90: Chapter 90 The Perfect Container for the Basement

Saturday morning.

Qin Ming sat on the sofa in the living room, watching television.

I’m Sue. Hi everybody, I’m Sue. It’s time to pump it up.

Sue, some kind of substance

The TV screen suddenly flickered with black and white static.

The fitness advertisement featuring a beautiful woman was forcibly cut off.

"Bzzzt... Mas... Master..."

Larry's smiling face, pieced together from coarse pixels, appeared in the center of the screen.

The synthesized electronic voice carried a clear tone of ingratiation.

"There is a... call request for you..."

Qin Ming's gaze did not leave the pages of his book.

"Put it through."

The pixelated smiley face on the TV screen distorted for a moment.

Father Andoni's voice came through the speakers.

"Lord Holy Son."

The old priest's voice was kept very low.

One could even hear a distinct tremor.

"What happened?"

Qin Ming turned a page, his tone flat.

"We dug something up under the church."

Father Andoni paused, seemingly organizing his words.

"A female corpse."

Qin Ming frowned slightly.

"Digging up a body under a church is a matter for the Los Angeles Police Department."

"You can just call the police to handle it."

He wasn't a cleaner; he had no interest in ordinary homicide cases.

"I did call the police."

Father Andoni's breathing became somewhat rapid.

"But there's something wrong with this female corpse."

"The coroner the police brought in died suddenly after performing a preliminary examination of the body."

A coroner had died.

This indeed exceeded the scope of an ordinary criminal case.

Qin Ming closed the book in his hand.

"Fine."

"I'll go take a look."

Qin Ming stood up.

A second later, Qin Ming appeared directly at the side door of St. Paul's Church.

Yellow police tape was strung around the perimeter of the church.

Several police cars were parked by the roadside, their sirens still flashing silently.

Father Andoni was pacing anxiously outside the side door.

Seeing Qin Ming appear, the old priest immediately came forward to meet him.

"Lord Holy Son, you've arrived."

Father Andoni's forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat.

His face was much paler than usual.

Qin Ming nodded slightly.

"Where is the body?"

"In the temporary morgue beneath the church."

Father Andoni led the way.

The two of them walked through the long corridors of the church.

The air was thick with the pungent smell of disinfectant.

There was also a musty odor from years of being hidden from sunlight.

They descended a narrow stone staircase.

The temperature in the basement was at least ten degrees lower than on the ground.

Dim lights flickered overhead.

He pushed open a heavy wooden door.

In the center of the basement stood a stainless steel autopsy table.

Several police officers stood in the corner, looking nervous.

Beside the autopsy table stood a tall Black man wearing a black suit.

He was looking down at the female corpse on the table.

Hearing the door open, the Black man slowly turned his head.

His eyes were deep and calm, reflecting an indifference that seemed to see through life and death.

William Bloodworth.

The moment Qin Ming saw this man, the name surfaced in his mind.

He recognized the face.

The mysterious coroner who always played the role of cleaner and observer in many bizarre death incidents.

Some even speculated that he was the agent of the Grim Reaper in the human world.

Father Andoni walked to Qin Ming's side and explained in a low voice.

"This is Mr. William."

"A senior coroner the police specifically invited just now."

William looked at Qin Ming.

He showed no surprise at Qin Ming's ten-year-old age.

The Black coroner took off the white rubber gloves on his hands.

His gaze moved from Qin Ming back to the autopsy table.

"I am William Bloodworth."

The coroner's voice was deep and resonant.

"I just finished examining my colleague's body."

He turned around and casually tossed the gloves into a nearby medical waste bin.

"I can only say this."

"In death, there are no accidents, no coincidences, and no mistakes."

"And there is no escape."

He left behind a maxim full of fatalistic color.

Then he walked straight toward the basement exit.

As he passed by Qin Ming, William's footsteps faltered imperceptibly for half a second.

He felt an extremely dangerous aura that completely did not belong to a human.

William did not meddle.

He pushed open the door and left the basement.

Qin Ming didn't even turn his head.

He had no interest in the Black man's mystical posturing.

There might truly be a Grim Reaper in this world.

But so what.

As long as he dared to block the way, even if it were the Grim Reaper, Qin Ming would find an opportunity to snap his scythe.

He walked to the stainless steel autopsy table.

His gaze fell upon the female corpse that had been dug up.

This was an extremely eerie corpse.

Father Andoni stood behind Qin Ming, his voice dry.

"Lord Holy Son, look."

"She has been buried under the church for who knows how many years."

"Yet her appearance can be called perfect."

Qin Ming observed quietly.

The corpse looked to be about twenty years old.

She was appearing completely naked.

Her skin showed a sickly pallor.

Her body was stained with soil.

There were no wounds.

No signs of decay.

Not even livor mortis had appeared.

Her grayish-white eyeballs stared at the basement ceiling.

She was as beautiful as a work of art carved from marble.

"Where is the coroner who just died?"

Qin Ming asked.

Father Andoni swallowed hard.

"He was carried away."

"He was trying to cut open the corpse's chest for examination."

"Just as the scalpel broke the skin..."

"...his own chest suddenly exploded from the inside."

"His internal organs were completely crushed; he died on the spot."

Qin Ming's eyes narrowed slightly.

He raised his right hand, his fingers hovering above the corpse's pale cheek.

In his mind...

...the alarm of Intermediate Danger Perception did not sound.

No malice.

No killing intent.

From this corpse, he couldn't even sense the aura of any ghosts or evil spirits.

Qin Ming's fingers slowly descended.

His fingertips lightly touched the corpse's cold skin.

An extremely subtle sensation traveled through his nerves.

Qin Ming withdrew his hand.

He looked at Father Andoni and gave his conclusion.

"She is not a ghost."

"Nor is she an evil spirit."

Qin Ming's voice echoed in the empty basement.

"She is a 'living corpse'."

"She has never died."

"Living?"

Father Andoni's eyes widened.

He looked at the corpse that didn't even have breath.

His brain momentarily couldn't process the logic in Qin Ming's words.

"How is that possible..."

"She clearly doesn't even have a heartbeat."

Qin Ming put his hands in his pockets, his gaze scanning down from the corpse's face.

"Vital signs have indeed ceased."

"But her nerves, brain, and perception of pain have all been perfectly preserved."

Qin Ming's voice lacked any warmth.

"This means that no matter how many hundreds of years she was buried underground..."

"...she was conscious and feeling everything."

"That dead coroner cut her skin."

"With every stroke of the dissection, she could truly feel the pain of the blade."

The temperature in the basement seemed to drop a few more degrees.

Several police officers standing in the corner began to shiver.