Chapter 1 Asleep

Before dawn, Zhou Ze used his electric scooter to take the female corpse back to the bookstore. As for Xu Qinglang, he waited there to take a taxi back.

After all, he had arrived in a bridal sedan; there was no bridal sedan for him to ride back in.

Back at the bookstore, Zhou Ze placed the female corpse in the freezer on the second floor of the store. Then he went downstairs to take a shower. When he came out after changing his clothes, Xu Qinglang, who had finally managed to get a taxi, had returned. He entered the bookstore and, seeing Zhou Ze with his hair still wet, joked:

"You need to control yourself."

"Heh," Zhou Ze replied simply.

Xu Qinglang shook his head and left the bookstore without saying anything more. He, too, was tired from the events of the night.

Zhou Ze locked the door and went to the second floor, standing beside the freezer, looking at the female corpse inside.

The female corpse's face was very delicate, and her aura was also outstanding. People in ancient times married at a relatively young age; it was common for girls to become mothers at fifteen or sixteen. Therefore, the Bai-furen's (Lady Bai) corpse, who had died before her wedding, looked about the same age as an ordinary high school student, but she possessed an inherent allure.

Xu Qinglang's beauty was enchanting, like a blooming peony, while the Bai-furen (Lady Bai) before him was an introverted daisy.

Of course, Zhou Ze would not have too many fantasies about a corpse. What he was thinking about was something else.

His ten fingernails had been in contact with her while he drove the electric scooter back with her corpse, and it felt as if currents were flowing into his body, constantly stimulating his soul and his nails.

Fortunately, Xu Qinglang wasn't around when he returned, otherwise Zhou Ze estimated he would have screamed out in the sedan chair like Xu Qinglang had on the way over. These things were better left unsaid.

When he carried her back to the bookstore, Zhou Ze found that the chill emanating from her body seemed to have dissipated by more than half.

It was like a rechargeable battery that had just had its power drained, but it shouldn't be a big problem. She was lying there, and she should be able to naturally recharge herself.

He placed his palms in front of him, and his fingernails slowly grew out. A blood-colored pattern actually appeared on the originally black and translucent nail caps. This should be the change from the nails absorbing the corpse's *sha* (noxious energy).

It looked quite nice.

Zhou Ze smiled, reached for the cup of warm water he had just brought up, but found that the water had gone cold.

Because of the female corpse, the temperature of this entire small second floor was lower than outside, and Zhou Ze himself had a somewhat weaker sense of "cold."

It was a pity that it wasn't summer. If it were summer, having a female corpse here would save him money on air conditioning, and it would also have the effect of preventing mosquitoes and insects.

That night, Zhou Ze made a bed on the floor next to the freezer and slept soundly.

The little loli had said that if he hugged her, Zhou Ze would be able to fall asleep without needing to rely on the freezer. In this regard, the effect of the female corpse was similar.

When he woke up the next morning, Zhou Ze stretched and placed his fingernails on the other party's lower abdomen. In an instant, the cold feeling came again.

Very comfortable,

Very enjoyable,

But this feeling only lasted for about half a minute before it dissipated, which meant that the female corpse had only recharged that much overnight.

Bai-furen (Lady Bai) had said she was worried that her corpse would become restless, and Xu Qinglang had also said that the corpse's strong *sha* (noxious energy), if stimulated by external forces, could turn into a zombie. However, now it seemed the probability was low. No matter how much *sha* (noxious energy) she gathered, he would absorb that amount every day.

Although he didn't know what this thing was useful for, the comfortable feeling alone was enough to keep Zhou Ze indulging in it.

After eating a meal at Xu Qinglang's shop next door, Zhou Ze sat leisurely in the store. Just as he was thinking about which book to read, Zhou Ze's phone rang.

It was his sister-in-law's phone.

"Xu Le, come back here."

"What's the matter?" Zhou Ze didn't believe that this sister-in-law would suddenly call him to care about him. The little girl was still in her rebellious youth, a bit self-centered, or rather, a bit selfish and tyrannical.

"Your uncle came to my house. Come and take him away," the sister-in-law said impatiently.

"Uncle?" Zhou Ze frowned slightly. He remembered that Xu Le, like himself, was an orphan. Of course, Xu Le didn't grow up in an orphanage. His parents had passed away one after the other after he was born.

"Okay, I'll come back."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Ze said hello to Xu Qinglang next door, asking him to look after the store for him, and then took a taxi to return to the Lin family.

Wang Ke's treatment suggestion for him was to temporarily cut off contact with his original network of relationships, but this was a different situation. Before, Zhou Ze was an unregistered person, like a rat crossing the street. Now he was a temporary civil servant, so there were fewer things to worry about and less danger.

Moreover, Zhou Ze had previously read Xu Le's private diary entries in his social media account, which mentioned his uncle, who had always supported him in going to school.

Having taken someone else's body, some things needed to be explained. Moreover, Xu Le had already gone to hell to reincarnate, so the changes in his own mentality had nothing to do with Xu Le and were a side effect of borrowing a corpse.

When Zhou Ze returned to the Lin family, he saw an old man wearing a cotton-padded jacket with a wrinkled face sitting on the steps in the stairwell, smoking a pipe.

Next to the old man were several fertilizer bags, one of which should contain chickens and ducks, and another bag that should contain sausages or the like.

"A'Le!" The old man stood up when he saw Xu Le coming up and walked up to Xu Le, reaching out and patting Xu Le's shoulder forcefully, "You've grown taller again, lad."

Zhou Ze grinned. He didn't ask why his uncle was sitting in the stairwell smoking. Actually, there was no need to ask.

Even if his uncle had voluntarily come out to smoke a pipe so as not to pollute the house, it was impossible for the local produce he had brought to still be left outside. This could only mean that the Lin family didn't welcome him and hadn't even let him enter the house.

Coupled with the tone and attitude of his sister-in-law when she called him earlier, it was enough to illustrate the Lin family's attitude toward his uncle.

Of course, there was nothing to complain about or hate. His relationship with the Lin family was already on the verge of breaking down, and there was no question of who was right or wrong.

"Have you eaten?" Zhou Ze asked.

"Not yet," the old man said honestly.

"I'll take you to eat."

"Alright."

Zhou Ze chose a restaurant, went inside, ordered a few dishes, and also ordered a bottle of baijiu (Chinese white liquor).

The old man poured and drank on his own. After a few sips of wine, it was clear that he was feeling a bit heavy-hearted. Obviously, he could sense the Lin family's indifference. After all, they were in-laws, but now they didn't even care about saving face.

"Le-wa'er (Le boy), if you're not happy here, you might as well just go home," the uncle patted his chest. "The country's targeted poverty alleviation policy is very good now, and the family doesn't have to worry about making a living anymore. You've also been to college. When you come back, we can do some kind of special breeding ourselves, and our life won't be worse than others."

"Okay, we'll talk about it later," Zhou Ze said perfunctorily.

"Sigh." The uncle knew that Xu Le didn't drink, so he didn't ask Zhou Ze to drink with him. He slowly finished a bottle by himself, then ate two bowls of rice. After Zhou Ze paid the bill, he carried his things and walked out of the restaurant with Zhou Ze.

"Take these things with you. They don't want them, so you eat them," the uncle handed a few burlap sacks to Zhou Ze. "I'm taking the afternoon bus back."

"Okay," Zhou Ze didn't try to stop him.

The uncle's alcohol tolerance should be very good. Zhou Ze called a taxi for him, paid the driver in advance to take him to the bus station, and then Zhou Ze carried the things back to the bookstore.

Xu Qinglang was sitting in the doorway, basking in the sun. Zhou Ze placed the pile of local products in front of him.

"Oh, what's this?"

"Use it for ingredients," Zhou Ze said, finding a chair next to him and sitting down.

"Alright," Xu Qinglang didn't stand on ceremony. He hadn't accepted Zhou Ze's money for meals before. "By the way, you told me that your real name is Zhou Ze, but you haven't specifically said what you did before. What did you do before?"

"Doctor," Zhou Ze replied.

There was nothing to hide from Xu Qinglang about these things.

Moreover, his identity had been laundered, so he wasn't afraid of the official records.

"Doctor? Then you and your wife are a good match," Xu Qinglang said leisurely, blowing out a smoke ring. "I haven't seen your wife come by in days."

"It's over," Zhou Ze said casually.

"Hehe."

The two smoked another cigarette together, and Zhou Ze got up, pushed open the bookstore door, and walked inside.

He had told Xu Qinglang to help him look after the store when he went out in the morning, so he hadn't locked the door.

After sitting down behind the counter, Zhou Ze turned on the computer, clicked on an icon, and then video information appeared on the desktop.

Zhou Ze had bought two pinhole cameras a while ago and placed them in the store, one at the entrance of the stairs and one in the upper left corner of the bookstore. The price wasn't high, the kind that perverts usually bought to use.

Casually picking up the cup on the counter, he took a few sips of water, and Zhou Ze began to adjust the playback time on the video.

There was a reason why Zhou Ze deliberately didn't lock the door when he went out in the morning, asking Xu Qinglang to help him look after it.

Yesterday, Bai-furen (Lady Bai) had asked him to come over and had also used a bridal sedan to invite Xu Qinglang. Although she had explained that it was because of a joke Xu Qinglang had made when he was a child, Zhou Ze wouldn't completely believe it.

He had transported the corpse back and placed it here. If Bai-furen (Lady Bai) and Xu Qinglang had other relationships, Xu Qinglang should have some movement this morning.

One couldn't be too careful when guarding against others. He wasn't even human anymore, so he naturally had to be more cautious.

At 11:30 in the morning, the screen showed Xu Qinglang entering his store.

Zhou Ze took another sip of water, feeling that the water in the cup was a little sweet and particularly delicious.

Was it a psychological effect, because he felt smug for guessing correctly?

However, in the video, Xu Qinglang only entered the store, took a few newspapers, sat there and read for half an hour, and then put the newspapers back in their original place before leaving. He didn't go up to the second floor at all.

Had he guessed wrong?

Was he judging a gentleman's heart with a petty man's mind?

Zhou Ze pursed his lips, smiled to himself, and drank the water in the cup in one gulp.

Just as Zhou Ze was about to close the screen and go wash his face, he suddenly thought of the camera placed at the entrance of the stairs. The location of this camera could observe the stairs and the situation on the first floor counter.

But since Xu Qinglang hadn't gone inside, it wouldn't make much of a difference whether he watched it or not.

However, because these types of cameras were cheap, they had relatively small memory, so Zhou Ze had to delete the used memory to free up space.

At the same time, Zhou Ze also casually opened the video recorded by the second camera and dragged it from beginning to end, as if he was just going through the motions.

However, at that moment, Zhou Ze seemed to see a white shadow fleeting by.

"Huh?"

Zhou Ze subconsciously pulled back the mouse, and the other hand picked up the teacup again, only to realize that the water in the cup had already been drunk.

He couldn't be bothered to pour water again at the moment,

Instead, he directly dragged the mouse bit by bit,

Finally,

The screen captured that moment,

A woman wearing white clothes was slowly walking down from the second floor!

That corpse,

It could move!

Zhou Ze only felt a rush of blood to his head, and a sense of crisis directly hit him. His heart and breathing became a little rapid at this moment.

Just as Zhou Ze was thinking about this,

The screen was still playing,

In the picture,

The Bai-furen's (Lady Bai) corpse walked to the counter, picked up the water cup placed on the counter,

Then,

Like a dog drinking water,

She stretched out her tongue and stirred it around in the water cup a few times,

Then she put down the water cup, like a person who got up at night to drink water because they were thirsty,

She turned around and slowly walked upstairs again.

Zhou Ze took a deep breath, looked at the cup beside him that had just been emptied by him,

No wonder when he was drinking water just now,

He felt it was a little sweet…