Chapter 1: Brain-Borrowing
ul: disaster victims. Because many disaster victims died of illness, even after death, they can still spread diseases and cause death.Poisons, epidemics.These are the natural enemies of morticians.“Xi...The torrential rain poured down.
Two men in raincoats were digging a hole by the edge of a low shrubbery.
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The excavated earth was flung out by the shovel, landing in a nearby puddle and sending up a spray of water.
"Uncle Three, it's almost done."
Chen Luo stopped his movements, thrusting the shovel forcefully into the soil. He placed his other hand on the shovel handle and addressed the older man beside him.
Uncle Three also stopped his movements. In this short while, the pit they had just dug was already filled with water.
"Burry it."
Uncle Three glanced at the row of straw mats on the ground, covered in mud.
These are a group of corpses whose names are unknown, killed by someone who remains a mystery. The authorities brought in the uncle and nephew duo to handle them to prevent the spread of disease.
This is their profession.
Mortician.
To put it bluntly, they are lowly servants who launder money for the government and gangs.
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Chen Luo didn't want to live this kind of life. He never thought he would be doing such a thing as digging pits and burying people when he came through time travel.
What a wonderful thing to be alive!
This world is very strange.
Outside, it was a chaotic scene with turmoil and unfamiliar dynasties. At night, some wandering swordsmen would come and go, always at risk of losing their heads. To survive and have a full meal, he sought refuge with his uncle in the city, living a life envied by villagers. He started digging graves to bury corpses from that time on, continuing for three years.
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>Once this year is over, he'll be twenty!
"Okay."
Chen Lo grabbed the straw mat beside him with one hand and moved the person into the mud pit.
If anyone else had been there, they would have kicked the corpse off without hesitation. But Chen Luo wouldn't. His Uncle San wouldn't either.
Uncle San said, this is the custom of the mortician.
Respect every deceased person.
Chen Luo learned it and remembered it well. He didn't know why his third uncle asked him to do this, but there must be a reason. Every line has its own wisdom. Chen Luo didn't feel like he had crossed over. The knowledge in his head was more practical than the experience accumulated by several generations of others.
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The first body went down and quickly mixed with the mud.
The downpour was torrential, the murky water swallowing the corpses whole. Thankfully, these were nameless, faceless drifters, their bodies incomplete. There was no need to be particular about such things.
...to be buried.
After laying down the first body, Chen Luo climbed up again to carry the second.
Uncle Three watched from the side, paying close attention to Chen Luo's every move and occasionally offering him advice.
Collecting corpses is not a simple task.
Normally, corpses of beggars who died of old age don't need to be worried about. But these martial arts practitioners are different. Most of them die from assassination, and some even carry poison on their bodies even after death. Many young undertakers were poisoned to death while collecting the bodies of these martial arts practitioners. Besides martial arts practitioners, there is another type of corpse that needs to be careful: disaster victims. Because many disaster victims died of illness, even after death, they can still spread diseases and cause death.
Poisons, epidemics.
These are the natural enemies of morticians.
“Xiao Luo, you’re almost twenty, right” Uncle San watched Chen Luo work diligently, his eyes filled with pride.
For Big Brother's son, he still approves of him very much.
Down-to-earth and hardworking.
Most importantly, he is careful. This kind of quality is hard to see in young people these days. Since learning from him, Chen Luo has not made any fatal mistakes. Whatever he learns, he picks up immediately. Now Old Chen Third has little left in his hands. In a few more days, this nephew can also go out and establish himself.
"The new year is coming."
Chen Luo, who had put down the corpse, turned his head and responded with a sound, not understanding why his third uncle said this.
"It's time to get married. After the New Year, Uncle Three will go to the market and find you a match for you, someone with a thick waist and big hips to help our old Chen family have more offspring."
Uncle Three grinned.
They prefer women who are able to bear children, they look down on those who are frail.
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"This... not urgent, right"
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Chen Luo's face was full of rejection.
His aesthetic tastes are truly unbearable. Thinking about having to spend his life with a daughter-in-law like this, he felt like he had dug a hole and buried himself in it.
"You rascal, you still don't want to When you get married, you'll know the benefits of a big bottom!"
Uncle Three wasn't the first time talking about this topic with Chen Luo.
Facing his uncle's teasing, Chen Luo simply ignored him. He put the corpse down and climbed out of the pit again, preparing to carry the last one. At this time, the rain got heavier, mixed with wind, blowing on his face painfully. A puddle beside them was washed away by the rainwater, forming a small mudslide that turned both of their pants legs yellow. The straw mat wrapped around the corpse was also washed open by the mudslide. Chen Luo, blinded by the rain, accidentally caught the skull through the mat.
"Be careful!"
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Chen Lao San's face changed, he quickly stepped forward and grabbed Chen Luo's wrist, his other hand quickly took out a red rope and strangled his blood vessels.
If poisoned, constricting the blood vessels could give Chen Luo a chance to lose an arm instead of dying directly.
Chen Luo was stunned and subconsciously glanced at the corpse again.
His pupils contracted slightly, and before he could take a closer look, he heard his Uncle's voice in his ear. Then, right after, his right arm was bound with red rope, tightening until it hurt his wrist.
"I'm fine, just a poor man, no poison on me."
Coming to his senses, Chen Luo hurriedly responded. He glanced at his unchanged palm and let out a slight sigh of relief.
He was also taken aback.
Since he started working, he had heard many rumors, such as people accidentally touching corpses of underworld figures who were poisoned to death, or dying from coughing up blood.
The poison in this world is extremely unreasonable. Even if it's on a corpse, touching it will still kill you. So under normal circumstances, they would absolutely never open the mat or touch a corpse.
"You little punk, you're asking for it!"
Chen Laosan let out a breath and then angrily slapped Chen Luo on the back of the head.
“Get out of here and watch well! This job of collecting corpses, a mistake could cost you your life.”
After Chen Lo was driven away, Lao San personally took care of the body. He first rewrapped the corpse in straw mats and then bowed to it. Only then did he carefully carry it and place it at the edge of the newly dug pit. At this time, half of the pit had already been flooded with mud and water. After the corpse was put down, it quickly disappeared from sight.
The murky water grew thicker and thicker, and the mud around it began to flow inwards.
Seeing this, Old Chen didn't delay any longer. After climbing out of the pit, he told Chen Luo to start filling in the soil.
Working together, they filled the hole in no time. After that, they piled some soil on top and pressed it down to form a small mound. They then set the plain stone stele given to them by the court on top, and their simple grave was complete.
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"Farewell, everyone."
After finishing the burial, Chen Lao San took out a jar of watered-down cheap liquor from the box behind him and poured it onto the blank tombstone.
This is a custom of the undertaker, a farewell to the dead, to avoid being haunted by them.
After finishing the toast and reciting the scriptures.
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When the rain had stopped, Lao San came over again to look at Chen Luo's hand. After making sure there was nothing wrong, he untied and put away the red rope.
"Let's go."
Chen Laosan packed up his things, putting the wine bottles and some cheap sacrificial props back in the box, and with Chen Luo, he walked down the mountain.
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This job is finally done, time to go collect my reward.
Chen Luo followed behind, walked about a hundred steps, and suddenly stopped to look back.
In his vision, an additional gray scale appeared.
'Brainwave contact with a deceased human, 92% damage. Read'
He tried to focus his attention on the past, and soon saw a row of familiar words.
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“Read!”
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Chen Lomeng muttered a word.
Soon, the words above began to change. A strange frequency entered his brain, as if he had been connected to an external device. The next second, a series of fragmented words appeared in his mind.
"Dried orchid bulbs, iron thread grass simmered three parts cooked into juice, paired with white mulberry fruit eaten, can increase strength."
After reading this sentence, Chen Luo instantly understood what his ability was.
The source of this information was the lingering obsession from the corpse he had touched not long ago, a memory that remained in his mind until his death.
“Is this the content of the brainwave records left behind by that wandering swordsman In other words, can I read the brainwaves of the dead”
Chen Luo instantly understood the role of his ability.
......
This world is not purely ancient, but more like a mixed era of multi-ethnic integration.
At the top, there's the government exerting its authority. But below, underground organizations like gangs and local power structures have their own territories. On the surface, everyone maintains the appearance of upholding the imperial court's face and acting by the rules. But what happens at night is up to the underworld folk.
When he first came to this world, Chen Luo also wanted to go learn martial arts.
Because one can change their life by learning martial arts.
Doing business alone in this chaotic world is not feasible.
But Chen Luo tried many ways, but he couldn't get in touch with the martial arts level. To be precise, among all the people he knew, none of them had truly come into contact with martial arts. This is not surprising, the privilege class monopolizes power from birth, and it rarely trickles down. The society before his time travel was the most direct proof. Everyone knew that those who played finance made money, but how many could truly play finance At best, they were '韭菜' or 'tools', going in to be harvested by this kind of 'pseudo-finance'. The real bigwigs who manipulate finance are separated from the lower levels.
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"These kinds of herbs aren't hard to find. Since they became the last obsession for martial artists, there must be some effect to them."
The day after the burial, Chen Luo, who had received the reward money, bought some of the medicinal herbs he needed for his obsession.
It's not expensive, a piece of medicine only costs three dollars.
It was getting light.
Chen Luo was boiling medicine in a broken pottery pot inside the stable, the pungent smell wafting throughout the yard.
That means Uncle Three went out drinking last night. If he were still in the courtyard, he would definitely have come out to beat someone up.
Uncle Three's courtyard wasn't large, only consisting of two rooms. When cooking inside the courtyard, the smell would travel through both rooms.
Fifteen minutes later.
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The medicinal water was boiled, the herbs reduced to a pulp. The pitch-black liquid in the earthenware pot didn't look like something a human could drink at all.
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Chen Luo picked up the pottery pitcher and lifted the lid.
sniffed it on the side of her nose.
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The pungent spiciness stung his eyes and made them water. After the spice, there was a stench mixed in, like rotten eggs that had been left out for ten days and a half months, making him almost vomit up last night's dinner. It's hard to imagine that several normal medicinal ingredients, when boiled together, could release such a terrifying smell.
"Can you really drink this"
After spitting, Chen Luo looked at the pottery pot in his hand, his face full of doubt.
The money has already been spent, it can't just be wasted like this.
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Chen Luo glanced at the stray dog raised by his uncle. He remembered when he first came to the city and stayed with his uncle, this mangy dog had bitten a hole in his pants. In the corner, the mangy dog, its tail stiff with anxiety, was hidden away from the foul stench, sensing that something bad might be about to happen.
“Dahlia, come here, come here, I'm adding an extra dish for you today.”
Chen Luo held a can in his hand, with a kind expression, beckoning to the mangy dog.ed about. But these martial arts practitioners are different. Most of them die from assassination, and some even carry poison on their bodies even after death. Many young undertakers were poisoned to...