The boss smiled, not at all provoked. He just found it amusing.
A person's temperament and aura are often more credible than their words.
“Hiss…………”
The crisp sound, with a hint of lingering length, like a snake shedding its skin, he began to tear off his own skin.
At the same time, the boss's frame was slowly shrinking, and his physique was gradually thinning, like a balloon with a small hole, slowly deflating.
Zhou Ze now finally understood why the noodles were cooked so soft.
This "transformation" of his did take some time.
He was still wearing the boss's clothes, with an apron tied around his waist, but his face had turned into that of a slightly callow youth.
The youth smiled, naturally charming, especially the curve extending from the corner of his eye, as if it could scratch the itch in the hearts of men and women around him, just right, perfectly so.
It was a bit strange to use "charming" to describe a man, but some men were indeed born with charm in their bones. For example, countless ancient emperors favored men, and the reason was indeed that some men were more like women than women.
“Am I good-looking?”
The youth asked Zhou Ze.
Zhou Ze felt the nausea he had suppressed after eating the noodles surge up again. He waved his hand apologetically, then clutched his chest, striking a pose that said, *I can't throw up*.
Who knows that every grain on our plate is the result of hard work!
Zhou Ze knew how to cherish food, especially the food that he had finally swallowed and was about to digest into energy in his body.
The youth sat down on a chair next to him, holding a lighter in his hand, casually twirling it around.
He was sizing up Zhou Ze, because Zhou Ze had discovered him. He believed that his imitation was seamless, and in this small restaurant, there shouldn't be any problems.
Most importantly,
He was imitating his own parents.
From his childhood, he had been observing his parents, every move, every strand of expression, had long been engraved in his heart.
“How did you find me?” the youth couldn't help but ask.
“You’re not a ghost?”
Zhou Ze asked at the same time.
The youth frowned slightly. He thought Zhou Ze was mocking him, saying he was acting mysteriously.
But in reality, Zhou Ze had regarded him as a ghost from the very beginning.
Zhou Ze didn't want to meddle in other people's business. Someone who was recently still struggling over the money for a refrigerator, Zhou Ze didn't think he was qualified to meddle in other people's business.
But he couldn't just ignore this matter,
Because it was happening next door to him.
So Zhou Ze felt that, no matter what, it was best to expose the matter first. If it was easy to solve, he would solve it himself. If it was difficult to solve, he would just move.
“Your fingernails,” Zhou Ze said. “I’m a little sensitive to fingernails.”
The proprietress brought the noodles to his table,
The boss personally handed him a cigarette,
Their fingernails, were all presented in front of him.
Although the thickness of their fingers, their whiteness, and the degree of their calluses were different, the patterns on their fingernails were the same.
And recently, Zhou Ze had been paying more attention to fingernails, not only his own, but also others'.
The youth's eyes narrowed slightly, and he looked lost. The details were not done well enough.
Although he had been a bit negligent, being discovered was indeed his own fault.
“You’re really not a ghost?” Zhou Ze asked again.
If he was a person, then it was really a bit exaggerated.
In fact, Zhou Ze hadn't seen many ghosts. Aside from his journey in Hell, in the mortal world, the number of ghosts he had seen was truly countable.
“Face-changing is a family skill passed down from our ancestors,” the youth stood up, reached out and grabbed Zhou Ze's hand, placing it on his chest. “However, it has been discontinued for many generations. Only in my generation has it been able to be picked up again.”
This action was a bit ambiguous and a bit out of line, but Zhou Ze still subconsciously pinched it.
Zhou Ze would never admit that it was because Dr. Lin had been preventing him from sleeping that he had now developed an interest in men.
Of course, the man in front of him was indeed more charming than a woman, which was indeed a fact.
“No bones?” Zhou Ze's face showed surprise. “No, it’s rickets.”
Rickets, also known as osteomalacia, is caused by a lack of calcium, which hinders bone calcification, causing the bones to become soft and easily deformed. Zhou Ze used to be a doctor, so he naturally knew something about it. But just as even a cold can be divided into many situations and many different pathologies, rickets also has many subcategories. And this youth in front of him should be an extreme case.
According to legend, there are records in unofficial histories of the Spring and Autumn Period that a prince of the State of Lu suffered from this disease. If a person has no bones, their body is delicate and soft, and they can walk like a person, and also crawl like a snake.
“You can understand it as a genetic disease. It requires a certain probability to manifest. Many generations of my family before me couldn't practice face-changing because they didn't have this disease, and I…”
The youth smiled and didn't continue.
“So, you’re really not a ghost?” Zhou Ze was still unwilling to give up.
“My name is Xu Qinglang,” the youth replied seriously.
“Who were you imitating?” Zhou Ze asked.
“Dad, Mom.”
Zhou Ze was stunned for a moment, and a wry smile appeared on his face.
Alright,
This was a big misunderstanding.
After finishing the noodles earlier, Sister Lin left, and Zhou Ze, thinking of getting to the bottom of things, deliberately provoked him with words, but he didn't expect that he was just playing a role-playing game here to remember his deceased parents.
But from Zhou Ze's previous perspective, he had just assumed that this was a ghost, similar to the ghost in the "Painted Skin" story, who had killed people, skinned them, and was still “a monkey in borrowed robes.”
“Then… I’m sorry.”
Teasing you about your mother is really a bit embarrassing.
“I’m not angry,” Xu Qinglang said. “But I’m very curious, what do you mean by always thinking of me as a ghost?”
“It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Have you seen a ghost?” Xu Qinglang asked.
“I am a ghost,” Zhou Ze looked at Xu Qinglang and said very seriously.
His expression was serious, his demeanor solemn.
He was being completely honest.
Xu Qinglang's expression froze,
And then he couldn't help but laugh, "Pfft."
He looked at Zhou Ze,
As if he were looking at an idiot.
Zhou Ze nodded. Sometimes, that's how it is. You tell him the truth, and you think you're teasing him, but he doesn't believe you.
“Anyway, I’m sorry. By the way, I also want to ask, is that human skin really human skin?” Zhou Ze asked curiously.
“Fish skin,” Xu Qinglang replied. “Processed, painted, and made.”
“Then why do you sell noodles?” Zhou Ze couldn't understand. “I heard that a Hezhe ethnic group's snakeskin coat can sell for a lot of money, selling it as art. Shouldn't yours be worth more?”
“I can’t use ancestral things to make profits.”
“Then you should be very rich,” Zhou Ze said.
“My family was just relocated,” Xu Qinglang didn't answer directly. “We got twenty-something apartments.”
“…………” Zhou Ze took a deep breath.
So, the world is just so unfair. In his previous life, he worked hard in the hospital and didn't earn much money, while others could easily get twenty-something apartments.
Tongcheng is not as good as Shanghai, but the housing prices are also close to ten thousand yuan per square meter.
A second-generation demolisher, he envied them.
Zhou Ze shook his head. “Are you going to continue making noodles in the future?”
“Are you going to continue selling books in the future?”
The two asked each other the same question at the same time.
“I’ll see how it goes for now,” Zhou Ze replied.
“Me too.”
“Then, see you later. By the way, does your sour plum juice have other flavors?” Zhou Ze was very curious about this. “Like bitter gourd flavor? Grape flavor?”
“I have a secret recipe. I can make it,” Xu Qinglang said very honestly.
“Very good,” Zhou Ze reached out and patted Xu Qinglang on the shoulder.
Damn it,
He was like cotton,
Soft and weak, he really had no bones. If you were to hold him in your arms and lie on the bed…
Zhou Ze immediately brought out the image of Dr. Lin coming out of the shower in her pajamas, forcibly suppressing his inappropriate thoughts.
Zhou Ze walked out of the noodle shop.
Xu Qinglang walked to the inner room, lifted the curtain, and said to the woman's human skin hanging inside:
“Mom, do you think he really believed it or just pretended to believe it?”
The woman's skin gently swayed,
Slightly swinging,
As if to say, he didn't believe it,
Or as if to say, she didn't know either.
………………
Zhou Ze returned to his shop. The refrigerator had been installed. Next, he had to renovate the dilapidated bookstore that Xu Le had left behind. It wouldn't do to keep it losing money like this.
The sign at the entrance of the bookstore read “Xu Le Bookstore,” which was as rustic as it could be.
In short, in that guy's hands, this bookstore, from top to bottom, inside and out, exuded an air of “definitely losing money.”
Zhou Ze sat down in front of the computer and tried several times to log in to his original QQ account, but he couldn't log in. The identity verification couldn't be passed at all, and it was basically impossible to appeal.
Afterwards, Zhou Ze had no choice but to go out and take a taxi. He planned to change the brand name or put a couplet on the door here.
He knew someone who ran a plaque shop, specializing in wood carving plaque business. The owner was an old man who often donated to the orphanage. When Zhou Ze himself was a member of the orphanage, the old man was already donating. After Zhou Ze started working, the old man and Zhou Ze donated together.
That plaque shop was not far away, just at the foot of Wolf Mountain. All around it were shops selling incense and candles, except for this one selling plaques.
However, when Zhou Ze walked in, he found that the shop was doing a general cleaning, and even the plaques had been taken down.
A middle-aged man was there directing the workers to work.
“Are you?” the other party saw Zhou Ze walking over and asked.
“I’m looking for Mr. Zhao,” Zhou Ze said. He had great respect for the old man.
“I’m sorry, my father just passed away last month,” the middle-aged man replied.
“Passed away?” Zhou Ze was a little surprised and a little sad. He and Old Zhao were not really familiar with each other, they just knew of each other. Therefore, it was normal that he was not notified of the funeral.
Moreover, it was possible that for Zhao's family, Zhao had been donating the income from making plaques to the orphanage, so they naturally had no good feelings for the orphanage, and might not even notify the orphanage of the funeral, for fear that the orphanage would come up to them again to ask for money.
“Are you here to order a plaque?” the middle-aged man asked.
“Yes,” Zhou Ze nodded.
“Our family isn’t doing this anymore,” the middle-aged man said apologetically. “We’re selling incense and candles from now on.”
Wolf Mountain is one of the ten small Buddhist mountains. Even if it doesn't attract foreign tourists, it is enough for the shops and businesses located at the foot of the mountain to make a lot of money from the locals burning incense and worshiping Buddha during festivals.
This is also a way of relying on the mountain for a living, and relying on the water for a living.
“That’s a pity,” Zhou Ze said with some regret.
He planned to go to see the old man's tombstone.
“But there are still a few plaques that my father made before that he couldn't sell. I don't know what my father was doing carving those plaques, no one ordered them. If you like them, I’ll sell them to you cheaper,” the middle-aged man planned to get rid of them with the intention of selling them as scrap.
“Okay, I’ll take a look,” Zhou Ze agreed.
He followed the middle-aged man to the small courtyard behind. The middle-aged man opened a warehouse and turned on the light.
Inside were some sundries, including the tools Zhao used to work, piled up in a disorganized manner, meaning that his descendants did not intend to inherit this craft.
Now everyone makes luminous plaques, who would still want to use this? It's hard work, and you can't earn much money.
“Phew…………” the middle-aged man blew on the plaques on the ground and said, “Take a look. Two hundred yuan each. If you like one, you can take it away. If you don't like one, then forget it.”
Obviously, the middle-aged man didn't have much confidence in whether he could sell these plaques.
Zhou Ze walked over and looked at them.
The first plaque read:
“Life and death are predetermined, wealth and honor are decreed by Heaven.”
Zhou Ze shook his head, and the middle-aged man sighed, knowing that this plaque was a no-go.
The next one read:
“People know that ghosts are terrifying, but ghosts know the human heart is poisonous.”
Zhou Ze was slightly stunned. He was a little sensitive to this.
The middle-aged man didn't sigh this time, because he knew it was a definite no-go. Which shop owner would be full enough to hang this at the door?
The third one:
“Listen to it as nonsense, as I have heard.” (Gu Wang Ting Zhi, Ru Shi Wo Wen)
Zhou Ze smiled,
The middle-aged man smiled when he saw Zhou Ze smile,
At least there was one he was satisfied with.