The standard Arabic numeral "4" was engraved on a stone archway.
The intricately patterned iron gate with a spiked top creaked as it opened slowly.
Beside the gate stood a wooden cart equipped with a shovel, hemp rope, and burlap bags, all used for cemetery maintenance, alterations, or leveling.
Yi Chen placed his axe and kerosene lamp on the cart as well, took a deep breath, and pushed the wooden cart forward.
As the wheels of the cart pressed into the soil of the cemetery, no expected danger arose.
Yi Chen looked around as he entered Cemetery No. 4. On the surface, nothing unusual appeared—no wandering "monsters" or strange occurrences. Compared to other cemetery, this one seemed "ordinary," with a comfortable temperature and humidity, firm soil with few weeds, and a balanced ratio of open space, graves, and vegetation.
However, two peculiar details stood out:
1. The vegetation, especially the trees along the edges, appeared withered and brittle, as if they could snap at any moment. The leaves fell in clusters, unlike the lush greenery in other graveyards.
Next, he compared the current cemetery layout to the "original distribution map" in his mind, searching for discrepancies in the number and arrangement of graves.
Being an engineering graduate, he was skilled at spotting differences, and soon found an unsettling answer:
This additional grave was located in a deeper area, marked by a metal cross embedded in the ground. The mound's height matched the others. As he stared at the newly discovered grave, Yi Chen thought:
"According to the rules, any extra grave must be completely leveled. If a body is inside, it should be transferred to Cemetery No. 7, designated for unknown corpses, as per Rule V. However, things can't be that simple; the original owner of this body wouldn’t have chosen suicide otherwise. I need to proceed cautiously."
After confirming no unusual activity nearby, he got to work.
He left the metal cross untouched, believing it might serve as a holy symbol to ward off evil. Grabbing the shovel from the cart, he struck the mound—crack!
In his orphanage days, he had done plenty of farm work in the backyard, so handling a shovel felt natural.
Clang! A loud metallic sound rang out. In the lamplight, part of a coffin lid emerged.
He cleared away the topsoil, revealing a hexagonal black metal lid sealed tightly without any signs of prior opening.
Having resolved to deal with this issue and clean up the mess, Yi Chen found a leverage point to pry open the lid.
Creak! The lid creaked as it was lifted, the sound slicing through the cemetery’s silence like a piercing spike.
The light from the kerosene lamp rushed inside, revealing the contents of the coffin.
Inside was a naked adult male corpse. His skin had turned green, with rotting blood vessels forming a marble-like pattern across the body, covered in blotches… and a dense layer of moss and fungal growth.
His eye sockets no longer held any eyeballs but were instead filled with clusters of fungi, which wriggled slightly like insect eyes.
"Moss and fungi? How did these grow in a completely sealed metal coffin?"
His curiosity piqued, Yi Chen noticed something else: The corpse’s hands lay flat beside him, with nails that had fallen off. Thin roots sprouted from the nail beds, extending toward the coffin's bottom, as if "adhering" to it.
A sense of inexplicable unease crept over him, intensifying his fear. Abandoning the idea of "relocating the corpse," he grabbed the kerosene lamp, planning to incinerate the strange body then and there. His hand readied to throw it…
But just as the lamp was about to leave his grip, an image flashed in his mind—the guiding light of a lighthouse.
His intuition warned him: the kerosene lamp, the cemetery's only light source, must not be broken.
As an engineering graduate, Yi Chen valued and understood the importance of intuition.
The brain, under certain conditions, rapidly gathers environmental factors, integrates all memory data, including subconscious information, and derives a result through comprehensive analysis.
Because the conscious mind cannot keep up with this process, it feels like a sudden flash of insight.
Some people don’t take it seriously.
However, it’s often an accurate and effective analytical outcome.
This intuition made him keep the oil lamp in his hand rather than discarding it.
"The only source of light... I still can’t be sure of the true 'danger' here. If there’s a problem with the entire cemetery, losing my light source could mean being instantly swallowed by the darkness."
So he decided to stick to his initial plan to transport the corpse.
Yi Chen patted his cheeks to stay focused.
He picked up the iron shovel again,
pressed it against the edge of the coffin and slid it in,
attempting to pry the body into a 'sitting position'... this way, it would be easier to lift the whole corpse out.
In full sprint, Yi Chen kicked the iron gate... clang!
The firmly closed gate didn’t budge, sealing him completely inside.
As he watched the chains that had somehow wrapped around the gate outside,
Yi Chen couldn’t help but curse aloud.