to keep quiet.

Li Peng was startled and looked up at the empty corridor of the morgue. He heard bursts of low singing coming from somewhere. The singing seemed near and far away, and he could not make out the lyrics clearly, but the sound echoed in the cold morgue and made Li Peng feel creepy.

Li Peng swallowed his saliva, and suddenly his eyes widened as he glanced at the stretcher in front of him. There was a layer of white cloth on it, and the outline of a human figure could be seen. Usually, corpses that had just been delivered would be placed here, but now the corpse actually sat up slowly...

(End of this chapter)