As I approached the wall, I detected a faint smell of gunpowder and noticed residual saltpeter on the ground, materials that could cause an explosion. The moment I crouched down to observe, my uncle dipped his finger in and sniffed. I could tell from his expression that he'd reached the same conclusion as me.
"He Sheng, let's go in. We can get inside the funeral home from here!"
I nodded, raised my gun again, and moved forward. I grabbed my flashlight, and my uncle and I began to shine it around. The corridors inside the main building were lined with morgue drawers where bodies used to be kept. I saw row upon row of them, and in the eerie silence of the night, our footsteps on the floor sounded unnervingly loud.
I could even hear our heartbeats echoing around us. However, we weren't overly tense. Years of experience allowed us to remain calm. But as we passed morgue drawer number 15, for some inexplicable reason, the tightly shut door creaked open with a strange, unsettling sound. My uncle and I both froze, our hearts leaping into our throats. Despite our years in law enforcement and having grown up amidst the roar of aircraft and artillery, this sudden turn of events made our hearts clench involuntarily!
From morgue drawer number 15, a round object rolled out. It landed at my feet just as the heavy door swung fully open!
A head! It was a head covered in blood and grime. Judging by the smoothness of the skin, it belonged to a woman.
I quickly crouched down and pulled out my portable shadowless reflector tube. Shining it on the face, the disfigured features almost made me jump.
My uncle stood there, stunned, tears welling up in his eyes. "Yu Ting!"
That's right, when I recognized the head, I was utterly shocked. This was Officer Du Yu Ting, the very person we had been searching for!
She was dead, and judging by the extent of skin decay and the dilated pupils, she had been dead for a long time.
A terrifying thought flashed through my mind. But hadn't Du Yu Ting emailed us all recently?
"Notify for backup immediately!" my uncle said, though he seemed unsure of how to proceed.
I pulled out my phone, only to find no signal at all!
At the same time, from outside the main building nearby, we heard a rumbling sound. My uncle and I immediately looked over. The opening we had entered through was now blocked by a pile of rocks.
"Damn it! This was a trap!" I cursed. A deduction formed in my mind: Du Yu Ting had been dead for a long time, and someone else had deliberately impersonated her to email us, then lured us here.
But who could this person be? And why would they do this?
They knew our situation well, and they knew about my uncle's relationship with Du Yu Ting.
But that couldn't be right. Didn't we see Du Yu Ting on the sky-eye surveillance earlier?
Though, it's possible that person just looked very much like Du Yu Ting.
Countless questions swirled in my mind, making it impossible to find an answer. My uncle suddenly looked at me, his eyes filled with an inexplicable terror, as if he'd suddenly remembered some past, unsettling event.
I reached out and grabbed his shoulder in surprise. "Uncle, what's wrong? What is it?"
"He Sheng, I'm so sorry!"
"What are you talking about?"
"I shouldn't have brought you here!"
"No, I couldn't let you come alone. I'd be worried."
"No! I don't mean that..."
My uncle glanced around anxiously, his pupils reflecting confusion. "Do you remember what happened to your parents?"
"My parents? Yes, they were killed by drug dealers, weren't they?"
"That's right, but I was there at the time!"
"What? Uncle, what do you mean?"
I was starting to understand why someone wanted me to return here. This was the place where my parents had been killed!
What?!
I had never known this before. I wasn't even in the police force then, and the police had been reticent about my parents' deaths. No matter how many times I asked, all I learned was that they were gunned down by drug dealers, but I never knew the details.
"Yes! It's this place! No wonder I felt a sense of familiarity when I returned earlier. Alright, let's go upstairs and take a look!"
My uncle seemed to have something more to say, but as I was about to ask, he turned and headed towards a staircase.
Funeral homes generally don't have elevators, even if they have five stories or more. It's said that elevators in such places are prone to paranormal incidents, and these strange occurrences are reported every year, with no clear explanations.
We ascended a spiral staircase to the second floor of the funeral home. We couldn't take Du Yu Ting's head with us for now, and we certainly couldn't walk around carrying a severed head.
We moved deeper, guns drawn, walking down a somber corridor. The second floor was also lined with countless morgue drawers. Our footsteps echoed in the vast space, sounding particularly ominous. I checked the time; it was already past 11 PM, nearing midnight.
At this moment, my uncle suddenly shouted, "How dare you kill Du Yu Ting! I won't let you go! Come out now! I know you're here!"
As my uncle yelled, an echo responded from a corner on the second floor: "Haha, I finally see you two. I am the Du Yu Ting you've been looking for. Isn't this exciting? This is the most eerie place in Fuming City. Midnight is approaching, and something even more terrifying will happen soon. Alright, remember, I am Du Yu Ting!"
"Shut up immediately! Du Yu Ting is dead, and you're impersonating her!"
"Is that so? Ah ha ha! How come I don't know I'm dead? I'm not dead! Look behind you!"
My uncle and I spun around abruptly, but there was nothing there. Even so, a chill ran down our spines.
My uncle gritted his teeth in anger. "Don't try to scare us, we're not afraid! If you have the guts, come out now! Stop playing ghost games. Do you think impersonating her will make us fear you?"
"No, old and ugly uncle, I really am Du Yu Ting. Don't you remember me?" The voice echoing through the funeral home sounded eerily like the missing Officer Du, and "old and ugly uncle" was exactly what she used to call my uncle. For a moment, my uncle was confused. He was about to speak, but then he quickly shook his head. "Impossible! We just saw her head!"