13 Minke Street

“Brother, what are you thinking about?” 

Mina had just finished taking care of Karen’s nose and saw that her cousin was staring out the window in a daze. She asked curiously.

In the past, her cousin might have been a little reclusive. Because his parents passed away, he didn’t go to high school after finishing middle school. He just stayed at home all the time and didn’t communicate much with others.

Recently though, after the serious illness, although he seemed a little absent-minded at times, he was much more cheerful than before. It was easier to talk with him.

“Oh, thinking about whether to continue going to school or not.” Karen gently rubbed his nose. The pain was no longer as intense as before. His nose was stuffed with cotton balls and it shouldn’t take long to remove them.

Just now, he was actually thinking about what had happened in the basement and the scenes in his dream. Were they related to his body and mind or did he really encounter a ‘supernatural event’?

After all, for the latter, the basement contained most of the triggering conditions.

But in the end, it was just a dream. No matter how terrifying the nightmare was, the feeling of panic would dissipate seventy to eighty percent after waking up.

Afterwards, Karen was thinking more about his future path.

He didn’t think that as a transmigrator, he could easily start a successful life. But as someone who struggled to become self-made in his previous life, he had enough confidence in his own abilities to make a decent living in this new world.

After all, it doesn’t matter if this ‘Karen’ identity didn’t bring him any help, at least it didn’t bring him no burden either.

That was enough.

“Brother used to hate going to school the most,” Mina said with a smile.

The previous Karen was a bit like an autism patient. Naturally, he wouldn’t like school and crowded places.

“School is very important, especially when you’re young,” Karen said very seriously. “The vast majority of people, when grown up, will regret not working harder and enduring more bitterness when they were young.”

“The way brother says this sounds just like mom.”

“Hehe.” Karen shrugged. “Mina, pour me a glass of water.”

“Okay, brother.”

The obedient little cousin went to help pour water.

Karen opened the window in the room. Fresh air rushed in. He took a deep breath, then closed the window again. This wind was too cold.

Turning back, Karen saw that the black cat Poe had appeared on his bed somehow, crouching there with cat eyes staring at him, turning his neck from time to time, as if sizing him up.

“Poe, pspspsps…”

Karen tried to tease the black cat using the vocal language commonly used on cats and dogs.

Poe tilted his head, not taking the bait.

Karen walked over. The black cat was not afraid either. After all, Karen was a family member. Karen reached out and stroked the cat’s head.

“Meow…”

Poe turned his head, seemingly disliking the caress.

“Grandpa gave you such an awkward name,” Karen muttered to himself. “Poe… Poe, heh, it would be much cooler to be called Pu’er.”

The black cat shifted, apparently not as pleased with this phonetically similar ‘new name’.

Mina came over with a glass of water, saying, “Mom is on the phone looking for Dad.”

“Hmm?”

In this era, mobile phones had not yet appeared. Making phone calls to find someone with a landline was actually very inefficient.

Besides, if nothing unexpected happened, Uncle Mason should be drifting on some street in his creepy car.

After giving Karen the water, Mina began wiping the windowsill skillfully. Originally there were two maids in the Inmeralas family, one responsible for cleaning and housework and the other specifically for cooking. But after Uncle Mason’s family and Aunt Winnie and her daughter returned, the two maids were also fired by Grandpa.

On weekdays, the housework was done by Mina along with her brother Trent and cousin Chrissy. Meals were made alternately by Aunt Mary and Aunt Winnie.

Everyone in the family had their designated work to do, so Karen was actually the most free one.

This also showed that Grandpa Diss, who was always stern, did treat this grandson differently from the others.

At this moment, Grandpa came upstairs. 

Mina immediately stood up straight, and Karen who was holding the glass also stood up straight.

In many cases, whether or not there are rules in a family does not depend on so-called family education and tradition, but on whether there is someone in the family whom you revere and fear.

Diss’ eyes swept over his grandchildren, lingering a little longer on his grandson, but he didn’t say anything. He pushed open the door to his room and walked in.

The stagnant atmosphere in the air dissipated after the door closed.

Karen breathed a sigh of relief and looked down at Mina, noticing she was also doing the same thing.

“Grandpa seems to be very busy these days,” Karen said.

“Yes, there are a lot of things to do at the church, and Grandpa often goes on business trips too,” Mina replied.

As they spoke, Grandpa’s door was pushed open from the inside and Grandpa, now dressed in priest clothes, walked out again, holding a black suitcase in his hand.

“I won’t be back for lunch,” he said.

“Oh, okay, Grandpa,” Mina responded immediately.  

Diss went downstairs.

Soon, Karen saw Grandpa through the window walking into the courtyard downstairs.

The clothes Diss was wearing clearly had religious connotations, but they seemed a little different, giving him a very specific sense.

Perhaps in the eyes of outsiders, Diss being a priest would help expand the family business. After all, this identity made it easy for him to gain the trust of believers in the church, and thus be able to… get more business for the family.

But Karen didn’t think things were really that simple. It wasn’t until Grandpa pushed open the yard gate and walked out that Karen suddenly realized the source of that ‘meaning’.

“Our grandpa is a bit like Uncle Nine.”

“Brother, who is Uncle Nine?”

“A priest who specializes in catching vampires.”

“Oh, I see, from a drama?”

“Yeah, right. Mina, do we have to mop the whole floor here?”

“Yeah, and the stairs too.”

“Let me help you.”

“But brother, what about your health?”

“No problem.”

Karen started helping Mina mop the floor. After mopping the floor, they went to mop the stairs. When changing the water bucket, Karen went to the yard where there was a big faucet for faster water filling.

At this time, Uncle Mason drove back in his modified car. Ron and Paul rolled down a stretcher with an old man lying on it. Karen saw the white hair under the white sheet.

Uncle Mason ran into the yard first without even noticing Karen drawing water in the corner. He went straight to Aunt Mary.

“Your father is looking for you,” Aunt Mary said.

“Where’s Father?” Uncle Mason’s eyes wandered a bit.

This was like the guilty conscience of someone who had done something wrong and was afraid of being scolded by the elder. Based on his professional habits from his previous life, Karen would take note of these details.

“Your father just went out,” Aunt Mary said.  

“Oh… Okay, it’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll go find my father. Maybe he’s at the church.” Uncle Mason immediately ran outside without driving his car.

Aunt Mary didn’t notice anything strange about her husband, because her attention was now on the old man just brought over from the nursing home.

Soon, Aunt Mary’s scream was heard:

“Oh my god, there’s still shit on him!”

…

Unable to complete the orders, Paul and Ron were asked by Aunt Mary to be responsible for cleaning the corpse. Facing the angry Mrs. Mary, they did not dare to resist at all.

Paul first moved the stretcher to the basement, and Ron came to Karen. “Young Master Karen, I need to borrow your water bucket and mop for a bit.”

“Let me carry them down for you.”  

“No need, no need.” Ron twisted his neck. He was very tall and fat. Although not very old, his beer belly was already obvious. “We’ll take care of it.”

Karen asked with a smile, “So why didn’t you let the nurse clean up the body properly?”

This should have been the job of the nursing home nurses to do preliminary cleaning of the deceased’s body. Otherwise, when the family came to see their loved one’s dirty body, it wouldn’t look good.

“I made you laugh, Young Master.” Ron scratched his head, embarrassed. “I made a date with the nurse in charge of Mr. Mauson to go to the movies in a couple days.”

Ron’s face turned slightly red as he continued, “She said she likes watching movies and eating popcorn. She could feed me popcorn by hand while watching the movie, so… I didn’t want the hands that would feed me popcorn to have just wiped that stuff off the corpse!

“Young Master, you know, feeding each other popcorn while watching a movie as a couple is a very sweet thing. In the dim light, when she puts popcorn in your mouth, you can lick her fingers with your tongue. Oh my god, it’s just so wonderful!”

“Keep dreaming.” Paul’s voice came as he had taken Mr. Mauson down to the basement and came back up for plastic gloves and laundry detergent.

“Paul, I know you’re just jealous of me!”

“Jealous of you? Come on, Ron, apart from Mrs. Hughes, the boss of Hughes Funeral Home, no other woman would like you.”

“Nonsense!” Ron angrily pointed at Paul.

“Mrs. Hughes?” Karen asked curiously.

It sounded like the boss of the funeral home was a rich widow. Why was Ron so agitated?

“Haha.” Paul laughed first, then explained, “Young Master Karen, you probably don’t know that before pushing the corpse into the furnace for cremation, gasoline needs to be sprayed on the corpse to help burn it. Thin people often need more gasoline, otherwise the bones won’t burn through. But for fat people, the oil on their own bodies can help fuel the fire. 

“So Mrs. Hughes from the funeral home likes Ron’s body type the most, because he saves oil.”

“I see.”

“Damn you, Paul, how dare you slander me like this in front of Young Master Karen!”

“Let’s go down and get to work, or Mrs. Mary will throw another fit.” 

Bickering all the way, Ron and Paul took their stuff and went down to the basement.

In the hall, Aunt Mary lit a cigarette. She was in a better mood now.

Because Paul had given her good news that the old man named Mauson had children who would come over later.  

If it wasn’t a welfare case, it meant there was money to make. Even the lowest package had profit.

And Aunt Mary’s salary also relied on the family’s performance to support it. After deducting expenses and leaving public funds, the remaining profits would be issued to family members as allowances.

The accounts were managed by Aunt Winnie.

This was also why the family feared Grandpa but no one spoke ill of him behind his back. He was very stern, but by no means a miserly, money-grubbing old man.

Karen went back upstairs to help his cousin Mina dust the furniture.

When they were almost done, he heard Ron and Paul come up from the basement. They had cleaned up the corpse. Next it would be Aunt Mary’s turn.

Because the family might come in the afternoon to arrange the memorial service, it was necessary to make the old man look better at this time.

But there seemed to be a guest in the house. Karen heard Aunt Mary calling him from downstairs. “Karen, come down and entertain Mr. Hofen.”

Putting down the rag, Karen first searched his mind for ‘Mr. Hofen’.

He was an old man, a retired professor from the philosophy department of a university. He had decent pension and a respectable life. He was friends with Grandpa and often came to chat with Grandpa over tea. 

In addition, he was also very interested in fortune-telling. He had given Karen a set of exquisite playing cards, not Tarot cards… it’s more like the cards used for playing ‘Dou Dizhu’.

Karen went upstairs to the kitchen first to make a cup of tea, then prepared some simple snacks and carried them downstairs to the living room.

Mr. Hofen was very tall but very thin.

Thin people often had more distinctive facial features and more straightforward emotional expressions.

When Karen saw him, he found that Mr. Hofen’s gaze was fixed directly on him.

Even Mr. Hofen’s pet dog, a golden retriever, lying next to him seemed to have sensed its owner’s emotional fluctuations. It slowly got up but was still a little confused, not knowing what was wrong.

Until it saw Poe lurking at the top of the stairs. It seemed to instinctively find an interest and wanted to get up and go over.

But Poe gave it a glance and the golden retriever immediately wilted and lay down again.

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Hofen. My grandpa went out but I think he’ll be back soon. My uncle has gone to find him.”

Karen put down the tea and said some polite words.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Mr. Hofen suddenly reached out and grabbed Karen’s wrist. His whole face instantly stiffened, and his breathing became extremely hurried.

In a suppressed yet unrestrained tone of excitement, he asked, “You are not Karen… Who on earth are you?“

In that instant, a sense of crisis rushed to Karen’s mind. He was somewhat at a loss because this person had directly seen through his identity with just one look, when Karen had been mentally preparing himself for half a month.

Karen instinctively took two steps back to distance himself from Mr. Hofen.

Unfortunately, Mr. Hofen who was holding Karen’s wrist lost his balance and stumbled unexpectedly. As he tried to steady himself on the table, he missed and his body fell forward. His forehead slammed directly on the edge of the table.

Bang! 

A muffled sound rang out.

Then, Mr. Hofen dropped to the floor, the back of his head hitting the tiles heavily.

Thwack!

Karen watched the scene before him in utter astonishment. This old man who had just directly pointed out his ‘identity problem’ was now gasping for breath.

And under his head on the living room tiles, a large pool of blood began to spill out.

At this time, Mina, who was still busy upstairs, seemed to have heard the commotion and shouted from the top of the stairs:

“Brother, what happened downstairs?”

Karen licked his lips, slowly straightened up, and answered, “Mr. Hofen had a stroke and fell.”