Chapter 18 Where Is He?

"Where?" Zhou Ze asked.

"Xingfa Residential Area, a man walking his daughter, I remember it." The woman said with certainty. "I even knew that man when I was alive, and even argued with him! He even tried to take advantage of me back then, wanted to hit on me!"

Zhou Ze frowned slightly, reminding her, "If you lie to me or try to play some trick of using me as a weapon, I'll make sure you can't even be a ghost."

"How could I, big brother? Although I'm dead, I'm still a good person. Go ask around my neighborhood, and everyone will tell you that Sister Hong is a warmhearted person."

Zhou Ze waved his hand, signaling her to be quiet.

The girl didn't know who Zhou Ze was talking to. Of course, Zhou Ze's voice was very low, like he was murmuring to himself.

"I think a friend told me that there's a family in Xingfa Residential Area with a dog similar to that. Why don't you go there and ask?" Zhou Ze said.

"Really? Okay, I'll go now."

The girl finished speaking and took out her wallet to pay.

"Forget it, don't bother."

"It's only right. Thank you, boss, for providing the information." The girl took out five hundred yuan and insisted on giving it to Zhou Ze.

"Let's wait until you find it." Zhou Ze still refused to accept the money.

"Then, thank you, boss."

The girl wiped her tears and left the bookstore.

"What a good daughter." The woman was still sitting on the bookstore tiles.

"You can scram too."

"Big brother, I finally found someone who can hear me. Can't you keep this sister company for a little longer?"

The woman looked like she was really holding back and enduring with great difficulty.

"No time."

Zhou Ze sat back behind the counter, picked up nail clippers, and continued to trim his nails.

"Big brother, this bookstore of yours, located here, probably doesn't get much business, right?" The woman was still trying to strike up a conversation.

Zhou Ze seemed to remember something suddenly and asked, "Want to go down?"

"Go down?" The woman was stunned for a moment, seemingly not understanding.

"Go to where you should be now." Zhou Ze just remembered that he seemed to still be a part-time ghost messenger.

"Can I not go down?" The woman said somewhat awkwardly, "My son has the gaokao (national college entrance examination) this year. I want to stay with him until after the gaokao is over before leaving."

Ah, the hearts of parents everywhere.

"If your son knew that his dead mother was still with him to study at night, he would definitely be moved to tears," Zhou Ze teased.

Moved to tears probably not, but scaring him into getting sick and messing up his gaokao was very likely.

"I'm just keeping him company to watch," the woman said somewhat aggrieved.

"Whatever." Zhou Ze waved his hand, too lazy to say anything more. Little Loli had said when assigning him the job that unless he deliberately overstepped his bounds and tried to be some kind of judge, he could do as he pleased at other times.

Anyway, Little Loli hadn't given him any performance report requiring him to collect a certain number of ghosts each month or quarter.

"Big brother, how did you become a human?" The woman said curiously.

Zhou Ze frowned slightly.

The woman's body trembled a few times in a row, and she immediately didn't dare to speak anymore.

About fifteen minutes later, the woman muttered to herself that her son should be coming back from evening self-study and left the bookstore.

After she left, Zhou Ze specially went over and turned over the stool she had just been sitting on, but didn't see a single ghost note.

"She's definitely a woman who knows how to live frugally."

Zhou Ze sighed, feeling that maybe he was being too nice?

He was, after all, a temporary ghost messenger, someone within the system. How dare she come empty-handed and leave empty-handed?

Did she really think a temporary worker wasn't a cadre?

Pushing open the door and walking out of the bookstore, Zhou Ze took out a cigarette and lit it. Xu Qinglang next door seemed to have just finished cleaning and walked out wearing an apron. He looked at Zhou Ze, then squatted down next to Zhou Ze and asked Zhou Ze for a cigarette.

Two men squatted in a row.

Behind them was the almost-dead commercial center, and in front of them was the empty road.

"That little girl was picked up by her mother?" Xu Qinglang asked.

"She went down," Zhou Ze replied.

"Oh, went down." Xu Qinglang let out a breath. "Once you go down, it's hard to come back, right?"

"I don't know." Zhou Ze shook his head.

Just as Little Loli had said, when he had gone to hell before, he had only walked a small section of the Yellow Springs Road and came out, and hadn't experienced the true horror of hell at all.

"What is hell actually like?" Xu Qinglang asked, exhaling a smoke ring.

"I don't know much about it."

There wasn't much to talk about, but going back to their respective shops would be even more boring. After finishing their first cigarette, the two of them naturally lit a second one.

"Where's your wife?" Xu Qinglang asked, poking at Zhou Ze's sore spot.

"Separated," Zhou Ze curled his lip.

"Hehe."

Then, silence again.

Next, the third cigarette.

"I'm going back to my hometown in a while. I'll make some sour plum juice again tomorrow and leave some for you."

"Thank you. Aren't you a local?"

"I'm from Menhai."

Menhai was a county district under Tongcheng.

"A relative of mine is getting married. To be honest, I don't want to go, but I have to go, since we played in the mud together as kids and shamelessly followed the wedding procession to ask for red envelopes."

"Does he want you to be a bridesmaid?" Zhou Ze asked.

"Yeah, a bridesmaid..." Xu Qinglang realized and immediately glared at Zhou Ze. "A groomsman."

"Have you been married in a past life?" Xu Qinglang suddenly asked.

"Nope." Zhou Ze replied.

"That's great, it's like getting a wife for free in this life."

"She doesn't want to be with..."

Zhou Ze paused, not continuing.

Obsession,

Xu Le's obsession,

Was still there!

Yes, that must be it.

"Living, just live well. My parents are gone, completely gone. I've figured it out. I have to grow up and find my own life.

Maybe I can find a girlfriend in a while."

"More likely a boyfriend," Zhou Ze exhaled a smoke ring, adding insult to injury.

"Hehe, I've been designing my future wedding in my head since I was very young, what style, what pattern, what pomp..."

"Isn't that what girls think about?" Zhou Ze asked.

"Can't men dream about it too? Shut up, or you won't get any juice tomorrow!"

Zhou Ze nodded. Okay, he would shut up.

"I plan to have a classical wedding, a very retro one.

I don't want any fancy cars, I want an eight-carried sedan, like the ones in the movies.

I'll rent a horse then, and wear a mandarin jacket or Hanfu.

That kind of atmosphere,

You understand?"

Zhou Ze reached out and pointed forward.

"Is it like that?"

Xu Qinglang was stunned for a moment, squinting his eyes forward, and said, "What is it?"

"Can't you see it?" Zhou Ze asked.

Xu Qinglang's expression froze, and he hurried back to the shop. Soon, he was wiping something shiny on his eyes, and then he exclaimed in surprise.

Indeed, in the empty street ahead, a red eight-carried sedan was approaching.

The sedan carriers had red ropes tied around their waists and red ceremonial hats on their heads. The eight carriers moved in unison.

When moving forward, nine shallow and one deep,

Therefore, every once in a while, the sedan chair would bump, and the carriers and the two people blowing the suona in front would jump together.

It looked very festive.

But in this desolate area, the sudden appearance of this scene was enough to scare passersby half to death.

Even Xu Qinglang, facing this scene, opened his mouth for a moment, somewhat at a loss.

"Your wife?" Zhou Ze pointed to the wedding procession in front and said.

"Bullshit." Xu Qinglang took a few steps back, almost retreating into the shop. Seeing that Zhou Ze was still squatting there, he shouted, "Aren't you going back? This is a ghost wedding!"

"Will they throw a hydrangea ball?" Zhou Ze patted his pants and slowly stood up.

"If you get caught, you'll be taken back as a captive husband." Xu Qinglang snorted. "Do you want to be a bookstore owner or be caught and sent to the underworld to be a husband to a non-human?"

"Is it that serious?"

Zhou Ze was a little surprised. The ghosts he had seen before didn't have such great abilities, or rather, didn't have such a great influence.

If the owner of the sedan chair could really take people's souls with her to "get married," should he interfere or not?

He could turn a blind eye to the woman, and when her son finished the gaokao, she would probably lose her obsession and disappear to report to hell, but the one in front of him, with such a big display, was definitely not such a simple character.

Zhou Ze still didn't move. Xu Qinglang stood in the shop, looked up at the talisman pasted above him, still feeling a little uneasy, but seeing Zhou Ze still unmoved, he was even more angry and cursed:

"You're just a rookie ghost messenger, they're all refined, retreat, and she might not provoke you."

Zhou Ze still didn't move. Dimly, he sensed that the mark on his palm seemed to be a little hot, as if reminding him that the one in front of him needed to be sent down, otherwise it would affect the mortal realm.

Zhou Ze had let the previous woman leave, and the mark had no reaction, which was considered a tacit approval, but this time, the mark was reminding him.

Temporary workers,

Were also hard to be,

Generally, when something happened, if there were any mistakes or omissions in the work, it was basically the temporary workers who took the blame.

Zhou Ze was now in this very awkward position.

The wedding procession stopped ten meters away from Zhou Ze.

Two sedan carriers reached out and opened the sedan curtain.

It was empty inside.

The person blowing the suona walked towards Zhou Ze, bowing at a distance of one meter:

"My lady has heard that the superior official has been promoted, and orders us to invite the superior official to the mansion to congratulate him."

The person blowing the suona had a handsome and delicate face, but his skin was very white, and his blush and lipstick were a little excessive, like the paper figures sold in paper shops.

"You became a ghost messenger?" Xu Qinglang walked out of the shop, feeling unreal, like Wang Xiaodan, who had been poor and destitute next door, had suddenly become the town mayor.

"Don't forget me when you become rich and powerful! You even kept it from me!" Xu Qinglang walked over and complained to Zhou Ze, his charm so bone-melting that it was enough to make a poplar tree bend.

"I have a matter, and I would like to ask the superior official for guidance." The suona player bowed respectfully.

"Speak, what is it? No problem, he'll take care of it! From now on, this area is under his control!" Xu Qinglang took over the conversation with a smug look, acting extremely flirtatious.

"While my lady ordered us to pick up the superior official, she also wanted us to bring back a good man from the mortal realm to get married together;

It is said that the man has more than twenty houses in the mortal realm, which is a good match for my lady.

May I ask the superior official, do you know where this person is?"

"............" Xu Qinglang.