Ex-Wife is a Big Villainess
Chapter 35 - 31: Making the Dead Speak

Chapter 35: Chapter 31: Making the Dead Speak

Ge Dasheng’s corpse was placed in the cold storage on the north side of the courtyard.

That is, the mortuary.

Normally, if the bodies from homicide cases have no family to claim them, they will be temporarily stored in the public mortuary. However, in cases involving demons, the bodies are first placed in the cold storage of the Liushan Division.

Only after the investigation clarifies and confirms that the bodies are demon energy-free, will they allow the family to claim them.

If the family does not claim them, the Liushan Division will incinerate them.

Jiang Shouzhong handed over his Identity Token to the custodial staff, who confirmed its authenticity before he registered his name, entry time, and the specific corpse he wanted to examine in the registry book, only then did he enter the cold storage.

The body was taken to an individual examination room by the mortuary staff.

The cold storage was extremely cold, such that despite the heavy clothes, one could feel the chilling cold penetrating the skin.

Moreover, with corpses stored all year long, the accumulation of yin energy was dense like the deep sea, spending prolonged time felt like sinking into the abyss of the sea, making it hard to breathe.

However, this time was somewhat strange.

Upon entering the cold storage, Jiang Shouzhong felt that the yin energy here was quite comfortable.

It was as if something inside him was greedily absorbing it.

Jiang Shouzhong vigorously rubbed his hands together, breathed out against his hand, and carefully examined Ge Dasheng’s corpse.

An autopsy was actually unnecessary, he had already examined it at Wufeng Temple. The wound where the heart was gouged out had diffused a demon-evil aura, which had already completely dissipated.

Jiang Shouzhong came here intending to make the corpse speak.

Whether he could succeed was another matter.

Although he had the ability to "communicate with spirits," it wasn’t always effective.

Just like how if Yama’s Palace wasn’t willing to release a soul, all his efforts would be in vain, no matter how much energy he expended.

Jiang Shouzhong moved a worn wooden stool from the corner, sat in front of the gruesomely fascial, heart-gouged corpse, and slowly closed his eyes.

Inside the corpse room, the chilling silence was bone-deep, utterly quiet.

The lying corpse and the seated living person both seemed like wax-sealed sculptures, utterly lifeless.

Time slowly passed.

After an unknown amount of time, the originally dim morgue began to darken even further, and the sporadically visible mottled walls quietly disappeared into the darkness.

The dark shadows from all around the morgue began to spread as if trying to swallow everything.

Eventually, aside from Jiang Shouzhong and Ge Dasheng’s body, everything around was an endless, eerie black.

A weak light enveloped them.

It was like a stage imprisoned by light, bizarre yet fantastical.

"Crack!"

In the piercing silence of the dark, a sound like dislocated bones abruptly broke the stillness.

The next moment, the previously still body abruptly sat up straight, like a marionette.

Ge Dasheng’s lifeless and ghastly face mechanically and stiffly turned, opening his deep, gloomy bloodshot eyes to stare fixedly at Jiang Shouzhong, revealing a sinister smile.

Jiang Shouzhong wasn’t frightened by this terrifying scene; instead, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Luckily, the spirit communication was successful!

However, just thinking about the forthcoming side effects gave Jiang Shouzhong an immense headache.

Unless absolutely necessary, he really didn’t want to engage in spirit communication.

It was too torturous.

Jiang Shouzhong sat unmoved on the stool, staring at the transformed corpse of Ge Dasheng, and asked, "On the night of the 17th, at midnight, you left Yunchu Gambling House alone to meet someone at Wufeng Temple and planned to extort Silver Tael from them, but unexpectedly, that person was a demon who killed you, right?"

Ge Dasheng did not respond verbally, his deathly pale face still holding a sinister smile.

The previously silent dark shadows around, as soon as Jiang Shouzhong spoke, suddenly seemed to come alive, turning into thick black ink that crawled towards Jiang Shouzhong and the corpse.

The black ink quickly spread up Jiang Shouzhong’s legs...

Seeing the body didn’t react, Jiang Shouzhong was puzzled.

Could it be that his murderer wasn’t a demon?

Jiang Shouzhong tentatively asked, "Was it a human?"

At this, the previously grinning Ge Dasheng finally parted his lips, and blackish-red corrupted blood flowed from the corners of his mouth, emitting a coarse voice like a sinister ghost,

"Wench... Wench..."

Wench?

Jiang Shouzhong was surprised, "So, you’re saying a woman killed you? And she’s not a demon? But your heart was clearly taken by a demon..."

Suddenly, Jiang Shouzhong’s pupils constricted as he realized something.

The murderer... was two entities!

A human and a demon!

The one who killed Ge Dasheng was human, while the demon took Ge Dasheng’s heart!

The black ink had already spread to Jiang Shouzhong’s waist, and the corpse’s legs were completely soaked... yet Jiang Shouzhong was unconcerned about all this.

To actively make the dead speak, it had to be done this way.

It was like forcibly dragging them out of Yama’s Palace for interrogation.

Unless the deceased willingly talked to him, like the old man he had encountered in Xing’an Lane or Zhang Lang.

But if death surpassed seven days, then it was forever impossible to converse with the dead.

Jiang Shouzhong stared into Ge Dasheng’s blood-red, pupil-less eyes and asked again, "The person who killed you, you know her, right? What is her name?"

"Whore... Whore..."

Ge Dasheng kept repeating these two words.

As expected, this direct method of questioning didn’t work; he needed to lead the other party to utter the key words.

Jiang Shouzhong sighed and had to move on to the next deduction, "On the fourteenth night, you and Zheng Shanqi went to Zhao Wancang’s house to steal, but you, who were originally keeping watch, suddenly left midway.

Was it because you saw someone having an affair in the idle millshed at Ms. Zhang’s house and, out of curiosity, went to peep, but saw a demon? So you thought of blackmailing them."

"Whore... Whore..."

Ge Dasheng’s mouth opened and closed, as if controlled by an invisible thread, continuously shouting "whore."

The sound was like a dull knife grinding on stone, extremely unpleasant.

"Not right?"

Jiang Shouzhong frowned.

Dark ink spread to his neck.

At first glance, Jiang Shouzhong’s upper body seemed to completely merge with the darkness, leaving only his head suspended in the air, creating a particularly eerie scene.

However, Jiang Shouzhong didn’t notice that a little golden figure inside him was greedily absorbing this yin energy at that moment.

The little golden figure lay happily within the man’s Dantian.

Patted its little belly.

Could never eat enough!

Realizing he was short on time, Jiang Shouzhong’s mind raced and he suddenly remembered that Wen Ba and this guy often hung around in Yunchu Gambling House; he quickly spoke again,

"You had heard Wen Ba mention at the gambling house that there was an affair at that place, so that night while you were keeping watch, you happened to see that millshed.

Driven by curiosity, you thought of taking a look, but there was no one having an affair there.

However, you unexpectedly witnessed another scene..."

"Poisoning... Poisoning..."

From Ge Dasheng’s mechanically moving, purple-black lips, a different word finally emerged.

Poisoning!?

Jiang Shouzhong was stunned.

Ge Dasheng had seen someone poisoning!?

Jiang Shouzhong’s eyes flickered, "So you are saying, you saw a woman poisoning someone and planned to blackmail her, but you didn’t expect to be killed by that woman."

By then, the dark, viscous ink had already submerged his lips, and similarly drowned Ge Dasheng’s face.

In an instant, both were completely engulfed by the black liquid.

Dead men can’t talk.

Nor can the living speak now.

...

Like a drowning man, Jiang Shouzhong suddenly opened his eyes and gasped for air loudly.

His throat felt like swallowing razor blades, each breath bringing intense pain.

The mortuary remained deathly still.

Ge Dasheng’s body lay motionless on the mortuary slab, as if the terrifying scene of "corpse reanimation" had just been an illusion.

Jiang Shouzhong wanted to get up, but his legs were numb.

With great effort, he mustered some strength, and his whole body thudded to the floor. His internal organs felt as if they were being twisted by an invisible hand, causing slight convulsions throughout his body.

His eyes welled up with bright red blood vessels, and his lips turned purple.

Unspeakable pain swept over his entire body like a tide, distorting his face and causing him to shed bloody tears, leaving him panting heavily on the floor.

After a long time, the pain gradually subsided significantly.

Feeling like he had just crawled out of hell’s gate, Jiang Shouzhong blankly stared at the ceiling beams and regretted, "Damn it, what a brain fart to come do this; I clearly never learn."

This wasn’t the first time he had voluntarily communicated with the dead.

And it wasn’t the first time he experienced a level of pain comparable to being quartered, this luxurious package of agony.

After all, dead men aren’t so easily made to "speak."

Not to mention the torture of flesh and bone he had to endure each time, even if he was lucky enough to make the dead reanimate, if the questioning method wasn’t right, asking questions for half a day was still a total waste of energy.

This is also why he didn’t start with this method.

Moreover, making a dead man speak once meant he had to rest for a long time to recover.

Because... he would also become like a dead person.

Only this time, the pain was even more intense.

It felt like there was a force rampaging inside him.

As if there was someone inside his stomach, full and drunk, excitedly playing rock and roll while throwing a silver party.

Jiang Shouzhong wiped the blood from the corners of his eyes and carefully opened his shirt to check.

Indeed, his skin was showing frightening signs of livor mortis.

"Damn it, think harder next time!"