Chapter 1 I Am Afraid That Ghost is Also Afraid of Scaring People

I quickly pushed the door open and went in, but I didn't see the mischievous child. Even the sound of the child singing was gone.

Could I have been hallucinating?

I searched around, but only found some water stains and scales. The scales were just ordinary fish scales, but they had been hammered flat. Only the little rabbit who pounds medicine every day could hammer fish scales as flat as gold leaf without any cracks.

Plus the nursery rhyme just now, I was even more certain that they hadn't run away.

I don't know who the unlucky fellow was who entered my shop while I was away, and even brought two fish. I guess the fishy smell made the little rabbits unhappy, and they pounded him out with one pestle after another.

I didn't pay too much attention to this matter. I directly took the chicken to the kitchen. Just as I started to stew the chicken, there was a loud banging on the door downstairs. The banging was very rough and urgent, and a woman was yelling at the top of her lungs, "Open the door, open the door! I know you're upstairs, come down and open the door quickly!"

Oh my, I'm very familiar with this voice. It's Auntie Two from across the street.

Auntie Two was a carpenter by trade. She was burly and strong, with a voice more shocking than a man's. It was said that before she married into the coffin shop, her father-in-law had the final say in everything at home, but after she married in, no one in the family dared to disobey her.

I can't afford to offend this aunt, so I hurried out to greet her.

"Auntie Two, what's the matter that's so urgent? Come in and talk," I politely put on the smile that a junior should have.

Auntie Two waved her hand dismissively, "No need, I have a customer who encountered trouble when sending off the deceased. They thought I was knowledgeable and asked for my opinion, but I've never encountered this before. I figured that you're the most capable of solving these messy things on this street, so I brought the person over to you."

As she spoke, Auntie Two pulled a young man out from behind her and shoved him directly into my shop.

Then, Auntie Two leaned in close to my ear, lowered her voice, and said, "This is one of my big clients, who often buys coffins from my place. You have to treat him well. If he doesn't buy coffins from me anymore, I'll hold you responsible, kid."

Then, Auntie Two, as if she had completed a mission and made a great contribution, waddled back to her shop.

I stood there愣 for three seconds, then looked at the young man that Auntie Two had shoved in, and finally understood what was going on.

"This brother is a coffin bearer, right? Did you encounter a difficult deceased that couldn't be sent off, and the coffin couldn't be carried to the cemetery? Please, sit down." I politely gestured for the young man to come inside.

The young man looked at me with a surprised expression, "You can tell? You're really amazing."

Am I really that amazing? Auntie Two said you're a big client who often buys coffins. If you're not a coffin bearer, could it be that people in your family are always dying, and you come to Auntie Two to buy coffins every time? Also, judging by your features and build, I don't even need to look at your birth chart to know how strong your life force is. Even ghosts would probably avoid you. It would be a waste of your talent if you didn't become a coffin bearer.

Of course, I couldn't say these words directly to the young man. I just smiled knowingly and asked the young man to tell me what happened.

The young man's name was Zhu Zi. Although he wasn't very old, he had been a coffin bearer for more than five years and was the leader of their eight-member team. Everyone within a few miles around would look for him if they had a funeral. If they encountered a restless deceased who was causing trouble, they would definitely have to find Zhu Zi to keep order. A few days ago, an old woman came to his house with gifts specifically to find him.

The old woman's granddaughter had died with her eyes open. They had originally planned to cremate her, but the people at the funeral home couldn't lift her out, so they had to find Zhu Zi.

Zhu Zi said that he didn't take cremation jobs. If he was going to carry her, she would have to be put in a coffin, and the coffin had to be one he specified.

I could only chuckle. Zhu Zi was a coffin bearer, which could be considered a craftsman, but he wasn't satisfied with making a living from his craft. He also wanted to earn money from selling coffins. It was no wonder he encountered something evil with such greed.

Although the old woman was unwilling to buy a coffin, she couldn't let her granddaughter rot at home, so she had to agree to let Zhu Zi arrange it.

Zhu Zi had been carrying coffins for several years and had some skills, but his temper was much bigger than his skills. Although he followed the proper procedure of asking the corpse politely, the corpse didn't move after two requests, so he directly used the corpse-binding rope.

The corpse-binding rope, as the name suggests, is a rope specifically for binding corpses. The material is a cow tendon rope soaked in black dog blood, which is very effective in warding off evil. However, it's usually used by grave robbers, and I've never seen many coffin bearers with it.

Zhu Zi's corpse-binding rope was very powerful. The female corpse's eyes were wide open, and her feet were hooked on the doorframe, and the mist above her eyes had even condensed into water droplets, but she was still dragged into the coffin by Zhu Zi.

Actually, it's obvious that the corpse-binding rope can even pull out old corpses from ancient tombs, let alone this little girl who had only been dead for a few days.

Speaking of this, Zhu Zi was very proud. He didn't feel like he was bullying the little girl at all, but instead felt that his aura was strong and his skills were amazing. He said that the reason he had today's reputation in this industry was because he was fierce enough. There was no need to reason with corpses at all. As long as you were powerful enough to suppress them, that was enough. If you slowly and carefully researched what unfulfilled wishes the corpse had, then there would be no need to send the person off at all. He understood this principle the first time he carried a coffin and encountered an old bachelor.

The old bachelor had been single for more than fifty years. The matchmaker introduced him to seventeen or eighteen women, but none of them worked out. One day, fueled by alcohol, he mustered his courage and forced the matchmaker onto the bed.

The matchmaker's family was relentless, but the old bachelor didn't have any money to compensate them, so he hung himself with a rope in front of the matchmaker's house and left a blood letter, saying that the matchmaker had seduced him first and that the matchmaker's family had forced him to die. At that time, the corpse was hanging from the tree and refused to enter the coffin no matter what. Several old coffin bearers were at a loss, but in the end, Zhu Zi kicked the old bachelor down from the tree and cursed at him, saying that he was shameless.

The old bachelor was a bully who feared the strong. When he encountered someone like Zhu Zi, he immediately didn't dare to cause trouble and obediently entered the cemetery. Now the grass on his grave is very tall.

Zhu Zi treated the old bachelor like this back then, and he treated the little girl the same way now, pointing at the coffin and scolding her harshly, telling the little girl to lie in the coffin obediently. If she dared to cause trouble, he would find an ugly monster to defile her and make sure she wouldn't die in peace.

The female corpse was really frightened and lay quietly in the coffin, swallowing her grievances.

But after the female corpse stopped causing trouble, the weather started to cause trouble. It rained and thundered, and the roads were muddy, so they didn't dare to carry the coffin up the mountain. They could only stop it in the mourning hall first.

Zhu Zi was the leader of the coffin bearers, so he drank a few extra cups of wine at night and didn't personally stay in the mourning hall to watch over it. Instead, he arranged for a newcomer named Zhao Tian to do it.

"This kid hasn't been in the industry for long. I was thinking of giving him more opportunities to train him, but who knew that this heartless bastard would cause me such a big disaster!" When Zhao Tian was mentioned, Zhu Zi slapped the table angrily and stood up.