Midnight Bookstore

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

A certain place in Tongcheng had gained a reputation in recent years. It was not because of how much money it made, or how great its food was; it was because of its entrance exam!

To most high school students taking their entrance exam, the mock exam in Tongcheng was comparable to the “Huanggang Secret Scroll”.

{TL Note: Huanggang Secret Scroll is the name of a famous reference book with tips on how to prepare for the entrance exam in high schools. It was written by a high school teacher from Huanggang High School in Hubei Province.}

It was not really Zhou Ze’s concern, since the target audience of his bookstore was no longer living humans.

He was done restructuring his business. He was making money from the dead instead.

However, the fatty that called him last time gave him a call again.

The reason was simple; the students would be taking their entrance exam in the upcoming semester. The fatty had come up with a big project; selling pirated copies of reference books!

There were lots of bends and curves in the business, and the distribution of the profit was extremely complicated . Zhou Ze did not really understand it, and he didn’t believe Xu Le understood it, either.

The fatty was only interested in convincing Xu Le to participate in it, since he could then use Xu Le’s social network for it. Xu Le was nothing but a middleman that both sides were happy with. The man might be stupid, but he was surprisingly reliable.

Piracy was a constant problem in the country. It was the whole reason for the culture of selling counterfeit goods. It was so widely accepted that it was actually gradually losing its negative connotation.

Even so, piracy was still illegal , regardless of how common it was. If the authorities happened to set their eyes on him, it would still result in a lot of trouble.

Zhou Ze rejected the fatty’s offer. The man left with a dull face. He lit up a cigarette in front of the door and touched the golden chain that had started to lose its paint around his neck and cursed, “Idiot!”

—

Zhou Ze sat behind the counter and continued to read his book. The fatty’s visit was nothing but a brief interlude in his life.

The woman carried out her daily routine too. After she was done with the cleaning, she sat on a chair and closed her eyes, her back against the wall. She seemed to be lost in thought or daydreaming.

They were living like an old woman who was having trouble with her feet.

Zhou Ze was quite content. He remembered it was the kind of life that he was looking forward to the most in his previous life, living a peaceful life and doing meaningless things like reading books and daydreaming as he pleased.

He no longer needed to be on call for emergencies. He did not need to keep reminding himself to work diligently so he could claim a higher position.

As for the woman, she had been lying in a coffin for two hundred years. She had already gotten used to the boredom and silence. Her life now was just a drizzle to her.

—

Compared to the stillness of the bookstore, Xu Qinglang was a lot more motivated. He was financially well-off. He was not too ambitious with Taoism. He basically spent most of this time planning how he could earn money for himself and how it would all pan out in the end.

As such, the man was displeased by the laziness of the master and servant next door!

“Look at you, you’re as lazy as a dead man,” Xu Qinglang came over to smoke a cigarette and mock Zhou Ze after he was done with his work.

“I am a dead man!” Zhou Ze waved his hand and took a puff of his cigarette.

“Look at you, a man who is currently living his second life. You didn’t have much money on you, unlike me who works diligently, even though I already have more than twenty properties.”

As usual, he had to boast about himself after belittling Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze glanced at Xu Qinglang and said with a smile, “Are you preparing your dowry?”

“No ivory comes from the mouth of a dog,” Xu Qinglang looked up at the ceiling, “I want to live a comfortable life after I retire.”

“Your twenty properties already attracted the attention of a ghost lady who sent a palanquin with eight porters to escort her groom. Just keep working. Earn more money and buy more properties, and I bet a female ghost monarch will consider you an appropriate match. By then, I’ll benefit from it too. Just don’t forget your friends when you become rich.”

“Hehe!” The woman who was daydreaming gladly chimed in.

Xu Qinglang looked at the time and said, “It’s almost eight, I should go and prepare!”

“For what?” Zhou Ze was a little surprised. Xu Qinglang usually went to bed early at night.

“The Confucian Temple opens today. Isn’t the entrance exam just around the corner? I have a few relatives whose kids are taking the entrance exam. They asked me to burn some incense for them.”

“You? Serious?” Zhou Ze was well aware of Xu Qinglang’s personalities. The man was not cold and selfish, but he seemed unmotivated by things other than earning money.

“I stayed at his place when I was young. He helped me a couple of times, too. Otherwise, I might not have lived until I relocated. I owe him one,” Xu Qinglang said seriously.

“Yeah,” Zhou Ze nodded.

“Why don’t we go together?” Xu Qinglang suddenly invited him. “Help me get the first spot?”

“Is burning the first stick of incense a thing in a Confucian Temple too?”

“Heh, just think of it as a good luck charm.”

“I’m not that strong.” Zhou Ze had witnessed how far people would go for just to be the first person to burn some incense. There was no way he could compete with them, unless he used his nails to clear the path. However, wasn’t it inappropriate to knock everyone out?

“Bring her along too,” Xu Qinglang pointed at the woman. “She’s as strong as an ox, she can definitely do us the favor.”

The woman frowned, and was about to talk back.

“Don’t you want to go out?” Xu Qinglang raised his brows.

The woman quickly swallowed her words and gave him a smile. She had not taken a single step out of the bookstore as of yet.

Zhou Ze was left with no choice but to accept the invitation. He could not allow the woman to go outside on her own. Even though she had done a great job as a maid so far, there was no knowing what was in a person’s heart, let alone a gyonshi without a heart.

Zhou Ze strongly believed that if he lost his power someday, the gyonshi maid that was willing to bow and kneel before him would be the first to eat his flesh!

——

The three hailed a ride to the Confucian Temple. The place was not too crowded, but there were still a fair number of people around.

-Speaking of the joys of being parents…-

Xu Qinglang met his relative and the man’s wife outside the temple. The two seemed to be honest people in their middle years.

As expected, their son did not come along. Everyone was only here to pray for some good luck for their kids. No one would seriously believe praying at the temple was the key to passing the entrance exam. There was basically no sign of students among the crowd. They were most likely studying at home.

The Confucian Temple in Tongcheng opened after the Chinese New Year. As for why it was not open before the Chinese New Year, perhaps the old scholars in charge of the temple thought it was somewhat humiliating for their temple to compete for visitors with the other temples that were worshiping animals and spirits.

They would rather open after the Chinese New Year, to show off that the temple was crowded with people when the other temples were empty.

However, Zhou Ze was unaware of the actual reason behind it, and wondered if the Confucian Temples in other cities were opened at the same time, too. These social customs were simply a bunch of strange rules. Who was he supposed to trust?

Recently, there was a hot topic circulating on social media about something that had happened in the city next to Tongcheng. The grandfather-in-law had kissed the bride during the wedding, and apparently, it had something to do with their customs. It was absurd.

With a squeak, the red wooden doors opened. The parents waiting outside immediately rushed into the temple like savage beasts.

The gyonshi led the way, followed by Xu Qinglang and his relative. She was clearing the path like Zhao Yun during the Battle of Changbanpo.

Zhou Ze did not bother to follow them. He crouched beside the road and smoked his cigarettes.

While he was smoking, he was surprised when he found his cigarette had gone out.

Zhou Ze lit up the cigarette again, but it no longer had any taste.

“Hehe,” Zhou Ze tossed the cigarette aside and looked around him. He knew something had taken his cigarette as an offering.

It was not after the incense sticks or the other offerings, but a cigarette from the living world! Zhou Ze could not tell which monster, god, or devil it was.

Zhou Ze did not get angry and snap something like “Damn it, who’s stealing my cigarette!” He was an ‘illegal immigrant’ a month ago, too. He was only promoted to a temporary worker after half a month.

He did not act arrogantly just because of his current status.

Dong! A gong was struck. It sounded quite obvious and piercing at night.

Zhou Ze followed the sound.

He saw a small old man walking out of a flowery bush behind the Confucian Temple. The old man was holding a gong, and there was a cigarette between his lips as he hopped along happily.

The old man glanced at Zhou Ze and took a puff of the cigarette, as if he was trying to express his gratitude to Zhou Ze for offering him the cigarette.

Zhou Ze smiled. He took out the rest of the cigarettes and lit them up before placing them on the ground. He only left one for himself to smoke.

The cigarettes on the ground went out soon. The little old man seemed even happier. He found the young man extremely pleasing to his eyes. His pocket was bulging, now filled with cigarettes.

The little old man struck the gong and led the way. He was followed by a bunch of people.

They were not the parents that had gone into the Confucian Temple, but a bunch of people dressed in weird clothing.

The first few were holding fans made of feathers and silk headscarves. They were staggering along with defeated faces as they followed behind the old man.

The other two at the back had oily braids. They had blank looks in their eyes as they followed behind the old man.

The clothes of the people that appeared afterwards gradually modernized. The last few were wearing modern clothes, just like ordinary high schoolers.

However, their faces were green. Some even had broken skulls.

Due to Zhou Ze’s profession, he soon realized that the students had either died to poison or jumped off buildings.

One in particular actually looked somewhat familiar. He believed he had seen the young man’s photograph on the news a few years ago. Apparently, the young student had jumped off a building, unable to bear the huge pressure after getting a bad result on the mock exam.

The little old man continued forward while sounding the gong. The group of scholars and students followed behind him like puppets. They seemed to be going on a parade around the temple. The pedestrians nearby were unable to see them

Dong!, the gong was struck…

“There’s no need to build high towers for a cozy living, since there are houses of gold in books!” the midget old man yelled in a hoarse voice.

Dong!, the gong was struck again.

“Don’t worry about the lack of good matchmakers finding you a partner; there’s always a beauty in the books!” the old man yelled.

After walking around the temple in circles three times, the strange parade slowly vanished.

A moment later, the parents that were done with their incense burning came out of the temple.

They were content, with great anticipation and eagerness, hoping their children would succeed in life.