It was as if, perhaps due to a psychological effect, once my white hair was plucked out, my mind cleared completely. During the process, Xia Xiaoling didn't say much to me, only quietly performing some simple, gentle tasks.
Now I understood Xia Xiaoling's prowess in hypnotherapy. Unlike other psychologists, she didn't ask patients many questions to understand their situation and then devise treatments. She could simply sit by someone's side and make them feel incredibly comforted, as if every moment spent with her purified the inner darkness. Gradually, I finally saw a glimmer of hope unfolding before me. I reached out to touch it, grasping a wisp of residual light. However, when I opened my eyes, I found my hand resting on Xia Xiaoling's book.
She suddenly put the book away and stood up, saying, "I believe you must be feeling much better, Da Shengzi. Don't be so foolish again. You'll have many more cases like this to handle. I can't always be treating you!"
"You..."
Watching her walk out of the pavilion, I wanted to stand up but found myself a bit tired. I returned to the provincial department the next day. Upon my return, I felt much more relaxed and less troubled, with my spirits significantly lifted. Noticing my change, Liu Yuning curiously asked, "You've recovered quite quickly! Did you sleep early last night?"
"Yes, I had Xia Xiaoling help me with treatment. She's truly a born psychologist!"
"Oh? Pretty impressive, that girl. So young, just like Dao Zhiyong."
"Exactly. It seems we're getting old. Our successors will probably be them, the most suitable ones."
"Are you sure?"
"Haha, we'll see when the time comes!"
As we were talking, Dao Zhiyong suddenly entered my office. I noticed him tightly gripping something in his hand and curiously asked, "What's wrong, Zhiyong?"
"We have something! This is a notebook I found in Liu Haokang's second home, a private villa!"
"Oh? Did you find anything there?"
"You look for yourself!" Dao Zhiyong handed the notebook to me. I quickly flipped through it, revealing dense red text entries.
"May 2nd, 2021. Doctor Tang, you are my first collaborator. I never expected you to dare leak our secrets. Damned bastard, see how I'll deal with you! I can't go to jail because of you, ahahaha! Our secret cannot be exposed by others. To make you unable to speak forever, the only way is to kill you!
May 4th, 2021. Today I deliberately invited Doctor Tang to my funeral home, telling him there was an important task. This guy was reluctant to come, even threatening to report me if I didn't cooperate. But I told him that if he came to the funeral home, we could meet one last time before I surrendered. The guy fell for it, ha ha. At that moment, I brought him to the office, closed the door, picked up a brick, and smashed it hard against his forehead. The guy didn't even react before I stunned him. Then I straddled him and smashed his head relentlessly. The entire office walls and floor were covered in blood. His skull had many large holes, and even his eyeballs were smashed out, yet I still didn't stop. I kept smashing, smashing, until his head was completely destroyed. I know one must dispose of a corpse after killing someone, but this is a funeral home, ahahaha! Under the cover of late night darkness, I dragged the body to the crematorium and, without anyone noticing, threw Doctor Tang's body into the incinerator. Watching him burn and twist into distorted shapes in the flames, listening to the crackling sounds, I felt a sense of relief. I couldn't let him ruin my grand plan, heh heh heh...
2022, June 1st. It's Children's Day. Doctor He brought me another child. This Doctor He seems okay. This is the third child I've cremated. Since Doctor Tang's death, I've been collaborating with Doctor He. This guy is truly professional. He was initially unwilling to cooperate, but under the temptation of profit, he eventually compromised. This guy, he was actually my former classmate, just like Doctor Tang. We all studied medicine, but I didn't pursue this profession. No one knows why!
I won't tell anyone either, ah ah ah! Even if I told, no one would believe it, all because of a reason that is absurd to others. Absurd? But watching him enter the cremator, I felt excited, thrilled, as if the whole world was spinning for me. Ordinary people can't experience this!
June 5th. I received the fifth corpse. Not a child, nor an adult, but an old man. This old man was truly terrifying. While burning, he actually crawled out of the cremator. At that time, I was the only one present. When dealing with certain corpses I 'like,' I don't like employees around. I prefer to experience that process alone, that thrilling process. I recorded this process and even took videos, ah ah ah! Isn't that interesting? I'll often revisit these records, watching how people are slowly cremated. Those doctors all call me a pervert, a devil, but they can't refuse me, simply because of their momentary curiosity, ah ah ah! Serves them right.
June 9th. Today, I unintentionally calculated the number of people I've personally burned to death. I didn't realize it until I started counting. Over the years, I've burned about 48 people to death. Some struggled as they were being put into the cremator, some moved on the iron bed, and some even moved in the coffin. But I muffled their mouths and suffocated them all. Those who moved after being put in were, of course, directly burned to death by the fire. In most cases, the families are completely unaware, heh heh. How could those ignorant people know? They could never experience the enjoyment derived from the process of cremating a body. It's truly unparalleled.
Time has flown by, and it's already 2022. I don't know how much time I have left. I continue to seek out old classmates and deliberately lure them to my funeral home, tempting them with the same methods. Once, a doctor named Liang Chaobang asked me, 'What exactly do you do? How are you so rich?'"