Chapter 3#
The Corpse Stitcher#
Leaving the homeland where he had grown up for seventeen years and about to live in a completely unfamiliar international metropolis, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t nervous.
Ye Sheng looked at his washed-out black T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers that were slightly unglued, and sighed faintly.
He mocked himself, thinking that Huang Yiyue’s worry was not unreasonable. With his dusty, rustic appearance, rashly stepping into the Xie family’s door would be an embarrassment to her.
However, he had hands and feet and could support himself. He ate his own food and used his own money, and never intended to go to her in the first place.
Ye Sheng turned on his phone and, unsurprisingly, saw that after being blocked twice, Huang Yiyue had switched to a third number to harass him. After playing the family card, the bribery card, and the pity card to no avail, Huang Yiyue finally came up with a despicable move.
She brought up Ye Sheng’s grandmother.
[Sheng Sheng, do you still remember your grandmother?]
Ye Sheng sat up instantly, the expression on his face becoming solemn and cold.
Huang Yiyue’s message came through.
[Sheng Sheng, when your grandmother was seriously ill, I brought her to Huaicheng for treatment. There is one thing I didn’t tell you. Your grandmother left something for you before she died.]
[I’ll give it to you when you come over.]
Huang, Yi, Yue!
Ye Sheng almost crushed the phone, his eyes in the darkness flashing with bone-deep anger.
He knew Huang Yiyue was a cold-blooded and selfish woman, but he didn’t expect her to be vicious to this extent, even turning his deceased grandmother into a bargaining chip to threaten him.
Ye Sheng’s chest heaved violently. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and opened them again, calming down.
[First tell me what it is.]
Huang Yiyue directly sent a photo. It was a simple, dark purple square box with a shell-shaped lock hanging on it.
[I haven’t opened this box either. Your grandmother said the key is in your hands.]
Ye Sheng gritted his teeth in the darkness until they hurt, and typed quickly.
[I will arrive at Huaicheng Train Station at 5 pm on the 27th.]
Huang Yiyue on the other side obviously breathed a sigh of relief, and her tone became gentle.
[Okay. I’ll send the butler to pick you up then.]
[Sheng Sheng, Mom didn’t want to force you like this either.]
[Mom just wants to see you, wants to keep you by my side, and treat you a little better.]
Ye Sheng ignored her hypocrisy and threw the phone casually onto the pillow.
Threatened by Huang Yiyue like that, Ye Sheng’s emotions were turbulent, and he couldn’t sleep at all. His mind was full of his grandmother’s kind and gentle eyes from his childhood, calming the anger in his heart like majestic mountains and rivers. Tossing and turning until 2 am, he vaguely felt a little sleepy.
Even in his dream, Ye Sheng wished he could tear Huang Yiyue apart alive. There were too many things weighing on his heart, and he felt so suffocated in the middle of the night that he almost couldn’t breathe.
At first, he thought it was psychological.
Until breathing became more and more difficult, his brain lacked oxygen, and his whole body was weak.
Ye Sheng woke up from the dream with a start and realized something was wrong.
There was a person pressing on him.
Very heavy.
This person weighed at least two hundred pounds. It wasn’t Ning Weichen or Li Jianyang. The whole body carried a dampness of a toilet, as if the corpse had been soaked in water for a long time.
Ye Sheng was used to sleep paralysis caused by ghosts. Suppressing his fear, he tried hard to calm down.
If he guessed correctly, it should be the woman named Xiao Fang who died in this carriage.
The female ghost lay on him and watched quietly for a while. Finding him motionless, she slowly moved away from him. The heavy suffocation and coldness receded like a tide, but Ye Sheng still didn’t open his eyes.
Because he knew that this female ghost hadn’t left. She squatted silently on the ground, guarding his bedside, staring at his closed eyes with curiosity and innocence.
The train rumbled through the mountains, and the moonlight coldly outlined a bloody and dark silhouette.
The next second, the weak cry of a baby suddenly sounded in the carriage. Ye Sheng froze all over—Li Jianyang’s daughter woke up?!
The baby’s cry obviously attracted the female ghost more. She snorted, no longer guarding Ye Sheng, but dragged her heavy body towards Li Jianyang’s bunk.
Ye Sheng held his breath and opened his eyes, taking out a yellow talisman from under the pillow. The old man was afraid something would happen because of his Yin-Yang eyes, so he gave him a bunch of messy things before leaving. The yellow talisman was left to him by the old man. Ye Sheng’s blood was harmful to ghosts, but he had never encountered a malicious ghost with such heavy resentment, and he wasn’t confident.
He propped himself up with one hand and held his breath to look towards Li Jianyang.
The huge malicious ghost stood motionless beside the baby girl. After she approached, the baby girl stopped crying, opened her mouth and babbled, making sounds similar to speaking.
Ye Sheng remembered that Xiao Fang was a pregnant woman before she died in that news, so Xiao Fang thought of her own child, her motherly love broke out, and she showed mercy?
The baby girl let out a milky laugh and reached out to Xiao Fang, her arm thin and skinny like dry wood.
Xiao Fang stared at her strangely and bent down. Her face was swollen like a wrinkled steamed bun, her pupils shrank into a dot, and at first glance, it was all whites and bloodshot eyes. She looked at the baby girl faintly for a long time before cracking her lips to reveal a terrifying smile.
Xiao Fang reached out and picked up the baby girl. Her steps became incredibly light and happy, and she even hummed a song in a good mood, walking towards the toilet at the end of the carriage.
When Xiao Fang turned around, Ye Sheng saw her attire clearly by the light.
Green floral shirt, black trousers, two long braids hanging down to her chest. A very simple dress from that era, now the top was soaked in blood and dyed black. Her body swelled, making the clothes look small, and the hem of the shirt shrank up, revealing a bloody belly.
Xiao Fang held the baby girl, humming a song that was sweet and creepy.
Ye Sheng felt a chill.
The toilet door at the end of Carriage 44 was open, and the woman came lightly and went back lightly with her trophy.
Li Jianyang was still sleeping.
Ye Sheng didn’t intend to wake him up either. An ordinary person would only cause trouble at a time like this.
He got up carefully from the bed, looking vigilantly at that door. He couldn’t figure out the female ghost’s background and didn’t dare to act rashly. Ye Sheng took out his phone and clicked on the first app he put on the shortcut key.
At the last moment when the female ghost closed the toilet door. Click, he took a photo of her back.
Thud, the toilet door closed.
Ye Sheng’s palms were full of sweat. Calming his breath, he tremblingly clicked to upload this picture.
This was a very simple app. The icon was a blood-red eye, named “search”, with only two functions: taking photos and uploading.
It was also installed by the old man before he left.
The old man said that if he encountered evil spirits and ghosts in the big city in the future, don’t act rashly. Scan it with this first. If the level exceeds C, run quickly. If search can’t even scan it out, then just relax and wait for death.
Ye Sheng had used it to scan a ghost by a grave in Yinshan once. The level of a normally deceased ghost was F. But this time, the eye on the software rotated for a moment, and a text similar to a file appeared very quickly.
[Category Section: Story King]
[Ghost Name: Corpse Stitcher]
[Ghost Level: C]
[Overview: Xiao Fang’s ancestors were all corpse stitchers, specializing in stitching corpses for burial. Only Xiao Fang was an exception. Xiao Fang picked up a needle and thread and became an embroiderer for her whole life. The embroiderer Xiao Fang died in the carriage, her belly hollowed out and her child taken away. After death, Xiao Fang still became a corpse stitcher.]
Level C?
Corpse Stitcher?
Ye Sheng was stunned and stood still. Although it was June in summer, the temperature on the train was relatively low. Ye Sheng slept with a long-sleeved jacket at night, and he hid a dagger in his sleeve.
Just as Ye Sheng was hesitating about what to do next, he heard the footsteps of two people walking towards Carriage 44.
Ye Sheng had 5.3 vision, and his hearing was equally outstanding.
Even though the two deliberately lowered their voices, he could still hear what they were discussing.
“Are you sure they are in Carriage 44? Which idiot would choose this ghostly place? No one dares to live in the few carriages close to it. We used to try to avoid this unlucky place when robbing.”
“Can’t be wrong. The two kids probably got greedy for cheap tickets. Hmph, I must teach these two kids who don’t know the height of the sky and the depth of the earth a lesson today!”
“Did you bring the stuff?”
“Brought it, brought it. Knives, sticks, all holding them. Hey, that kid in black clothes I spotted on the first day looks damn exciting. Let me have fun first before doing business!”
“Really that superb?”
“Genuine goods! After I have fun with this kid, I’ve already thought about where to chop. I’m going to chop off his lifeblood hahahaha!”
Ye Sheng held the phone, closed the app, and suppressed the violence of wanting to kill these two perverts.
The toilet had been occupied by Xiao Fang for many years. He couldn’t be the first person to go in; he had to find someone to explore the way.
After a moment of thought, Ye Sheng lay back on the bed pretending to sleep. Ye Sheng counted one, two, three in his heart, and a cold knife pressed against his neck. Immediately afterwards, a lewd voice rang in his ear: “Kid, remember uncle?”
“You…” Ye Sheng woke up suddenly, his pupils constricting as he looked at the two men under the moonlight.
Of the two people standing in the carriage, one was frail and wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses; the other was big and tall, with a deep scar on his face.
The glasses man’s eyes were full of triumph, threatening viciously: “Don’t talk! If you dare to make a sound, I’ll kill you and then kill everyone in this carriage!”
Ye Sheng shivered, pursed his lips, and didn’t dare to speak.
The glasses man was very satisfied, rolled his eyes, and coaxed with a smile: “But if you serve me well tonight, I’ll let you go, how about it?”
He admired Ye Sheng’s pale face forcing composure, itching to touch it. Unexpectedly, his arm was grabbed by Ye Sheng in mid-air. Even through the clothes, he could feel how strong this kid was. The glasses man almost screamed. To save face, he held on, pressed the knife close to Ye Sheng’s neck, and roared in a distorted low voice: “Let go of me! Brat! Are you looking for death!”
Ye Sheng couldn’t act at all. He could only use the darkness to hide his expressionless face, his voice very low: “Not here.”
Glasses man: “What not here?”
Ye Sheng said: “Go to the toilet. I don’t like it here.”
The glasses man was delighted, his eyes lighting up: “Toilet? Toilet is good, there’s a mirror in the toilet. So you like this kind, can’t tell you are quite playful!”
Ye Sheng took a deep breath. He still lowered his head and whispered: “No, don’t wake up the others.”
“Go, go, go.”
The glasses man’s dagger was on Ye Sheng’s neck, forcing him to walk towards the toilet. However, wary of Ye Sheng’s strength, he didn’t dare to touch him randomly anymore.
The three arrived in front of the toilet door. Ye Sheng looked down at the blood seeping faintly from the crack of the door and asked: “Are you going in together?”
The burly scar man looked like he saw a new continent: “Not bad, kid. Want to play so big for the first time, want a threesome?”
Ye Sheng: “…”
Do these two perverts deserve to die or not?!
He took a deep breath and said: “Open the door.”
The glasses man didn’t hesitate and pushed open the toilet door directly, smiling lewdly: “Kid, we brothers will definitely give you an unforgettable night.”
Only before the word “night” landed, Ye Sheng had already broken his wrist, deftly took the fruit knife, and kicked him in.
Glasses man: “Wu!”
The burly man next to him didn’t react either. Ye Sheng took a step back, pressed the knife against his back, and said coldly: “Roll in.”
Burly man: “Wu!!”
Inside the half-open door, red light was faint. Xiao Fang stood in front of the mirror, threading a needle with an embroidery needle. The sudden intrusion of the glasses man and the burly man made her singing pause, and she screamed abruptly.
Ye Sheng quickly closed the door. At the last moment, the baby girl sitting on the washstand seemed to glance at him. Her black and white pure eyes, missing the light and shadow, revealed a chilling coldness that seeped into the soul.
Ye Sheng was stunned, but time was tight, so he didn’t think much. He wanted to do an experiment to see if Xiao Fang was really a malicious ghost.
Although many supernatural things had happened in Carriage 44, Ye Sheng noticed one thing: no one had ever died here.
And Xiao Fang… The comments he saw on the internet were all discussing the strange sounds and smells in the carriage toilet in the middle of the night. No one had encountered sleep paralysis or seen anything dirty.
This meant Xiao Fang generally didn’t come out. But she came out tonight.
Everything was strange.
The toilet was silenced by the bloody red mist. Only by standing at the door could one vaguely hear a chaos.
Xiao Fang’s voice was sharp, and the baby girl was scared to cry. The crying was accompanied by a huge movement, and then the heart-piercing cries and screams of the two men broke through the night.
Xiao Fang killed someone?!
Ye Sheng was afraid that if it dragged on too long, Li Jianyang’s daughter would be in danger.
His right hand just grabbed the handle of the toilet, intending to go in.
Suddenly another hand covered it.
A tall and thin shadow covered him. Someone leaned close to his ear, voice flowing like water in the night, saying: “Don’t open the door.”
Ye Sheng was stunned. Before he was shocked, his body had already made an instinctive reaction. His elbow hit the person’s abdomen hard. The person didn’t dodge and was hit by him, letting out a muffled sound. But the hand was still very steady, almost interlocking with his fingers, tightly stopping him from opening the door.
Ye Sheng then heard a slightly aggrieved and sad voice muttering: “I wanted to help you. If you don’t appreciate it, fine, why hit people.”
Ye Sheng looked up in astonishment. His eyes, with lingering hostility, were amazingly beautiful in the fearful blood color.
And Ning Weichen blinked his peach blossom eyes that seemed to contain water, covered his stomach with one hand, and looked at him pitifully.
Probably when good-looking people feel aggrieved, they really have unexpected lethality. Especially someone of Ning Weichen’s level of appearance.
Ye Sheng growled low: “What are you doing?”
Ning Weichen was even more aggrieved, in disbelief: “You punched me. Instead of asking if I’m in pain first, you ask me what I’m doing?”
Ye Sheng: “…”
Ning Weichen blinked quickly, as if to get rid of the physiological tears in his eyes. He calmed down, held back his sadness, and whispered: “Ye Sheng, don’t open the door. Li Jianyang’s daughter will be fine, and someone will come to deal with this soon.”
Ye Sheng frowned: “What do you know?”
Ning Weichen’s hand embedded into his fingers bit by bit, strong and allowing no resistance, but his voice was very light: “Leave with me first.”
The screams in the toilet continued.
In the moment Ye Sheng was distracted, he had already been taken away by Ning Weichen.
Back by the bed, Ning Weichen still covered his stomach with one hand, his face pale, pain causing a layer of red mist to appear in his eyes. But he remembered Ye Sheng’s two orders, didn’t act coquettishly or say mushy words, and restrained his trembling tone, saying: “In the process of chatting with Li Jianyang, I found him very strange.”
“I told him I could provide world-class medical assistance for his daughter, but he refused. I asked him what his daughter’s symptoms were, and he was vague. Later I found out that he couldn’t answer any of the questions about the baby girl’s birth date, name, or mother—Li Jianyang is not this baby girl’s father at all.”
Ye Sheng was stunned: “Is he a human trafficker, trafficking people?”
Ning Weichen shook his head: “No, not just trafficking people.”
“When Li Jianyang left, I secretly took a photo of his daughter and sent it to my private doctor Andrew. Andrew said this baby girl was very strange and asked me to open the swaddle to take a look. After opening it, I found that the baby girl had a cut on her stomach that looked like a C-section, and it was still bleeding.” He said this, leaned weakly on Ye Sheng’s shoulder, and whispered: “Let me lean for a bit.”
“…” Ye Sheng’s body stiffened, and he subconsciously wanted to push him away, but thinking that he was the culprit, he silently endured it.
At the same time, Ye Sheng thought confusedly in his heart, are these pampered young masters in the city made of paper? Did he cause internal bleeding with one punch?
Ning Weichen continued: “Andrew said that in medicine there is a disease called parasitic fetus, also called fetus in fetu. In a pair of twins, one swallows the other in the mother’s womb. This baby girl is in this situation. A fetus should have been taken out of her stomach too. Andrew also said that this baby girl is very strange. The soul in her body doesn’t look like a child at all, extremely dangerous. He asked me to stay away from them first. He has already contacted the Bureau of Supernatural Investigation and Administration to handle this matter. Let’s stay quietly on the train and don’t act rashly.”
Ye Sheng caught the keyword: “Bureau of Supernatural Investigation and Administration?”
Ning Weichen: “Yes, the country has a specialized agency to handle such matters.” He hooked his lips and smiled: “Don’t worry, my identity is special. The executive officer sent by the Supernatural Bureau this time is at least A-level. We will be fine.”
Ye Sheng: “…” He hadn’t gone to the big city yet. Just coming out of the mountains, he had already experienced the danger and unfathomability of the world.
“Then what’s the matter with Xiao Fang?”
Ning Weichen said: “Carriage 44 in Yinshan has long been recorded by the Supernatural Bureau. The monsters inside have never done evil, so they haven’t been dealt with.” Pausing, Ning Weichen said: “Under normal circumstances, Xiao Fang won’t harm people.”
Ye Sheng fell silent and began to recall the interaction between Xiao Fang and that baby girl.
He might have gotten one thing wrong.
Xiao Fang might have been called out by that baby girl in the first place.
Ye Sheng suddenly felt a little cold now. He looked at the toilet at the end of the carriage again. He didn’t know what was happening inside now, nor was it something his current ability could pry into.
But… this was also good. Anyway, he just wanted to take the civil service exam and go back to build Yinshan, and had no interest in these messy things.
Ye Sheng withdrew his gaze and asked: “When did you know these things?”
Ning Weichen explained: “Andrew only replied to me before I went to sleep. You were already asleep then. I planned to remind you tomorrow, but I didn’t expect such a thing to happen tonight.”
Ye Sheng felt extremely complicated inside.
Ning Weichen sat up straight and said carefully: “Ye Sheng, I’m injured. Can I sleep with you tonight? Don’t worry, I will definitely stay far away from you.”
Ye Sheng: “…” He really wanted to refuse, but Ning Weichen did help him, and he was the one who injured him.
Finally at this time, Ye Sheng asked: “Ning Weichen… are you really in pain now?”
Ning Weichen was silent for a moment, suddenly laughed out loud in the darkness, his eyes rippling, corners of his lips curving up: “To be honest, it was very painful, but after you asked, I don’t feel pain anymore.” He thought for a while and added: “This shouldn’t count as a violation. I’m just sincerely expressing my feelings. You can’t make me a liar.”
Ning Weichen turned his head. His pair of affectionate eyes seemed deeply affectionate to anyone. His voice was smiling and puzzled: “So strange, Ye Sheng. How come I like you so much when I haven’t known you for a few days?”
Ye Sheng: “…”
Maybe Ye Sheng’s cold and impervious appearance was too disappointing.
Ning Weichen smiled and stopped talking. As if afraid he would regret it, he quickly slept on the bed, patted the empty space next to him, and said eagerly: “Don’t think about it, go to sleep quickly.”
Ye Sheng sighed faintly in his heart.
He knew Ning Weichen wasn’t gay.
Although this person acted coquettishly with him and kept saying he liked him, he just knew that Ning Weichen didn’t like him as much as he showed.
It was also this realization that made him slowly sleep on the bed. He didn’t want to face Ning Weichen, so he turned sideways and looked at Li Jianyang who was sleeping soundly diagonally above.
Waiting until Ning Weichen’s breathing beside him became even, Ye Sheng took out his phone, clicked on search, and then took a photo in Li Jianyang’s direction. He photographed the bag full of “local specialties” under the bed.
Just trying it out, unexpectedly, search actually produced a result—
[Category Section: Story King]
[Ghost Name: Fetus Girl (Incomplete)]
[Ghost Level: A Level]
[Overview: ???]