Chapter 1 The Plaque

Zhou Ze brought back the plaques and planned to nail them on either side of the door, not caring which one went on the left and which on the right.

Xu Qinglang, the young man next door, was very enthusiastic.

Originally squatting at his door peeling garlic, he saw Zhou Ze preparing to hang the plaques and immediately fetched a hammer and nails from his house.

Zhou Ze thanked him, picked up his hammer, and felt it was a little greasy and heavy in his hand. Enduring a slight discomfort, Zhou Ze nailed the two plaques up.

Then,

the two of them took a few steps back together, looking at the plaques, the door, and the bookstore.

Zhou Ze offered Xu Qinglang a cigarette as thanks, and Xu Qinglang lit it for him.

The two exhaled smoke rings together,

perfectly synchronized.

"The artistic conception, is it there?" Zhou Ze said, in a standard self-congratulatory tone.

Xu Qinglang shook his head, "If I'm not mistaken, these two lines should come from the title of a volume in Ji Yun's *Notes from the Thatched Hall of Close Scrutiny*."

*Notes from the Thatched Hall of Close Scrutiny* is a collection of stories similar to *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio* written by Ji Yun, also known as Ji Xiaolan. It uses tales of fox spirits and ghosts to express the author's own thoughts.

In short, the meaning of this couplet is, these are all stories I've heard, everyone here, just listen.

"Mm," Zhou Ze nodded.

"Still too literary, this shop of yours is still going to lose money," Xu Qinglang's evaluation was blunt.

"Why?"

"There are too many stories in this world. All kinds of bizarre things happen every day, but not many things are truly interesting.

Some things are pointless to say.

Some things are simply not allowed to be said.

Some things need to be changed to be heard.

Some things need to be changed to be dared to be heard."

Zhou Ze looked at Xu Qinglang for a long time.

Xu Qinglang lowered his head slightly, his face flushed with shyness.

He naturally adopted a flirtatious demeanor, and at this moment, he was even more charming and exquisite.

Seeing that Zhou Ze didn't speak, Xu Qinglang continued:

"For example, these things about mountain spirits, fox fairies, and ghosts, where would they really exist in the real world?" Xu Qinglang yawned, "How can the reasoning implied in false things ever be true?"

Zhou Ze continued to look at Xu Qinglang, without saying a word.

Xu Qinglang felt his scalp tingle from being stared at,

but Zhou Ze continued to look at him.

Finally, Xu Qinglang waved his hand, said he was going back to make soup base, and walked back to his noodle shop. He felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, because just now, he felt like Zhou Ze wasn't looking at him,

but at a joke.

Zhou Ze didn't bother with Xu Qinglang. Since the two were neighbors, they should just mind their own business. Anyway, they didn't constitute a competitive relationship, and the most important thing was that Zhou Ze didn't have the money to change shops.

In the afternoon, Zhou Ze sorted out most of the textbooks and supplementary books in the bookstore and sold them to the waste collector at the price of waste paper.

He also went to the supermarket and bought ten plastic stools, leaving only two bookshelves with books that Zhou Ze himself thought were interesting.

Right now, this was less of a bookstore and more of a community center for elderly people.

Zhou Ze stretched, he wasn't very good at doing business. Right now, he was just messing around. Anyway, Xu Le was constantly losing money when he was here, so he didn't feel any pressure.

Coming to the small second floor, Zhou Ze turned on the freezer's power, set a temperature, and waited outside for a while while smoking a cigarette. Then, he reached into the freezer to feel it.

The temperature was about right, and Zhou Ze lay down inside.

The freezer, which cost more than ten thousand to buy, naturally had many functions, such as a timer, which was equivalent to Zhou Ze's alarm clock.

Closing the freezer,

Zhou Ze placed his hands on his lower abdomen, lying straight.

It looked like

he passed away peacefully.

…………

Late at night,

a red car parked on the side of the road in front of the bookstore. This street was a bit deserted. Only the noodle shop and the bookstore, which were close to each other, were still lit.

A well-dressed girl was sitting in the car, wearing a black down jacket and with her hair draped over her shoulders, looking somewhat cute and delicate.

"Xiao Bai, you bastard, I prepared for three days, and today you actually tell me you ran off on a business trip? Go to hell and die!"

The girl hung up the phone and sat in the driver's seat, sulking.

A corgi on the passenger seat jumped onto the girl's lap. Its fur was flowing and shiny, indicating that it was a good breed and well cared for.

"Good boy, it's good that you're here with me."

The girl lit a cigarette, stretched her hand out to flick the ash, and looked outside, seeing the bookstore. She could see the unusual interior through the glass window. There weren't many bookshelves, but rather plastic stools.

Getting out of the car, the girl walked towards the bookstore with the corgi in her arms. She didn't want to drive around aimlessly on this Valentine's night. She wanted to find a quiet place to sit.

The bookstore door wasn't closed. After walking in, she could feel the air conditioning and heating inside.

The girl led her dog and randomly selected a magazine from the bookshelf, then sat down on a plastic stool.

The corgi was released, and the little guy began to "explore" the store.

After finishing a magazine, the girl gently stretched and felt a little thirsty, calling out:

"Boss, are you there? Do you have any milk tea or coffee here?"

The girl stood up, put the magazine she had in her hand back, and chose an illustrated version of *Dream of the Red Chamber*. When she sat down again, she couldn't help but call out again:

"Boss, are you dead in the middle of the night? Is this how you run a store?"

A sign saying "Open for Business, Welcome" was hanging on the glass door of the bookstore, and the door was open, and the heating was on, so it must still be open.

If the girl had been more polite or curious at this time and taken the initiative to go upstairs to take a look, she might have admired her own "prophecy."

In the low space upstairs, there was indeed an ice coffin.

The boss was lying inside, really like a dead person.

No,

the boss was a dead person to begin with.

Of course, the girl probably wouldn't have had time to admire herself before being scared out of her wits.

It would be shocking for a normal person to enter a store late at night and find that the owner was lying in a frozen ice coffin, right?

The girl lit another cigarette, a little impatient, and took out her phone to play.

At this time, footsteps came from the stairwell. Zhou Ze didn't get up because he heard the girl's call; he woke up naturally.

As soon as he came downstairs, Zhou Ze saw a small yellow figure dart to his legs, asking him for a hug.

Zhou Ze smiled, bent down, and hugged the corgi in his arms. The little guy wasn't shy and seemed to be familiar with everyone.

Then, Zhou Ze noticed the woman sitting in the store.

Oh,

the first customer to open.

But he wasn't as excited as he imagined, because Zhou Ze had only changed the bookstore's plaque today and cleaned up the interior,

but hadn't figured out

how to make money next.

"Do you have coffee here, boss?"

The girl asked.

Zhou Ze pointed to a water dispenser in the corner. There were disposable paper cups in the water dispenser.

The girl was a little helpless, but she still got up, poured herself a cup of water, and then sat back on her plastic stool.

One host, one guest,

speechless.

After about half an hour of silence, the girl started browsing Weibo and watching videos. One video was very noisy:

"Don't miss it, don't pass it by!

Hell money blessed by this old Taoist, limited supply!

You can burn it and take it out for your own use when you go down there, and you can also earn some interest, which is higher than Yu’ebao's interest!

You can also burn it and send it to your relatives below, which is quick and convenient, honest and trustworthy, the ghosts won't disturb you, and they won't be skinned layer by layer!"

The girl laughed after seeing this video. People generally want to share funny things, so she raised her head and looked at the boss sitting behind the counter, saying:

"Boss, have you seen this video? This old Taoist's livestream is quite famous. He's almost become an internet celebrity."

"Oh, livestream?" Zhou Ze was a little puzzled. He took out his phone. There were really a lot of livestreaming apps on Xu Le's phone, so it seemed that this guy was really bored on weekdays.

"Yeah, you search for his ID, it's very funny. He seems to have opened a ghost shop in Rong City, but he hasn't livestreamed for a long time."

Zhou Ze opened the app and started searching for the old Taoist's ID according to the girl's description. He found a livestream room - the streamer is not at home.

But luckily, he could watch replays, so Zhou Ze randomly clicked on a video from a month ago.

In the video, the old Taoist fixed his phone in a position and was practicing martial arts there alone. The punches were good, and you could see that he was a trained expert. In the video screen, there was a young man sitting there, smiling, squinting, like he was watching a monkey show.

Zhou Ze perfunctorily dragged the progress bar, and a man appeared in the picture again, sitting behind the counter, holding a spoon in his hand, as if he was drinking porridge.

The old Taoist was talking eloquently in the main screen of the video, constantly promoting himself and the hell money he sold on Taobao, but Zhou Ze's eyes subconsciously looked at the man in the corner of the video.

He was frowning, he was suffering, he was in pain, he was rejecting,

a mouthful of porridge,

he ate it with difficulty,

and then continued with the second mouthful,

as if he was being tortured.

Zhou Ze watched and took a deep breath, as if he was infected by the man in the corner of the video.

Eating,

is really not an easy thing.

He didn't know the identity of the man in the video, but he instinctively became a little interested. Was the other party an anorexic patient? Or did he have some kind of gastrointestinal disease?

After the video ended, Zhou Ze opened the page and, on a whim, directly used Xu Le's logged-in account to send a private message to the old Taoist:

"Who is the man sitting in the back drinking porridge in the video?"

"Hey, I'm leaving, how much?" The girl stood up and stretched, "If I tell people about this today, they will definitely think I'm stupid. On Valentine's Day, I actually sat in a bookstore and read *Dream of the Red Chamber* for so long."

"Pay as you see fit," Zhou Ze said.

She only read a book for a while and poured herself a glass of purified water.

The girl glanced at Zhou Ze, "Boss, your routine is really good, like those masters sitting in temples interpreting fortunes.

A sign saying 'Free Fortune Interpretation' is written on the prayer mat, and after the tourists draw a fortune and ask him to interpret it, he will take out a red alms book for you, with a long list of names and incense money written on it, the lowest being one hundred."

Zhou Ze smiled without committing himself.

The girl took out a hundred yuan and placed it on the chair she had been sitting on, then hugged her corgi and pushed open the bookstore door and left.

Zhou Ze stood up, put away the hundred yuan, and flicked it in his hand,

a crisp sound,

this is one of the most beautiful sounds in the world.

When he walked back to the counter, Zhou Ze found that the phone screen lit up. He opened the phone and found that there was a reply, a private message from the old Taoist. The content of the reply was simple:

"Gone!"