Chapter 56: Leather Frame

Firelight flickered inside the cave.

"Hey, Pi San, let me ask you something. Do you really think a corpse can come back to life?"

"Who knows, Brother Chen? But this whole thing feels a bit eerie to me. I mean, we pulled this thing out of the golden coffin with the silver outer shell ourselves, didn't we? We all saw it back then. The corpse was just a bit shriveled, with its teeth sticking out like a rabbit's, and its facial skin was still elastic. It's damn creepy."

Hiding near the cave entrance, I cautiously watched and listened to their conversation.

Chen Jiansheng and the man called Pi San were chatting. Right in front of them lay a huge, translucent plastic crate filled with a pale, milky liquid. What that liquid actually was, I had no idea.

I also noticed something else.

Faintly, submerged within the liquid inside the large plastic crate, was a dark silhouette. Judging by the outline reflected from the outside, the shadow looked like a human...

"Don't move! Are you out of your mind? You actually dare to touch this water!" Chen Jiansheng suddenly barked in a stern voice.

"Hehe..." The man called Pi San scratched his head. "I was just curious, that's all. Oh, right, there's one more thing I need to tell you, Brother Chen. After we get out this time, I should get a share of Boss Chen's loot, right? After all, there are only the two of us left now. I'm not greedy, just give me thirty percent!" The man held up three fingers.

Chen Jiansheng wore a smile on his face. "Naturally. You chipped in and did your part, so I promise you—thirty percent it is."

"Awesome! You're a real stand-up guy!" The excitement in Pi San's eyes was impossible to hide.

"Little San, aren't you curious about this thing? If you really want to take a look, go ahead. Just stand by the edge and be careful. Remember, only one look is allowed." Chen Jiansheng smiled and pointed at the plastic box.

"Really? I can go take a look?"

Chen Jiansheng nodded. "Go on, just don't touch the water."

Granted permission, the man tiptoed over cautiously.

Standing before the large plastic water tank, he peered down and said without turning his head, "Brother Chen, this water is milky white, I can't see a thing. Where is it?"

"Right in the middle, take a closer look," Chen Jiansheng's deep voice came from behind.

"The middle?"

"I don't seem to see anything?"

Everything that happened next, I witnessed entirely from the shadows.

I saw Chen Jiansheng silently pick up a round stone from the ground, his footsteps feather-light.

"San!" Chen Jiansheng suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Huh? What?" Pi San whipped his head around.

"Bang!"

In a split second! Chen Jiansheng raised the stone high and brought it down squarely onto the dead center of Pi San's forehead!

A second later, two streams of bright red blood trickled down the stone.

Pi San opened his mouth, then collapsed to the ground with a dull thud, his forehead a bloody, mangled mess.

"Spit!" Chen Jiansheng tossed aside the blood-stained stone. Looking down at Pi San, whose head had been cracked open, he sneered, "Thirty percent? You dared ask me for thirty percent? What the hell are you! You won't even get half a percent! That's all rightfully mine, Chen Jiansheng! Bah!"

He nudged Pi San with his foot, and seeing no response, Chen Jiansheng turned his head to scan the surroundings.

I hurriedly shrank back and hid myself.

That was too close; I almost got discovered.

Then I saw Chen Jiansheng grab Pi San by the ankles and drag him toward the plastic box.

"San, rest in peace. Brother Chen will keep your share for you. Don't worry, when you get down below and meet our boss and the logistics crew, tell them for me that during every festival and holiday, I'll burn them some paper mansions and beauties." With that, Chen Jiansheng lifted Pi San's upper body. By the looks of it, he clearly intended to dump him into the large plastic crate!

Seeing a murder with my own eyes instantly threw me into a panic.

Pi San was about one meter seventy-five tall, and quite solidly built. Chen Jiansheng perhaps slipped, failing to toss him in cleanly on the first try, and instead dropped him with a heavy thud.

The impact caused the back of Pi San's head to slam directly against the ground.

Unexpectedly, the blow knocked Pi San awake—he wasn't dead yet!

"Damn your grandmother!" Covered in blood, Pi San suddenly struggled to get back to his feet.

Panicked, Chen Jiansheng pressed down on top of Pi San and wrapped both hands tightly around his throat!

Pi San thrashed his legs wildly, twisting and struggling with all his might, scratching Chen Jiansheng's face bloody.

"Die! Die! Go to hell!" Veins bulged on Chen Jiansheng's forehead, making him look like a demon.

Within a minute or two, Pi San's face turned from red to purple. As Chen Jiansheng applied more and more pressure, his face took on a bruised, liverish hue. Guttural sounds kept escaping his throat, as if a thick phlegm was choking his windpipe.

Right at that moment, Pi San's neck turned by degrees.

His liver-colored face came squarely face-to-face with mine, our eyes locking instantly.

He looked at me, and I looked at him.

In a fleeting instant, Pi San's eyes seemed filled with terror, fury, and dread as he slowly raised his left arm and pointed straight toward my hiding spot.

"Die! Die!" Chen Jiansheng seemed utterly consumed by madness, paying no attention to Pi San's gesture.

Three minutes later, Pi San's legs went limp and he stopped struggling. His eyes bulged outward, still staring fixedly right at me!

He died with everlasting grievances!

Chen Jiansheng rolled off the corpse, wiped the sweat from his face, and panted heavily.

After resting for a brief moment, he flipped the corpse into the plastic crate.

"Plop."

And then I saw it—within mere seconds, those milky-white liquids began to boil and bubble furiously, just like a pot of scalding water.

A pungent, fishy stench assaulted the senses.

Pi San's corpse looked as though it had been soaked soft, slowly splitting apart and dissolving!

Flesh, hair, bones... everything, the entire process lasting less than ten minutes.

A living, breathing human being, leaving behind not even a trace of residue in the end!

The liquid remained as white as milk. Whether my eyes were playing tricks on me or not, for a split second, I thought I saw the dark silhouette submerged inside move its head!

This was the most flawless destruction of evidence!

Looking at his own handiwork, a smile crept onto the corner of Chen Jiansheng's mouth, which he then quickly suppressed.

Covering the large plastic crate with a piece of cloth, Chen Jiansheng clapped his hands, whistled a tune, and walked toward my direction with a relaxed expression.

He was heading out of the cave!

I immediately retreated a few steps and hid behind a protruding rock. Being rather slender and sucking my stomach in hard, he stepped out just as I finished concealing myself.

It was a narrow escape; I had just barely avoided being seen.

Humming a little tune as he walked, Chen Jiansheng was singing a song by Zheng Zhihua, "Sailor."

"When people bully you, you always hear the sailor say, he says what is this little bit of pain in the wind and rain, wipe away your tears, don't be afraid..."

"At least we still have dreams..."

The voice faded into the distance. I cursed him inwardly as a psycho, then hugged the stone wall, crouching low to follow him.

I was intensely curious about that large plastic crate in the cave; I knew it must be harboring some dark secret. But I didn't have time to inspect it now; I had to follow Chen Jiansheng. Following him was my only chance to find Sister Red and the Sun brothers. I guessed that after they passed out, they must have been locked up separately.

"Earthworker Chen," someone spoke up ahead.

Peering out cautiously, I saw that the speaker was one of the two middle-aged men who had been by the dwarf elder's side.

"Brother Jian," Chen Jiansheng quickly bowed.

"Earthworker Chen, where's the young brother who was with you? Didn't you two leave together just now?"

Maintaining a natural expression, Chen Jiansheng patted his own forehead and smiled, "Brother Jian, you mean San? Ah, lazy donkeys always need to go to the bathroom when it's time to grind. He got a sudden stomachache and is taking a big dump. Judging by him, he won't be done anytime soon—must've eaten something bad. Brother Jian, let's not wait for him."

Hearing Chen Jiansheng's explanation, the middle-aged man nodded.

"What is it, Brother Jian? What are you looking at?" Chen Jiansheng turned his head to look as well while speaking.

I pressed myself flat against the stone wall, not even daring to breathe, sweat beading on my forehead!

"Nothing. Must be my imagination; I've been getting a bit paranoid lately," the middle-aged man said.

With a guilty conscience, Chen Jiansheng forced a smile and urged, "I don't think it's anything either. Let's get going, Brother Jian. We need to go prepare for the next step."