A saintess? She's just a bad woman.

Page 177

Grasp the morgue handle and pull it outwards. With a sharp dragging sound, the rollers at the bottom of the metal drawer spin, and the drawer slides forward, revealing the contents inside.

The body of a young girl.

She lay peacefully motionless in the drawer, her eyes closed, showing no signs of decomposition, only a few livid spots. The surrounding air was bitterly cold, and the morgue was indeed functioning properly.

The girl's green dress was intact, but she had a penetrating wound on her neck. There was blood on the clothes, but no wound, and the body had been thoroughly cleaned.

"It's strange. Why do I have the feeling that there are professional morticians living in this funeral home, who spend their free time dealing with corpses?"

"You guessed right, there is."

Ye Shiyu's expression showed no surprise.

She knew from the beginning that there was a ghost living in the funeral home. That ghost had no other skills but was best at handling corpses. Even after death, it did not forget its job and lived in the funeral home for a long time. It only recently woke up.

Oni and Hashigure are from the same era and are also good friends.

"Coroner, stop fooling around and come out now."

"Coroner?"

"The one who sang to scare you just now was also a ghost. We all liked to call her Coroner Xiang. I've forgotten her real name, and she herself, not being a ghost, doesn't remember her own name either."

Saint Karina suddenly realized why Ye Shiyu had sent her to the funeral home. She felt a little annoyed, as if she had been played.

"You knew all along, why didn't you tell me?"

"How can I make a conclusion about something that is still uncertain? A former palace maid ghost who used to work in the Bureau of Ceremonial Affairs told me that she seemed to have seen a coroner named Xiang who was particularly knowledgeable about corpses near the funeral home. The story was ambiguous, and even I couldn't believe it immediately. I had to come here to witness it with my own eyes."

"So...the cabinet isn't full of corpses, is it?"

Wei Xin associated the word "coroner" with the ancient mortuary, a place specifically for dealing with private individuals. As anyone who has watched TV dramas knows, the scene of every bed filled with corpses covered in white sheets is terrifying.

Ye Shiyu's words also contained a chilling element—he was particularly knowledgeable about corpses. "Particularly knowledgeable" implies frequent contact with them, and frequent contact implies a large number of corpses.

"bingo."

Applause came from the morgue next door, number 20.

The calm female voice prompting the opening of morgue number nineteen appeared again.

Ethereal and ethereal, hovering between reality and illusion, calm yet with a touch of coldness, unlike other ghost stories filled with murderous intent and resentment, it is so peaceful that it doesn't seem like a ghost at all.

There is no fixed standard for the personality of a ghost. Ye Shiyu is not vicious, but he is very lewd and thinks about having some kind of indescribable relationship with his contractor every day.

The tamer and the contracted ghost can at least partially communicate their thoughts, and the stronger the emotional fluctuations, the clearer the communication.

Ye Shiyu's desire to seduce and commit immoral acts was entirely under Saint Karina's control. The Love Letter Ghost's wish was beautiful, but unfortunately, it was impossible to fulfill for the time being.

The union of humans and ghosts goes against the will of Heaven; in order to survive, such a thing should never be considered.

Since the morgue number 20 was opened, the second "Sleeping Beauty" of the night made her grand entrance. She was dressed in Ming Dynasty attire—a dark blue, narrow-sleeved short-sleeved blouse with a straight collar and large front, paired with a voluminous light gray horse-face skirt. The horse-face skirt had a petticoat inside, which supported the skirt in a beautiful arc, creating a simple yet luxurious style.

The coroner was quite beautiful; even in modern times, she would be considered a very popular beauty.

In ancient times, those who worked as coroners were equivalent to modern-day forensic pathologists. Finding willing forensic pathologists was difficult, as the people of Kyushu had a tradition of believing that those who handled corpses were unlucky and carried bad luck.

Associating with or marrying such a person can easily attract unclean things and ruin the family's fortune.

Although these traditions contain elements of superstition, the people of Kyushu believe in them, and the older they get, the more they believe. Recent cases of demons resurfacing and paranormal events prove that superstition is not always wrong.

The ancient forensic doctor, lying in the morgue, opened his eyes and yawned as if he had just woken up from a nap. The clash between ancient uniforms and a modern setting created a jarring effect, somewhat resembling a scene from a science and education channel program.

When Santa Karina was a child, she watched documentaries about excavating ancient tombs. The most common scene was when experts discovered a beautiful female corpse that had not decayed for thousands of years, and they used all sorts of beautiful words to describe it and praise it lavishly.

To the coroner, in a sense, Saint Karina preferred to call her to the forensic pathologist. Ancient titles are a thing of the past; we must follow the times and respect the choices of our time.

The forensic pathologist appeared in a thriller-like manner, but because she was good-looking, she wasn't particularly scary. I mentally prepared myself as soon as I heard her start clapping.

"A very interesting way to make an entrance."

"You flatter me. So you're the lover of Ye Shangshi, the Ming Dynasty's Imperial Food Bureau manager?"

"No, absolutely not, it's just a typical contractual relationship."

The word "lover" sounds strange, giving off a sense of forbidden love. There are many cases of love between humans and ghosts, but it seems unlikely to happen to me.

Santa Karina didn't want to talk too much about her personal life, especially her love life.

"Could you tell me, forensic doctor, how to dispose of this body?"

She pointed to the female college student's body lying in freezer number 19.

"My client is worried that she will continue to harass me out of resentment and wants to find a foolproof solution. I won't ask for your help for nothing; I will try my best to provide the compensation within my capabilities."

Tonight's events need to be brought to a perfect close, to a close, so that the client can have the right to sleep peacefully.

This is the value of 200,000 RMB.

There is only one requirement.

Xiang, the forensic doctor, got up from the morgue, his body radiating cold air, his skin deathly pale, like a drowned corpse that had turned white from being soaked in water.

"I want to have a meal prepared by Imperial Chef Ye. It would be great if it could be made to the standards of His Majesty's meals. We used to be servants of the royal family and have never enjoyed the treatment of nobles. I can tell you how to do it in advance, as long as you don't break your promise to the meal."

"Okay, I'll agree on her behalf. It's just a meal, I'll take care of it."

Saint Karina gave the other person a high five as a pledge, pretending not to see Ye Shiyu's resentful gaze.

Next, Xiang jumped down from the morgue and found a pen and an old map from fifteen years ago in another drawer of the morgue. Although the map of Tianying City has been revised many times, a considerable number of areas have not changed much, such as the cordoned-off area near the funeral home.

This area is marked in gray on the map to warn citizens not to enter it by mistake.

The forensic pathologist focused on the large, gray area. She first marked the location of the funeral home with a red marker, then drew an asterisk ten kilometers northwest of it.

"You surely know that the funeral home was an execution ground more than 600 years ago, specifically for executing criminals. The location I am marking now is a place specifically for those who died violent deaths, built during the Hongwu era."

Whenever a corpse is found to be causing trouble, the government sends a spirit-controlling expert to that location to suppress it using special methods. The earth there has pure veins, best suited to purify evil spirits and dispel resentment, making it ideal for settling the vengeful ghosts who died with hatred but still wreak havoc.

"How?"

"Transport the body there, open the gate to the underground palace, find a suitable place to put it down, seal it, and finally recite the scriptures."

"Thank you."

Having understood the general steps, the main event is next. The detailed procedures are essential to learn. With the number of people dying violently and becoming vengeful ghosts expected to increase, it's likely that without some esoteric knowledge, one won't be able to handle such situations.

Those who control ghosts do more than just manage them; the more unorthodox techniques they learn, the more profitable it is for them to take on jobs. For the price of a meal, they acquire skills that are priceless—a huge win.

The forensic pathologist was generous and didn't mind sharing these mysterious things with Saint Karina.

"To subdue this corpse, first prepare seven Soul-Suppressing Nails. They should ideally be made of lightning-struck wood, preferably peach wood. There are no strict requirements for the coffin; any coffin will do. Put the corpse in the coffin, weigh it down with Shigure Ryuba's hair, close the coffin lid, then drive in the Soul-Suppressing Nails. Finally, use your blood to draw a rune on the coffin lid, and that will be it."

"You" refers to Saint Karina; neither the humans nor the ghosts present possessed this ability.

The runes were on the back of the map, similar to those drawn on the yellow paper, a complex array of patterns and text that was dazzling to behold.

Strangely enough, after staring at the runes for a while, the dizziness lessened considerably.

"I immediately called home and asked my dad to ask someone to make preparations."

Wei Xin took out her phone, scrolled through her contacts, opened one of the cards, pressed the call button, and used the most concise language to explain to Mr. Wei the series of items needed to dispose of the body.

People from ordinary families cannot prepare so many things in a short time. They lack channels, connections, and most importantly, funds. Problem-solving has a time limit; once the best opportunity is missed, problems will still occur.

After anxiously waiting in the morgue for almost two hours, several loudspeaker blasts came from outside the funeral home.

"The driver has arrived, let's go."

Wei Xin swept away the gloom from her face and trotted away from the morgue like a lively deer.

Santa Karina was somewhat envious of her living conditions.

When she encounters danger, her loving father is there to protect her, and he's willing to spend a lot of money to find someone to solve her ghostly problems. Dealing with dangerous corpses only requires a phone call, and people will immediately come running, regardless of the time, place, or how strange or unusual the items needed; in the end, she always gets the desired result.

"This is what rich people can experience," she thought. "Anyone from a poorer family wouldn't even have the chance to experience it."

A minivan drove into the funeral home, its exterior wall displaying the name and logo of a funeral products shop. The shop had a main branch on the funeral street, with branches in other districts. Their main business was custom-made coffins, offering personalized options for those wanting traditional burial; they had all sorts of patterns, colors, and types of wood to choose from.

Tianying has many remote towns and villages far from the city. Residents in the city generally practice cremation and bury their ashes in public cemeteries. Residents in remote areas maintain their traditions in many ways. Although the business of burial has decreased, it has not disappeared.

The deliveryman was a young man with a gloomy face, looking resentful as if he had been woken up to work before he was fully awake, largely because of the delivery location.

The person who placed the order paid multiple times the service fee, and the boss, who was greedy for money, bombarded him with phone calls in the middle of the night, offering him an extra 10,000 yuan bonus to work overtime and deliver the coffin and the soul-suppressing nails to the old funeral home.

Normally, 10,000 yuan is his entire monthly salary, with no extra pay for deliveries. Now that he could earn some extra money, the deliveryman gritted his teeth and agreed. He immediately got out of bed, went to the store that night to prepare the goods, and then delivered them without stopping.

"Are you... bloggers who make horror short dramas on Kuaishou? Or creators of original content on Bilibili? Coming to a funeral home so late at night instead of sleeping, don't you think there aren't enough paranormal events happening lately?"

Because of lack of sleep, the deliveryman's tone was somewhat harsh.

"What are you saying? Are you trying to curse us to have bad luck?"

Wei Xin was frightened tonight, which made her already unhappy mood even worse.

"I'll give you a bad review later."

"No, I'm so sorry, I'll apologize to you right away..."

When the deliveryman heard the "bad review," he jumped up, his cigarette dangling from his mouth, and some ash fell on his clothes, burning a hole in them.

"That was all a joke, please don't take it seriously. Lately, so many strange things have been happening around here. I keep seeing posts about paranormal events at funeral homes on Tieba and Weibo. My next-door neighbor, a pretty girl studying literature at Tianying University, hasn't been home for over a week, and her parents are heartbroken..."

Is the little girl you're talking about her?

Saint Karina pointed to the corpse on the ground with its eyes open.

The forensic doctor said that it must be moved outside by a living person and sealed personally. Ye Shiyu is a ghost with too much yin energy, which would easily react with the lingering resentment in the corpse, so he cannot do it for her.

Wei Xin was the most timid person in the entire room; even if you gave her dozens more courageous people, it wouldn't be enough.

The responsibility of moving the corpses naturally fell to Saint Karina. She was a demon tamer, and the special blood in her body was just right to suppress all kinds of evil spirits.

The corpse suddenly opened its eyes during the transport, staring at her with a fierce look. Although she wanted to help her close them, Santa Karina was afraid that the corpse would suddenly grab her wrist, so she dared not make any sudden movements.

Don't do anything unnecessary.

Before leaving, the forensic doctor gave these instructions.

Closing the corpse's eyes is unnecessary; it might cause hand problems.

I was a little scared when I touched a strange corpse for the first time. The road from the morgue to the funeral home seemed particularly long, and I didn't dare to look at the corpse.

Exploring and handling corpses are two different things; she'd still feel uneasy if she actually had to touch a dead person. But the thought of earning two hundred thousand for doing things others wouldn't do made the corpse in her arms seem less frightening.

The deliveryman turned on his phone's flashlight, looked at it carefully for a while, and was so frightened that he backed away and sat down on the ground.

"She...she's dead?"

Saint Karina nodded affirmatively.

“She’s dead. We found her body at the funeral home. The coffin and soul-suppressing nails we ordered from your store were meant to be used to suppress her.”

"..."

Silence enveloped everyone.

Despite her fear, the task still needed to be done. She couldn't rely on the client; she was just there to watch. Ye Shiyu wouldn't need to intervene for the time being either. Saint Karina once again took on all the responsibilities.

"Please open the trunk. I need to put the body into the coffin and seal it with the Soul-Suppressing Nails."

"Right away... I'll go right away."

The corpse on the ground was still rolling its eyes, then it revealed a smile more mysterious than the Mona Lisa, which made the deliveryman's heart tremble. His hand shook several times before he finally opened the lock on the truck door.

A dark brown, ebony coffin lay in the middle of the carriage.

Since ancient times, submerged wood has been a symbol of warding off evil and bringing good fortune, and it is believed to have the power to protect the home, making it very suitable for making coffins. Those in the know understand that such coffins are not cheap, comparable in price to sandalwood, which is known as the "wood of emperors."

The seven Soul-Suppressing Nails, which were meant to match the dark wood coffin, were placed in a wooden box, along with an iron hammer. One of the Soul-Suppressing Nails was made of iron, unlike the other six which were made of lightning-struck wood.

It is sharper, gleaming with a cold light, and looks more useful than a wooden top.

The deliveryman explained, "There's a tradition in our line of work: the position of the Soul-Suppressing Nail must correspond to the Big Dipper constellation in the sky. The Greedy Wolf Star has the strongest killing aura, and the Soul-Suppressing Nail, made from iron that has been used to kill, is a treasure for suppressing evil spirits and breaking evil. Once it's nailed to the Greedy Wolf Star position on the coffin, the evil spirits inside will never be able to come out and cause trouble again."

"There are so many intricacies involved."

"It doesn't matter if people who don't work in this industry don't understand, but we can't. We have to make a living off the dead."

The deliveryman put on gloves, mustered his courage, and glanced at the corpse again. This time, the corpse had a different expression; its bluish-black tongue protruded, it made faces at everyone, and bloody tears streamed from its eyes, making it increasingly frightening to look at.

"Miss, would you like me to help you move in?"

"I will do it myself."

Santa Karina slipped her hands under the corpse's armpits and used all her strength to drag it onto the truck. The corpse weighed much more than a normal person; a body that weighed less than 100 pounds now weighed over 200 pounds. The forensic doctor explained that the corpse's resentment was too strong and it refused to be sealed away, turning its resentment into weight to slow down the sealing process.

She goes to the gym regularly and has a strong, curvy figure. She usually carries gas cylinders and bottled water upstairs by herself, and can barely handle the task of being a mover.