No no no, whether to sell or not, it's up to me.
"Little brother, are you selling? You have a pure heart, with impressive appearance. It's rare to see. Will you just say your price? Are you here to do business or for money?"
The ass-face boss had an extremely obsequious demeanor, reminiscent of a real estate salesman or an insurance salesman.
Anything can be done or arranged to facilitate this business deal.
However, the words he said made me feel like I had goosebumps.
This place is for receiving corpses, but is it actually for selling one's own body?
My eyelid twitched spastically, I shook my head, and my voice was hoarse: "Sorry, I was just curious."
The whole face of the ass-face boss drooped down, giving off a gloomy aura.
I did not exert any strength, allowing Hua Ying to pull me along quickly towards the interior of the narrow street.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the round objects in the glass showcase of the shop across from us were enlarged eyes, filled with red bloodshot veins, turning left and right constantly. The items sold in the other shops were even more peculiar and bizarre.
Although it appears to be a traditional Chinese medicine shop, the shelves are piled high with Chloris virgata, Dicranopteris dichotoma, and Senecio candicans.
These are all tomb grasses, especially Chloris virgata, which has a strong vitality and usually takes up to 50 or 60 years to wither on an old tomb, carrying a heavy amount of negative energy.
On the shelves alongside the shoe store, there were big, colorful cotton slippers with narrow, short heels, as well as various top hats.
Ghosts love slippers with big heads because they usually walk on tiptoes, making the heel stand out.
I also noticed a shop that displayed an array of various "paper goods." The shopkeeper wore a simple cloth robe, with a full beard on his upper lip and had a loyal, benevolent smile.
The signboard above the entrance reads: "This store has no deception for the young and the old. We promise to conduct business with integrity and sincerity, striving for perfection without any regrets."
I've almost grasped the concept of the afterlife, and this place seems to be selling items related to death.
Corpse trading is just one of the businesses here...
People on the narrow road were scattered thinly, but each one who passed us glanced at me and Hua Ying suspiciously, with a grim and enigmatic expression as if they harbored some ill intent. I refrained from lingering my gaze, merely quietly memorizing the route we had taken.
After about ten minutes, Hua Ying stopped and paused.
What caught my attention was an old teahouse filled with people.
Although the teahouse was crowded with people, it should have been lively; however, these individuals were incredibly quiet. Even when two people conversed, their voices were almost inaudible.
The innermost part of the teahouse was a stage.
The one singing on the stage wasn't a human being, but rather paper decorations.
The lifelike paper-cut figures had clearly defined blush on their cheeks, and their eyes blinked rapidly. They moved their legs and arms in a mechanical fashion, step by step.
The paper-cut figures are meant to absorb the souls of the dead. They seem like a paper-cut performance, but actually, it's ghosts performing the play.
Hua Ying led me up the left-side wooden staircase and onto the second floor.
The second floor was built on three sides, with tables and chairs arranged, with an open space in the middle and back. One could see some of the guests below and the stage.
The distance between the tables and chairs was greater than in the hall, and there was a partitioned private room opposite the stage.
Some private rooms had drapes that partially blocked the view. One could see figures moving through the slits in the drapes.
We entered an empty private room and just as we sat down, we heard the melancholic singing of the play. The voice was sweet and elongated, full of sorrow.
"Two of you, would you like something to drink?" The hollow voice echoed in our ears.
Sometime later, a little servant walked up to the private room's door. He was short in stature, wearing coarse cotton clothes, and had acne all over his round face. There were two red blushes on his cheeks. His eyes looked like they were painted on.
He was very respectful, but the smile on his face felt forced and insincere, like he was only smiling with his skin and not with his muscles.
Hua Ying replied with two casual words, which I heard as "taiju" (chrysanthemum petals).
As we waited for the tea to be served, the unopened chrysanthemum buds indeed floated in the teacup.
However, I immediately recognized that these were wild chrysanthemums that grew on graves.
The servant also brought over some desserts, including crispy pastry and rice cakes, all of which were decorated with red, resembling offerings to the dead.
"Keep track of the accounts." Hua Ying replied with two simple words.
The servant bowed respectfully and pulled down the curtain of the private room, then withdrew.
"You can take a nap if you feel sleepy; it's very safe here, no one would dare to approach people randomly." Hua Ying said softly, "They will weigh things carefully when they see us here. I need to go back and fetch something, make sure there's no big move at Master Yang's place, and then I'll call you out. At most, one or two days."
"I nodded."
Hua Ying picked up the teacup, blew on it slightly, and took a sip.
After setting the cup down, she stood up to leave.
"Ma Kuo is dead." I spoke in a low voice.
Hua Ying's expression changed slightly.
"Not just one, there's someone else, I don't know who," I added.
"I know," Hua Ying pursed her lips.
Hua Ying left……
My gaze fell to the stage diagonally below, where the ghost play was still being performed. The haunting melodies, which should have caused anxiety, instead somehow calmed me down.
I drank a sip of the chrysanthemum tea from the graves, and the pain in my wrists and knees seemed to disappear.
The afterlife pavilion was too eerie and peculiar. Without Hua Ying leading the way, I indeed dared not wander around at will. To investigate my parents' affairs, I still had no idea where to start.
Time dragged on slowly, with one play changing to another. I took out my phone to check, but there was no signal here. The screen was as frozen as if it had been locked, and I couldn't move it at all.
I didn't know exactly how long it had been, but I only knew that I was tired, so I nodded off according to what Hua Ying had said.
Then I had a bizarre dream. I was sleeping, and there wasn't much of a problem. But there was always a pair of eyes staring fixedly at me.
When I woke up, as soon as I opened my eyes, I saw a large, leathery ass face staring at me with small, piercing eyes, a look of intense greed.
The ass-face boss who collects the dead was sitting across from me!
My pupils constricted slightly, and my arm trembled, with two razor blades already in my hand.
He quickly hissed and pressed his hands down, whispering, "Little brother, calm down, calm down. Did you come here for a haircut? You can't just start acting wildly; that's not good, not good."
My brow furrowed, but I didn't let my guard down.
This person is definitely off.
Hua Ying said no one would dare to approach people randomly.
However, the ass-face boss has come over...
"It seems you've been injured, little brother. Is it because you're seeking refuge here?"
"How about three things?"
"Sell yourself to me, and I'll do three things for you, plus kill the person who hurt you."
The ass-face boss licked his lips, staring at me as if I were his prized possession.
"Don't worry, once you sell yourself to me, you won't die immediately. I'll only collect your body after a year!"
The ass-face boss hesitated for a moment, then gave a worried expression as if he were thinking hard.
He then held up three fingers and gritted his teeth, saying, "How about this? I can break the rules for you. I'll collect your body in three years. But there's one condition: you have to preserve your virginity."
"Three things, collecting the body in three years — this has never happened in the afterlife pavilion."
"I am the gold-labeled Miao family, and I promise to complete any task within three days."
"Will you sell it?"
My eyelids kept twitching, and the more I listened, the more capricious I felt.
Even the lowest of the low, who make a living by dealing with the dead, have some kind of respect for life. No one would willingly risk their own.
Who would sell their own life and body?
"You can leave now, or else I won't be able to resist giving you a haircut." My face was extremely ugly, and I said it coldly.
However, I didn't expect the face of Miao San to become even more lively!
He excitedly said, "You can do more than just give haircuts, right?"
