Late Night Bookstore - Chapter 9

Zhou Ze kicked out with his feet, trying to push his way out but then he heard the sound of click, click. It was the unmistakable noise of the external locks on the cold storage drawer being fastened.

Locked in, unable to escape.

For a moment, Zhou Ze felt as though he had returned to the time when he had been placed in a cramped coffin. But this time, he didn’t panic or rage. Instead, he calmly knocked on the metal plate above his head.

“Is there something you need?”

Zhou Ze didn’t believe a person had deliberately locked him inside. Unless the individual was a madman, he doubted anyone would go through the trouble of shoving him into the cold storage and locking him in. The odds of encountering such a lunatic seemed slim.

Besides, the door to the morgue had been closed when he entered. A crazed person who also knew the morgue’s passcode? Highly unlikely.

So, Zhou Ze assumed that something else, something not quite human, had “helped” him into this situation and quite thoroughly at that.

However, after his question, there was only silence from the outside.

Zhou Ze decided not to dwell on it. He closed his eyes, intending to get a proper sleep.

He drifted off quickly this time. After all, he hadn’t slept for two days and the events of the past few days had been exhausting. The accumulated fatigue weighed heavily on him.

Even if the world floods after my death, nothing can stop me from sleeping now.

……………

Zhou Ze didn’t know how long he had slept, but when he opened his eyes, he felt refreshed, a long-lost sense of vitality returning. Unfortunately, his body had grown stiff from the cold. If not for the fact that his body had become so numb, that area below might have raised a flagpole.

His limbs were unusually rigid. In the cramped space, he wiggled his body slightly and the sound of cracking joints echoed around him, so satisfying that he couldn’t help but let out a groan.

At that moment, Zhou Ze’s fingernails lengthened and darkened, taking on an eerie sheen. The cold that would have been unbearable for ordinary people began to flow toward his fingertips, accumulating in his ten fingers.

The process didn’t take long and by the end, Zhou Ze no longer felt cold or uncomfortable.

He instinctively kicked the foot panel and the drawer slid open smoothly.

The lock had been undone?

Zhou Ze was somewhat surprised. He sat up on the steel tray and climbed out, then pushed the drawer back in.

His clothes had stiffened from the cold, feeling like cardboard as they clung uncomfortably to his body. As he looked around, Zhou Ze surveyed the small morgue. It wasn’t large, especially compared to those in big-city hospitals but there were still plenty of bodies stored inside.

Zhou Ze had no idea who had helped him by locking him in and later unlocking the drawer. Trying to find out now would be difficult.

Still, since the mysterious “helper” had unlocked the drawer during his sleep, it didn’t seem like they were out to harm him. Zhou Ze decided not to stir up unnecessary trouble and headed for the exit.

As he passed by a few gurneys covered with white sheets, Zhou Ze stopped in his tracks.

The bodies beneath the sheets were just as they had been before.

Including the elderly woman wrapped in the floral quilt, nothing appeared to have changed.

Yet Zhou Ze stopped because he noticed something peculiar, the position of the old woman’s head and feet had been reversed.

There was no way the morgue attendant had come in while he was asleep, flipped the body and left without doing anything else.

Zhou Ze stood beside the old woman and said, “If it was you and you don’t show yourself now, I’m leaving.”

She had pushed him into the drawer and locked him in—perhaps with ill intent. But the fact that she had also unlocked the drawer meant she didn’t truly want to harm him.

Maybe she was worried someone would find him if they saw the drawer unlocked. After all, whether the lock was engaged or not was easy to spot from the outside.

Zhou Ze waited for half a minute. When nothing happened, he decided to leave.

Just as he was about to turn and walk away, he heard a sigh from behind him.

Zhou Ze hated this feeling—this indecisive, back-and-forth nonsense. Clearly, the person was an old woman at the time of her death, yet she insisted on putting on a shy girl demeanor.

Sure, it was probably unfair to be ageist but everyone knows that people are generally more tolerant of beautiful female ghosts. It’s only human nature.

After all, if Nie Xiaoqian¹ had been an old woman with wrinkles and yellow teeth, would Ning Caichen² would still have fallen in love with her?

Zhou Ze turned around to see the old woman crouched on the ground, clutching a faded handkerchief, wiping away non-existent tears.

Ghosts don’t cry, so from Zhou Ze’s perspective, it looked more like she was wailing theatrically.

“Go ahead and keep crying. I won’t interrupt you.” Zhou Ze prepared to leave.

He realized that, after all, he was just a regular guy. Even when dealing with ghosts, he had a certain bias towards appearances.

“Help me. I have money,” the old woman suddenly said.

Zhou Ze’s ears perked up. Money.

He was short on cash. Xu Le’s Alipay and WeChat accounts barely had 200 yuan between them. Add to that the 1,100 yuan given to him by the “murderer” who returned his wallet, and Zhou Ze’s total assets amounted to less than 1,300 yuan.

As for his savings from his previous life, those had all been donated to an orphanage after his death. He was starting over from scratch.

“In the hidden compartment of my cabinet, there’s 30,000 yuan. It’s an old, yellow lacquer cabinet, and it also contains my dowry— jade hairpins and bangles. I don’t know how much they’re worth.

I died suddenly and didn’t get a chance to tell my sons about it. I’m afraid they won’t find it.”

Zhou Ze nodded. “I’ll take a portion.”

The old woman hesitated but eventually nodded in agreement. “That’s only fair.”

She understood that without someone like Zhou Ze to pass along the message, her sons might not find the inheritance she left behind.

……………

Zhou Ze took a taxi to Xingdong Town in Tongzhou District, not far from the city. Tongcheng’s airport was located in this town.

Before leaving the hospital, Zhou Ze had done some investigating at the registration desk. The old woman had been admitted to the hospital and died after unsuccessful resuscitation. Her family had abandoned her body at the hospital, leaving unpaid medical bills.

About half an hour later, Zhou Ze arrived at the town and located the village as the old woman had described.

It was a two-story house with a small brick shed attached, typical of rural areas.

When Zhou Ze arrived, he saw several workers demolishing the brick structure. They were tearing down the shed.

Zhou Ze approached one of the workers and offered him a cigarette. “Busy, even this close to the new year?”

“It’s almost the New Year, so why not make some extra money? After all, we’re all from the same village.” The bricklayer remained quite relaxed about it.

“What’s the deal with this house?” Zhou Ze glanced inside. Two workers were already tearing off the roof and the walls of the small shed were being dismantled brick by brick for future reuse. The interior of the shed was empty. There wasn’t even a small stool, let alone the yellow lacquer cabinet the old woman had mentioned.

“The old lady who lived here died. She used to stay in that shed. Now, they’re knocking it down to build a new kitchen,” the worker leaned in, allowing Zhou Ze to light his cigarette and smiled somewhat nervously as he said, “You see, the guy who just walked by, he’s her eldest son.”

Zhou Ze looked over and noticed that the man, whose hair was also turning gray, had some bruises on his face.

“She had five sons. They got into a fight over her inheritance. They’ll even be splitting up these bricks later,” the worker continued, shaking his head. “What a world we live in. Their mom’s body is still at the hospital but none of them want to pay off the medical bills to claim it.”

“What about the things inside the house?” Zhou Ze asked. He was more interested in the jade bangles and hairpins. From the old woman’s description, the cash might only total 30,000 yuan, but the jade items could be worth tens of thousands.

“Oh, they sold everything to a junk dealer ages ago. Cleared the place out right after the old lady went to the hospital.” The worker took another drag of his cigarette. “I better get back to work.”

Zhou Ze felt a mix of amusement and frustration as he licked his lips. This trip had been a waste of time for him. Not only had he missed out on the old woman’s hidden wealth, even her sons hadn’t gotten anything, they had handed it all over to some furniture dealer for scrap.

Zhou Ze was getting frustrated. Being broke was a real problem and he wasn’t willing to scam or steal to solve it. Sure, it might be easy and it might feel good, but after saving that little girl and enduring the backlash, he wasn’t keen on tempting fate. Who knew what punishment might come next?

He didn’t know if there really was a god watching from above. Though he was certain that digging too deep would lead straight to hell because he had been there.

He knew he wasn’t truly alive, but this was still the human world. And he vividly remembered the fear in that patient’s eyes as they cried out, “They’ve found me!” just before dying.

Still, though…

Money…

Zhou Ze thought about grinding away for it, but who would give him money?

Zhou Ze needed money. If not to get rid of his “son-in-law” status, at the very least, he needed to buy himself a freezer or a big refrigerator, right? Otherwise, would he have to go to the hospital morgue every day just to enjoy the cold air?

Sighing, Zhou Ze lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. He felt irritable.

Just then, his phone rang. It was an unknown number. He answered.

“Hello?” Zhou Ze said.

“Brother Xu, the goods have arrived safely. When are you coming to inspect them? The cops have been cracking down hard lately. It wasn’t easy getting this batch through.” The voice on the other end was low and cautious.

Zhou Ze’s mouth slowly dropped open.

He said nothing but at that moment, Xu Le’s image suddenly rose higher in his mind.

TL Notes:

1. Nie Xiaoqian – Female lead in “The Magic Sword”, a fantasy story in Pu Songling’s short story collection “Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio”. She is a beautiful ghost that dwells in an old temple. Due to an evil monster’s command, she seduces men and offers them to the monster.

2. Ning Caichen – Male lead in “The Magic Sword”. He resisted Nie Xiaoqian’s charms which led her to fall in love with him. He rescues her and she ends up following him home. They grow to like each other and she helps out with house chores earning Ning Caichen family’s acceptance. They get married after his bed-ridden wife dies and Nie Xiaoqian becomes human and gives birth to 2 sons.