Deep Within the Living

Chapter 10: Body Disposal

[Mansion Hall]

The four of them, equipped with gloves and masks, were busy packing up all the rotting food and tossing it out of the mansion.

They rinsed the floors as thoroughly as possible with clean water, aiming to at least reduce the stench inside the building. The issue of the backyard would have to be dealt with later.

Once the mourning hall was cleared, the group split tasks again, installing devices called "bar-shaped wall lamps" throughout the mansion.

These lamps, slim and flat in shape, could be attached to ceilings or walls and, thanks to advanced battery technology, could emit light for up to a week without needing a recharge.

This ensured adequate lighting during the exercise, even if the lanterns were damaged.

The entire process took over three hours, during which everything in the mansion remained calm. No anomalous events were heard or seen.

[Second Floor - Master Bedroom]

The group temporarily gathered in the master bedroom, wiping sweat from their foreheads with tissues as they discussed the backyard—the most challenging and suspicious area to deal with.

Even just recalling the smell of the backyard made Anna’s stomach churn painfully.A rough estimate suggested at least thirty cow and pig carcasses were piled up back there, most already in an advanced state of decomposition. Follow current novels on novel•fire.net

Dragging the bodies into the wilderness for burial would be too exhausting and time-consuming, and there was also the risk of these corpses carrying highly contagious pathogens.

However, leaving them in the backyard could potentially link them to some kind of malevolent ritual.

And most concerning of all were the four human bodies hanging from the tree.

Luo Di, an avid horror movie watcher, made a chilling observation.

The food offerings in the mourning hall might have been intended for the guests like them, while the scattered cow and pig remains were perhaps meant for the "owners" hanging in the tree.

Maybe, at some appointed time, those hanging figures would come back to life.

Thinking this far, Deputy Class Leader Gao, leaning against the curved corner of the wall, offered a suggestion:

“Burn it. Burn the tree and everything in the backyard. It’ll get rid of the smell and the danger.”

Luo Di immediately agreed. Burning seemed to be the best solution.

But then came the question of how to burn it.

The class leader tapped his chin, trying to recall relevant knowledge from their cultural lessons.

“Most of these animal carcasses are already bloated, and we all know how bad the stench is out there. Burning them randomly could cause an explosion.

Why not drag the corpses to a mountain slope and toss them down there instead?”

Standing near the bed, Luo Di jumped in. “The animal corpses don’t need to be burned. Just burn the four humans in the tree.”

The class leader immediately asked, “How? Burning the tree directly is risky. The methane concentration in the backyard is probably above the explosion threshold... The whole mansion could blow up.”

“Then we take them outside to burn. Move the bodies to an open area outside the mansion, dig a shallow pit, pile up enough firewood, and cremate them on the spot.”

The class leader nodded. “Great idea. Let’s split into pairs. Anna, you and Luo Di prepare the firewood for the cremation. I’ll team up with Xiao Gao to move the bodies.”

“Got it!”

Anna, relieved she wouldn’t have to enter the stinking backyard, spun around and hugged the class leader with such force it seemed she might suffocate him.

However, Gao Yuxuan voiced his objection. “Nope, I think all four of us must act together. The corpses hanging in the backyard are highly suspicious, and there could be danger during the moving process. Let’s go to the backyard now, move the bodies outside the mansion first, and then worry about burning them.”

After prying himself free from Anna’s grip, the class leader pounded his fist into his palm. “Alright! It’s decided then! Everyone, mask up. There are four of us, so one body each. Let’s also bring our sleeping bags—they’ll be perfect for wrapping the corpses to isolate any potential pathogens. Besides, we’ve already found rooms where we can sleep.”

Anna, who had just been delighted about avoiding the backyard, now gagged again and immediately strapped on not one, but four layers of masks.

[Backyard]

The backyard was a grotesque mess. The corpses of pigs and cows criss crossed to form winding paths, the spaces between them filled with all kinds of fluids leaking from the decayed bodies.

Flies swarmed in a frenzied feast, buzzing, circling, and greedily devouring the carnage.

Perhaps due to their earlier exposure, the group managed to hold themselves together this time.

Wrapped in raincoats, wearing gloves, and with their shoes completely covered in plastic bags, they braced themselves.

“Let’s go~”

Squelch!

Luo Di stepped forward first, quickly followed by the class leader. She grimaced slightly as her feet sank into the sticky, soft, and slimy ground beneath her.

“Luo Di, you seem completely unaffected. We didn’t exactly have training for this kind of thing at school.”

“I cook at home a lot,” Luo Di replied. “I visit the market when I have time and help butcher poultry—occasionally pigs too. Compared to this, the smell here is only slightly stronger. It’s not that different.”

The class leader didn’t doubt him, but her attention shifted to something else. “Wow, you can cook? If we make it through this, can we try your cooking sometime?”

“No.”

Her expression faltered for a moment before she shifted topics again. “Be careful when we handle the corpses later. It might get dangerous.”

“Got it.”

Finally, the group trudged through the filth and arrived at the Chinese scholar tree standing in the center of the yard.

Perhaps due to years of absorbing the surrounding filth, the trunk of the Chinese scholar tree was covered with dense, tiny holes. A chilling wind, which seemed to encircle the entire mansion, emanated from these holes, creating an unsettling sight.

The four corpses hanging from the tree appeared to be the mansion’s owner, his wife, and their two children. The height of their hanging positions seemed deliberately arranged.

The elderly man, presumably the head of the household, hung at the highest point and was the most decomposed.

The middle-aged woman hung slightly lower, and the two younger individuals, a man and a woman, hung at the bottom. Their bodies showed early signs of bloating, suggesting they had handled all the arrangements in the house before ending their lives.

Luo Di also noticed some peculiar details about their bodies, especially the elderly man at the top. His fingernails were dotted with black spots, had turned entirely black, and appeared unnaturally long. It gave the eerie impression that his nails had continued to grow even after death.

Then came the next challenge:

[How to Retrieve the Uppermost Corpse?]

The bodies of the two young adults and the middle-aged woman were successfully taken down without incident. Cutting the ropes and packing the bodies into the bags brought no unusual changes. The backyard remained as revoltingly foul as ever, but nothing out of the ordinary occurred.

Now it was time to retrieve the elderly man’s corpse. Instead of climbing the tree, Luo Di and Anna teamed up again. Standing on Anna’s shoulders, Luo Di just managed to reach the old man’s hanging point.

With a swing of his machete—swish!—the hemp rope was severed.

The old man’s body, no longer secured, plummeted downwards, nearly brushing against Luo Di as it fell. Instinctively sensing danger, Luo Di shifted his legs to step back.

However, standing atop Anna’s shoulders, this sudden movement caused him to lose balance and topple backwards.

The expected collision with the ground never came.

With his hands protecting his head, Luo Di blinked in confusion, realizing that two strong arms were supporting his back and legs, holding him steadily.

Anna had reacted almost instantly, spinning around and extending her arms the moment Luo Di lost his footing, catching him just in time.

Far from feeling embarrassed, Luo Di was instead astonished. A high school girl catching his 80-kilogram frame with such ease? His opinion of the foreign student from another school rose even higher.

Meanwhile, the class leader and Gao Yuxuan efficiently packed up the elderly man’s corpse.

“Hey~ how long are you two planning to stay like that? Watch out, or you’ll get called to the dean’s office for a scolding!”

The class leader gave a mischievous grin, snapping a picture of the moment with her wristband’s photo mode to preserve it as a memory of this unusual exercise.