Chapter 8 “Gold Backbone Part 1”
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“Are they going to turn into undeads?” Idle stares at the corpses in disbelief, his expression growing heavier by the second.
In this case, Fatty Ho naturally knew the weight of the situation and didn’t dare to point his flashlight around. Quickly turning it off, he didn’t need it anyway since the room was lit by those oil lamps. Though dim and oppressive, it’s enough to let them see the layout.
Idle himself also didn’t make any sudden movements and carefully observed their surroundings before deciding their following action. According to his judgment, there were many differences between these corpses: age, looks, gender, and even identity. However, they also have one thing in common and that was their cause of death – their backs were all sliced open to reveal the vertebrae!
Taking it all in, Idle didn’t know what to make of this anymore. For one thing, what’s the deal with the patients? Weren’t they supposed to be killed by the fire earlier? That should’ve been the cause because they clearly saw the ghosts of the patients at the first hallway. All charred and black from the burning of the fire, it didn’t make sense why their real bodies were fine without scorch marks.
“Can you see what’s going on?” Fatty Ho asks.
“Yes,” he replies, that tone full of doubt, “I’m a little confused about their cause of death. It doesn’t look like they were killed by the fire, but killed by artificial means.”
“Artificial?” The fatty was stunned because he didn’t expect to hear this answer.
“Possibly,” Idle lowers his voice into a whisper, “Their death should have something to do with the wound on their back, and it looks very off… Uncle Ho, lend me your flashlight for a bit.”
Hearing this, the fatty didn’t think twice and handed the item over.
With the light on, Idle did not dare to illuminate the same target for extended time and instead flickered it around to catch glimpses. He’s using that sharpness of his to get a better idea.
Firstly, there’s not a speck of blood, nor excess tissue around the body that’s been removed of all organs. The only thing showing was the vertebrae backbone.
“Uncle Ho, take a look.” Idle flicks the light to the nearest corpse to himself, ensuring all the while never to stay on the target for too long.
Fatty Ho did as told and followed Idle’s guidance, only then does he see the gold dangling thing around the backbones.
“What the hell?” He gasps in astonishment.
“It’s the backbone.” Idle whispers.
Speechless for a good while, Fatty Ho almost couldn’t believe it, “A golden vertebrae? Are you sure?”
“There’s no mistake. I can’t be certain it’s made of gold, but I feel that’s the case….” Idle nods and his gaze grew intense, “I think I know where the gold bricks went.”
“You mean all the gold was used on their backbones?” He stutters.
“Possibly.” Idle then points to the row of corpses at the furthest front.
The doctors and nurses were almost the same, the only difference was the gold backbones. It’s very likely the staff melted the gold bricks down and injected it into the patient’s body.
“You can see the cause of death for the staff and patients are the same, but the doctors and nurses don’t have the gold color in their backbone. I think…” Idle frowns after analyzing the information, “Maybe the bones have nothing to do with their death, but for something else entirely.”
“What else can that be?” Fatty Ho hurried and asked with a stunned face, “What could they possibly do with that?”
“I don’t know either.” Idle shakes his head in uncertainty.