Chapter 58: The Case of the Evil Gate

  Yang Zhengcai is about forty years old, although he is slightly chubby, but his physique is very robust. He looks like a man in his thirties due to good maintenance. Wearing glasses on his eyes gives people a sense of refinement and elegance. His first impression on Liu Li has some Confucian style.

  After hearing Cheng Bin's words, Liu Li turned to Yang Zhengcai with a smile and nodded slightly. After a moment of contemplation, he didn't ask Yang Zhengcai directly, but instead shifted his gaze to forensic expert Deng Xinming: "Forensic expert Deng, can you please introduce the situation of the deceased first?"

  After hearing this, Deng Ximing nodded: "Captain Liu is polite, the deceased's name is Chen Baotang, male, 54 years old, from Guhong County Chengguan Town, divorced and single, with a son and a daughter under his knees, but they all live with his ex-wife.

  The police received a call from Manager Yang at 7:26:19 this morning, stating that the deceased's body was found at the entrance of the mortuary in Mei Wang Town Crematorium. We arrived at the scene at 7:38:27.

  "After a preliminary on-site investigation, the deceased died from excessive adrenaline secretion. There is only one phenomenon that can cause this death, which is that the person experienced extreme fright before death. Based on the livor mortis and muscle stiffness of the body, I believe the time of death was between 1:00 and 3:00 this morning."

  After Deng Xinming finished introducing the situation of the deceased, Liu Li asked Yang Zhengcai: "Manager Yang, may I ask, how many employees are there in this crematorium? What is the shift system set up here? Where did the deceased live before? What was his personality like? Has he had any abnormal behavior recently?"

  Upon hearing Liu Li's string of questions, Yang Zheng hesitated for a moment before responding: "There are seven staff members here, including myself. Previously, we took turns working the night shift one person per day. After Old Chen was transferred here... oh, Old Chen is Chen Baotang."

  He came here because there was no one left at home. After arriving, he took the initiative to take on the night shift work, as this place is too gloomy and we are all unwilling to be on night shifts.

  So after hearing Old Chen's request, we all agreed happily, but we didn't let Old Chen go empty-handed either. Every month-end, the six of us who weren't on night shift would each take out 300 yuan from our salaries to give to Old Chen as a supplement.

  He lives in the room next to mine, because he is on night shift, so I arranged a single room for him. I'm afraid he will be bored when he is on duty, so I specially equipped him with a computer and TV.

  As for his character? Old Chen is very kind and gentle, nothing special about him, just that he's very brave. Sometimes when your police forensic doctors come here to dissect corpses, Old Chen will occasionally go help out with the manual labor. He doesn't believe in ghosts or gods, nor does he have any taboos about those corpses, born to do this line of work.

  "Lao Chen has been normal recently, after we get off work and go back, he locks the office door and watches TV alone in the room. We haven't found anything unusual about him during this period."

  After learning about these situations, Liu Li nodded thoughtfully: "Can you trouble yourself to tell me about the process of discovering the deceased?"

  "Alright." After saying this, Yang Zhengcai recalled for a moment and then told Liu Li: "After I arrived at the crematorium today, I saw that the door of the office area was already open. Seeing this place, I felt somewhat strange in my heart.

  Because we are supposed to open at 8 am, and I'm the manager, so usually I arrive an hour early at the crematorium. Every time I come, Old Chen hasn't woken up yet, usually I call him to wake him up.

  But when I rushed here today, I found that the electric remote control door of the crematorium was open, and the office area's gate was also open. However, after I shouted several times inside the courtyard, Old Chen didn't respond.

  At first, I didn't pay attention and thought Old Chen had gone out for a stroll. But when I arrived at the office, I found that the air conditioner here was on, and according to the temperature in the room, it should have been on all night. When I looked into Old Chen's house from the window, I saw that his lights were also on. At this point, I felt something was wrong.

  Because Old Chen is a man who values thriftiness, he usually doesn't like to use electricity and can't stand seeing others waste it. If he went out for a stroll, how could he not turn off the lights in his own house before leaving? And why would he leave the air conditioner on all night at my place?

  I thought of this and took out my mobile phone to dial Old Chen's number. The call went through, but no one answered it.

  After feeling something was off, I went out to look for him. As I circled around the crematorium looking for Old Chen, I dialed his cell phone number. When I passed by the mourning hall, I faintly heard the sound of Old Chen's ringtone coming from inside.

  In a state of shock, I walked towards the funeral parlor while continuing to call Old Chen's phone. The result was that Old Chen's ringtone came from the direction of the mortuary. When I arrived at the door of the mortuary, I found Old Chen lying motionless on the ground.

  When I got here, I rushed forward to support Old Chen. However, when I reached his side, I found that his face had already appeared with livor mortis. At this time, I knew something was wrong. Seeing this situation, I didn't dare move the body randomly.

  Because there is a forensic room of the criminal police team here, due to work-related visits, I am quite familiar with Team Leader Cheng, so at that time, I immediately called Team Leader Cheng to report the incident and asked him to come over quickly. Before long, Team Leader Cheng arrived with his men.

  "After saying that, Yang Zhengcai paused for a moment and then continued: 'I also only found out later, I heard that a female corpse stored in the morgue yesterday afternoon disappeared last night. Commander Cheng, you guys have to investigate this matter quickly."

  Those employees here, after hearing about last night's incident, all said that the crematorium was haunted and were so scared that they didn't dare to come to work. Now, I have a total of five employees under me, and as a result, two and a half are asking for sick leave.

  If it goes on like this, I estimate that our place will be finished soon. Although our crematorium is under the jurisdiction of the county civil affairs bureau, the civil affairs bureau does not give us funding and salaries, letting us operate at our own risk. Usually, we rely on cremating corpses to maintain our expenses.

  If the rumor that this place is haunted gets out, I reckon no one will dare to come here anymore. If someone from a nearby town passes away, their relatives might even go to a crematorium in another county to have the body cremated. That way, I won't be far from drinking northwest wind."

  Just as Yang Zhengcai finished speaking, Liu Li looked at Cheng Bin and saw that he nodded in confirmation of Yang's words. Liu Li couldn't help but furrow his brow: "Manager Yang, do you have any surveillance cameras here?"

  "There are indeed cameras, but those surveillance probes went out of order a week ago. Since the probes here are connected to the town's civil affairs office, the head of the town's civil affairs office said they would find someone to help repair them, but so far, they have not been fixed yet. So last night's situation was not recorded by the surveillance cameras at all." Yang Zhengcai replied helplessly.

  At this time, Cheng Bin interjected: "It can be said that the case now has no leads at all. There are two questions we must clarify first. First: How did the missing female corpse disappear? Second: The deceased was a foolhardy person, what exactly scared him to death?"

  Heart Pearl