“I only wanted to tease you a little, High Official, why do you have to be so cruel?”

The female corpse shed tears as she spoke to herself, her voice filled with sorrow. Coupled with her tattered white dress, she looked even more pitiful.

People often say that those who live to be seventy or eighty years old become sly foxes. This female corpse, however, had lived for two centuries, experiencing the changes of time.

Zhou Ze ignored the female corpse's "cries" and turned to look at Xu Qinglang.

"Can you kill her?" Zhou Ze asked.

"............" The female corpse.

Xu Qinglang shook his head, then nodded.

"What do you mean?" Zhou Ze asked.

"The baleful aura within her is a problem. If she chooses to dissolve herself and the aura leaks out at the last moment, it will definitely affect the innocent nearby," Xu Qinglang explained. "That would be very troublesome."

"Mmm."

The female corpse chimed in. She had given up on playing the emotional card with Zhou Ze. The most heartless are often the unfaithful, and clearly, Zhou Ze was now on her blacklist.

"But she wouldn't dare play that card either, otherwise her soul would already be in hell. If she did anything harmful on earth, she would be punished in hell.

So, it's still possible to kill her."

Xu Qinglang had a cigarette in his mouth. He had been panicking like a quail about to be violated, but now that Zhou Ze was here, his small universe exploding, he could relax and watch the show.

"Don't kill me, don't kill me, she is she, and I am me, we are two different people."

The female corpse hurriedly shouted. She could see that the two men in front of her really wanted to solve the problem once and for all.

All intelligent beings have an instinct for survival, and the female corpse was no exception.

A thousand sails pass by the sinking ship, ten thousand trees bloom before the withered tree.

The female corpse was not actually Madam Bai. To some extent, she was an independent life, a "spiritual intelligence" born from Madam Bai's body after two hundred years. However, the female corpse and Madam Bai were still inextricably linked.

Xu Qinglang was right, the female corpse wouldn't dare to do anything excessive on earth, even if it meant dying, she wouldn't choose to act recklessly and cause Madam Bai in hell to suffer punishment.

Zhou Ze squatted down in front of the female corpse. "Then what did you mean just now, were you just playing around?"

The female corpse nodded.

"Heh heh." Zhou Ze chuckled twice. Looking back now, he was still a bit too "young." He had just become a ghost messenger and lacked experience, that’s why he agreed to Madam Bai's request.

"Isn't there any way to restrain her?" Zhou Ze asked.

"Extract a strand of her zombie soul blood, and you can control her, but she has to be willing to give it to you," Xu Qinglang suggested from the side.

The female corpse suddenly raised her head, her eyes flashing with intense hatred as she stared at Xu Qinglang as if he were her greatest enemy.

"Either die, or hand over your soul blood, the choice is yours," Xu Qinglang said with a smile.

"You... choose," Zhou Ze also looked at the female corpse. Clearly, he agreed with Xu Qinglang's suggestion.

Zhou Ze was a neat freak; he didn't want the female corpse to come down and clean his cups with her tongue again.

"Okay, I'll give it to you." The female corpse took a deep breath, as if burying her resentment and anger. Then, she closed her eyes, and a thing that looked like a red earthworm emerged from between her brows.

Zhou Ze reached out, pinched the thing with his fingernails, pulled it out, and placed it in his palm. It was a bit warm, a bit wet, and slippery.

After handing over her soul blood, the female corpse instantly became very weak, almost fainting. She barely managed to stay standing.

"Go clean yourself in the bathroom and then go upstairs to lie down. From today onwards, without my permission, you are not allowed to step out of the bookstore," Zhou Ze warned.

"Yes, High Official." The female corpse lowered her head, her posture very submissive. Her soul blood was in his grasp, and she had no choice but to bow her head.

............

"Slap."

Zhou Ze threw the bottle of medicated wine on the table. He was clearly applying the wine to Xu Qinglang, but it sounded like he was doing something disgusting.

"Apply it yourself."

"Don't be like that! You weren't injured, but I was thrown against the wall. I have so many bruises; don't you have any compassion?" Xu Qinglang became more and more agitated as he continued, "Zhou Ze, since you came here, have you noticed that I've been having bad luck?"

"That's fate," Zhou Ze said, refusing to take the blame. "By the way, the incantation you recited just now sounded very familiar."

*Tian Di Wu Ji, Xuan Xin Zheng Fa.* (Heaven and earth are limitless, profound heart righteous law.)

"It's from a TV series. I thought it sounded good, so I used it. It doesn't actually help with casting spells," Xu Qinglang admitted honestly.

"So, it's like adding background music for yourself?"

"Heh..." Xu Qinglang rolled his eyes, picked up the medicated wine, and started applying it himself. "There's some sour plum juice in the kitchen, take it back with you. I won't open tomorrow morning; I need to rest."

"I'm going back to rest." Zhou Ze got up, took the sour plum juice, and said goodbye. After returning to the bookstore, he went straight to the second floor.

The female corpse obediently washed herself clean and lay in the freezer, wearing Zhou Ze's clothes.

The white shirt was a bit big on her, hanging down and wrapping around her curvy bottom. She wasn't wearing pants; her legs were crossed as she lay inside, her eyes filled with seduction.

Zhou Ze reached out and knocked on the freezer, saying, "I remember Madam Bai said that she died before she got married."

Therefore, Madam Bai should have been a virgin in theory, but the female corpse in front of him seemed a bit promiscuous.

"That's because she didn't tell you that she had an affair with a poor scholar before marriage, and her father found out and thought it was a disgrace to the family, so he forcibly drowned her."

"Oh, so, you're an experienced driver?"

"Of course, do you know how much effort and care she put into making me not look as terrifying as a drowned person?"

"Women are always concerned about their appearance." Zhou Ze shook his head. "Sleep."

After speaking, Zhou Ze placed a pillow next to the freezer and lay down.

Having the female corpse next to him, the cold emanating from her made him feel comfortable, even more comfortable than lying in the freezer.

..............

The sun was shining brightly today. The female corpse was kneeling on the bookstore tiles, wiping the floor with a rag, while Zhou Ze moved a plastic stool outside the shop and sat in the sun.

It wasn't until noon that Xu Qinglang opened the shop door and walked out. He took a cigarette from Zhou Ze, glanced at the scene inside the shop, and smiled:

"Well-trained."

Zhou Ze continued to squint, enjoying the sun.

Xu Qinglang exhaled a smoke ring, then seemed to think of something and said:

"Your signboard is well-made, it's quite impressive, making mine next door look inferior. I'm planning to customize a signboard too."

"Putting on airs?" Zhou Ze laughed.

"Can't I?" Xu Qinglang raised an eyebrow. "If I put out my twenty-odd property certificates, who can say I'm not refined?"

Zhou Ze shook his head helplessly.

"Come on, give me some advice. I think your 'Just listen to it, so I have heard' is pretty good. I'm planning for the horizontal inscription of my signboard couplet to be 'Life is like a dream', what do you think, doesn't that sound stylish?

But I want the couplet to be related to 'eating', so it matches my restaurant, right?

I haven't thought of anything good yet, do you have any good suggestions?"

Zhou Ze pondered for a while and said, "Do you really want to hear it?"

"Tell me," Xu Qinglang urged.

Zhou Ze looked at the female corpse in the house and said:

"Humans eat soil for a lifetime,

Soil eats humans once.

Horizontal inscription:

Life is like a dream."