Chapter 156 Dissociation

【02-Puppet】The clock head that had fallen to the ground was taken out, while the others controlled by Wang Xinran cut off the expensive carpet stained with blood and mud, wrapped it around Wen Yan's head, and carried it downstairs.

Downstairs, a refrigerated truck was already parked in front of the hotel. After throwing the wooden clock and Wen Yan's remains inside, the refrigerated truck drove directly towards the funeral home.

Shortly after Shen Xing and his group left, power was restored to the hotel and surrounding area, and the crowd gradually dispersed, as if nothing had happened. Shen Xing found a very suitable new job for his body.

Encoffiner.

Or, to put it more simply, a mortician.

Wang Xinran would help with the licenses and work contracts, but it seemed impossible tonight, as she needed to concentrate on dealing with the Ninth Detachment's inspection.

However, Shen Xing could still use the funeral home at will.

The funeral home is such a perfect place for Shen Xing.

There were few people and many corpses, the operating room was very large, and there was a considerable amount of room for modification. No one would question what kind of research he did with the corpses inside.

Although the funeral home here is in a remote location, it occupies a large area, which makes it convenient for future renovations.

The only downside is that funeral homes in small towns are mostly public institutions under the Civil Affairs Bureau, so Shen Xing can only enter as a contract worker and cannot buy them directly.

However, with Wang Xinran around, these are all minor issues; all that's needed is to turn everyone at the funeral home into "our own people."

After storing all his belongings at the funeral home, Shen Xing still had one more thing to do.

That means going back to the home of the person whose identity you are to take over, and disposing of their body.

This job is also a good fit for my major.

At this moment, Shen Xing was taking a taxi alone towards the apartment where that person lived. In his hand were that person's ID card and house key.

Let's go back to noon.

Shen Yuan is in a state of confusion.

Just two hours earlier, Wu Xiaoting had fallen down the stairs in front of her, her skull seemingly cracked.

However, when she ran back to her room to get her phone and dial 120, Wu Xiaoting was lying on the bed completely unharmed. When she returned to the stairs, there was no trace of Wu Xiaoting's body, and even her blood was nowhere to be found.

It's as if everything that just happened was just a dream.

But she couldn't afford to panic; she had to try to understand what had happened.

In the time that had just passed, she had taken photos of Wu Xiaoting with a digital camera and asked her many questions. ... She discovered that Wu Xiaoting seemed to have no recollection of ever falling.

Moreover, Wu Xiaoting's head still resembles the head of a monster clock... Wu Xiaoting still hasn't woken up and remains in a deep dream.

Just then, the Nokia phone rang again. Sitting on the sofa, Wu Xiaoting looked at the phone on the coffee table in front of her, swallowed hard, and asked, "Xiao...aren't you going to answer it?"

For more than an hour, she had been receiving a series of phone calls, but Shen Yuan seemed to ignore them. Each time she glanced at the caller ID, she would not answer the phone and let the other party keep calling.

Actually, the call wasn't made an hour ago. Two or three hours earlier, Shen Yuan's landline had been ringing off the hook. It seemed the caller had somehow found Shen Yuan's mobile number and started dialing repeatedly.

"I won't answer." Shen Yuan shook her head.

"But this isn't good..." Wu Xiaoting didn't know what had happened. She thought Shen Yuan hadn't asked for leave and that her family or teachers had been calling her.

Shen Yuan didn't speak; she just stared at the white phone on the table.

It's as if, as long as I don't answer this call, I'll never hear the news I don't want to hear.

But after a while, when another unfamiliar number called, Shen Yuan reached out, took the phone, and pressed the green call button. "Feed?" Shen Yuan asked calmly.

"Little...where are you?"

On the other end of the phone was a weak female voice, and Shen Yuan couldn't immediately recall who it was.

"I'm at a friend's house," Shen Yuan said. "I'll hang up now if there's nothing else."

"I'm Lu Wenying, Sister Lu, do you remember me?"

After the woman on the other end of the phone finished speaking, she paused for a long time, as if she had used up all her energy after saying just a few words.

"I remember," Shen Yuan replied, putting her phone, which she had originally intended to put down, back to her ear.

She had a pretty good impression of Sister Lu; when they were interrogating her about Li Xiaohua, the other woman had been comforting her. "Can you tell me where you are? I'll send someone to pick you up..." Lu Wenying asked, her voice trembling slightly as she seemed a little bad at lying.

Meanwhile, inside the hospital, Lu Wenying's hand holding her phone trembled slightly.

A police officer stood to the side, looking somewhat anxiously at Lu Wenying, who was still recovering from a serious illness.

Among these police officers, only Lu Wenying and Shen Yuan were relatively familiar to them. They couldn't get through to the others by phone. There was also a severe shortage of police manpower, and Chen Liming had to be on-site to direct operations, so it was impossible for him to send someone to look for Shen Yuan.

Lu Wenying wanted to tell everyone that Shen Xing was dead, but every time she tried, she would recall the scene in the duty room where she faced Granny Zhang.

And that monster from 802 back then... If I hadn't fired, would the outcome have been different?

These questions, like thorns, entangled Lu Wenying, scorching her heart like the blazing sun.

But soon, Shen Yuan's voice came from the phone.

"Sister Lu, you know about those monsters... right?"

Monster? Weird?

Lu Wenying was slightly taken aback. She glanced at the police officer beside her, but did not speak, responding with silence.

"May I come to see you?"

Shen Yuan's voice came through the phone again.

"...Okay, I'm at the hospital." Lu Wenying nodded in agreement.

In any case, having Shen Yuan by my side, with someone watching over her, is the best thing.

But... how did Xiaoyuan know about the strange things?

What Shen Xing said?

No... Senior Brother is a cautious person. Given the confidentiality agreement, it's unlikely he would reveal anything about the supernatural or the Ninth Division to those around him.

In any case, the answer will be revealed when Shen Yuan arrives.

About thirty minutes later.

Shen Yuan, whose shoulders were soaked with sweat, appeared at the door of the ward.

The police officer beside her breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, made room for Shen Yuan, and then made a phone call at the door, seemingly reporting in a low voice. Shen Yuan stood by the bed, looking at Lu Wenying's right shoulder, which was in a splint; both of them remained silent.

After finishing his call, the police officer came in. He looked at Shen Yuan and said, "Shen Yuan, is that right? There are some things we need your cooperation with in the investigation, regarding your brother..."

Lu Wenying extended her left hand, interrupting the police officer, and said, "It's alright, I'll talk. You wait outside for a while and don't let anyone in." "Yes, sir." The police officer nodded, then walked out of the ward, closed the door, and stood guard at the entrance.

After the police officers left, Shen Yuan finally spoke, breaking the silence.

"What happened to my brother?" Shen Yuan asked.

"Shen Xing, he..." Lu Wenying began, summarizing the information she had gathered from Lu Lingyun and the branch, and then told Shen Yuan. From Shen Xing leaving home, to being stabbed in the morning, and then the van crashing through the old bridge railing and plunging into the swift river... Lu Wenying omitted the part about the Ninth Branch blocking the road... She didn't want Shen Yuan to hold a grudge against Lu Lingyun and the Ninth Branch because of this. After a long silence, Shen Yuan finally asked her first question.

"Where is the body?"

Lu Wenying gripped the edge of the white sheet with her left hand and said softly, "The river is flowing too fast, the salvage team is still working, and so far... they haven't found it yet."

Shen Yuan took a step forward, leaving a wet watermark on the floor with the sole of her shoe.

"If no body was found, how did you arrive at the conclusion of death?"

Lu Wenying looked down at the bed sheet and slowly said:

"A large amount of blood was left at the scene, and the location where the bread cart sank to the bottom of the river has been determined. Given that the person fell into the river while suffering significant blood loss, logical deductions suggest…"

"Has the DNA comparison been done?" Shen Yuan interrupted the other person.

Lu Wenying opened her mouth, but the sound got stuck in her throat.

"Have the bloodstains left at the scene been identified as the same as the bloodstains in my brother's sample?" Shen Yuan asked, her words coming out like a machine gun. She probably didn't even know what she was saying; much of this vague knowledge was likely just something she'd heard from Shen Xing, and she didn't understand it herself.

But Shen Yuan was relying on this half-baked knowledge to compete with Lu Wenying.

"How come the station has your brother's sample..." Lu Wenying took a deep breath, looked at Shen Yuan, and said directly, "Shen Xing is dead. The forensic doctor from the Major Crimes Unit will be going to your house soon to collect Shen Xing's DNA..."

"Okay." Shen Yuan nodded. "I understand."

Lu Wenying looked at Shen Yuan in front of her, feeling somewhat at a loss.

She really wanted to hug Shen Yuan and comfort her, but Shen Yuan's expression was very calm... Shen Yuan didn't even show any sadness on her face, and she didn't seem as upset as Lu Wenyin.

"If there's nothing else, I'll go home then." Shen Yuan bowed slightly to Lu Wenyin as a thank you, then turned to leave. Unsurprisingly, Shen Yuan was stopped by the police officers at the door.

She sat on a bench in the hospital corridor like a prisoner under guard.

The incandescent light shone on the terrazzo floor, and Shen Yuan's gaze lingered on the gray cement line at the seam of the floor, following it forward. People passed by in the corridor, and the plastic wheels of the medical cart made dull thuds as they rolled over speed bumps, but these sounds seemed to fade away in Shen Yuan's ears.

Gradually, even the sound of rain disappeared.

Back at the police station, I gave a statement, followed the forensic doctor back to my home, and waited for them to leave after they finished extracting DNA from Shen Xing's toothbrush.

Lu Wenying seemed to have been discharged early and was preparing to come and take care of her tonight; there were even police officers guarding the entrance. Shen Yuan turned on the DVD player, inserted the disc—a comedy.

She seemed to be immersed in the emotions of the film, laughing heartily at the jokes, leaving only her laughter and the sound of the television in the empty house.

In the evening, Lu Wenying came to my house, bringing delicious food.

At the dinner table, Lu Wenying wanted to talk about Shen Xing, but Shen Yuan directly asked about the monster and even said that Shen Xing knew about the monster just like her.

Now, even Lu Wenying couldn't continue talking about Shen Xing. She could only keep probing what information Shen Yuan knew and what information she could provide.

That evening, Shen Yuan finished washing up and went to her room to sleep, while Lu Wenying lay on the sofa in the living room, feeling restless.

It looked as if Shen Yuan was comforting her.

Are Shen Yuan and Shen Xing actually not on good terms?

Lu Wenying was not very clear about their family affairs.

After what happened to Granny Zhang, Lu Wenying crammed on her psychology knowledge in that area.

When people grieve to a certain degree, they enter a state of dissociation, completely separating the cognitive understanding of "the person is dead" from the emotional understanding of "I am in pain." They may even completely detach themselves from reality and enter a brief emotional vacuum.

This is the human brain's last line of defense.

This vacuum may suddenly collapse after hours, days, or even weeks, because of some trivial, insignificant thing.