Corpse Retriever

Home is the last harbor of the heart, no matter what happens outside, returning home brings comfort and shelter to the soul.

But now,

She’s entered the house!

Seeing he couldn’t wake Cui Guiying, Li Zhuiyuan ran to the inner room where his brothers and sisters slept on the floor mats.

“Brother Panzi, wake up!”

“Brother Leizi, wake up quick!”

“Sister Yingzi, wake up!”

Li Zhuiyuan darted from one sibling to another, pushing and calling out to each one, but like Cui Guiying in the kitchen, none of them would stir no matter how he tried.

“Drip… drip… drip…”

Li Zhuiyuan looked up toward the door between the inner room and the kitchen, Little Yellow Oriole’s figure wasn’t there.

“Phew…”

He let out a breath of relief, but the next moment, he noticed a puddle of water forming beneath his feet, growing larger, starting to spill and flow across the uneven floor.

“Drip… drip… drip…”

Water kept falling onto him, soaking his clothes, bringing a sticky, cold, slimy chill.

On either side of his vision, a pair of hands appeared.

Finally,

Ice-cold hands seized his neck.

Li Zhuiyuan’s body shuddered, an intense sense of suffocation surged.

But soon, the suffocation faded, as those hands didn’t linger long at his neck, beginning to slide downward slowly.

A shadow loomed from above, and Li Zhuiyuan struggled to lift his head.

The figure above lowered its head at the same time, wet, dripping hair cascading down, clinging to the boy’s face, like a giant black mouth, covering his head bit by bit,

Until…

It engulfed him.

---

“Hanhou, slow down, slow down, my ass is hurting, ouch… it hurts!”

Li Sanjiang had one arm around Li Weihan’s waist and the other hand pulling at his buttocks, trying to lift himself up a bit.

“Uncle, don’t squirm, you’ll make us fall!”

“Pah, you’re riding so fast, how can I not move?”

After picking up Li Sanjiang from a funeral feast, Li Weihan pedaled home without stopping.

The narrow field paths were full of ruts and bumps, tough on the passenger, and Li Sanjiang, being older, really couldn’t handle such a rough ride.

Li Weihan had no choice, seeing they were close to home and the shortcut path growing even tougher, he slowed the bike a bit.

“Oh, thank goodness…” Li Sanjiang finally breathed easier, patted the cigarette pack in his pocket, and said, “Hanhou, let’s stop and have a smoke.”

“We’re almost home, Uncle, we’ll smoke there.”

“Hey, what’s the rush? Didn’t you already call Liu Xiazi to check on things? I bet your Xiao Yuanhou is already running around eating at home by now.”

“Is Liu Xiazi really that capable?”

Li Weihan wasn’t too convinced of Liu Jinxia’s skills, he’d seen her and her daughter at their lowest, if she truly had the power to commune with spirits, how could she have let herself fall so far?

By comparison, he trusted Li Sanjiang more, after all, the man specialized in handling the dead, and from memory, he’d always lived quite comfortably.

“Well, how do I put it? Liu Xiazi started out as a money-grubbing fraud, but later she figured out some real tricks, you know that old saying, the rope always breaks at its thinnest point, and for her, it broke first at her own life, broke enough times, she learned from it.”

“What’s that mean, Uncle? I don’t get it.”

“Don’t worry if you don’t, worst case for your Xiao Yuanhou is he’s been tainted by something, that kind of thing, Liu Xiazi can actually handle, especially given your past ties.”

“I’m just worried about the kid, I’d rather it tainted me instead.”

“You Hanhou, always playing favorites, first with your little girl back then, now with your grandson, but fair enough, your little girl turned out well, this bike’s the one she got you years ago, right?

But getting tainted, it’s not always such a hardship, might even feel kind of nice, like those who hang themselves, right before the noose tightens, looking through that loop, all they see is mesmerizing stuff.”

“Uncle, you make it sound like it’s a good thing?”

“Good’s not the word, just think of it like the kid caught a graveyard chill, every village has a few naughty kids who get it each year, just a minor illness.”

“Right, Uncle, that dead thing, how you planning to deal with it?”

“Deal with it?” Li Sanjiang’s mood suddenly shifted, his tone turning sharp, “My life’s too cushy to go rushing off to handle some dead thing that walks in water?”

Li Weihan’s heart tightened at that, and he pedaled faster.

“Hey, hey, hey! Slow down, slow down! Hanhou, what’s gotten into you? That dead thing, no matter how fierce, you all got away, so it’s no big deal, what, you think it’s gonna chase you home?”

“We’re here!”

The bike reached the embankment, and Li Weihan jumped off to hold it steady.

Li Sanjiang hopped off the back, rubbing his sore backside.

Li Weihan called out, “Guiying, Guiying!”

“Coming, coming, keep it down, the kids are asleep,” Cui Guiying stepped out, first greeting Li Sanjiang, “Uncle, you’re here.”

“Yeah, here,” Li Sanjiang didn’t dawdle, flicked his sleeve toward the house, “Let’s go, check on the kid first.”

At the plank bed, Li Sanjiang squatted down to examine Li Zhuiyuan.

“Should I wake the kid?” Cui Guiying asked.

“No need, the kid’s fine now, no taint left, Liu Xiazi was here?”

“She was,” Cui Guiying recounted the afternoon’s events.

Li Sanjiang nodded after listening, “That’s what you get for being kind back then, Guiying, letting Hanhou help out their mother and daughter, that good karma’s paid off on your grandkids now.”

“Oh, Uncle, you talk like it was something big.”

“It was plenty big, back in the day, anyone else, you think Liu Xiazi would’ve lifted a finger? It’s that debt of kindness, she had to swallow her pride and do it, probably feeling all wronged and regretful inside, crying at home about her bitter fate by now.”

“Uncle, sit,” Li Weihan passed a small stool under Li Sanjiang’s backside, pulled out a cigarette, lit it for him, then turned to his wife, “Guiying, grab some food to tide us over.”

He glanced at the locked cabinet.

Cui Guiying took the key, unlocked it, and pulled out egg cakes and biscuits, spreading them out before the two men, saying apologetically to Li Sanjiang, “Uncle, tomorrow I’ll get some meat, have you over for a proper drink.”

“Nah, why fuss over that, put it away, how could I take the kids’ snacks?”

Li Weihan cracked open a biscuit tin, handed one to Li Sanjiang, then picked up the metal box, inspecting it, “Guiying, when the biscuits are gone, keep the tin, good for storing needles and buttons.”

“Got it.”

Li Sanjiang wolfed down the biscuit, and when Li Weihan offered another, he waved it off, patted his pants, “Alright, the kid’s fine, I’m heading home.”

“I’ll ride you back, Uncle.”

“No, no, not getting back on that thing.”

“Then I’ll walk you home, Guiying, grab the flashlight.”

Just then, Li Zhuiyuan, who’d been sound asleep, suddenly twitched, his breathing grew heavy, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

Li Sanjiang quickly sat back down to check on the child.

Li Weihan, anxious, said, “Uncle, what’s wrong with the kid…”

“Nothing serious, probably just a nightmare, normal. At first, when tainted, the dirty thing seems beautiful, captivating, but once it sinks in, that’s when the fear hits, no big deal, the kid’ll play a few days and forget all about it.”

Li Weihan and Cui Guiying nodded, of course they wanted the child to be fine.

“Ah!”

Li Zhuiyuan let out a cry, bolting upright on the plank, gasping heavily.

“Xiao Yuanhou, Xiao Yuanhou,” Cui Guiying rushed forward, pulling him into her arms, patting his back gently, “It’s alright, don’t be scared, Grandma’s here, Grandma’s right here.”

Li Zhuiyuan first looked at Cui Guiying, then at Li Weihan, and finally his gaze settled on Li Sanjiang’s face, someone he’d never met before.

Li Sanjiang pointed to his ruddy nose and chuckled, “Xiao Yuanhou, I’m your great-uncle.”

Li Zhuiyuan blinked, then, as if recalling his dream, whipped his head toward the back door, pointing, “Little Yellow Oriole, Little Yellow Oriole, she came into the house!”

“Good boy, you had a nightmare, it’s over now, Grandma chased her off, she won’t dare come for our kid again.”

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Cui Guiying, uncertain, “Really, Grandma?”

Li Weihan let out a breath, “Looks like the kid really just got spooked by a dream, haha.”

Seeing things unfold as Li Sanjiang predicted, the couple felt truly at ease.

Only Li Sanjiang, following Xiao Yuanhou’s pointed direction to the back door, grew solemn.

“Hanhou, give me the flashlight.”

Li Weihan didn’t hand it over, saying instead, “Uncle, I said I’d take you home.”

“Give it!”

Li Sanjiang snatched the flashlight.

“Uncle, I’ll walk you back, you’ve been drinking, it’s dark out…”

“Move!”

Li Sanjiang pushed Li Weihan aside and headed straight for the back door.

“Uncle?” Li Weihan glanced at his grandson and followed.

Li Sanjiang crossed the threshold, reaching the riverbank right behind the door, shining the flashlight downward.

“Uncle, something still up?”

Li Sanjiang spat on the ground, lowering his voice, “If the kid dreamt anything else, it’d be normal, no big deal, but dreaming that dead thing came into the house? That’s chilling.”

“What, it really came into the house?”

Li Sanjiang raised a hand to hush Li Weihan, then kept scanning the boat and nearby river with the flashlight, but after several sweeps, found nothing.

(Continue in Next Part)