Late Night Bookstore - Chapter 8

A sudden scream startled the entire household awake.

It was no surprise—opening the door to a dark bathroom in the middle of the night, already anxious from holding in a full bladder and suddenly seeing someone inside is scary enough. Most people have probably had a similar experience.

But what made it worse for the sister-in-law was that she had stumbled upon a ghost.

Lin Wanqiu rushed out of the bedroom and helped her younger sister to her feet.

“What happened? What’s wrong?”

Their parents had also rushed upstairs from the first floor, only to see their youngest daughter sobbing in her sister’s arms. They then noticed Zhou Ze, still sitting on the toilet.

“You wretch, Xu Le! Have you lost your mind, you scoundrel? You’re even trying to prey on my youngest daughter now!”

The mother-in-law picked up a broom from the bathroom door and was ready to hit him.

Their father, equally furious, was about to charge in and teach this despicable son-in-law a lesson.

It was understandable. Seeing such a scene, anyone would naturally assume the worst.

The brother-in-law, in a fit of madness, acted inappropriately towards the sister-in-law. After all, as the saying goes, “half of whatever a younger sister-in-law has belongs to her brother-in-law.”

“Mom, Dad, it was Xiao Yi who got scared when she went into the bathroom,” Lin Wanqiu spoke up.

The mother-in-law paused, holding the broom up unsure what to do with it now. The father-in-law also froze for a moment, then awkwardly took a few steps back.

Zhou Ze, interrupted by all the commotion, realized that the bulging veins in his arms had subsided and the searing pain was gone. He felt utterly exhausted, wanting nothing more than to sleep.

He stood up, ready to leave the bathroom. As for his in-laws, Zhou Ze couldn’t be bothered to care. He had no interest in cleaning up the mess for that coward Xiao Yi.

However, when Zhou Ze stood up, his sister-in-law shuddered violently, clinging to her sister in terror.

“Ah! Don’t come near me! Don’t come any closer!”

Zhou Ze frowned slightly. What exactly had she seen?

“What on earth happened here?” His mother-in-law, hands on her hips, asked her younger daughter. This reaction seemed far too extreme for someone who was merely startled. “Xiao Yi, my precious, tell Mom, what happened? Did he do something to you?”

The sister-in-law, to her credit, was honest. She understood that lying about such things would make the situation much worse.

“No, I just opened the door to use the bathroom and saw him sitting there. It was too scary!”

With great effort, she managed to explain the situation before burying her face in her sister’s shoulder again.

Well, it was ultimately a misunderstanding.

“You idiot! Going to the bathroom in the middle of the night without turning on the light? Do you think this is your house, where you pinch pennies on the electric bill? What if you had scared my daughter so badly, she fell ill? How would you pay for that?”

His mother-in-law began to scold Zhou Ze, her finger almost poking him in the face.

Zhou Ze, however, was beyond exhaustion. When someone is severely sleep-deprived, they tend to become irritable. He had long lost patience with the tangled mess of relationships Xu Le had left behind.

If they hadn’t been sleeping in separate beds, Zhou Ze might not have exploded. But now that they were even sleeping apart, he really didn’t want to take any more of this snobbish mother-in-law’s nonsense.

Smack!

Zhou Ze waved his hand and swatted away his mother-in-law’s finger that was pointing at him.

“Leave me alone.”

His mother-in-law’s eyes widened in disbelief. Could this timid son-in-law, who had always been so submissive, dare to talk to her like that?

“How can you talk to your mother like that? Don’t you have any manners?” His father-in-law scolded.

“If you want your daughter to end up divorced, by all means, keep lecturing me about manners,” Zhou Ze shot back. He then shouldered his father-in-law and strode back to the bedroom, slamming the door behind him with a loud bang!

“How outrageous! How dare he!” The father-in-law’s chest heaved with anger.

The mother-in-law hurried to her husband’s side, soothing his chest.

But neither of them dared to continue the argument. Zhou Ze’s words had struck a nerve. They had no idea what had gotten into their usually spineless son-in-law, but he was right. If their elder daughter divorced, her next marriage would label her as previously married—a social stigma in their eyes. It would tarnish not only her reputation but the entire family’s.

In their minds, a woman’s value decreased after a divorce, making it harder to find a good match.

In fact, a person’s character and their feudal thinking was not significantly influenced by their education or family background. It ultimately depended on the individual’s own qualities.

For instance, even though Xu Le’s in-laws were very angry at that moment, they didn’t dare to provoke their troublesome son-in-law any further, fearing he might actually jump up and shout for a divorce.

Zhou Ze lay down in bed, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, hoping to fall asleep. He was utterly exhausted.

After about fifteen minutes, he heard a knock on the bedroom door.

“Xiao Yi is scared. I’m going to sleep with her tonight.”

It was Lin Wanqiu’s voice and with that, she left.

As if you were really planning to sleep with me anyway…

……………

The next day at lunch, Zhou Ze’s father- and mother-in-law were eating together.

“He went to the bookstore?” His father-in-law asked.

“He hasn’t gotten up yet,” his mother-in-law replied resentfully.

“Outrageous,” his father-in-law muttered.

“Exactly…”

She trailed off because at that moment, Zhou Ze appeared, descending from upstairs. His eyes were bloodshot and dark circles hung heavily beneath them.

The atmosphere grew tense.

Perhaps last night’s events had shifted his status somewhat and his in-laws now viewed him a little differently. At least, they didn’t make any further comments to provoke him.

Then again, it could also be because Zhou Ze, in his current state, looked like he could snap and do something drastic at any moment.

Zhou Ze glanced around the dining table, placing a hand on his chest.

The smell of food—rich and savory—was revolting. He felt nauseous again and fought the urge to vomit.

Without a word, he stepped outside, breathing in the cool, fresh air, feeling a bit more comfortable.

Still feeling groggy, Zhou Ze wandered the streets aimlessly, needing to sort out his thoughts, but his extreme sleepiness, combined with his inability to sleep, made it hard for him to truly focus. He felt trapped, like someone who had spent two sleepless nights at an internet café, or a student who had stayed up all night reading under the covers, only to drag himself to school the next day.

As he walked, Zhou Ze suddenly stopped. The surroundings felt familiar.

Looking up, he saw the sign: “Tongcheng First Affiliated Hospital.”

He had unintentionally wandered back to his old workplace. Perhaps it was because Tongcheng was just too small.

Zhou Ze stepped into the hospital, not for a nostalgic visit, but to get a prescription for some sleeping pills. He could manage without food for a while, at worst he could drink more water. Drinking enough water could temporarily tide him over but sleeplessness was a far more insidious form of torture.

Everything felt familiar—the hospital, the environment. He noticed that his photo on the emergency department staff board had turned gray, signifying his departure.

Instinctively, he made his way toward his old office. His desk had already been reassigned; a middle-aged doctor with a face full of freckles was sitting in his spot. Zhou Ze glanced at the nameplate on the desk—it read “Dr. Kang.”

Zhou Ze exhaled deeply, feeling a pang of bittersweet nostalgia.

For a moment, he temporarily forgot about getting sleeping pills. Perhaps it was the feeling of “the place remains unchanged, but the people have changed” that momentarily suppressed the torment of sleepiness. He began to wander around the hospital.

He reminisced about the bits and pieces of his life here, his work and his past, or rather, his previous life.

“I can’t go back, I really can’t go back,” Zhou Ze muttered to himself.

Unknowingly, Zhou Ze found himself descending to the hospital’s basement. He stood still; as a doctor who had worked here for many years, he was well aware of the layout of this floor.

Storage rooms and beyond them— the morgue.

He remembered lying in that morgue himself once, his body prepared by a mortician.

He took a step forward, heading towards the morgue.

Zhou Ze wanted to see the place where he had once lain. This was his explanation for walking in that direction now, but in reality, it was a special feeling, an unseen force, guiding him forward.

Before long, he reached the morgue door, which was secured with an electronic lock. Luckily, he still remembered the passcode. If it were any other department’s doctor, they probably wouldn’t have any connection to this place, but Zhou Ze used to work in the emergency department. Those brought to the emergency room were usually severely injured patients and inevitably, some would not survive and would need to be sent here for storage.

This hospital even handled bodies for the local police department—unknown or unclaimed corpses would be temporarily stored here until further action could be taken. This was a common arrangement in many places where the police lacked facilities or forensic staff, bodies were often kept in local funeral homes or hospitals.

Zhou Ze entered the code and the lock clicked open.

He stepped inside.

A chill enveloped him, not the kind that merely stimulates the skin but one that seemed to seep into his very bones, numbing him from within.

The morgue was a resting place for the dead, their final stop before burial or cremation. There should have been a morgue attendant but Zhou Ze hadn’t seen anyone when he entered. Perhaps they had slipped out for a break.

Zhou Ze wandered among the corpses. Some were laid out on cold metal stretchers, covered by white sheets. One body was wrapped in a floral quilt from home and judging by the silver hair visible from under the quilt, the deceased appeared to be an elderly woman.

Due to his profession, Zhou Ze was not particularly afraid of corpses, especially since he himself was now a ghost.

He approached the wall of refrigeration units, which stored bodies on sliding trays. The units with bodies were labeled with tags displaying the deceased’s names, gender and other information.

Zhou Ze opened an empty unit drawer, reached inside and closed his eyes. He let the cool stillness wash over him, a sense of calm creeping in. Here, in the morgue, he finally felt at peace.

After a brief hesitation, Zhou Ze climbed into the drawer.

Creek…

The drawer slowly slid back into place and the door closed.

Silence.

Cold.

Absolute stillness.

Zhou Ze closed his eyes, finally finding the elusive feeling of sleep.

But just as he was about to drift off, a chilling realization struck him.

He didn’t push the drawer in.

Who had done it for him?