Midnight Bookstore

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

Xu Qinglang, the woman, and the middle-aged husband and wife left the shrine. The couples seemed to be in a good mood. It was quite obvious that the woman had managed to secure them the first spot for burning the incense.

It was certainly a good omen, regardless if it was going to make any difference. Even parents that did not believe in superstitions would still give their kids a rice dumpling and a rice cake before their exam.

{TL Note: Rice cake in Chinese is ‘年糕’ (nian gao), and rice dumpling is ‘粽子’ (zong zi), thus the two words can combine into ‘糕粽’ (gao zong), which sounds similar to ‘高中’ (gao zhong) that means high school.}

The woman did not seem to be in a good mood. She was walking behind the rest on her own when they were on their way back.

“Shall we go eat supper? How about some barbecue?” Xu Qinglang suggested.

He did have a restaurant, but he could not be bothered to prepare the ingredients to make barbecue at his place when it was already so late at night.

Miss Xu’s skin was very precious. How could it afford to be exposed to the smoke of the barbecue?

Xu Qinglang immediately regretted it as soon as he voiced the suggestion. There were a gyonshi and a living dead who had difficulty eating human food with them.

Imagine the two just sitting still while the others were enjoying their food. It was like asking the clay idols in the temples to enjoy some fireworks. He immediately lost his appetite after thinking about it.

“You guy go ahead, we’ll be going back first,” Zhou Ze said.

“Please allow us to treat you to a meal at least,” the middle-aged man said.

“It’s fine, uncle, we’ll go eat ourselves. Let the pair enjoy a little stroll on their own.” Xu Qinglang left, dragging the middle-aged husband and wife with him.

—

Zhou Ze did not hail a ride. He walked on the deserted street with the gyonshi.

The season was changing. It was no longer as cold as it used to be at night.

“What’s wrong?” Zhou Ze asked the gyonshi. She seemed depressed since she left the shrine.

“I don’t feel good,” the woman said.

“You haven’t stopped menstruating?” The woman was two hundred years old.

“…”

After a brief silence, the woman said, “A few statues in the shrine were staring at me. It felt strange.”

“Do you think they were watching you?” Zhou Ze asked.

“Mm,” the woman nodded.

“Do you feel they didn’t like you going there?”

“Mm,” the woman nodded again.

“Do you think you aren’t supposed to go there just because you’re a gyonshi?”

“Mm,” the woman continued to nod.

“The Saint (Confucius) believes there is no discrimination when it comes to teaching,” Zhou Ze smiled and patted the woman on her head, “You are a gyonshi, an existence that is detested by the humans and loathed by ghosts, but you have gone to the shrine to pray on behalf of someone else. You have contributed by burning the incense. You thought they were watching you, but perhaps they were only placing extra attention on you, since you are special. It’s like a husky that suddenly showed up in a group of wolves. I believe anyone would take a few extra glances at it, right? Of course, it was likely that the statues were just some clay idols. Perhaps the mud that was used to make their eyes contained donkey poop, since it would add a luster to them, so they would look more vivid. You’re just imagining it because of the mental pressure you were giving yourself.”

“But what if they were watching me? What if they were really biased against me…” the woman was still hesitant to believe Zhou Ze.

“Then the statues in the temples aren’t worthy to be treated as the Saint!” Zhou Ze said firmly. “The Saint has been worshipped for centuries. If he did not even have the tolerance to bear with your existence, what right did he have to be placed on the altar? There’s no need to be afraid of a fake Saint.”

The woman looked at Zhou Ze and said with a smile, “Boss, you actually sounded quite imperious just then.”

“Of course!” Zhou Ze definitely enjoyed being fawned upon by his maid.

“But boss, you are an Envoy, and most things are destined to happen. It doesn’t concern normal people, but it might concern you. Besides, you own a bookstore, the kind of business that greatly depends on the good luck granted by the Saint. It’s really inappropriate for you to criticize the Saint like that.”

The woman surprisingly gave a piece of advice to Zhou Ze. Normally, she would be wishing that Zhou Ze would get himself killed as soon as possible.

-Just keep courting your death so I can bury your dead body and remove your nails. I’ll grind them into powder and brew some tea with them. Actually, I’ll just feed them to the pigs!-

“I still believe in the same thing, as long as I don’t go against my conscience, I won’t be afraid of ghosts… or the Saint knocking on my door.” Zhou Ze looked at the streetlight and continued, “I was healing the sick and saving people’s lives in my previous life. I didn’t accept bribery, I didn’t cross the line, I strictly followed medical ethics. Even though I’ve turned into a ghost and reincarnated by claiming someone’s body, I haven’t done a single bad thing. What is there to be scared of?”

Zhou Ze took a deep breath and repeated, “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

The woman fell into deep thought after hearing Zhou Ze’s words.

Zhou Ze was not delivering a speech like a man with the Middle School Second Year Syndrome. It was more like a reminder to himself.

——

The two continued to wander aimlessly. The night breeze was a little cold, but soothing.

The woman eventually came to a stop and asked, “Boss, where are you going?”

Zhou Ze halted in his tracks and looked around him. He realized that he had walked into a residential area.

The familiar environments, the familiar guardhouse, and the familiar guards that were slacking at night by taking a nap. The familiar drop-off box for parcels.

He somehow came to the residential area he had once lived in.

He had lived at the bookstore for a month, yet his subconscious still thought this was his home.

Since he had grown up in an orphanage, he understood the importance of home better. He was more stubborn about having his own home, too.

Luckily, the price of real estate had yet to skyrocket when he bought the house. It was fortunate that he immediately went to buy a house with a loan as soon as he got a job. His colleagues that had only bought a house after the price of real estate in the city rose were envious of him.

However, Zhou Ze was unable to get his WeChat account and QQ back, since he could not pass the phone verification. He could ask someone on his friend list to verify his identity, yet they were either going to think he was crazy, or he would scare them to death.

The hospital ended up selling the house and donated the money to the orphanage on his behalf.

Zhou Ze did not find it unreasonable. After all, he no longer had any close ones in this world.

“It’s my old house,” Zhou Ze said to the woman.

“Should we go take a look then?” the woman suggested.

“It’s already sold,” Zhou Ze said.

“It’s just revisiting your old house.”

Zhou Ze nodded and went inside the area.

They went to block B of the eighth building and took the lift to the fifth floor.

Zhou Ze went up to a door. It was the same door. It was unlikely that the owner had renovated the place.

Even the carpet at the entrance was the same, so was the ball cactus.

Zhou Ze reached his hand to the bottom of the pot and took out a key.

Back then, he was often summoned to the hospital at night for emergencies. He would forget to bring his phone or his keys, so he had placed a reserve key under the pot so he would not lock himself out.

Zhou Ze inserted the key into the door and rotated it just to try his luck.

With a click, the door was unlocked.

The lock was still the same.

The owner didn’t even change the lock? Zhou Ze was a little surprised. He opened the door and turned on the light.

The furnishings in the living room were exactly the same.

Zhou Ze even saw his own slippers. He changed into them and went inside. The woman followed too.

“Boss, is it still the same?” the woman asked.

“Yeah, that’s what confused me the most.”

The place was indeed exactly the same as before, but it just did not make sense.

Wouldn’t someone replace the furnishings of a dead man right away after buying the place?

Why would they still keep all the furnishings? Wouldn’t they think it would bring them bad luck?

Perhaps the person that bought the house was treating it as an investment instead? The new owner was not planning to live here?

Zhou Ze sat down on the couch. It felt like he was his old self again.

Every time he came home after he was worn out, he would just watch some TV and cook a simple supper. His schedules were tight, but his life was fulfilling.

The woman went to brew some tea and poured a cup for Zhou Ze.

“Boss, you were dead for half a year, right?”

“Seven months,” Zhou Ze answered. Why did the conversation feel a little odd?

“But this place is so clean. It doesn’t look like someone has not been here for seven months,” the woman reminded him.

Zhou Ze nodded. It did seem that way. The place was actually very clean. Someone must be cleaning it regularly.

However, Zhou Ze was having a hard time accepting the fact that the owner was too lazy to change a single thing. Even the lock was the same.

Zhou Ze went to his bedroom and saw the blanket and the bed sheet were his, too.

“Boss, I’ll go take a shower. Those things were staring at me in the Confucian Temple for a long time. I was having goosebumps.”

“Go ahead, remember to turn on the heater,” Zhou Ze reminded. “You should find a towel in the cabinet close to the bathroom.” -If everything was left the same…-

The woman went to take a shower. She was obsessed with cleanliness, as were most women. She used to be the daughter of a wealthy family, too. It must have been torture that she was unable to take a shower while she was lying in the coffin for two hundred years.

She normally took a shower in the morning and another one at night, adding extra expenses to Zhou Ze’s water bill. However, considering she was working at the bookstore for free, Zhou Ze had no choice but to turn a blind eye to it.

Zhou Ze pulled up the curtains and stood on the balcony. He looked up into the starry sky.

This was his home. It did not change, but it no longer belonged to him.

Things had changed; everything had changed…

Zhou Ze took out a cigarette and lit it. He took a puff of it.

He was feeling a little down. He thought he could get over it, but his feelings said otherwise.

He was just like the infant that he tossed into Hell to be reincarnated.

He now understood how incredible the desire to stay in the living world of a dead person was.

Even he had an urge to buy his house back!

As for the money he needed, would he have difficulty earning enough money illegally with his capabilities?

Would he?

Zhou Ze soon suppressed the urge. He knew it was a path of no return, like Pandora’s box. Once he opened it, there was no turning back.

Zhou Ze believed he was a disciplined man, yet it was better to avoid putting his personality to the test.

Click…

Zhou Ze was surprised when he heard the sound of the door being unlocked.

Did the owner come back?

Zhou Ze turned around and walked back to the living room. He was thinking of a reason to explain why he was in the house, yet he was not nervous at all.

He could easily come up with all kinds of excuses. He was an Envoy of Hell, wouldn’t he be mistreating himself if he allowed himself to be arrested by the cops for trespassing?

Self-discipline was great, but it was unnecessary for self-torture. The place used to be his home, after all.

However, when the door swung open, a familiar person that walked in.

Doctor Lin stood at the entrance. She stared at Zhou Ze, who was standing in the living room with a hint of surprise and panic.

“Why…why are you here?” Zhou Ze was left speechless.

It was Doctor Lin who bought his home?

“Please let me explain,” Lin Wanqiu said.

“Please let me explain,” Zhou Ze said.

The two blurted out simultaneously.

Lin Wanqiu was panicking. She assumed Zhou Ze had found the evidence that she was cheating on him.

She was his wife, yet she had bought the house of a man that passed away, and had been cleaning it regularly. She was also unwilling to sleep in the same bed with him because of the same man.

Doctor Lin felt she was in the wrong.

Luckily, the awkward situation did not last for long, since a more awkward situation took place.

“Boss, I accidentally wet my clothes,” the gyonshi said as she came out with only a towel covering her.

She walked into the living room, and stood right between Zhou Ze and Lin Wanqiu.