Chapter 10

Daily Life

The next day, Nan Shi went to work with a left hand that hurt like hell.

Although he had fainted, it didn’t hinder his shixiong from entering his dream to catch him for the exam.

After being shaken by Chi You’s heaven-defying fate-altering hand, what the hell of the Yi Jing could Nan Shi still remember? When he saw his shixiong in the dream, he thought it was just a pure dream. He casually draped his arm over his shixiong’s shoulder, gave a thumbs-up, and blurted out:

“Brother, you’re really the opening of the cow gate by the mother of a bull—it’s fucking unstoppable!”

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So sad.

Nan Shi looked outside at the continuous drizzle. Qinglan, following behind, smiled with pursed lips and opened the thirty-six-boned violet bamboo umbrella she carried, shading Nan Shi’s head. “Young master, allow me to see you off.”

“Thank you,” Nan Shi said, offering a word of thanks, but not particularly impressed. It wasn’t until he got in the car that he realized Qinglan had followed him in as well, sitting in the passenger seat… mainly because he spotted the corner of Qinglan’s skirt. “…Qinglan, how did you come along?”

Ever since yesterday, Nan Shi seemed to have become even more timid. Today, he didn’t even dare to look at his family members’ faces much.

“The Mountain Lord instructed that the Young Master might face some inconveniences today, and to have this servant accompany the Young Master to work.” Qinglan smoothed out the corner of her skirt and, somewhat awkwardly, put on the seat belt. “I heard that if you don’t wear this, they will fine the Young Master? This servant has read the traffic laws.”

The traffic laws are fine.

In these modern times, even vengeful ghosts are quite up-to-date.

Nan Shi carefully glanced at Qinglan through the rearview mirror. “…There’s no need. Shixiong’s punches aren’t heavy, I just need to be a bit more careful… Didn’t you say you shouldn’t come out during the daytime? Go back quickly, don’t get hurt.”

Qinglan’s smile became increasingly gentle. “Many thanks for the young master’s concern. This kind of rainy weather doesn’t bother me. This servant has some cultivation after all. Even if the scorching sun were overhead, an umbrella would be sufficient.”

“Oh… in that case, it’s fine.” Nan Shi didn’t resist much. Since his shixiong had spoken, he usually couldn’t get much traction with the family.

Who understands the hardships of being at the bottom of the food chain?

As the car began to move, Qinglan looked outside with novelty and praised, “No wonder the young master doesn’t like carriages. Indeed, cars are much smoother and more comfortable than carriages.”

Although it was raining today, at least it was clear that it was daytime. Perhaps having left the old mansion, Nan Shi felt much more relaxed—Qinglan no longer looked so ghostly, at most just a pale-faced ancient beauty.

Nan Shi repeated it in his mind a few times, and felt that Qinglan wasn’t so scary after all. His attitude improved considerably.

Perhaps it was also because he had been together for some time, becoming accustomed to the situation. He might not have been so afraid of the family members, it was just that while in the old mansion, his brain constantly reminded him of their identities. Now without that layer of suggestion, his heart felt much more at ease.

Nan Shi smiled casually and said, “Isn’t that right? My shixiong is just an old fog—…“

At this point, he realized with alarm that he had spoken out of turn and simply changed the topic: “Moreover, isn’t raising horses also very troublesome? You still have to feed them hay, but for cars, just filling up with gasoline is enough, and there’s no need to take care of them at other times.”

Qinglan pretended not to hear what Nan Shi said about Chi You, only saying: “The Young Master is right, once we return home, I’ll invite Sister Qing He to try it as well.”

“Good,” Nan Shi promptly agreed. “Then once we get home, I’ll give you the car keys… wait, you know how to drive, right?”

“Young Master, rest assured, I certainly won’t damage your conveyance by bumping it.”

Nan Shi nodded, but his thoughts had flown far away—I wonder if ghosts need to take driving exams now? If so, wouldn’t there have to be ‘driving schools’? Are there ghost instructors these days? How do you go about getting certified? What if it happens to be sunny that day?

There must be driving instructors who’ve been sent down too, right? The driving school itself probably doesn’t need to be considered, it’s just my shixiong…

Nan Shi pursed the corners of his lips, striving to make them appear less exaggeratedly uplifted—he had already envisioned the scenario where his shixiong goes to learn driving, and the experienced driver-coach, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, sits nearby, ranting and cursing—”Are you trying to take me for another ride to the grave?!”

“See that person up ahead? Step on the gas, run them over!—What? Not going to hit them? Then why aren’t you braking?”

How amusing!

Before long, the two of them arrived at the parking lot. Nan Shi took out an automatic umbrella from the car, thinking it would be better to hold the umbrella himself. He didn’t want to attract a bunch of questions from all sorts of relatives the next day, like “Is this your girlfriend?”

If no one else could see Qinglan, it would be even more terrifying! An umbrella floating by itself! That night he would debut as the star of the social news channel!

The two walked down streets and alleyways. Nan Shi saw an old lady selling incense and paper money up ahead, and upon careful consideration, realized it must be nearly the end of the year. No wonder someone had come out to sell this kind of thing.

He originally wanted to just walk past, but for some reason suddenly stopped his steps. Nan Shi bent down and asked, “Granny, how much are the ingots?”

The old lady lifted her head, squinted slightly with her slightly blurred eyes, and looked at Nan Shi: “Tin paper is 25 yuan per pack, and folded ingots are 45 yuan for 300.”

Nan Shi thought for a moment, then asked for five packs of folded ingots, and also bought incense and candles before leading Qinglan into the shop.

Qinglan asked with some curiosity, “Young master, what are these for?”

Nan Shi evaded the question and joked, “Isn’t it the New Year? Buying some to burn at home.”

Nan Shi’s parents had passed away long ago, but his grandmother was still alive. She had moved to her old home in the neighboring province. The elderly woman said she didn’t like cities anymore when she got old, and she still preferred chatting with her old sisters and so on. Nan Shi’s family had been somewhat well-off in the past, and the elderly woman also had a pension. Even after moving to the countryside, they didn’t need to worry about food or clothing.

This year, he didn’t dare to go back home too much. Ever since meeting Chi You, the probability of bumping into ‘good brothers’ had risen straight up. It was fine in S City with his senior brother protecting him, but if he ran to the neighboring province, he wouldn’t even have time to call for help if something happened.

Well, it’s important for people to know their limits.

After arriving at the shop, Qinglan very conscientiously went to clean up. Nan Shi saw that the rain had stopped, so he took a copper basin and went to the back door. He drew a circle with chalk and burned three packets of ingots for his parents and grandfather. His eyes flicked about, and he drew another circle, mischievously burning a packet for Chi You as well.

With the remaining packet, he scattered it outside the circle and burned it together. This kind of burning without drawing a circle was for stray souls, and whoever saw it could take it.

A gust of wind came from somewhere, blowing the burnt yellow ashes, making them tumble and run along.

Nan Shi used the fire from the paper money to light three sticks of clean fragrance, bowed towards the sky, and muttered: “Heavenly Way Daddy, don’t be angry. My shixiong is a bit crazy, but since he’s already dead, you shouldn’t bother with him… I’m different, I’m very well-behaved. Look for a day when you’re free and grant me a meal, I’ll burn incense for you during the holidays, Daddy, love me once more!”

It was unknown whether the Heavenly Lord, upon hearing this, was angry or laughing, but Nan Shi felt he had performed the necessary etiquette. He threw the incense into the copper basin, squatted to the side waiting for the fire to burn out, then finally took out a dustpan to clean up the outside, opened the door, and went back inside.

Qinglan smelled the burnt paper money inside, and upon seeing Nan Shi enter carrying things, she hurried up to take them.

Nan Shi, grinning, apologized. Seeing he still had incense left in his hand, he took out a lighter and lit it, bowed towards Qinglan, and silently prayed for her.

Before Qinglan could even dodge, she was enveloped by the smoke. She stamped her foot in anger: “Young Master! How can you bow to your servant?”

Nan Shi waved his hand: “It’s fine, it would be wasted otherwise! Please help me tidy up, I’m going out.”

With that, he handed the lit incense to Qinglan.

Qinglan held the incense fire given to her by Nan Shi, at a loss for what to do. Seeing Nan Shi open the front door, she feared the scent of the incense would fill the house. She could only set down the scoop and such, opened the back door, and went to the rear to wait until the incense burned out before coming in.

It was a rainy day, and one could imagine there wouldn’t be too many tourists. Nan Shi wasn’t in a hurry either, leisurely looking for a book to read. Since Qinglan was there, there was no need for him to be busy in the shop; he only needed to sit properly.

He even had the mind to put a warming poultice on his left hand, which, though it looked fine on the outside, was actually swollen and red from being struck in a dream.

His shixiong’s strikes were truly vicious! Though they didn’t harm the flesh, they spared not a bit of pain!

It wasn’t until the afternoon that Nan Shi finally made a sale, selling a fifty-yuan bracelet. It was only after the customer had looked at it for a long time, tried it on again and again, and haggled for a good while that they bought it. Nan Shi superstitiously felt that the day’s business probably wouldn’t go smoothly, and sure enough, there were no other customers all the way until evening.

In the evening, the rain picked up again. Nan Shi glanced at it, finding it quite dull. Just as he was planning to close up shop early and go home to sleep, someone tapped on the glass door at the entrance.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, from all directions.

Nan Shi looked up and saw an elderly gentleman dressed quite respectably outside. He seemed somewhat timid, not daring to come in. Seeing Nan Shi looking at him, he waved at Nan Shi.

Nan Shi pointed at himself, and the old man promptly nodded.

Nan Shi got up and walked to the shop entrance, but didn’t go out. He asked, “Are you looking for me?”

“I just knew you could see me!” the old man said softly. “Um, could I ask you to bring a message to my old lady at home? It won’t be a wasted trip for you either, I have a little private stash hidden under the blue stone bricks outside our door!”

Nan Shi happened to be bored, so he nodded. “What message do you want to bring? Where is your wife? What’s her name? Where does she live? Is there a phone number?”

“It’s just as you saw during the day. When you go back, it’s fine if you mention it along the way,” the old man said hastily, casting a glance over his shoulder as if somewhat afraid. “Her surname is Li, her name is Lihua. Tell her that back then, she put our wedding rings into my urn, but I wasn’t willing to take such a precious thing with me, so I secretly put them back into the rightmost drawer of the five-drawers cabinet at home. She’s getting old now, don’t fold paper money for me day after day, I can’t use that much money anyway.”

“Now she’s getting old and also needs to see a doctor, how could her pension be enough? Selling my wedding ring would fetch several thousand yuan, I agree, don’t blame her! Tell her to sell it quickly and use the money for medicine!”

At this point, the old man repeated the address again. Upon hearing it, Nan Shi immediately knew where it was—the old woman selling paper money he had encountered when arriving earlier that morning.

“The rules of other underworlds may differ and aren’t easy to say, but these ones are about it,” the old man said, still somewhat unsatisfied.

Nan Shi nodded and, along the way, called out, “Then you don’t need to leave. Wait until I pack up my stall, it just happens to be a good time to accompany you on your trip.”

“Alright!”

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Chi You was playing with a silver ingot in his hand and asked, “Where is the young master?”

Qing He replied with his head bowed, “Reporting to the Mountain Lord, it’s not yet time to finish work, so the young master should still have some time before he returns.”

Chi You didn’t know if he was raising the corners of his mouth in anger or happiness.

Just now, he had planned to sleep, but then a pile of silver ingots, still carrying the scent of incense, crashed onto his quilt.

Exactly three hundred of them.

They were of good quality, each about the size of an infant’s fist, solid, and accompanied by Nan Shi’s muttering voice:

“Buy a car for Shixiong, buy a car for Shixiong…”

Was this considered currying favor or intentionally coming to trouble him?