Chapter 12: The Supplier

Xu Qing followed his lead and improvised, "It's all my fault for being careless and losing the travel permit issued by my home village. I can't get away right now, and look at the mess this has caused. It seems I'll have to think of another way."

As he spoke, he made to walk out.

"Don't be in such a rush to leave, young master. While it's true you can't get a business license without a travel permit, no one said you couldn't get a permit!" The agency clerk stopped Xu Qing with these words. Seeing the man actually turn back, he immediately put on airs, "However, the price for this permit is higher than a business license. I must make this clear first—it will cost this much!"

The clerk held up two fingers.

"Two hundred wen?"

"It's two taels of silver!"

Upon hearing this, Xu Qing turned and walked away. When he reached the door and saw the clerk hadn't chased after him, he returned as if nothing had happened.

Taking out two taels of silver, Xu Qing weighed them and said, "I have the money, but you must not forge this travel permit and business license."

"That's impossible. We are an official agency, and everything is approved by the prefectural government. See this stamp? It's issued by the proper government office; there is absolutely no fraud!" The agency clerk was a man who only cared about money. Seeing that business was coming, he naturally spoke smoothly. After a series of assurances, he invited Xu Qing into the back room.

Issuing a travel permit was no small matter. The clerk couldn't make the decision; the agency manager had to personally inspect the person. Only if they felt there were no issues could they 'fabricate' the documents.

The agency here in Linhe had five managers, each with their own duties. Some managed brothels and gambling dens, some handled fishing and water rights, and others managed the various businesses on Linhe Street.

The one the clerk was taking Xu Qing to see now was Fourth Master Li, who was responsible for managing all the miscellaneous goods trade in Linhe.

It was still early, and besides Fourth Master Li, Third Master Huang and Fifth Master Chang were also in the agency.

Fourth Master Li looked like a refined man; he wore a scholar's long robe, an indigo scholar's cap, and always kept a folding fan by his side.

Upon learning that Xu Qing wanted to replace his travel permit, the Fourth Master raised his eyes and sized him up.

Seeming to catch the scent of perfume on Xu Qing, he suddenly smiled and said, "I see you are a refined person, not the type to stir up trouble. I'll agree to have this permit handled for you."

With that, Fourth Master Li had the clerk bring ink, stamps, and paper, and began asking for his date of birth, ancestral home, and name.

Xu Qing used Little Stone Village, where Liu Youdao had lived as a child, as his home village and filled in Xiangyin County as his ancestral home. In about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the travel permit and business license were both ready.

One has to admit, having money makes things go smoothly!

Fourth Master Li happily accepted the two-plus taels of silver. Though it wasn't much money, it was easier to take than usual.

In the past, those who came to handle permits and licenses were always stingy when it came time to pay. Unlike today's guest, who didn't hesitate at all when asked for money and paid every single coin in full.

"Brother Xu is a straightforward man. I wonder what business you are in? Perhaps one day I can provide some help."

Xu Qing put away his business license and shook his head, "I'm afraid most people wouldn't be able to help with my business!"

"Brother, you don't think I'm joking, do you? Just tell me. I don't believe there's any business in the Linhe area that our agency can't handle!"

Xu Qing looked at the skeptical agency manager and the clerk, finding it quite amusing.

"It's not a rare business. I just opened a mortuary shop, doing work like collecting corpses, encoffining, and moving spirits for burial..."

Fourth Master Li's breath hitched upon hearing this, while Third Master Huang and Fifth Master Chang were amused.

"Fourth, didn't you just say you could help Boss Xu with his business? Why don't you skip going home today, just lie down in a coffin, and we brothers will carry you to Boss Xu's shop to show our support!"

As Third Master Huang finished speaking, the agency was filled with laughter.

"Third Master Huang, don't mock me. So what if he does business with the dead? I can still get my hands into it!"

Fourth Master Li spat on the ground and turned to look at Xu Qing.

"Boss Xu, I won't hide it from you. Our agency is always walking the streets. We know exactly how many people and dogs are on every street, or whose young wife ran off with someone! Not to mention whose family has had a death. If Boss Xu is willing, I can have my men help bridge the gap. From now on, whenever there is a funeral, you can be invited to handle it."

Agency brokers had another identity: they were middlemen, similar to headhunters, best at pulling strings and profiting from it.

When Xu Qing heard this, he didn't think the other party was being kind enough to introduce business for free. There had to be some trick hidden in this!

Sure enough, Fourth Master Li immediately added, "Of course, our agency can't pull these strings for nothing. If Boss Xu is willing, how about a fifty-fifty split?"

A fifty percent cut! If this were anyone else, they would certainly be one hundred percent unwilling.

You only pull the strings, while others do all the actual work and labor, and then you want half the profit? You really have no shame!

However, Xu Qing was not an ordinary person. He had little interest in how much money he made; the key was the introduction of 'dead people.'

You must know that he could obtain rewards from the Scripture of Salvation by transcending corpses. As long as there were enough dead people, why worry about earning little money?

Xu Qing agreed immediately. Fourth Master Li brought paper, and the two signed an agreement. This whole process left the two masters, Huang and Chang, stunned.

High, truly high!

There were no shortage of wealthy people in Linhe Ward, and many high-ranking officials and nobles. If anyone in their families died and needed to move the spirit for a funeral, they certainly wouldn't be stingy; they would definitely want a grand ceremony!

If there was one funeral a month, that would be twelve payments a year. Thinking of the hidden profits, both masters were envious!

Truly worthy of someone who has studied and passed the Licentiate exam. This Fourth Master really knows how to make business with the dead come alive!

After this small interlude, Xu Qing's mind became active, so he asked Fourth Master Li if there were any channels here to buy corpses. As long as there was stock, he would take them.

As for the price, it could be negotiated.

Fourth Master Li's breath hitched again upon hearing this. This Boss Xu had some wild connections!

"I was blind. I didn't realize Boss Xu was such an expert."

Before this, there had been 'rumors' about the corpse-grinding mill in Linhe Ward. Although the government had suppressed them later, it didn't mean the matter was groundless!

As an official agency broker, Fourth Master Li naturally knew some secrets.

It was possible that the fair-faced young man before him was involved in the Yin Gate trade or was an expert with connections to the Yin Gate!

"Boss Xu, I have heard a little about the business you mentioned. The charity graveyards outside that stop and transport corpses do this kind of business. An unclaimed corpse is generally between one hundred and five hundred wen."

"Every autumn execution, there are also people at the government office gate who collect corpses, but you have to give them a heads-up. After all, a complete corpse and a beheaded one are not the same price."

Speaking of this, Fourth Master Li couldn't help but bare his teeth. Even though he was well-informed, he really didn't know much about these matters involving the Yin Gate.

"Heh, I don't know what those people use these corpses for. Whether they can go into the mountains to dig coal or go to the mill to push the grindstone..."

"But these things don't matter. After all, our agency only handles the introductions. As for how each shopkeeper runs their business..." Fourth Master Li said with a smile, "That's their own business. We don't care about that."

Xu Qing understood the other party's meaning. It turned out the agency only cared about collecting money. As for whether the money was clean, it had nothing to do with the agency. If something went wrong, he would have to bear it himself!

They say there is no merchant who isn't treacherous, and this saying is true. The profession of agency broker is the pinnacle of this!

Although the business was settled, there were some things Xu Qing still had to say upfront.

"I trust Fourth Master's ability, but I have some requirements for the source of the goods. They must be unclaimed corpses. They cannot be stolen, robbed, or dug up from someone's grave in the middle of the night. I feel that would damage my karmic merit."

"After all, the dead are also people..."

Xu Qing said he was afraid of damaging his karmic merit, but the main reason was that unclaimed corpses were less likely to cause trouble.

As the saying goes, where there are people, there is a world of conflict. When someone just dies, the waters of this world become even more turbulent. If you take a corpse that has an owner without permission, you never know how the family and friends will make a scene later.

Therefore, for the fledgling Xu Qing, it was best to avoid trouble if he could!

Fourth Master Li thought about it and didn't disagree.

The government government office had so many death-row prisoners every year. In the end, some were buried and some were sold, and you rarely saw family members coming to collect the bodies.

The two negotiated the business, and Xu Qing could be considered to have made a familiar face. He felt that if any of the masters in the agency kicked the bucket in the future, they might send him to be encoffined and buried, as they were now half-acquaintances. At that time, he would give them a discount.

Leaving the agency, Xu Qing felt refreshed.

From leaving home until now, it had been less than an hour. Not only did he get his business license, but he also found a new source of goods for his business.

Could it be that one's luck improves after death?

Xu Qing was speechless. Perhaps it wasn't that his luck improved after death, but that he had been too constrained while alive, which affected his own feng shui.

These things were also mentioned in the classics of geomancy.

Now that he was a zombie, he had no pressure from car or house loans, and his heart was open and broad, which would naturally indirectly affect his external luck.

Arriving at the vegetable market, Xu Qing looked at a high platform. That was where the autumn executions took place, also known as the execution ground.

It was now the first month of the year, and the execution ground was empty. However, below it were many vendors selling vegetables and miscellaneous goods, a complete scene of a bustling morning market.

"The Zombie Cultivation Scripture says, persimmons gather the essence of the moon at night. When they ripen, yin reaches its extreme and gives birth to yang. The taste changes from astringent to sweet, like eating honey, which can make a zombie drool..."

Xu Qing walked around but didn't see any vendors selling fresh persimmons, though there were two shops selling dried persimmons.

"Hiss—sweet!"

Xu Qing tasted a dried persimmon covered in white frost and felt his mouth water. Although he didn't feel any obvious changes in his body after eating it, it was a delicious treat that he could fully consume.

Besides persimmons, bayberry fruit was also on the zombie menu.

The reason was simple: bayberry also had the effect of gathering moonlight.

This was why Xu Qing always had a strong desire to gnaw on candles when passing by candle shops.

The reason for this was that the raw materials for the candles in the shop included bayberry fruit oil and animal fat.

And these two things happened to be materials that zombies could consume.

After buying the ingredients, Xu Qing browsed the street for a few items that could improve feng shui.

Such as the four treasures of the study, wood carvings of auspicious beasts, and so on. Besides that, he also asked the flower and bird market vendors to send a few pots of Clivia and money trees to his shop when they had time.

Anyway, he wasn't short of money for the time being. Even if he squandered all of Liu Youdao's coffin money, he still had the gold and silver clappers he obtained when transcending the beggars at the corpse-grinding mill to fall back on.

Of course, he wouldn't use the clappers to beg for money. Instead, he would pawn them or melt them into gold and silver fragments. Wouldn't he have money again then?

It was just a pity about the dog-beating stick he had received as a reward when transcending a beggar back then.

At that time, in order to avoid the government officials chasing him into the alley, he had no choice but to throw the dog-beating stick and the beggar's iron bowl outside the alley.

That dog-beating stick wasn't anything rare, but Xu Qing had never seen such a straight stick in his previous or current life.

It was simply his dream stick; he couldn't forget it in two lifetimes!

Perhaps there was some mysterious connection. Just as Xu Qing was lamenting the lost dog-beating stick, several patrolling government office runners walked over from the opposite end of the street.

And the leading official was holding a smooth, bright stick in his hand, tapping it against his other hand.

Before Xu Qing could take a second look, the official with the fierce eyebrows and tiger eyes, looking like a bully, turned and looked over.

"Sissy, smelling of perfume, ptooey!"

Patrol Captain Zhao Zhonghe wrinkled his nose and spat on the ground beside him.

Xu Qing stumbled at these words, forcing himself not to look back.

If it weren't for the sake of disguise and encoffining, who would be idle enough to apply powder and moisturizer?

Holding my stick and daring to mock me, Xu Qing had completely remembered this person.

Keep on being arrogant. When you lie in a coffin one day, let's see if I don't scrape a few layers of white paint on your face!

Returning to the mortuary shop, Xu Qing took down the four door panels. While waiting for business, he began to prepare his next zombie meal.

He cut the candles bought from the candle shop into thin slices and arranged them neatly on a plate, using the remaining candle tips with cotton wicks as decoration in the center.

He placed the frost-covered dried persimmons on a new plate and drizzled them with egg white. Instantly, they became bright and translucent, like a snail had crawled over them, crystal clear as snow.

Finally, the main course was a bowl of steamed pig blood.

After finishing dinner and lighting a stick of spiritual incense, it was simply too comfortable!

The only pity was that there had been no business for two consecutive days. Not only was it cold and quiet at Xu Qing's place, but the neighboring paper-craft shop and candle shop were also deserted.

Xu Qing had nothing to do, so he began to tend to his flowers and plants, and incidentally, he reorganized the feng shui of his shop.

However, he didn't arrange it according to the feng shui of a house for the living, but used the feng shui of a tomb for his own home.

As a zombie, he naturally had to follow the customs of the place. The more yin energy in the shop, the more comfortable he would live!

This day, Xu Qing opened the shop door early. He had hoped that one piece of business before dark would count as a prosperous start, but he hadn't expected that in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, two government office runners would carry a corpse wrapped in old cloth into the shop.

After asking about the identity and reason, Xu Qing learned that it was Fourth Master Li from the agency who had exerted his influence. This corpse happened to be a prisoner who had died in the jail yesterday.

"Fourth Master said that collecting corpses here is not only convenient but also reasonably priced, so we came. If it were the usual way, this corpse would have to be handled by someone personally at the government office. As for the price, a corpse would at least be two or three taels of silver..."

Xu Qing didn't bother to investigate the truth of the two runners' words and went straight to the counter to take out three taels of silver, giving it to them without hesitation.

The two runners were immediately all smiles.

"Fourth Master was right; Boss Xu is truly straightforward! Nothing more to say, when there's more stock, we will definitely come to support Boss Xu's business again."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 13 =====