The Faceless Female Corpse

Zhang Jinya's words made the old village chief and the others tense up instantly; even the few strong men who had come along with the old village chief showed obvious signs of unease on their faces, fear flickering in their eyes.

If it really was some filthy thing causing trouble, the entire village was already in chaos even before it had fully manifested. If it really came to power, would there be any way out for the people in this village?

"Master Zhang, please, you must save our several hundred souls in Dingtao Village!"

Tears streamed down the old village chief's face, and his emotions ran high. He grabbed Zhang Jinya's hand tightly and said with a trembling voice, "Other than the first girl, who I'm not very familiar with, the other nine girls were all watched over by me as they grew up. But now they have died such terrible deaths - just thinking about it breaks my heart. You didn't see the state they were in when they died, it was tragic..."

"Old gentleman, please rest assured," Zhang Jinya replied earnestly. "I may not boast much, but I understand the rules. As the saying goes, one must shoulder the responsibility of relieving others of their disasters if one accepts their money. Since I have accepted your trust, I will certainly do my utmost."

"But filthy beasts harm people for a reason; they don't just harm people at will. I suspect that something in your village must have offended it. To solve this problem, we need to start at the root. At the very least, we must find out what kind of evil is at work here."

Having said this, Zhang Jinya continued to support the old village chief by saying, "Now please take us to see the girl who was just victimized, to see if we can find any clues from her."

The old village chief nodded hastily and hurriedly led the way in front.

The three of us followed closely behind with Heizi.

Actually, I was somewhat afraid at that moment, too. Just thinking about the way that the victims had been killed alive and skinned made me feel queasy, and I couldn't help but nudge Zhang Jinya, who was beside me, and ask, "Are you sure that thing has fully manifested?"

"If this is the tenth life it has taken, then it has definitely become powerful!" Zhang Jinya sighed and said, "With each life this filthy beast takes, its malice and murderous aura increase. After leaving nine corpses behind, its resentment and murderous aura have reached a critical point. If it takes another life at this time, it breaks through that threshold, and by then, the filthy thing will have cultivated some powers and be very difficult to deal with. Even I'm not entirely confident now. Once these things cultivate powers, they are excessively ferocious, and we three brothers might end up having some real bad luck."

Upon hearing this, I was displeased, thinking, if you knew it wasn't yet powerful, why did you still come? And why drag me into this, afraid that I might live too comfortably for a few more days?

Before I could voice my complaint, Zhang Jinya, that animal, complained about me first, giving me a sidelong glance and saying, "Ever since I met you, kid, I have gone to the dogs. How come you're such a jinx? No wonder those from the Zhou family say you are surrounded by bad luck; whoever is close to you gets the short end of the stick. At first, I didn't believe it, but now I'm convinced. I haven't encountered such a powerful filthy thing in years, and now, look, I'm out to earn an extra buck, and I've run into one that has taken ten lives. How unlucky can I get?"

Great, now he's blaming everything on me. If it weren't for his greed, would I be suffering in this godforsaken place?

I was about to retort when the old village chief stopped and turned to us, saying, "We're there, if you want to see the girl, go have a look yourself."

Only then did I realize that, without noticing, we had arrived next to a village house. A coffin was placed at the entrance of the courtyard, with its lid not yet sealed and standing off to the side.

Beside the coffin was a person dressed in a white coat, resembling a coroner, who was removing blood-stained rubber gloves while reporting something to the four or five police officers nearby.

At this time, the old village chief had gone over to talk to those officers, and given the way the officers kept glancing back at us, I assumed that he had informed them of our visit. After about a quarter of an hour, one of the officers finally nodded, then left along with the coroner.

The old village chief then came back to us and told Zhang Jinya, "The officers have agreed."

Zhang Jinya frowned, staring at the coffin with the lid off for a long time before finally asking, "According to you, this girl died at home last night. According to tradition, she should have been kept at home. Why is she now lying outside the house? This doesn't add up, does it?"

With that question, the old village chief suddenly started to look uncomfortable. He sighed and said slowly, "It's the hard life of this girl, Erniu. Her family prefers boys over girls to a ruthless degree. When she was born, they wanted to drown her in a vat, and it was only after I heard about it and went to their house in the middle of the night to plead with her parents that I managed to save her life. The following year, they had another child, a boy, and from then on, Erniu was even less favored. As she grew older, her parents would punish her with beatings or by withholding food for even the slightest error. As for schooling, that's not even worth mentioning. People in the village are already poor, and who can afford to send two children to school? All opportunities were given to her brother; Erniu never stood a chance. Having endured a tough life, she grew into a lovely young woman of marriageable age. I had just arranged a good marriage for her, thinking that she finally had a chance at happiness, but then this happened. Moreover, with the frightening events in the village lately, after her death, her parents feared hosting her body on their property. They were afraid of attracting evil spirits and planned to simply wrap her up in a mat and bury her in a desolate place. If the police hadn't come this morning and persuaded her parents, she would not even have been rested here; she would likely be tossed into the wilderness for wild dogs to devour. To say nothing else, even this simple coffin was purchased by me!"

After hearing this, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for the girl. Preferring sons over daughters is almost unheard of in cities such as Shanghai, where people often vie for daughters. However, it's different in the countryside, where the belief that boys can provide for their parents in old age still prevails. But to this degree of gender preference was indeed rare.

Are her parents' hearts made of stone? Even a stone heart, after warming for over twenty years, should grow warm, shouldn't it? How could they treat their own flesh and blood this way?

"It's outrageous!"

Zhang Jinya frowned deeply upon hearing this and said firmly, "Handling a funeral like this is asking for trouble!"

The old village chief's complexion turned as he replied, "What do you mean, Master?"

"That family is going to suffer."

Zhang Jinya glanced at the house and sneered, "She died an unjust death, full of resentment. Now that she's dead, her body has been left on the roadside without a proper place in her own home. Her resentment will undoubtedly grow. You should know that only those who die in car accidents or far from home are supposed to have their bodies laid at the entrance of the house. Not following tradition will definitely lead to trouble. Just watch; her family will have a restless time by the seventh day after her death."

"Really?"

The old village chief's complexion also paled noticeably, his lips twitching violently as he spoke, "But what about the other girls in the village who died recently? They haven't had any problems."

"Can you compare now with others? At least their families loved them. Although they harbored resentment, it was only about their own deaths and not enough to prevent them from reincarnating with seething anger."

Zhang Jinya sneered, "Don't believe it? Just wait and see. The first seventh-day mourning period will be a time of turmoil for this family!"

After finishing his words, Zhang Jinya walked straight to the coffin as if to inspect for clues. However, he only glanced inside before retreating three steps backward, his face ashen white.

Driven by curiosity from seeing Zhang Jinya's reaction, I walked over to the coffin. Upon looking inside, my legs went weak, and I almost collapsed to the ground!

The body in the coffin, undoubtedly belonging to Erniu, lay naked, obviously just checked by the coroner without anyone dressing or cleaning it, so it was left as is in the coffin. In life, she must have been a graceful and beautiful girl. It was a pity her body was now desecrated beyond recognition. The pale skin was marred with cadaveric spots caused by the cessation of blood circulation, a shocking sight. Her abdomen had been cut open, clearly during the autopsy. That coroner was an animal; having opened her up, he merely stitched her up carelessly with a few large stitches, leaving parts where the intestines protruded due to the loose seams. Her genital area was also cut open, which is routine in the autopsies of unexpectedly deceased women to check for pre-death assault. However, that coroner had left it unsewn, allowing the flesh to peel outward.

The most horrifying was the face. Just as we knew, the skin had been scalped, from the edge of the hairline at the forehead down to the throat and from ear to ear. The skin was cut away cleanly, and because there was no circulation after death, we could clearly see the girl's layer of facial fat and the stark white of her nasal bone!

Truth be told, I had never seen such a tragic post-mortem appearance. After looking, I felt a wave of nausea and couldn't help but turn around, run to a corner, and vomit violently. I regretted following Zhang Jinya here; I would rather face that smiling corpse than face this face-peeling evil spirit!