They walked up to the big house, which was shaped in the style of Queen Anne. Ah Xiu didn't know who Queen Anne really was, and he didn't know why she liked the eerie-looking house that the weirdos lived in in the movie "Citizen Kane". It is the only house in the neighborhood with wide windows wide open. They walked through the door and went around to the back of the house.

Mr. Azir retrieves a key from the keychain, opens a large double door, and they enter a huge, unheated room. There were only two people in the room. One of them was a tall, dark-skinned man with a large metal scalpel in his hand. The other was a dead teenage girl lying on a long, porcelain-topped platform that resembled both a morgue and a sink.

The cork board on the wall above the body was nailed several photographs of the dead girl. One of the photos is a large profile picture of a high school student smiling. In another photo, she stands in a row of three girls, dressed in a prom dress, her thick black hair coiled up on top of her head in an extremely intricate pattern.

Now, she was lying on the porcelain table cold, her black hair hanging down, hanging over her shoulders, stained with coagulated blood.

"This is my partner, Mr. Nasus. Azir said.

"We've already met. "Forgive me for not being able to shake your hand right now." ”

Ah Xiu looked down at the female horror on the table. "How did she die?" he asked.

"It's too bad to choose a boyfriend. Nasus said.

"In general, this mistake is not fatal. "But this time." He was drunk and had a knife on him. She told him she thought she was pregnant, and he didn't believe it was his baby. ”

"She's been stabbed......" said Mr. Nasus, beginning to count the number of stab wounds. He pressed the footswitch and activated a small tape recorder on the table next to him. "Five knives in total. There were three stab wounds on the left front chest, the first stab penetrated the gap between the fourth and fifth ribs, just at the central edge of the left chest, to a depth of 2.2 cm, and the second and third stabs pierced from below the center of the left chest and penetrated to the sixth rib, overlapping the two wounds, and the depth of the stab wound was determined to be 3 cm. There was also a two-centimetre wound on the second rib above the left anterior chest, and a five-centimetre wound at the deepest point, 1.6 centimeters deepest, on the left deltoid muscle in the middle and front of the body, which was a slash laceration. All stab wounds to the chest are deeply penetrating. Other than that, there are no other visible wounds. He lifted his foot and let go of the switch. Ah Xiu noticed a small microphone hanging from a rope above the table.

"You're also the coroner?" Ashu asked.

"In our place, coroners are appointed by politicians. "His job is to kick the body, and if the body doesn't kick him back, he signs the death certificate." Nasus, on the other hand, was the so-called autopsy, performing autopsies for the town's coroner and then keeping tissue samples for analysis. He is also responsible for taking pictures of wounds. ”

Nasus completely ignored the existence of both of them. He took a large scalpel and made a deep, large "V" incision, starting from the shoulder blades of her shoulders and working her way up to the sternum, and from the sternum down to the pubic bone, expanding the "V" into a huge "Y". Next, he picked up what looked like a heavy, small chrome drill rig with a medallion-sized circular gear saw at the top. He started the chainsaw, tried it first, and then sawed the ribs with the chainsaw.

The girl's body was like a purse, and in the blink of an eye, it was all opened.

Ah Xiu smelled a faint, somewhat unpleasant smell, a penetrating, somewhat irritating smell of meat.

"I thought it would smell worse. Ah Xiu said frankly.

"She's fresh," said Nasus, "and she hasn't even been pierced with a knife, so she doesn't have the stench of feces and urine." ”

Ah Xiu found himself looking away, not because he thought he would be sick to his stomach, but because he suddenly had a strong desire to leave the girl a little privacy. If you want to be naked, it's hard to find anything more naked than this disemboweled.

Nasus knotted the intestines below the stomach and inside the pelvis. The intestines glistened inside her belly and felt slippery like a snake. He ran his fingers through his intestines, measuring them foot by foot, then said "OK" into the microphone and put all the intestines into a bucket on the floor. He used a vacuum pump to drain the blood in her chest cavity and then measured the weight. Next, he began to examine the inside of her ribcage and recorded his observations into a microphone. "There are three breaks in the pericardium, which is filled with clotted and flowing blood. ”

Nasus grabbed her heart, cut it from the top, flipped it in the palm of her hand, scrutinizing it closely. He pressed the switch of the tape recorder and dictated: "Two injuries were visible on the myocardium, a 1.5 cm lesion on the right ventricle and a 1.8 cm penetrating injury on the left ventricle. ”

Next, Nasus cut off both sides of his lungs, and the left lung was stabbed with a knife, almost half of which was necrotic. He weighed the lungs, then the heart, and then took pictures of the wounds on the organs. He then cut a small piece of tissue from each lobe and placed it in a jar.

"It's formaldehyde. Mr. Azir explained.

Nasus continued to speak into the microphone, describing the autopsy he had done and what he had observed, all while he chased down the girl's liver, stomach, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, uterus, and ovaries.

He weighed each organ and dictated that the organ was normal and free of any damage. He also cut out a small piece of tissue from each organ and placed it in a jar filled with formaldehyde.

He cut off an extra piece of tissue from his heart, liver, and kidney, and put it in his mouth and chewed it slowly. While chewing, you continue to do what you do.

But for some reason, Ah Xiu felt that he did it very well, and did it right: with full respect for the deceased, without the slightest obscenity.

"Do you want to stay here and work with us for a while?" asked Nasus, as he continued to chew on the girl's heart.

"If you want me. Ah Xiu said.

"Of course we want you. "There is no reason why you should not be accepted, but there are too many reasons to keep you." During your stay here, you are under our protection. ”

"I hope you don't mind sleeping under the same roof as a dead man. Nasus said.

Ah Xiu suddenly remembered the feeling of touching Laura's lips, the bitterness and coldness. "I don't mind," he said, "as long as they're really dead." ”

Nasus spun around and scrutinized him with brown-black eyes like a desert dog, inquiring and cold. "Here they are real dead people. He said.

"It seems so," said Asho, "but it seems to me that the resurrection of the dead is easy. ”

"That's not the case at all. "You know, even zombies are made from living people. A little bit of powder, a little spell, and finally a push, and you'll be able to create a zombie. They are actually living people, but they believe they are dead. But to truly resurrect a dead person, and continue to use his own body, it takes a great deal of mana. He hesitated for a moment, then continued, "But in the Old World, in the past, it was easier to bring the dead back to life--- as for the Yin Corps, they were not actually alive at all, just something that looked like it, and the Dementors were a pitiful weapon of murder, a thing. ”

"You can 'stuck' or 'imprison' a person's soul in him for thousands of years--- the lich's life box, and the so-called 'horcruxes' that have recently been turned out to be incomplete. "But once the confinement fails, the soul is separated, and this separation is much more painful than the normal soul is out of the body, and you know, time not only acts on your body in the world, but also erodes your soul." That was a long time ago, though. ”

He respectfully put the organs that had been cut and removed back into the girl's ribcage, and the intestines and sternum were put back in their place, pressing the edges of the cut skin together. Then, he took out the thick needles and threads, and deftly and quickly stitched together the incisions of the corpse, stitching them together, feeling like he was mending a baseball. The corpse changed from a pile of flesh back to a girl.

"You see, there are people who think that the essence of life is just a bunch of flesh, bones, blood, or other real things that are mended and joined together by sewing. But no matter what, even with the best magic, it is much more difficult to reawaken the soul out of the body. Nasus glanced at Ashu, as if he thought Ashu had such thoughts.

Ah Xiu does have, and not long ago, Laura just made such a request.

"I'm going to have a beer. Nasus said, taking off his rubber gloves and throwing them in the trash, then his brown and black smock and throwing them into the laundry basket. Finally, he picked up the jar with a paper tray, which contained various organs and tissues of red, purple, and brown. "Come along?"

They walked down the back stairs to the kitchen. It is a simple and decent room with brown and white. As for the decoration style, Ah Xiu thinks that it was last renovated in the twenties of the twentieth century, and it has not been changed in any way since the renovation. On one side of the kitchen wall was a large gurgling refrigerator. Nasus opened the refrigerator door, put the plastic jars containing the spleen, kidneys, liver, and heart, and took out three more brown bottles. Azir opened the glass cabinet with the glass door, took out three tall glasses, and waved his hand to signal Ashu to sit down at the table.

Azir poured out the beer, first to Asho, then to Nasus. The beer tastes good, slightly bitter and dark.

"Good beer. Ah Xiu couldn't help but praise.

"We brew it ourselves. "In the past, it was always women who brewed beer, and they were much better skilled than we did. But now it's just the three of us, me, him, and her. He pointed to the brown kitten curled up in the corner basket and snoozing, "We had a lot of people in the beginning. But Sain left us and went on an expedition, and that was ...... Two hundred years ago? Yes, two hundred years now. We've gotten a postcard from him from Runeterra, probably in 1905 or 1906, and then there's been no news. And poor Reekton, who is completely insane......" His voice faded until it turned into a sigh and a sad shake of his head.

"I can still see him occasionally," said Nasus, "when he goes out to pick up the body." He took a sip of his beer.

"I will work hard to compensate for the cost of staying here. Ashur said, "If you tell me what to do, I will do it." ”

"We'll help you find things to do. Nasus agreed.

The brown kitten opened its eyes and stood up. She walked lightly across the kitchen floor and pushed her head against Asho's boots. He lowered his left hand and grabbed her forehead, behind her ears, and at her neck. She hunched over in revulsion, then jumped onto his lap and lay on his chest, touching his nose with her cold nose. Then she curled up comfortably on his lap and went back to sleep. He reached out and stroked her soft fur. She slept warm and pleasantly on his lap, as if lying in the safest place in the world. Ah Xiu felt very happy.

The beer made Ah Xiu's head dizzy, and it was very comfortable.

"Your room is at the top of the stairs, next to the bathroom. "Your overalls hang in the closet — you'll see." I guess you'll probably want to take a shower and shave first. ”

Ah Xiu really wanted to take a bath. He bathed in a cast-iron bathtub before shaving. He was nervous because he was using an old-fashioned razor that Nasus had lent him. The razor is extremely sharp, and the handle is pearl oyster. Ah Xiu wondered if this razor was usually used for the last shave of the dead. He had never used such a straight razor before, but he hadn't cut himself at all. He washed off his shaving cream and stared at his naked body in the bathroom mirror. There were bruises all over his body, fresh bruises on his chest and arms, overlapping with those left to him by the madman Sweeney. In the mirror, he stared at Ah Xiu with a look of extreme distrust.

Then, as if someone was holding his hand, he subconsciously raised the straight-handled razor and held the blade against his throat.

Maybe it's a good way to get out, he thought, simple and effective. If there's anyone who can calmly take care of his aftermath, clean up the scene, and then do what he should do, it's the two guys sitting downstairs drinking beer right now. Once it's over, there's no more troubles, no more questions about Laura, no more mysterious events and conspiracies, no more nightmares. There is only tranquility and calm, and eternal rest. With a single stroke, from one ear to the other, it's all over.

He stood there, razor in hand to his throat. A wisp of blood ran down from where the blade touched his skin, but he didn't even notice. Lo and behold, he said to himself, and could almost hear whispers in his ears, and there was no pain. So sharp that you don't feel anything. Before I could realize it, I was dead.

The bathroom door popped open, only a few inches wide, but it was enough for the brown kitten to burrow its head through the crack in the door and meow curiously at him.

"Hey," he said to the kitten, "I thought I locked the door." ”

He closed the razor that slit his throat and put it back next to the sink, wiping the blood from the small wound with toilet paper. Then, he wrapped the bath towel around his waist and went back to the bedroom next door.