Over the past few days, Chen Miao had indeed hoped that one day, when he opened the book, he would find its contents had changed.
Then he could try using the Six Jiangzhen Secrets to deliver departed souls, earning Yin Virtue and other supernatural items.
But all of that depended on his being able to resolve whatever appeared in the book.
Now, however, the book contained only a single sentence!
There was no explanation, no location, only a time... midnight!
Even if Chen Miao wanted to use the Six Jiangzhen Secrets to deliver a departed soul, he had no idea where to go.
"Where exactly is the danger coming from?"
Chen Miao calmed down and began thinking through this death threat that had appeared without any context.
Once his mind got to work, he shut out every distraction around him.
Iceheart state, activated!
I check the book for changes every day now. The last time I checked today was around noon. This morning, the funeral home in the neighboring county rented our cremation furnace to process a body. To make sure there wouldn't be any problems, I took a look at the book.
Its contents hadn't changed then. After that, I didn't open it again until just now. In other words, this threat appeared sometime between noon and ten tonight.
During that time, no new guests arrived at the cold storage room, no new urns were placed in the columbarium, the cremation room wasn't used again, and I didn't hold any memorial services.
Nothing happened during that stretch! If that's the case, where did this danger come from?
No, I shouldn't only consider what came in. I should consider changes within the funeral home, too. Right, the twins' family came today. They said they'd spoken with Elder Uncle.
They took one of the twins away from the funeral home. I thought it was strange at the time, but I didn't check the book.
Apart from that, there weren't any other major changes here. It seems a little unbelievable, but that's the only thing likely to have changed the book's contents.
I'll go take a look! If it really is those twins, the contents should change when I approach the child still in cold storage.
With that thought, Chen Miao took the book and headed for the cold storage room.
He had contacted Tang Rui before coming, so the door opened soon after he knocked.
"Chen Miao, you're here. Did something happen?"
Tang Rui found it strange that Chen Miao had suddenly said he wanted to visit cold storage so late at night. He had assumed something was wrong.
"No, there's something I need to check."
As he spoke, Chen Miao walked inside.
The moment he entered the cold storage office area, he opened the book and took a look.
Coming to inspect a corpse this late at night still made Chen Miao a little uneasy.
He feared that once he arrived, the word "midnight" would suddenly change to the current time.
Fortunately, the book's contents hadn't changed. Unfortunately, they hadn't changed either.
If he couldn't find the problem in cold storage, things would be even worse.
With that thought, he reached the room containing the refrigerated cabinets. Before entering, he checked the book again. Still no change.
His behavior left Tang Rui utterly baffled.
But Chen Miao had no intention of explaining any of this to Tang Rui. He had already pushed the door open.
Chen Miao stepped into the cold air spilling through the doorway.
A sweep of his gaze revealed Li Shilei's name.
"Was the other twin next to Li Shilei before?"
"Yeah. Isn't that family strange? If they were going to take them away, why not take both? What's the point of taking one and leaving the other?"
Chen Miao didn't answer. Just as he was about to open the cabinet, Tang Rui stepped forward and reached for its latch ahead of him.
"I'll do it."
"Don't touch it!"
Chen Miao's sharp shout startled Tang Rui.
In all the time they had known each other, Tang Rui had never seen Chen Miao lose his temper. For a moment, he froze.
Chen Miao regretted shouting almost immediately.
Ultimately, he was still a little too tense.
But he had his reasons for keeping Tang Rui from touching it.
The book in his hand couldn't predict other people's deaths. If something really was wrong, its contents might change when Chen Miao touched the cabinet.
That way, he could stop at any moment and react accordingly.
But if Tang Rui opened it directly and there really was a ghost, Chen Miao wouldn't have time to react.
Seeing that Tang Rui had misunderstood, Chen Miao still offered no explanation.
"Tang Rui, hold this book for me. Just keep it open like this."
Chen Miao opened the book to the page in the second chapter that contained only a single line and handed it to Tang Rui.
Tang Rui instinctively glanced at the densely packed small print in the book, feeling even more puzzled.
But after Chen Miao's shout, he didn't dare ask questions.
Chen Miao gripped the cabinet door with both hands, but kept his head turned toward the book.
Click! Click!
As he turned the cabinet latch, Chen Miao focused even harder.
Little by little, he turned the latch open.
Then he pulled the door open a crack.
Yet even now, the book's contents remained unchanged!
Puzzled, Chen Miao opened the cabinet door all the way.
No change!
He pulled Li Shilei out.
Still no change!
Chen Miao even reached out and touched Li Shilei's face, but the book's contents still showed no change whatsoever!
The problem isn't here?
Frowning, Chen Miao slid the body back inside and took the book from Tang Rui.
After watching everything Chen Miao had done, Tang Rui suddenly came up with a bold guess.
Does Chen Miao have some unusual fetish?
Tang Rui felt a chill of revulsion, but he didn't dare say anything. He had heard about Chen Miao's relationship with the director over the past few days. If he offended him, would he still have a job?
Chen Miao didn't notice Tang Rui's strange reaction. Since there was no problem in cold storage, he would visit the cremation room and the columbarium next to see whether anything was wrong there.
But just as he was about to leave, something suddenly occurred to him.
He turned to Tang Rui. "Brother Tang, go home tonight. I'll cover the shift."
Tang Rui's heart jolted.
Is Chen Miao planning to do something else to the body?
What do I do? Should I stop him?
"Tang Rui?"
Seeing Chen Miao frown, Tang Rui immediately said, "Okay, I'm leaving! Right now!"
With that, Tang Rui went back for his phone and water cup, then left without looking back.
Chen Miao watched Tang Rui leave and closed the cold storage door.
Over the next ten minutes, Chen Miao checked both the columbarium and the cremation room.
But the book still showed no changes.
It was already half past ten. With less than an hour and a half left before his sudden death, Chen Miao couldn't keep running around like a headless chicken.
If he couldn't find it, he would stop looking!
Chen Miao returned to his office. After redeeming four Incense Sticks, he took out the offerings and other ritual supplies he had specifically prepared there earlier.
He had another set of these supplies in his dorm room!
He had prepared them to handle sudden emergencies when there wouldn't be time to gather everything.
Carrying the box of supplies, Chen Miao returned to cold storage.
His plan was simple.
Since he didn't know where the attack would come from or whom he should offer incense to, he would stop searching.
The danger would arrive at midnight. When the time came, Chen Miao would light the Jiangzhen Incense!
If a ghost really appeared, he would deliver it on the spot!
It was a last resort.
As for why he chose cold storage?
One reason was that he still wasn't entirely comfortable leaving the funeral home's only corpse unattended. Another had to do with "Old Wang's memories" from when he first obtained Iceheart.
His mind was a little clearer in cold storage.
After arranging the incense burner and offerings on Tang Rui's desk, Chen Miao sat down.
All he had to do now was wait until midnight and face the approaching danger!
Time ticked steadily away.
At 23:30, Chen Miao felt a little cold and raised the office area's temperature to twenty-six degrees.
At 23:40, he was still cold, so he raised the temperature again.
At 23:50, Chen Miao picked up the air conditioner remote once more, but didn't press the button.
Something seemed to occur to him, and he turned toward the book on the desk.
He put down the remote and opened the book.
What met his eyes was no longer that brief five-character sentence.
The moment Chen Miao finished reading the newly appeared contents, he scooped up the offerings, incense burner, and other items from the desk and hurried into the room containing the refrigerated cabinets!
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