9.
Lâm Công took me to the graveyard on my first night. He pointed out an old man bent over, sweeping.
It turned out that besides Lâm Tiếu and Lưu Trúc, this old man also knew how to make money for the director.
But he wasn’t as well-off as the other two, and worked in tattered clothes.
The old man was mute. The kindhearted director had rescued him from the roadside when he was nearly starving to death. He couldn’t speak or read, and didn’t understand sign language, so all he could do was stay and perform odd jobs.
“He just likes tinkering with his old wooden figurines. His carving’s crooked, but it makes him happy. No education means no education.”
No one knew the old man’s name. Since he liked carving little wooden animals, everyone called him Mộc Thúc.
Lâm Công looked down on Mộc Thúc.
Before he’d even finished speaking, a black cat suddenly darted out of the grass, baring its teeth and growling at Lâm Công.
“Get lost, get lost!” Lâm Công shooed the cat away.
“That cat’s very perceptive. Ever since that old mute started looking after it, it can’t stand anyone speaking ill of him.”
Lâm Công swung the branch in his hand and stomped on the ground, frightening the cat into running off.
As it left, the cat looked back and glared at Lâm Công and me. The bright daylight had narrowed its pupils to slits.
They looked just like a snake’s eyes—extremely eerie.
“The green eyes you saw last time belonged to this cat.”
“Huh?”
“In a little while, find somewhere secluded and kill this cat.”
“Why?”
“No reason. You don’t have to do it.”
10.
I did it.
The director looked pleased as he examined the photo of the dead cat on my phone.
“Was your girlfriend buried here too?”
“Yes, that’s right, Director.”
I nodded.
“What are you going to do about her?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet, Director.”
“Let me know when you do.”
“Yes.”
11.
I was officially hired. Lâm Tiếu and Lưu had gradually become familiar with me, and the director no longer looked so stern.
Only Mộc Thúc remained.
He always looked at me with hatred.
One evening, the director stayed behind to prepare for the county inspection and didn’t go home.
When I returned to the dorm, someone suddenly pounded on the door behind me.
Before I could turn around, someone struck me from behind and knocked me to the ground, then punched me in the face.
The pain made me fight back on instinct. As we struggled, I kicked over all sorts of ritual objects, and the loud crashes quickly drew a crowd.
The director came in with a dark expression and pulled us apart.
Only then did I realize that the person who’d attacked me was Mộc Thúc—the most honest and quiet man there.
His face was twisted with pain. His cloudy eyes glared at me with hatred, as if he wanted to tear me limb from limb.
“What are you two doing?” the director asked sternly.
I knew why, but still pretended I had no idea what was going on.
The director put on a fair-minded act, while Lâm Tiếu and Lưu watched me with keen interest, as if they were enjoying a show.
Mộc Thúc couldn’t speak; he could only glare at me furiously.
Looking at the chaos around him, the director waved his hand helplessly.
“Everyone, get back to work. Once tomorrow’s inspection is over, I’ll deal with you two.”
The director dragged Mộc Thúc away, while Lâm Tiếu helped me go put some medicine on my injuries.
As he opened the medicine jar, Lâm Tiếu muttered, “He knows.”
“That’s impossible. I was careful, and I buried the cat too. How could he know?”
“You’re asking me? How would I know?”
“Great. Now Mộc Thúc’s going to hate me forever.”
“It’s fine. The director’s here. He’ll handle him.”
“Really?”
Lâm Công didn’t answer.
12.
It wasn’t true.
The lonelier people are, the longer they remember their grudges.
I deliberately brought food and liquor to apologize, but he didn’t forgive me. Instead, he became even more hostile.
At Mộc Thúc’s house, I talked until my mouth was dry for nearly half an hour.
In the end, he still drove me out with a big stick.
As I passed, Lâm Công saw me and merely shrugged helplessly.
I stood at the door, sneering.
Hmph! He’s just some outsider. What can he do to me by hating me?
13.
Lưu knocked on my door again.
I thought she’d be wearing that silk nightgown again, but when I opened the door, she was dressed in the same blue work clothes she wore during the day.
But her eyes were still full of allure.
“I’m telling you, this is the real work today. Keep your eyes on what you’re doing!”
After coming in, Lưu Trúc took out two pairs of surgical rubber gloves. She put one pair on and handed me the other.
“Lưu, it’s already ten at night. Whatever it is, can’t it wait until tomorrow?”
I deliberately acted lazy.
“Enough talk. I’m only doing this once, so watch closely.”
I stopped arguing and obediently put on the gloves.
When we were ready, she opened the kit she’d been clutching the whole time and took out a small box.
I’d seen this kind of insulated container before. They were usually used to transport things that had to be kept at low temperatures.
I was still wondering if it held some expensive cosmetics when Lưu Trúc quickly took out a frozen white rabbit.
“What’s that for?” I asked, baffled.
“Watch closely.”
Lưu Trúc said no more. She picked up a small knife from the table that looked like an eyebrow razor, made a few practiced cuts around the rabbit’s right eye, and easily removed the entire eyeball.
I was stunned.
Before I could sort through the jumble of words in my head, a knife was placed in my hand.
“There’s one eye left. Give it a try.”
Lưu Trúc said it lightly.
“Wait, what does this have to do with makeup?”
I stared at the eye in Lưu’s hand, its veins clearly visible, and felt my stomach churn.
Lưu Trúc shot me a look. “If you want to earn extra money, then learn properly. You’ll understand what it’s for when the time comes.”
I thought to myself that if a woman like her wasn’t afraid, then I could at least try. I squeezed my eyes shut and raised the knife.
The training lasted more than a month. By the time Lưu Trúc declared that I’d mastered it, my hands had become practiced, quick, and steady—nearly as good as hers.
Lưu Trúc praised my ability to learn over and over.
When the director heard, he nodded too, but the lump on his face distorted with the movement, making his face look even more twistedMoke.
14.
The next day, while doing makeup for a “client,” Lưu Trúc told me to help her.
The body that day belonged to a woman in her twenties. She had died in a car accident. Her parents were local government officials who had championed the campaign to simplify funeral ceremonies, so they brought her body straight to the funeral home.
The girl had been dead for less than four hours.
In the makeup room, Lưu Trúc’s expression remained impassive.
After changing into the clothes she directed me to wear, I stood beside her, one on either side of the body. It had been very well preserved; apart from its unnatural pallor, it looked no different from someone sleeping.
Lưu Trúc calmly opened her kit and took out a small, sharp knife.
“Let’s begin.”
“What?”
I’d already guessed more or less what was coming, but seeing it unfold right in front of me still terrified me.
“If you don’t dare, you can still back out.”
Lưu Trúc smiled mockingly.
“Back out… You’ve got to be kidding.”
I licked my dry lips, took the knife from Lưu Trúc, and felt my gaze grow steadily more resolute.
“You have no idea. I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long.”
Lưu Trúc gave a faint laugh. “It’s only been a month or two. That’s not long.”
“Don’t let it weigh on you. Even if you don’t do it, in a few hours she’ll be nothing but a pile of ashes.”
Lưu Trúc said, “Right now, she may be able to help a patient see the light again. And we’re only getting a little compensation we’ve earned.”
I nodded, then finally lowered the knife.
Lưu Trúc placed the corneas in an organ-transport container, closed the lid, and handed it to Lâm Công.
She returned to the body, filled both eye sockets with some kind of material, then used a variety of cosmetics to make the girl look as if she were sleeping peacefully with her eyes closed.
Her makeup skills were still astonishing, but this time I wasn’t in the mood to praise her.
Throughout the whole process, I kept worrying that the girl’s family would notice something was wrong and come after us.
Only after all the rites were complete and the body, now missing some parts, had been sent to the cremator did I finally breathe a sigh of relief.
But clearly, I’d let out that breath too soon.
15.
That evening, just as I got back to my rented room and was about to close the door, the director came to see me.
“I knew you were gutsy, but I didn’t realize you had guts like that.”
His question caught me off guard, but I quickly recovered. After a month, I’d thought a lot of things through.
I did my best to stay calm. “What are you talking about, Director?”
The director paused, then laughed and played a video on his phone.
It showed Lưu Trúc and me doing “good deeds” in the makeup room that afternoon. Every move was clearly recorded.
“You know tampering with a corpse is a crime, right?”
I said nothing.
After a moment, I smiled at the director.
“I have you to thank for teaching me.”
“Oh?”
“Did I pass my probation this time?”
The director smiled at me, still pretending not to understand.
“I didn’t quite catch that.”
I gave a faint smile. “You don’t need to be so cautious, Director. With how many of your secrets I’m holding, we’re already in this together.”
The director still wouldn’t admit it.
I went on, “If you really wanted to arrest me, you wouldn’t have come alone to knock on my door in the middle of the night.”
“Ha ha ha.” The director burst out laughing and slapped my shoulder twice.
“You’re a clever one. Not like the others. Keep working for me, and you’ll get your share of the benefits.”
I nodded emphatically, as if accepting a weighty commission.
“No problem!”
As soon as I’d spoken, the director took my phone, entered the passcode, and deleted the recording.
“Don’t try any little tricks like that.”
I smiled awkwardly. “What do you mean, Director?”
“You didn’t really think that while your phone was in my hands all night, I wouldn’t check it, did you?”
16.
At first, I’d planned to keep a little evidence of the director’s dirty dealings, just in case I needed it to protect myself later.
Now my phone had been taken, and everything on it was gone. I’d become a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
The director patted my face. “Be good, and there’ll be plenty of money for you to make.”
I nodded.
The director left, satisfied, and I closed the laptop on the table.
Over the next month, I worked on corpses with Lưu Trúc every week and helped Lâm Công cover up the truth.
Besides that, under the director’s orders, I also helped “dispose of” things.
I didn’t know why, but after I finished that job, the director smiled at me a lot more.
He also gave me more and more tasks.
The old, dilapidated funeral home continued to receive bodies from nearby towns, and everything went on as usual.
Until one day, the police came knocking.