Late Night Bookstore - Chapter 38

“Here, have a taste. This is the new version of sour plum juice.”

Xu Qinglang placed a cup on the counter in front of Zhou Ze. This sour plum juice appeared to have a richer hue compared to the previous version. Holding it in his hand and swaying it slightly, it felt as if he were holding a glass of wine.

“What’s different about it?” Zhou Ze didn’t drink immediately but asked first.

“The flavor is deeper, somewhat like aged Huangjiu. The kick comes later, allowing you to enjoy your meals without gobbling them down as before and enhancing your overall happiness in life.”

“Heh, adulterer…” The female corpse, who was organizing the bookshelf nearby, sneered.

Zhou Ze took a sip. Unlike the sour plum juice he had tasted before, this one had a mellow sweetness that lingered on the palate. The flavor was quite pleasant.

However, this did not seem to be the sensation he was expecting.

Just as he was savoring it, a sharp pang of acidity twisted through his stomach.

“Hiss…”

His body involuntarily began to tremble.

That lingering sourness—

So overpowering.

His ten fingers curled slightly before slowly relaxing again. Zhou Ze nodded in satisfaction.

“You put some thought into this,” Zhou Ze said.

“You’re too kind.” Xu Qinglang smiled faintly. “I plan to make this one of my signature side dishes, but unfortunately, I doubt many people would appreciate this particular flavor.”

“Hmm.” Zhou Ze agreed with this sentiment.

Creak—

The bookstore door swung open, and a group of students walked in. There were quite a few of them—seven or eight in total—and they all looked like the obedient, studious type.

“Boss, how much?” a girl asked.

Zhou Ze pointed at the wall, where the prices were written.

“Phew…”

The students each found a plastic stool and sat down. Then, the girl took out some homework from her backpack and distributed it among the others so they could copy it.

With the winter holiday coming to an end, this was a common sight.

Zhou Ze certainly wasn’t about to lecture these kids on the importance of studying or the perils of copying homework. Instead, he tapped the counter lightly. The female corpse understood and walked over to pour him a cup of warm water.

The girl leading the group casually browsed the bookshelf, picked out a few books, and walked up to Zhou Ze.

“How much?” she asked.

“Ninety-five,” Zhou Ze replied.

“Here, keep the change.”

The girl was quite generous, tossing a hundred-yuan bill onto the counter.

Zhou Ze took the money without another word.

By around five in the evening, the group of students had finished copying their homework and left, restoring the bookstore to its usual quiet.

Xu Qinglang was not in the store—he had gone out to have a signboard custom-made. Naturally, he wouldn’t be using Zhou Ze’s suggested inscription, “Humans live their lives eating what comes from the earth. The earth consumes humans in death.”

After all, anyone with a shred of common sense would recognize that such a sign was more suited for a gravesite than a dining establishment.

The female corpse was quite efficient in her work. She had cleaned both the first and second floors of the bookstore today. Aside from occasionally striking seductive poses for no apparent reason, she had no other noticeable flaws.

She hadn’t mentioned where she was going, and Zhou Ze didn’t ask.

Of course, he still remembered Lady Bai’s instructions, “When the next Hanyi Festival (寒衣节) is a traditional Chinese festival where people offer paper clothing to their deceased ancestors as a symbolic gesture for warmth in the afterlife.",
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Zhou Ze wasn’t sure if Lady Bai was aware that the corpse had already developed sentience.

If she knew yet still entrusted it to him while also telling him exactly how and when to burn it, what was her true intention?

Last night, the female corpse admitted that even if Zhou Ze were to destroy her, she would not voluntarily undergo self-dissolution, preventing her residual malicious energy from leaking out and harming innocent people, which could implicate Lady Bai in the underworld.

However, Lady Bai seemed to simply want to eliminate this troublesome matter cleanly.

From this perspective, the female corpse Zhou Ze had treated as a maid was actually quite pitiful.

“What’s your name?” Zhou Ze asked.

“My surname is Bai,” the female corpse replied.

“Bai what?”

“Bai Yingying.”

“Bai Yingying?”

Zhou Ze nodded. The name sounded a little odd.

“You don’t actually need to struggle so much when eating,” the female corpse stretched lazily, accentuating her ample figure. “It’s just like how you can sleep soundly when you sleep with me.

Your soul is tainted with the aura of the underworld, yet your body remains that of the living.

You need sleep and food to nourish your physical body, but your soul rejects these things instinctively, which is why you feel discomfort.”

“Go on.”

“From now on, I can feed you,” the female corpse said with a coquettish smile. “Food that passes through my mouth, mixed with my saliva, will carry the essence of a ghost. When you eat it, you won’t find it as unbearable.”

Zhou Ze suddenly understood why the water he drank last time had tasted somewhat sweet. It wasn’t that the female corpse had a sweet mouth—this was the real reason.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Outside the bookstore, a man in a leather jacket approached. His outfit was somewhat rustic, his hair disheveled, and his face flushed—likely from drinking.

The man circled outside twice before finally pushing the door open and stepping into the bookstore.

At first, Zhou Ze paid no attention, but soon, his gaze sharpened slightly.

He knew this man.

Sun Tao, his former assistant—a young doctor with great potential.

The female corpse also narrowed her eyes. She reached out and lightly poked Zhou Ze’s waist, murmuring softly, “Esteemed Officer, um… can I eat him?”

Eat a person?

Zhou Ze frowned slightly.

“Esteemed Officer, didn’t you notice? That thing on his back.”

With this reminder, Zhou Ze finally stood up and looked behind the man. There, clinging to his back, was a pitch-black entity.

An ordinary person might not recognize it because its form was somewhat abstract, resembling a black worm but also bearing certain humanoid traits.

However, due to his former profession, Zhou Ze immediately identified it—an underdeveloped infant.

“Wuuu… Wuuu…”

As if sensing Zhou Ze’s attention, the infant let out a faint, sorrowful cry.

The sound was familiar. Zhou Ze sifted through his memories until he pinpointed the source.

Nurse Chen.

More precisely, the sound that had once emanated from Nurse Chen’s womb—something that only Zhou Ze had been able to hear at the time.

Zhou Ze felt no amusement at his unexpected ability to conduct a “paternity test.”

What he felt instead was sorrow.

The child hadn’t survived after all.

When the female corpse said she wanted to eat him, she wasn’t referring to the person, but rather to the soul of the infant boy.

Zhou Ze shot her a glare. The female corpse pouted, no longer daring to speak. She could only swallow her saliva resentfully and, with a grievance-laden expression, reached up to support the heavy weight on her chest, muttering, “I don’t eat food meant for the living, yet every night, you use me like a furnace, extracting my malevolent energy.

If I don’t replenish myself, even these will shrink. And when that happens, you won’t have anything to peek at while I’m working.”

Zhou Ze was momentarily stunned. Had she really been paying attention to his gaze all this time?

“You pervert,” the female corpse teased coyly.

“Boss, got any alcohol?” Sun Tao called out.

“Next door,” Zhou Ze replied, but he still stood up and poured him a glass of water.

After all, Sun Tao had once been his protégé. Having grown up in an orphanage himself, Zhou Ze had naturally taken care of Sun Tao, who had been raised in a single-parent household.

Back then, despite being indifferent to admirers like Dr. Lin, Zhou Ze had taken special care of Sun Tao.

There was no deeper reason—just that their personalities were too similar.

Their childhood experiences had taught them the importance of struggle and perseverance. Both had fought to carve out a life worth living, to prove their own worth.

“Pfft… Hahaha…” Sun Tao took a big gulp of water and then burst into laughter. “Boss, why are you looking at me like that? Just so you know, I’m not into men.”

“Oh.” Zhou Ze responded flatly.

With such a beautiful man living next door, do you really think I’d be interested in you?

Sun Tao sat down on a plastic stool, bit his lip, and shook his head slightly.

“Boss, do you have kids?”

“We haven’t planned for one yet. He thinks I’m too young,” the female corpse interjected, seizing the opportunity to insert herself into the conversation.

Sun Tao looked up at her. Although she had a voluptuous figure and a tall frame, she still had the youthful appearance of a high school student. He immediately chuckled, “You do seem a bit young.”

The female corpse huffed and turned her face away, but she swallowed another mouthful of saliva.

“I was supposed to have a child,” Sun Tao said wistfully.

Zhou Ze wanted to tell him—he did have a child. That child was clinging to his back at this very moment.

With the advancement of modern medicine and the “modernization” of societal attitudes, terms like abortion and induced miscarriage were no longer taboo subjects. But few people understood that the resentment of unborn children was often the most intense.

Infants who died before birth were the easiest to turn into ghostly entities. However, their ability to seek vengeance was limited.

At most, their lingering grievances would tether them to their so-called parents for a period of time before dissipating on their own.

The female corpse had asked if she could eat because these infants, never having been fully born, were like ungerminated seeds, making them highly “nutritious” for beings like her.

“What happened?” Zhou Ze asked. “Your girlfriend didn’t agree?”

He remembered that back then, Nurse Chen, despite her unease and shock, had insisted on keeping the baby.

“No, she was willing. But I wasn’t. I chickened out. I made her get an abortion.”

For some reason, Sun Tao felt an urge to talk to the bookstore owner. Something about him evoked a familiar sense of an older brother’s presence.

And that older brother… had been dead for over half a year.

“You chickened out?” Zhou Ze asked.

“Her parents already looked down on me. Heh, their family… they’re well-off.” Sun Tao raised his head slightly as if trying to suppress the tears welling in his eyes.

“But the deed was already done,” Zhou Ze remarked.

“I didn’t want to use this to force my way into their family. I don’t want my colleagues or my friends to think I got in by underhanded means.

I didn’t want to be labeled a ‘Phoenix Man.’

I don’t covet their wealth, nor do I covet anything else.

I just didn’t want to get married and spend the rest of my life with in-laws who looked down on me, with their relatives constantly reminding me that I didn’t belong.

I grew up in a single-parent household, so I understand that dignity is something you have to fight for yourself.”

“Even though she was willing?”

“She was willing, but I wasn’t. I wanted to live with dignity.

Heh, when I first started in this profession, an older brother once told me that dignity and how others perceive you are things you have to earn with your own hands. I haven’t achieved anything yet, so I didn’t want to…”

Zhou Ze took a deep breath and asked, “Did your brother ever tell you one more thing?”

“What?” Sun Tao asked, puzzled.

“That when you’re enjoying yourself, don’t forget to wear a… condom.”

After speaking, Zhou Ze swung his fist and landed a punch squarely on Sun Tao’s face.

Bang!

Sun Tao, caught completely off guard, was sent crashing to the ground, his face full of bewilderment.

“Don’t make excuses, don’t talk about dignity, don’t bring up anything else.

You’re just selfish—utterly, completely selfish.”

With that, Zhou Ze kicked Sun Tao again as he lay on the ground.

Bang!

Sun Tao curled up, his body wracked with pain. He was still intoxicated, but despite that, he shouted in anger,

“Are you crazy?! You’re just hitting people for no reason!”

“Yeah, I’m sick in the head! I must have been blind as hell back then to even think about mentoring you and pulling you up!”

At that moment, the curled-up entity that had been clinging to Sun Tao’s shoulder slowly crawled toward Zhou Ze.

Its mouth emitted a series of sharp, chittering sounds, “Zhi—zhi—zhi—zhi—”

Both the female corpse and Zhou Ze heard it.

But Sun Tao could not.

His unborn child, who had never once seen the world, at this moment, bared its tiny, ghostly teeth and let out a furious cry at the man who had struck its father…

TL Note:

The female corpse uses “莺” which means “oriole” when she says her name is “Bái Yīngyīng” (白莺莺). Zhou Ze hears it as “Bái Yīngyīng” (白嘤嘤) which is a play on words, using “嘤嘤” (yīngyīng), mimicking the sound of someone crying/whimpering.