Chapter 183: The Smell of Formalin

The hand sticking out of the burlap sack was the color of spiced beef. It showed no livor mortis, but it also lacked the elasticity of living skin.

'They're smuggling a corpse? Stealing what they're supposed to guard?'

I stared at the splayed hand in the sack, recalling what Zhang Jiaqi had said when we first met. She had mistaken me for a corpse thief.

The two security guards moved quickly, hauling the body toward the center of the West Campus.

'Where are they taking it?' The sealed West Campus had high walls, and scaling them with a body was completely unrealistic. I followed closely behind them, wanting to see exactly what they were up to.

This definitely wasn't their first time stealing a corpse. They were highly practiced and clearly had everything planned out.

As school security guards, they knew perfectly well that the other campuses were covered in surveillance cameras. Getting out wouldn't be easy, so they didn't take the main roads. Instead, they hauled the body to a collapsed hole in the middle of the West Campus, intending to smuggle it out through an abandoned underground corpse transport tunnel.

'It's hard to guard against thieves from within. For the sake of money, these two don't even care about their own lives.'

They stood by the tunnel entrance and tossed the body down. Just as they were about to jump in after it, I stepped out from the bushes.

"Hey, stop right there!" I shone my phone at them. Even though they were the school security guards, my sheer presence clearly gave me the upper hand.

The two guards—one tall, one short—froze in terror at my shout, not daring to move a muscle.

"Where the hell did you pop out from?" The tall guard recovered after a few seconds. His eyes flashed with a vicious glint, his expression turning hostile.

"I'd long heard that your school's West Campus was bizarre, but seeing it today, I realize it's not actually haunted—it's just people playing ghost." My tone was calm as I waved the Large-Screen Phone in my hand. "I'm an outdoor paranormal streamer. That Black Leather Suitcase you were rifling through earlier belongs to me."

"A paranormal streamer?"

The short guard tugged on the tall guard's sleeve and whispered, "Old Song, there were cameras in that case. This guy probably isn't lying."

"So what do we do now? If he blabs about this, we'll both lose our jobs."

"He just bumped into us by chance. We're in the middle of nowhere, and we're the school security guards. We can say whatever we want. He'll have to believe us whether he wants to or not."

"Monkey, you're pretty damn smart."

The two guards whispered to each other, completely unaware that my enhanced senses far surpassed those of ordinary people. Every single word of their conversation fell clearly into my ears.

Coughing twice, the short guard walked over and spoke with a completely straight face, "We are the school security guards. We just received a temporary notice from leadership to transport some tools for the students to use tomorrow. This underground tunnel is the designated route."

He was ready to spout more nonsense, but I had no patience to listen. Truthfully, I didn't care at all whether they were stealing corpses. In the Underworld Live Show live broadcast, my primary goal was simply to survive!

"Cut the crap. My livestream viewers and I saw exactly what you threw down there. There's no point in arguing. Even if you kill me, the stream has already gone out live." I held up my phone. Only then did the two guards remember to cover their faces, looking exactly like ostriches burying their heads in the sand at the first sign of danger.

"What the hell do you want?!" The two corpse thieves panicked, their faces changing color as they stamped their feet in anxiety.

"Don't do anything rash. Even if you kill me now, you can't undo what's been broadcast. Why don't we cooperate instead?" I moved the Underworld Live Show Live Broadcast Phone aside. "I can explain to the friends in my stream that this is all just an act, and in return, you guys will give me a cut of the profits."

"You want money?"

I waved my hand. "The money is secondary. Mainly, I want you to answer a few questions honestly. Answer well, and I'll leave right away. We'll mind our own business, and I'll pretend I never saw a thing."

The two guards muttered back and forth for a while. They were only stealing corpses to sell for cash; at worst, they'd be charged with theft. It wasn't worth committing murder to silence me.

Having reached a decision, the short guard walked up to me while shielding his face. "Ask away. As long as you keep your mouth shut, my brother and I will give you five hundred yuan once we get the body out."

"No need. Dead men's money is hard to earn, and I don't dare take it." I kept my promise, temporarily moving the Underworld Live Show Phone away. "First question: What happened at your school five years ago? Why was the West Campus sealed off?"

The guard's answer was exactly the same as Zhang Jiaqi's. It seemed neither side was lying.

"Second question: Did an anatomy professor at your school named Liu Xuan go missing recently?"

"I heard about it. It was a pretty big deal a while ago. But Teacher Liu didn't really have any family, so nothing ever came of it. Besides her students, hardly anyone cares anymore."

I couldn't find any flaws in the short guard's answer, so I moved on to my third question. "I just saw a student inside the West Campus earlier. I think her name is Zhang Jiaqi..."

Before I could finish, the guards' faces turned extremely grim, their expressions twisting as if they had just swallowed a raw pig's gallbladder.

"What's wrong with you guys?"

"Buddy, I'm warning you out of the goodness of my heart—stay away from that female student." The short guard tapped his head. "She's not right up here."

"Something wrong with her head?" I recalled Zhang Jiaqi's every move but hadn't noticed anything particularly strange about her. "Could it be that because everyone around me is abnormal, I've developed an immunity to it?"

Seeing my unconvinced expression, the tall guard stepped closer. "Monkey is right. That female student is weird as hell."

"Can you be more specific? What's so weird about her?" I was slightly puzzled. Both guards were showing expressions of genuine dread. What exactly had Zhang Jiaqi done in the past?

"This traces back to when Zhang Jiaqi first enrolled."

"When she first arrived at the medical school, she attended her very first anatomy class. The moment the teacher lifted the lid off the tank holding the corpse specimens, Zhang Jiaqi fainted dead away. Who knows what she saw."

"The class burst out laughing, and the teacher didn't say much about it. She's a girl, after all, so it was a pretty normal reaction."

"But a month later, to everyone's surprise, Zhang Jiaqi acted like she'd been possessed by something. Not only was she no longer afraid of corpses, but her progress in anatomy advanced at an incredible pace."

"Everyone found it amazing. Some nosy students even asked Zhang Jiaqi for her secret, but the shy girl never said a word."

"Things only started getting creepy two months later. Zhang Jiaqi's roommates felt something was off about their room. When they sniffed carefully, they realized there was a lingering smell of formalin floating around the dorm, and they had no idea where it was coming from."

"They searched every corner of the room, but they couldn't figure out where the scent was coming from."

"That is, until one morning. Zhang Jiaqi forgot to set her alarm and was almost late. She got up and didn't even have time to brush her teeth or wash her face before rushing off to class."

"Her heavy class schedule ended at noon, and Zhang Jiaqi went to the cafeteria to eat with her best friend from the dorm."

"They sat across from each other. As they were chatting, her best friend suddenly noticed a thick stench of formalin hovering over the dining table."

"Fighting the urge to vomit, her friend carefully sniffed around to identify the source. To her absolute horror, she realized the smell was coming from Zhang Jiaqi's mouth!"

"Her friend haphazardly picked at her food for a few bites. She was completely rattled but didn't dare tell anyone about it."

"That night, the friend tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. She chatted on her phone with her boyfriend until three or four in the morning. By then, the old campus outside was pitch black."

"Suddenly, the friend heard the rustling of clothes coming from the bottom bunk. When she peeked down, she saw Zhang Jiaqi sitting stiffly on the edge of the bed, fully dressed, the whites of her eyes rolled back in her head."

"The friend softly called Zhang Jiaqi's name, but Zhang Jiaqi completely ignored her, opening the dorm door and walking out."

"Thinking Zhang Jiaqi was sleepwalking, the friend worried about her and followed behind."

"She ended up following her all the way to the West Campus Anatomy Experimental Building, which had already been sealed off by then. Zhang Jiaqi skillfully climbed through a window onto the second floor."

"The friend hurriedly called her boyfriend before climbing up after her."

"They groped their way through the darkness until Zhang Jiaqi finally entered the underground corpse repository—a place the school strictly forbade students from entering."

"According to her friend's recollection, she felt like someone else was following them from behind, so she didn't dare go inside the corpse repository. Instead, she just stood outside and listened—listened to the bone-chilling sound of chewing."