I turned to look at Little Zhao and said, "Whether I'm trying to scare you or not, you should know best, right? You think that if you escape from here, they won't follow you? You're too naive."

"Let me tell you the truth. Once you're haunted by a ghost, even if you run to the ends of the earth, it can still catch up with you."

Little Zhao was so frightened that he wanted to cover my mouth, but I glared at him, stopping him. Little Zhao said with a sob, "Brother Li, don't you know you can't just casually say that here? Are you trying to cause trouble?"

I smiled at him. "I dare to say it because I understand. In this line of work, daring to say it means you can do it, don't you know that?"

Little Zhao almost knelt down to me. "Brother Li, you have to save me! I really can't take it anymore."

I gave Lin Zhao a look before saying, "Let's go, let's find a place to talk slowly."

Little Zhao quickly brought me back to the duty room. "Brother Li, sit down, have a smoke."

I took the cigarette, smelled it, and immediately rubbed it into powder. "Take a look at this yourself. What is it?"

Little Zhao's face turned white in an instant. "This… this couldn't be huang xiang, could it?" (yellow incense)

Indeed, inside the shredded tobacco leaves, there was a layer of something that looked like yellow soil. There shouldn't be these things in cigarettes.

I lit my own cigarette. "Tell me, how did you end up watching over the funeral home?"

Little Zhao said, "It's just… it's just because I'm short on money!"

Lin Zhao laughed. "You're short on money? Your face doesn't look like someone who's short on money. Physiognomy doesn't lie."

Little Zhao lowered his head and said, "I really am short on money. Actually, I'm just a student, thinking of doing a part-time job at night to earn some extra cash."

Seeing that I didn't say anything, Little Zhao continued, "Some time ago, I was constantly looking for employment information, and this job watching the funeral home didn't take up much time and the pay was high, so I came to apply."

"There were quite a few people who came that day, old and young, all kinds of people. Among them was even a cripple who couldn't walk properly, but he was still let in."

"Besides the director, there was also an old man in charge of the interviews at the funeral home."

"That old man was sitting on the director's right-hand side. He probably didn't have as high a rank as the director, but the director listened to him. Every time he finished asking a question, he had to look at the old man's expression."

"The old man was just smoking and didn't pay much attention to the director."

I interrupted him here. "What did the director ask?"

Little Zhao said, "What the director asked was just like what you asked in your office. Those people, their answers were all over the place. But no one said anything like you did."

I stared at Little Zhao. "What are you talking about?"

Little Zhao replied, "I've forgotten too! He asked me, and I just said, probably something about a sense of responsibility or something! After the director finished asking, the old man just said, 'It's him, everyone else can leave!' Then the director chased everyone else away and kept me."

"At the time, the director said to me: 'Master Sun is a veteran of our funeral home and never takes on apprentices. For him to take a liking to you is a blessing. Learn well from him. If you succeed in learning, I'll hire you at a high salary in the future. Making tens of thousands a month will be nothing.'"

"At the time, my mind was full of thoughts about making tens of thousands a month, and I didn't think much about anything else."

"The old man Sun led me into this room and said to me: 'This job of watching the gate isn't difficult. I didn't want you to stay here and compete with me for work all the time anyway. I have something to do and need to go out for a trip. I'll be back in a month.'"

"'You help me watch the gate for a month, and when I come back, I'll give you an extra five thousand myself.'"

"When I heard that, it was ten thousand yuan for me in total! I agreed without even thinking about it."

"Old Man Sun said to me: 'For this month, you don't need to worry about too many things. Just remember what I tell you.'"

"'You listen carefully. First, you can eat whatever you want for breakfast and lunch. For dinner, you must eat after it gets dark. I've told the cafeteria that no one is allowed to serve you food until it gets dark.'"

"'When you eat, you have to have a couple of cups of wine. You don't need to drink too much, just enough to feel a little tipsy and warm in your chest, then you can go to sleep. If the bell on the bed doesn't ring, you don't need to get up.'"

"'If the bell on the bed rings, it means someone is here to deliver a corpse. You just stand up and take a look outside.'"

"'If there is no red string tied to the bed carrying the corpse, you don't need to worry about it and can go back to sleep.'"

"'If there is a red string tied to the bed, then you have work to do. After those people put down the corpse, you take the bucket behind the door and fetch water from the well in the backyard.'"

"'Before fetching water, don't forget to throw money into the well. For every bucket of water you fetch, you have to throw a yuan into the well.'"

"'That's the money for buying the water. You must not forget, if you forget to throw the money, then the water won't be effective.'"

"'After you fetch the water back, use your hand to dip the water and wash the corpse's face. Remember, you must not use anything else, only your hand.'"

"'Dip the water with three fingers and wash the corpse's face three times. The first time is the left eye, the second time is the right eye, and the third time is from the bridge of the nose all the way down to the jaw.'"

"'After washing it three times, put the water in the middle of the yard, and pour it out the next day at noon.'"

"'Now listen carefully to me: Every word I say next is extremely important. If you can't remember it, or remember it wrong, don't blame me if something happens in the future!'"