Chapter 14 The First Customer!
Xu Qinglang, the little brother next door, was very enthusiastic.
Originally squatting at the door peeling garlic, he saw Zhou Ze preparing to hang the plaque and immediately took a hammer and nails from his house.
Zhou Ze said thank you, picked up his hammer, and felt a little greasy and heavy in his hand. Enduring the slight discomfort in his heart, Zhou Ze still nailed the two plaques up.
Afterward,
The two of them took a few steps back together, looking at the plaques, looking at the door, looking at the bookstore.
Zhou Ze handed Xu Qinglang a cigarette as thanks. Xu Qinglang helped Zhou Ze light it.
The two of them exhaled smoke rings together,
Synchronized.
"Ambiance, right?" Zhou Ze said, this was standard self-praise.
Xu Qinglang shook his head. "If I'm not mistaken, these two lines should come from the title of Ji Yun's *Notes from the Thatched Hall of Close Scrutiny*."
*Notes from the Thatched Hall of Close Scrutiny* was a book written by Ji Yun, also known as Ji Xiaolan, similar to *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio*, using fox spirits and ghosts to express the author's own thoughts.
The simple meaning of this couplet is that these are all stories I've heard, everyone here, just listen.
"Yeah." Zhou Ze nodded.
"It's still too pretentious. Your shop is still going to lose money." Xu Qinglang's evaluation was very blunt.
"Why?"
"In this world, there are too many stories, all kinds of bizarre things happen every day, but there aren't many things that are truly interesting.
Some things are boring to say.
Some things are not allowed to be said at all.
Some things won't be listened to unless they're changed.
Some things aren't dared to be listened to unless they're changed."
Zhou Ze looked at Xu Qinglang for a long time.
Xu Qinglang lowered his head slightly, his face flushed slightly.
He was already taking the path of charming men with his natural charm, and at this time, he was even more delicate and captivating.
Seeing that Zhou Ze didn't speak, Xu Qinglang continued:
"For example, these mountain spirits, fox fairies, and ghosts, where would they really exist in the real world?" Xu Qinglang yawned. "How can the reasoning implied by the fake things really go anywhere?"
Zhou Ze continued to look at Xu Qinglang, without speaking.
Xu Qinglang felt a little numb from being stared at,
But Zhou Ze continued to look at him.
Finally, Xu Qinglang waved his hand, saying that he was going back to make soup, and as he walked back to the noodle shop, he felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, because just now, he seemed to feel that Zhou Ze was not looking at him,
But was looking at a joke.
Zhou Ze didn't bother with that Xu Qinglang. Since the two were neighbors, let them just stay out of each other's way. Anyway, they didn't constitute a competitive relationship. The most important thing was that Zhou Ze didn't have the money to change shops.
In the afternoon, Zhou Ze sorted out most of the textbooks and tutoring books in the bookstore and took them away at the price of waste paper.
He also went to the supermarket to buy ten plastic stools, leaving only the two bookshelves with books that Zhou Ze himself thought were interesting.
At the moment, it was more like a cultural and recreational activity center for the elderly than a bookstore.
Zhou Ze stretched his waist. He wasn't very good at doing business. At the moment, he was just messing around. Anyway, Xu Le was constantly losing money when he was around, so he didn't have any pressure.
Coming to the small building, Zhou Ze turned on the power of the freezer and set a temperature. He smoked a cigarette outside and waited for a while, then reached into the freezer and touched it.
The temperature was about right, so Zhou Ze lay down in it.
The freezer, which cost more than ten thousand, of course had many functions, such as a timer, which was equivalent to Zhou Ze's alarm clock.
Closing the freezer,
Zhou Ze placed his hands on his lower abdomen, lying straight,
It looked like,
He had passed away peacefully.
...
Late at night,
A red car stopped on the side of the road in front of the bookstore. This street was a bit empty. On the shop side, only the noodle shop and bookstore next to each other were still lit.
A well-dressed girl was sitting in the car, wearing a black down jacket and with her hair draped over her shoulders, looking a bit cute and delicate.
"Xiao Bai, you bastard, I prepared for three days, and today you actually tell me that you went on a business trip, you go to hell, get out!"
The girl hung up the phone and sat in the driver's seat, sulking.
The Corgi in the passenger seat jumped onto the girl's lap. Its fur was smooth and shiny, and it was obvious that it was a good breed and well taken care of.
"Good boy, it's a good thing I still have you with me."
The girl lit a cigarette, stretched her hand out to shake off the ashes, and looked outside. She saw the bookstore. The key was that she could see the furniture inside through the glass window, which was a bit abnormal. There weren't many bookshelves, but rather plastic benches.
Getting out of the car, the girl walked towards the bookstore with the Corgi in her arms. She didn't want to drive around aimlessly on this Valentine's Day night. She wanted to find a quiet place to sit.
The bookstore door wasn't closed. After walking in, she could feel the air conditioning.
The girl led her dog and first randomly selected a magazine on the bookshelf, then sat down on a plastic chair.
The Corgi was let go by her, and the little guy began to "explore" the store.
After finishing a magazine, the girl stretched gently and felt a little thirsty, shouting:
"Boss, are you there? Do you have milk tea or coffee here?"
The girl stood up, put the magazine she had been holding back, and then chose an illustrated version of *Dream of the Red Chamber*. When she sat down again, she couldn't help but shout again:
"Boss, are you dead in the middle of the night? Is this how you run a shop?"
The small sign on the bookstore glass door read "Open for Business, Welcome", and the door was open, and the air conditioning was on, so it must still be open.
If the girl had been more polite or curious at this time, and had taken the initiative to go upstairs to take a look, she might have admired her own "self-fulfilling prophecy."
In the low space upstairs, there was indeed an ice coffin,
The boss was lying inside, really like a dead person,
No,
The boss was originally a dead person.
Of course, the girl probably didn't have time to admire herself before being scared out of her wits.
It's shocking enough for a normal person to enter a store in the middle of the night and find that the owner is lying in a frozen ice coffin, right?
The girl lit another cigarette and became a little impatient, taking out her phone to play with.
At this time, footsteps came from the stairway. Zhou Ze didn't get up because he heard the girl shouting, he woke up naturally.
As soon as he came downstairs, Zhou Ze saw a small yellow figure rushing to his legs, asking him for a hug.
Zhou Ze smiled and bent down, hugging the Corgi in his arms. The little guy wasn't shy and seemed to be familiar with everyone.
Then, Zhou Ze noticed the woman sitting in the store,
Oh,
The first customer to open.
But he wasn't as excited as he imagined, because Zhou Ze had simply changed the bookstore sign today and cleaned up the furniture inside,
But he hadn't figured out yet,
How to make money next.
"Do you have coffee here, boss?"
The girl asked.
Zhou Ze pointed to a water dispenser in the corner. There were also disposable paper cups in the water dispenser.
The girl was a little helpless, but she still got up and poured herself a glass of water, then sat back on her plastic bench.
One host and one guest,
Silent.
After about half an hour of silence, the girl started browsing Weibo and watching videos. There was a very noisy video:
"Don't miss it!
The hell money blessed by this old Taoist is in limited supply!
You can burn it and take it out for use when you go down, and you can also earn some interest, which is higher than Yu'ebao!
You can also burn it and send it to your relatives below, which is quick and convenient, honest and reliable, and the ghosts won't bother you. There won't be layers of skinning!"
The girl laughed after seeing this video. People usually habitually want to share things that make them laugh. She looked up at the boss sitting behind the counter and said:
"Boss, have you seen this video? This old Taoist's live broadcast is quite famous. He's almost become an internet celebrity."
"Oh, live broadcast?" Zhou Ze was a little puzzled. He took out his phone. Xu Le's phone really had a lot of live broadcast software. It seemed that this guy was really bored on weekdays.
"Yeah, you search for his ID, it's very funny. He seems to have opened a ghost shop in Rongcheng, but he hasn't broadcast for a long time."
Zhou Ze opened the software and started searching for the old Taoist's ID according to what the girl said. He found a live broadcast room - the host is not at home.
But fortunately, he could watch the replay videos. Zhou Ze randomly clicked on a video from a month ago to play.
In the video, the old Taoist fixed the phone in one place and was practicing boxing alone. The boxing style was good, and it could be seen that he was a trained person. In the video screen, there was a young man sitting there, with a smile on his lips, squinting his eyes, as if he was watching a monkey show.
Zhou Ze perfunctorily pulled the progress bar, and a man appeared in the picture again, sitting behind the counter, holding a spoon in his hand, as if he was drinking porridge.
The old Taoist was talking eloquently in the main video screen, constantly promoting himself and the hell money he sold on Taobao, but Zhou Ze's gaze subconsciously looked at the man in the corner of the video.
He was frowning, he was suffering, he was in pain, he was rejecting,
A mouthful of porridge,
He ate it with difficulty,
Then continued with the second mouthful,
Like he was being tortured.
As Zhou Ze watched, he took a deep breath, as if he was also infected by the man in the corner of the video.
Eating,
It's really not an easy thing.
He didn't know the identity of the man in the video, but he instinctively became a little interested. Was the other party an anorexic patient? Or did he have some kind of gastrointestinal disease?
After the video finished playing, Zhou Ze opened the page and, on a whim, directly used the account that Xu Le was logged in with to send a private message to the old Taoist:
"Who is the man in the video who is sitting in the back drinking porridge?"
"Hey, I'm leaving, how much is it?" The girl stood up and stretched. "If I tell people about it today, they'll definitely think I'm an idiot. I actually sat in a bookstore and read *Dream of the Red Chamber* for so long on Valentine's Day."
"Pay whatever you want." Zhou Ze said.
She had only read a book for a while and poured herself a glass of pure water.
The girl glanced at Zhou Ze. "Boss, your routine is really good, like those masters who interpret lottery at the temple.
There's a sign that says 'Free Lottery Interpretation' next to the futon. After the tourists throw out the lottery and ask him to interpret it, he'll take out a red donation book for you with a long list of names and incense money written on it, the lowest being a hundred."
Zhou Ze smiled and didn't comment.
The girl took out a hundred yuan and placed it on the chair she had been sitting on before, then hugged her Corgi and pushed open the bookstore door and left.
Zhou Ze stood up and put away the hundred yuan, flicking it in his hand,
A crisp sound,
This was one of the most beautiful sounds in the world.
When he walked back to the counter, Zhou Ze found that the phone screen had lit up. He opened the phone and found that there was actually a reply, a private reply from the old Taoist. The content of the reply was very simple:
"Gone!"