Chapter 1 The Price of Mistakes

Zhao Tian stared at the faint dawn seeping through the window, his eyes practically bleeding. He had suffered through the entire night, finally enduring until the break of day, only to confess in the last moment before the rooster crowed. If he had just held on for one more minute, those ghostly apparitions would have been forced to hide away obediently. But he had failed to endure at the very last moment, suffering a whole night of torment for nothing.

Zhao Tian beat his chest and stamped his feet in remorse. I simply told him calmly:

"Perhaps this is fate. People always have to pay the price for their mistakes. Heaven is watching from above; in the end, this world still has karma and retribution. Don't be too clever for your own good."

Zhao Tian looked dispiritedly at the dusty statue of a deity. Sunlight streamed through the window, casting its unique tenderness on the statue's face. Although I didn't recognize which deity it was, I could sense its solemnity, compassion, and pity. I knew Zhao Tian felt it too.

Zhao Tian gazed at the statue for a long time, two lines of tears mingling with the bloodstains on his face. He crawled to the statue, struggling to kneel, and earnestly kowtowed to it several times, his face actually showing an unprecedented sense of relief.

Zhao Tian asked me where he had revealed his flaw. Had his second aunt mentioned them coffin lifters before, so I knew he was Zhao Tian and not Zhuzi?

I said I wasn't that familiar with his second aunt. Although the neighbors on Funeral Street got along harmoniously, no one would go around blabbing information about their big clients. After all, everyone was doing pretty much the same business; no one wanted their own god of wealth to be carried away by someone else.

As for how I saw through Zhao Tian, it was naturally because there were too many loopholes in his story.

First, there was the *Corpse Sutra*. Zhao Tian had said that they learned their methods of guiding corpses from Zhao Jianjun. Then they should all be fellow apprentices. Zhuzi became the head of the coffin lifting team through his own skill and courage, not because of family craftsmanship. Zhao Tian was the only one in the team related to Zhao Jianjun by blood.

Zhao Jianjun was getting old, and his blood energy wasn't as strong as Zhuzi's. Knowing that he couldn't continue to shoulder the burden, and with Zhao Tian having joined the profession too recently and lacking prestige, Zhao Jianjun could only hand over the position to the more capable Zhuzi. However, the *Corpse Sutra*, a family heirloom classic, could never be given to an outsider.

The one who could produce the *Corpse Sutra* was most likely Zhao Tian.

Secondly, Zhao Tian came to find me at the wrong time. He deliberately came at night, avoided his companions, sent his second aunt away, and talked to me alone. When entering the village, he also chose to enter with me alone at night, afraid that another mouth would say something that shouldn't be said. This also aroused my suspicion.

Thirdly, the abacus calculation showed that the sins of those fake coffin lifters all came from their ears. The deaf young man also admitted that his mistake was listening to what he shouldn't have.

I was about to continue when Zhao Tian told me to stop, saying that the biggest mistake he had made was coming to me. If he had found another master, they might have helped him destroy all the ghosts缠缠him. The *Corpse Sutra* wasn't only valuable to me.

I didn't say anything, waiting for Zhao Tian to continue his confession.

Most of my guesses were correct. Zhuzi and the others were indeed brought out by Zhao Jianjun. The Zhao family had been coffin lifting strongmen for generations, which was why they had enshrined the coffin lifting ancestral master in their home. A few years ago, the team had an accident; the old coffin lifters died or were crippled, and the Zhao family almost lost their lineage. The later team was built up by Zhao Jianjun single-handedly. But Zhuzi was too strong, and the other brothers all obeyed him, so there was no way for Zhao Jianjun to prevent him from taking the position.

But Zhao Jianjun felt aggrieved, so he called his nephew Zhao Tian back from another place and had him join the coffin lifting team.

Zhao Tian was also a talent. He was physically fit, had a strong Bazi (astrological birth chart), and was quick-witted, possessing the strength to compete with Zhuzi for the position.

But things didn't develop as Zhao Jianjun had imagined. Zhao Tian was indeed capable, but his ideas were different from those of the older generation of coffin lifters. He didn't care about craftsmanship or lineage; his mind was full of how to make more money through coffin lifting. This actually coincided with Zhuzi's ideas, and the two quickly became friends.

Zhao Tian used his flexible economic mind to connect with the second aunt, the coffin supplier, and used the coffin lifting team's regional monopoly on the industry to earn money from coffins. Although the other coffin lifters felt that this was not appropriate, no one hated money. After receiving the benefits, they didn't say anything. Only Zhao Jianjun constantly nagged Zhao Tian about ancestral rules and that they would be punished, but Zhao Tian responded verbally but didn't take it to heart at all.

In this way, the coffin lifting team's business continued for more than two years. Zhuzi and Zhao Tian finally began to have conflicts due to unequal distribution of profits.

Because the second aunt was brought in by Zhao Tian, and the first few deals were negotiated by Zhao Tian, and Zhao Tian was also a descendant of the Zhao family, Zhao Tian had always taken the lion's share. Although Zhuzi took more than the others, it was still much less than Zhao Tian. In addition, the recent deals were tough, and all were taken down by Zhuzi's overbearing aura. Zhuzi was also the boss of the coffin lifting team, and he slowly became dissatisfied with this profit distribution ratio.

Zhuzi was a straightforward person and directly told Zhao Tian that he wanted to take the lion's share, or they would break up, and he would find another coffin seller.

Zhao Tian certainly disagreed, saying that if Zhuzi dared to go it alone, he would sabotage every deal Zhuzi made, and no one would have a good time.

Later, with the mediation of the other coffin lifters, the two barely agreed to split the profits equally, but both had grudges in their hearts, and the contest between them had never stopped, Zhuzi even had the idea of getting rid of Zhao Tian and swallowing the benefits alone.

After discovering that the old lady's granddaughter was a fierce corpse, Zhuzi put the plan into action.

Zhao Tian was lustful, and his reverence for corpses was only on the surface. He often had thoughts about beautiful female corpses. This was known to the entire coffin lifting team, and Zhao Tian was often reprimanded by Zhao Jianjun for his improper gaze at the corpses.

Zhuzi wanted to use Zhao Tian's lust and use the female corpse to get rid of him.

That night, Zhuzi deliberately left Zhao Tian to guard the corpse. The girl's portrait hung in the mourning shed, and the coffin had not yet been nailed shut. It was raining and windy, and there was no one at the entrance of the village. Zhuzi also secretly lit an incense stick that shouldn't have been lit in the mourning shed.

So, that night, Zhao Tian made a mistake, doing something that was intolerable by heaven, and while he was in the middle of it, Zhao Jianjun suddenly came and dragged Zhao Tian off the female corpse and beat him up. After the beating, he made Zhao Tian kneel in the rain.

Zhao Tian was already very annoyed at being interrupted in the middle of things, plus Zhao Jianjun's endless nagging. On that stormy night, Zhao Tian accidentally killed Zhao Jianjun in the process of tearing and pulling.

Lightning illuminated the mourning shed. The ravaged female corpse had her eyes wide open. Zhao Jianjun, who had fallen to the ground, was covered in blood. Zhao Tian stood in the wind and rain, at a loss.

A thunderclap exploded, and Zhao Jianjun sat up.