Chapter 18: Mortuary Makeup

The car drove out of the Lanhe city center, heading along the desolate winter forest road toward the remote funeral home. Gradually, they were accompanied by hearses playing wailing sounds. In this place, for hundreds of years, while times have changed, funeral customs have remained much the same. People draped in mourning clothes, carrying endless grief for the departed, accompanied them on their final journey.

"Fei-ge, you've been very quiet on this trip," Wu Shanqiu said, turning to look at Qi Fei from the passenger seat.

"I'm thinking..." Qi Fei stared ahead, not appearing excited about being close to the truth. "Why was Yao Leilei's one finger perfectly preserved? I've handled arson-related death cases before; it's unlikely that someone with severe burns would have just one finger left intact."

"Fei-ge, you have a point. I tried to imagine the situation, and flames don't just turn corners on their own."

"Unless someone intentionally wanted to preserve that finger."

"Didn't Yao Beibei say that Liang Ming had already prepared Yao Leilei's will, waiting for her to sign it? But if her hands were burned, how could she sign it? At that time, people at the guesthouse only saw him desperately grabbing Yao Leilei's hand, wanting to save it. Rather than saying it was his wife's life, it was more like he wanted her finger. If the finger was saved, even if she couldn't sign, she could still leave a thumbprint. He just didn't expect Yao Leilei to wake up so stubbornly, and his plan fell through." Qi Fei's words made Wu Shanqiu feel a chill to the bone.

"Zhong Kui was right; he really is a born bad seed!" Wu Shanqiu said indignantly.

The car had arrived at the funeral home, and the Lanhe police had arrived almost at the same time.

There were always a few bodies temporarily stored at the funeral home—some waiting for cremation, some unclaimed.

When they reached the mortuary makeup area, they were surprised to find it busier than they had imagined.

In the small room, several bodies lay stiffly, facing upward, waiting for their final decent decoration before turning to ash.

An old man who looked nearly sixty was whispering instructions to a girl in her early twenties on how to apply makeup to one of the bodies.

"This is Fu Liansheng, who is in charge of mortuary makeup at our facility." The staff member introduced him and shouted inside, "Teacher Fu, someone is here to see you!"

The old man took off his reading glasses and cast an annoyed look, as if that shout might wake up those who were dead and gone.

He gave the girl a few more instructions and walked out sullenly.

"Hello, Teacher Fu. We are from the Nancheng Police Bureau. We'd like to understand the situation regarding the makeup of a body from three years ago," Qi Fei said politely.

"Three years ago? Who remembers something from that long ago?" Fu Liansheng looked Qi Fei up and down. "Nancheng? What are Nancheng police doing running all the way to Lanhe?"

"It's a related case; this is normal. Do you have any impression of a deceased person named Yao Leilei from three years ago? The family requested mortuary makeup for her at the time," Qi Fei continued to ask.

"Who? Don't remember." Fu Liansheng's attitude toward the living was much worse than toward the dead.

"She was a woman with severe burns," Qi Fei changed his approach.

"Oh, I have a slight impression. What about it?"

"The family says that one of the deceased's fingers went missing before the cremation. Can you help us think about it?"

Upon hearing this, Fu Liansheng's already poor attitude worsened: "Are you suspecting that I lost someone's finger? Ask anyone in the facility—have I ever received a bad review in my decades of work?"

Wu Shanqiu couldn't help but mutter: "The subjects are all dead, so of course there are no bad reviews."

Fu Liansheng squinted at Wu Shanqiu. Everyone thought he was going to get angry, but unexpectedly, his tone softened: "The person you're talking about wasn't served by me, but I don't believe that person would make such a mistake."

Hearing Fu Liansheng finally open up, Qi Fei hurriedly asked, "Who is this person you're talking about?"

Fu Liansheng said: "They know. At that time, I had an apprentice named Xu Wei. Not many people are willing to do this line of work; many come reluctantly just to have a job and run off after not long. Only this Xu Wei was different. He truly liked it, loved to study, and learned quickly. Before long, he could handle things on his own, and sometimes he even did better than I did. That young lady you mentioned was very difficult to handle, and I know he could have done better than me. This person was meticulous and pursued perfection in his work; it's impossible that he would have lost a finger."

When Fu Liansheng spoke of his beloved apprentice, he was eloquent, completely different from how he had been at the beginning.

Qi Fei listened silently. What he was hearing was a completely different perspective. According to Fu Liansheng's description of Xu Wei, this person's style was cautious and he had a strong interest in corpses—this fit the characteristics of the killer in the Zhu Ming'en and Yang Jinhan cases perfectly.

"Where is Xu Wei now?" Qi Fei asked, somewhat impatiently.

To his disappointment, Fu Liansheng shook his head: "After that job with the burned young lady, he resigned. This person didn't like to talk and didn't give a reason. I've thought about it, and it must be that the condition of that body was too pitiful, and he was traumatized."

After hearing this, everyone fell silent.

Just as the atmosphere was heavy, a "clatter" came from the room. The girl working inside had accidentally knocked over the makeup kit, and powder and eyeshadow spilled all over the floor.

Seeing this, Fu Liansheng couldn't help but get anxious, muttering: "Oh, for heaven's sake, you've made such a mess here; it's going to take a long time to clean up!"

Hearing this sentence, Qi Fei's head buzzed. The tone was very strange yet very familiar. He had heard it somewhere recently, but couldn't recall it for a moment. It must have been a casual moment, and the environment was even similar—cold, deathly still, with corpses... no, there were many corpses around.

If time had traveled, he felt as if he saw that hand reaching out silently from behind him, opening the morgue door, and subsequently, Zhu Ming'en's head, washed clean, appearing before him.

This time, he noticed that hand—compared to that aged voice, it was far too young!

Everything became reasonable. Why they had checked all the surveillance around the hospital and couldn't find any suspicious personnel, why the killer was so familiar with the hospital situation, why the morgue door was left ajar and the lock hadn't been broken—this person had never left the hospital, and was even spying on their every move at the crime scene, while he had been completely unaware.

At this moment, the sharp-eyed Wu Shanqiu discovered more evidence. She picked up a can from the corner and handed it to Qi Fei: "Fei-ge, look!"

Qi Fei recognized it at a glance; it was exactly the same as the paint can picked up under the monster graffiti at the scene where Yang Jinhan was murdered. ===== CHAPTER 19 =====