Chapter 226
Upon hearing this, the guard instantly understood who it was.
The number of people locked up in the police station's jail was relatively small; most serious offenders had already been sent to other prisons to serve their sentences. Therefore, he had a vivid impression of anyone who was detained there, especially female prisoners.
After all, this particular female inmate was a seasoned criminal. She had previously made a fortune by aligning herself with the Heishui Party, but after the party fell apart recently, she had returned to her old ways of robbery and theft.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm afraid I can't fulfill that request."
The guard's expression was somewhat nuanced as he looked in Xia'er’s direction.
"Why not?"
Xia'er frowned slightly.
In the simulation, she had come with the Russell family crest. If it wasn't absolutely necessary, she didn't want to exchange for the Aivina family crest to handle this matter, especially since she couldn't explain the origin of that crest to Aivina.
"She’s already dead," the guard shrugged and said. "Just a few hours ago, she went into withdrawal, clawed at her own neck, and by the time we found her, her body was already stiff."
Dead? Just last night?
The sudden turn of events made Xia'er furrow her brow, but she didn’t lose her composure. Instead, she asked directly, "What about her body?"
"It's still in the cell, just waiting for someone to claim it... After all, it's pretty unlucky to leave it here."
The guard's expression was filled with disdain, as if he found it quite distasteful that a prisoner had died in the police station.
After all, this was an era where even autopsies were considered crude by detectives, and people still held deep superstitions about corpses.
"No need to find anyone to claim it," Xia'er said, feeling a slight sense of relief upon hearing that the body was still there. "Just let me take her. I’ll handle her funeral rites."
"Oh? Are you a friend of hers? Of course, that’s no problem."
The guard nodded repeatedly, clearly eager to get rid of the body as soon as possible.
He led Xia'er down to the underground jail and opened one of the cells, revealing a brown burlap body bag.
The crude body bag was stained with hardened black blood. Xia'er didn’t hesitate; she crouched down and unwrapped the bag, revealing the head of the female inmate.
There were scratch marks on her face... her neck was torn, and her complexion had turned purple... it certainly looked like she had clawed at herself and bled to death.
Thank goodness she came early... If she had waited longer, the body might have ended up in a mass grave outside the city.
The damage to her face wasn’t a major concern since she was going to take skin from other parts for replacement... As for the color of her face, makeup could easily fix that.
If all else failed, a bit of animal blood could be used to give her some color; after all, it wasn’t about bringing her back to life, just making the corpse look a bit more lifelike.
Xia'er tightened the burlap bag and dragged the body out of the police station.
By now, the streets were beginning to fill with people, many of whom cast curious glances in Xia'er’s direction...
An ordinary believer wouldn’t attract much attention, but a believer dragging a body bag certainly would—before long, this scene would be transformed into various gossip versions, enriching their mundane daily lives.
Xia'er noticed this issue as well.
Her appearance was indeed quite conspicuous.
Realizing this, she slipped into a dim alley, dragging the body bag behind her.
The sky was just beginning to show a hint of lake blue, with no sunlight yet, and the alley remained shrouded in gloom.
"No.4."
A silver light flashed, and Xia'er’s fate points dropped from 168 to 163.
She spent 5 fate points to transform into the "Coroner" and saved her progress.
Crouching beside the body bag, a strange flesh-colored spider crawled out from the shadow of her cloak, climbing up her arm and jumping onto the bag, biting through it and burrowing inside.
In the quiet alley, a sound reminiscent of tiny teeth gnawing on bone echoed.
Soon, the body bag in front of Xia'er began to twitch.
She reached out, untied the rope binding the bag, and opened it.
A stiff, pale hand, tinged with a hint of purple, emerged from the bag and pressed against the ground.
Footsteps approached from behind, and Xia'er quickly stood up and turned, walking toward the alley's entrance, brushing past the newcomer.
Meanwhile, the long-dead corpse slowly propped itself up against the alley wall, clutching the bag that had contained it.
Thud—
The man entering the alley bumped shoulders with the corpse, stumbling slightly. He seemed unaware that someone was standing nearby and quickly turned to say, "Sorry, ma'am..."
In the dim morning light at the alley's entrance, he could see the outline of the woman’s body, but for some reason, he felt her movements were a bit... strange?
Before he could ponder further, the woman ignored him entirely, swaying slightly as she leaned against the wall, continuing toward the alley's mouth.
Is she hungover? How odd...
The man scratched his head, seeing that the woman didn’t pursue the matter, and turned back to continue deeper into the alley.
What he didn’t notice was that his white shirt had brushed against a patch of dried blood when he collided with the woman.
...
Xia'er hurried back to her room, almost jogging to make it before the sun fully rose.
After placing the body in the living room, she went out to buy some basic suturing tools and large pieces of cheap fabric, before returning home once more.
Xia'er spread the fabric on a larger dining table and summoned the body, laying it on the scrap cloth.
While the "Coroner" effect was still active, she quickly cut away the clothes from the corpse, not bothering to clean off the bloodstains, and began to stitch it up as fast as she could.
There was no need to worry about infection with the corpse, so Xia'er’s crude tools wouldn’t affect the outcome of the suturing—at worst, the stitches on the face would be a bit more visible.
After all, this era didn’t have any fancy stitching techniques; truly hiding the seams was nearly impossible. She could only make it look as human as possible.
In the simulation, Xia'er had already seen the images and tips provided by her simulated self, so this time, she worked with remarkable speed.
In the simulation, her self had taken some time to explore, using two save transformations—about an hour—to completely stitch the body.
In reality, Xia'er already knew which pieces of skin or muscle to cut and how much bone to remove to make the final product resemble the woman from her memories. With the 【Suturing Lv.2】 skill at her disposal, her stitching speed was quite rapid.
Before long, Xia'er had completely reassembled the face of the corpse, and in the final seconds, she used spider silk to seal the body entirely.
As the web enveloped the corpse, Xia'er stepped back, looking at the now-mummified body before her.
Done...
A silver light flickered around Xia'er, her dark blue hair was once again covered in red, and the dark purple in her eyes quickly faded.
Xia'er dragged the body to hide it in the cabinet beneath the kitchen, placed her tools on the dining table, and finally removed her blood-stained cloak, laying it on the table as well.
Lastly, she wrapped everything in the scrap fabric spread across the table, creating a bundle that resembled kitchen waste, placing it beside the trash can.
These items could be dealt with later—burned and buried, or simply sacrificed as a worthless extraordinary item, tossing them into the gate to the other realm when it opened.
Thinking about it, using the other realm to dispose of this "garbage" was quite convenient, and it was nearly impossible for anyone to trace it... though she wondered if it would even be allowed.
After everything was taken care of, Xia'er went to the washroom to clean her hands, then leaned back on the sofa, feeling slightly drained.
The lingering smell of blood filled the living room, and the cozy little house she had rented to live in with her sister now felt completely devoid of warmth.
Transforming and saving also drained Xia'er’s mental energy. She leaned back against the sofa, closed her eyes, and prepared to catch a bit of sleep, not wanting to waste any time that could help her recover.
For Xia'er now, sleep had transformed from a source of enjoyment and relaxation into a task she felt compelled to complete.
About half an hour later, Xia'er opened her eyes from a light sleep.
Now, all she could do was wait and pray.
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