Cross Fish Tragedy

Xiao Ran thought the voice sounded familiar. Looking closely, he exclaimed in surprise, "Uncle Li? It's you? How did you end up looking... like this?"

The Uncle Li in his memory had been a little bald, but he'd had a square face and a crew cut, and looked very spirited and respectable.

He usually wore a white shirt and suit pants, carrying a thermos. At first glance, he looked like a department head. Many families who met Uncle Li thought right away that he seemed reliable and trustworthy.

It was also thanks to that honest-looking face that Uncle Li had thrived among the funeral trade's old hands.

But now, his square face had turned into a swollen bun. His cheeks puffed out, and his face was mottled with bruises. He looked absolutely miserable.

Xiao Ran hurried over to help him up, then had him sit on a stool and explain slowly.

"Didn't I call you yesterday? I got a job, but I botched it."

Xiao Ran remembered. He'd been tidying up the old house when Uncle Li called about the job. After learning Xiao Ran wasn't in the city, Uncle Li had hurriedly hung up.

Xiao Ran had meant to get back as soon as possible, but then he'd run into the matter of three kids going missing. That had led to everything that happened afterward, including his entering the Maze City.

Only one night had passed, yet somehow Uncle Li had ended up like this.

"Don't rush. Take your time."

Xiao Ran poured Uncle Li a glass of water, then sat nearby and listened.

"When you said you weren't around, I was worried someone else would snatch the job, so I found another guy. Turns out he was useless. He didn't fix the body, and then he passed out himself, with the scissors stuck in the body's chest. When the family saw that..."

Uncle Li trailed off. Without thinking, he raised a hand to rub his face. The injuries there made it obvious that the family had been very worked up and had shown him plenty of affection.

"So..."

"I'm in a bind, Xiao Ran. I won't take my three-point cut. The job pays thirteen thousand in total, and I can pay you in advance. We've worked together several times, so we're old friends. You can't leave me in the lurch!"

Uncle Li spoke with such earnestness and sincerity.

But Xiao Ran only narrowed his eyes and stared at him. Ever since his trip to the Maze City, he felt as though everyone he met was wearing a mask.

"Let me see the details."

Uncle Li quickly pulled the deceased's file from his clothes and handed it to Xiao Ran.

Xiao Ran picked it up and looked it over carefully, then glanced at Uncle Li. "A Cross Fish?"

Uncle Li didn't dare say anything. He only nodded with an ingratiating smile, his eyes fixed on Xiao Ran, afraid he might refuse.

A Cross Fish was usually someone who had died suddenly in an accident.

There was an unspoken rule at the funeral home: never call a "client" by name, and never discuss the "client's" cause of death outright.

Some "clients" didn't even know how they had died. They lay there in a daze, still confused.

Imagine standing nearby and saying, "That's Old Wang. Last night, he caught his wife and Old Sun dancing on a pole in bed. He couldn't take the shock and died of a brain hemorrhage on the spot."

Hey, if Old Wang heard that while lying there, resentment would flare up. He might even put on a little show and sit up to scare you.

The rule sounded ridiculous and absurd, but if it had survived this long, then there must have been a reason behind it.

Besides Cross Fish, there were also Fresh Fish, Frozen Fish, Rotten Fish, Flying Fish (suicide), and Floating Fish (drowning), among other terms.

As the saying went: Cross Fish were tragic, Flying Fish were hateful, and Floating Fish were sinister.

These three kinds of bodies were usually cremated right away at the funeral home. Anyone who wanted services like grooming, washing, or even massage for the body, so that the deceased could leave with dignity, had to find someone from outside.

That was where an old hand like Uncle Li came in handy.

Of course, Uncle Li only took a cut for arranging the work. The ones who did the job and earned the money were people like Xiao Ran.

That was why Xiao Ran had said he'd found a part-time job at the funeral home.

He looked over the file. The man's name was Guo Lingfei.

The cause of death was strange, too. He'd been walking along just fine when, all of a sudden, he seemed to go mad and rushed into a nearby construction site. While the workers weren't looking, he plunged headfirst into a concrete mixer. By the time they noticed...

The worker operating the mixer had reportedly been so frightened that he ended up in the hospital.

The man had died horribly, so his remains needed to be pieced together and cleaned up.

Fortunately, the person from last night had already finished washing the body. All that remained was putting it back together.

After reading the file, Xiao Ran couldn't help feeling uneasy. The cause of death seemed bizarre—somewhat... like the Old Woman's strange methods in the Maze City.

"By the way, do you know what this guy did for a living?"

"Uh... I heard he was a fitness trainer."

From Uncle Li's expression, Xiao Ran could tell he wasn't being honest, but he didn't press him. "I'll take it. Pay me half now, and give me the rest when I'm done."

At Xiao Ran's agreement, Uncle Li's swollen face immediately broke into a smile. "Great, great. I'll wait for you behind the morgue at two this afternoon."

As he spoke, he took out his phone and scanned the QR code at the counter, then headed out. Before long, Xiao Ran received a notification: thirteen thousand yuan had arrived.

It seemed Uncle Li had worried Xiao Ran might change his mind, so he'd transferred the whole amount.

"Interesting."

Xiao Ran picked up the file. Perhaps it was a lingering effect of the Maze City, but he felt Uncle Li hadn't told him the whole truth. Still, as the saying went, skill bred courage. He'd accepted this job not only for the money, but also because he wanted to test the effects of Cursed Objects and curse marks in the real world.

If he could gain some other abilities, that would be even better.

With thirteen thousand yuan in his account, Xiao Ran didn't feel like making noodles for lunch. He ordered a big plate of chicken and happily ate it in the shop.

"Meow!"

As if it had caught the smell of the chicken, the cat in the box began scratching at it restlessly.

Only then did Xiao Ran remember the cat.

He walked over and opened the box. The dirty White Cat pushed itself upright, letting out a sharp, low growl. Its eyes shone with wariness and hostility, as though it were ready to fight at any moment.

Xiao Ran took out his phone and called the number the kids had left, telling them to come pick up the cat.

But when someone answered, it was a middle-aged man who seemed to be one of the students' parents. Xiao Ran briefly explained what had happened, and the parent immediately replied, "Why would I raise a cat? I can barely manage to raise the kid. I'm not taking it. I'm not taking it. Do what you want with the cat."

Then he hung up.

Xiao Ran stared at the disconnected call and gave a helpless laugh. But soon he was at a loss. Normally, he could have simply let the cat go, but its hind leg was badly injured. If he threw it out, it probably wouldn't survive more than a few days.

After a moment, Xiao Ran sighed. "Fine. If you're going to help someone, see it through to the end."

He reached out and grabbed White Cat by the scruff. It had been about to fight back, but Xiao Ran's hand was so fast and precise that it didn't get the chance. He lifted it right out of the box.

He skillfully shaved the fur from White Cat's hind leg and examined the wound. The muscle had been torn, but the damage wasn't too bad. He held the cat down with one hand and picked up the needle and thread he'd prepared with the other. Thanks to his Master-level Suturing Technique, he stitched up the wound in no time.

He dabbed on iodine, then took a tablet of amoxicillin and slipped it into the cat's mouth.

"Whether you make it is up to you now."

With that, he put the cat back in the box, along with a few pieces of dried fish and a bowl of clean water.

He checked the time. It was about time to go. Xiao Ran tidied up, slung a bag over his shoulder for show, and headed out.

Zhuangyuanhong Road was only about a ten-minute ride from the funeral home, a little farther away than Cuiyun Park.

The old man had settled his home there because it was so conveniently close to the crematorium.

As usual, Xiao Ran rode a shared bike straight through the funeral home's main gate.

The security guard at the entrance simply nodded when he saw Xiao Ran and said nothing. It was clear they knew each other.

Compared to the funeral home's bustle that morning, it was quiet and deserted in the afternoon. There were only a few staff members around and almost nobody else.

"Uncle Li!"

When he reached the morgue entrance, he saw Uncle Li squatting in a corner, scrolling on his phone and smoking. As soon as he saw Xiao Ran, Uncle Li waved him over, looking as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"Let's go."

Uncle Li didn't waste words. He led Xiao Ran inside, and the two of them entered the morgue one after the other.

It was summer, but the moment they stepped into the funeral home, they felt waves of chill. Once they entered the morgue, the cold made them shiver.

It wasn't that the room itself was especially cold. There was just a bone-deep chill that seemed to seep through their clothes and into their bones.

"Old Zhou, open the door!"

At the duty room, Uncle Li offered the middle-aged man on duty a cigarette and handed him the file.

Old Zhou stood up and glanced at Xiao Ran, who was standing behind Uncle Li.

He looked as if he wanted to say something, but after glancing at Uncle Li, he swallowed his words. With a cold expression, he picked up his keys and headed inside.

"Remember, I get off at six. Whatever you do, put the body back in the freezer then. If you don't finish, you can come back tomorrow."

"Okay." Xiao Ran nodded and followed Old Zhou inside.

Uncle Li didn't follow them in.

At the very back of the morgue stood a small room of its own, with a sign reading [Morgue Room] on the door.

When he pushed the door open, a strong smell of disinfectant hit him.

The body lay flat on a stretcher, wrapped in a body bag. A thick layer of bloodstains covered it, and it gave off a strong, raw stench.

After turning on the room's lights, Old Zhou left without looking back.

Xiao Ran walked up and unzipped the body bag. The corpse of a young man was revealed.

Just as the file said, the concrete mixer had crushed the left half of the body. Broken bones had pierced the stomach, tearing a huge hole in the abdomen, and all the intestines had spilled out.

Xiao Ran inspected it carefully. It was his first time dealing with a Cross Fish like this. The jobs he'd taken before had been small-scale work, nothing like this.

But he didn't think this one would be too difficult.

He put on gloves and a mask, then picked up a scalpel. Looking back at the Bone Spur jutting out, he shook his head, set down the scalpel, and silently picked up an axe...

"Li Peng, that was a dirty trick."

In the office, Old Zhou looked sideways at Uncle Li, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

Uncle Li knew what Old Zhou meant. He took a long drag of his cigarette. "Old Zhou, don't give me that. The kid's family has been in this line of work for generations. This is how he makes a living."

"Ha. Don't try to dodge the question." Old Zhou narrowed his eyes and sneered. "Then tell me—did you tell him this Cross Fish had already killed two people?"

Uncle Li lowered his head. "That was just an accident."

"Bullshit. This body had already killed someone once before. Then it killed another person last night. There's something seriously wrong with it, and you still dared to bring someone in."

With his ulterior motive exposed, Uncle Li could only point at his own face. "I regret it, too. I didn't find out how strange this body was until after I took the job. I can't afford to offend the family that hired me."

Old Zhou scowled, ready to curse him out. But seeing Uncle Li's head bowed, he couldn't be bothered to keep venting his anger. He only frowned and asked, "How much did you pay him?"

"Thirteen thousand." Uncle Li lowered his head a little more.

"BANG!!"

The moment he heard that, Old Zhou flew into a rage. He grabbed a cup off the table and smashed it against Li Peng's head. "Fuck you! You gave him thirteen thousand? Li Peng, you're getting more and more shameless."

Cursing, Old Zhou grabbed the keys from the table and headed out.

Li Peng froze, then hurried after him. "Old Zhou, Old Zhou, listen to me..."

Suddenly, Old Zhou, who was walking ahead, stopped dead.

Li Peng hurried forward, still wanting to explain himself, but Old Zhou clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Shh!!"

Old Zhou raised a finger to his lips in a gesture for silence.

Li Peng froze. He looked down the empty hallway of the morgue, where a low song was coming from somewhere. The singing seemed near and far at once, and he couldn't make out the lyrics. But echoing through the cold, lifeless morgue, the sound made his skin crawl.

Li Peng swallowed. Suddenly, something caught the corner of his eye. His eyes widened, and he stared straight at a stretcher up ahead. A white cloth covered it, outlining a human shape. Normally, only newly arrived bodies were left here. But now, the corpse was slowly sitting up...