Seeing these footprints, it was as if something exploded in my head. Suddenly, my mind went completely blank.
No wonder there were no skeletal remains on the stretcher bed, and no wonder there was so little ash. The female corpse had opened the incinerator and escaped halfway through the cremation.
The female corpse should have escaped when Huang Po and I went to get coffee.
Actually, the funeral parlor has explicit regulations for the operation of the cremation room. Someone must keep watch during the cremation of a corpse.
This rule was also added because of that murder and cremation case in Northeast China, aiming to prevent someone from secretly burning a corpse.
Huang Po and I also knew this rule. However, when we went to the office to get coffee, it was just a few minutes. It was impossible for someone to open the incinerator and stuff a corpse in within such a short time.
More importantly, the funeral parlor is now equipped with surveillance cameras everywhere. It might have been possible to secretly burn a corpse before, but now anyone who wants to do so must be crazy.
Because of this, this rule is now nothing but a paper tiger. The cremator can just punch in and then skip work to play cards.
We've done this quite a lot in normal times. A short absence from the cremation room, no one would care.
Unexpectedly, something really has happened now. Everyone knows that no one would be stupid enough to stuff a corpse in to burn, but no one could have imagined that a corpse would escape from the incinerator.
Seeing me standing still, Huang Po asked suspiciously, "Chen Zi, what's wrong?"
"Come and see for yourself," I said. My whole body was trembling, and I felt an icy chill.
After Huang Po saw the palm print made of oil ash on the inner wall of the incinerator furnace door and the oil - ash footprints on the floor, he also gasped in shock.
"No way, this is impossible," Huang Po kept shaking his head.
"Then tell me what's going on. There are no bones left after cremating a good corpse, and there's only so little ash. If it didn't escape, what else could it be?"
"Let's check the surveillance cameras," Huang Po's voice became a bit shrill because of fear.
Checking the surveillance cameras was indeed a good idea.
The surveillance in the funeral parlor is quite strict. Areas like the restroom and the shower room, which involve privacy, are excluded, and the rest of the areas are covered 360 degrees without blind spots.
The old employees have also told us that all the surveillance cameras in the funeral parlor are high - end ones with infrared night - vision function. They are not just for regular monitoring, but can also capture those strange things.
Huang Po and I hurriedly packed up the five urns, sealed them with stickers, and handed them over to the storage area. Then we rushed to the monitoring room.
When we arrived, it just happened to be the shift - change time in the monitoring room. Huang Po and I tried to speak up several times, but no one paid us any attention.
The employees in the funeral parlor are also divided into different ranks. The most comfortable and easiest job belongs to the monitors in the monitoring room.
They don't have to do anything every day. They just need to sit in the monitoring room and watch the surveillance videos.
Although it's said that they are watching the surveillance videos, actually everyone knows that they either sleep or play.
Only relatives of the leaders can get such a cushy job, so the people in the monitoring room are very arrogant. They look down on us, temporary corpse carriers like Huang Po and me.
If it were in the past, I definitely wouldn't have dared to explode. But look at the situation now. The female corpse has run out, and it might even be coming for me. My life is on the line. Who cares about these relatives of the leaders?
I let out a roar: "Damn it! Can you guys hear me or not? Something's wrong in the cremation room. Now I want to check the surveillance!"
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" One of the monitors couldn't help but retort, but was held back by another older one.
"Chen Zi, don't lose your temper. I'll check the surveillance right away."
While the other person was retrieving the surveillance footage, Huang Po leaned over to my ear and whispered, "Chen Zi, your eyes were red just now. It even scared me. Keep your temper in check and don't really cause any trouble."
I was really taken aback. Just now, I really had an urge to kill because those people were so infuriating.
The surveillance footage was quickly retrieved and fast - forwarded to the part when we left the cremation room and went to the office to get coffee.
In the surveillance video, after we left, only the flames of the five incinerators were flickering in the cremation room, and there was no sign of anything abnormal.
As time ticked by second by second, the picture seemed to stand still.
At 00:44:44, a ripple flashed across the screen of the surveillance cameras, just like when a TV screen is hit by electromagnetic interference.
Then, without any warning, the furnace door of the incinerator where Jiang Lixin was inside suddenly opened.
I couldn't help but hold my breath, and my heart was in my throat.
However, the next moment, the surveillance video started to turn into a stuttering mosaic, looking like the video was damaged.
After more than ten seconds, the surveillance picture suddenly returned to normal.
In the cremation room, the five incinerators were still flickering with flames, and all the furnace doors were tightly closed. There was no sign of anything wrong at all.
"Let's rewind and watch it again."
This time, the monitors didn't show any dissatisfaction and were quite cooperative.
However, when we rewound the surveillance video, the result was the same. After the furnace door opened, the picture became stuttering and seemed to be damaged.
After more than ten seconds, when the picture returned to normal, the furnace door had inexplicably closed.
"Let's keep watching further." Huang Po reminded.
Later, two minutes later, Huang Po and I returned to the cremation room. We were sipping coffee, walking around, and chatting, but no one noticed that there had been a problem with one of the incinerators.
"Check the other surveillance cameras outside the cremation room."
To our astonishment, the surveillance video of the cremation room returned to normal at 00:45:03, while the corridor outside the cremation room started to freeze from that second and returned to normal eight seconds later.
Next, the surveillance in the stairwell and the yard also froze.
The more we watched, the more frightened we were. Even the stupidest person could tell that something evil had escaped from the incinerator, left the cremation room, and went out.
The middle - aged monitor who had smoothed things over before went out with his phone and quickly came back: "Chen Feng and Huang Po, you two go back and rest first. Keep your phones on. We'll notify you if there's anything."
Huang Po and I glanced at each other and could only nod.
What else could we do?
This situation had clearly gone beyond what we could control. Huang Po and I were anxious, but there was nothing we could do.
Maybe the leaders of the funeral parlor had a solution. Since they held such positions, they must have relevant experience or methods.
Huang Po and I clocked out of work. We had no appetite at all. We just grabbed a quick bite at a breakfast joint and then went our separate ways.
On the way back to the neighborhood, I was on edge. Every time I passed a mirror, I'd take a close look to see if there was a female corpse on my back.
When I got home in a state of unease, I opened the door and entered. I saw my girlfriend sitting on the bed with her back to me, as if she were looking at the view from the balcony.
My heart skipped a beat. Xinyi only acted like this when she was angry.
My mind raced, and I suddenly realized that many of our classmates knew about my having a fling with Jiang Lixin at the reunion. There was no way to keep it a secret.
Thinking of this, I felt even guiltier, and I completely forgot about the strange female corpse.
I tiptoed over and tried to act casual. "Xinyi, why aren't you off to work yet?"
Xinyi didn't react at all. She didn't even move.
I got even more flustered. I stepped forward and hugged her from behind. "Who made my dear unhappy?"
As I did so, Xinyi's body slumped down limply.
That's when I saw the look of horror on Xinyi's face. Her eyes were wide open.
What was even more terrifying was that her mouth was open, and her tongue was hanging out. She looked exactly like the female corpse.