I'm Actually Panicking Because My Heart Doesn't Beat (GL) - Chapter 5

Guan Xiaoxuan spoke from the heart. At that moment, she really didn’t have time to think much—she just wanted to protect her own life and scrambled out of the morgue as fast as she could.

Xiao An didn’t say anything. The clerk beside her carefully recorded every word Guan Xiaoxuan said.

To Xiao An, sudden “resurrections” weren’t that surprising. She had seen news reports about people who were thought dead but suddenly came back to life. Even in ancient times, there was a custom of keeping a body in the morgue for seven days because of this kind of thing.

There was also the saying of “seven days for the soul to return.” What Guan Xiaoxuan said wasn’t impossible.

This case was truly strange and hard to figure out quickly. After interrogating Guan Xiaoxuan for half an hour, they let her rest for a bit.

Xiao An took the transcript to Xing Tianqing and showed it on her computer, asking, “Captain Xing, do you want to ask her anything else later?”

Xing Tianqing read the transcript and glanced at Guan Xiaoxuan sitting there, looking lost. Slowly, she said, “She hasn’t told everything. We need to keep questioning her.”

Just as Xiao An was about to agree, Xing Tianqing added, “Let her rest for half an hour first. I’ll interrogate her next.”

After half an hour, Guan Xiaoxuan faced her second round of questioning. She looked up and saw the woman who made her heart race—the leader of this special department.

Xing Tianqing sat calmly in front of Guan Xiaoxuan, her dark eyes steady. But Guan Xiaoxuan noticed something strange—the woman’s eye color seemed to be changing.

She remembered that at her own doorstep, this woman’s eyes were pure black, like ink. Now, while still very dark, they were slowly turning brown. If Guan Xiaoxuan hadn’t been watching carefully, especially with the woman’s thin glasses, she wouldn’t have noticed the change.

Could this woman have superpowers?

Guan Xiaoxuan stared at her in shock.

But nothing supernatural happened. Xing Tianqing looked down at the transcript and asked again about earlier questions, checking for any contradictions or lies.

Unfortunately for her, Guan Xiaoxuan was a genuine coward. She answered everything honestly, giving no room for suspicion. Even with all her skills, Xing Tianqing couldn’t find any flaws.

Xing Tianqing studied Guan Xiaoxuan closely. She was only 19 and a college student. Unless Guan Xiaoxuan was naturally a born liar, she wouldn’t be able to lie so flawlessly.

“Guan Xiaoxuan,” Xing Tianqing said, “do you know why there were so many bodies in that morgue?”

Guan Xiaoxuan blinked in surprise and guessed, “Because business is good?”

“No,” Xing Tianqing answered calmly. “Our investigation shows that those people all died from different causes, but their time of death was the same—9 PM on the 17th.”

Her dark eyes locked onto Guan Xiaoxuan. “Your time of death was also 9 PM on the 17th.”

Suddenly, Guan Xiaoxuan felt her head buzzing.

All those guys lying in the same big ward with her had died at 9 PM too?

And her original self had also died at 9 PM in the water, then sent to the same hospital’s morgue. Could it be that these bodies coming back to life were connected somehow?

If she hadn’t “resurrected” in that corpse, she might have become one of them—struggling to get up as a walking dead.

But why was this happening?

Guan Xiaoxuan felt she knew too little. She couldn’t imagine why.

Xing Tianqing waited silently for half a minute, then pulled something from her bag. Guan Xiaoxuan’s eyes darkened when she saw it—it was her original self’s diary, filled with notes about the “Red Girl” and an interest group.

“Tell me about it,” Xing Tianqing said coldly. “What is the ‘Red Girl’? What’s this interest group? What are they planning? Does your death have anything to do with them?”

Guan Xiaoxuan felt numb all over. She hadn’t expected them to have the diary. Luckily, she was ready to be honest.

“The ‘Red Girl’ is what they call a ‘spirit’ they believe in,” Guan Xiaoxuan said, piecing together what she remembered. “They said she could grant wishes. I wanted to see my parents, so I joined their interest group. They said the ‘Red Girl’ answered my wish and was willing to help me—but I had to do some things first.”

“What things?”

“I… I don’t remember,” Guan Xiaoxuan said sincerely. “Most of it is gone from my memory. I think it had something to do with the gathering on the 17th. They must have asked me to do the first task, but I died before I could finish it.”

Xing Tianqing narrowed her eyes, listening to Guan Xiaoxuan’s confession but said nothing.

Because she died, the first task failed. That first task the “Red Girl” required was probably related to death.

After more than an hour of questioning, Guan Xiaoxuan was tossed back into the interrogation room. Taking advantage of the moment, she started thinking about everything.

The original Guan Xiaoxuan wanted to see her parents, so she joined the interest group, made a wish to the “Red Girl,” attended the gathering, and then died.

Those bodies in the morgue all died at 9 PM like her original self. Could it be that they also made wishes to the “Red Girl” and tried to complete the first task?

So, was the “Red Girl’s” first task to die?

Guan Xiaoxuan frowned tightly. She couldn’t think of any other reason why so many people died in different ways at the same time. She read the files and knew some died by suicide, but most were accidents.

Maybe the “Red Girl’s” first task wasn’t so direct. Maybe it was to hypnotize the wishers and control them to die.

But what could death bring to the “Red Girl”?

A sacrifice?

Guan Xiaoxuan leaned back in the interrogation chair and silently counted her heartbeat. This simple, repetitive action helped ease her fear.

Meanwhile, next door…

Xing Tianqing saw Guan Xiaoxuan with her eyes closed and brows tightly furrowed. Her face looked bad, as if she was thinking about something terrifying.

Or maybe, just being in the interrogation room was a scary thing for her.

“Captain Xing, we’ve organized all the transcripts. Do you have any thoughts about the interest group and the ‘Red Girl’?”

Xing Tianqing turned her head and looked at her colleague. After a few seconds, she asked, “Why do you think the ‘Red Girl’ wanted so many people to die at the same time?”

“A sacrifice?” Xiao An said. “There are often evil gods who need souls to be sacrificed. Maybe this ‘Red Girl’ is one of those.”

Most agreed with that answer, but they all looked at Xing Tianqing, knowing she wouldn’t ask such a question without a reason.

Xing Tianqing said, “If it’s just a sacrifice, once they die, it’s done. So why make their bodies come back to life?”

The room fell silent as everyone thought deeply.

“Captain, do you mean…”

“Sacrifices might only be part of it,” Xing Tianqing said, frowning. “Bringing the bodies back to life is the next part.” She slowly said two words: “Raising Gu.”

“Gu,” an evil sorcery where poisonous insects are put together to fight until only one survives. The last one alive is called the “Gu.”

In an instant, everyone understood what those two words meant. They all turned to look at Guan Xiaoxuan in the interrogation room.

Raising Gu!

The “Red Girl” was raising Gu!

Guan Xiaoxuan suddenly understood everything. That fox spirit made all those people die at the same time and somehow put their bodies in the same morgue to raise Gu.

All those corpses were killing each other, and the last survivor was the Gu the “Red Girl” wanted.

She didn’t know what this “Gu” would be used for, but Guan Xiaoxuan knew it wasn’t good. And she, a time traveler who escaped from the morgue, was probably the “Gu” the “Red Girl” created from all those bodies.

The first task was death.

Only one wisher could live to continue the next task—the so-called second task.

A cold chill rushed up Guan Xiaoxuan’s spine.

She was the “Gu.” The “Red Girl” used over ten corpses to create her. She had completed the first task and now faced the second.

That meant the interest group people would come after her!

Help! Help!

Guan Xiaoxuan’s face turned pale as she pounded the table, shouting, “I have something important to say! Someone comes quickly! Don’t leave me here alone!”

She was just a timid, weak office worker—why did she have to go through something so terrifying?

When Guan Xiaoxuan saw Xing Tianqing walk in wearing a black coat, she felt like this woman was a gentle goddess, her star of salvation!

“They’re raising Gu!” Guan Xiaoxuan said in panic. “They’ll come for me! You have to protect me! I don’t want to die now!!!”

Xing Tianqing blinked and smiled faintly at the girl, her eyes kind.

“Don’t worry. We will protect you.”