Late Night Bookstore - Chapter 25

“What’s wrong with you?” Zhou Ze frowned. He had also noticed the smell.

“Nothing, I just really need to pee. You go ahead!” After saying that, the old Taoist turned and ran out.

Zhou Ze looked at his own hand and, without asking further questions, hailed a cab back to the bookstore.

The old Taoist reached the roadside and pulled out a talisman from his crotch. The talisman had already turned red and, when exposed to the wind, it crumbled into ashes and dispersed.

This talisman was passed down through the old Taoist’s family. As for why he hid it in that particular spot, let’s just say it’s something not for outsiders to understand.

However, the scene just now was already imprinted in the old Taoist’s memory. Of course, looking down at the “walnuts”, now taut from the burn, it had also been branded onto his own flesh.

“Dear heavens, Boss, I never expected to run into someone from our hometown here, over 2,000 kilometers away in Tongcheng.”

In the unseen realms, perhaps there was a kind of connection, just like how Zhou Ze felt a strange resonance when he saw the video of the old Taoist’s livestream, where the young man behind the funeral goods shop’s counter struggled to drink porridge. That wasn’t just anorexia. They were the same kind of person.

In this world, he wasn’t the absolute one-of-a-kind oddity. Just like how in hell, the Faceless Woman had roared in furious unwillingness: “How could you leave too?”

This meant that not only Zhou Ze but someone before him had also left in front of the Faceless Woman. And combined with the old man with the black fingernails whom Zhou Ze saved after his car accident, this world was far from peaceful.

……………

By the time Zhou Ze took a cab back to the bookstore, it was already 1 a.m. He cleaned up the broken glass on the bathroom floor and boiled several kettles of water to wipe himself down with a towel.

He decided that tomorrow he would have someone install a shower system for convenience. For someone with mild obsessive-compulsive disorder, not being able to bathe was truly a form of torture.

Returning to the second floor, he set the temperature, lay down, closed his eyes, and prepared to bid farewell to today’s fatigue and the chaos of the day.

He slept soundly and peacefully through the night.

Nothing happened overnight. When Zhou Ze woke up the next morning, he got out of the freezer, washed up, opened the shop door, and glanced at the place next door.

It was still closed.

He couldn’t get in touch with Dr. Lin for the time being.

My wife is gone, and now even he is gone.

Zhou Ze suddenly shook his head. Damn it, why am I having these thoughts?

Xu Le’s influence is poisoning me. Yes, that must be it.

Having not eaten since last night, Zhou Ze pulled out his phone and ordered takeout, adding a note asking for extra vinegar.

After about twenty minutes, a delivery guy in a yellow uniform arrived on an electric bike, pushed open the door, and handed the takeout to Zhou Ze, who was reading behind the counter.

“Thanks, it must be tough delivering on New Year’s,” Zhou Ze said politely.

“You’re not having it easy either, eating takeout on New Year’s,” the delivery guy replied without hesitation.

“……” Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze felt as if he had taken an arrow to the knee. He raised his head and took a special look at the delivery guy in front of him, who appeared very young, probably just in his early twenties.

“This is a bookstore?” The delivery guy glanced around, “The kind where you can sit and read? How much?”

“Pay whatever you want,” Zhou Ze said as he opened the takeout bag.

“Got it.”

The delivery guy sat down on a plastic stool and began reading a copy of “Battle Through the Heavens¹,” engrossed in the story.

Zhou Ze drank the vinegar in one gulp. Perhaps because he had been conditioned by Xu Qinglang’s extremely sour plum juice, Zhou Ze felt nothing from the regular vinegar.

He then devoured the food, but halfway through, the nausea and retching sensation returned.

Zhou Ze gripped his throat, forcing himself not to vomit. After a tense struggle, the nausea subsided, and Zhou Ze wiped the corners of his mouth, followed by a heavy cough.

“Bro, slow down with the eating. If my grandma were here, she’d say you’re eating like a starving ghost reincarnated.”

The delivery guy said this while reading his book.

Zhou Ze shot him a glare and sat back in his chair, panting for breath. He needed to recover.

Damn Xu Qinglang, why isn’t he opening his door yet?

Zhou Ze decided that if the neighboring shop hadn’t opened by the afternoon, he would have to break in and look for any remaining sour plum juice or bitter melon juice; otherwise, he really wouldn’t be able to stomach his meal.

The delivery guy seemed to have stopped accepting orders, sitting there reading a novel for an entire hour.

“Huh, why does it smell like coal burning?” The delivery guy suddenly sniffed and stepped outside.

Zhou Ze didn’t take it seriously. The guy probably just wanted to read for a while and didn’t want to pay. It didn’t matter.

This bookstore really only made money by chance.

But then, the delivery guy, who had just stepped outside, opened his mouth and shouted, “Whoa, there’s a fire!”

Only then did Zhou Ze realize something was wrong. He rushed out of the store, looked up, and his gaze froze. On the fourth floor of the building, thick smoke was billowing out.

That’s the cinema!

The only place in this old commercial center that still had some foot traffic was the cinema, and because it was the New Year’s season, many people had come to watch movies.

“Let’s go save people,” the delivery guy said as he sprinted toward the cinema.

Zhou Ze stood still for ten seconds, knowing the fire was severe but wouldn’t spread to his bookstore. He fought against his instinctual urge to save people.

In the past, he had lost count of how many times he rushed to disaster sites to participate in rescues, but lately, he was determined to break this bad habit.

However, after an intense internal struggle, Zhou Ze still ended up running toward the fire.

I guess I’m just too soft-hearted!

While many people were running down from the first to third floors, Zhou Ze was running up.

Although this commercial center was mostly deserted, it was still located in the city, so the fire trucks should be able to arrive quickly.

There were fewer people watching movies in the morning than in the afternoon, but still a decent number. By the time Zhou Ze reached the fourth floor, the smoke had thickened, and the fire was burning in an unusual way—no accidental fire should be this intense!

But now was not the time to analyze the cause. Through the thick smoke, Zhou Ze saw the delivery guy, his face blackened by soot, carrying an elderly woman on his back and running out.

The other person glanced at Zhou Ze, smiled, revealing a set of white teeth, then turned around and ran back toward the viewing area to continue rescuing people.

Although the fire hadn’t fully spread, it was ferociously concentrated in the screening area.

Zhou Ze didn’t hesitate any longer. Since he was already there, he had to do something, so he immediately rushed into the thick smoke.

Cough cough… Cough cough…

Without any protective gear, rushing in like this was foolish. It would be easy to end up a casualty rather than a rescuer.

Zhou Ze knew he had limited time. If he saw someone needing help, he’d rescue them and get out. He couldn’t do much else and had to leave the rest to the firefighters.

“Whew…”

Just as Zhou Ze opened the door to Screening Room 2, flames surged out, forcing him to retreat momentarily.

But inside, there were still cries for help.

Gritting his teeth, Zhou Ze charged in. The screening room was engulfed in flames—on the ground, the ceiling, and the walls. Smoke filled the enclosed space, leaving nowhere for it to escape.

In most fires, more people die from smoke inhalation than from being burned.

It’s only in moments like these that people realize how important those annoying fire safety videos before movies really are.

As Zhou Ze rushed inside, he saw two people lying in a narrow aisle.

One was a man in a black suit, coughing as he lay on the floor, clearly unable to get up.

The other was a boy about ten years old, unconscious on the ground. It wasn’t clear whether he had passed out or already suffocated.

“Help me… Help me… Please…” the man in the suit managed to lift his head and look at Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze ignored him and picked up the boy, preparing to rush out.

By now, Zhou Ze was feeling dizzy. Without proper protective gear, he couldn’t last much longer.

But just as he was about to leave with the boy, he felt someone grab his leg, causing him to fall, and the boy tumbled off his back.

“Help… Help… me first… I’ll… pay you… Save me first…”

The man in the suit used the last of his strength to grip Zhou Ze’s ankle tightly. He knew he didn’t have much time left. He couldn’t breathe, and his lungs felt like they were on fire.

Zhou Ze, who had fallen to the ground, felt the world spinning and nearly passed out. He bit his tongue hard, forcing himself to stay conscious.

Bam! Bam!

Zhou Ze kicked at the man’s hand and head with his free leg.

After a few kicks, the man finally let go.

Zhou Ze wobbled to his feet, lifted the boy onto his back again, and ran out of Screening Room 2.

When he burst through the smoke into a safe area, his legs gave way, and he collapsed to his knees, dropping the boy in the process. But Zhou Ze instinctively cushioned the fall, so the boy wasn’t hurt badly.

Firefighters had already arrived, working to extinguish the fire, while some in full gear rushed into the blaze.

“Someone’s still in Screening Room 2,” Zhou Ze gasped, grabbing the arm of a passing firefighter.

“Got it,” the firefighter nodded and ran toward the fire.

Huff huff… Huff huff…

Zhou Ze lay flat on the tiled floor, gasping for air. Across from him, the delivery guy, whose yellow uniform was now blackened by soot, was also leaning against the wall, catching his breath. The two exchanged a weak smile.

The paramedics had arrived with doctors among them—a group of angels in white coats. Zhou Ze was too exhausted to check if Dr. Lin was part of the rescue team.

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to stand and looked at the boy, who was being treated by a doctor. The boy’s chest was still rising and falling, so he should be okay.

At the same time, Zhou Ze noticed that several people were carried out by firefighters—some were saved, while others were not. The man in the black suit lay motionless on a stretcher, likely already dead.

Zhou Ze didn’t feel guilty. He had no reason to.

He had tried to be a good person and saved a life, but deciding who to save first was his choice, and no one could morally guilt him over it.

Besides, in that situation, he physically couldn’t carry both a child and an adult at the same time. If he had tried, he would have ended up dead too.

The body Zhou Ze had possessed belonged to Xu Le, a “scholar” with no strength to even truss a chicken, not someone like Schwarzenegger who had come back from the dead.

Moreover, that guy had almost dragged him to death in the cinema.

Struggling to his feet and declining the offer of help from a nurse to check his condition, Zhou Ze walked to the other side of the building, into a restroom, turned on the faucet, and splashed cold water onto his face.

At last, he started to catch his breath.

Raising his head, Zhou Ze looked at his reflection in the mirror and suddenly noticed a faint figure slowly appearing behind him.

The figure wore a black suit and stared at him with venomous hatred.

Its mouth was wide open, silently screaming as if demanding something, its face twisted with madness.

When a person dies, under certain conditions, there is a probability they might become a vengeful ghost. At this moment, this man had just died, and his soul was still in the process of becoming a ghost, likely fully forming by the seventh day after death.

He wasn’t a full-fledged ghost yet, just a nascent form².

But because of Zhou Ze’s unique nature, he could perceive the man’s existence early.

However, due to Zhou Ze’s own unique condition, he was able to sense the man’s presence early. He hated Zhou Ze for not saving him, and this hatred was so strong that he was willing to turn into a vengeful ghost!

“Hah, interesting.”

Zhou Ze chuckled, dipping his head back into the sink to continue washing his face. And silently, in his heart, he sighed:

Humans… Huh…

TL Notes:

1. Battle Through the Heavens (斗破苍穹) is a popular Chinese web novel written by Tian Can Tu Dou (天蚕土豆). It’s a fantasy/action series that follows the adventures of a young man named Xiao Yan who overcomes numerous challenges in a world where people cultivate martial and magical powers. The novel is well-known for its rich world-building, intense battles, and a cultivation system that forms the backbone of the story. It’s highly popular in China and has been adapted into comics, TV dramas, and animated series.

2. Nascent form – Refers to a newly emerging or developing state of something. In the context of the ghost transformation described in the passage, it indicates that the deceased man’s soul is in the initial stages of becoming a ghost. It’s not yet fully formed or fully powerful, but it is on its way to becoming a vengeful spirit. The term “nascent” emphasizes that the ghostly form is in its early, incomplete phase.