Chapter 10: Collecting the Bodies

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[Mansion Main Hall]
Wearing cleaning gloves and masks, the four of them were packing up all the rotting food to throw out of the mansion.
They rinsed the floor with water as much as possible to at least reduce the stench inside the house, deciding to deal with the backyard issue later.
Once the cleaning of the funeral hall was finished, the four divided the labor to cover the mansion with a device called "strip wall lamps."
These lamps were flat, long strips that could be attached to ceilings or walls. Thanks to advanced battery technology, they could remain illuminated for a week without needing a recharge.
This would ensure sufficient lighting throughout the duration of their practice, meaning they wouldn't be affected even if the lanterns were destroyed.
The entire process took over three hours. During this time, everything in the mansion remained normal; they saw and heard nothing unusual.

[Second Floor - Master Bedroom]
They gathered here temporarily, wiping sweat from their foreheads with tissues, to discuss the most difficult and suspicious area: the backyard.
Even now, just recalling the smell of the backyard made Anna feel a wave of nausea.
Roughly estimating, at least thirty pigs and cows were piled up in the backyard, most of them in a state of advanced decomposition, bloated and disfigured.
Dragging them one by one into the wilderness to bury them would be too physically exhausting and time-consuming, and there was a risk that the carcasses carried highly infectious pathogens.
However, leaving them in the backyard untreated might link these corpses to some kind of evil ritual.
Of course, the most important issue was the four human corpses hanging from the tree.
Rody, an avid fan of horror movies, used lateral thinking to arrive at a terrifying hypothesis: the food in the funeral hall was for them, the visiting guests, while the pigs and cows scattered in the backyard were for the master of the house hanging in the tree.
Perhaps at a certain time, the master in the tree would come back to life.
Thinking of this, Gao, the vice monitor leaning against the curved corner of the wall, offered his opinion: "Burn it. Burn everything, including that tree in the backyard. It will clear the smell and eliminate the danger."
This idea coincided with Rody’s. As it stood, burning was indeed the best method.
However, how to burn it was another problem.
The monitor tapped her chin with her finger, carefully recalling knowledge from her cultural studies classes: "Most of these animal carcasses are already severely bloated. We’ve all experienced the concentration of the stench in the backyard; if we burn them recklessly, they might explode. It would be better to drag these corpses to the mountains and find a slope to push them down."
Rody, standing at the head of the bed, took the initiative: "No need to burn the animal carcasses, just burn the four people in the tree."
The monitor immediately asked: "How? Burning the tree directly is quite dangerous. The methane concentration in the backyard is likely already above the explosive threshold... We might blow up the entire mansion."
"We move them out to burn them. Carry the corpses to the open ground outside the mansion, dig a shallow pit, pile up enough firewood, and cremate them on the spot."
The monitor nodded: "Good idea! Let's split into pairs. Anna, you and Rody are responsible for preparing the firewood, and Gao and I will move the corpses."
"Yay!"

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Upon hearing that she wouldn't have to go to the foul-smelling backyard, Anna turned and hugged the monitor who had assigned the tasks, her grip so tight it felt like she was suffocating.
Gao Yuxuan, however, voiced his objection: "No, I think all four of us must act together. The corpses hanging in the backyard are highly suspicious, and the transport process could be dangerous. Let's go to the backyard right now and move the bodies outside the mansion before we talk about burning them."
After breaking free from Anna’s grasp, the monitor smacked her palm with her fist: "Hmm, that’s decided then! Let’s go. Everyone, make sure your masks are on tight. There are four of us, so we can each carry one. Let’s also bring our sleeping bags; they can be used to hold the corpses and isolate any potential infectious diseases. We’ve already found a room to sleep in anyway."
Anna, who had just thought she wouldn't have to go to the backyard, began to retch again and put on four layers of masks.

[Backyard]
The carcasses of pigs and cows crisscrossed to form winding paths, with various filth leaking from the rotting bodies filling the gaps between them.
A massive number of flies were holding a feast here, dancing, spinning, and gorging themselves.
Perhaps because they had undergone a baptism of sorts earlier, everyone barely managed to hold it together this time in the face of such a "magnificent" scene.
Raincoats covered their bodies, gloves were on, and their shoes were completely wrapped in plastic bags.
"Let's go."
Squish!
Rody walked in front, and the monitor followed closely behind.
She felt quite uncomfortable stepping on the soft, slimy, fluid-like surface.
"Rody, you don't seem affected at all? We didn't receive this kind of training at school."
"I cook at home often, and I go to the wet market in my free time to help slaughter poultry; I've even participated in pig slaughtering occasionally. Compared to this, the smell is just a bit lighter; there isn't much difference."
The monitor didn't doubt his explanation but shifted her focus to something else: "Wow, you can cook? If we pass this successfully, can I taste your craft?"
"No."
The monitor’s expression changed slightly, and she switched the topic again: "There might be danger when we take down the bodies later, be careful."
"Mm."
The four of them stepped through the filth and finally arrived at the locust tree in the center of the courtyard.
Perhaps due to long-term absorption of filth, the surface of the tree trunk was covered in dense, tiny holes, and the eerie wind circling the mansion was actually leaking out from these pores.
It was densely packed and very unsettling to look at.
The four corpses hanging above appeared to be the master of the house, his wife, and their son and daughter.

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The height of the hanging was also significant.
The old man, presumably the head of the house, hung at the very top and was the most decomposed.
The middle-aged woman was next, and the two young people were at the bottom, showing the early stages of bloating. It seemed they had finished arranging everything in the house before finally hanging themselves.
Rody also noticed something strange about this family, especially the old man at the top who had been dead the longest: his fingernails had large black spots and were completely blackened and overgrown.
It gave one the impression that even after death, his nails had continued to grow.
Next, they encountered a difficult problem:
[How to get the bodies down?]
The two younger corpses and the middle-aged woman's corpse were taken down smoothly. These bodies did not change when the ropes were cut or when they were placed into body bags.
The entire backyard remained just as foul-smelling, with no additional changes.
Then came the task of taking down the old man’s corpse at the very top.
Rather than climbing the tree, Rody once again coordinated with Anna, stepping on her shoulders just enough to reach the spot where the old man was hanging.
He swung the machete in his hand—Swish!
The hemp rope was cut.
The old man's corpse, losing its support, plummeted downward, falling vertically right alongside Rody. Somehow, perhaps sensing danger by instinct, Rody subconsciously moved his legs and retreated.
Because he was standing on Anna's shoulders, this step backward caused him to lose his balance and fall backward.
The expected collision with the ground never came.
Rody, who had shielded his head with his hands, felt dazed. He could clearly feel two strong arms touching his back and thighs, supporting him firmly.
Anna's reaction speed was very fast; she had completed the turn and reached out almost the moment he lost his footing, catching him just in time.
Rody wasn't embarrassed; instead, he was quite surprised that a high school girl could easily catch his 80kg frame, which raised his assessment of this foreign exchange student even further.
The monitor and Gao Yuxuan quickly finished packing up the bodies.
"Hey! How long are you two going to keep hugging? Be careful not to get dragged to the Dean's office for a lecture!"
The monitor gave a mischievous grin and used the photo mode on her wristband to record the moment as a memory of this practice session.