Late Night Bookstore - Chapter 10

Anxiety, unease, mixed with a touch of excitement and confusion—these were the emotions Zhou Ze felt as he took a taxi to the outskirts of Tongcheng.

He was short on money, very short but he didn’t need a lot of money, at least not right now. It wasn’t for indulgence or reckless spending. After dying and coming back to life, dealing with past entanglements and present troubles, Zhou Ze needed some cash to sort things out before he could start planning long-term.

For instance, leaving the Lin family. Although Lin Wanqiu was beautiful and elegant, he didn’t want to go back there. They weren’t intimate and frankly, he hadn’t really enjoyed anything. It seemed like Xu Le hadn’t either. So, naturally there would be no talk of any debts owed.

Thus, saying “goodbye” didn’t carry any psychological burden.

However, leaving that home meant he needed to make some preparations—he needed a place to stay. He also needed to buy a decent freezer. Zhou Ze didn’t dare buy a used one from the second-hand market. If something went wrong while he was lying inside it, he could end up dead for real this time. That would be a terrible way to go.

Money! Even as a ghost, you still need money.

From what Zhou Ze overheard in that phone call to Xu Le, he couldn’t help but feel anxious. Xu Le, a modern urban live-in son-in-law, meekly enduring the bullying of his in-laws and even sleeping in separate beds from his wife, turned out to be a hidden crime boss?

The irony was palpable, like a plot twist in a Western TV drama. Powerful people always seem to have a deceptively mundane identity in real life. Just like how Spider-Man is a high school student and Superman is a newspaper reporter.

So, how was Zhou Ze supposed to handle this situation? How should he deal with those drugs? He didn’t want his identity to be “tainted,” as it would lead to endless troubles. In the real world, even the police investigation would be too much for Xu Le to handle, let alone the mysterious threats posed by the old man and the faceless woman who had warned him that “they will find and catch you.”

Feeling a headache and a sense of unease, Zhou Ze arrived at an abandoned fertilizer factory. Outside, two men were squatting by the entrance. One was wearing an old military coat, while the other was in a cheap, low-quality suit. Both were smoking, puffing clouds of smoke into the air.

After paying the taxi fare, Zhou Ze got out. One of the men stood up and walked over.

“Our boss is waiting for you,” the man in the military coat said in a low voice.

Zhou Ze nodded and followed him inside. The man in the suit stayed behind, continuing to smoke as if keeping watch.

Once inside, Zhou Ze saw a fat man with a shiny bald head and a gold chain sitting on a plastic chair, pouring himself a drink. Upon seeing Zhou Ze approach, the fat man immediately stood up.

“Brother Xu, you’re finally here!”

The man was huge, about 1.85 meters tall and the thick gold chain around his neck looked gaudy. The gold dust on his neck, rubbed off by the chain, made it all look even more ridiculous.

“Where’s the stuff?” Zhou Ze placed his hands behind his back, interlocking his fingers. There were only three of them here, so taking them down wouldn’t be a problem. But what would he do after that? Hand them over to the police? He would get implicated too. Should he handle it himself? Eliminate them in the name of the moon¹? That didn’t seem right either. Given his sensitive identity, if he killed someone casually, it might backfire just like saving someone casually. Zhou Ze didn’t want to risk it.

“Brother Xu, you’re as straightforward as ever!” The fat man wiped his mouth and patted Zhou Ze’s shoulder. Zhou Ze winced, taking a deep breath to suppress the urge to knock the greasy hand away.

“Come, this way,” the man gestured, leading Zhou Ze to a small storage room in the back.

When Zhou Ze walked in, his pupils shrank in shock. There was a small mountain of goods covered with black tarps.

Though Zhou Ze had never engaged in illegal activities, he knew that with such a large quantity of goods, if judged according to the law, it would be enough to get him executed hundreds of times. The amount of “peanuts²” he could consume would make his stomach bloat.

“This isn’t just for Tongcheng, right?” Zhou Ze wanted to ask if they had just robbed a warlord in the Golden Triangle³.

“Of course not, Brother Xu,” the fat man replied. “Tongcheng is too small. This batch will eventually move through Tongcheng as a gateway into Shanghai.” The fat man stretched lazily. “Let’s get this done quickly and cash out big.”

Zhou Ze wiped his forehead, troubled. “It’s not going to be easy to move all this in a short time, is it?”

After all, it’s not like selling cabbages, you can’t just ride around with a loudspeaker shouting, “Drugs for sale!”

“Don’t worry, Brother Xu. We just need to distribute the goods to our underlings. We may not make as much as if we sold it ourselves, but it moves fast and it’s a guaranteed sale. After we clear this batch, we’ll bring in another,” the fat man said nonchalantly.

Xu Le, oh Xu Le, you really went all out and built an entire drug trafficking network! You really are something else…

Such a big shot was actually killed by that idiot over a measly 300 yuan!

“Brother Xu, come check out the quality of the goods.” The fat man uncovered the black tarp.

Zhou Ze’s face showed astonishment. Instead of a pile of drugs, he saw stacks of books and DVDs.

Could the drugs be hidden inside the books?

“Brother Xu, thanks to your classmate, this batch of goods was easy to obtain. These DVDs are all popular movies still showing on screens and I even specially copied a few ***** into them. The pirated books, including romance novels, are bestsellers too. As for that expanded sequel of ‘Bai Jie’ you wrote, the one with 20 extra volumes and two million words, many distributors have already pre-ordered it.”

“You mean this is the ‘goods’?” Zhou Ze asked, confused.

“Yeah?” The fat man was taken aback for a moment. “It’s just these.”

Disappointment. Deep, overwhelming disappointment.

At the same time, Zhou Ze felt utterly embarrassed. Xu Le had really written a 2-million-word sequel to “Bai Jie”, all for the sake of selling pirated goods.

“How much can I cash out?” Zhou Ze asked, “I want to pull out.”

In a partnership business, there should be an initial capital investment.

“Wait, Brother Xu, you want to pull out now?” The fat man was surprised. “We’re about to make money. Why leave now?”

“This business doesn’t align with my core values anymore. I don’t want to be involved,” Zhou Ze replied earnestly. He wasn’t willing to take any risks, especially when his life was already in disarray.

“……” The fat man.

“……” The man in military coat.

“Brother Xu has a high level of awareness, I admire that. In the early stage, you invested in…” The fat man held up four fingers and said, “20,000 yuan.”

“20,000 it is. Just give me the money. What happens after that is none of my concern,” Zhou Ze replied, not wanting to haggle. With 20,000 yuan, he could at least deal with his current financial problems.

“Fine, I’ve got 20,000 on hand.” The fat man nodded and went to get the money.

About 15 minutes later, Zhou Ze was in a rideshare car headed back to the city with 20,000 yuan in his pocket.

He didn’t go straight to the bookstore. Instead, he went to the appliance market and spent over 10,000 yuan on a freezer. It was the high-end kind used by restaurants to store meat. Zhou Ze didn’t mind spending the money since he would be relying on it to sleep from now on. Cheap freezers were too risky.

The seller was very enthusiastic and sent a small truck to help Zhou Ze deliver the freezer directly to… the bookstore entrance.

The driver helped Zhou Ze move the freezer into the bookstore, looking puzzled.

“Why does a bookstore need a freezer?” the driver asked.

Zhou Ze handed him a cigarette. “Business is tough. I’m planning to sell seafood on the side.”

The driver took the cigarette and left. After all, the goods were delivered and he didn’t need to worry about anything else.

The bookstore had a small second floor, which Xu Le had used to store books. Zhou Ze cleared it out and placed the freezer there. Looking at his new “bed,” Zhou Ze finally felt a bit more at ease.

As he descended to the first floor, he saw someone in the bookstore. It wasn’t a customer—it was his “wife.”

Dr. Lin was flipping through a magazine. Seeing Zhou Ze come down, she asked curiously, “What were you doing upstairs?”

“Organizing inventory,” Zhou Ze replied offhandedly.

“I’m off work now,” Dr. Lin said.

“Mm.” Off work and not going to sleep with me…

“That girl has woken up,” Dr. Lin continued, looking meaningfully at Zhou Ze. “Her father is inviting our department out for dinner at Tongcheng Hotel. You should come too.”

“Why should I go?”

“The girl has been calling for her ‘uncle’ ever since she woke up,” Dr. Lin asked, “Did you know her before?”

“Even in a coma, people are still somewhat aware of their surroundings,” Zhou Ze made up an explanation. “She probably sensed me when I saved her.”

“So, are you coming?” Dr. Lin asked.

“No,” Zhou Ze shook his head. “I’m not hungry. I don’t have any appetite at all.”

Dr. Lin nodded and didn’t push further. It seemed she was ready to leave but as she reached the door, she paused and asked, “Are you coming home tonight?”

The familiar question again.

Why would I go home if you’re not going to sleep with me?

So Zhou Ze decisively answered, “I’m not going back. I’ve been busy lately.”

Busy, even though the bookstore was as dead as ice.

Dr. Lin hesitated but didn’t insist. She took out her car keys and was about to leave when suddenly—

Crash!

Dr. Lin turned around and saw her “husband” collapsed on a bookshelf, with books scattered all over the floor.

“What happened to you?” she hurried over to check on him.

Zhou Ze’s vision was blurring, his eyes unable to focus. His chest was heaving and his legs felt like they were made of cotton. He had completely lost his balance.

“Fainted… from hunger,” Zhou Ze mumbled.

He hadn’t eaten in days.

TL Notes:

1. In the name of the moon – Seems to be pop-cultural reference. (Could be a sailor moon reference but I’m not sure)

2. The term “peanuts” is a Chinese euphemism for bullets in the context of execution.

3. The Golden Triangle is one of the world’s two largest opium-producing regions in the world. It covers the areas of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos.