Chapter 151

When the land is idle, weeds grow; when people are idle, troubles grow.

When a ghost is idle, it is also easy for extra trouble to arise.

For example, a porter might be walking along perfectly well with his load, when suddenly he trips and falls, breaking his head and bleeding.

Others might think the porter was careless and fell on his own, but a child with "pure eyes" nearby would say that a ghost was lying on the ground, and when the person came by, it deliberately reached out to grab the person's leg, tripping them.

"Ghost pulling legs" or "ghost grabbing feet" refers to this kind of ghost that likes to cause trouble when idle.

Watching Xiuniang talking to the flowers and plants, Xu Qing felt that he could not let this ghost remain idle any longer; he had to find something for her to do.

As it happened, Shopkeeper Yao of the burial clothes shop was determined to leave, and the specific date might be within these two months; if Shopkeeper Yao were lucky enough to sell the shop early, perhaps the next day, one of the "dragon claws" of the Jingxia Street funeral row would be severed.

Without the burial clothes shop, it would not be so convenient for Xu Qing to handle all the shop matters in one street.

By then, he would inevitably have to run back and forth to seek out the next burial clothes shop.

If he couldn't find one, he would likely have to go to a second-hand clothing shop or a tailor shop to have them custom-made.

Thinking of this, a sense of crisis arose in Xu Qing's heart.

The funeral business was his foundation, and there could be no mistakes.

Relying on others is not as good as relying on oneself; since Shopkeeper Yao could not be counted on, why not build up his own funeral empire?

It's just burial clothes; if other shops couldn't find a tailor, he had a ready-made one at home, and crucially, it was fully automated and ghost-energy-driven—healthy and environmentally friendly. Even looking at the entire textile industry of the Great Yong, it was far ahead.

At this moment, Xiuniang did not yet know Xu Qing's intentions; upon hearing that she was to make burial clothes, she was overjoyed.

She might not know other things, but she was skilled at making clothes!

Xiuniang's grandparents were tailors, and her father was a tailor too; truly speaking, she could be called a family of tailors.

"What style of burial clothes do you want to make?"

Xiuniang reached out and beckoned, and the measuring tape from the needlework basket fell into her hand.

"."

Sometimes Xu Qing really wanted to crack open this female ghost's head to see what exactly was inside that little brain.

Where is there a young man in his twenties who makes his own burial clothes?

Looking at the look of anticipation in Xiuniang's eyes, Xu Qing didn't know what to say to her.

She looked as if she couldn't wait for him to die and become a ghost so he could go down and keep her company.

When he made the green-collared white shirt, she didn't seem this excited.

But Xu Qing thought about it again; it seemed he wasn't a living person to begin with.

In that case, Xiuniang measuring him for a custom burial suit seemed to be in accordance with the Rites of Zhou.

So, should he make one?

Xu Qing was tempted.

Burial clothes don't seem much different from pajamas; if he tailored a set of pajamas, wouldn't it be perfect to change into them when he lay in the coffin for seclusion or rest?

Burial clothes matching a coffin—how authentic!

Xu Qing's expression shifted, making Xiuniang feel a bit uneasy, fearing she had done something wrong or said the wrong thing.

Fortunately, the next moment she heard Xu Qing say: "Then tailor one, let me see your craftsmanship."

Xiuniang gripped the measuring tape with both hands; upon hearing Xu Qing's reply, her eyes curved, and the joy in her heart appeared all over her face.

A natural-born ghost talent must have a use; Xiuniang was happy from the bottom of her heart that her skills were being put to use today.

At the windowsill, a bit of yin wind brushed past the spider lilies; the piercing white daylight, devoid of any warmth, shone into the weaving room, and dust motes floated in the air.

Xu Qing stood at the intersection of the light outside the window and the shadows inside the room; Xiuniang's nimble hands moved the measuring tape, beginning to measure his head circumference and leg length.

Earlier, Xiuniang had made a set of green-collared white shirts for Xu Qing, so she knew his measurements.

However, burial clothes also come with burial caps and burial shoes, which required her to measure again.

There was ready-made fabric in the weaving room, enough for Xiuniang to make a full set of burial clothes. However, Xu Qing still specifically warned her about some taboos; after all, burial clothes are different from ordinary clothing, and there are quite a few requirements in their tailoring and making.

Red and white ceremonies are the major events of life.

Burial clothes, burial shoes, burial caps, burial socks, burial pillows, and burial quilts—the intricacies could not be explained in a few words, so Xu Qing only picked the important ones to tell Xiuniang.

"Burial clothes must be woven with cotton and silk thread; you cannot use satin."

"Why can't we use satin? Satin is so good, and our family isn't short of money."

Xu Qing looked at Xiuniang expressionlessly; she shrank her neck and obediently stopped interrupting.

"Because cotton and silk have the meaning of lingering attachment, symbolizing the living's longing for the deceased. As for fur and satin..." Xu Qing recalled the details in the book on funeral rites and said, "These two things have bad connotations. If you wrap the body in fur, you fear becoming livestock in the next life; if you use satin, it is for fear of having no descendants."

"These things are nothing much, but everyone likes to wish for good fortune; speaking of which, a funeral is also a joyous occasion."

Entering the Dao through skill, Xu Qing's understanding of funeral rites had already surpassed the mundane.

Seeing Xu Qing speak as if he were an expert, Xiuniang knew that her master truly loved sending people off to their funerals.

Burial clothes are mostly dark in color; men wear apricot yellow or black, while women's outer garments are mostly blue or bronze.

Furthermore, the greatest taboo for burial clothes is for them not to cover the body, because only beggars who beg for food would be like that.

Therefore, the sleeves and pant legs must be long, long enough to cover the deceased's hands and feet completely; this is what makes a qualified burial suit.

Because of this, a living person wearing burial clothes and walking around creates a strange and terrifying sense of déjà vu, which is related to the purpose of the burial clothes and their special design.

Just imagine, if someone walked over wearing bloated burial clothes, with sleeves longer than their hands and pant legs dragging, who wouldn't be afraid?

As for why burial clothes are generally bloated, it is because the number of burial clothes worn by the dead is not one, but many, so that the deceased can have enough changes of clothes when they reach the underworld.

These burial clothes are all put on the deceased before the funeral, usually in an odd number, with a difference of two between the upper and lower garments—for example, seven on top and five on the bottom, or nine on top and seven on the bottom, with the maximum being eleven on top and nine on the bottom.

Female corpses can also use skirts instead of pants.

For those who die young, before the age of fifty or so, they generally only wear three layers of burial clothes; the older the deceased, the more they can wear, signifying blessings and longevity.

Here, after learning how to make burial clothes, Xiuniang began to weave silk and cut cloth, preparing to make a sample for Xu Qing to evaluate and try on.

Xu Qing, meanwhile, carried a hoe alone and began to dig a pit to bury the bodies.

In the feng shui treasure residence, the man plows and the woman weaves—it was truly boundless joy.

After burying the corpses, Xu Qing calmed his mind and inhaled the moonlight and yin qi in the courtyard; when the dawn light was faint, he climbed over the courtyard wall and strolled toward Bird and Flower Street.

However, he hadn't gone far from the residence when a female ghost holding clothes chased out from behind him.

"Master, wait, your clothes!"

Xu Qing turned his head to see Xiuniang holding the burial clothes and cap, with a pair of burial shoes embroidered with golden lotus patterns pressed beside the cap.

Xu Qing was naturally familiar with such funeral supplies.

The burial outfit before him was in the traditional style; when a person dies, the burial pillow and cap are decorated with clouds, and the foot pillow and burial shoes are embroidered with lotus flowers.

There is a saying: "Step on the lotus flowers to ascend to the Western Heaven."

This refers to the lotus foot pillow and lotus shoes.

"Master, hurry and put them on to try. If they fit, I'll make a few more sets tomorrow..." Xiuniang, who had been busy all night, felt no fatigue at all, nor did she think there was anything inappropriate about having someone wear burial clothes.

Xu Qing looked at the fine workmanship and muttered to himself.

It would be a real pity if this female ghost didn't tread the loom.

Putting on the dark-colored burial suit, it was embroidered with the traditional "Five Bats Holding Longevity" pattern—five dark golden bats holding a circular "Longevity" character.

Besides the burial suit, the burial cap also featured the "Ten Thousand Generations of Auspiciousness" bat pattern.

Serving Xu Qing as he put on the burial suit, Xiuniang was actually a bit mesmerized.

For some reason, she felt that the master wearing the burial clothes was even more fascinating than usual, especially that deathly, lifeless look, just like someone who had just crawled out of a coffin; if he went to a mass grave, he would surely enchant a whole crowd of female ghosts.

Having obtained the burial suit sample, Xu Qing had already made up his mind.

The burial suit he was wearing was clearly meticulously tailored, yet Xiuniang had managed to finish it in just one day and night.

If it were ordinary burial clothes, not to mention ten or so a day, at least two or three would be easy.

The corpse-worker shop didn't have that many customers; if someone came to buy burial clothes every two days, it would be considered a booming business, so one burial suit a day would be more than enough.

After making up his mind, Xu Qing looked at Xiuniang and asked: "Shopkeeper Yao of the burial clothes shop no longer intends to do the burial clothes business, but my shop cannot be without someone to make burial clothes..."

Xiuniang was stunned upon hearing this, and then she was overjoyed.

"If Master is willing to find work for me, I am too grateful to even thank you enough; how could I be unhappy?"

Having settled the matter of the burial clothes, to prevent Shopkeeper Yao from selling the burial clothes shop, Xu Qing returned to Jingxia Street first to discuss taking over the shop with Shopkeeper Yao.

However, he didn't say he was the one taking it over, but brought up the two brothers, Guan Dazhuang and Sun Erzhuang, saying that someone from Guanmen Village wanted to buy this shop, and if he agreed, he would have them come over to sign the contract.

Shopkeeper Yao grabbed Xu Qing's hand and said with genuine emotion: "Shopkeeper Xu, if this can really be done, you are my benefactor!"

Xu Qing understood why Shopkeeper Yao was so excited.

Jingxia Street was a famous funeral street; anyone with a sound mind would not choose to do legitimate business on this land.

One must know that many pedestrians would deliberately walk around Jingxia Street, doing so simply because they felt the street was ominous and wanted to avoid it.

In a place with such sparse foot traffic, it was not easy to sell a shop normally.

If sold through an agency, the price would be suppressed by at least half.

"Shopkeeper Yao, don't be in such a hurry to thank me; I have one more thing to pass on: the reason Boss Sun wants to buy this storefront is to take over the burial clothes business."

"If Shopkeeper Yao wants to sell this storefront, all the equipment in the shop for placing burial clothes and shoes must be sold together."

"That's no problem; as long as he is willing to buy it, all these things in the shop will be his."

Shopkeeper Yao was happy inside; it was rare for someone to be willing to take over his business, and as for whether the other party would regret it later, that had nothing to do with him.

Bird and Flower Street.

Having finished the matters at hand, Xu Qing came once again to this holy land in Xuan Yu's heart.

Teasing the birds, stroking the small animals at the stalls, he strolled all the way to Second Master Feng's residence.

As soon as he entered the door, Xu Qing saw the young proprietor of the Tai'an Escort Agency.

Xie Yunyan, with his arm bandaged in bamboo splints and cloth, was directing the escort brothers to unload goods into the courtyard.

Through the boards covering the goods, Xu Qing could smell the scent of funerary money inside.

"Brother Xu comes at just the right time; I have some top-notch news to tell you!"

Seeing Xu Qing, Second Master Feng felt much of the frustration of the past few days dissipate.

Opening the lid of a crate of goods in front of everyone, there was straw inside for protection.

Second Master Feng lifted the pottery jar placed in the middle, which was filled with high-quality funerary money.

Then came the second crate, the third crate...

Five-Zhu coins, horseshoe gold, and unicorn-hoof gold—the unique aura of yin gold objects made Xu Qing almost unable to hold himself back.

He was already at the threshold of breaking through from a Silver Armored Corpse to a Golden Armored Corpse; the yin gold objects before him had already stirred the evolutionary desire in his zombie nature.

"How is it? Is Brother Xu satisfied?"

Xu Qing nodded and said: "Very satisfied, Second Master has gone to great lengths."

On the side, Xie Yunyan, who had broken his arm, suddenly stepped forward, raised his eyebrows, and said: "Are these your goods?"

Without waiting for Xu Qing to answer, Xie Yunyan raised his uninjured arm, performed a rather comical cupped-hand salute, and said: "I am Xie Yunyan, the proprietor of the Tai'an Escort Agency. This batch of goods was escorted all the way by my agency, and now it can be considered delivered intact."

"If you have goods in the future, you can find my agency for transport. My family is a century-old brand, so you can rest assured."

"."

Watching Xie Yunyan shamelessly promoting himself, Xu Qing couldn't help but find it funny.

If the Jinmen Gang had remained intact, who would have these confiscated goods now was hard to say.

It certainly wouldn't be in the hands of the Tai'an Escort Agency.

Looking at Xie Yunyan's injured arm, Xu Qing's heart stirred, and he asked: "Brother, this arm..."

"Oh, a small problem. I had a bit of a disagreement with the Jinmen Gang the night before last. Now, the leader of the Jinmen Gang, Hong Baoya, has been executed. Speaking of which, your goods were confiscated by the Jinmen Gang a few days ago. When I heard about this, I led the escort team to take the goods back overnight."

"If you need to escort goods in the future, you might as well find our agency. Of course, you can also introduce friends. Whether it's the price or the ability to protect and escort, my Tai'an Escort Agency will satisfy you."

"Easily said, if there's a chance, I will definitely choose Tai'an Escort Agency." Xu Qing said politely, then reciprocated: "The services in my shop are also quite thoughtful, and the prices are equally people-friendly. If the young proprietor ever comes to patronize my business, I will definitely make you satisfied."

"Easily said, easily said." Xie Yunyan was all smiles.

The young man before him was a big client; if a long-term cooperation could be reached, it would certainly be a good thing for the escort agency.

On the side, Second Master Feng coughed twice, but failed to stop Xie Yunyan's flow of words.

After Xu Qing left with the convoy, Xie Yunyan suddenly asked: "Second Master, what kind of business does this Shopkeeper Xu do?"

Second Master Feng rolled his eyes and said: "He does business for the dead! Speaking of which, those few escorts from your agency were given a free funeral rite by Brother Xu, all for my sake."

"."

(End of chapter)