The Night I Collected My Fiancé's Body - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Old Crematorium Building in the South City was on the west side of the old district, right next to a stretch of old factory buildings that had been half-demolished for years.

When we got there, it was 2:27 a.m.

The moment the car stopped, the rain came down.

Zou Jiashu slid his gun behind his waist and told me to wait in the car while he went in to take a look. I didn’t listen. I yanked open the door and got out after him.

The rolling shutter at the entrance was rusted so badly it had turned black, leaving only a gap about half a person’s height. Rainwater streamed down the metal slats. Inside, the stench of heavy mold hit us-mixed with old disinfectant and the bite of rust.

I’d been here once before.

It was the second month after Gao Yanzhou disappeared. I’d gone crazy, searching every place that had anything to do with cremation, morgues, or cold storage, convinced that one day I’d find him in some forgotten corner. Back then, Liang Boyan had dragged me out of this building, telling me it had been abandoned for ages and to stop tormenting myself.

I never thought I’d be back three years later.

Cold Storage Unit 079 was at the very back of the basement level.

The entire row of units was dead. Only this one compartment still had power, a thin layer of white frost crusted over the surface.

Zou Jiashu bent to check the lock and murmured, “New one.”

I shoved the ring into my pocket, pulled a hairpin from my hair, and handed it to him.

“You’re pretty practiced at this now?” He shot me a look.

“Gao Yanzhou taught me,” I said.

Zou Jiashu’s hand paused, but he didn’t ask anything else.

A dozen seconds later, the lock clicked open.

He pulled the drawer out.

There was no body inside.

Only a sealed fireproof bag.

Zou Jiashu immediately put on gloves and took it out. Inside were an old recording pen, a memory card, and a black notebook with corners scorched by fire.

On the inside of the cover was Gao Yanzhou’s handwriting.

“If you see this first, it means they’ve already run out of patience to wait for me to die.”

My hands started shaking without warning.

Zou Jiashu glanced at me and turned on the recording pen.

Gao Yanzhou’s voice rang out in the empty basement. There was a faint electrical hiss in it, but it was so clear it felt like he was standing right behind me.

“Yuxi. Jiashu.

“If you’re hearing this, don’t rush to look for me. First, investigate Yuancheng Chemical. Focus on where all the ‘unidentified bodies’ went after the Jiangbei Wharf Explosion Case three years ago. Someone used a fire to manufacture an identity, then used the funeral home and cremation process to wipe away the traces.

“Liang Boyan isn’t the mastermind, but he was definitely involved in the numbering and the handoffs.

“And don’t believe anyone in the Municipal Bureau who tells you I’m dead. If I were really going to die, I’d come back to see Yuxi myself.”

The recording ended.

Zou Jiashu swore, eyes reddening.

I just stood there, feeling like the breath that had been stuck in my chest for three years had finally cracked open a thin seam.

Gao Yanzhou was alive.

He really was alive.

I crouched and flipped open the notebook. On the first page was a photocopy of a shipping manifest from three years ago. The receiving unit read: “Yuancheng Chemical Lingang Warehouse.” The transport category had been violently scribbled over in black ink; only the faintest hint of two words still showed through: “hazardous waste.”

The pages after that were filled with names, license plates, timestamps, and a few rough sketches of fire scenes.

When I reached the very end, my hand stopped.

A photograph was tucked there-old, worn.

It was my dad.

My father, Li Jiancheng, had once been a body transport driver for the funeral home. Six years ago, he died in a van fire.

The police had concluded it was “a fire caused by aging wiring.” My mother had died early, and it had just been the two of us, clinging to each other. After he died, I had nowhere to go, which was why I ended up at the funeral home doing odd jobs. That was also when Liang Boyan started taking care of me.

But why would Gao Yanzhou leave my father’s photo here?

There was a line of writing on the back.

“Six years ago, the last run Uncle Li drove-it wasn’t an ordinary body.”

My mind buzzed.

All the details I’d never thought much about before surged up at once.

The night my father died, he should’ve been off work early. Instead, he’d been called in at the last minute to make a run to the west side of the city. On the way back, the vehicle caught fire. He didn’t make it. Afterward, Liang Boyan told me the funeral home would compensate me and that I shouldn’t make trouble. I’d been barely in my twenties back then. Other than crying, I didn’t know how to do anything.

Later, when Gao Yanzhou was courting me, he once casually asked about the details of my father’s accident.

I told him all I remembered was how strangely my father had acted before he left that day. He’d smoked half a pack of cigarettes, then warned me: if anyone ever asked what that run had transported, I had to bite down hard and insist it was just an ordinary unidentified body.

At the time, I didn’t think much of it.

Now, looking back, it was never an ordinary body.

It was very likely evidence Yuancheng Chemical wanted to erase by having it burned through the funeral home.

Zou Jiashu had already started making calls, telling someone to check the records. I stood in front of the unit and, all of a sudden, remembered what Gao Yanzhou looked like the last time I saw him before he vanished.

It was night, too.

I’d waited for him outside the funeral home, gripping the ring I’d just picked up from the shop.

I’d planned to tell him that night: Let’s get married.

But when he showed up, his face was so dark it scared me.

Before I could even take out the ring, he spoke first.

He said, “Li Yuxi, let’s not get married yet.”

I froze.

“Why?”

“I’ve been busy lately. I might be going out on assignment.” He didn’t look at me. His voice was cold as iron. “We’ll talk after the case is over.”

I asked if he regretted it.

He stayed silent for a long time. In the end, he only said, “If that’s what you want to think.”

That night, I threw the ring into the river. Early the next morning, I jumped in myself and spent half an hour feeling around until I fished it back out.

It wasn’t until he disappeared that I understood-

He hadn’t regretted it.

He was cutting me off.
For the past three years, I could never understand why he had to use such a ruthless method.

Now, I finally understood half of it.

It was because someone was already watching me.

Or more accurately, someone had already dragged me into this through my father as early as six years ago.

“Let’s go.” Zou Jiashu packed the items away. “Back to the car first. I don’t trust the Municipal Bureau. We’ll go check the old files on Yuancheng Chemical ourselves.”

I was about to nod when a faint metallic clink suddenly came from upstairs.

Someone was there.

Zou Jiashu’s expression changed instantly, and he immediately pulled me behind him. “Who’s there!”

The next second, the light at the stairwell flickered, and a familiar figure slowly emerged from the shadows.

Liang Boyan.

He held a black umbrella, standing on the landing halfway up the stairs. His expression was surprisingly calm.

“Yuxi,” he said. “In the middle of the night, you really know how to cause trouble for me.”

My blood ran cold.

“You’re following me?”

“It wasn’t exactly following.” He walked down step by step. “When Director Zhou was covering for you, I knew you’d definitely run here. This man, Gao Yanzhou-he was too restless when he was alive, and he won’t stay quiet even in death.”

“He’s not dead,” I said, staring at him.

Liang Boyan gave a smile, one so thin it felt chilling.

“Does it matter if he’s dead or not? As long as all the paperwork is in order, the funeral home will send that body into the incinerator under the name Gao Yanzhou first thing tomorrow morning. Once a person enters the furnace, everything-the old cases, the evidence-it’s all gone.”

Zou Jiashu had already drawn his gun. “Liang Boyan, you’d better put your hands up.”

Liang Boyan acted as if he hadn’t seen it, keeping his eyes only on me.

“Yuxi, I’m the one who trained you. I didn’t want things to end up like this.” He sighed. “But you shouldn’t have looked in the freezer.”

“Six years ago, what exactly was in my father’s truck?” I asked.

He fell silent for a few seconds before being surprisingly frank. “A living person.”

My mind went blank.

“To be more precise, someone who wasn’t quite dead yet,” Liang Boyan said. “There was an accident at the Yuancheng warehouse, and a transport worker was burned. That man knew too much. The boss didn’t want him going to a hospital, so they stuffed him into a transfer bag and used your father’s truck to send him to the old cremation building. Your father discovered the man wasn’t dead halfway there and insisted on calling the police. As a result, before the truck could even leave the west side of the city, it was forced off the road by the car behind it.”

“You’re lying!”

“What benefit would I get from lying about this?” He looked at me with a gaze of almost cruel pity. “Your father didn’t die in an accident. He died because he refused to keep his mouth shut.”

My fingers were cold, and my legs were shaking.

Zou Jiashu’s voice turned dangerously low. “So you helped them change body identification numbers, falsify handover records, and navigate the funeral home’s procedures to turn people who shouldn’t exist into John Does, then burn them.”

Liang Boyan didn’t deny it.

“Then what about Gao Yanzhou?” I stared at him. “Why did he disappear three years ago?”

This time, Liang Boyan remained silent for a bit longer.

“Because he was smarter than your father, and harder to kill,” he said. “After he tracked the line to the funeral home, he was almost at Yuan Sinian’s doorstep. Unfortunately, someone in the Municipal Bureau tipped them off, and he was exposed prematurely. He didn’t die in the pier explosion that day, but he couldn’t come back either.”

“Coming back meant death, and it would have dragged you down too.”

I gritted my teeth hard.

So, for the past three years, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to come back.

It was that he couldn’t.

Liang Boyan took two steps forward, his voice even softening slightly. “Yuxi, give me what you got tonight. The recording pen, the notebook, the memory card. Hand them over, and I can still ensure you stay out of this.”

“You think you’re fit to ‘protect’ me?” I practically squeezed the words through my teeth. “You knew exactly how my father died, yet you let me call you ‘Master’ for six years.”

“I protected you for at least six years.”

“You weren’t protecting me.” I looked at him. “You were watching me.”

The smile on Liang Boyan’s face finally faded.

At that exact moment, a sudden bang erupted from upstairs as an old window pane was smashed from the outside.

A dark shadow flipped inside, lunging at Liang Boyan with incredible speed.

Zou Jiashu raised his gun almost instantly, only to freeze the moment he saw the newcomer.

“Yanzhou!”

My breath hitched.

The man wore a black jacket soaked through by the rain. His left shoulder seemed injured, yet his movements remained startlingly fast. Liang Boyan was knocked back two steps by the impact; the umbrella in his hand fell to the floor and rolled away.

I will never forget that sight for as long as I live.

Three years.

I had wondered if Gao Yanzhou would change, if he would be thinner, if he would be scarred, or if he would one day appear before me looking like a complete stranger.

But the moment he actually stood in front of me, I recognized him instantly.

Gao Yanzhou.

A living, breathing Gao Yanzhou.

He and Liang Boyan were locked in a struggle. Zou Jiashu rushed forward to help, and the basement level descended into chaos. I, however, felt as if I were nailed to the spot, unable to take even a single step forward.

It wasn’t until Gao Yanzhou turned his head and shouted at me, “Yuxi, get back!”

My tears burst out instantly.

It really was him.

He was still alive.

Seeing that the situation was turning against him, Liang Boyan violently shoved Zou Jiashu aside and turned to run upstairs. Before Gao Yanzhou gave chase, he looked back at me.

Just that one look.

Three years of emptiness, grievances, hatred, and longing felt as if they were all torn open by that single glance.

“Don’t follow me!” he barked.

But I chased after him anyway.

Because three years ago, I had been left behind on the spot by his words “Don’t wait for me,” and I had waited all that time for nothing.

This time, I didn’t want to just stand still.