Chapter 7: Concealment
The morgue was located on the second basement floor of the emergency building—cold, gloomy, deserted, and dim.
Ding—
The elevator doors opened, and three people pushed a gurney, slowly moving towards the hallway.
Chen Xiaoman rubbed her arms, looking left and right, “Why do I feel so cold?”
Shi An: “How else are they supposed to preserve the bodies without low temperatures?”
Chen Xiaoman shivered, “Please, can you not describe it so creepily!”
Zhao Kang looked at his reaction, “Shi-ge, aren’t you scared?”
“What’s there to be scared of?” Shi An said casually, “Haven’t you seen cadavers before?”
Cadavers were a respectful term in the medical field for body donors, and medical students would come into contact with them during their studies.
“Besides, if you’re studying clinical medicine and you’re scared of this, do you want to lose your job?”
Zhao Kang gave him a thumbs-up, “Shi-ge, you’re my hero.”
“Shi An is right, they are the most noble people, the heroes of the development of medicine.” Chen Xiaoman took a deep breath, encouraging herself, “Cadavers aren’t scary, and deceased patients aren’t scary either.”
They arrived at the morgue entrance. A black sign with white letters hung on the gloomy door.
Zhao Kang said, “Should we knock or just go in?”
Chen Xiaoman pointed to the side of the door, “Should we press this?”
Zhao Kang stared at the red doorbell, “Isn’t this the legendary ‘midnight bell’?”
“Zhao Kang, shut up!” Chen Xiaoman slapped him angrily, “I finally managed to stop being scared.”
Zhao Kang shrunk his neck, “Who’s going to press it?”
Both of their faces were pale, and they looked at Shi An in unison.
“I can’t stand you two.” Shi An stepped forward.
At that moment, the gurney suddenly slid, and an arm fell out, dangling by the side of the bed.
Thud!
Zhao Kang fell to his knees, kowtowing three times, “Cadaver-laoshi, please spare me! I’m a good young man who loves his family and country!”
“Mommy, help me—!”
“Can you guys be normal?” Shi An’s ears were ringing. He put the dangling arm back, “You two scared the arm right out.”
Zhao Kang swallowed his saliva, getting up from the floor, “Shi-ge, how… how did it feel?”
Shi An rubbed the hand he had touched, “A little cold, the flesh is a bit stiff, not the same as when they’re alive.”
Chen Xiaoman bit her frozen lips, on the verge of tears.
Zhao Kang was utterly impressed, “Shi-ge, a true man!”
Whoosh.
A gust of wind brushed past his ears, accompanied by the sharp screech of cement rubbing against the door.
The iron door opened a crack, and a pair of eyes appeared from inside.
“Ah—a ghost!”
“Help me, Mommy, save me!!”
Shi An suspected these two were going to shatter his eardrums.
He focused his eyes and found an old man standing at the door.
He could talk, he was alive.
The old man peered through the crack, “Four or two?”
The screams and footsteps faded away. By the time Shi An reacted, he was the only one left breathing outside the door. He covered the gurney with the sheet again and said, “Two.”
The old man opened both doors, “Come in.”
The inside of the morgue was not much different from the outside of the elevator. The lighting was dim, and the narrow hallway could barely fit two beds side by side.
The old man led the way, Shi An followed. Besides their footsteps, the only sound was the rolling of the wheels.
Shi An broke the silence, “Excuse me, how should I address you?”
“Call me Uncle Niu.”
“Hello, Uncle Niu.”
Not far away, at the end of the hallway, there was a faint sound of crying, intermittent and indistinct.
Shi An’s feet felt slightly numb, “Uncle Niu, did you hear something?”
“This place has heavy yin energy, it’s normal to attract some wandering souls.” Uncle Niu stopped and suddenly turned around, his expression strange, “First time hearing it?”
Shi An stood rooted to the spot, his hair feeling like it was standing on end. He nodded mechanically.
“Come visit me more often, after a few times, you’ll get used to it.”
Shi An: “…”
Uncle Niu laughed heartily, wrinkles crinkling on his face, “Young man, you actually believed me.”
Shi An: “…”
Uncle Niu pointed to the room ahead, “Isn’t there someone there?”
Through the glass window, a young woman was half-kneeling by a bed, her head bowed low, trying to hide her sobs.
Uncle Niu continued walking, “Those with family can still come here to cry. Many people die unexpectedly, without identification or family, and can only be frozen here for a long time.”
Entering the mortuary, the icy temperature made Shi An shiver involuntarily. It was his first time in such a place. He wasn’t exactly terrified, but the strange feeling made him uncomfortable.
Shi An glanced at the neatly arranged freezers, “If no family members claim them, will they stay here forever?”
“That won’t do, we don’t have the space.” Uncle Niu held a clipboard, recording the body’s information, “Those unclaimed for too long will be reported to the police station for a certificate, then taken for cremation.”
Shi An: “Are there many such people?”
Uncle Niu: “Not many, but not few either.”
Seeing that he had finished recording, Shi An asked, “Which freezer?”
“Number ten, just emptied.”
Shi An pulled open freezer number ten, “Ugh—”
“Oh, I forgot, number ten just received one that was crushed, put it in thirteen…”
Before he finished speaking, the current situation became a bit tricky.
A thin young man was squatting in the corner, his pale face visible even in the dim light.
Uncle Niu patted him, “Young man, are you alright?”
He had been quite calm before, so Uncle Niu thought he had a strong mentality.
“I’m fine,” Shi An said weakly, taking deep breaths.
Uncle Niu helped him to the next room and went back alone to store the body.
Shi An wrung his hands and placed them on his lap, his eyes darting around. This room was about the same size as the next one, clean and bright, with a bunk bed. The top bunk was unused, and the bottom one should be Uncle Niu’s bed.
Besides that, there was a desk, a wardrobe, pots, pans, and dishes, a strong sense of daily life.
Shi An had no time to pay attention to anything else, he leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and took deep breaths.
Soon, he heard the sound of the door opening. Uncle Niu returned, holding two little snowman popsicles.
Uncle Niu handed him one, “To calm your nerves.”
“Thank you.” Shi An took a big bite, about a third of the popsicle gone. The bloody smell in his mouth was significantly reduced, and he felt much better, “You have everything here, even a refrigerator.”
“Who needs a refrigerator? There are so many freezers next door, you can just put it in any one of them.”
Shi An held the popsicle, half of the snowman’s head still in his mouth.
His mind was on freezer number ten next door…
“Cough, cough, cough!”
“Oh dear, you’re so easily teased.” Uncle Niu laughed, his face wrinkling, “Don’t worry, the popsicles are from a real refrigerator.”
Shi An held the “hot” little snowman, his eyes scanning the room, “Where’s the refrigerator here?”
Uncle Niu opened the “refrigerator” door in front of him.
It was a metal safe in the corner, filled with little snowman popsicles.
Shi An was truly speechless, “Who makes a refrigerator that looks like a safe?”
“I used to have a lot of business dinners and hurt my stomach. My wife wouldn’t let me eat popsicles, so I converted a safe into a freezer and secretly kept it in my office.” Uncle Niu’s words were filled with sweetness, “Now that I’m not in business anymore, I moved it here.”
“You’re so resourceful.” Shi An was both amused and exasperated, “You should still eat less.”
Uncle Niu shook his head with a smile, “I have a sweet tooth, I can’t help it.”
Shi An: “Do you usually live here?”
Uncle Niu: “This is my home.”
The word “home” could be big or small, but Shi An felt that this kind of place shouldn’t be called home.
Uncle Niu guessed his thoughts and said, “You don’t understand why I live here, you think this place is unlucky, right?”
Since it was someone else’s home, Shi An shouldn’t have such impolite thoughts. He was a little embarrassed, “Sorry, I didn’t mean that.”
Uncle Niu said, “Do you believe in those things?”
“No.” In Shi An’s eyes, when people die, they die. They can’t come back to life, they have nothing.
“But I do,” Uncle Niu said, “I believe that people have souls after death, and I believe in reincarnation.”
Shi An was even more confused, “Then aren’t you afraid?”
“Are you afraid?”
Shi An hung his head, “If I wasn’t afraid, I wouldn’t have looked like that just now.”
“Not necessarily.” Uncle Niu didn’t hide anything, “I’ve seen many young people like you. Your reaction wasn’t fear of the dead, I think you’re afraid of… Mmm?!”
Shi An rushed over and covered Uncle Niu’s mouth tightly, “A box of little snowmen, keep it a secret for me!”
Uncle Niu’s mouth was covered so tightly that he couldn’t speak, so he could only nod.
Shi An let go of him, relieved, “Thank you.”
Uncle Niu wiped his mouth, “You’re so jumpy.”
“You promised me, you can’t go back on your word.”
Uncle Niu vowed, “Don’t worry, my mouth is as tight as the friend in that freezer next door.”
Shi An: “…Thank you.”
There was no need for such a comparison.
Uncle Niu took out a notebook and flipped through the pages, “Young man, what’s your name?”
“Shi An, Shi for time, An for eucalyptus.”
“A nice name.” Uncle Niu chatted while writing in his notebook, “Eucalyptus trees are good, they take root quickly, grow fast, and adapt well.”
“My dad named me.” Shi An took a bite of the snowman’s head, “What are you writing?”
“A diary.”
Shi An: “Learning from Lei Feng?” (A model soldier known for his selfless deeds and diary keeping)
“You’re so cheeky.” Uncle Niu wrote seriously, without stopping, “I record my daily life, everything.”
“You wrote about me too?”
“Of course.”
Shi An calculated, “Don’t write about the mortuary.”
“No one reads my diary.”
“Still, don’t mention anything about freezer number ten.”
“You’re a doctor, you can’t hide it forever. I think you should… just… tell… him… soon…er…”
“Another box of little snowmen, don’t write it in your diary, and don’t mention it again.” Shi An covered his mouth again, “Please, you’re my good buddy, my bestest Uncle Niu!”
Uncle Niu nodded vigorously and made an OK sign before Shi An finally let go.
Just as Shi An was about to breathe a sigh of relief, his phone rang again. He made a “shh” gesture to Uncle Niu and answered the call.
“Where are you?” Zhong Yan’s voice was icy, like a debt collector.
Shi An’s back stiffened, “In the morgue.”
“Come back.”
Hanging up the phone, Shi An stuffed the remaining half of the popsicle into his mouth and said goodbye to Uncle Niu, “Thank you for the popsicle, I’ll come visit you again when I have time.”
As his figure disappeared down the hall, Uncle Niu muttered to himself with a smile, “It’s not a nice place, why would he want to visit me?”
During the busy afternoon, Zhong Yan was the only one in the office.
Shi An knocked on the door, “Dr. Zhong, you wanted to see me?”
Zhong Yan had his back to him and glanced at the time, “You went to the morgue with Chen Xiaoman and Zhao Kang at 13:10. They returned ten minutes later, and you arrived thirty-seven minutes later.”
Zhong Yan turned around, “It took you that long to store a body?”
“They didn’t go in, they just… I mean, I pushed it in myself.”
Zhong Yan: “What were you doing?”
Shi An: “Storing the body.”
“What’s in there that’s worth staying for so long?”
Even though he knew Zhong Yan was sharp, Shi An didn’t want to reveal the details, “It just took that long.”
Zhong Yan moved closer, “Didn’t go anywhere else?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Shi An believed he hadn’t lied, so he sounded confident, “I’m sure.”
The red pen spun twice in Zhong Yan’s right hand. When it reappeared, it was pressed against Shi An’s chin.
The soft material of the pen cap felt similar to skin. For a moment, Shi An thought it was Zhong Yan’s fingertip touching his chin.
With that thought, his heart raced uncontrollably.
The pen cap moved upwards, pressing against his left cheek, turning Shi An’s face to the right.
Shi An was facing the window, the sunlight shining brightly, so bright he couldn’t open his eyes. He felt dizzy, but he could feel Zhong Yan’s gaze moving from the pen cap to his lips.
Shi An pursed his lips, a sweet taste on his tongue. From Zhong Yan’s perspective, he could only see the sunlit lips and the faint coffee-colored ring around them.
“Are you telling me, you were drinking chocolate milk in the morgue?”
