Corpse Recovery Diver
Chapter 251 - 44_5

Chapter 251: Chapter 44_5

Tan Wenbin gritted his teeth and followed suit.

"Creak!"

The lock inside the wooden door was unlocked, the door was pushed open, and Run Sheng was standing behind the door.

"Xiao Yuan, the key was on the table, so I just went ahead and unlocked it."

"Run Sheng, what are you doing? If there really is a body in here, you’re tampering with the scene. How are we supposed to explain ourselves as witnesses?"

Li Zhiyuan entered through the main door and said, "It’s fine, your dad will cover for us."

"But this isn’t my dad’s jurisdiction."

"You were playing cards in the village, your dad took a leave and came to the village in plain clothes to catch you, and then he stumbled upon this house. He’s the primary witness."

Tan Wenbin swallowed hard: "That makes sense."

The space inside the room wasn’t small, but the floor was full of little mud pits—it wasn’t bricked over for hardening.

Moreover, many wooden beams were quite low, requiring adults to be careful not to bump their heads when walking in.

A very standard residential layout; the easternmost side was the kitchen with a stove, the middle was the main room with a long cabinet against the wall adorned with religious statues on top, and the westernmost side was the bedroom.

There were quite a lot of things in the room. Many items, though clearly worn out, were reluctantly kept but tidily arranged.

Tan Wenbin and Run Sheng each headed to the east and west ends, while Li Zhiyuan stood in the hall, looking at the religious statues hanging above.

To the far left was the Guanyin Bodhisattva, to the far right—the Jade Emperor, and in the center, Jesus.

It was understandable for village folks to hang any kind of religious icon. It was common to mix Buddhism and Taoism, and even Confucianism icons could be hung—like the Grandmaster who had Confucius in his home.

But hanging Jesus here seemed out of place and didn’t match the style and form of the others—a discerning person would see that something was amiss.

Li Zhiyuan stepped up to the cabinet, only to find that the incense burners in front of both the Guanyin Bodhisattva and the Jade Emperor hadn’t been used for a long time, accumulating thick dust instead of incense ash.

However, the incense burner in front of Jesus was filled with incense ash, clearly in frequent use.

But do people offer incense to Jesus?

Li Zhiyuan raised his hand, wanting to open the long cabinet. It was designed like a coffin; only by lifting the lid could one see inside.

Each section of the lid had a groove design, fitting together like a puzzle, often required to be opened section by section, which could store miscellaneous items or grains.

But in the end, he still lowered his hand. It was better to be safe and wait for Run Sheng.

Run Sheng and Tan Wenbin returned.

"There’s no one in the bedroom."

"There’s no one on the kitchen side either."

Li Zhiyuan asked, "Brother Run Sheng, can you smell where the stench of the corpse is coming from?"

Run Sheng shook his head: "Once inside, it’s hard to tell. There’s this faint smell everywhere."

Hearing this, Tan Wenbin said mockingly, "Are you saying there is a corpse moving around and living in this room, leaving its smell everywhere? Don’t be so absurd."

"Brother Binbin, are you doubting like one who professed to love dragons?"

"Huh?" Immediately, Tan Wenbin recalled why he had come here and envisioned the corpse moving and living here, which sent a chill down his spine and made him shudder.

"Brother Run Sheng, open the lid and take a look."

"Alright."

Run Sheng knew how to open this kind of cover, grabbing one side, pushing it inward, and then lifting it.

Li Zhiyuan tiptoed to peek inside, where he saw bags of rice and a slightly pungent smell, likely from fumigation to prevent the rice from molding.

It seemed there was nothing in the hall, as the only place to hide something was this long cabinet.

Li Zhiyuan headed to the kitchen, with Run Sheng and Tan Wenbin following.

The kitchen was a very typical rural stove kitchen setup, with quite a lot of dry straw and firewood piled behind the stove.

Tan Wenbin pointed to the area and said, "I’ve checked there just now, there’s nothing in the straw."

Li Zhiyuan successively lifted the lids of the water jar and rice bin—full of water in the water jar and full of rice in the rice bin.

Tan Wenbin added, "I’ve just looked under these lids earlier; nothing wrong was found. Though, this family’s rice bin is fuller than Run Sheng’s, no matter how poor they are."

Li Zhiyuan took a few steps back and positioned himself behind Run Sheng and Tan Wenbin.

Pointing at the rice bin, he said, "For a family of three, using such a large rice bin and filling it up with rice..."

In the city, if a family runs out of rice, they just go out to buy more. In the countryside, they do have grain reserves, but they mostly store a large part, take a small amount for daily use in the kitchen rice bin, and when the bin is almost empty, they replenish it from the reserves.

Run Sheng looked at Tan Wenbin, then at the rice bin, as if to ask, should you or I?

Tan Wenbin’s body was trembling, but he still nodded and approached the rice bin, reaching in to part the rice.

As he parted the rice, suddenly, Tan Wenbin let out a shriek:

"Ah!!!"

He then collapsed to the ground, crawling backwards with hands and feet.

Li Zhiyuan and Run Sheng stepped forward to look, and in the hollow of the rice bin, appeared a clump of black hair.

There was a person in the rice bin...

No wonder Tan Wenbin was so frightened; such a scene would scare anyone.

Especially when you could even imagine the position of the person sitting curled up beneath the rice.

Li Zhiyuan closed his eyes, then quickly reopened them, calming his emotions, and said, "Brother Run Sheng, check again."

"Okay."

Without a word, Run Sheng reached in to continue scraping away the rice. Finally, the forehead beneath the hair was revealed; indeed, it was a person, a girl.

Continuing to scrape, her eyes could be seen.

Her eyes were open.

The girl’s eyes were completely filled with grains of rice.

Just as Tan Wenbin stood up and approached again, he took one look and then retreated in fright again.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.