Insights Chapter 54: Matchmaker

Chapter 54: Matchmaker

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

It was after six in the evening, and the whole city was shrouded in dark clouds. No stars or moon could be seen in the sky. Shen Junci returned to the City Bureau, hastily grabbed a few bites to eat, and after sorting out all his affairs, he headed to the Criminal Investigation Building. Dai Xiarong had already been brought to the City Bureau and was being held in the interrogation room.

Several detectives were already seated in the observation room. Director Ding also attached great importance to this case and personally came to listen to the interrogation. He sat directly opposite, his face stern, brows furrowed as he watched Dai Xiarong sitting in the chair in the interrogation room.

After entering, Shen Junci quietly stood to the side.

Dai Xiarong, who appeared to be in his forties, was somewhat lean with brown-black skin. He seemed a bit dull, giving off an impression of honesty and straightforwardness at first glance, but his words told a different story.

At the beginning, Dai Xiarong was still being stubborn, denying all the criminal allegations.

Gu Yanchen showed him the registers found at Zuo Junming’s residence. “Dai Xiarong, some of these people were cremated by you, right? And several of them were operated by you personally.”

Dai Xiarong argued cunningly, “I don’t know anything.”

Gu Yanchen asked, “You didn’t do anything underhanded?”

Dai Xiarong hesitated and lowered his head guiltily.

Gu Yanchen had been waiting for him to say that. “We’ve exported all the surveillance footage from the crematorium. You’ve violated many rules during the cremations.”

He placed several screenshots of the surveillance footage on the table. In those pictures, Dai Xiarong was surreptitiously swapping urns of ashes. Dai Xiarong, seeing the evidence the police had, hesitated for a moment. He changed his tune, “Ghost weddings aren’t such a big deal, are they? They existed as early as the Shang Dynasty, and specialized matchmakers for ghosts appeared in the Song Dynasty. There were even specialists who determined compatibility. This is tradition…”

“You’re stealing ashes, desecrating corpses, and disrupting social order,” Lu Ying cut him off, too lazy to exchange words with him. He recited the laws and regulations to him directly, “You’ll not only be sentenced, but also have your illegal gains confiscated. If you confess early, maybe you could get a reduction in sentence by reporting others.”

Dai Xiarong fell silent for a moment, then began to feign innocence again. “We work at the crematorium, it’s busy and tiring. We also have bad luck. We only earn a few thousand a month, and we’re often asked for money, so I did a little… Surely there’s no one around you who has such a need?” He lowered his voice, leaning forward. “Officers, be lenient. If you need anything in the future, you can come to me, I’ll give you a discount.”

Upon hearing this, Director Ding, who was sitting in the observation room, twitched at the corner of his mouth. Shen Junci also rubbed his forehead with his hand.

However, Gu Yanchen remained serious. He instructed the recorder beside him without changing his expression, “Bribing an officer, make sure to note that down too.”

Dai Xiarong quickly waved his hands, “No no no, just kidding, officers, I only sold a few orders.”

“Be honest, how many did you sell?” Gu Yanchen asked.

Dai Xiarong stuttered a bit, “Just around ten.”

Lu Ying pointed to Dai Xiarong’s file. “Just ten? You bought a house two years ago, and a new car this year, all with your illegal gains, right?”

Dai Xiarong’s bank account information had already been printed out, showing numerous large non-salary deposits over the years. Each one was highlighted. Dai Xiarong was clearly no match for Gu Yanchen. As the questioning continued, he finally wilted completely, revealing all the insider information of the industry, hoping for leniency.

In general, these ashes were bought legitimately from the relatives of the deceased. Many relatives didn’t experience the expected grief. For a few thousand, they would sell a woman’s ashes. If the dialogue indicated the other party didn’t want to sell, they had ways. They would secretly tamper with things. Before cremation, they would take the deceased woman’s hair, nails, and personal clothing as evidence. They would copy down the name and ID number from the registration book, and inquire about the date of birth under the guise of blessing.

After cremation, the workers would usually collect the ashes. For safety reasons, relatives were not allowed near the crematorium. There were many tricks involved in collecting ashes. Some corpses were larger, resulting in more ashes than could fit in one urn. Even when a corpse was completely burned, some residue would remain, which the crematorium would also collect.

They often encountered some public cremations, such as homeless people, disabled individuals from welfare organizations, lonely elderly people, and criminals sentenced to death. After their deaths, if there were no relatives to claim the corpse, and if the street and police ruled out homicide and issued a death certificate, they would also be cremated. The ashes of these individuals could also be handled as the crematorium saw fit.

Ashes were just powder with no names on them. So the workers became adept at switching urns. Relatives would come in, receive a jar, and whether the contents inside were truly their relatives’ ashes was hard to say. Thus, the real ashes of women would be replaced with other ashes. They would then bring the prepared ashes to sell, keeping the video footage and previous evidence as proof.

This kind of malpractice had existed for a long time, but it was more prevalent in the past when burials were common, mostly involving female corpses. Now with more cremations, many families began to keep ashes, and the ashes of young women weren’t as valuable anymore. The demand decreased, but the business flourished over the years. With more buyers, those engaging in these shady deals also became wealthier, eventually forming an entire industry chain, gradually giving rise to a new industry.

The ashes they sold were called “jars” in their jargon, and the intermediaries were called “matchmakers” in this ghostly business. These were quite shocking and unimaginable things, but Dai Xiarong confessed to them nevertheless. As he spoke, Dai Xiarong was both assertive and confident. “Why don’t you go after the buyers? If no one bought, we wouldn’t sell. Wealthy people kneel down one by one begging us. We took pity on them and sold it to them.”

“Go and check it out. There are so many crematoriums around, who isn’t in this business?”

“In our line of work, if you don’t do it this way, you’re a fool. If you arrest all of us, who will do this job later?”

Director Ding’s seven orifices smoked upon hearing this. “Investigate! Investigate thoroughly! I don’t believe it. Letting them run rampant.”

Who didn’t have a deceased loved one? Especially Director Ding, who had a daughter at home. Thinking about how these things were happening almost daily in Penang, Director Ding felt suffocated. After listening for a while, Director Ding angrily called the city leaders, saying they needed to overhaul the funeral industry in Penang.

With the insider information pretty much disclosed, Gu Yanchen also shifted the interrogation’s focus to Zuo Junming’s case.

Dai Xiarong said, “Zuo Junming was a well-known matchmaker in this business. In all of Penang, if you wanted good jars, you couldn’t avoid him. He knew many wealthy people and also knew some feng shui masters. He was well-known in those circles; everyone called him ‘Left Immortal’. Ordinary business would go for thirty to a hundred thousand, but Zuo Junming had the ability to sell them for more.”

This matched the information Gu Yanchen had previously uncovered. He continued, “Recently, did Zuo Junming offend anyone?”

Dai Xiarong thought for a moment, his eyes suddenly widening. “Yes… there was something. I felt there was a problem when he did it, but he was blinded by money at the time.”

Gu Yanchen urged, “Tell me the details.”

Dai Xiarong finally spoke up, “These ashes are also categorized into different grades. Young and beautiful ones are more expensive, especially if they were virgins before death or excelled in their studies. Just last month, we had a premium golden urn in Penang. It was for that girl, Miao Yihe.”

Gu Yanchen frowned, “That female academic genius, Miao Yihe?”

Dai Xiarong nodded, “Yes, her.”

Shen Junci also remembered that name. Miao Yihe was only 23 years old, beautiful, from an intellectual family, and excelled in her studies. She was fluent in six foreign languages. This girl won a high IQ competition on a variety show, gaining numerous fans and suitors. Even some wealthy families extended their olive branches to her. But just when people were speculating whether she would marry into wealth, Miao Yihe suddenly suffered an asthma attack at home and tragically passed away.

Dai Xiarong explained, “It was due to illness, not foul play. Her body was intact, tall, well-built, intelligent, and beautiful in every way. Last month, several wealthy families scrambled to marry her off after her death.”

Gu Yanchen asked, “Was the price for this marriage very high?”

“More than just high,” Dai Xiarong sighed. “I only regret that the corpse wasn’t cremated at my place.” He then gestured with three fingers.

Lu Ying guessed, “Three million?”

Dai Xiarong shook his head, “In the end, the price soared to three hundred million. But Miao Yihe’s family wasn’t short of money. Despite several attempts, they refused to sell. So, Old Zuo had to bribe the crematorium and do it himself.”

This price was outrageous. No wonder Zuo Junming took such a risk. These ash traffickers decided the fate of Miao Yihe behind her family’s back. No matter how much money was involved, it was tainted with blood. But Dai Xiarong spoke of it with an envious tone, which was nauseating.

After explaining the process, Dai Xiarong continued, “But even this price isn’t considered high. Look at the prices of urns and graves nowadays, they’ve skyrocketed. It costs at least tens of millions for a sun burial. But a moon burial for a few million, to those wealthy people, it’s nothing. They even think the more money they spend, the more worthwhile it is.”

Gu Yanchen asked, “What happened next?”

Now that Zuo Junming was dead, it indicated that something had gone wrong with this once profitable business. Dai Xiarong sighed, “Just as he was about to sell, after receiving the down payment, another family came forward, specifically asking for Miao Yihe’s ashes and offering a higher price than the previous one. Old Zuo had been in this business for many years with a good reputation, but I never thought he would do such a thing for money…”

Lu Ying frowned, “Could he have sold fake ashes?”

Dai Xiarong nodded, “Seeing the price was so high, he got greedy. But he didn’t dare go to the crematorium that burned Miao Yihe’s body, fearing leaving evidence. So, he gave me some money to find some residual ashes and mix Miao Yihe’s ashes into them, dividing them into two urns. It’s a taboo to have one woman married to two men after death. I warned him not to do this, but he said those two families probably wouldn’t know…”

But in this world, there are no secrets that can’t be uncovered.

At this point, Dai Xiarong looked up at Gu Yanchen, “I think Old Zuo has met his retribution.”

The word “retribution” sounded ironic coming from him.

Gu Yanchen asked, “Do you know who bought Miao Yihe’s ashes?”

Dai Xiarong shook his head.

In the observation room, Shen Junci’s phone suddenly vibrated. He hurriedly went outside to answer it, and when he returned, the interrogation was almost over.

As Gu Yanchen continued questioning, he finally connected all the clues. Zuo Junming’s case, on the surface, seemed like a case of spousal abuse and revenge, but behind it, it might have been the buyers of the ghost marriage discovering they had been deceived, hiring someone to kill, and then trying to shift the blame onto Zuo Junming’s wife, Zhang Kabei. The process of killing was not just to disguise the case as an act of revenge but also a form of interrogation torture.

The other party wanted to know the whereabouts of Miao Yihe’s other half’s ashes. After the interrogation ended, Gu Yanchen came to the observation room. He saw Shen Junci standing on the side and nodded at him.

“It’s fortunate you all were vigilant enough to uncover these things. I never imagined this industry was so chaotic,” Director Ding sighed. “You need to quickly clarify this case.”

Gu Yanchen nodded, “There shouldn’t be many people in Penang who can afford to spend hundreds of millions on a ghost marriage.”