Chapter 90
Chapter 90
“Hahaha! You slippery little rascal! Good. Just remember to protect yourself when trouble comes. As long as you’re alive, there’s always hope.”
Old Cao’s voice came from behind me, full of concern and admonition.
“All right, I know.”
I walked along the flagstone street toward the river outside town.
To be honest, during the month I had stayed at the coffin shop, Old Cao and I had truly developed a close relationship.
At first, he might have cared for me because of Master.
But now I could feel that it was genuine friendship, entirely unrelated to profit.
After a little over half an hour, I reached a small stand of woods at the foot of a hill behind the edge of the riverbank.
A small wooden house stood there, with a yard enclosed by a wooden fence.
It was the home of corpse retriever Li Miao.
I approached.
Woof, woof, woof!
A dog immediately began barking warily in the yard.
I knew all corpse retrievers kept dogs, and they had to be black.
Black dogs warded off evil and deterred corpse-ghosts and evil beings, giving corpse retrievers an additional layer of protection.
Corpse retrieval was also a profession that dealt in the affairs of yin beings. Many people feared corpse retrievers and were reluctant to grow close to them, so they had few friends.
Moreover, their bazi were too hard. Having an ordinary person as a close friend could genuinely harm the other party.
Apart from others in the esoteric world, the companions who remained beside them throughout their lives were their black dogs.
More importantly, one of a corpse retriever’s essential ritual implements–the black-dog-hair rope–was woven from hemp mixed with soft, fine hair from a particular part of a black dog’s chest!
It was said that only a few dozen of those special hairs grew each year, and they had to come from a black dog the corpse retriever had raised since puppyhood to suppress corpses and ward off evil.
Only through years of accumulation could a corpse retriever add more and more black-dog hair to the rope, making it purer and more powerful.
Legend held that in ancient times, certain Red-Boat Oarsmen maintained good relations with many other trades and obtained secret arts that allowed their black dogs to live thirty or forty years.
By then, the dogs had developed spirits and become extraordinarily powerful.
The black hair accumulated over decades was enough to make a corpse-retrieval rope exceptionally pure. Even a corpse fiend bound by such a rope would have to behave!
Thinking about those corpse retriever legends, I took several steps forward. Standing outside the yard, I rose slightly onto my toes and peered over the fence.
Sure enough!
I saw a large black native dog with glossy fur baring its teeth and barking at me.
Then the house door creaked open. Li Miao emerged carrying a bowl and eating as he walked.
“What are you barking at, Heizi?”
“It’s me, Brother Li–Wu Zhong.”
I waved to him.
Li Miao looked up, saw me, and appeared surprised.
“Young Mr. Wu? What brings you here?”
He quickly shoveled the last few mouthfuls of food into his mouth, wiped it, and came over to open the gate.
I eyed the large black dog in the corner of the yard with a conflicted expression.
Li Miao froze, then burst out laughing.
Turning back to the dog, he said, “Heizi, remember him. Young Mr. Wu here is my friend. Don’t frighten him in the future.”
Woof, woof, woof!
Heizi barked several more times, but I could clearly hear a greeting in its tone. Its eyes and movements softened as well.
What an intelligent guard dog!
I smiled and nodded to it. “Hello, Heizi. I didn’t bring a gift for our first meeting. I’ll buy you meat next time.”
It seemed to understand. It immediately stuck out its tongue and nodded vigorously at me.
It looked honest, foolish, and adorable–completely different from its savage appearance moments ago.
That was the difference between strangers and acquaintances!
Sometimes a person or creature seemed aloof simply because you were not familiar with them. Once you got to know them, they might turn out to be a complete clown.
This big black dog clearly belonged in that category.
Li Miao asked, “You came alone, Young Mr. Wu? Coffin-Bearer Cao isn’t with you?”
He probably assumed we wanted to discuss the living corpse Xiao Sheng again.
I shook my head. “No. This is a private matter of mine.”
“A private matter?”
Surprise flashed through Li Miao’s eyes.
But he nodded. “Come inside and tell me about it.”
We entered his little wooden house.
The threshold was extremely high and built much like the threshold at Old Cao’s coffin shop. It was probably something similar to a corpse-blocking threshold.
A bronze mirror hung above the door.
It had been polished bright enough to reflect a person’s features as clearly as any glass mirror.
Clearly, it was another ritual implement.
Corpse retrievers faced even greater dangers than coffin bearers and were more likely to encounter corpse-ghosts and evil beings. Naturally, their homes required all kinds of defenses.
Once we sat down, I came straight to the point.
“Brother Li, I’ve come as a client this time. I’d like to ask you to help me retrieve a corpse from the river.”
I took two thousand yuan from my pocket and placed it on the table.
I knew he charged five hundred to retrieve an ordinary corpse, one thousand if it had been dead for a long time, and another five hundred if anything sinister was involved.
Zhou Min was a powerful vicious corpse. Even if she wanted to come ashore willingly, I figured the job warranted two thousand.
It was also every cent of my personal savings.
Li Miao stared at the stack of money and froze.
Then he waved both hands vigorously. “Young Mr. Wu… Ah, I’ll call you Young Brother Wu. We’re friends now, and we’ll be working side by side in the future. Why pay me to retrieve one person? I’ll help for free.”
He thumped his chest generously.
I was moved, but still shook my head and pushed the money toward him.
“Brother Li, this is a business transaction. Hear me out first.”
I told him everything from beginning to end: how I had gone to wash vegetables with Yao Nan during the picnic and encountered a floating corpse drifting toward us…
Li Miao listened silently, his expression changing constantly.
After explaining the whole sequence of events, I said with a bitter smile, “Brother Li, if this were an ordinary corpse, retrieving it would be effortless for you. But this is a vicious corpse capable of drifting among the aquatic weeds even on an overcast day! She bears us no ill will and wants to come ashore, but it will still be arduous, won’t it?”
“Besides, she and I formed a nether covenant. This is an extremely solemn, formal matter. There is a connection between us beyond ordinary perception, and I have to fulfill it. Otherwise, my future life and cultivation will both face enormous trouble. Knowing that, I don’t want to involve you and make you share the karmic debt.”
“Old Cao offered to help when he learned about it, but I refused him too. This is my responsibility. Zhou Min gave her benefits to me alone, and I accepted every one. Until I have no other choice, I hope to rely on myself.”
“I see!”
Li Miao understood my meaning.
Looking at the stack of money, he sighed. “You’re truly honorable, Young Brother Wu.”
After making his living from yin affairs for so many years, how could Li Miao not understand?
Had I not explained beforehand, the moment he began retrieving Zhou Min’s corpse, he would have become involved and acquired a connection to everything that followed.
But if he accepted payment and treated it as an ordinary commission, then the matter ended when that job did.
Whether he successfully retrieved her and whatever happened afterward would not affect his future.
Our current matter with the living corpse Xiao Sheng was an example.
If the three of us truly abandoned it and pretended we had seen nothing, that would be fine. We continued only from an inexplicable sense of responsibility combined with curiosity about a tremendous secret.
“So please accept the money, Brother Li. Once you do, you can choose whether to help afterward without becoming entangled in too much trouble.”
I spoke sincerely.
With a sigh, Li Miao finally accepted it.
“Young Brother Wu, despite your age, you possess skill and ability. You’re thoughtful and forthright. You’re destined to accomplish great things!”
I chuckled and deliberately joked, “I’ll take your blessing, then. If I never make it big and can’t afford food, I’ll have to rely on you and Old Cao to feed me.”
Li Miao laughed too and promised we would. Professions dealing in yin affairs might be unpopular, but they were not short of money.
They could not compare with the truly rich, but earned far more than ordinary salaried workers!
With our business settled, we left together.
He brought his black-dog-hair rope, a piece of white cloth, a powerful battery lamp, a dagger, and other equipment. Telling Heizi to guard the house, he crossed the riverbank with me to the edge of the Chuan River.
The night wind was cool, and the faint fishy scent of the water mingled in the air.
Li Miao’s boat was moored at a simple dock on the shore. It looked like a private dock he had built himself. Though flimsy, it had remained standing against the river’s constant scouring.
“Come on. Get aboard.”
Li Miao spoke quietly, and we entered the cabin one after the other. He pressed his bamboo pole lightly against the bank, sending the little wooden boat into the current and toward midriver.
“You brought one of Zhou Min’s possessions, didn’t you, Young Brother Wu?”
“I did. I know that much about the rules.”
I took a handkerchief from my pocket. I had collected it from Zhou Min’s bedroom when I visited her parents.
Of course, that did not count as stealing!
Because Zhou Min and I had a nether covenant, I could naturally use her belongings to help uncover the truth.
We did not need the usual assortment of threshold soil, clothing, and other items.
Objects the deceased had used in life were mainly meant to create an intangible connection, like transmitting a signal.
A powerful vicious corpse like Zhou Min should not require so much trouble.
Li Miao nodded and accepted the handkerchief, murmuring an incantation.
It sounded somewhat like a Chuan River boatmen’s chant, yet not quite. It was probably one of the corpse retrievers’ ritual verses.
After chanting for a while, he tossed the handkerchief into the air.
Whoosh!
A river breeze caught it and carried it away.
It flew one way and another through the night sky, as though circling.
Sometimes it nearly landed on a spot along the river, only to rise abruptly and spin through the air again.
It was extremely strange.
I could not interpret it, but Li Miao’s face changed at the sight. His brows drew tightly together.
I hurriedly asked, “What is it, Brother Li? Have we run into trouble?”