Deceased Care Company

"Splash..."

Zhou Xun cupped a handful of water and splashed it onto his face.

A moment later,

he raised his dripping face toward the mirror.

Reflected in it was the face of a fifteen-year-old boy.

It had been two weeks,

but Zhou Xun still hadn't grown used to this brand-new face. Every time he looked in the mirror, he instinctively paused to brace himself.

He reached up,

pinched his cheeks,

pulled them outward,

then let go,

leaving two red marks on his face.

If only he could tear off this face in one go, and everything before him, everything around him, everything from the past two weeks would shatter like glass, letting him wake from one long dream.

Of course, Zhou Xun knew that was impossible.

"Smack!"

Zhou Xun slapped himself across the face.

Even though this face looked very much like a young Leonardo,

Zhou Xun showed it no mercy. In fact, that resemblance made it a little more satisfying.

He hadn't slapped himself out of some naive hope of waking from the dream. He wanted to clear his head so he could keep living it properly.

Since I'm here, I might as well settle in.

That was all Zhou Xun could tell himself.

"Knock, knock, knock... knock, knock, knock..."

Someone knocked on the bathroom door, accompanied by Mina's worried calls.

"Kallen! Kallen, are you all right?"

Mina was his cousin, the daughter of his uncle Mason.

And the body Zhou Xun now occupied had a name, too-Kallen.

"I'm fine," Zhou Xun replied.

"Okay." Outside the door, Mina let out a long breath of relief, then added, "I'll bring your breakfast to your room in a little while."

"No need, Mina. I'll come downstairs to eat."

Mina sounded a little surprised, but quickly answered,

"All right, Kallen."

Zhou Xun continued staring at himself in the mirror, then picked up a cold towel and covered his reddened face.

He had originally been a psychologist with his own private practice in Jinling City, and had also worked part-time as a psychological consultant for the police.

During a hostage incident, he had gone in as a negotiator to talk to the kidnapper, but something had gone wrong. The kidnapper had tried to push the little girl he was holding hostage off the rooftop. Zhou Xun had rushed forward and pulled her back, only to fall himself and lose consciousness.

He seemed to have spent a long time having strange dreams.

When he slowly regained consciousness and opened his eyes, however, Zhou Xun had been shocked to discover that he wasn't lying in a hospital intensive care unit. Nor were the people gathered around his bed doctors, but a group of... "foreign friends."

The oldest was his grandfather-Dis Immerlis.

He was Dis's eldest grandson. When his grandfather saw him wake, there had been relief in his eyes... along with something else he couldn't quite put into words.

His uncle Mason, a man over forty, had been happy.

Aunt Mary was Mason's wife. She had smiled first, then her expression had darkened, and then she had smiled again.

The other older woman was his aunt Winnie, who had cried tears of joy.

There had also been three children. Two were his uncle and aunt's children, his cousins: fourteen-year-old Mina and thirteen-year-old Lunt. The other was Aunt Winnie's daughter, thirteen-year-old Chris.

As for Zhou Xun... no, Kallen himself, both his parents had passed away several years earlier.

That was the makeup of this household.

Zhou Xun switched to a warm towel and covered his face again. After a long while, he tossed it aside.

He had spent most of the two weeks since waking up in bed, partly because his body really was terribly weak, and partly because he needed to absorb this "Kallen's" memories.

Absorbing memories was a curious experience. His memories hadn't clashed or become confused with those of the body's original owner. To Zhou Xun, the original owner's memories were more like files stored on a bookshelf, or in a computer folder.

He was still Zhou Xun, but whenever he needed something, a little focused thought worked like a "search," quickly retrieving Kallen's memories.

In short,

since things had turned out this way,

he had to face life bravely.

Zhou Xun had finished mentally preparing himself. He was ready to face his second life with a positive attitude.

When he pushed open the bathroom door, the family's black cat, called "Paul," was lounging by the windowsill in the sun. On seeing Kallen, it casually turned its head back toward the window, every movement brimming with the haughty pride of a feline overlord.

Zhou Xun paused,

drew a deep breath,

and murmured,

"From today onward, I'm Kallen."

Kallen went down the stairs from the third floor, where his room was, to the second.

The Immerlis Family lived at 13 Mingke Street in the western district of Rojia City, in a detached villa with a large garden.

By the standards of his previous life, even if Mink Street wasn't in the heart of Rojia City, it was certainly within the second ring road.

Just imagine owning a detached villa outside the suburbs of a second-tier city in his old world...

In his previous life, Kallen had only dared dream of a terraced house. Even a semi-detached one was beyond his reach.

That was one thing he felt fortunate about now. If he had to be transported to another world... landing in a better-off family certainly made life more comfortable.

If he'd ended up as a little match boy,

oh, God, that would have been real misery.

The Immerlis Family's kitchen and dining room were on the second floor. The first floor was their workspace.

Yes, this was a "company," or perhaps a "family workshop." The villa was both the family's home and part of its business assets.

The family was in the funeral business. The sign outside read "Inmerles Deceased Care Company."

His grandfather was the boss. Both in family life and in running the "company," his word was law. He also served as the priest at the little church at the end of Mink Street.

Uncle Mason had originally worked at the stock exchange. Aunt Mary had once been a reasonably well-known makeup artist in entertainment circles, working with celebrities. She had even played a few minor roles in small films.

They should have enjoyed a modest middle-class life, and had long since moved out to live on their own.

But after Uncle Mason's investments failed, they had lost not only their savings but their home, and apparently ended up in debt as well. In the end, Uncle Mason could only bring his wife and two children home to... fulfill his filial duties to his father.

His grandfather hadn't said much about it.

However,

he had soon found reasons to fire the existing driver and funeral makeup artist.

In his grandfather's words, "The Immerlis Family doesn't support idlers."

Uncle Mason was now in charge of driving-driving the family's hearse, that is-and worked with their two employees, Paul and Ron, to collect and transport their "distinguished guests."

Aunt Mary continued working in her own field,

still applying makeup to people,

only now she no longer had to worry about ill-tempered celebrities deliberately making trouble, or receiving letters of complaint.

Their children, Mina and Lunt, attended secondary school.

Aunt Winnie had once been an accountant at a small clothing factory. After divorcing her husband because they couldn't get along, she had returned home with her daughter Chris.

Fortunately, the Immerlis Family had a large house. Even with "distinguished guests" occupying the basement and the first floor serving as a "mourning hall," there were enough rooms on the second and third floors for everyone.

Kallen had originally shared a room with his cousin Lunt. Since Kallen fell ill, Lunt had been sleeping with their grandfather on the third floor. Another room on that floor was their grandfather's office.

The second floor also had three bedrooms: one for his uncle and aunt, one for Aunt Winnie, and one for his two female cousins.

The atmosphere at home was actually quite good. Their grandfather commanded so much authority that no one dared start a dispute under his nose.

When Kallen reached the dining table on the second floor, Mina was helping her mother set out the plates.

Aunt Mary saw Kallen coming down,

and deliberately put on a mocking expression.

"Our young master can finally come downstairs for breakfast himself? You no longer need your loyal maid of an aunt to bring it up to you?"

That was the sort of person Aunt Mary was. She had a sharp tongue and enjoyed needling people.

At home, the only person she didn't dare offend was his grandfather. Everyone else-her husband, her children, her sister-in-law, and Kallen-was fair game.

Kallen gave her a warm smile,

and said sincerely,

"Thank you for taking care of me all this time, Aunt Mary. It's thanks to you that I've recovered so quickly."

In "Kallen's" memories, although this aunt had a cutting tongue, she had always cared for him just as she did her own two children. She was all sharp words and a soft heart.

"Uh..."

She hadn't expected her usually quiet, withdrawn nephew to deliver such a polished response. For a moment, Aunt Mary truly didn't know how to answer. She could only purse her lips and say,

"Eat."

"All right."

Kallen sat down at the dining table.

Breakfast consisted of sandwiches, fried eggs, milk, and a few small grilled sausages.

He took a bite of his sandwich,

and chewed slowly.

Although he'd only been here for two weeks,

Kallen was already missing duck blood vermicelli soup with three spoonfuls of chili.

Just then,

a car horn sounded outside.

"Your father's back."

Aunt Mary went to the sink to wash her hands, then untied her apron.

"Keep eating. I'll go see whether your father has brought me any 'surprises.'"

Other husbands might come home with a ring or a designer handbag if they were feeling extravagant, or a bouquet of flowers if they wanted to give their wives a more ordinary little surprise.

Uncle Mason, on the other hand, brought his wife "bodies."

To Aunt Mary, a body that had died normally from illness already counted as a "surprise." She hated unnatural deaths most of all. They were such a nuisance to deal with.

Kallen put down his fork. Subconsciously, he considered himself an adult. When something was happening at home, he naturally couldn't sit at the table eating like the children, so he followed Aunt Mary downstairs.

The first floor was spacious. In the southeast corner stood a small platform reached by three steps-the "bier" on which coffins were placed.

At that moment,

the family's two employees, Paul and Ron, were pushing in a stretcher cart covered with a white shroud.

Uncle Mason hadn't gotten out of the car. He considered himself a little above this work. Though his father's authority forced him to take part, he only drove and seldom touched the bodies.

In "Kallen's" memories, although Uncle Mason had been hopeless at investing and had squandered his wealth, in everyday life he was a witty, humorous man who treated his family well.

Aunt Mary stepped forward, lifted the white shroud for a look, and let out a long breath of relief.

The body belonged to a young man. There was nothing frightening about his appearance, except that although he lay flat on his back, his face was turned ninety degrees to the right.

"Froze to death?" Aunt Mary followed up with another question. "A welfare form?"

Winter had only just begun, and the truly cold weather had yet to arrive, but drunkards and vagrants freezing to death by the roadside was already an occasional occurrence.

As for welfare forms... a special fund office jointly established by the city government, churches, charitable organizations, and others provided dignified funerals for people with no relatives or friends-in other words, no one to pay their funeral expenses.

Funeral homes had to compete for welfare forms. They were generally assigned by district, and after every layer had taken its cut, the profit that actually reached the funeral home was almost negligible. Still, they kept the business running. After all, even without work, the employees still had to be paid, didn't they?

On the other hand, welfare forms were easier to handle, since relatives and friends rarely came to supervise or find fault.

They only needed to give the body some basic treatment and lay it in a coffin. Their grandfather would stand beside it in his priest's robes while someone sent by the relevant government department took a few photographs for the records. Then it was done, and they could wait for payment at the end of the month.

"Yes, ma'am. I knew him. His name was Jeff, an unlucky fellow who always lost at cards. Ah, I'm even unluckier. Every time he went to the tavern to play, I wasn't there," Ron said.

"Ma'am, there's another job. We have to go to Flowery Bay Sanatorium," Paul said.

Aunt Mary immediately raised her voice. "Tell the orderlies to wash the body first, or don't bring it back. The old man you brought back from there last time had shit crusted onto his skin."

"Yes, understood," Paul promptly assured her.

With that, he and Ron fetched an empty cart and returned to the hearse.

"Beep, beep..."

Uncle Mason, still sitting in the car with a cigarette between his fingers, honked twice more.

First, he called to Kallen,

"My little Kallen, looks like you're recovering nicely."

"Yes, Uncle," Kallen answered.

"Haha, wonderful." Then he turned toward his wife and called, "Darling, I want one of your meat pies when I get home at noon. They're one of my two favorite things to eat in this life!"

"Go eat in the toilet. I don't have time!"

Uncle Mason shrugged,

and continued with a shameless grin,

"Oh, that's my other favorite!"

Aunt Mary couldn't keep a straight face anymore. She turned away, the corners of her mouth twitching.

"Off we go, darling!"

Mason started the car and drove away.

Aunt Mary took two deep breaths, then reached out to push the stretcher cart.

Kallen naturally moved over to lend a hand.

Aunt Mary glanced at Kallen and remained still.

Kallen looked at her in slight confusion.

"Kallen, you seem a little different from before."

"Maybe."

Kallen couldn't be bothered to hide the fact that he had "transmigrated." In truth, that was the last thing a "transmigrator" needed to worry about. Who around you would ever think your soul had been replaced?

That would be insane!

"Let's go to the basement."

"All right, Aunt Mary."

The aunt and nephew pushed the Stretcher Cart carrying the corpse around the corner of the ground-floor hall, then headed down.

A ramp led to the basement, with a level stretch halfway down.

They had to control their speed on the descent to keep the corpse from sliding off.

"It would be nice to install an elevator," Kallen said when they reached the basement. His hands were straining a little as he gripped the Stretcher Cart.

"The kind in department stores?" Aunt Mary scoffed. "Are you crazy? Do you know how expensive that would be?"

The basement had only one level, divided into three rooms, or functional areas.

One was a storage room... though that wasn't quite the right name for it. It held plenty of supplies the funeral home needed, all stacked fairly neatly.

Another was the morgue. There wasn't a single corpse inside, nor did Kallen see a refrigerated cabinet.

Kallen didn't ask why they hadn't bought one, either. He was certain Aunt Mary would answer, "Are you crazy? Do you know how expensive that would be?"

Still, this showed that the Immerlis Family's business wasn't particularly large. They didn't even need to "hold inventory."

Viewed another way, though, it also showed that no matter the era or cultural setting, the business of death... really did make money.

The last room was Aunt Mary's workshop, where she gave the deceased their "beauty treatments."

No matter how attractive someone had been in life, after death, they all became rather... ordinary.

Not to mention that quite a few hadn't died natural deaths, which meant even more work.

For a typical Welfare Form, only the face needed attention. There were no family members to fuss over anything else. A big order, on the other hand-the sort where the family was willing to spend money on a more polished funeral-required cleaning the entire body, right down to trimming the nails. After that, everything from the coffin and clothes to the priest's prayers and even the decorations at the Memorial Service could be divided into different price tiers.

Kallen helped Aunt Mary push the Stretcher Cart into the workshop.

Aunt Mary pulled over a chair and sat down, then placed an ashtray on the Stretcher Cart, almost directly in front of Jeff's face.

Click...

Aunt Mary lit a cigarette, took a drag, and slowly exhaled.

Apart from her sharp tongue, Aunt Mary was genuinely quite attractive. Though she was getting older, she still had considerable charm.

Of course, even a well-bred lady would find it hard to remain poised and gracious after being tricked by her own uncle into doing this sort of work.

Kallen stared at the cigarette in Aunt Mary's hand.

Aunt Mary noticed.

She smiled faintly.

Then she pushed the cigarette pack toward Kallen.

Kallen reached out, took it, drew out a cigarette, and picked up the lighter.

He lit it.

He took a drag.

"Cough... cough... urgh..."

A powerful wave of nausea swept over him, and Kallen clutched his chest, coughing violently.

"Heh heh... hahaha..."

Aunt Mary laughed until tears came to her eyes.

Kallen wasn't putting on an act. He had been a heavy smoker in his previous life, but this body had never been poisoned by nicotine. Both his body and brain were now resisting, sounding a warning to "reject the toxin."

Aunt Mary stubbed out her cigarette.

She first examined Jeff's body. Once she confirmed there were no other external injuries, she tried to turn his face straight.

A little basic makeup would finish this job. Once the workers returned, they could dress Jeff and take him upstairs. In this weather, they could even skip the embalming.

"Hm?"

Aunt Mary let go and said to Kallen,

"You try turning it. I can't move it."

"Oh, all right."

Kallen stubbed out his cigarette and reached over, pressing one hand against Jeff's neck while supporting the right side of Jeff's face with the other.

He pushed.

He pushed harder.

And harder...

Jeff's face slowly began to straighten.

But what stunned Kallen-what Aunt Mary, standing beside him, couldn't see-was that as he forced the head straight, he could distinctly feel Jeff's corpse pushing back toward the right...

It didn't feel like turning a dead man's face. It felt more like struggling against someone alive!

The discovery made Kallen's heart sink a little. Yet just as he was about to let go, he suddenly felt the force resisting him disappear. No... after he let go, Jeff's head-

Creak, creak, creak...

Straightened itself!

Jeff's eyes-

Snapped open.

And stared at Kallen.

His mouth began to writhe frantically, making a rustling sound like a swarm of rats gnawing at a wooden board.

Kallen instinctively stumbled back two steps, his back pressing against the wall.

Then-

Clang!

It felt as though someone had struck the back of his head hard with a shovel.

Kallen doubled over.

His vision blurred.

But he fiercely resisted losing awareness of his surroundings under these circumstances.

He immediately forced himself to lift his head through the intense pain at the back of his skull.

In his field of vision-

There was nothing but red.

Kallen staggered backward.

As he retreated, his gaze rose farther.

He realized that the red thing he had seen was a high-heeled shoe. Above it stretched a very, very tall leg, a pale leg. Opposite it stood another enormous high-heeled shoe, with another leg rising above it...

He-

Was like a little mouse standing at someone's feet.

Thud...

Kallen lost his balance and fell to the floor.

He didn't know whether he was dreaming or had lost his mind and begun hallucinating...

Until-

Splat...

A mass of thick liquid landed on him, soaking his entire upper body.

Kallen slowly tilted his head back.

He saw it.

Above him-

Between those enormous legs-

Was a woman's face.

She was watching him with curiosity and a smile.

Meanwhile-

Drool dripped intermittently from between her slightly parted lips.

Hiss... hiss... hiss...

A crackling hiss of static came from somewhere.

A deep, resonant middle-aged man's voice rang out:

"Don't be afraid. This beautiful, captivating lady... just hungers for your body."