Chapter 60: I Live in the Corpse-Driving Inn

The task written on the paper was about a corpse rising from the dead, and I was asked to help suppress it. When I stepped into this restaurant, and was then led into the kitchen by Xu Ling, seeing several corpses lying right there inside, I was completely dumbfounded.

Seeing the heavy doubt and confusion written all over my face, Xu Ling hurried to explain in a nervous stream of words.

As it turned out, this fellow suffered from severe necrophilia and harbored a bizarre obsession with remaining in the company of corpses. His perversion was so extreme that he needed to be around a dead body at all times to feel any sense of peace. When cooking, he would keep a corpse in the kitchen; when sleeping, he would place a corpse right beside his bed.

Because of this grotesque preference, Xu Ling had long been reviled and loathed by society. Not a single person was willing to go anywhere near him, let alone spend any time in his company. Through a strange twist of fate, the fellow eventually learned culinary arts and managed to open this restaurant.

After opening the restaurant, Xu Ling began to indulge his necrophilia with reckless abandon. He owned a house out in the suburbs, located in a desolate area that was ideal for hiding bodies. Whenever Xu Ling managed to acquire fresh corpses, he would temporarily keep them in the restaurant before transporting them out to the suburbs at night.

Not long ago, an incident occurred involving one of the corpses in his suburban house. A body that had been resting peacefully on a wooden board suddenly sat up in the middle of the night and had almost scared him to death.

Hearing this, I instinctively took a few steps back, a surge of overwhelming disgust rising within me toward this man. Forgive me for being a mere mortal, but I truly could not comprehend what on earth was wrong with his twisted fetish.

Xu Ling opened his mouth as if to say more, but I pinched my bridge of my nose and cut him off. "Spare me the nonsense. Where is that house of yours in the suburbs? Take me there at once."

Compared to those corpses, at this very moment, I found Xu Ling himself far more terrifying. Sure enough, I could now smell a heavy, nauseating stench of decay radiating from him.

I desperately wanted to turn around and flee straight out of this place, but bound by my promise to Jin Yuan, I had to grit my teeth and endure it. Despite myself, I cast a sidelong glance at Xu Ling. His appearance was wretched to the extreme, radiating an aura that practically begged for a beating. Honestly, I did not want to help him at all.

I genuinely found it hard to fathom how anyone could possibly enjoy being around corpses. Just the thought of it made my hair stand on end. Imagine sleeping with a dead body right beside your bed, or eating your meals with a corpse seated near your dining table.

I even began to wonder if Xu Ling actually shared a bed and slept with the corpses.

What on earth was this guy planning to do with all these bodies?

Perhaps sensing the undisguised aversion on my face, a flash of disappointment crossed Xu Ling’s features. However, he quickly masked it and continued speaking to me in a gentle tone. "Ah, I just happen to have this little quirk, please don't mind it. Come with me, I will take you to my house in the suburbs."

I gave him a stiff nod, signaling him to lead the way. He turned around and briskly guided me out of the restaurant.

As we neared the entrance, as if suddenly remembering something, Xu Ling turned back to me and asked, "By the way, Master, have you eaten yet? I don't have much here, but food is one thing I have plenty of."

That single remark almost made me vomit right then and there. A sudden wave of nausea rolled through my stomach, and I quickly clamped a hand over my mouth, gasping, "Don't mention food, just lead the way!"

Once outside the restaurant, Xu Ling pulled open the door of a compact sedan. The moment I climbed inside, the heavy stench of rotting flesh hit me like a physical blow, choking me for breath. I rolled down the car window, which finally made it somewhat tolerable.

Along the way, I couldn't suppress my curiosity any longer. "I find it bizarre. Why on earth do you like staying with corpses?"

Driving the car, Xu Ling turned his head slightly. "I find them beautiful. In the eyes of most people, they are dead, but to me, they are still alive."

Those words sent a shiver straight down my spine, as they reminded me of Ren Yunwen. I pressed on, "Then where do you get all these bodies?"

Xu Ling shook his head, keeping his back to me. "I naturally have my methods. Can I choose not to disclose the specifics?"

"As you like," I said with deep revulsion.

Xu Ling continued, "Originally, I never intended to tell anyone about my necrophilia. But since you are going to help me suppress the corpse, Master, I have to tell you the truth. I beg you, Master, please don't tell anyone else, okay?"

I glared fiercely at the back of Xu Ling's head. Damn it, right now I wanted nothing more than to turn around and walk away. Once I finished dealing with his mess, I would be running for my life—when would I ever have the spare time to gossip about him? I gave him a perfunctory reply, "Rest assured. You can play with your corpses all you want, it has nothing to do with me. I couldn't care less."

With his back still to me, Xu Ling mumbled a word of thanks, and after that, the only sound inside the car was the drone of the engine.

Before long, the car drove out into the suburbs and turned onto a winding mountain road. Soon enough, I spotted a house up ahead. The place gave me an immediate sense of unease, a strange and oppressive weight pressing down on my chest.

Yet, at a casual glance, I couldn't quite pinpoint what was wrong with it.

The house sat in solitary isolation near the edge of a stretch of woods. As I had suspected, this was indeed the house Xu Ling had mentioned.

Xu Ling drove the car forward and brought it to a halt right in front of the building.

Stepping out of the vehicle, I looked at the house from a closer distance, and that eerie feeling welled up in my heart once again. Yet, try as I might, I still couldn't figure out what exactly was amiss.

By this time, Xu Ling had already locked the car and was leading the way. He guided me around the side of the house toward the main entrance. Suddenly, my heart gave a heavy lurch as I finally realized what was wrong with the place.

This house had no windows at all! In addition to that, the orientation of the house was also problematic.

By now, it was late afternoon, and the sun had already begun its descent toward the west. I looked up at the sunlight and mentally calculated the directions. Then, my heart skipped a beat—the house was squarely facing north and backing south.

Facing north and backing south—this was precisely the optimal layout and orientation for building a Yin dwelling. And what was a Yin dwelling? That was a residence built for the dead.

Before we even reached the front door, I abruptly stopped in my tracks. I called out to Xu Ling, who turned around with a puzzled expression. "What is it?"

As he turned back to face me, I stared intently into his face, feeling a mounting sense of uncertainty and doubt. Because I had a strong feeling that this fellow Xu Ling was far more complicated than he let on.

Generally speaking, Yin dwellings were only constructed for wealthy families. In ancient times, aristocratic clans would incorporate the layout of a living house into their tombs when building ancestral burial grounds, and the orientation would invariably be facing north and backing south. Such burial sites were a form of Yin dwelling, specifically tailored for the deceased to inhabit.

Apart from that, there was another kind of Yin dwelling that stood above the ground—the legendary corpse-driving inn.

Could it be that I had been hoodwinked by this fellow Xu Ling, and that he was actually a corpse-driver?

At that moment, I locked my gaze onto Xu Ling, refusing to let him evade or conceal anything.

"Tell me the truth. Who on earth are you? What kind of place is this?"

Xu Ling looked at me, and his reaction caught me off-guard, for his face was plastered with genuine bewilderment. "What do you mean, who am I? I am Xu Ling, a cook. And this is where I live."

A sudden creeping horror chilled me to the bone, and I blurted out, "You live inside a corpse-driving inn?"

There were only two kinds of people who lived in corpse-driving inns: one was the corpse-driver, and the other kind was...

The dead.