13 Minke Street

“Royal, nobles, dukes, luxury, nobility and generosity…Golden Coffin.“

“Elegant, restrained, wise, and calm… Gentle Breeze Coffin.“

In the living room, Karen was sitting on a small sofa, flipping through the ‘Coffin Catalog’.

The most expensive two coffins he had read out earlier, with a whole set of descriptive adjectives tacked on front, were priced at 2.25 million and 2.5 million lubi respectively.

Why was the Gentle Breeze Coffin more expensive than the Golden Coffin? Probably, this was the price of ‘elegance’.

Uncle Mason had told him that the prices on the catalog can be divided by five to get the cost price. Even so, 450,000 lubi and 500,000 lubi are still a huge sum of money.

Karen recalled that 500,000 lubi in cash was enough to buy a three-bedroom apartment in a good location in the city.

Sigh, in the world of truly rich people, one coffin was really worth one house.

“Coffee.”

“Thank you, Aunt Winnie.”

Aunt Winnie put the coffee on the coffee table and sat down on the opposite sofa.

“Do you feel relaxed these days?” Aunt Winnie asked.

“Yeah.” Karen nodded. Mina and the others had to go to school, but he didn’t, so he had been in charge of cooking these days, which had indeed renewed the family’s appreciation for food.

The day before yesterday, he even specially made ‘spicy boiled beef’. His family’s tolerance for spicy food was actually quite good, especially Uncle Mason, who ate it with great relish. As a result, the next day, Uncle Mason was limping when he walked. His hemorrhoids had flared up.

Apart from cooking, he really had nothing else to do.

Although Grandpa hadn’t helped him reinstate his college enrollment, he had provided Karen with a set of high school textbooks and study guides.

Except for occasionally flipping through the history books, the rest of the books really didn’t have much value to him.

“It will probably get busy again soon. Two more elderly people in the Flower Bay Nursing Home are in poor health, and in the nearby hospitals we work with, there are several critically ill patients. And at the church, there’s a parishioner who’s bedridden at home.

“When the time comes, I’ll recommend your psychological counseling services to their families.”

“Thank you, Auntie.”

“Don’t thank me for doing work for our own company. Have some coffee; I added sugar.”

“Okay.” Karen clenched his left hand slightly. Even though the coffee was on the left side, he still used his right hand to reach over and pick it up, taking a sip.

Just then, the phone rang.

Aunt Winnie got up to answer the phone:

“Hello…hmm…I see.”

Click!

The sound of hanging up was rather forceful, followed by Aunt Winnie’s urgent shout: “Mason, Mason!”

Uncle Mason, who was originally upstairs drinking tea and reading the financial newspaper, immediately discarded everything, putting on his coat as he stomped down the stairs.

Aunt Winnie said, “The stage at the Crown Ballroom collapsed, with heavy casualties.”

“Oh, the Crown Ballroom,” Mason nodded immediately.

“Where is the Crown Ballroom?” Aunt Mary’s voice came from the top of the stairs.

“Yeah, where is it?” Mason echoed, sounding puzzled.

“I know, Mr. Mason. It’s on Hill Street – an old ballroom, been around for years,” Ron answered.

He and Paul had been basking in the sun on garden benches earlier. When work was slow, they could often take entire days off.

But that’s just how this business is. Even when you know things are quiet, you have to keep your workers on standby. Finding waiters at the last minute is easy, but finding guys to move bodies is tough.

You can’t just ask the neighbors next door to come over and help, right?

Besides, Aunt Mary still hadn’t paid Mrs. Mark back for the thing she complained about last time. They’d even gotten into an argument about it.

“Oh, on Hill Street.” Uncle Mason turned his head towards Aunt Mary, who was standing at the top of the stairs. “Honey, get ready too. I’ll try to bring clients straight back here, if there are any.”

“Okay, dear.” Aunt Mary nodded.

Karen, sitting on the nearby sofa, found this scene somewhat amusing. Unaware, one might think they were running an emergency service like ‘120’. [TN: Chinese equivalent of 911]

But that’s how a “business network” functioned. It wasn’t just about having contacts in hospitals and nursing homes. They had ‘eyes and ears’ in other places too, people who’d let them know when things like this happened.

That’s how you drum up business – you’ve got to be proactive.

“Are there a lot of casualties?” Mason looked at Karen. “Karen, come with us. We could use an extra hand.”

“Okay, uncle.”

Uncle Mason got into the driver’s seat. Karen, Paul, and Ron folded up the stretcher and loaded it into the back of the hearse, along with body bags and other essentials.

Just before they left, Aunt Winnie tossed a stack of Inmerales Funeral Care company brochures through the window.

“Let’s go!”

Uncle Mason gave his sister and wife a firm look, like a general going off to battle.

Aunt Winnie and Aunt Mary also had solemn faces, looking forward to the general’s triumphant return.

…

The car sped along.

Karen noticed that Uncle Mason had just run two red lights. Fortunately, there were no speed cameras now, and as long as the police weren’t standing right there by chance, there wouldn’t be any issues—unless there was an accident, of course.

“Would the stage collapse really be so serious?” Karen asked curiously.

Ron was about to answer when Uncle Mason, who was driving, spoke first:

“The Crown Ballroom has its unique stage, which is a reinforced glass platform suspended nearly five meters high. Dancers wearing skirts and miniskirts would dance up there. If you’re standing below, you can freely look up.

“Of course, many guests choose to pay extra for the thrill of dancing at that height.

“So, if that stage collapsed while people were dancing both above and below it, it could easily lead to terrible consequences.”

Ron chimed in, “That’s right, it costs 5 lubi to perform a dance in that place, but dancing on the glass costs 50 lubi. It’s really expensive.”

Uncle Mason said, “Money aside, the main issue is that the Crown Ballroom is aging and probably hasn’t been well-maintained. I wouldn’t dare go up there—I’m afraid I’d have an accident one day. I’ve seen too many horrific aftermaths from accidental deaths in our home.”

“Do you go there often, uncle?” Karen asked.

“I often went when I was young, but stopped after marrying your aunt. I went a few times in recent years when visiting relatives back in Roja City, getting together with old friends. But since coming back home for good, I haven’t been there at all. Lost touch with the old crowd too.”

It wasn’t that his friends were snobbish or anything. It’s purely because Uncle Mason used to be a moderately successful financier, but now he was managing the family business. Although he still had plenty of friends and connections, they were in a completely different circle.

After all, he couldn’t just say, “Hey, pal, I know you’re grieving for your loved ones, but how about we go for a dance?”

Soon, they arrived at Hill Street.

Uncle Mason kept his foot on the gas pedal, then turned into a narrow alley only wide enough for one car. After weaving through, they quickly reached the middle of the street.

Emerging from the alley, he took a right and stopped. Clearly, he was very familiar with the area.

The buildings ahead had signs for a cinema, gym, and more, but the biggest and flashiest belonged to the Crown Ballroom!

Phew, finally!

By now, a crowd of people had gathered at the dance hall’s entrance; many bloodied and bruised, others crying in fear. A scene of utter chaos.

As soon as Karen and the others got out of the car, a police cruiser suddenly screeched to a halt next to them. Sitting in the passenger seat was a police chief wearing a khaki trench coat and a pipe in his mouth. He looked at the Inmerales hearse before him in great astonishment, and exclaimed in shock:

“Dammit, Mason! How did you get here faster than the police and the ambulance?!”

Clearly, this police chief knew Uncle Mason.

This came as no surprise. After all, aside from nursing homes, hospitals, and churches, funeral homes also relied heavily on the police department for a steady stream of clients. Retrieving bodies from the police morgue was a routine part of the job.

Uncle Mason explained, “Chief Duke, what a coincidence! We just happened to be on Hill Street.”

“Hmph.” Chief Duke clearly didn’t believe it.

However, due to a traffic jam and a national football friendly match between the national team and a foreign team being held at the Roja City Stadium, a large number of police officers had been deployed to provide security. As a result, it would take some time for additional police forces to arrive.

“Come with me and help maintain order.”

“Yes, sir!” Uncle Mason snapped to attention, and Ron and Paul immediately followed suit. Karen was a half-beat late, but he quickly straightened his back as well.

This scene was a bit ridiculous. Chief Duke couldn’t help but laugh a little, but immediately realized this was not the occasion to lose composure. He turned to the police officer driving the car and ordered:

“Mick, turn on the siren and go clear the traffic ahead. We need to get the ambulance in.”

“Yes, Chief.”

Ron and Paul pushed their way through the crowd, while Chief Duke first scanned the injured people on the side of the road. They were likely people who had escaped from the dance hall after the stage collapsed. Although many of them were wounded, they were able to run out on their own, so their injuries were likely not too serious. They were also helping each other with basic first aid and wound care.

“Is anyone still inside?” asked Chief Duke.

“Anyone inside?” echoed Uncle Mason, pulling aside a staff member in the dance hall uniform.

“Yes… yes, there are.”

“Let’s go in.” Chief Duke entered first. As he climbed the stairs, he saw several people with serious injuries being supported or carried out. Some had glass shards embedded in their legs, while others had abdominal injuries and couldn’t walk on their own.

Uncle Mason ignored those with leg injuries and went straight to a young man in hip-hop clothing with a glass shard in his abdomen. “Are you okay? Can you hold on?” 

Thinking a doctor had arrived, the young man nodded quickly. “I think I’m okay, I can handle it.”

Uncle Mason’s enthusiasm vanished instantly, and he let go of the man’s hand.

“Doctor?” the young man called after Uncle Mason.

“Sorry, I have to go inside to find more seriously injured victims. They need me more right now!”

The young man nodded and said, “I understand, I get it.”

Chief Duke led the Inmerales group further inside. Along the way, he teased Mason, “So eager for someone to die?”

Uncle Mason replied, “It’s been off-season lately.”

“Heh, off season.”

“You guys can bust drug dealers and unlicensed brothels during your off season. We can’t exactly go around killing people during ours, can we?”

“I’m warning you, if we find critically injured people inside, they have to be sent to the hospital first. If the ambulances haven’t arrived yet, use your car to take them, don’t… haul them straight to your place before they’re completely dead.”

“How could I possibly do that?”

As they spoke, the group finally entered the main hall of the ballroom. There weren’t many people left inside. Most had already left, but there were still about a dozen people inside.

The ground was covered in glass shards, both large and small.

Just a few steps inside, they saw a person leaning against a stall seat.

Taking a closer look, they saw that half of his head was gone. Behind the seat, there was a large piece of glass, about three square meters in size.

Such a large piece of glass, falling directly down, could shear off half a person’s head as easily as splitting open a watermelon.

The scene behind the stall seat was even more gruesome, splashed with all sorts of colors, like a sauce shop that had exploded.

Mason rushed forward, then turned to Chief Duke and asked anxiously, “Chief, come and take a look, is this guy dead?”

Chief Duke went up to Mason and was about to kick him, but seeing the broken glass all over the floor, he stopped in mid-air and pulled his leg back.

From this, it can be seen that the relationship between Mason and Chief Duke was really good.

Three years ago when Chief Duke’s mother passed away, her funeral were held at the Inmerales home. In the end, the family did not charge him even 1 lubi for funeral expenses.

The previous ‘Karen’ did not know about this matter. After all, at that time “Karen” was still an autistic youth, basically unaware of the family business, and would not ask about it.

“Ron, get the body bag,” Uncle Mason instructed.

“Okay.”

Ron retrieved the body bag and began to wrap the unfortunate gentleman. As he did so, he muttered, “The opening fee for this seat isn’t low. You really have bad luck.”

Here the glass stage was right above. Sitting here allowed the best upward viewing angle.

Ron worked swiftly, undeterred by the gruesome scene or any other factors. This professionalism was why both Ron and Paul could enjoy paid rest days while earning significantly more than regular workers.

Ahead, a group of people surrounded an individual. He had several shards of glass embedded in his body, blood oozing from his mouth. His speech was unintelligible, but his eyes blinked rapidly.

Given the severity of his injuries, those nearby—whether friends or concerned dance hall patrons—hesitated to move him. One wrong move, and he might not survive.

Uncle Mason immediately stepped forward, gripping the man’s hand. “Hold on, hold on. You must hang in there!”

He called out to Paul behind him, “Stretcher, stretcher, quickly!”

Paul, carrying the stretcher, promptly set it down, but he didn’t lower all four wheels.

Uncle Mason instructed those around him, “Be careful. Everyone, help lift a bit. Steady now. Let’s get him onto the stretcher and out of here. The ambulance will arrive soon. There’s hope for him, there’s hope!”

The group immediately followed Uncle Mason’s instructions, working together to assist.

Karen understood that Uncle Mason’s urgency stemmed from the fact that this person likely had little chance of survival without a miracle. However, Mason’s decision was correct. It was the best approach for the victim, allowing faster access to medical treatment.

Once the victim was taken to the hospital and passed away later, Uncle Mason, who had already ingratiated himself with the grateful family members, could naturally secure this funeral order.

Chief Duke observed quietly, knowing that while Mason wanted the order, he wasn’t someone who would act recklessly.

Karen had initially considered helping but realized that the stretcher was too large, leaving no room for his assistance.

“Huh?”

At that moment, Chief Duke’s voice caught Karen’s attention. 

Following the sound, Karen saw Chief Duke standing at the center of the original stage.

The layout of the Crown Ballroom consists of a large wooden stage with three steps in the center. Above this wooden stage was the glass stage.

After the glass stage crashed down, it also smashed several holes in the center of the wooden stage below.

At this moment, Chief Duke was crouched next to one of the holes, reaching out to remove some broken wooden boards nearby.

Karen walked over, and was stunned for a moment.

Inside this hole lies a naked male corpse.

This male corpse was stark naked, both hands spread out at 45-degree angles to the sides, palms facing up, and the middle finger positions were fixed by two iron nails, forming a posture of raising the middle fingers in both directions.

Additionally, in the abdominal area of the male corpse, around the navel, there was a white flower, which appeared to be… made of plastic.

There were traces of stitching above and below the navel. It was very likely that this was not a flower, but…a pot of flowers. The flowerpot was inside the man’s belly.

Apart from this, the face of the male corpse was painted with thick makeup. The lipstick marks extended exaggeratedly from the corners of his mouth, creating a visual illusion of a “smile.”

On the male corpse’s chest lies a book with the title ‘Song of the Soul’, which was the holy scripture of the Berry religion.

Karen recalled Aunt Mary previously mocking Mr. Mauson’s children for intentionally claiming that Mr. Mauson was a follower of the Berry religion in order to save money. According to Berry Church doctrine, the deceased’s body should be cremated and returned to nature. The more decoration or elaborate funeral rituals, the greater the disrespect toward nature and the doctrine.

Yet, the male corpse inside this stage had been altered and arranged in so many ways.

Furthermore, judging by the darkened state of the skin, the male corpse had likely been dead for quite some time, although there was no obvious signs of decomposition.

It was impossible that after the glass stage collapsed, killing him, someone then decided to undress and arrange him like this.

Chief Duke’s gaze was grave.

The previous incident in the dance hall was an accident, and as a police officer, he wasn’t directly involved. His main concern was maintaining order during the rescue. However, this corpse changes everything.

Chief Duke bit down on his cigarette butt, muttering to himself, “If it weren’t for this accident, we wouldn’t have discovered this murder.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple.”

“Oh?” Chief Duke turned his head to look at the handsome young man standing beside him. “What do you think, then?”

Karen pointed at the male corpse inside the hole and said, “The killer deliberately caused this accident in order to showcase his ‘artwork’.”