Chapter 151: Midnight Corpse Ghost

Chapter 151: Midnight Corpse Ghost

Sunlight broke through thin clouds, bathing the vast, snowy landscape in a gentle glow.

Its warmth seemed to wrap the entire Criminal Investigation Team in a cozy embrace.

Holding a cup of instant coffee, Xiao Yu took a sip.

He savored its subtle bitterness mingled with a whisper of sweetness.

It had been a week since he returned to the team.

Life went on, and the days were pleasantly unhurried.

Lately, Bincheng had been unusually quiet, with no major cases stirring up trouble.

Deputy Captain Xiao Yu was idly leafing through old case files, just to while away the time.

Ah, the life of a cop—plain, unadorned, and relentlessly mundane.

There were plenty of pending cases, and many ancient files still lingered.

Each case was stranger than the last.

When you dug into them,

a normal mind might tumble into a black hole.

Sometimes, it made you question your entire existence…

wondering if ghosts were truly among us…

“Wanna check out a case?”

Zhao Changshan stepped up to his subordinate.

“Big case?” Xiao Yu’s eyes lit up.

“What are you thinking?”

Zhao Changshan laughed and shook his head. “If every day had a big case, we’d be swamped. You’re just itching to put on a show, aren’t you?”

Xiao Yu blinked and retorted, “My flashy moves aren’t about showboating… So, what’s the case?”

“A corpse theft case.”

Zhao Changshan’s expression turned serious. “It was handed down from higher up.”

“Huh?” Xiao Yu was momentarily stunned.

Corpse theft cases always sent a chill down his spine.

It hadn’t been long since the crematorium smuggling case had simmered down.

And now, another corpse theft case had emerged?

“Don’t get ahead of yourself—it’s not that dramatic.”

Zhao Changshan chuckled at his junior’s look. “The morgue reported a missing body… and they claimed it was haunted!”

“Haunted?”

Xiao Yu teased, “So even ghosts are getting bolder these days?”

“The case is definitely… odd,”

Zhao Changshan frowned. “I skimmed the file. The caller wasn’t joking. If he were lying, seasoned detectives like us would have already seen through it.”

“Hmm?”

Raising an eyebrow, Xiao Yu narrowed his eyes in thought.

He understood exactly what his boss meant.

If the caller were lying, how could he fool veteran investigators like them?

If he wasn’t lying…

just how much hot air does one need to claim they saw a ghost?

That, too, explained why Zhao Changshan had sought him out.

Cases like these might look trivial, but their investigations could twist into unexpected territory.

They could even test your intellect and your core beliefs.

The whole team knew it was all just a playground for the mind.

Xiao Yu boasted that he was second only to himself—who could dare claim first?

Zhao Changshan asked his junior if he was in.

If he wasn’t interested and thought the case boring, they could hand it off to another deputy.

After all, compared to the major cases Xiao Yu usually handled, this was small potatoes.

Like a gentle drizzle before a mighty waterfall.

Who exactly were you insulting?

“Then I’ll go check it out first,”

Xiao Yu agreed, not minding the small scale of the case.

With nothing better to do, he decided to see for himself.

He wanted to find out if ghosts really walked among us.

……

Hospital.

Xiao Yu and Guo Qiang peered through the glass at the caller, who slept in the intensive care unit.

“Caller: Miao Jiancheng, Male, 47, local, morgue security guard…”

“At 1:32 AM yesterday, Miao Jiancheng called to report that while on patrol he found a freezer in the morgue door left ajar and a corpse missing. Later, he noticed a shadow in the corridor…”

“Then, he saw a female corpse slumped against the corridor’s far door, her eyes seemingly fixed on him…”

“Just as fear overwhelmed him and he reached for help, the corridor lights went out…”

“In that moment, he heard footsteps—not the usual sound of shoes on hard ground, but soft, bare footsteps, steadily drawing near…”

“When the lights flickered back on and he hesitated to retreat, he was horrified to see the female corpse lying right before him.”

“Terrified, Miao Jiancheng fled the morgue… and in his panic, he ran into the street where he was hit by a car and rushed to the hospital…”

“His statement was recorded at six in the morning after he regained consciousness, and then the case was handed over to our department.”

Guo Qiang summarized the key points succinctly and remarked, “It seems someone stole the corpse to deliberately scare Miao Jiancheng—it can’t be the work of ghosts…”

“No surveillance footage at all?”

Xiao Yu continued to fix his gaze on the sleeping caller, Miao Jiancheng.

“Morgues have strict rules—out of respect for the dead, no internal surveillance is permitted.”

Guo Qiang shook his head. “The external cameras didn’t pick up anything unusual.”

“Respect… for the dead?”

A peculiar expression crossed Xiao Yu’s face.

“That rule was enacted after a peculiar case a few years back.”

Guo Qiang explained, “There was an incident in a morgue in another province. An employee misused their position to secretly record videos and photos of corpses and later sold them online. Once the scandal broke, it caused a massive uproar… you know the drill. Since then, no morgue in the country is allowed internal surveillance—kind of like how public showers aren’t fitted with cameras!”

Xiao Yu nodded in agreement.

It was an understandable measure.

After all, many corpses in the morgue aren’t even clothed.

Internal surveillance would inevitably capture those bodies, providing potential fodder for criminals.

Videos and photos of the dead can fetch a pretty price.

Some perverts or disturbed minds simply have a morbid fascination with such images.

And there are plenty of buyers out there!

Who would want their loved ones’ remains paraded for public display?

No one wishes for their kin’s body to become a spectacle.

Thus, internal surveillance in morgues is strictly forbidden.

Only external cameras are used, making it impossible to verify exactly what happened last night.

We must rely solely on the caller’s account to piece together the case.

The complexity of the case is self-evident.

So, were ghosts really involved?

Did the corpse actually walk away on its own?

Otherwise, why would the caller claim to have seen a ghost?

Xiao Yu scoffed at the notion.

He’d said it many times before.

Sometimes, what the eyes see isn’t necessarily the truth.

Savvy criminals can employ a myriad of tricks to manipulate perceptions.

They can deceive everyone with their crafted illusions.

Especially for us cops—until we uncover the truth and conclusively solve the case,

we shouldn’t take appearances at face value.

Let’s head to the morgue and see for ourselves what really happened.

Xiao Yu and Guo Qiang left the hospital and headed for the morgue…