48 Hours a Day

For the next three days, Zhang Heng and Bai Qing took turns monitoring the funeral home. During that period, he slipped into the morgue again, taking another CT scan and confirming that the creature in the fourth ventricle was still there.

It seemed they were not in a rush to retrieve the body. It had Zhang Heng wondering if the creature might be dead. After all, the CT scan showed that it had not changed its position.

He had now also become a frequent visitor to the teacher’s office. Usually, grandpa would not stick his nose into his business. Still, this time, the elderly man had no choice but to remind his grandson upon arriving home yesterday afternoon. So Bai Qing got Zhang Heng to hand her his homework, where early the next morning, at the shift change, she brought along some breakfast and the completed work.

To prevent the teacher from recognizing the different handwriting, Bai Qing tried her best to imitate his. Finally, the teacher did not summon Zhang Heng to the office today. The teacher even complimented him.

When Zhang Heng handed in his homework on time, the teacher did not compliment him. After not handing in any assignments for three whole days, the teacher was surprised to see him passing it up this time.

Back to the surveillance site, there hadn’t been any movement for some time. Zhang Heng began to wonder if perhaps, there might be something wrong with his plan.

He had tried his best to avoid every conceivable risk, but if those creatures had replaced most humans living in society, there would be at least twenty of them watching him in the classroom right now. In other words, it would be pointless to keep treading carefully. Fortunately, the possibility of something like that happening was minute. If that were true, then the creatures wouldn’t have spared a second and attacked him right here, right now.

Besides, Zhang Heng hadn’t given up on the drowning case yet. Earlier, he learned from the security guard that the three children often left the community together. He wanted to know where they usually headed to.

Hiding his mobile phone under the desk, Zhang Heng looked at the map, when he suddenly received a message.

It was from Bai Qing, and had only three words in it.

[They are here]

Zhang Heng could sense Bai Qing’s tension and anxiety on the other side of the phone, and he quickly replied.

[Install the tracker and wait for me.]

He turned around to look at the clock hanging at the back. The physics class he was in was only halfway through, and there were still 20 minutes to go. He couldn’t wait that long. The only way out was to lie to the physics teacher standing in front of the class right now.

At the time when nobody was paying attention to him, Zhang Heng dug the root of his tongue with a pencil, and within seconds, he vomited all over the floor. Blue veins popped up on his neck, and he looked terribly ill.

When the teacher saw this, he hurriedly stepped down from the podium and came over. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked with the utmost concern.

“I don’t know. My stomach is upset after I drank a bottle of expired yogurt this morning,” replied Zhang Heng, his voice quivering and his brow lined with cold sweat.

“Ah, could it acute enteritis.” The physics teacher said with a solemn expression, “You have to go to the hospital immediately. Hold up, let me see which teacher is available now.”

“No need, Teacher Zheng, I will go to the hospital on my own.”

“How could I let you go alone in your current state?” Teacher Zheng shook his head.

“I know a friend who works in the hospital. He will take care of me once I arrive. I’m just a little weak, but I still have the strength to take a taxi,” Zhang Heng said. “Can you please inform my class teacher, sir? I will hand in the request-to-leave form later.”

“Okay. You’d better go to the hospital now,” replied teacher Zheng.

Zhang Heng returned to his seat, grabbed his schoolbag, and left the classroom.

As for the vomit on the floor, his classmates would clean up for him. This could be considered a perk for the sick.

Upon leaving the school grounds, Zhang Heng first called a friend at the hospital and asked her to issue him a sick leave slip.

The latter did not feel good when he heard Zhang Heng’s request. “Are you going to do something bad again? Don’t keep involving me in your business, and you haven’t told me where the last CT film came from.”

“First, help me to come up with a cover story. Later, my class teacher will call my grandfather. You tell him that I am with you and I’m doing fine. I will head back once I feel better. As for the CT image, I will tell you everything once it’s all over,” Zhang Heng replied.

“Okay, don’t do it again next time,” the person at the other end of the phone sighed. He then paused and added, “After I looked at the image you sent me, it looks a bit like a parasite. Later, I tried and read some articles about it, but nothing helped me understand it better. And the shape of the fourth ventricle, it’s so strange.”

“Tell no one about this,” Zhang Heng exhorted.

After creating the perfect cover for himself, he could finally turn his attention to Bai Qing again. Immediately, he sent a message to her.

[How is everything?]

This time, Bai Qing did not reply immediately.

Although the situation was urgent, Zhang Heng made a detour to a nearby shopping mall to ditch anyone that might be following him. He changed to a new set of clothes, took a taxi, and rushed to the funeral home.

Bai Qing finally replied when he was in the car.

[It’s done.]

Afterward, Zhang Heng received a notification on his phone that the target car was on the move. He could tell from the tracker that the car was heading toward the east of the city, consistent with his previous investigation results. At that time, he had tried to track down the college student, and the last place he stopped turned out to be the east of the city.

Another signal then appeared on Zhang Heng’s cellphone. Sent by another micro tracker, this one was moving in the same direction as the car.

It appeared that not only had Bai Qing completed the task, but she even did something extra.

[Wait for me to come over.] replied Zhang Heng.

The school and the funeral home were quite a distance apart, and it wasn’t until forty minutes later that Zhang Heng arrived at the van. At the same time, he could see that the car he was tracking was not far from the underground parking lot he had gone to. Meanwhile, Bai Qing was very anxious, sending him several WeChat messages, constantly asking his whereabouts.

[I have arrived.]

Upon receiving the message, Bai Qing opened the door and poked her head out. The two then exchange their secret codes. Zhang Heng then took the driver’s seat, and Bai Qing moved aside. “I don’t know how they did it,” she lamented while putting on her seatbelt. “There was something wrong with the freezer unit, so they pretended to be technicians and took the body with them.”

“Did you see how they took away the body?”

“No,” Bai Qing shook her head. “They blocked the camera with their backs, but I recorded a short clip,” she said, sending the video that she had just edited to Zhang Heng.

The clip showed a fat man and a thin man. Apart from one having a leg problem, they looked no different from ordinary people.

“How did you put the tracker on them?” Zhang Heng asked.

“I played to the advantage of being a woman.”

“Hmm?”

“What are you thinking? I meant it’s normal that a woman asks a man for some assistance. Usually, it’s difficult for a man to refuse a lady,” Bai Qing explained. “I asked them to help me to carry two wreaths, and then I gave them a can of fruit candy. The tracker is located on the bottom layer of the candy can.”