The income from this job was indeed very high, and the working hours were not long. It was just that I often felt something like ghosts or strange people in the funeral home late at night, walking in the eerie and somber corridors of the morgue without feet or hands. I even saw someone holding an urn, searching for someone, but that person was their own burned self…
I was terrified. Every night, I would tremble all over. But for my family, I had no choice but to steel myself, put on the cremator's uniform, and go to the crematorium. Facing the bodies ready for cremation, I would send them into the incinerator.
Normally, most of the bodies we cremated were during the day. Those were normal bodies from families. However, the funeral home sometimes cremated bodies at night, even late at night, that had died from illness or bizarre accidents. But that wasn't important. What was important was that I had seen Manager Liu bring some strange corpses many times and hand them over to me for cremation. I had asked him why he had to cremate bodies at such times, and he had said that those bodies had some kind of contagious disease and needed to be cremated quickly to prevent it from spreading.
I was just an employee. Whatever the boss told me to do, I couldn't refuse at the time, so I handled these bodies. However, I noticed something strange. Every time this happened, the manager wouldn't let anyone else participate, as if he only wanted me alone to cremate these bodies. He even said, "Xiao Yang, you are the only one I trust in the funeral home. Don't mess up this good job, understand? I wouldn't let anyone else handle such important matters."
"Thank you for your trust, Manager. Don't worry, I will definitely complete the task." At that time, Manager Liu personally cremated these bodies with me. I was quite surprised that the esteemed manager would actually do it himself. I had already harbored some suspicion then, wondering if these bodies were of unknown origin, if they were murdered by someone, or if some experiment had failed, and those people wanted to destroy the evidence, so they handed them over to our manager…
But I dared not inquire. Moreover, every time I completed such a task, the manager would give me tens of thousands as a bonus, which was not much less than my usual monthly salary. It was so easy to earn. Coupled with my mother's situation, I didn't think much about it. Anyway, if anything happened, I would just say that the manager forced me…
We continued this for several months. The number of bodies Manager Liu brought back at night increased. I initially thought I was the only one involved in this secret cremation operation, but later, I discovered that all the crematorium workers in the facility were doing it together. However, everyone obeyed the manager's orders and didn't question anything. Of course, that was all for show. In such a situation, anyone would have guessed that there was some illegal channel involved.
Thus, for the sake of money, we all pretended that it was normal. Until one time, it should have been early in the morning one night. The situation was even worse than what Fang Ruzhu experienced. It was an old woman. When she was brought in at 2 AM, Manager Liu had specifically instructed us to be careful when cremating her. I thought, we've cremated so many, what is there to be afraid of? However, when we opened the shroud…
The old woman's skin was covered with bloody, rotting blisters. Her eyes were wide open as if they were light bulbs. Her throat looked like it had been torn open with bare hands. And her body was covered with these blisters, just like a cicada pupa, so dense that a moment's gaze was enough to send chills down one's spine.
At that moment, we all felt a surge of fear and nausea. Everyone was trembling. But no matter how disgusting the corpse was, as long as it was pushed into the incinerator, it was done. We steadied our emotions and began to work. First, we adjusted the temperature, then we lifted the body and placed it onto the conveyor belt. This action was usually simple, but the moment a few of us lifted the old woman, the blisters on her body slowly, slowly began to crack open!
Then a lot of blood splattered onto us, completely staining our work clothes. Her mouth then mumbled, "Damn you! You people deserve to die! I will drag each and every one of you to hell, to be buried with me! Buried with me!"
We all screamed in terror and immediately dropped the old woman, scrambling out of the crematorium. However, as I turned around, that old hag grabbed my left calf forcefully from behind!!
I desperately pushed against her disgusting body, but her strength was terrifying, as if several adult men were concentrated together. My colleagues had already fled, leaving me to be dragged along. My entire body was numb with fear, my blood circulation blocked, and my heart was pounding like a nuclear warhead about to explode. With all my might, I managed to push her away. But as soon as I pushed her away, she fell onto a nearby metal rack bed. Blood poured from her head, and all her blood flowed onto the ground, staining the entire crematorium red. I had to move desperately. Then, I discovered that the door to the crematorium was locked from the outside!!
I was almost scared out of my wits. Behind me was a sealed, locked space, and in front of me was a bloody, terrifying old woman. She, whose head was split open and bleeding from the impact, inexplicably stood up again at this moment. Then, she lay down on the conveyor belt in front of me, with a pale smile, raised a finger, and voluntarily entered the incinerator, burning herself…
I don't know how I left the crematorium. After I got up, I told the manager that I quit!
I want to resign!!
However, the manager said that if I dared to leave, he would break my legs and kill my family. There were many people around him, and I couldn't resist. I had no choice but to compromise. It was then that I realized I had been set up!
I guess I will never be able to leave this funeral home in this lifetime, otherwise, my family and I will…
Manager Liu sternly told me, "This is such a good job, if you don't want it, there are many people who are eager to do it. Do you think I lack someone like you? Yang Hong, listen to me. If the police come to investigate, you must act as if nothing happened. Absolutely do not mention our midnight cremations, or you know what your fate will be."
At that moment, I couldn't say a word. My eyes were red, and my body trembled. If I didn't cooperate with Manager Liu in this dirty business, none of us would survive. Manager Liu was simply a devil. For profit, he accepted any corpse, even those who were murdered, those whose experiments failed, and those that were unbelievably bizarre. Did he not know?