"Where?" Zhou Ze asked.

"Xingfa Residential Area, a man holding hands with his daughter, I remember," the woman said with certainty. "I knew that man when I was alive, even argued with him! He actually tried to take advantage of me back then, wanted to flirt with me!"

Zhou Ze frowned slightly, reminding her, "If you lie to me or try to play some trick of using someone else to kill, I'll make sure you don't even get to be a ghost."

"How could I, big brother? Even though I'm dead, I'm still a good person. Ask around in my residential area, everyone will tell you Sister Hong was a warm-hearted good 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 also very low, as if he were muttering to himself.

"I think a friend of mine mentioned that there's a family in Xingfa Residential Area that has a dog similar to this. Why don't you go there and ask?" Zhou Ze said.

"Really? Okay, I'll go right away."

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

"Forget it, no need."

"I should, 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 away her tears and left the bookstore.

"What a good girl," 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 I chat with you a little longer?"

The woman looked like she was really holding back, enduring a lot.

"No time."

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

"Big brother, your bookstore is located here, I'm afraid there's not much business, right?" The woman was still trying to find something to talk about.

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

"Go down?" The woman was stunned for a moment, seeming not to understand.

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

"Can I not go down?" The woman said with some difficulty, "My son has the college entrance examination this year, I want to stay with him until after the exam is over."

What loving parents!

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

Moved to tears was unlikely, but scaring him into getting sick and messing up the exam was very possible.

"I'm just staying to watch," the woman said somewhat aggrieved.

"Suit yourself." 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 boundaries and acted as some kind of judge, he could do whatever he wanted at other times.

Anyway, Little Loli didn't give him any performance reports requiring him to collect a certain number of ghosts per month or quarter.

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

Zhou Ze frowned slightly.

The woman shivered a few times in a row, and immediately didn't dare to speak anymore.

About a quarter of an hour later, the woman said to herself that her son should be back from evening self-study, and then left the bookstore.

After she left, Zhou Ze specifically went over and turned over the stool she had just sat on, not seeing a single ghost money.

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

Zhou Ze sighed, feeling that his temper might be too good.

He was, after all, a temporary ghost messenger, someone within the system, and she dared to come and go empty-handed?

Did she really not treat temporary workers as officials?

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 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.

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

"She went down," Zhou Ze replied.

"Oh, went down." Xu Qinglang exhaled. "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, he had only taken a short walk on the road to the underworld when he went to hell, and had not experienced the real terror of hell at all.

"What is hell really like?" Xu Qinglang asked, blowing out a smoke ring.

"I don't really understand."

There was nothing to talk about, but going back to their respective shops felt even more boring, so after smoking the first cigarette, the two naturally lit a second one.

"What about your wife?" Xu Qinglang asked, poking at a sore spot.

"Separated," Zhou Ze curled his lips.

"Hehe."

Then, there was silence again.

Next, it was the third cigarette.

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

"Thank you, aren't you from here?"

"I'm from Menhai."

Menhai was a county-level district under Tongcheng.

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

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

"Yeah, bridesmaid..." Xu Qinglang understood and immediately glared at Zhou Ze. "Best man."

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

"Nope," Zhou Ze replied.

"That's great, it's like getting a wife for nothing in this life."

"She doesn't..."

Zhou Ze paused and didn't continue.

Attachment,

Xu Le's attachment,

Was still there!

Yes, it must be.

"Just live well while you're alive. My parents are gone, completely gone. I've figured it out too. I have to grow up, I have to find my own life.

Maybe I can find a girlfriend in a while."

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

"Hehe, I've been designing my future wedding in my head since I was little, what style, what kind, what scale..."

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

"Can't men dream a little? Shut up, or you won't get any juice to drink tomorrow!"

Zhou Ze nodded, okay, I'll shut up.

"I'm planning to have a classical wedding, a very retro one.

I don't want any luxury cars, I want a palanquin carried by eight people, like in the movies.

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

That atmosphere,

Do you understand?"

Zhou Ze reached out and pointed forward.

"Is it like that?"

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

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

Xu Qinglang's expression froze, and he hurriedly returned to the shop. Soon, he was wiping something shiny on his eyes, and then he exclaimed.

Indeed, there was a red palanquin carried by eight people advancing towards here on the empty street in front.

The porters wore red ropes around their waists and red ceremonial hats on their heads. The eight porters moved in unison.

When moving, they went nine shallow and one deep, so every once in a while, the palanquin would bounce, and the porters and the two suona players in front would bounce together.

It looked very festive.

But in this desolate area, the sudden appearance of this scene was enough to scare passersby out of their wits.

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 a kept man," Xu Qinglang snorted. "Do you want to be a bookstore owner or be caught and go to the underworld to be a non-human's husband?"

"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 great influence.

If the owner of the palanquin could really take people's souls and follow her back to "get married," should he care or not?

He could turn a blind eye to the woman, and when her son finished the college entrance examination, she would probably lose her attachment and disappear to report to hell, but the one in front of him,

With such a grand scene, she was definitely not a simple character.

Zhou Ze still didn't move. Xu Qinglang stood in the shop, looked up at the talisman paper pasted above him, still feeling a little uneasy. Seeing that Zhou Ze was still unmoved, he scolded angrily:

"You're just a newbie ghost messenger, they're all refined spirits. If you retreat, she might not provoke you."

Zhou Ze still didn't move. He vaguely sensed that the mark in the palm of his hand 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 human world.

When Zhou Ze let the previous woman leave, the mark didn't react, which was considered tacit approval, but this time, the mark reminded him.

Temporary workers,

Were also not easy to be,

Generally, when something went wrong, any work errors or negligence were basically taken care of by temporary workers.

Zhou Ze was now in this very awkward position.

The wedding procession stopped ten meters away from Zhou Ze.

Two porters reached out and opened the palanquin curtain.

It was empty.

The suona player walked towards Zhou Ze, bowed at a distance of one meter away from Zhou Ze:

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

This suona player had a handsome and delicate face, but his skin was very white, and his blush and lipstick were a bit too much, like the paper figures sold in paper shops.

"You became a ghost messenger?" Xu Qinglang walked out of the shop, with a sense of unreality like Wang Xiaodan, who was poor and white next door, suddenly became the town mayor.

"Don't forget each other when you become rich! You actually hid it from me!" Xu Qinglang walked over and complained to Zhou Ze, that kind of charm was so crisp and bone-piercing that it could make a poplar bend.

"Little one has something to ask the superior," the suona player asked respectfully, bowing.

"Say it, what is it? No problem, he'll take care of it! From now on, he's in charge of this area!" Xu Qinglang looked like he was overstepping his authority and feeling great, being so flirty.

"My lady ordered us to pick up the superior, and at the same time, she wants us to take a good man from the human world back to get married;

It is said that the man has twenty or so houses in the human world, which is a perfect match for my lady.

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

"..." Xu Qinglang.