Free Web NovelChapter 151: Chapter 119: Jin Xueli: At Least It’s Not an Empty Coffin
...If Han Liuyue’s voice were any louder or more enthusiastic, Jin Xueli worried they wouldn’t even need the excavator. The corpse itself would probably respond from underground with a "Hello."
"Keep your voice down," she quickly shushed. ’When did this become "helping" *me* steal the corpse?’
Han Liuyue laughed. Her voice was clear and bright, as if it could strike silver sparks from the night sky. "You know, the first rule of being a thief is that you can’t have a guilty conscience."
She certainly didn’t have a guilty conscience. She said it so openly that the next mountain over could probably hear her. She hopped down from the excavator and stepped into the beam of Jin Xueli’s flashlight, her features illuminated.
...’Her first impression was right after all. Han Liuyue had to be the world’s worst choice for a midnight corpse-stealing mission.’
She had a head of glossy, pink-silver short hair, and her eyes and smile were large and bright. Even in the dead of night, nothing could hide her clear, cheerful disposition—as if all the world’s troubles could pass right through her heart like a gentle breeze and sunlight.
’She wasn’t even wearing any jewelry, but she was still a bit dazzling.’
’Did Chaisi send such a shiny person to dig up a grave at midnight because he was afraid they *wouldn’t* get caught?’
"We haven’t been properly introduced. Hello there," Han Liuyue said with a smile, holding out a hand.
Jin Xueli shook it hesitantly.
She and Chaisi had already tested it; ordinary Hunters didn’t receive a summons to the game even if they made physical contact with them. It seemed that satisfying only the first condition wasn’t enough.
"Don’t be scared. I’m here, and I’m a professional. I’ve made all the necessary preparations." Han Liuyue patted her chest. "Relax. Even Brother Chaisi says I’m dependable."
She was indeed wearing a work uniform with the name of a funeral company on it, but that one piece of clothing wasn’t enough to dispel Jin Xueli’s worries.
"Isn’t this the most expensive cemetery?" Jin Xueli said suspiciously. "The security and management must be really tight, right? Even if you’re pretending to be an employee, it’s still suspicious to come in at this hour..."
She hadn’t said anything remotely funny, but Han Liuyue burst out laughing and patted her on the shoulder. "You’re hilarious!"
’How am I hilarious?’
"If someone comes by and gets suspicious, we’ll just kill them. If one person shows up, we kill one. If a squadron shows up, we kill the squadron. You think we’ll run out of places to bury them? You’re acting so cautiously, you almost had me fooled."
...’What a sunny and frank murderer.’
’That unit of measurement, "squadron," clearly meant her imagined opponents had already escalated from security guards to the police, hadn’t they?’
Jin Xueli didn’t belong to a Family Faction, but she knew that the various Hunter Family Factions had different operating styles. For example, the Morgan Family was more like a corporation, the Knight Family was secretive, and as for the Kai Family... their methods were comparable to a drug cartel’s.
’It must be because of Chaisi.’
Han Liuyue’s smile remained bright and cheerful. "But don’t worry, I’ve been to this cemetery countless times. I’m fully prepared, so we probably won’t have to kill anyone for now."
"Do you... Do you come here to dig up corpses often?" Jin Xueli asked carefully.
"This is a first. I used to come here to bury them."
As she spoke, Han Liuyue looked at the mausoleum, which resembled a small palace, and frowned. "Eh... So it’s this type of tomb. Just what you’d expect from a rich guy..."
"Bury corpses? You really work for a funeral company?"
’She seems to know a lot about burials, too.’
Han Liuyue had already taken a few steps away, but she made a point to run back and slap Jin Xueli on the shoulder with a grin. It hurt.
"You’re so interesting. No wonder Brother Chaisi told me not to chat with you for no reason. Was he afraid we’d have too much fun talking and forget to work?"
Jin Xueli stared at her blankly.
"We were burying bodies the Family Faction needed to dispose of. Speaking of which, we hadn’t even started running the funeral home back then."
Han Liuyue pulled an axe and a construction sign out of the driver’s cabin.
"Before a coffin is interred, you have to dig a hole, right? Before the funeral, we’d dig that hole deeper and wider, bury the bodies we needed to dispose of first, deeper underground, then fill it back in, leaving just enough space for one coffin. Most people would never suspect that there are a bunch of other people buried deep beneath the plot they bought."
"Sometimes, if you squeeze them in, you can fit seven or eight people under one coffin. Impressive, huh? They won’t be lonely in the afterlife. I think I’m doing a good deed."
"I think your mindset is even more impressive," Jin Xueli said honestly.
"We also take orders for body disposal. If you ever need it in the future, just let Brother Chaisi know."
Han Liuyue shouldered the axe and walked toward the mausoleum. "I’m not doing this kind of work anymore. I’m interviewing new recruits these days. Brother Chaisi says I’m likable and good at attracting new members. It’s kinda embarrassing. Oh, right, at first I thought Brother Chaisi wanted me to interview you. But based on his description of you, I don’t think an interview is necessary."
"Did he say I was pretty good, that I met the hiring standards?"
Han Liuyue’s laughter was loud enough to break open the mausoleum’s lock.
...’Jin Xueli had figured out why Chaisi sent this woman to help her. It was definitely to give her a taste of her own medicine.’
She watched Han Liuyue set the sign up by the path, made a questioning "Hm?" sound, and asked, "This... is an Illusion, right?"
It looked simple enough. Anyone walking down the path could see it at a glance. On the white sign was a single line of gentle, serene blue letters: "Nothing to see here."
’What an... utterly shameless lie.’
"This Illusion is super useful," Han Liuyue urged her. "Go stand on the path and look at it." ƒгeewebnovёl.com
Jin Xueli did as she was told and walked onto the small path, pretending to be a security guard who had noticed something amiss and come to investigate.
She swept her flashlight beam over the excavator to the side, let it rest on the sign for a few seconds, then moved it past to illuminate Han Liuyue’s face.
She nodded, then turned and walked away.
...’What a peaceful, serene night. Everyone is resting so well in their eternal sleep.’
’There’s nothing going on. Time to go home and sleep.’
It wasn’t until a good ten minutes later, when she was almost at the cemetery gates, that Jin Xueli snapped back to her senses. "Hey, how did I get tricked too?"
She had fallen for it even though she knew it was an Illusion. Wouldn’t someone who didn’t know truly just go home and go to sleep?
’There’s no way Han Liuyue didn’t do that on purpose.’
’Otherwise, why didn’t she call out to her when she had just started walking away?’
When Jin Xueli ran all the way back, panting, to Westley’s grave, she found that Han Liuyue was gone. The lock on the mausoleum’s large doors had been smashed and the doors were ajar. As she ran closer, a heavy yet sharp smashing sound rang out from inside, making the night air tremble.
That Illusion was truly amazing.
Even though Han Liuyue was just a few steps away, making a racket like a construction project, as soon as Jin Xueli caught sight of the sign, she instantly felt that all was peaceful and serene again.
"Hey, Han Liuyue," she said, covering her eyes so she wouldn’t see the sign as she hurried into the mausoleum, sweeping her flashlight beam around. "Even with the Illusion, you’re being way too loud—"
"You’re back from your stroll?"
From the excavator’s cabin, Han Liuyue waved at her enthusiastically. "The Illusion is pretty amazing, isn’t it? I saw how focused you were on your walk, so I didn’t call you back. Besides, a layperson like you can’t help anyway. Just leave it to me!"
Jin Xueli stared blankly at the two marble sarcophagi standing side-by-side in the mausoleum, then at the excavator she had driven inside.
The lid of the marble sarcophagus on the left, the one engraved with Westley’s name, had been violently smashed out of place.
Under Han Liuyue’s control, the excavator’s backhoe was being used like a mechanical arm, ramming the marble lid again and again. Jin Xueli couldn’t get a word in, as any sound she made would have been drowned out.
’No wonder she sent me away. It was so she could destroy the sarcophagus without any restraint, wasn’t it?’
’Truly one of Chaisi’s people. Lawlessness must be a family tradition.’
After the sarcophagus lid crashed to the ground with a loud BANG, a black lacquered coffin was revealed inside. So the real coffin was inside the marble sarcophagus. Although Jin Xueli didn’t know what material it was, she could tell it was valuable at a glance.
"It’s not buried underground?" Having never attended a funeral, she found it a bit strange.
"Above-ground mausoleums are built beforehand and then placed on the cemetery plot. Hmm, one this big was probably constructed on-site. Anyway, the coffin is stored in the mausoleum, not buried underground. The kind that’s buried in the ground requires a whole different kind of effort."
Han Liuyue was clearly an expert. She got out of the driver’s cabin, glanced at the coffin, and suddenly asked, "Did Westley have an ugly death?"
"Huh? I don’t think so. Wasn’t the cause of death cardiac arrest or something?"
"Then why didn’t they have an open-casket funeral?"
Han Liuyue raised her flashlight and looked down at it for a moment. "See, for an open-casket funeral, they’d choose a coffin with a lid that’s split into two sections. You open one half, so it’s easy for the family to have one last look."
"This coffin lid is a single piece... Of course, you can still view the body if you open the whole thing, but many people feel it’s a bit undignified. So generally speaking, this style of coffin is chosen for closed-casket funerals."
No matter the topic, Han Liuyue’s face was all sunshine. "Usually, it’s for people who died in a really gruesome way, like getting run over by a car so badly even a mortician can’t fix them up. That’s when you have a closed casket. Ah, I know! His family definitely didn’t want to look at him."
"How can you say that? You don’t even show any mercy to the dead. Look at the empty space next to him," Jin Xueli said, pointing. "His wife wants to be buried next to him someday."
"Mmm, not important. All that matters is that we get Westley’s body."
Han Liuyue gave a magnanimous wave and directed Jin Xueli to the foot of the coffin—it turned out there was a keyhole there for sealing the lid shut.
Jin Xueli took the tool she was given and smashed it against the keyhole a few times. To be honest, she had no idea what she was doing. "Are you this... talkative in front of Chaisi, too?"
’They have someone like this in their Family Faction, and Chaisi still has the nerve to say *she’s* the talkative one?’
Unexpectedly, Han Liuyue grew embarrassed and gave a bashful laugh. freewebnøvel.com
"Of course not. When I’m in front of Brother Chaisi, my mind goes completely blank. All I can say is ’Yes’ and ’Okay.’ You couldn’t get a peep out of me with a stick."
Jin Xueli really couldn’t imagine such a scene.
’Chaisi was scary, but not so scary he’d render someone speechless—especially not a murderer this frank.’
"Why? Because he’s handsome?"
Han Liuyue was so startled she nearly sent the axe in her hand flying at Jin Xueli’s face. She had just stammered, "Wh-what are you talking about?" when a muffled THUD echoed through the mausoleum.
The sound wasn’t loud, but both of them fell silent at the same time.
A dead silence finally returned to the mausoleum.
They looked at each other. After a few seconds, Jin Xueli was the first to speak.
"That sound, if I heard correctly... it came from in here, right?" she asked in a whisper, pointing at the coffin.
