Chapter 294: This Sack Of Flesh
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
After waiting a while more, Lin Sanjiu finally felt somewhat edgy. She walked over to the door where the appraiser entered.
A breeze from some unknown source was blowing through the gap of the door into the guest hall. She felt the cool wind against her bare legs. Thud. Thud. She heard two sounds coming from a distance, she composed herself and shouted, "Mister Appraiser! Have you finished appraising my item?"
Unfortunately, she couldn't hear any sound from behind the door.
"I've been cheated?" Lin Sanjiu thought to herself, frowning. She pulled open the door immediately without caring about whatever rules were involved.
Surprisingly, there wasn't a room behind the door.
She found a dimly-lit corridor covered by a bamboo mat. There were two dull lights hanging from the ceiling. The breeze from an unknown source caused them to sway creating an interplay of shadows and light. The corridor seemed strangely silent. Lin Sanjiu left the guest hall and entered the corridor cautiously.
The design of the house was very confusing, it seemed to be constructed by someone who had no idea about construction. The guest hall was only joined to the rest of the house with that single corridor, like a lantern hanging from a stick. There weren't any other rooms along that single corridor. The only door she saw was at the end of the corridor. Furthermore, in contrast to the ceiling of the guest hall, the ceiling of the corridor was much lower. Lin Sanjiu had no choice but to squeeze her wings to its lowest position and stretched it out behind her. That was the only way she could move in the corridor.
The door at the end of the corridor swung on its hinge as the wind blew, making noises as it hit the doorframe. Lin Sanjiu finally discovered the source of that sound she heard in the guest hall. She walked swiftly to the room at the end of the corridor and stopped suddenly. She quickly used her higher consciousness and scanned the room.
Even though the effectiveness of her ability was affected by the amount of light available and she couldn't see through objects, just like normal eyes, she could use her ability to see much further. On top of that, she could also use her ability to check around corners.
From the ajar door, Lin Sanjiu could see a room with tatami flooring. It was very quiet and there wasn't anyone around. She quickly entered the room and closed the door. She couldn't exactly put a finger on it, but she felt that the room was a little strange. At least, that was Lin Sanjiu's first impression of the room.
There was a patch of old-looking brown stain on the floor. At the corner of the room, there were a few empty cardboard boxes. On the left side of the room, there was a large closet. There was an open window directly in front of the door and a cold wind was blowing through. The wind had messed up a small stack of white paper. When Lin Sanjiu grabbed and looked at one of those paper, she was a little shocked. It was an appraisal certificate of a Special Item called [Hengjiang Manufacturing Pte Ltd]. Scanning the paper quickly, she found out that the appraiser's name was "Redhead Ol' Jack".
Lin Sanjiu immediately thought of the impatient, middle-aged man with bright red hair that she had only met once. Apparently, the man was a real appraiser. Lin Sanjiu looked through the few certificates on the ground which were all of the same size. The names of the items appraised were different but they were all appraised by "Redhead Ol' Jack".
After the Special Item had been appraised, the original owner could take back the Special Item, however, the condition for this sort of arrangement was that the certificate would be kept by the appraiser and their agency would find a buyer. Lin Sanjiu understood this from the shop assistant so she wasn't surprised that Redhead Ol' Jack had that many appraisal certificates with him, but...
"If the appraiser isn't a swindler, then, I'm trespassing?" Lin Sanjiu suddenly felt a little ashamed. She quickly re-organized the certificates and called out loudly, "Mister Appraiser, are you around?"
Lin Sanjiu prepared herself for a reprimanding from the irascible appraiser as she called out for him. However, no one responded to her. She walked through the corridor once more and found that there weren't any other room. That is to say, the appraiser and the shop assistant took her [A Girl's Sorrow] book and just disappeared into this room.
"That's strange!" Lin Sanjiu pushed open the door to the room. Unable to figure out what had happened, she felt somewhat irritated, "Is that book some sort of amazing object? Did he see it and just abandoned his den? Aren't all these appraisal certificates equivalent to cash?!"
"Logically speaking, that is not true," Mrs. Manas answered her. "Items from the same place should be about the same quality. All the other books do not possess extraordinary, game-changing effects."
The cold wind blew through the window intermittently. The cool breeze helped Lin Sanjiu clear her mind a little. She frowned and thought through the situation. She circled the room and looked at the various limited furniture in the room once more.
She noticed the large closet rather unintentionally. Suddenly, she thought of something and quickly walked to it. She immediately opened the door of the closet.
Redhead Ol' Jack was sitting quietly in the closet. Lin Sanjiu found herself staring straight into his eyes. Lin Sanjiu nearly let out a gasp as she staggered two steps backward. It was then that she discovered that Redhead Ol' Jack was no longer alive.
Two hours before, that man with a head of fiery hair was still energetic and full of life. Right now, he was just leaning silently against the closet wall like a lifeless puppet. His pair of eyes framed by his wrinkly, scarred face was still opened wide.
Lin Sanjiu stared at the corpse and slowly approached it. She tugged him—
Just then, Redhead Ol' Jack's corpse fell out of the closet like a deflated ball. It was just a gentle tug. The man's limbs tumbled out and fell to the ground with a soft thud. Lin Sanjiu had a nagging feeling that the man's limbs were very unusual. When she took a closer look, she felt her head go numb.
There was a very long incision at the back of his body. That incision stretched from the back of the man's head all the way to her lower waist. When she peeled open the incision, she found that the man's body was empty. Other than some dried up blood vessels and some remaining flesh, the man's bones and organs were missing. They had been "cleaned out". With the exception of his head, which was still intact, his body was a literal sack of flesh.
From the looks of it, it was as if his insides had been eaten.
"Was he killed just now?" Lin Sanjiu mumbled to herself in shock, "I didn't hear anyone screaming for help…"
The corpse was still wearing the robe with the word "Appraiser". The stain on the floor was still in the same spot. After thinking for some time, she pulled open the robe and discovered that the man's waist was already covered with livor mortis. Standing closer to the body, she could now detect a stench from it.
"He must have died four to five hours ago," Mrs. Manas said with certainty.
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. If that was the case, who did she see just now?