Chapter 10: A Spark, A Travel Permit

Clutching five qian of fragmented silver, Xu Qing stepped out of the accounting office.

For ordinary commoners, this sum was not small, but for the Yin Gate trade, where one might go three years without a deal only to feast for three years on a single job, it was mere alms for a beggar!

The coffin-bearing firm hired from the prefectural city demanded twenty taels upfront; the Liu family was vast and wealthy, conducting the funeral and burial according to top-tier specifications, yet after deducting labor costs and various expenses, the remaining silver was hardly enough to sustain a coffin-bearing firm.

Everyone in the Liu household knew this clearly; otherwise, they would not have invited them to take charge.

As for the accounting office's talk of "senior masters" and "junior masters," it was purely an excuse.

Today, with the funeral concluded, which of the old coffin-bearers or the masters playing suonas and other instruments did not praise his steady handling of affairs?

Walking through the Liu compound, renowned for its excellent feng shui, Xu Qing felt that the feng shui here was not so remarkable after all.

Feng shui is easy to change; the human heart is hard to cultivate!

Within the entire Liu residence, how many people actually adhered to their proper duties?

With a cold expression, Xu Qing crossed the corridor and heard sounds of playful revelry in the distance.

He paused his steps and looked toward the pavilion.

There, the Young Master Liu was chasing a maid around the artificial rocks, flirting shamelessly.

The maid wore mourning clothes, her snowy arms half-exposed; while feigning resistance yet welcoming his advances, she giggled incessantly.

"Young Master, come catch me! This humble servant is a charming young widow whose husband just died, an 'unremarried woman' straight from those storybooks, just waiting for a ruffian like you to bully me!"

At the corridor, witnessing everything, Xu Qing involuntarily hardened—his fists hardened!

Good, good, good! So this is how you play, is it?

Immediately, he felt no rush to return; instead, he turned to find a secluded spot, took out brush, ink, and paper from his satchel, and began to write.

Thus, a sprawling exposé revealing the foul scandals of the entire Liu family was completed—a letter of accusation!

At the bottom corner of the paper, Xu Qing signed the name of the lickspittle scholar he had previously superstitiously liberated, then blew the ink dry, stood up, and crept toward the rear courtyard of the Liu residence...

Xu Qing easily leaped over the courtyard wall, nearly ten feet high; thanks to the innate talent of a zombie, whenever a retainer or maid passed by, he could smell the scent of the living in advance.

After winding through the compound, he found the side courtyard where Su Hongxiu resided; at that moment, she was discussing with her personal maid how to usurp Master Liu's family fortune.

"Miss, I notice that Young Master Liu secretly stares at your figure from behind every time; for someone so obsessed with lust, if you employ just a little trickery, you can surely borrow his hand to..."

Su Hongxiu's eyes lit up, and she was about to speak when suddenly her maid beside her let out a wail of pain!

She quickly turned to look, only to see that two of the maid's front teeth had been knocked out by a paper ball from who-knows-where.

After temporarily soothing the maid, Su Hongxiu picked up the weapon and discovered it was a sheet of white paper wrapping a stone.

Frowning, she scanned her surroundings but saw no sign of the person who had thrown the stone.

Subconsciously unfolding the paper ball, upon finishing the content written on it, a flush of excitement instantly surged onto Su Hongxiu's face.

Outside the Liu residence, Xu Qing activated his Qi-Observation Technique and discovered that the feng shui of the Liu compound had completely reversed, becoming a place of obscure misfortune.

It seemed that the few town-suppressing objects he had casually moved had already taken effect, catalyzed by the Liu family losing their mainstay.

As for the future of the Liu family...

The spark had been sown; how large the fire would spread henceforth depended entirely on the capabilities of these people.

"Greed and lust are all kindling; evil thoughts and crooked ideas are all gusts of wind; once this fire burns, I suppose this winter will be much warmer..."

With his satchel slung across his shoulder, Xu Qing walked along the cold streets, where some refugees, arriving from who-knows-where, huddled shivering in corners and under eaves where the wind was weaker, waiting for passersby to offer charity.

Seeing this, Xu Qing suddenly had a thought.

The beggars within the prefectural city had been swept clean by a mysterious group, yet these refugee beggars had suddenly flocked to Linhe; could there be some connection between these events?

Lost in thought, Xu Qing unknowingly arrived back in front of his own coroner's shop.

At the entrance of the neighboring paper-effigy shop, a middle-aged man wearing a gray cotton-lined jacket was carrying paper horses and wreaths inside.

Seeing Xu Qing dressed in ritual robes, obviously having just completed a ceremony, the man could not help but ask, "Are you also part of this shop?"

Xu Qing nodded and said, "My Master was the one who originally set up this storefront; now that he has passed away, naturally I must uphold this business alone."

The paper-effigy shop owner, Wu Yaoxing, paused, thinking to himself that it was true; this winter was so cold that many elderly people in numerous families had passed away, a fact evident just from this month's volume of paper-effigy shipments...

However, he had not expected that the old gentleman next door, who had only opened for business two days ago, had also failed to survive the season.

Xu Qing did not know Wu Yaoxing's inner thoughts; seeing that the man did not press further, he spared his breath.

"Young Master, it is not easy for you to be alone; if you ever need paper effigies for your business, come over, and I will sell them to you at a discount."

Xu Qing smiled slightly; his heart, cold all day, finally warmed up a bit.

However, he felt it inappropriate to reciprocate by saying something like, "If your family ever needs corpse preparation or funeral services, I can also give you a discount"... only a fool would say such things!

"Thank you, Shopkeeper; I have not yet asked how I should address you?"

"My surname is Wu; just call me Old Wu. Since we are neighbors from now on, there is no need for formalities!"

After exchanging names with Shopkeeper Wu, the two did not converse further; after all, in such freezing weather, who would idle away time chatting on the street?

Returning to the shop, the sky was already late; although Xu Qing could see in the dark, he still lit an oil lamp.

He was playing the role of a living shop owner; if he made the place gloomy all day, he would become a corpse ghost even if he was not one!

"It seems today's business trip was indeed not in vain."

Sitting behind the counter, Xu Qing took out a raw egg from below, cracked a small hole in it, and while sucking on the contents, reviewed the day's events.

The rewards for superstitiously liberating Master Liu need not be mentioned; rather, some invisible gains had a greater impact on him at his current stage.

For instance, hosting today's grand funeral had made him a familiar face in the circle of coffin-bearing firms and funeral services; at the very least, everyone now had an impression of him.

Another example was that the neighbors were not as "gossipy" as he had imagined; no one paid much attention to his identity.

Beyond these, the most important matter was undoubtedly what he had witnessed today at the ward entrance.

The place where Master Liu was buried was outside the ward, so one had to cross the market streets of Linhe Ward and exit through the ward gate.

It was precisely near the ward entrance that Xu Qing saw many laborers and stonemasons constructing "city defenses."

Some said that military disasters in the northern prefectures had caused many refugees to flood in, so the Prefect had ordered the construction of a defense system in Linhe Ward, a hub of water and land transport, to block potential future riots.

Others claimed that demons from the Tianxin Sect were colluding with evil spirits and ghosts, harboring sinister intentions to raise a rebellion here in Jinmen, aiming to shake the very foundations of the nation.

In short, opinions varied wildly, with no definitive answer.

However, it was predictable that the sky over Linhe Ward, or perhaps even over Jinmen, was truly about to change.

Xu Qing still remembered what the soldiers responsible for constructing the defenses had said when the coffin-bearers carried the coffin out of the ward gate:

"This is only in Linhe; if you fellows were still in the prefectural city and wanted to leave, you would certainly undergo thorough verification. However, this is uncertain; I suspect that once the city walls are erected and the city gates opened, the next time you come, you might have to verify both the living and the dead before being allowed out..."

The words spoken by that man remained fresh in Xu Qing's memory; the Great Yong dynasty already had regulations stating that anyone leaving the city for a burial must register in advance, writing the deceased's birth and death dates along with the funeral date on a sheet of white paper for verification upon exiting the city; furthermore, the identities of the mourners had to be confirmed via tooth-plaque travel permits to prevent future oversights where individuals could not be traced.

"Tooth-plaque travel permits..."

Xu Qing placed the emptied eggshell on the counter and exhaled a breath carrying the unique fishy-sweet scent of egg fluid.

"It seems I must find an opportunity to visit the brokerage firm and inquire how much it costs to replace a lost tooth-plaque travel permit."

(End of Chapter)