Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 785 - 18. Funeral Home Strange Tales

Chapter 785: 18. Funeral Home Strange Tales

In most people’s minds, morgues are not particularly comfortable places.

Not just because they are resting places for the deceased, or due to reasons like the smoke from the chimney or the array of memorial plaques.

The key is, it also serves as a facility for storing corpses.

In this regard, morgues are much more terrifying than cemeteries. After all, the latter is just urns full of ashes, at most a black-and-white photo pasted on the tombstone with a faint smile — the former stores cold, rigid bodies.

West suburbs of the city, morgue.

The surrounding scenery is desolate, with a few shanties scattered among the farmlands. Behind the crematorium is the largest cemetery in Lingling City, surrounded by forests, with a hefty price tag.

Driving into the morgue grounds, you pass through a few hundred meters of road and pull into the parking lot.

Nearing dusk, things in the distance are already lurking in the darkness, blurred as if hidden.

This was the reason Yang Chunxue consented without a word.

Going to the morgue during the day is fine, but at night... she suspected Lu Li would be fishing for law enforcement.

Several convoys parked in front of the circular plaza, with white flowers hanging on their rearview mirrors, and faint cries could be heard coming from the hall.

Lu Li found the reception room and presented his request to the staff inside.

"Sorry, I need to confirm your identity. May I ask who you are...?" The middle-aged man in the reception room politely inquired.

"Deputy Captain of the Criminal Investigation Division, Lu Li."

"Oh, alright, please wait," the man picked up the phone, waited some time for it to connect, "Hello Officer Wang, I’m Xiao Zhang from the morgue, there’s a Deputy Captain from the Criminal Investigation Division here investigating something... Ah, okay, let me ask."

"You’re Lu Li, right?" He covered the mouthpiece and asked Lu Li. Receiving confirmation, he placed the mouthpiece back to his ear, "Calling Lu Li, yes yes, Officer Wang, could you please inquire."

The line was silent for several seconds, creating a somewhat awkward atmosphere before finally, a voice sounded, "I asked around, their captain said there’s such a person, he needs to check something at the morgue, cooperate with him over there."

"Alright, understood, understood."

Hanging up the phone, the middle-aged man exited the reception room with a smile, "Captain Lu, please follow me."

He led the way, held his walkie-talkie by his side, and said, "Ah Hu Ah Hu, come to the reception room to cover the post, there’s a detective from the city, I’m taking him to the morgue."

[On my way.]

Following the middle-aged man into the interior of the morgue, the sounds of crying suddenly amplified. The mixed cries of men, women, young, and old echoed, sending chills up one’s spine.

Continuing forward along the corridor, through the farewell hall crowded with grieving family members, through the eerily silent vigil hall glowing red, through the warehouse stacked with pale white paper figures, Lu Li followed the man to the deepest part of the morgue.

In front of a bright silver heavy iron door, the middle-aged man stopped, "Wait a moment, let me get the key."

"Bring the information forms for the corpses in the mortuary as well," Lu Li said.

"Alright, please wait a moment."

The middle-aged man hurriedly left, leaving Lu Li alone outside the mortuary door.

Lu Li remained calm as ever, and three minutes later, the middle-aged man returned in a jog.

Lu Li took the information forms, lowered his head to review them.

He found Liu Xiaoyan in the records from July 10th, District D, Cabinet 6.

Exactly four weeks ago.

He lightly tapped his finger on the name and asked the middle-aged man, who was facing away and opening the door, "Do you have any impression of someone named Liu Xiaoyan?"

Click—

A soft sound as the metal door opened a gap.

The middle-aged man didn’t widen the gap, but turned back with a wry smile, "To be honest, our morgue receives quite a few bodies every day, sometimes dozens less than usual, sometimes hundreds more, some are cremated, others remain unclaimed, impossible to remember them all..."

"Open it, after I enter, close the door, stay outside."

"...Are you sure being alone is alright?" the middle-aged man cautiously asked.

"As a policeman, I’ve seen no fewer corpses than you have," said the fake policeman Lu Li.

The middle-aged man nodded with a look of understanding and pulled open the heavy metal door.

Squeak squeak—

The door behind his hand slowly opened, as if white vapor seeped out from the morgue, a wave of chilling cold emerged.

There was cold air, and there was ominous air.

Very normal, if there were no ghosts in the morgue, it would be surprising if it weren’t haunted.

Lu Li walked into the morgue, and suddenly sensed something, focused on listening.

The faint cries seemed to echo throughout the cold, desolate morgue.

After a dozen seconds, Lu Li turned his head and said to the middle-aged man at the door, "Please ask the families in the farewell hall to lower their cries."

"This... isn’t very appropriate..." The middle-aged man looked troubled.

"Then forget it, close the door."

The middle-aged man responded, sliding the door back to the distance, but did not lock it.

All sounds were blocked outside, leaving only the clean, cold, silent atmosphere inside the morgue.

Rows of corpse storage freezers lined up neatly against the wall, exuding coldness.

Lu Li walked past rows of storage cabinets, approaching District D.

Click—

As he passed a row of cabinets, a sound emerged from behind.

Buzz—

The harsh fluorescent light above began to flicker, alternating between brightness and dimness.

Lu Li tilted his head back and saw the handle of one freezer cabinet in an open position.

Squeak—squeak—

In slow, teeth-gnashing sounds, the cabinet door opened gradually, revealing a slowly widening slit...

Thunk—

A hand suddenly pressed against the cabinet door, closing it.

Feeling the resistance from the other side of the door, Lu Li squinted his dark eyes, opened the holster, and aimed his Glock at the cabinet.

"Silence."

The resistance over the cold cabinet door disappeared instantly.

Click—

The handle turned on its own, and a locking sound came from inside.

Lu Li holstered his gun, his dark eyes paused on a few freezers for a moment, before proceeding to District D, Cabinet 6.

Turned down the handle, pulled out the gurney, lifted the white cloth.

A severely decayed female corpse, the surface of the body a bluish-green hue, appeared before him.

Lu Li had never seen Liu Xiaoyan, but the corpse’s severe decay resembled Chen Rong’s, almost confirming the match.

Lu Li raised his hand, gently stroking Liu Xiaoyan’s forehead.

The icy cold of death transferred to his palm, Lu Li maintained this posture for a long time, ignoring what happened.

No blood-red tendrils emerged.

Could it be that only souls have blood-red tendrils?

Lu Li recalled that Chen Rong was like this, so where could Liu Xiaoyan’s soul be...?

Pushing the gurney back into the cabinet, Lu Li walked over to a neighboring two compartments.

Thunk thunk chonk—

Lu Li raised his hand to knock, "I have two questions. First question: Do you have any impression of the corpse in the cabinet I just opened. Second question: If you have an impression, did you see her spirit when she was brought here?"

Several seconds passed, ten seconds passed, half a minute later, a cold, slow, elderly voice came from the cabinet door.

"...No... no."

Two "no" answers corresponded to the two questions.

"Alright, thank you."

Lu Li thanked, and left the morgue without turning back.

Shortly after he left, a symphony of whispering echoed within the morgue.

Not only humans find the paranormal fascinating, but Ghost Creatures also find peculiar humans intriguing.