Midnight Bookstore

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

The man fell silent. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts.

Zhou Ze initially thought he would turn into a vengeful spirit, just like the victims of the fire that the takeaway boy had started.

Once a ghost turned into a vengeful spirit, it basically meant they had lost themselves to the grievances they had. They no longer had a chance to be reincarnated. The only possible ending for them was to scatter like ashes and dissipate like clouds.

It was similar to a person consuming stimulants a hundred times the limit within a short period of time. The person would definitely feel like they were soaring above the clouds, but once the effects were gone, it was time to prepare their funeral.

However, the man before him was surprisingly calm. He seemed disappointed, lost, helpless, and in the middle of a struggle.

He looked at the Confucian Temple behind him and said with a sigh, “I believe in the eyes of the Saints. Even though I grew up studying Confucianism, I’m still no different than these scholars who failed their exams. I thought I was special, I thought my fate was so outstanding that even the underworld judge couldn’t decide my death… but it turned out that I’m just too full of myself.”

As a matter of fact, he could have realized it earlier. Otherwise, he would not have been trapped here for hundreds of years, just numbly following the rest of the souls around the Confucian Temple every night without realizing it.

The man looked at Zhou Ze and asked, “Do you think I deserve to die?”

Zhou Ze did not respond.

“I have a good friend with the surname Liu. When he learned the emperor had killed himself in Meishan (currently Jingshan Park), he decided that his whole family would die together with him, too,” the man said softly.

“The day before, his granddaughter, who was only thirteen years old, came to me for protection. Her mother was just a concubine; she wanted her daughter to live, but my friend visited me in person and took his granddaughter away with him. In the end, the whole family of more than twenty people killed themselves. The little girl was stabbed to death by a sword. She didn’t want to die, but she still died in the end.”

The man chuckled and said, “Do you think that was the right thing to do?”

Zhou Ze did not remain silent this time. He said, “She didn’t deserve to die.”

“Yeah, she didn’t, which is why I think everyone has the right to decide if they want to live or not. I know my family wasn’t willing to die, nor were my children. Therefore, I had to try my best to live. It was not only for my own sake, but for the sake of my family too! When I became an official in the second dynasty, I tried my best to spare the lives of people. I was killing a lot less, like how Emperor Taizong of Tang knew the Xuanwu Gate Incident would surely become a stain to his name that would go down in history. Therefore, he tried to be a just and merciful emperor after that. I had the same mindset. I thought that since I didn’t die for the country, I would be a better person and save more lives in return, as a way to make up for my mistakes.”

The man talked a lot. He was clearly discontented with how everything turned out in the end.

The scholars in the past had referred to themselves as the disciples of the Saints. They had studied and obeyed the teachings of the Saints, but it seemed like the Saints had thought otherwise.

He was once one of the Nine Ministers, yet he was treated as a failure, just like the people that had killed themselves after failing their exams.

It clearly showed what the Saints thought of him.

Zhou Ze crouched down and looked at the man. He said after a slight hesitation, “What you just said sounded familiar to me. Less than a hundred years ago, a man said something similar, too. His name is Wang Jingwei. He betrayed the country when its fate was at stake. He played the jackal to the tiger. To make it sound better, he was trying to save the country using another way.”

The man opened his mouth slightly. He wanted to say something, but he could not find the words.

“You have gone from an imperial censor in the first dynasty to one of the Nine Ministers in the second. There’s really no need to try and find an excuse. The reason behind it is actually very simple: the water is too cold!”

{TL Note: The expression is from an official of the Qing Dynasty, Qian Qianyi. When the Qing Dynasty was about to perish, the officials all left with the Chongzhen Emperor. Qian Qianyi was advised to die for his country too, but when he approached the lake, he suddenly decided otherwise with the excuse that the water was too cold.} 

The man was infuriated by the words. He glared at Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze opened his hand as his nails grew longer. He activated the seal on his right palm and drew a circle around it with his nail to open the Gate of Hell.

“Time to go. Isn’t dignity all you want? You can go inside yourself. If I have to do it myself, you will lose even your last hint of dignity.”

The man rose to his feet and slowly walked toward the gate. He gave Zhou Ze a thoughtful look before crossing the doorway, “Do you think the water is cold?”

“As long as you have a clear conscience.”

The man muttered under his breath and shook his head. Zhou Ze had no idea if the man had thought it through, but he still went into the doorway in the end.

Zhou Ze waved his hand. The door disappeared. His job was done.

It seemed like he should be grateful to the official for devouring the souls of the scholars nearby. It did save Zhou Ze lots of trouble.

“Boss, are we done here?” the gyonshi asked, disappointed. “I thought you were going to beat him up.”

“It doesn’t really matter if I beat him up.” Zhou Ze looked at the Confucian Temple thoughtfully, “The Saints trapped him here for a few hundred years. It already served as punishment.”

Bai Yingying twisted her lips. “It seems like the mud statues in the temple aren’t all blind.”

“Yeah, they only trapped the soul of the official here because he didn’t truly obey their teachings. He brought disgrace to their name, thus he had to be punished. However, times have changed. The Ming Dynasty became the Qing Dynasty. Lots of things are different, but the Confucian Temples remained the same. These mud statues continue to be worshiped by the people.”

“…” Bai Yingying. “Boss, you are starting to sound more like a philosopher. Are the mud statues good or bad?”

Bai Yingying felt uncomfortable being stared at by the mud statues when she went inside the temple the other day.

“They are just something.”

——

It was around ten when they hailed a ride back to the bookstore, the time that Zhou Ze usually opened up.

It was mainly because there were fewer ghosts in the morning. They were more active at night.

Zhou Ze had earned some joss money recently, but he had burned a lot of it to avoid trouble for the video he had recorded.

The video recording could not be used as evidence, but as long as it caught the attention of the right people, it was not difficult to find the truth behind it.

The video was just the fuse for a chain reaction. It could not be used as evidence in court.

—

Instead of reading a book, Zhou Ze put on his headphones and listened to music. He casually scrolled through the news while Bai Yingying was playing games on her phone behind him.

The master and servant had their own entertainment. To the man beside the bookstore who was prettier than a woman, it was a sign that they had become depraved.

—

The door of the bookstore opened at midnight. In came a girl with a corgi.

A familiar girl, and a familiar corgi.

Zhou Ze stood up and went to get a glass of water for the girl. She deserved it, since she was the first VIP customer of the bookstore.

Zhou Ze took a closer look, too. Both the girl and the dog were still alive. It was rare for the living to come to his bookstore in the middle of the night.

“Boss, I found my dog.”

“Congratulations!” Zhou Ze answered calmly.

The corgi ran in circles around Zhou Ze excitedly, before running over to Bai Yingying.

Bai Yingying was playing Arena of Valor when she was distracted by the corgi. The corgi immediately froze when she glared at it.

As the saying went, everything was smaller and shorter in the eyes of a dog, but the truth was that a dog could see things that humans could not.

{TL Note: The expression is normally used to describe someone acting like a snob.}

The corgi fell feebly to the floor and peed herself.

“Sorry, I’m sorry boss!” The girl quickly went over to clean up the mess.

“Don’t worry about it,” Zhou Ze comforted the girl and told Bai Yingying, “Go and clean it up.”

Bai Yingying put her phone down and went to the washroom to get a rag and a mop, radiating resentment.

“Boss, your bookstore isn’t doing well, right?” The girl dragged the corgi back and placed the dog right under her feet to stop her from getting away.

That being said, the corgi was too scared to budge. She did not even dare make a single sound.

“Just muddling along,” Zhou Ze replied.

“Luckily, you told me where she was. I managed to buy her back from the person that took her.”

“How much did you spend?”

“Around ten thousand. She didn’t want to give her back, she said it was hers, but she finally gave her back to me after we made a deal.”

Zhou Ze nodded.

“Boss, I think you can add more things to this bookstore. For example, the chairs aren’t comfortable to sit on. You could replace them with some sofas.”

-I would like to replace them, too, if I had the money.-

“What if I invest in your bookstore so you can make it better?” the girl proposed, fondling the corgi’s head.

Zhou Ze knew the girl was just trying to repay his kindness, so she was not worried if the bookstore was losing money, but Zhou Ze could not accept the offer.

It did not make sense for him to ask the girl if she minded accepting joss money as profit, right? Joss money that she could burn to save up some virtue?

When Old Dao first told him about it, he assumed the man was mentally retarded. As such, Zhou Ze did not want the girl to think that he was retarded too.

A burst of loud laughter suddenly came from the restaurant beside the bookstore. Xu Qinglang, who was in his sleepwear, soon came over to the bookstore and yelled to Zhou Ze and Bai Yingying, who was still cleaning up the mess that the corgi had left, “It’s a jackpot, I got the jackpot, a hundred thousand yuan!”

Xu Qinglang was very happy, and a happy man always had the urge to share his happiness. Currently, the only place where he could find someone alive to share his joy with was the bookstore beside his restaurant.

Speaking of which, the two people besides his restaurant were not alive, either…

“Congratulations!” Zhou Ze answered.

 Bai Yingying immediately took hold of the chance. “Tsk tsk, can you buy me a bag, Boss Xu?”

“It’s nothing, really,” Xu Qinglang started to act reserved, especially when he saw a young beautiful lady beside him. “It’s only a hundred thousand, eighty thousand after tax. I’m just treating it as a good omen. It’s like a drizzle for a man who has more than twenty houses in the Shiqiao (Stone Bridge) District. It is not really going to affect my life.”

“Shiqiao District?” the girl asked.

“Yeah,” Xu Qinglang replied.

Shiqiao District was close to the city center, thus the prices of the houses there were slightly higher than those in other places. As such, it made sense that the man would feel proud… oh… would have a chance to act reserved.

“Oh, I think that’s my family’s district.”

“You live there too?” Xu Qinglang’s smile widened. “Why don’t we get a coffee some time?”

“I don’t live there.”

“So what did you mean?”

“What I was saying is, it must be my father’s company that gave you the properties as compensation for forcing you to move from where you used to live.”

“…” Xu Qinglang…