55: Fifty-five.

The Dead Come Back to Life 55: Fifty-five.

The Dead Come Back to Life Lu Li tilted his head as the newspaper’s carriage brushed past him.

The continuous drizzle was at odds with the densely packed dark clouds and lightning overhead.

The oil lamp was covered with a layer of water stains, making the light hazy.

Lu Li reached into his coat, pulled out an umbrella, and popped it open with a bang, shielding himself from the light rain.

Parting the curtain slightly, Anna, hugging her knees, sat quietly at the edge of the carriage behind Lu Li, then stretched her neck out curiously.

Lu Li took out some patient files and began to flip through them.

Dust slid from the creases of the papers, and seeing this, Lu Li decisively stretched out his hand to brush off a piece that had fallen behind the carriage.

Having put away the patient files, Lu Li started to read quickly.

Lu Li’s rapid reading drew skepticism.

“You read so fast…

can you remember all that?” Anna asked doubtfully.

“I just need to find Edward’s name,” Lu Li replied without looking up.

The road was bumpy, and the font on the paper was small; otherwise, Lu Li could have read even faster.

When Watch Town came into view, Lu Li successfully found the key person of interest in the commission: information about Edward.

Edward Ben, a Belfast man, was diagnosed with delusional disorder and admitted to the Sixth Psychiatric Hospital.

His condition worsened; he attacked medical staff and attempted to escape the hospital.

After fleeing the hospital, he invaded a poor cow and was killed by the cow’s owner.

His family had moved and could not be contacted for further updates.

It wasn’t until his cousin remembered he still had a brother staying in the asylum that he contacted the Detective Agency.

Lu Li tore out the page with Edward’s information from the file, folded it, and tucked it into his coat.

He tossed the rest of the patient files back inside the carriage.

They might come in handy, and if not, they’d make good kindling.

After doing all this, Lu Li slightly tilted his head to look at Anna, whose clear eyes unwaveringly stared at him, “Any questions?”

“Quick, tell me what happened when you went in there, and what’s with the injury on the back of your head?” Anna asked impatiently, unable to suppress her curiosity any longer.

Curiosity killed Anna.

“I was knocked out,” Lu Li answered.

Anna froze in the back seat, “Huh?

You could actually be knocked out?”

“Yes.

I thought it was a paranormal event, but I didn’t expect it to be a live person,” Lu Li briefly described the situation he encountered when he went down alone.

“Pfft, this is an asylum; guessing there might be psychotics hiding here isn’t far-fetched, right?” Anna rarely felt intellectually superior as she looked down on Lu Li.

Lu Li didn’t argue, admitting his oversight, “The problem indeed lies with me.

I’m still not accustomed to distinguishing between the world of ordinary people and that of an Exorcist.”

His thinking was becoming somewhat paranoid.

Perhaps because he had been dealing with ghosts lately, Lu Li subconsciously attributed strange phenomena to ghosts rather than to human activity.

If it had been Lu Li who had never encountered ghosts or exorcists, he would likely have initially suspected human interference in such an incident, getting infinitely closer to the truth: a madman plotting something in the Abandoned Asylum.

All in all, this encounter with the paranormal exposed a significant flaw in Lu Li.

However, fortunately, he still had a chance to correct it.

“I heard the officer mentioning that we might be in danger, is that true?” Anna asked.

Lu Li nodded, “The unknown is more terrifying than what is evident.”

The enemy is most terrifying not when it is powerful, but when it hides in the shadows.

Fortunately, the Detective Agency had Anna to look after the place.

Though she seemed like nothing more than a decorative mascot, she was enough to scare some people off.

Of course, Anna mustn’t know about the above statement, especially not the latter half.

“Hmm…

Is Asina’s husband included in the patient records?” Anna still remembered the pitiful woman and child from the gallery.

“No.

Her husband didn’t have any mental issues nor was he ever a patient.”

Lu Li responded, pondering the previous conversation with Officer Vincent.

…

“You’d better head back before the rain gets worse.” Officer Vincent squinted at the sky and then continued, “We’ll keep in touch with you and hope that you will be on the lookout for the murderer.”

“I will,” Lu Li nodded, removing the blanket draped over him and placing it at the back of the car.

“By the way, have there been many disappearances around here recently?”

“Yes,” Officer Vincent nodded, instructing a junior officer to help elsewhere, while he stayed to explain, “There have been more than a dozen missing cases here recently.

We’re matching bodies now, and it’s very likely that the killer is that Richard.

If not for your help, more residents of Watch Town and travelers passing by might have fallen victim.

Thank you for your assistance to the Watch Town Police Station.”

“It’s my duty.”

…

In Asina’s narrative, Bill Eddy was also one of the missing.

The only difference was that he returned home a few days later.

Fingertips lightly tapping on the wooden surface beneath him, Lu Li gathered the clues he had collected so far, arranging them in the order he imagined.

[People disappearing around the Asylum][Capturing living people for experiments][Experiment involves using the human body as a container][Bill Eddy missing][Bill Eddy returns after a few days][Bill Eddy kills Asina shortly after his return][Bill Eddy goes missing again][Bill Eddy’s last known location still near the Asylum]

Lu Li realized he was getting closer to the truth.

After Bill Eddy’s first disappearance and return…

Was the husband Asina saw really her husband?

Could it be that under that skin, there resided another, different soul?

While he had straightened out the major clues, some questions remained unanswered, like why Bill Eddy had accused Asina of killing “her” when he attacked.

But fortunately, Lu Li didn’t need to rush to uncover the truth.

“Did you think of something?” Anna asked, tilting her head.

“Yes.”

Lu Li shared the terrifying truth he had pieced together with Anna.

“A guy trying to resurrect the dead…and it seems he succeeded.”

…

The hospital, basement level one.

The operating room, several figures gathered around a crack in the corner, the light from the oil lamps casting on a figure sprawled on the ground.

A police officer lay in the corner, reaching deep into the hole, struggling to drag something out.

During the search, the police had easily found this conspicuous hole in the operation room.

After searching elsewhere, they congregated to probe it.

In the deepest part of the hole, they saw something.

The officer with the longest arms was sent to reach in, his thin clothes scraping against the jagged rocks, and with a muffled groan, he grabbed the object in the deepest part of the hole and slowly dragged it out, revealing it to everyone.

Officer Vincent, standing by, had his pupils suddenly constrict to pinpoints.

“What the hell…

is this?”