Last Bus of Route 13 - Chapter 55 - The Infant Corpse Bed

How could it be Di Pi?

Di Pi had just greeted me in the lobby. It had only been ten minutes, and now he was dead?

And this bed-this was supposed to be the spot for the old lady I arranged to be brought in last night.

No mistake about it!

I took a deep breath and hurriedly covered the corpse with the white cloth again.

While I was still grappling with my thoughts, I suddenly looked up and saw Shi Tou standing at the end of the hallway, staring at me with an unnervingly fixed gaze.

“Push it over!”

Shi Tou’s voice was as cold as ice, devoid of any warmth. A chill ran down my spine.

“Push it over!”

Seeing that I hadn’t moved, Shi Tou repeated himself, his tone sharper this time, almost commanding.

I stood frozen, locked in a standoff with him from opposite ends of the hallway. The tension thickened in the air.

After a few minutes of this silent clash, I reconsidered. Di Pi was already dead-just a lifeless body now. What harm was there in handing him over?

Feigning indifference, I pushed the cart carrying Di Pi’s body toward Shi Tou.

“Shi Tou, shouldn’t we notify the family before cremating this Granny?”

Shi Tou took the cart and replied coldly, “Already done.”

“Shi Tou, did the mortician paint the Granny’s face? Let me take a look.”

As I spoke, I deliberately reached out, pretending to lift the white cloth.

Shi Tou shoved me aside with one hand. “Don’t touch it. Everything was handled before you got here.”

This guy was definitely hiding something!

Judging by his reaction, he must know the body under the cloth wasn’t the old lady. Could Di Pi’s death have been his doing?

Shi Tou pushed the cart into the crematory, but instead of operating the buttons himself, he oddly insisted I do it. When the furnace door opened, he didn’t even bother removing the white cloth-he simply shoved the body in, quick and clean.

Di Pi was cremated. But where was the old lady’s body?

Afraid of raising suspicion, I acted as if everything was normal, operating the buttons without saying much to Shi Tou.

Once Di Pi’s cremation was complete, Shi Tou left the room with a grim expression.

That night, I was consumed by unease and dread. This funeral home wasn’t haunted in the traditional sense, but the cryptic behavior of the people here was far more unsettling.

I couldn’t stay. Another death, another mystery. Tomorrow, I’d quit and move to the other funeral home in town.

Resolving to leave, I endured the rest of my shift in the crematory until my 10 p.m. clock-out. Shi Tou never returned.

I wasn’t here for the money anyway. I didn’t even plan to collect the two days’ wages. Tomorrow, I’d call the manager and inform him of my resignation.

After changing out of my work clothes and packing up my belongings, I headed out through the lobby on the first floor. Just as I was about to leave, I spotted Shi Tou’s silhouette heading toward the mortuary.

It was already past ten-why was he still wandering around here?

I quickly turned back and hid behind a pillar, watching him. Shi Tou entered the mortuary and emerged shortly after, pushing a corpse bed.

The mortuary’s bodies were all accounted for, each with a name and record. By protocol, cremations required a family member to be present to sign off. Shi Tou had just cremated Di Pi without following procedure-clearly, something was off.

Shi Tou pushed the corpse bed down the hallway, heading toward the far end. When he reached the corner, he turned and ascended to the second floor.

The third floor was known to house the offices of some higher-ups, but the staircase leading to the second floor had always been sealed off. The only way to access the second floor was via the gentle slope at the end of the hallway.

I saw Shi Tou pushing the corpse bed up the slope and quickly followed him. The lights on the second floor were on, but the hallway was completely empty.

“Creak…”

Shi Tou didn’t notice me as he pushed the bed into a room.

I tiptoed to the door of the room he had just entered. There were no windows along the hallway, so I couldn’t see inside, but I could hear sounds coming from within-“thud… thud…”

It sounded like chopping!

I hadn’t been here long enough to know what this floor was used for, but seeing Shi Tou push a corpse inside, could it be some kind of experimental disposal room?

I mulled over it briefly before deciding to explore the floor myself. There weren’t many rooms here, but each one had wide double doors.

As I walked further down the hallway, I noticed one door slightly ajar. Casually, I pushed it open to take a look.

The room had no strange smells, and the lights were off, leaving it shrouded in darkness.

Carefully, I reached for the light switch near the door.

“Click… click…”

The lights flickered on, illuminating the room-and what I saw froze me in place, a sight I would never forget for the rest of my life.

The room was filled with transparent glass infant corpse beds!

Inside each glass enclosure lay a small infant. Their bodies were bruised, their expressions varied, but one thing was eerily consistent: every single infant’s eyes were wide open!

The shocking scene left me paralyzed, rooted to the spot.

So many dead infants!

“Thud.”

Before I could snap out of my daze, a hand landed on my shoulder.

“Enjoying the view?”

My heart jumped into my throat as I turned around-it was Shi Tou!

His face was dark, his cold, hateful, and vicious eyes glaring at me like he could tear me apart at any moment. It was terrifying!

Stammering, I managed to reply:

“Shi Tou, Big Brother, don’t joke around. What’s there to look at? I just didn’t expect there to be another mortuary here.”

Shi Tou’s bloodshot eyes didn’t blink as he said, “Done looking? If you’re done, go downstairs to the crematory and wait for me. I need to talk to you.”

Swallowing hard, I nodded and bolted out of the room, sticking close to the wall as I fled.

Once I was back on the first floor, my heart was still pounding. Truly, the scariest thing in this world is people scaring people. The way Shi Tou had stared at me-it felt like a death sentence from the Grim Reaper himself!

I took a deep breath, but instead of heading to the crematory to wait for Shi Tou, I ran straight out of the funeral home’s main entrance.

Cursing under my breath, I thought:

What the hell? A funeral home hoarding a room full of infant corpses-what is this, some kind of macabre collection?

Afraid Shi Tou might chase after me, I didn’t look back and kept running forward.

The night was dark, the path narrow, and I couldn’t see clearly ahead. I hadn’t gotten far when-

“Bang!”

Something collided with me, sending me flying.

Dazed, I rubbed my head and picked up my mobile phone to shine some light. That’s when I saw a disheveled woman with long, messy hair standing in front of me.

Though she looked dirty, her features were delicate, and she didn’t seem very old. Steadying myself, I said:

“Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

To my surprise, the woman laughed and asked in a dazed tone, “Have you ever seen a corpse that moves?”

Her words sent a cold sweat dripping down my forehead.

I had just escaped the funeral home, and now I run into a lunatic!

Ignoring her, I scrambled to my feet and kept running.

By the time I made it back to the dormitory, I was drenched in sweat. I had never told my colleagues about my part-time job at the funeral home, so when Old Li saw me in this state, he asked with concern, “What happened to you? You look like you’ve been through a downpour. Did you run into something out there?”

Naturally, I couldn’t tell Old Li about everything that had happened. I dodged the question and instead asked about Xiao Liu’s condition. To my relief, Old Li told me that Xiao Liu had been improving day by day. Apparently, today he was no longer as dazed and had even started blinking on his own.

Hearing this good news, I finally let out a sigh of relief. It seemed that my desperate efforts over the past few days hadn’t been in vain.

The hours spent by the cremation furnace hadn’t been for nothing, which was a small comfort. But as for that funeral home, I couldn’t bring myself to go back. The image of those rows upon rows of transparent infant corpse beds in that room lingered in my mind, refusing to fade.

The next morning, I went straight to Old Liu. He didn’t seem surprised to see me, and he greeted me with a calm question: “So, how have things been at the funeral home these past few days?”

I told him everything in detail. Just as I had expected, when I mentioned the horrifying room filled with infant corpses, his expression darkened, and he furrowed his brow.

“All infants?” he asked.

I nodded emphatically. “All of them. Their bodies were bruised and purple, like they’d been pickled or something.”

Old Liu leaned on his stick, deep in thought for a moment, before saying, “This won’t do. You’ll need to go back there today. You have to count how many infants are in that mortuary.”

I nearly burst into tears at his words. “What? You want me to go back and count them? Old Liu, we’ve known each other for so long. I’m lucky to have made it back alive the first time! You can’t send me back to my death!”

Old Liu waved his hand dismissively. “I’m trying to help you. If you can count exactly how many infant corpses are in that room, I’ll have a way to break this ‘Gate Where a Hundred Ghosts Cry.’ Then you won’t have to go to another funeral home.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Old Liu had always been a serious and reliable person. If he said he had a solution, I believed him.

After thinking it over, I realized that none of this-the murders, the infant mortuary-was really my problem. But if I wanted to save Xiao Liu as quickly as possible, it was worth taking the risk.

Fine, I’d go back one last night. I’d find a way to get to the second floor, count the number of infants, and then get out of there as fast as I could.

With that decision made, I returned to the dormitory to prepare for what I hoped would be my final night as a cremator.

That night, my goal was clear. I didn’t even need to bother with the cremation furnace. All I had to do was figure out a way to sneak into the infant mortuary on the second floor.

Before six o’clock, I headed to the funeral home early. Zhu Hou, who was in charge of the first-floor mortuary, saw me and joked, “Trying to get a promotion? What are you doing here so early?”

I wasn’t in the mood for jokes, but I figured I could use the opportunity to gather some information. “Just killing time. By the way, has anything happened at work today?”

Zhu Hou replied nonchalantly, “Nothing out of the ordinary. Same as always.”

I had expected Di Pi’s disappearance to cause a stir, maybe even panic among the staff. But to my surprise, everything seemed eerily calm.

Feeling uneasy, I nodded and asked, “Have you seen Di Pi today? The guy I switch shifts with?”

Zhu Hou, still indifferent, replied, “Yeah, I saw him.”

Zhu Hou lied!!

Just yesterday, I personally wheeled Di Pi out of the mortuary, pulled back the white cloth, and confirmed it was him.

Di Pi’s death was an undeniable fact. This meant that Zhu Hou had to be involved in some way.

Feigning nonchalance, I chatted with him for a bit before heading back to the crematory.

Shi Tou was his usual self today, showing no sign of questioning why I hadn’t returned to the crematory last night to meet him.

The evening passed uneventfully until about 9:30 PM, when Zhu Hou approached me, saying he had some personal matters to attend to and needed to leave early. He asked me to cover until 10.

I readily agreed, glad for the opportunity.

Once I was sure Zhu Hou had left, I wasted no time. I hurried down the corridor and up the slanted path to the second floor.

Standing once again in the eerie infant mortuary, my nerves were stretched taut. Unlike yesterday, the infant corpse beds were no longer neatly arranged in rows. Instead, they were scattered haphazardly across the room.

With trembling hands, I began counting from the start:

One, two, three, four…

Wait. One, two, three, four… seventeen, eighteen…

The disarray of the beds, combined with my growing anxiety, made it impossible to keep track. Each time I reached around twenty, I felt I’d made a mistake and started over.

Over and over, I counted and recounted, my frustration mounting with each attempt. My palms were slick with sweat.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I reached the last few beds.

“Wait a second… Something’s off. Among these last few transparent infant corpse beds, there’s a rolling stretcher meant for adult bodies.”

That wasn’t here yesterday, was it?

Puzzled, I cautiously approached. Sure enough, it was a stretcher from the first floor mortuary. On it lay a body, covered with a white cloth.

Suddenly, I remembered the old lady who had insisted on being cremated. Her body had been missing all this time. Could it be her?

My cursed habit of giving in to curiosity got the better of me. Gritting my teeth, I reached out and lifted the white cloth.

The face beneath was ghastly pale, lips tinged blue, and eyes wide open in a frozen expression of terror, as if witnessing something unspeakable.

But what truly sent chills down my spine wasn’t the corpse’s horrifying features-it was the face itself.

It was Zhu Hou, the very man I had suspected all along, the one responsible for overseeing the mortuary!