The refrigerated cabinet was pulled open, and Jiang Lixin's familiar face appeared before us.
In fact, even now, I still haven't figured out whether the Jiang Lixin who spent a night of pleasure with me was alive or dead.
Nor can I tell if the female corpse in front of me is Jiang Lixin herself or another woman who looks very similar to her.
However, whether this female corpse is Jiang Lixin or not doesn't matter anymore, because the scene in front of me is simply too terrifying.
At this moment, she was wearing a bright red traditional Chinese wedding dress, with bridal makeup on her face and a traditional Chinese coiled hairstyle, looking like a sleeping bride.
Wasn't this the clothes Jiang Lixin wore when I attended the wedding in my dream?
I remembered the scene in my dream when I got married to Jiang Lixin. Finally, she held my hand and pressed my fingerprint on the betrothal letter with our birth dates and times. My body couldn't help trembling.
Was it really just a dream, or did my soul really experience all that?
Otherwise, how could the clothes she's wearing now be exactly the same as what I saw in my dream?
Huang Po didn't notice anything amiss with me. When he saw the dressing of the female corpse, he couldn't help cursing.
"Fucking hell! Which idiot embalmer did this job? Don't they know any rules at all? What the fuck are they trying to do, create a fierce ghost to play with?!"
According to traditional customs, a corpse should be dressed in a shroud before burial or cremation.
There are also rules for wearing shrouds. Shrouds come in many colors, including red, but there are quite specific requirements for red shrouds.
Red shrouds can only be used in a happy funeral (a funeral for someone who has lived a long and fulfilling life and died a natural death).
The requirements for a happy funeral are that the deceased must be over sixty years old, and they must have died a natural death, which can include death from illness or old age, but not from a serious disease.
If the deceased is under sixty years old, or dies accidentally or commits suicide, red shrouds must never be used.
It is said that if a person dies before reaching sixty years old, they may have some resentment in their hearts because they didn't get to fully experience life in this mortal world.
As for those who die from serious diseases, accidents, or suicide, there's no doubt that they will have a lot of resentment.
On the other hand, according to Chinese tradition, red clothes are only used for happy occasions.
When a bride gets married or a scholar in ancient times is dressed in a red robe and parades through the streets on a horse after passing the imperial examination, those are all great happy events in life, and that's when this color can be used.
If a dead person with resentment wears such clothes, it's like pouring salt on a wound, doubling their resentment, and problems are bound to occur.
That's the origin of the plot of the female red - clothed fierce ghost in Hong Kong movies.
The female corpse in front of us at this moment has violated all the taboos.
A young woman who died a violent death and was unmarried was dressed in a bright red wedding dress as a shroud. How could anyone do such a thing?
This kind of dress can never be used as a shroud because in ancient times, a woman's wedding day was the most glorious and absolutely a happy occasion in her life.
Is this what they call embalming and makeup?
It's completely asking for trouble and creating supernatural events even if there weren't any to begin with.
Moreover, this female corpse itself is quite strange. Isn't this adding fuel to the fire?
"Damn it! I'll go to the office later and scold someone. How can they ignore the rules just for the sake of looking good?" Huang Po was still angry.
"Stop talking, Huang Po. Let's take this corpse to be cremated first." My voice was trembling.
We work at the funeral parlor. Every now and then, we come across some spooky things, but we're not completely at a loss.
Because we still have our last resort: cremation.
Since ancient times, fire has been believed to have the power to purify and ward off evil spirits. It's one of the earliest totems and deities revered by humans.
Most paranormal events can be resolved with fire.
If you've had bad luck, step over a brazier when entering the house. If there's a haunted situation, burn the possessed objects or the corpse. If there's a zombie outbreak, dig out the zombie at noon when the sun is high and burn it.
No matter how many sneaky tricks there are, they'll turn to ashes under high temperature, and that'll be the end of it.
The old employees at the funeral parlor also told us that if we really encounter something strange, there's no need to be afraid.
Just shove the corpse into the incinerator, press the ignition button. With a temperature of several thousand degrees, unless it's the Monkey King, everything else is doomed to be burned to a crisp.
The employees also chatted and said that maybe the current promotion of cremation also takes into consideration preventing paranormal events from happening.
The two of us carried the female corpse onto the stretcher bed and rushed non - stop towards the cremation room.
On the way, I noticed another odd thing about the female corpse.
When we collected the body yesterday, the part below the female corpse's neck was severely crushed, almost into minced meat, so we wrapped her in plastic wrap.
Logically speaking, after being placed flat in the refrigerated cabinet, under the effect of gravity and freezing, her body should have become a flat, frozen meat patty.
If it's hard to tell the difference in other parts, but the chest cavity was crushed, so it should be flat.
But now the female corpse looks just like a normal person, with prominent breasts. Coupled with the delicate makeup on her face, she actually has a strange allure.
I only stared at her for a brief moment, and unexpectedly, images of me having sex with Jiang Lixin in the hotel flashed through my mind, and I even felt a sudden urge.
What the hell is going on?! Am I out of my mind? How can I think about that now?
I quickly shook my head to get rid of those messy thoughts in my head.
We rushed all the way, and the two of us pushed the stretcher bed into the cremation room.
I was in a hurry. I stepped forward and directly opened an incinerator, ready to stuff the female corpse in for incineration.
Just then, a voice suddenly came from the door: "Are you just going to burn her like this?"
Huang Po and I turned our heads and saw an old man hunched over, standing at the door of the cremation room.
"Uncle Lin, you're here? This female corpse is strange. Chen Zi and I thought of burning her quickly," Huang Po offered a cigarette to the old man and explained with a smile.
The old man is Lin Jianguo. He's one of the old - generation cremators. He's been retired for almost ten years. He's a poor guy.
He's not only hunched but also walks with a limp, and one of his eyes is half - blind. He's a typical case of having the so - called 'three drawbacks and five deficiencies' (a traditional Chinese belief referring to certain misfortunes or disabilities).
During the famine years, the old man's entire family starved to death. Only he survived because he had a tough destiny.
Later, when the city was building a crematorium and needed manpower, since the cremation process involved gory steps like opening the body and pulling out the internal organs with a large iron hook, no one wanted the job.
Moreover, people believed that such work required someone with a tough fate, so the old man became one of the first - generation cremators.
Most of the cremators in his generation had some physical disabilities. Their salaries were not high, just enough to make a living, but there was no way to get rich.
It wasn't until recent years that the funeral industry developed and became a highly sought-after field. By that time, this group of people had reached retirement age.
The positions of cremators were given to those with connections. They could only live on the low pensions they received before the industry reform.
It was better for the others as they at least had families. But Old Lin was all alone, without even a single relative or friend.
He would often come to the funeral parlor for a stroll, and it was quite common for him to stay here overnight.
He was a taciturn man who seldom spoke. So when he took the initiative to talk today, there must be something up.
Old Lin waved his hand and didn't take the cigarette Huang Po offered. He just said,
"Who dressed this girl in a red wedding dress? She's wearing a red wedding dress without a groom. What a huge grudge! If she's cremated like this, every single one of her relatives will die."
Hearing Old Lin mention a groom, my heart skipped a beat. I couldn't help but recall my experience in the dream.
"Uncle Lin, then what should we do? Can't just leave her like this, right?" Huang Po asked eagerly.
"Definitely not. Take off this dress and cremate her and the dress separately. Just don't let her go down there in this dress."
After Old Lin finished speaking, he left. Huang Po and I just stared at each other.
"What should we do?"
"Listen to Old Lin. He's been in this industry for decades and has seen a lot. It's right to follow his advice."
I took a deep breath to steel my nerves, stepped forward and began to undo the buttons on the red wedding dress.
The female corpse in front of me had an indescribable charm that made my heart itch.
As I undid the buttons, out of curiosity, I stole a glance inside.
However, that glance almost scared the living daylights out of me.
On the female corpse's body, there were countless red earthworm-like bugs, densely packed and wriggling non-stop.