大雨倾盆而下.
在低矮的灌木丛旁边,两个穿着草斗篷的男人正在挖一个坑.
泥土从铲子上被扔下来,落在他们旁边的泥坑里,水溅到空中.
"三叔,够了."
陈洛停顿了一下,用力将铁锹推入地面.他一只手按着把手,对身边的老人说.
他们两个停下了手头的工作.在他们挖掘的短短时间内,他们刚刚挖的坑已经被水填满了.
"把他们埋了."
三叔低头看了一眼他脚边的一排草席,现在已经沾满了黄泥.
这些是一群无名的尸体——没有人知道是谁杀死了他们.为了防止疾病传播,地方当局派他们两人来处理处理.
这是他们的职业.
尸体收集者.
说白了,他们不过是政府和黑社会的卑微走狗,收拾别人留下的烂摊子.
陈洛从来不想过这样的生活.当他穿越时,他从未想过自己最终会挖坟墓和埋葬尸体.
但一个人必须活下去!
这个世界完全陌生.
在外面,世界一片混乱,这不是一个他所知道的王朝.晚上,一些江湖的流浪者来来往往,随时都有可能失去理智.为了生存和吃得饱饱的,他求助于城里的三叔,过着让村民羡慕的生活.就在那时,他开始挖坟墓和埋葬尸体,到现在已经做了三年了.
一旦这一年过去,他就二十岁了!
"好吧."
陈洛一只手抓住附近的草席,将尸体移入坑中.
如果是其他人,他们肯定会一推就把尸体踢进坑里.但陈洛不会那样做.他的三叔也不会.
他的三叔告诉他,这是收尸人的规矩.
尊重每一个灵魂.
陈洛学到了,并牢记在心.他不知道三叔为什么要他这样做,但肯定是有原因的.每个职业都有自己的智慧,陈洛并不觉得,仅仅因为他穿越了,他脑子里的知识,就比别人世代积累的经验更有用.
第一具尸体被躺下,很快就与泥浆和水混合在一起.
这些是来自江湖的无名流浪者,他们的身体并不完整,所以不需要任何特别的尊重.
就埋葬他们吧.
放置完第一具尸体后,陈洛又爬了起来,扛起了第二具尸体.
三叔站在一旁,密切注视着,关注着陈洛的一举一动,偶尔出一句忠告.
处理尸体并不是一项简单的任务.
如果是一个自然原因死亡的老乞丐,也没什么好担心的.但江湖流浪者是另一回事.他们中的大多数人死于仇恨,有些人甚至在死后身上还携带着致命的毒药.许多年轻的尸体收集者在处理这些人的尸体时被毒死.
除了江湖人,还有另一种尸体需要小心——难民.
许多难民死于疾病,即使死后,他们的身体仍然会传播疾病并杀死与他们接触的人.
毒药和瘟疫.
这些是尸体收集者的死敌.
"小罗,你现在都快二十岁了吧?"三叔看着工作迅速高效的陈洛,眼中满是满意.
他一直很看重他哥哥的儿子.
Steady, hardworking.
Most importantly, he was meticulous — a rare quality in someone so young. Ever since Chen Luo started learning from him, he had never made any fatal mistakes. He picked up everything as soon as he was taught. By now, Chen Lao San had very little left to teach. In a little while, this nephew would be ready to strike out on his own.
"Once the year turns, it'll be here."
Chen Luo had just set the corpse down. He turned his head and responded, not quite sure why Third Uncle brought this up.
"It's about time you took a wife," Third Uncle said with a grin. "Once the new year starts, I'll head over to the outer streets and find you a match—someone with wide hips and a sturdy waist, so she can bear sons and carry on the Chen family line."
Their generation liked women who were fertile—slender ones, they simply looked down on.
"This isn't really urgent, is it?"Chen Luo's face was full of rejection.
He honestly couldn't accept the older generation's standards of beauty. Just imagining spending the rest of his life with a wife like that made him feel like digging a hole and burying himself in it.
"You little brat still don't get it. Once you're married, you'll understand the benefits of wide hips!"
This wasn't the first time Third Uncle had brought up the topic with Chen Luo.
Faced with his uncle's teasing, Chen Luo simply ignored him. After placing the corpse down, he climbed out of the pit again, getting ready to carry the last body.
By now, the rain was falling even harder, mixed with wind that stung against his face.A nearby mud pit had been washed open by the downpour, creating a small stream of muddy water that soaked both of their pant legs, turning them the color of yellow clay.
The straw mat wrapped around the corpse was also loosened by the flow.Chen Luo, his eyes stung by the wind and rain, accidentally grabbed hold of the corpse's head through the mat.
"Careful!"
Chen Lao San's expression changed. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed Chen Luo's wrist, while his other hand swiftly pulled out a red cord and tied it tightly around his arm, cutting off the blood flow.
If there was poison, tying off the blood vessels could give Chen Luo a chance to survive—maybe even at the cost of an arm, but at least not his life.
Chen Luo froze for a moment, then instinctively glanced back at the corpse.
His pupils contracted slightly, but before he could get a better look, Third Uncle's voice rang out beside him—and in the next instant, his right arm was tightly wrapped with the red cord, biting painfully into his wrist.
"I'm fine! It's just some beggar—nothing poisonous on him."
Snapping back to his senses, Chen Luo quickly responded. He glanced at his hand, saw that there was no discoloration, and finally let out a breath of relief.
He'd given himself a bit of a scare too.
Since he started this line of work, he had heard many stories—of people accidentally touching the bodies of jianghu figures and dying from poison, or contracting diseases and coughing themselves to death.
The toxins in this world were incredibly unreasonable; even if they were just on a corpse, touching them could still lead to death. So, under normal circumstances, they would never open the straw mat, let alone touch the body with their bare hands.
"You brat, are you trying to get yourself killed?"
Chen Lao San let out a breath of relief, then, in a fit of anger, slapped the back of Chen Luo's head.
"Go stand aside and watch properly! One mistake in this job, and it could cost you your life."
After sending Chen Luo away, Chen Lao San took over the task himself. He first carefully rewrapped the corpse in the straw mat, then bowed to it in respect. Only then did he cautiously lift the body and place it at the edge of the pit they had dug. By now, the pit was already half-filled with muddy water, and once the body was laid down, it quickly disappeared beneath the water.
The muddy water grew thicker and thicker, and the surrounding mud began to flow into the pit.
Seeing this, Chen Lao San didn't waste any time. He crawled out of the pit and called for Chen Luo to start filling it.
Together, they quickly filled the pit with earth, then piled some more dirt on top, forming a small mound. After stamping the nameless stone tablet the officials had given them onto the mound, the simple grave was completed.
"May you all rest in peace."
After filling the grave, Chen Lao San took out a bottle of cheap liquor mixed with water from the box behind him and poured it over the nameless stone tablet.
This was a habit of the corpse collectors, a way of bidding farewell to the departed souls and ensuring they wouldn't come back to haunt them.
After offering the liquor and chanting a prayer, the heaviest of the rain had already passed. Chen Lao San glanced at Chen Luo's hand one more time, and after confirming there was no issue, he finally untied the red cord and put it away.
"Let's go."
Chen Lao San packed up his things, placing the bottle of liquor and some cheap ritual tools back into the box, then led Chen Luo down the mountain.
This job was done, and it was time to go back and collect the payment.
Chen Luo followed behind. After walking about a hundred steps, he suddenly stopped and looked back.
In his field of vision, a gray scale appeared.
"Contact with deceased brainwaves, damage level 92%, would you like to read?"
He focused his attention and quickly saw a familiar line of text.
"Read!"
Chen Luo murmured to himself.
Soon, the text above changed, and a strange frequency entered his brain, as if he had connected to an external device. The next moment, a series of fragmented text appeared in his mind.
"Lan Ku Ball, Iron Thread Grass, boil to three parts cooked, mix with ginkgo and consume to increase strength."
After reading this sentence, Chen Luo instantly understood what his ability was.
The source of this information was the lingering obsession left behind by the corpse he had touched not long ago, the very content that remained in the dead man's mind until his last moments.
"This is the brainwave record left behind by that Jianghu expert? So, does this mean I can read the brainwaves of the dead?"
Chen Luo instantly understood the purpose of his ability.
This world is not purely ancient; it feels more like a chaotic era of multi-ethnic integration.
At the top, the government keeps things under control, but below, there are various Jianghu factions and local gangs with their own territories. On the surface, everyone maintains the dignity of the imperial court and follows the rules, but at night, how things are done is up to the Jianghu experts.
When Chen Luo first arrived in this world, he also considered learning martial arts.
Because learning martial arts was the only way to change his life.
Simply doing business would not work in such a chaotic world.
But Chen Luo tried many ways and still couldn't reach the martial arts circles. To be precise, none of the people he knew had ever truly been involved with martial arts. This wasn't surprising, as the monopoly of the privileged classes is inherent, and very rarely does it trickle down. The society he came from before his transmigration was the most direct proof of this. Everyone knew that people in finance made money, but how many could actually engage in finance? At best, they were just "chives" or "tools," the kind who got harvested once they entered the field, a form of "pseudo-finance." The real financial moguls who manipulated the markets were separated from the lower classes.
"The herbs are not hard to find. Since they became the final obsession of a Jianghu expert, they should still have some efficacy."
The day after burying the bodies, Chen Luo, having received his payment, bought the herbs mentioned in the obsession.
They weren't expensive; the whole set of herbs only cost him three big coins.
As the sky began to lighten, Chen Luo was in the stable, brewing the herbs in a cracked earthen pot. The pungent smell lingered in the courtyard.
That means Third Uncle went out drinking last night. If he were still in the courtyard, he would've definitely come out to hit someone.
Third Uncle's courtyard wasn't big, only two rooms in total. When brewing something in the courtyard, the smell would naturally spread into the rooms.
A quarter of an hour later.
The medicine was ready. The herbs had turned into mush, and the pitch-black concoction in the earthen pot looked like something no human could drink.
Chen Luo picked up the earthen pot and lifted the lid.
He brought it to his nose and sniffed.
The sharp, pungent scent nearly made his eyes water. After the initial spiciness, there was a lingering stench, like rotten eggs that had been left for ten days or more. The smell was so strong it almost made him vomit up his leftover food. It was hard to imagine how a few ordinary herbs could release such a horrific odor when brewed together.
"Can this thing really be drunk?"
After nearly gagging, Chen Luo looked at the earthen pot in his hand, his face full of doubt.
But the money was already spent, and it couldn't just go to waste.
Chen Luo glanced over at the mangy dog that his third uncle kept. He remembered when he first arrived in the city, the flea-bitten dog had chewed up a pair of his pants. In the corner, the dog, now hiding to avoid the stench, instinctively tightened its tail, sensing that something unpleasant might be about to happen.
"Come here, come here, today I'll give you a special meal."
Chen Luo lifted the jar and waved at the mangy dog with a friendly expression.