Ch55 - Anyway, you young people like to play with these.

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor-simpforlife, Proofreader-Ghostie 

June 7th, Monday.

According to Bei Quan’s conjecture, Dong Chaoyang was pushed down the dry well by Song Qi and was stoned to death by Luosen. So the following day should be the beginning of Dong Chaoyang’s 7-day period after a person’s death.

During the day, Bei Quan sent the pendant and bracelet containing the little childe and Dong Chaoyang’s soul to the Taoist temple he was familiar with. He asked the Taoist masters who were well-versed to help him. Then, he instructed Wei Fuyuan to drive and take him to the suburbs of Fèng Xīngchéng city.

“Bei Quan, where are we going?” 

On the way, Wei Fuyuan asked curiously.

“I ordered some goods from a familiar shopkeeper, which are to be used tonight.”

Bei Quan replied, “The shopkeeper’s craftsmanship is remarkable, but the location of the shop is relatively remote.”

There was a brief pause and then a low laugh was heard. “However, those who still continue to do that kind of business can only be in the suburbs.”

Wei Fuyuan: “?”

Bei Quan’s vague statement made him even more curious.

After driving for a whole hour, when Wei Fuyuan estimated that he was about to drive straight into the neighbouring city, Bei Quan finally asked him to get off the provincial highway and turn into a small village from a very inconspicuous exit path.

The village was not very huge. It appeared that no more than 100 families resided there. The dwellings had a rustic appearance, and the highest building had no more than four floors. The overall aspect of the community seemed to have remained unchanged since the late 1980s. It was completely ordinary without any distinguishing features. 

However, Wei Fuyuan soon noticed that in this village, except for a few daily necessities like grain and oil grocery stores, almost all the stores near the street did businesses such as incense and candle tribute, yellow paper and red symbols, and even several small courtyards were filled with large stones, which were dedicated to carving tombstones.

“You know what this place is for, right?”

Bei Quan said to Wei Fuyuan, “There is a newly constructed permanent cemetery behind this village, so almost every family in this village does business with dead people.”

Wei Fuyuan thought, “How can I know this!” 

According to Bei Quan’s instructions, he parked his car next to an inconspicuous three storey building at the end of the village.

The side of the small building facing the street had been transformed into a pavement. A thin wooden door was half open. On the lintel, a plaque had been mounted. The majority of the red paint lettering had crumbled away. One must be close enough to discernible the four words inscribed on it :

‘Taiping paper binding’.

Bei Quan raised his hand and knocked on the door panel. An old man’s voice came from inside, 

“Please come in.”

Bei Quan led Wei Fuyuan through the door.

The store had been created by transforming an average old-fashioned house’s living room. Although the ceiling was not low, the natural light was inadequate. Incandescent lights had to be turned on even in the morning.

The white lamp shone eerily and made the white take on a paler shade, the red look even redder and the green look even greener; deathly unsettling. 

Wei Fuyuan shivered.

He saw a lot of paper men and horses being thrown into the water in the fragmented space only two days ago. This time, he saw those things once again, and started sweating profusely.

Bei Quan escorted Wei Fuyuan past the living room’s paper flowers, wreaths, elegiac couplets, white lanterns, and some tied sacrificial supplies and into the inner hall.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

There was an old couple in the inner hall, about 70 years old, sitting in the middle of a mountain of bamboo strips, Xuan paper and other materials, hard at work. 

Vfflcu atf uefrar mbwlcu, atf biv wjc rabbv eq.

“Dfl Hejc, kf’nf qgfqjgfv fnfgsatlcu sbe jrxfv obg.”

Lf qblcafv ab j mbgcfg bo atf kjii.

“Utfk, pera obg sbeg bgvfg, atf biv kbwjc jcv P tjnf yffc yers obg akb vjsr jcv tjnfc’a fnfc yffc jyif ab riffq ja cluta!” 

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan followed the old man’s hand. Sure enough, they saw two large cardboard boxes in the corner filled with packaged paper products of various colors.

Bei Quan thanked the old man and praised their craftsmanship, and commanded Wei Fuyuan to move the two large boxes to the car.

Although the box was large, it plainly contained bamboo strips and Xuan paper. Wei Fuyuan didn’t have to go back another time. He easily moved them all into the Jetta’s trunk.

However, the length of these paper binding products was enormous, and they were fragile items that could not do with being folded or squashed. The trunk could not be closed properly, and the door could only be left half-open on the road. 

Fortunately, their destination was not far from the village.

Bei Quan asked Wei Fuyuan to drive to the newly built cemetery and park in an open space in the central area.

“It’s not possible to burn paper anymore in Fèng Xīngchéng City now.” Bei Quan explained to Wei Fuyuan with a smile, “So this is the next best place.”

This newly built cemetery was located at the foot of a barren mountain, far away from human settlements. The land was worthless, so naturally, a cemetery had been erected here. 

The entire cemetery resembled a ‘concave’ layout, with the entrance facing north. The reserved tombs on the south, east, and west sides resemble boxes without a top cover. They were erected in a stepped pattern along the mountain.

Wei Fuyuan took a quick look around and discovered that not many tombstones had been placed as of yet and that more than 80% of the area was still under development. Thousands of more dead bodies might be housed here in the future, according to rough estimation.

There was an open hanging space in the middle of the property. Square pits were constructed out of fireproof bricks and outfitted with supply tables, candelabra, incense burners, enormous tin buckets, and sand and water buckets for dousing abrupt fires. Customers’ demands would be met whether they wish to burn incense or paper.

Bei Quan spent a hundred yuan to rent a pit in the corner of the hanging area. 

“We have to wait until midnight.”

He said to Wei Fuyuan.

It was time for dinner. Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan found a farmhouse near the cemetery and lingered there until midnight.

It was neither the first day nor the fifteenth day of the lunar new year. Right after midnight, the suburban cemetery turned frighteningly quiet. 

In addition to the two night staff, there were only two worshippers, Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan.

Finally, the clock struck 12.

Bei Quan brought out a large stack of paper money, wrapped it in yellow paper, wrote a name on each paper bag, touched a piece of chalk, and then drew two circles with gaps on the ground.

When the paper bags were lit, Bei Quan threw them each into one of the circles and chanted words while burning them. Wei Fuyuan pricked up his ears and listened carefully for a while. He found that it was nothing more than the stereotypical ‘Yin energy protects each other, little ghosts don’t invade, three-way journey, early ascension to bliss’ and so on. 

“Did you burn this paper for Dong Chaoyang and the little childe?”

Seeing that the paper bag was about to burn out, Wei Fuyuan finally couldn’t help asking.

Today, he didn’t spray cow tears, so he didn’t know if there was any other ‘thing’ around the place.

But it was because he couldn’t see any Hui Gui or anything strange, it was easier for him to sustain his psychological endurance this long. 

Wei Fuyuan always had an eerie feeling as if something was standing behind him so he didn’t even dare to look back.

“How do you know the little child’s name?”

Bei Quan smiled.

“I asked Special Seven Field Service to help me find out his name from ‘someone’.” 

Bei Quan made a ‘walking’ action using his index and middle finger. “They have specialists who can walk Yin. They walked to the bottom and asked the judge.”

Wei Fuyuan had long been used to these particularly non-materialistic statements, and he was particularly calm this time.

“So it turned out to be like this.”

While they were talking, two packets of paper money had been burned. 

Wei Fuyuan noted that the amount of soot produced when the paper money burned was not as much as he had anticipated. The heated breeze curled up with the ashes and was carried away by the night wind across the mountains, where it instantly vanished.

At this time, Bei Quan handed Wei Fuyuan a stack of paper money and asked him to burn it next to him. He said it was for ‘the lonely souls and wild ghosts passing by’. He covered the embers with sand and then threw the prepared paper products into the tin bucket one by one to make sure that they were swallowed up by the fire one by one.

“You…”

Wei Fuyuan finished the task assigned to him by Bei Quan, walked to his boss with his hands behind his back. 

He cleared his throat. “Why did you burn these things for both of them?”

Wei Fuyuan had been following Bei Quan to deal with ghosts for nearly two months now. After several events, all kinds of tragedies had been witnessed by him, and it was not uncommon for people to die miserably.

Indeed, Bei Quan had a principle, that whenever there were victims who died in vain, as long as they could be redeemed, he would take back their souls and give them to temples or Taoist temples to help those souls to transcend as soon as possible.

However, after the event, his boss came to burn the paper himself. It was the first time and that too, for Dong Chaoyang and the little childe. 

“Ha ha.”

Bei Quan laughed softly when he heard his words.

Wei Fuyuan turned his head to look at Bei Quan.

The wind rising from the flames was exceedingly hot. Under the light of the fire, Bei Quan’s face seemed to be much rosier than usual. His eyes had their natural crescent-shape, and his chestnut-colored pupils were as clear as opals. 

“Because I promised him.”

Bei Quan said, digging out a small white box from the cardboard box and shaking it in front of Wei Fuyuan’s eyes.

Wei Fuyuan: “…”

This was actually a paper-made tablet that looked more than 90% genuine. It was the latest model announced by Apple at the end of last year!! 

Bei Quan threw the tablet into the tin bucket, and the tongue of fire licked it up hungrily. With a few ‘pop’ sounds, the bamboo strip burst when heated, and the flame swallowed up this exquisite handicraft.

Bei Quan turned back, took out another mobile phone and an iPod, and continued to throw them into the fire.

“While I was persuading the little childe earlier, he said he could put down his hatred and let me take his soul, but the premise  I have to help him get something that will allow him to watch the live broadcast so that he can see the tragic end of his enemies anytime and anywhere.”

Bei Quan paused. 

“I had promised him… Ah, found it!”

He brought out a pair of exquisite wireless Bluetooth headsets from the corner of the box, along with a power bank, “Tsk, it’s really worthy of Lao Li’s skill. One could easily confuse the fake with the real.”

Bei Quan threw the headset and power bank into the fire.

“I thought that the young child’s requirements were not high, so I just burned all these electronic products for him.” 

He turned his head and licked his lips at Wei Fuyuan, “Anyways, you young people like to play with these, don’t you?”

“Ahem!”

Somehow, Wei Fuyuan felt a slight ache in his knee.

“I don’t know if the little childe will be able to use it… After all, he is from quite an ancient time…” 

He murmured and looked at Bei Quan.

“Why are you so kind to them?”

“After all, you have to keep your promise. And it was not easy for either of them…”

Bei Quan thought. 

“Generally, people who die unjustly have heavy grievances. Under specific conditions, they often turn into fierce ghosts, completely lose their rationality, indiscriminately hurt people and kill wantonly.”

He looked at the paper scraps of the things burned in the tin bucket and whispered, “God helps those who can help themselves. Since they can protect their sanity from beginning to end, then…”

“Why not help them some more?”

——————————

The author has something to say: Bei Quan did this deliberately because he thought of himself from the experience of a young child!

——————————

[Ghostie’s Gossip Night Talk]

Ghostie: Haunting to see you guys once again after a long time! ^_^ 

Are you curious about the next question? Hehe~

It is, ” Do you have anything you want to say to BQ and WFY?”

Mreow(Perpetualmreow):

You’re in love. You just don’t know it yet  (  ω ) ~♪ 

Ignis(simpforlife):  I would say… Be safe and healthy~ take care of each other and kindly refrain from being in gay denial :/ Just say love you~ and enjoy married life ma  we jie-jies are tired of dog-blood dramas, our hearts will collapse soon  and remember, communication is the key to a healthy relationship!   Misunderstandings can go to hell!! Hmph!

P.S Quanquan please have mercy on your little assistant, don’t yeet him in and out of bodies 

Ghostie: <_< I mean we ghosties are also pitiful you know having a hooman yeeted towards our clueless selves TwT

Boss(Rhapsodite): To Bei Quan- Dear little sneaky boss, can you please stop taking advantage of our poor innocent Young Master Wei. Just because you know how naïve and kind and maybe have big crush on you, doesn’t mean you can use it to make Master Wei obey your commands. And please stop being in denial, you are in love with him…or at least on the way to fall in love with him. REALIZE THAT ALREADY! Don’t make us wait too long for your wedding. 

To WeiWei- Please make the first move or else your oblivious boss won’t realize his feeling for you until you have grey hairs. I I am already preparing you guys wedding gift hehe! And it’s time you use your brain and not o get swayed by your hot and handsome boss. There are lots and lots of things you don’t know yet and probably should seat down with Bei Quan and talk about it. Communication is the key to a healthy and successful relationship.

Ghostie: BQ here have these books gives books titled ‘How to be a model Employer’ and ‘How to refrain from throwing your assistant at random ghosts’ ^_^

WFY child you can go eat some candies Gives WFY some ghost candies <_< also remember to call this old ghost to eat some wedding candies soon ah!!

Do share with us what you’d like to say to BQ and WFY!! Let’s meet on the next chapter