Runsheng and Tan Wenbin turned to look at Li Zhuiyuan, their eyes bright with anticipation—a silence louder than any words.
Since leaving home, they had indeed run into plenty of bizarre incidents and seen no shortage of dead-flippers. But when a man gorged himself on rich meat and fat, he naturally began to crave simple greens to settle his stomach. To the two of them, retrieving a normal corpse felt practically like a refined pastime.
Li Zhuiyuan gave a faint nod.
The pair immediately exchanged grinning glances. Runsheng lit a "cigar," while Tan Wenbin vigorously rubbed his hands together in excitement.
Yin Meng stepped into the back room. She first slid back the coffin lid, then fetched the warm clay pot from outside, poured some into a bowl, and fed it to the old man spoon by spoon. It was not medicine, but rather a thick sugar syrup meant to keep him hanging on to life.
Once she finished feeding him, Yin Meng brought in a basin of hot water, changed him into a fresh diaper, wiped his body clean with great care, and finally dressed him in fresh clothes. When all was done, she wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand.
The old man opened his eyes.
Yin Meng froze for a second, then let out a delighted laugh.
"Grandpa, you can actually open your eyes! You've got some color back, too. Looks like you're going to get better."
Li Zhuiyuan stood watching from the side. He knew the old man had always been capable of opening his eyes; he was paralyzed from a stroke, not comatose, and even people in vegetative states could occasionally open their eyes for a look.
In the past, the old man had deliberately withheld any response because he wanted to cool his granddaughter's hopes, preferring that she treat him like a mule to be fed and groomed. He knew the state of his own body and did not want her clinging to false illusions.
Opening his eyes on his own today was likely just to catch one last glimpse of his granddaughter.
As for the healthy color rising on his cheeks, it was nothing more than a textbook surge of terminal vitality.
After happily chatting with the old man for a bit, Yin Meng carried the basin of dirty clothes outside to wash them. Li Zhuiyuan walked up to the edge of the coffin and looked down at the old man, seeing a quiet release in his eyes.
The previous night, the old man had not asked him to tell Yin Meng the truth. Evidently, he had no wish to reopen old wounds for a girl who had already suffered being abandoned by her parents in childhood.
Still, seeing how Yin Meng treated those two half-brothers of hers earlier... *Heh, old man, you'd better not leave your granddaughter saddled with two burdensome deadweights.* But on second thought, Li Zhuiyuan doubted the old man would make such a mistake.
Truth be told, anyone who made their living on the river was hardly a saint. How easy was it to kill a man on the water? Tie a rock to him and sink him beneath the waves, that was all.
People of that trade possessed both the means and the stomach for violence. On ordinary days, they kept themselves in check by the ways of heaven, basic human decency, and the rules of the mortal world. But what if one day they simply ceased to care? Never push an "honest man" to the brink.
Li Zhuiyuan walked to the doorway of the inner room just in time to see Yin Meng hanging clothes while dabbing away tears. It figured. A corpse retriever of legitimate lineage could hardly fail to recognize the brief surge before death. Both of them were merely putting on an act, striving for a dignified curtain call.
Yin Meng gratefully accepted Tan Wenbin's offer to help. Once she tidied up the house, she set out with the group.
Along the way, the two young boys seemed eager to talk to Li Zhuiyuan, the only other child their age. Li Zhuiyuan, carried on Runsheng's back, ignored them entirely, adhering strictly to a policy of no contact, no interest, and no responsibility.
The journey was short, leading to a village bordering the county town. A sizeable crowd of onlookers had gathered around a river pond.
Two corpses, a man and a woman, were still floating on the water's surface. The man was face-down and the woman face-up, yet they clung tightly to one another, as though unwilling to part even in death. Had the pair not been known throughout the village for brawling every few days, people might have assumed they had agreed to drown together for love.
Li Zhuiyuan slid down from Runsheng's back and stepped to the pond's edge. A single glance told him this was no eternal devotion; the corpses were simply glued together.
Unlike the pale luminescence of ordinary floaters, these two were pitch-black, resembling two slabs of rancid, blackened pigskin jelly.
Two middle-aged men were arguing heatedly with a one-eyed old woman. From the tools slung over their backs, the men appeared to be local corpse retrievers. With two floaters blackened and clearly abnormal, retrieving them naturally came at a different price.
Evidently, neither side could agree on the fee. One-Eyed Granny would rather let her son and daughter-in-law soak in the water than swallow a loss.
Spotting Yin Meng's arrival, One-Eyed Granny immediately pointed at the men and laughed smugly. "That's enough out of you! I've no need for your black-hearted greed anymore—my eldest granddaughter is here!"
With that, One-Eyed Granny trotted over with great warmth. Her face began with a smile, broke into a sob halfway across, and by the time she arrived, she had calibrated a theatrical display of tears and laughter to perfection. Wiping her eyes, she seized Yin Meng's hands as if she had finally found her pillar of strength.
"Eldest Granddaughter, you're finally here! Quick, quick, fish your mom and dad out! They're so pitiful, oh, so pitiful!"
Beside them, Tan Wenbin could not help but roll his eyes, wondering how anyone on earth could be so shameless.
When Yin Meng was small and naive, she had gone crying in search of her mother. Her mother had deliberately hidden from her, and each time, it was this One-Eyed Granny who came out to shower the girl in venomous curses. Once, in the dead of winter, One-Eyed Granny had dumped a basin of water over her, sending Yin Meng crying all the way home, dripping wet.
The girl had been foolish too, telling her grandfather she had tumbled into a ditch while playing. And the old man, equally foolish, had actually believed her.
Li Zhuiyuan knew the old man's love for his granddaughter was genuine, but his carelessness was just as real; otherwise, he never would have swallowed that "letter" his son had left behind all those years ago.
Yin Meng did not indulge the old woman's warmth, saying flatly, "I'll fish them out."
"Aye, aye, good, good, wonderful!"
Yin Meng looked toward the two local corpse retrievers. Their expressions were sour, but they could hardly object. They merely lit their own cigarettes, shouldered their gear in silence, and turned back. Since she was retrieving her own mother, it did not count as breaking trade rules to steal business.
Though slightly distasteful, since the boys had come to stretch their limbs and have some fun, they got straight to work.
Tan Wenbin set up the offering table and lit the candles, while Runsheng carried a small skiff over to the edge of the pond. Yin Meng took her place before the table and began the ritual.
Li Zhuiyuan stood beside her, watching with keen interest.
Compared to his Great-Grandpa's free-spirited approach to rituals, Yin Meng was noticeably more standardized and professional. Though several rites strayed from orthodox convention, one could still discern ancient customs within them. He was particularly intrigued by the obscure syllables vibrating rapidly through her throat, lips, and teeth.
The previous night, when the old man conducted his business with the dark spirit, he had communicated in the exact same manner. "Ghost talk," it seemed, could sometimes be a compliment for a very specialized talent.
Once the ritual concluded, Yin Meng prepared to fish out the corpses. But before she could step away from the table, Runsheng and Tan Wenbin had already punted the skiff out onto the water, using Yin Meng's own gear.
Yin Meng planted her hands on her hips and looked helplessly at Li Zhuiyuan. "How can I let them do that?"
"It's fine. Their hands were itching for work."
Yin Meng grinned. "My hands were itching too!"
Her prices were steep, so she rarely landed more than a few corpse-retrieval jobs a year. She had been rolling up her sleeves in anticipation.
Runsheng and Tan Wenbin worked with seamless coordination. Since the two corpses were stuck fast together and could not be separated, the two men simply stood shoulder-to-shoulder, each hauling one onto his back, and called out:
"One, two, three!"
They leaped together from the boat, landing firmly on the bank.
Having watched the entire process, Yin Meng remarked in surprise, "The corpse-retrieval methods in Nantong are so similar to ours."
Li Zhuiyuan offered no comment. Had his Great-Grandpa been the one doing it, Yin Meng certainly would not have thought so.
Runsheng's procedure had been corrected by Li Zhuiyuan based on the records in Wei Zhengdao's books, including the techniques for handling dead-flippers from *Zhengdao Fumo Lu*. Tan Wenbin, in turn, had learned them from Runsheng.
In truth, what the two had just demonstrated was a textbook display of the most standard, professional maneuvers.
Rather than bothering to unstrap the bodies and wrap them up again, the two carried the corpses straight into One-Eyed Granny's house. A large straw mat was laid across a row of benches, and they deposited the bodies on top.
One-Eyed Granny found a white bedsheet to drape over her son and daughter-in-law. Her nose twitched, and just as she prepared to work herself into a proper wail, two women stepped forward beside her. One poked her in the ribs, while the other murmured several words into her ear.
One-Eyed Granny snapped to attention at once. She first drove out the villagers who had crowded in to gawk at the bodies, admitting only her own kin. Then she went out of her way to take Yin Meng by the hand, pulled her into the room, and shut the wooden door panels tight behind them.
Outside, the villagers began whispering among themselves.
Seeing Li Zhuiyuan sitting on a small wooden stool, Tan Wenbin squatted down beside him and asked curiously, "Brother Yuan, instead of rushing to arrange the funeral, what are they up to?"
"Entrusting orphans," Li Zhuiyuan said.
"Can people really be that fucking shameless?"
Li Zhuiyuan did not answer. He looked down at an earthworm burrowing out of the dirt beneath his feet, half its body exposed, half still buried.
Tan Wenbin asked again, "Brother Yuan, what should we do?"
"Do what?"
"I mean, should we help her?"
"What does it have to do with us?"
"At the very least, aren't we friends?"
"Then respect your friend's choices."
"Uh..." Tan Wenbin scratched his hair hard. "But this feels wrong. What if she loses her head and actually agrees?"
"Then respect her fate."
Inside the room.
Yin Meng stood in the center, encircled by a crowd of adults and the two boys.
One-Eyed Granny pointed to the adults, making introductions. "Eldest Granddaughter, these are all your relatives. This is your Eldest Uncle, this is your Second Uncle, here are your Eldest Aunt, Second Aunt..."
One-Eyed Granny had three sons and a daughter; Yin Meng's mother had married her youngest son.
Yin Meng's gaze swept over this group of "relatives," not a single one of whom shared a drop of blood with her. At this moment, every one of them wore a smiling face.
One-Eyed Granny continued, "Eldest Granddaughter, with your parents gone like this, the sky has collapsed on me. I'm just an old woman, my health is failing, but these two grandsons can't be left with nobody to look after them.
"They need schooling, they need food, they need clothes, and I truly have no way to shoulder it, oh..." One-Eyed Granny began to sing her lament once more.
The surrounding chorus of aunts and uncles chimed in immediately. "Yes, exactly."
"It's hard, truly hard."
Yin Meng said nothing.
Seeing that the girl did not take the bait, One-Eyed Granny was undeterred. She took Yin Meng's hand again and beckoned her two grandsons over.
"Come, Niuwa, Mawa. From now on, you'll be living with your sister. Your sister will provide your food and drink, and pay for your schooling. Quick, thank your sister."
"Thank you, Sister."
"Thank you, Sister."
One-Eyed Granny turned back to Yin Meng, speaking with dripping affection.
"Arranging it this way is for your own good, too. You're all alone at home. When you get married in the future, if you don't even have family on your mother's side, you'll be bullied. Niuwa and Mawa are your real brothers, born of the same mother. Once you raise them, they'll support you down the road, giving you a backbone and confidence. That settles it, then."
One-Eyed Granny chuckled as she moved toward the door. Settle the matter behind closed doors first, then throw them open to announce it to the villagers; even without anything in writing, completing this ritual made the deed as good as done.
Yin Meng finally spoke up. "You want me to raise the two of them?"
"Why, yes! Don't you adore these two little brothers of yours? Look how well-behaved they are."
Every time the two boys visited the county town and stopped by the coffin shop, Yin Meng either kept them for a meal or gave them pocket money. One-Eyed Granny knew the girl had a soft heart.
Yin Meng asked once more, "You want me to raise the two of them?"
"Of course! What could be better? When you marry later, with two brothers around, your husband's family will never dare mistreat you. And even if you never marry, these two brothers and their children can take care of you in your old age."
"Oh." Yin Meng nodded.
At that, the onlookers breathed a collective sigh of relief, smiling as they showered the girl with praise. One-Eyed Granny was so overjoyed that the wrinkles on her face bloomed like a daisy.
The two boys, having evidently been coached by their elders, grabbed onto the girl's legs. "Sister."
Yin Meng raised her hands and brought them swinging down hard across the boys' faces.
*Smack! Smack!*
Both boys were knocked flat on the ground. Clutching their swollen right cheeks, their lips split and bleeding, they lay there dazed. In an instant, the room fell dead silent.
Breaking the silence were the wails of the two boys as they recovered from their stupor.
One-Eyed Granny slapped her thighs and let out a shriek. "Heavens above, you heartless wretch!" Howling, she lunged at Yin Meng.
Yin Meng raised a foot and kicked her square in the chest.
*Thud!*
One-Eyed Granny was sent tumbling across the floor, rolling several times.
Seeing violence erupt, the two "uncles" charged forward in a fury. Instead of backing away, Yin Meng stepped forward to meet them. With a clean shoulder throw, she slammed one to the ground, then twisted the other's arm behind him and planted a kick into his back.
She possessed the strength to wrestle dead-flippers; handling ordinary people was child's play.
"How dare you hit people!"
"Have you no upbringing at all!"
The aunts and the young aunt were still squawking from the side. Yin Meng strode up, grabbed one by the hair, and delivered two stinging slaps to her face.
*Smack! Smack!*
The rest tried to flee, but Yin Meng gave chase. With both hands, she seized two of them by the hair, dragged them back, and shoved them down toward the two corpses on the straw mat, forcing their faces flush against the dead bodies.
Yin Meng held their heads down, rubbing them back and forth—practically giving them a facial. Neither woman could tell whether the moisture on her face was water or corpse grease.
Screams rose in frantic waves.
After working over every single person in the room, whenever Yin Meng saw someone try to crawl back up, she stepped over and kicked them down again. Her expression remained placid throughout; she did not cry, shout, or throw a tantrum, nor did she even curse, but her fists and feet were unyielding.
Initially, the two boys had been left alone where they fell, but they ran over on their own, begging, "Sister, please stop hitting them!" Yin Meng backhanded each of them across the face, settling for symmetry.
Hitting children was wrong, but she was a child too. Most importantly, beating them felt satisfying.
Once she finished sorting them out, Yin Meng walked to the front door.
*Crash!*
The wooden plank was snapped clean through with a kick, and Yin Meng strode out.
The villagers poked their heads in to peer inside, only to find a heap of people groaning on the floor.
Tan Wenbin stood up, walked over to Yin Meng, and clapped vigorously. "Well done, well done! I was honestly worried you'd agree."
Yin Meng shot him a glare. "My head hasn't taken in water."
Runsheng inspected the interior, shook his head, and said, "You didn't even knock all their teeth out."
Just then, someone in the crowd shouted, "The village head is here! The village head is coming!"
A burly middle-aged man wearing a cap, with a cigarette tucked behind his ear, strode over. His gaze swept the scene, and the crowd fell silent at once; evidently, this village head commanded considerable respect.
"Murder! They're beating people to death! Get the police station, call the police!"
The people inside crawled out one by one, their faces swollen like pig heads, hair disheveled, looking like vengeful spirits breaking out of a cage.
The village head looked at Tan Wenbin and Runsheng standing beside Yin Meng and was just about to speak when Li Zhuiyuan's voice rang out first.
"Runsheng, Binbin, step back."
Runsheng and Tan Wenbin immediately retreated.
Li Zhuiyuan pointed at Yin Meng. "Everyone saw it just now. She went in alone. No one else went with her."
The surrounding villagers nodded in succession.
The village head was dumbfounded. This young girl had the strength to flatten a whole room of people by herself? He looked at her and asked, "Speak. Why did you hit them?"
Yin Meng began, "They wanted..."
Li Zhuiyuan cut in, "They wanted to tie her up and marry her off to another family for the bride price. This is human trafficking!"
The village head was stunned. True or not, once that accusation was voiced—and given that the girl had fought alone—even if they dragged it to the police station, it would merely be smoothed over without consequences, let alone any liability.
"You're lying!" One-Eyed Granny screamed through blood-stained teeth. "Who was going to sell her? Who was trying to sell her!"
Li Zhuiyuan retorted, "Then why did you call her inside? What blood relation does she have to you, and what kind of relatives are you supposed to be!"
Without waiting for anyone to respond, Li Zhuiyuan waved a hand. "Let's go. Home."
Runsheng and Tan Wenbin shouldered their gear, flanked Yin Meng on either side to clear a path, and pushed their way through the crowd. The villagers had only come to watch the spectacle; seeing two men carrying a spade and a hook, they readily parted to let them pass.
A few local youths looked to the village head for a signal, wondering whether to block their path out of territorial instinct, but the village head gave no sign whatsoever.
One-Eyed Granny cried out in disbelief, "You're just going to let them leave? They nearly beat us to death!"
The village head glared at her. "What did you call the girl inside for in the first place?"
One-Eyed Granny answered as though it were the most natural thing in the world, "To have her take her two brothers to live with her!"
Hearing this, the villagers exchanged bewildered looks, and the breath caught in the village head's chest.
"Serves you right!"
Spitting heavily onto the ground, the village head turned and walked away.
***
Dusk had fallen by the time the four returned to the county town.
Instead of rushing back to the coffin shop, Yin Meng pointed toward a hotpot restaurant. "Hotpot! My treat!"
Inside, they ordered a nine-grid pot. None of them had eaten much at noon before rushing over, and after an afternoon of walking and retrieving corpses, they were famished. Soon, everyone was swishing beef tripe and duck intestines in the boiling broth.
Yin Meng ordered liquor, rose, and poured cups for Runsheng, Binbin, and herself, before pouring soy milk for Li Zhuiyuan. She raised her cup.
"Thanks!"
With that, Yin Meng tossed it back in one gulp, only to erupt into a violent fit of coughing.
Tan Wenbin chuckled helplessly. "Forget it, forget it. If you can't drink, don't force it. Stick to milk with Brother Yuan."
Yin Meng wiped her mouth. "The proper procedure must be followed!"
"You followed it, you followed it! Come on, the tripe is ready. Eat up, or it'll get tough."
When facing dead-flippers, Runsheng or Xiao Yuan might be the busiest, but at the dinner table, Zhuangzhuang was perpetually the most occupied. Throughout the meal, they tacitly avoided mentioning the day's events.
Tan Wenbin asked Yin Meng what she would do if she stopped running the coffin shop. She said she didn't know, adding that perhaps not wanting things to change was simply her way of liking how things were. Yin Meng asked what the three of them wanted to do in the future. Li Zhuiyuan and Tan Wenbin replied that they wanted to go to university, while Runsheng said he would ride a tricycle to take them there.
Once everyone was stuffed, Yin Meng went to pay the bill.
The four walked side-by-side back to the coffin shop. As they washed up, Tan Wenbin said with a grin:
"You know, sleeping in a coffin is actually pretty comfortable. When we get back, I should persuade Old Master Li to arrange a burial casket in advance. That way, I won't have to spread bedding on the round table anymore. Runsheng, what do you think?"
"If you dare say that back home, Old Master Li will beat you to death and bury you in that casket first."
"Just a joke! But let me tell you, I've had a new breakthrough in my studies lately."
"What breakthrough?"
"Can't talk about it now. When we take the boat tomorrow, I'll explain it in detail. If you want to learn, I can teach you, but you'll have to beg me."
"Can't I just ask Xiao Yuan?"
"Believe it or not, Xiao Yuan might genuinely not know how to teach this one."
The previous night, Xiao Yuan had instructed him to end walking the yin path by searching for a sensation of floating upward.
That was like telling a student touching a piano for the first time: *Just feel it with your heart and you'll play a moving melody.* The trouble was, he didn't even know which key was which, let alone how to read sheet music.
After washing up, everyone lay down in their respective coffins.
Li Zhuiyuan slept for a short while before faintly hearing a fit of coughing. He tilted his head, entering the yin path.
Stepping into the inner room, he saw the old man crawling out of his coffin, while a rustling sound came from Tan Wenbin's coffin beside it.
"He was like this last night too," the old man said. "He can sense it, almost ready to walk the yin path. But when I actually pulled him out and he saw me, he nearly scared himself half to death."
Li Zhuiyuan's gaze sharpened, and a shadow settled over Tan Wenbin's coffin, silencing it immediately.
The old man was startled by the display and said hurriedly, "Even if you want to interrupt his walking the yin path, you shouldn't use a move like that! If your control is off by even a hair, you'll damage his brain!" Realizing something, the old man chuckled and shook his head. "Never mind, I'm worrying over nothing. Your control is more precise than mine."
He had witnessed the boy's terrifying capacity for learning firsthand the night before. His mastery over the Yin family's Twelve Arts was already far deeper than that of the legitimate heir himself.
Frequent walking of the yin path easily led to a loss of consciousness; Li Zhuiyuan was merely regulating Binbin's frequency.
However, what puzzled Li Zhuiyuan more was the old man's current condition. "Why do you look... somewhat better again?"
"Ah, I'm baffled myself. By rights, I shouldn't even have had the strength to walk the yin path tonight."
"Your lifespan returned?"
"Are those two dead?"
"Both dead."
"Then it makes no sense. The trade went through—how could there be a refund?"
By all logic, getting such a bargain should have been a blessing, yet the old man showed no joy at all, grumbling instead, "Isn't this just making a mess of things!"
He had clearly experienced that final surge of vitality; he should have drawn his last breath and had his funeral arranged within a day or two. Freedom for both himself and his granddaughter had been within reach, yet now he was doomed to keep lingering on. The old man stepped over to the wall and pressed a hand against the mirror, turning the wooden door panels translucent.
The Ghost Festival had passed and the temple fair was over, but the street was not entirely devoid of "people"; scattered figures still drifted along.
Li Zhuiyuan suspected Fengdu possessed an arcane nature entirely unique to it. Nowhere else had he ever encountered so many spirit shadows.
Perhaps the legend of Yin Changsheng ascending to immortality in broad daylight here was not groundless after all. It was just that his "daylight ascension" might differ considerably from what ordinary people imagined.
Though foot traffic outside was thin tonight, the rate of shop visits had increased. The moment the door opened, a dark shadow drifted eagerly inside.
These dark shadows were almost identical, draped in what looked like black robes, their faces entirely obscured, making it impossible to discern their gender. Yet this one felt vaguely familiar, as if seen yesterday.
The old man and the dark shadow began conversing in obscure, buzzing tones.
Once the exchange ended, the old man sighed, slumped back into his chair, and covered his face with his hands, caught between tears and laughter. The dark shadow did not depart, remaining rooted to the spot.
The old man waved a hand. "You'd better just leave."
The shadow still did not budge.
The old man said angrily, "What, you plan to hang around like a stubborn leech?"
The shadow turned and drifted toward Li Zhuiyuan.
Rather than being frightened, the boy felt a spark of secret delight, an eager glint surfacing in his eyes. But the old man called out a warning:
"He belongs to the Dragon King's house."
The shadow halted instantly, retreating from the coffin shop without hesitation before melting into the darkness.
Li Zhuiyuan looked at the old man. "Why did you have to tell him?"
"This is Ghost Street, right at the feet of the Emperor of Fengdu. Unless there is no other choice, never provoke a conflict with these things."
"Your Yin family has lived and passed down its legacy here for a long time. Have you ever researched this place's unique nature?"
"Our surname is Yin, the same as the Emperor of Fengdu. We... are his descendants to begin with."
"Do you have a genealogy?"
"We do. Back in the Eastern Han dynasty, our family was imperial kin."
Li Zhuiyuan glanced around the coffin shop. "Right now, it hardly reflects the grandeur of imperial relatives."
The old man said nonchalantly, "That's only natural. Pick any surname from the Hundred Family Surnames and trace it back—whose ancestors weren't princes or nobles?"
"Did anyone investigate it?" Li Zhuiyuan pressed on with his earlier question.
"They did." The old man nodded firmly. "The progenitor cultivated the Dao, but the reason he could ascend was because he consumed an immortal elixir."
"I seem to recall the *Baopuzi* recording that your ancestor also obtained an *Elixir Scroll*."
"That's false. It's noted in the genealogy. If such a thing really existed and one could concoct elixirs themselves, who knows how many ancestors would have ascended as immortals? In truth, according to the research of several generations of forebears, what the progenitor consumed might not have been an immortal elixir at all."
"Then what was it?"
"A corpse elixir."
"It seems your family truly poured great effort into researching this in the past."
Without substantial evidence, who would ever claim their ancestor had eaten a corpse elixir instead of an immortal one? Nobody insulted their own forebears for amusement.
Daoist scriptures recorded that after attaining the Dao, Yin Changsheng roamed the mortal realm for a long time before finally ascending... Could that ascension simply be understood as his disappearance? Was it possible that Yin Changsheng had not soared upward, but burrowed downward?
Connecting this with the inscription carved into the stone by the shop's entrance: *If you do not walk by night, how can you know there are nightfarers on the road?*
Yin Changsheng had said that only after attaining the Dao did he realize how many people had succeeded in achieving it since the founding of the dynasty, noting that many immortals disliked disturbing the mortal realm and preferred seclusion. If Yin Changsheng had eaten a corpse elixir, then those secluded immortal companions he spoke of... could they be...
The old man spoke up. "Our ancestors were once obsessed with researching this, bordering on mad. But later, partly because the family declined and partly because endless research never yielded anything useful, subsequent generations settled down.
"All of these matters are recorded in the genealogy. Tomorrow, you can have Mengmeng bring it out for you. Whether you want to copy it... or just borrow it to read, that's fine too."
Li Zhuiyuan walked over to where the dark shadow had stood, facing the old man across the counter. "Are you trying to strike a deal with me?"
The old man was openly sharing ancestral secrets and even offering to lend the family genealogy. Such things were never given away or shared for free.
The old man waved his hand. "I can't be bothered to recruit a matrilocal husband for Mengmeng to carry on the family name anyway. While the genealogy records many secrets, what use are they to Mengmeng and me? If you like it, take it; that's what putting things to proper use means."
"Old Master, I'll give you one more chance. Name your price."
"Take Mengmeng away. Let her follow you."
"She isn't cargo; she's a person. Can someone just be taken away like that?"
The old man's expression eased. The boy hadn't flatly refused, but had bargained over the terms, which proved he was willing to see the deal through.
"Mengmeng is pure and kind-hearted. I believe that with your wits, you'll be able to take her with you. Ah, I don't mean your motives are improper."
"As long as you are alive, she will not leave."
"I will die."
"Then what was discussed just now? Why did your lifespan return?"
"It failed to do the job. The trade fell through, so it was refunded."
"Yet the people died."
"It wasn't that spirit's doing. It said the two boys in that house were playing around and poured pesticide into the rice vat. The one-eyed old woman couldn't bear to throw the rice out, so she washed it and cooked it anyway. Being old, she didn't dare eat it herself, and doting on her grandsons, she refused to feed it to the children, so she fed it to the two adults. They ate it and died of poison that very night.
"Fearing the blame would fall on her, the old woman tied the two corpses together on the bed, dragged them out, and dumped them into the river pond to make it look like drowning."
"Could she have had the strength to do that alone?"
"She told her eldest son, and he helped her. The condition was that the youngest son's house and land would go to him, and she could move into his household so he would support her in her old age."
"She certainly had her wits about her. No wonder she tried to dump the two boys on Yin Meng today; she wanted to retire 'free of debt.'"
"Mengmeng isn't stupid. She would never agree."
"Is that truly what you think?"
"What else?" the old man retorted naturally. "I wouldn't lay a hand on those two boys. Every debt has its debtor; they are innocent."
"Mm."
Li Zhuiyuan did not believe him.
True, he could not understand ghost talk, but had it merely been a routine trade failure, the dark shadow would never have lingered for so long. In all likelihood, having failed to accomplish the major task, it had tried to negotiate taking on a minor one to salvage some payment.
Who that minor task involved went without saying.
Circumstances had simply shifted, and the old man felt there was no longer any need to pursue the minor task, which had left the shadow furious after making the trip for nothing.
"I will die. I'll make sure Mengmeng leaves this place with no lingering attachments. The world is fine now; she ought to go out and see it. If she truly sees the outside world and finds she dislikes it, she can always return here, and at least she won't carry any regrets."
"Elaborate on how you plan to die."
"Dying is simple enough. I'll just strike another trade and let a guest kill me."
"Simple indeed."
"You don't know the misery of living like this. I want release, too."
"Then make it quick. I won't be staying here long."
"Alright, don't worry. As long as you agree, I'll arrange my death immediately."
"I can agree, but there is one matter I must make clear first. I am only an honorary disciple of the Liu family and have not formally entered the sect. My relationship with them is not what you imagine.
"Do not assume I can bring Yin Meng into the Liu family."
"With the abilities you displayed yesterday, whether you belong to the Liu family no longer matters to me."
"Fine. I agree."
"Thank you."
"Didn't you say yesterday that you didn't want her walking this path?"
"Having that surge of vitality during the day, even if I failed to die, helped me see past a few things. As for Mengmeng's path, she should choose it herself. If she truly dislikes it, I believe you will see her settled properly, because you are the cleverest person I have ever met in my life."
Clever to the point of hardly seeming human.
"I'm going to sleep."
"Rest well, sir."
***
The following morning, Li Zhuiyuan woke and sat up inside his coffin.
Yin Meng was working with Runsheng to unhook the door panels, preparing to open a shop that was destined to see few living customers.
"You're awake! I made a pot of preserved egg and pork porridge. Want some?"
Li Zhuiyuan's gaze bypassed the enthusiastic Yin Meng and landed on Runsheng behind her.
Runsheng shook his head with an intensely solemn expression.
This immediately piqued Li Zhuiyuan's curiosity—just how peculiar could a dish be to make even Runsheng consider it inedible? Still, unwilling to test the poison himself, he shook his head. "I'd like steamed buns."
Runsheng spoke up at once, walking out of the shop. "I'll go buy them."
Yin Meng said with a hint of disappointment, "Oh, but there's still quite a bit left in the pot. I made too much."
Li Zhuiyuan consoled her, "It's fine. When Binbin wakes up, leave it all for him. He loves porridge."
Leaving the coffin, he washed up.
Li Zhuiyuan walked back over to Yin Meng and said candidly, "I'd like to look at your family genealogy."
Yin Meng did not hesitate. "Sure, I'll fetch it for you."
She could not walk the yin path and naturally had never conversed with the old man; she simply felt there was nothing about the genealogy that couldn't be shown to others, especially friends. The volume was thick and enormous, so large that to read it comfortably, it had to be laid out on the floor.
The Yin family certainly possessed a storied history. The opening of the genealogy read like mythological tales: turning through several large pages, every passage spoke of an Yin family daughter or daughter-in-law either napping by a riverbank or dreaming of some wondrous omen, only to find herself pregnant and giving birth to an exalted figure.
It seemed that in that ancient era, the women of the Yin family were occupied with only one pursuit: conceiving mysteriously.
The middle section shifted toward historical records, written with rigor and aligning closely with standard historical accounts.
The final section was densely packed with the research, textual analysis, and investigations conducted by generations of Yin family ancestors.
This immediately reminded Li Zhuiyuan of the original masters of Roadblock Village, the forebears of the Qi clan.
Both were groups of madmen obsessed with research—except the Qi ancestors had studied spatial seams, whereas the Yin ancestors had studied the most famous progenitor in their family's history. The contents were remarkably detailed, featuring extensive travelogues and theoretical treatises; it was hardly a simple genealogy anymore, but rather a compendium of generational research.
Counting what he now held: the notes of the Qi clan's ancestors, the bamboo slips from the masked man, and this Yin family genealogy.
The Qi notes remained memorized in his head, yet owing to his physical condition, he had not found time to decipher them, while the bamboo slips were still being restored. Nonetheless, all three works were exceptionally engrossing.
Only true book-lovers understood the distinct joy of feeling the thick sheaf of pages still awaiting them while engrossed in reading.
At noon, when Yin Meng went to change her grandfather's diaper, the old man opened his eyes once more.
This time, he even spoke. The stroke had left his face severely paralyzed and his facial muscles flaccid; his lips could barely move, and his voice was faint as a whisper. It was only because Li Zhuiyuan heard the commotion and stepped in that someone was there to interpret.
There was little new to what he said—merely the conventional instructions and blessings of an elder to a younger generation, mundane yet suffused with genuine feeling.
The old man appeared entirely at ease with Li Zhuiyuan's capability. He did not even mention having his granddaughter leave with the boy, nor did Li Zhuiyuan lay any unprompted groundwork. It was best to let everything take its natural course.
Yin Meng must have sensed something. Once the conversation ended, she asked Runsheng to accompany her to a fabric shop on the street to buy white cloth and black crepe, as well as funeral supplies from a ceremonial shop. The reason Tan Wenbin had not been asked to join them was that he had suffered food poisoning from drinking the porridge that morning and was currently afflicted with violent vomiting and diarrhea.
This astonished even Li Zhuiyuan. Binbin had eaten meals prepared by dead-flipper households several times and had even consumed fouled cured bacon, yet he had succumbed to Yin Meng's porridge.
When everything was prepared, an atmosphere of quiet serenity settled over the group. The funeral was destined to be very simple, for neither a coffin shop nor a corpse retriever was ever likely to draw many friends or kin.
In all likelihood, the four of them would be the sole guests at the coming service.
That night, Li Zhuiyuan heard gusts of yin wind sweeping outside his coffin. He rolled over, choosing not to walk the yin path.
The following morning, everyone rose and breakfasted on deep-fried dough sticks and soy milk bought from outside.
After eating, Yin Meng, as she always did, paid no heed to the burial shroud already prepared. Instead, she brought over freshly washed clothes and a clean diaper, sliding the coffin lid open to wipe down her grandfather and change him.
Inside the coffin, the old man lay with his eyes closed. His breath had ceased; he had passed away with tranquil dignity.
Yin Meng wept, tears spilling unchecked from her eyes. But after vigorously wiping them away twice, she turned to the three behind her with a smile.
"How wonderful. Grandpa is gone."
Chapter 69