Chapter 65: Eighteen Lives

Even I had not expected to find several rotting corpses lying inside this restroom. As the foul stench of those dead bodies hit my nose, I jerked my head back and vomited with a retching sound.

As for Pei Chengjun and his crew, they fell into an even greater panic, fleeing out of sight amidst a chorus of startled screams.

After gagging and vomiting for a while, I finally began to feel a bit more relieved. I stood back up and took a closer look at the corpses.

However, those bodies were already severely decomposed. The hair had fallen away from the scalps, sticking together with the rotting fluids of the heads. Bone was already visible in patches on the cheeks, while the faces were reduced to piles of rotting flesh; even the facial features had degraded into an indistinguishable blur, making it impossible to tell their gender.

This old restroom was of the traditional squat-toilet variety. Built of concrete, it featured waist-high concrete partitions between each stall. At that moment, a massive swarm of dark, buzzing flies was darting incessantly back and forth between the partitions.

What made my hair stand on end was that all five dead bodies were draped across the partition between the second and third stalls, lying in a single row with their faces turned toward the door.

The bizarre arrangement of these corpses broke me out in a cold sweat. Not daring to look any longer, I hurriedly retreated.

Stepping out to the entrance of the restroom, I exhaled a long breath of stale air. Inhaling the corpse stench from inside had left my chest feeling abnormally tight and distressed. Just as I was struggling with this discomfort, I caught sight of Pei Chengjun and the others. Suddenly, I felt even more distressed.

Pei Chengjun and his companions were all squatting on the ground, holding their heads in their hands and trembling violently, looking thoroughly bizarre. Pei Chengjun appeared slightly more normal, though even he was drenched in sweat.

Feeling somewhat puzzled, I walked toward them and peered into each of their faces in turn. As their eyes met mine, they immediately averted their gazes.

Were these fellows really that terrified of dead people? Could they genuinely be frightened to this extent by a few corpses?

Puzzled, I asked Pei Chengjun, "What's wrong?"

Pei Chengjun raised his head to look at me, then lowered it and sighed. "You can't blame us for being cowardly. You just don't know the story behind this old restroom."

My interest was piqued. "What is there to know about this old restroom?"

Pei Chengjun raised his head, gazed toward the ditch, and began to speak with visible unease.

Fourteen years ago, this old restroom had already existed. The houses surrounding it had also been built around that same time. As for why these buildings were constructed, it seemed an investor had planned to set up a factory here.

In the end, however, the factory was never built, and the occupants of these houses had all moved away. The investor had poured a fortune into building houses here, only to pull out his tail and run without recovering a single penny.

"Why did these people move away? Because they were terrified." As Pei Chengjun uttered these words, his eyes carried the same dread.

Pierced by that look, my heart skipped a beat. I didn't interrupt him, letting him continue.

"Why were they afraid? Because of this old restroom." Pei Chengjun's voice grew slightly steadier.

Involuntarily, I turned my head back and glanced at the old restroom once more. I asked, "Is there something wrong with this old restroom? Could it really scare everyone away from this place?"

Pei Chengjun nodded. "There is something wrong—massively wrong. During that period, eighteen people died inside this old restroom."

Those words sent a chill down my spine. I widened my eyes and said, "Eighteen people?"

"Yes, a full eighteen souls, all dead overnight. Every single one of them died inside this restroom. When that incident broke out, it caused widespread panic. By the next morning, the people here fled as if running for their lives and hurriedly packed up and moved."

I looked at Pei Chengjun, my mind racing with calculations. It seemed this old restroom was far more complicated than I had imagined. For now, I could not act rashly.

After a moment of thought, I told Pei Chengjun to head back first. There was nothing more I could do for their tea plantation. Water carrying corpse poison had already been sprayed onto that land, and the tea leaves in the plantation had absorbed it to the brim. In the short term, it would be impossible to completely purge the corpse poison from the tea leaves. The only thing they could do was refrain from drawing water from this river in the future.

Having given these instructions, I returned to the tea workshop with Pei Chengjun and the others. Along the way, I repeatedly assured Pei Chengjun that I would definitely get to the bottom of the matter concerning the old restroom. As for those corpses, they were best left to the police.

After a busy day, I felt rather exhausted. That day, I dragged my tired body back to school. Yet my mind could find no peace, for the images of the corpses in the old restroom played over and over in my head. The postures of those dead bodies were simply too bizarre; anyone who saw them would remember them for a lifetime.

That night, I suffered from insomnia. Deep inside, however, I had silently made up my mind. Tomorrow, I would go to that old restroom once more and uncover the source of everything.

The next day was Monday. I had Li Xiang cover for me with a leave request and slipped out of the school grounds in a flash. Soon, I arrived at the tea workshop once again. When I left the workshop yesterday, I had given Pei Chengjun a few tasks. The first was to contact the police to handle the corpses. The second was to have him try and help me contact the investor who had built the factory by the old restroom fourteen years ago. If he couldn't reach the boss, contacting a worker would do.

Pei Chengjun truly was a seasoned veteran with extensive connections. I hadn't expected him to actually track down that investor from fourteen years ago. Even better, Pei Chengjun personally drove me to a teahouse to meet with the man.

Upon meeting, I stated my purpose directly and without hesitation.

Sitting across from me was the investor from fourteen years ago. By now, he had aged somewhat, looking to be around fifty years old, with a stout build and otherwise rather ordinary features. The moment I mentioned the old restroom, the elderly boss's expression altered drastically.

He looked at Pei Chengjun and me with a hint of astonishment. "You came looking for me just for this?"

Pei Chengjun and I nodded quickly. Suddenly, the boss stood up and waved his hands at us. "I advise you not to ask too much. It would be best if you didn't meddle with that damned place either."

The boss's complexion was deeply abnormal, which only deepened my suspicion. What on earth had happened there fourteen years ago to cause eighteen people to die in a single night?

The stronger my curiosity grew, the less willing I was to let him go. Seeing that he intended to leave, Pei Chengjun and I quickly blocked his path. After our persistent badgering and wear-down, the boss finally relented.

"I suppose this matter couldn't be kept under wraps forever. If I don't speak of it, someone else will. Still, I must give you one piece of advice: never provoke that old restroom."

I nodded and said, "Understood. We know our limits."

The boss let out a long sigh. "It's a long story. Back then, I invested and prepared to build a factory there, who could have known such a thing would happen? As I recall, it went like this..."