Chapter 1 You Can Take the Backdoor

"You've been in this unit for so long,
don't you know that you can actually pull strings here?"

The backdoor here doesn't refer to the unspoken rules of interpersonal relationships, but to the fact that, in addition to the front door, the Confucian Temple really does have a backdoor.

In this world, there is no love without a reason, and a pie falling from the sky can kill someone based on mechanical calculations.

If the dwarf old man had only given him a few pointers and said some mysterious and unpredictable things in a cryptic way, like Bodhi giving Sun Wukong three knocks on the back of the head, Zhou Ze might have pondered it carefully and found it more realistic and down-to-earth.

But what was strange was that the dwarf old man was too enthusiastic, so enthusiastic that Zhou Ze found it a little unreal.

Could it be that ghosts have also started a trend of doing good deeds in recent years?

Especially after the old man refused to enter the Confucian Temple with him, Zhou Ze became more cautious and careful in his heart. The Confucian Temple wasn't very big, and Zhou Ze went in through the front door and immediately went out through the back door and circled back.

Facts proved that Zhou Ze's choice was correct.

Just as the old man himself said, people's hearts are separated by their bellies, let alone ghosts?

Furthermore, what Zhou Ze found a bit absurd was that the reason why the old man wanted to take revenge on him was actually because of that…

He had saved a patient, and then half a month later, that patient drove drunk and had a car accident, which also resulted in the death of the dwarf old man's grandson.

The dwarf old man actually blamed him, believing that if he hadn't tried his best to save that patient's life, his grandson wouldn't have died.

What a bizarre train of thought.

"I was a doctor in my previous life, and healing the sick and saving people is my duty," Zhou Ze said with a smile. "I don't think I did anything wrong. You hate me, even to this extent, it's really unreasonable.

Perhaps, you just feel that your descendants are cut off, and you've wasted sixty years serving this clay statue, all for nothing, so you have resentment in your heart and want to find someone to vent it on, so you chose me?"

The dwarf old man stared at Zhou Ze fiercely, licked his lips, and said in a hoarse voice:

"This is the karma you created, why did you save someone who deserved to die!"

"In the eyes of a doctor, a person who dies after being treated with all their might is the one who truly dies. I don't accept the reason you gave, and that so-called karma is even more nonsense."

If the people he saved committed some kind of crime, and the karma had to be counted on his head, wouldn't that be the biggest joke in the world?

Zhou Ze remembered that an English veteran had written in his memoirs that he had personally captured the Führer during World War I and had the opportunity to turn a blind eye and shoot this little dwarf, but he didn't do so and took him in as a prisoner of war.

Could it be said that the sins committed by the Third Reich in the future would have to be counted on that English veteran's head?

Zhou Ze shook his head. There was no point in reasoning with this guy. The next moment, Zhou Ze's fingernails began to grow longer, and black energy circled back and forth at his fingertips.

"Are you trying to cut off the small ones and take away the old ones in one fell swoop?" the dwarf old man said in exasperation. "This is the Confucian Temple, the resting place of saints, even genuine ghost messengers wouldn't dare to be presumptuous here!"

"Fuck your mother."

Zhou Ze walked directly towards the dwarf old man,

"I only adhere to one principle. You wanted to kill me just now, so now I'm going to kill you!

I can't conveniently avenge the grudges from my previous life, but if I continue to let go of the grudges at hand, then Zhou Ze's temper would be too good!

I can't mess with living people for the time being, but can't I mess with ghosts?

The dwarf old man wanted to escape, but Zhou Ze's hand directly grabbed him and pulled him back hard!

"Crash!"

The dwarf old man let out a scream, and his body became even more transparent.

"I don't want to go to hell, I don't want to go to hell, Saint, save me, save me!"

Unfortunately,

the clay statues in the Confucian Temple remained as still as mountains. If they really had spirits, how could they have allowed the dwarf old man's family to be completely cut off from incense offerings?

"Who said I was going to send you to hell?" Zhou Ze smiled. "Do you think you still have a chance to go to hell?"

After saying that, Zhou Ze directly stabbed forward, and then spread his hands open. The pent-up resentment in his heart erupted at this moment, and the dwarf old man's soul body directly disintegrated!

Very simple,

and very straightforward.

Before dealing with Bai Yingying, Zhou Ze didn't know that he was so capable of fighting;

and now, he had a very solid confidence in his own strength, especially in his ability to deal with ghosts, although the reason why the dwarf old man could be easily dealt with also had a lot to do with the fact that he had sacrificed sixty years of merit and his soul body was weak.

Zhou Ze didn't know if there would be any aftereffects from doing this, and he wasn't sure if not even giving the old man a chance to go to hell was in line with the little loli's plan of having a sense of proportion.

But if he always held back like a tortoise, he felt like he would suffocate himself.

Brushing the dust off his shoulders, Zhou Ze took out his phone and called a cab.

After getting in the car, the driver was very enthusiastic and even offered Zhou Ze a cigarette, which made Zhou Ze feel a little "overwhelmed," and then while smoking, he perfunctorily chatted with the driver,

while also secretly using the burning cigarette butt to burn the car door.

The car door wasn't burned through.

Zhou Ze felt relieved. He was really tired of the paper car last time.

When he returned to the bookstore, it was already one o'clock in the morning. Bai Yingying was sitting behind the counter looking at the computer, operating the mouse with some difficulty.

Zhou Ze took a shower and changed his clothes, and was about to go upstairs to rest when he found that Bai Yingying was still sitting behind the computer, motionless.

How could he sleep if she didn't go up?

Zhou Ze walked behind Bai Yingying and found that this female corpse was actually playing the single-player game *Beach Head*, and she was playing it very excitedly.

"Time to rest," Zhou Ze reminded her.

"Oh," Bai Yingying responded, not realizing what he meant.

"I said, it's time to rest," Zhou Ze raised his voice.

"Oh, okay!" Bai Yingying stuck out her tongue, quit the game, and then obediently went upstairs.

There were two straw mats on the second floor, and the ice cabinet had been temporarily moved to the corner. If an outsider accidentally came to the second floor and saw them lying down on the straw mats, they might think they were two corpses placed on the straw mats.

"Boss, are you tired today?" Bai Yingying asked tentatively.

Zhou Ze didn't answer. He didn't want to talk about what happened tonight, especially the fact that he had passed by his own home many times without going in. There was really nothing to brag about.

Seeing that Zhou Ze ignored her, Bai Yingying obediently closed her eyes. A little bit of Yin energy continuously emanated from her body, causing the surrounding temperature to drop, and also allowing Zhou Ze's spirit to slowly relax.

Well,

time to sleep.

…………

"Glug... glug... glug..."

Like the sound of boiling water,

Zhou Ze slowly opened his eyes and found himself floating on a pool of water. The surrounding area was filled with scorching heat, like lying in a large bathtub in a bathroom.

In the distance, there was a very wide but also very muddy road, and groups of white figures were walking along the road numbly.

This place, it was so familiar.

Zhou Ze slowly sat up and found that he could actually sit on the water surface without falling in.

"You've come too."

A man's voice sounded beside Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze suddenly turned his head and saw that a young man wearing a hoodie was standing beside him.

Beside the young man in the hoodie, there was a small figure lying prostrate, like a cat.

The man was wearing a hoodie hat, and his face couldn't be seen clearly, but he gave Zhou Ze a very familiar feeling.

However, for a moment, Zhou Ze couldn't think of who he was.

"Don't be nervous, this is a dream," the young man in the hoodie said. "Zhuang Zhou dreamt of a butterfly; as dead people, it's very common for us to dream of returning to hell."

"Who are you?" Zhou Ze asked.

"Does a name have any meaning here?"

The man asked in return.

Zhou Ze was speechless for a moment. Indeed, the young man in the hoodie had made it very clear that only dead people would dream of returning to hell. Everyone was already dead, so what was the point of exchanging names?

"They're coming to catch me," the young man in the hoodie said.

"Catch you?" Zhou Ze was stunned. "Catch you back to hell?"

"Heh…" the young man in the hoodie laughed.

Immediately afterward, the young man in the hoodie turned around and prepared to leave. The cat beside him also slowly followed him, preparing to leave together.

Suddenly, Zhou Ze thought of something in his mind and immediately said, "Are you the one from Rong City?

The employee of the old Daoist priest who runs the underworld shop?"

The young man in the hoodie stopped, turned his head, and looked at Zhou Ze, "Employee?"

"Could it be... not?"

"Is that so, do you know that old Daoist priest?" the other party asked.

"Sort of," Zhou Ze responded.

"Oh." The young man in the hoodie pointed around. The surrounding white mist was getting thicker and thicker. He opened his mouth and said, "The dream is about to end."

"This is the first time I've had this kind of dream," Zhou Ze said.

"You'll get used to it slowly." The young man in the hoodie seemed to want to say a few more words because of Zhou Ze's relationship with the old Daoist priest, and he wasn't in a hurry to leave. He pointed to the pool of water under his feet. "Do you still remember this pool of water?"

Zhou Ze looked at his feet and nodded.

"Go down!"

The young man in the hoodie walked to Zhou Ze's side, reached out and pressed on Zhou Ze's shoulder, and then the two of them sank into the pool of water together.

The pool water was crystal clear, and the visibility was very high in the water.

"Have you noticed that something is missing?" the young man in the hoodie asked.

"That… that woman… is gone."

Zhou Ze looked around the pool of water and discovered the problem. The faceless woman he had encountered when he first went to hell was gone!

"Oh," the young man in the hoodie responded. Immediately afterward, Zhou Ze saw two reddish glows appear under the other party's hat. These were the other party's eyes.

Blood-red eyes!

For a moment, a sense of immense fear began to襲來.

A terrible sense of crisis suddenly descended,

Zhou Ze's fingernails also grew out, and black halos appeared in his eyes.

"What are you going to do?" Zhou Ze asked vigilantly.

The young man in the hoodie smiled and pointed at him, "Look at yourself."

Zhou Ze lowered his head and looked at his body,

He was stunned to find that

layers upon layers of black hair were wrapped around his body. He hadn't even noticed when this hair had appeared.

"She's already come looking for you," the young man in the hoodie reminded him.

…………

The morning sun gave people a warm feeling. Xu Qinglang brewed a cup of tea, moved a rattan chair, and sat at the entrance of the shop, basking in the sun. No one would order takeout at this time, and he was happy to be idle.

A taxi stopped at the intersection in front of him, and a girl who looked like a high school student got out of it.

The girl was very pretty, with a slightly babyish face, and was already considered a budding beauty.

The girl walked to the entrance of the bookstore and saw that the bookstore was locked. She immediately stretched out her foot and kicked the door:

"Xu Le, you bastard, get out here!"

But there was no response.

Xu Qinglang took a sip of tea and said, "What do you need him for?"

"My sister has been on sick leave at home for more than a week, locking herself in her room every day and not going out. She doesn't eat or drink. Xu Le, that bastard, must have made my sister angry again!

I'm going to call him back today and make him apologize to my sister."

"Your sister?" Xu Qinglang figured out what was going on. "Your sister should be very tired last night, right?"

"What do you mean by that?" the sister-in-law asked with a frown.

"It doesn't mean anything. Don't interfere in the emotional affairs of adults. Just take care of your little boyfriend," Xu Qinglang said, acting like he was educating a young girl.

"You're so weird. Don't think that just because you're good-looking, I won't dare to slap you!

Is it your place to speak about our family's affairs?"

The sister-in-law raised her hand, indicating that she was really going to slap him!

Xu Qinglang "tsk"ed and said leisurely, "Don't worry, your sister and your brother-in-law's relationship is fine."

Actually, there was something Xu Qinglang didn't say, but said in his heart: that was, Doctor Lin seemed like a very traditional woman, but who knew she could play so openly.

The speed at which she overcame her psychological barriers and embraced a new life was so fast.

Tsk tsk,

Sure enough, the power of love was indeed strong and irrational. Throughout history, how many infatuated men and resentful women had turned into moths and rushed towards this flame called love.

"What do you mean by that?"

"It doesn't mean anything. Forget it, let me give you some advice. Tell your sister that the space in her Cayenne is larger than that in the white Maserati, and it's more comfortable for people to do things inside."

"Maserati?" the sister-in-law asked in confusion.

"Yes, isn't that your sister's new car?"

"My sister hasn't left the house for more than a week, so where would she get a new car, let alone a Maserati."

The sister-in-law looked at Xu Qinglang inexplicably, and then, as if she had thought of something, she kicked the bookstore door again:

"Okay, Xu Le, I get it!

You eat my family's food,

use my family's things,

the money to open this bookstore was also paid for by my sister,

and now your wings have hardened, and you've hooked up with another sugar mommy, right?

That sugar mommy even drives a Maserati to meet you, right!

Xu Le, you're eating from the inside out, you're heartless!"

"Clang!"

A crisp sound was heard,

The sister-in-law was startled,

She turned her head to look at Xu Qinglang, who was lying on the rattan chair beside her,

The sound just now was the sound of the water glass in Xu Qinglang's hand falling to the ground.

Xu Qinglang opened his mouth, his face full of horror,

and then he jumped off the rattan chair,

and kicked the door of the bookstore wildly:

"You son of a bitch,

you motherfucker, wake up,

why are you still sleeping,

did you really summon a ghost that night!"