Chapter 70

"Ah... mmph!"

Tan Wenbin's scream was about to erupt when a hand covered his mouth, forcibly stifling it back.

He widened his eyes, staring in terror at the aged face before him.

The old man smiled, and just as he was about to say something, he noticed the young man's arms winding upward, his legs wrapping downward, his waist exerting force to twist in one fluid motion.

"Oh?"

The old man let out a sound of surprise; he seemed to recognize this as a close-quarters grappling technique for the dead.

"Mmph?"

Tan Wenbin, however, was completely stunned, because he realized he had grabbed at nothing, as if the old man had no physical form—yet the problem was that his mouth was being covered by the other party in a very tangible way.

"Young man, I'll let you go, but don't make a racket. I'm old, and I can't stand the sound of screaming."

Tan Wenbin nodded.

The old man took his hand off Tan Wenbin's mouth.

"Yuanzi, Runsheng, there's a ghost!"

"Heh heh."

The old man was amused, stood up, and climbed out of the coffin Tan Wenbin was in.

"Yuanzi, Runsheng!"

Tan Wenbin continued to shout while sitting up, watching the old man vigilantly.

The old man ignored him entirely, walked over to another coffin, reached out, and waved at the incense burner placed below it; the incense ignited, sending up curling white smoke.

He took a deep breath, and the white smoke split into two streams, entering his nostrils.

"Ah..."

The old man let out a sound of comfort, and a sickly flush appeared on his face.

"Yuanzi, Runsheng!"

Seeing Tan Wenbin still persisting, the old man sighed: "Stop shouting, they can't hear you."

Tan Wenbin finally stopped shouting and asked suspiciously: "Who are you?"

"You're sleeping in my house, and you're asking me who I am?"

"Your house?" Tan Wenbin seemed to realize something and asked, "Are you Yin Meng's grandfather?"

"Right, that's me."

"You're a lingering ghost, aren't you?"

"What do you mean, lingering ghost? I'm not dead yet."

"Not dead?"

"Nonsense. If I were dead, why would I haunt my granddaughter as a ghost and ruin her fortune? I'm not that brain-damaged."

"Then what is this..."

The old man pointed to the coffin behind him: "See, I sleep in this bed."

There were two coffins in the outer room, which was the shop, and three in the inner room. Tan Wenbin had previously assumed all three were empty, never expecting that someone was actually lying in one of them.

"Then what are you? If you're not a ghost, why couldn't I touch you just now?"

"I find this strange. You blockhead, aren't you in the trade?"

"What trade?"

"The corpse-salvaging trade."

Tan Wenbin puffed out his chest and said firmly: "Of course I am!"

"Then you don't know that you're currently 'walking the yin'?"

"Walking the yin?" Tan Wenbin touched his own body. "Is this what walking the yin is?"

"When I came out, I didn't want to bother with you, but who knew you'd keep jumping around like that? I pulled you once, and I didn't expect you to start screaming."

"Then what about my friends?"

"When walking the yin, you can't see the living, which is why it was useless no matter how much you shouted just now."

"That can't be..."

"Can't be what?"

"Uh, nothing, nothing. No, wait—I didn't see you come out during the day. Why are you coming out to walk the yin at night?"

"I'd like to come out during the day, but my body can't take it." The old man pointed to his head. "Cerebral infarction, paralyzed."

"So you come out to walk the yin every night to get some activity?"

"Bullshit. Are you really this ignorant, or are you faking it? Who walks the yin as simply and frequently as eating and drinking?"

"Isn't it?"

Tan Wenbin raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

"Snap!"

He had always felt that the way Xiao Yuan snapped his fingers and closed his eyes to walk the yin was very cool.

"Today is the Ghost Festival, I have to get up and do business at night."

"It's so late, what kind of business could you possibly do?"

"Exactly."

Tan Wenbin: "..."

"I'm done chatting with you, I have to open the shop door."

The old man passed through the curtain and walked into the front shop. Immediately, he froze, because he saw the boy standing in the front room.

The boy was looking at him with a scrutinizing gaze.

The old man asked in surprise: "I haven't even opened the shop door yet, how did you get in?"

Li Zhuiyuan did not answer.

The old man touched his head: "No, you're not wearing a robe. I get it, you're with that blockhead?"

Li Zhuiyuan nodded.

Tan Wenbin ran over from the inner room at this moment, and seeing Li Zhuiyuan, he immediately waved his arms excitedly: "Brother Yuan, I walked the yin, I walked the yin!"

This excitement was like a child discovering they had just learned to ride a bicycle.

The old man stroked his chin, looked at the boy, and said: "So, you're the real deal."

"What does that mean?" Tan Wenbin asked curiously.

The old man pointed to the boy: "I didn't even know he was standing here earlier, which proves he's very solid."

"Solid?"

"Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp. You're the shrimp."

"Are you the big fish?"

The old man glanced at the boy again and said calmly: "Small fish."

Li Zhuiyuan had long since sensed the "movement" in the room; he had also walked the yin long ago. He had heard the conversation in the room earlier and knew the old man was Yin Meng's grandfather, but he didn't let his guard down because of it.

But now, he confirmed that the other party was "harmless" because the other party had shown weakness.

In fact, during this time just now, the boy had been struggling with one question in his mind: Should he pounce and bite him?

There was no help for it; he really didn't know how to fight in a yin-walking state.

Last time, when facing that little girl in red in the Road Tyrant Village, he had also used powder to disperse her.

The books by Wei Zhengdao that he had read so far didn't detail walking among the dead either.

This should be a basic subject, so basic that Wei Zhengdao couldn't be bothered to mention it, yet Li Zhuiyuan just didn't know it.

It was like he could do advanced calculus but "didn't know" how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide.

He could use it, because although he didn't understand what "addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division" meant, he had memorized the answers to basic arithmetic.

This was also why he would frequently overdraw and get nosebleeds; while it was partly because he was still young and his body hadn't fully developed, the main reason was that his starting move for calculations was always massive.

"Brother Yuan, is it?"

The old man indeed had a different attitude toward Li Zhuiyuan, adding a polite term after the address, unlike calling Tan Wenbin a blockhead.

"Mm." Li Zhuiyuan responded, "Hello."

"Yin Fuhai, stationed at the Fengdou wharf. I don't know which wharf Brother Yuan is stationed at, or which Dragon King you pay respects to?"

As he spoke, the old man performed a set of gestures used on the river.

Not every trade develops secret jargon and gestures; this form of identifying each other was meant to resolve contradictions and avoid conflict.

Another group well-known to the public for liking to strike this pose was bandits.

"Wharf" meant local snake, and "stationed" meant he was only a part of this wharf, not that he was the boss.

"Dragon King" referred to the big shots on the river.

Li Zhuiyuan rarely came into contact with proper peers, and he analyzed this information based on the literal meaning.

But he didn't know how to respond. What was his great-grandfather's position?

Stationed at the Nantong Haohe wharf?

But in fact, the place his great-grandfather lived was far from the Haohe in the city, and most importantly, no one had ever taught him how to perform local gestures. He couldn't just copy him, could he?

It was still his great-grandfather's fault for being too unreliable, leaving his great-grandson unable to even report his family background when going out.

By comparison, Li Zhuiyuan felt that Runsheng's Uncle Shan might know some of this, but Uncle Shan never performed this set for his great-grandfather; perhaps he didn't consider Li Sanjiang a true peer at all.

All Li Zhuiyuan knew were the inner-gate rites of the Qin and Liu families, but performing those wasn't very appropriate.

However, seeing the boy not return the gesture, the old man became angry, and his tone grew heavier:

"Since you look down on my Fengdou wharf station, why are you staying in my house?"

Li Zhuiyuan was helpless and had to return a set of Liu family inner-gate rites.

Returning this set of rites meant he didn't need to speak to report his family background.

Clearly, the old man knew his stuff; the moment he saw this return gesture, the old man's entire body became transparent.

He had been scared, almost ending his yin-walking state.

It was estimated that even the body lying in the coffin, despite being paralyzed by a cerebral infarction, twitched twice.

After a long time, the old man calmed down. This time, when he spoke, not only had the previous anger vanished, but he had replaced it with a fawning expression:

"A Liu family member has visited. An honored guest, a rare guest. Truly wonderful. How many years has it been? Someone from the Liu family is walking the river again."

There was no sycophancy in the fawning on the old man's face.

Li Zhuiyuan asked: "You know the Liu family?"

"Any old turtle on this river who has lived for years has heard of them."

"I mean, do you know that there's no one left in the Liu family?"

"I know." The old man said quite frankly, "It's precisely because I know how the Liu family members disappeared that I respect them even more."

"I don't have the surname Liu."

"A registered outer-gate disciple?"

"Mm."

That night at the Ding family banquet in the mountain city, Grandma Liu had pushed him out to return the gesture. Although he hadn't formally entered the gate and taken a master, a future registered disciple was a tacit understanding between the two sides, waiting only for A Li's illness to improve significantly.

"That's the same thing. Honored guest, please forgive my offense; I, an old man, cannot entertain you in person."

"Don't be so formal. I'll call you Old Man, and you call me Xiao Yuan. That way, we'll both be more comfortable."

"Honored guest... oh no, Brother Yuan, are you friends with my Mengmeng?"

"You could say that, but I'm here to repay the favor of Yin Zhiwang."

"Ancestor? Oh, I see. Then your seniority is too high."

"Old Man, are you not doing business?"

"Ah, I am, I am."

The old man walked to the shop door. Yin Meng had inserted the door panels back when closing the shop at night. The old man didn't go to move the door panels but placed his hand on a mirror on the wall and turned it gently.

The originally solid door panels became somewhat transparent at this moment.

Li Zhuiyuan and Tan Wenbin both saw that on the street outside, which should have been quiet in the middle of the night, black human shadows appeared one after another.

Only, among these black shadows, there were also a few bright ones mixed in.

Those should be living people; there were two drunks with their arms around each other's shoulders, and two others who were alone.

So, when there's nothing to do late at night, it's best not to wander around alone on the cold street, because this street might be far more lively than what you see.

The old man sat back behind the counter, as if waiting for customers to come to the door.

Tan Wenbin stood at the corner of the counter, cautiously observing the "pedestrians" outside.

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the opposite side of the old man and asked: "Is this a feature of the Ghost Street?"

"I've heard of similar things in other regions before, but I haven't been there and don't know the specific situation. But there shouldn't be many places like our Fengdou Ghost Street."

"Are they... ghosts?"

"Yes, and no. Every Ghost Festival, they come out on this street at night."

Tan Wenbin asked: "Haven't you caught one to study?"

The old man waved his hand hurriedly: "A guest is a guest, and I'm not running a black shop here."

At this moment, a black shadow walked in. Its figure was blurry and not clearly visible; one could only generally tell it was a person.

It stood before the counter, and the old man muttered as he spoke with it. Li Zhuiyuan didn't hear clearly what exactly was said.

Before long, the black shadow left. At the shop entrance, it dropped a piece of money that drifted into the water vat.

The moment the money fell in, it turned into black ash and dissipated.

A smile appeared on the old man's lips as he stroked his beard.

Only then did Li Zhuiyuan know that the water vat in front of this shop had this purpose.

Yet Yin Meng herself didn't know, speaking of it as a mistaken usage passed down by hearsay.

Li Zhuiyuan asked: "What is being traded?"

The old man smiled: "Yang lifespan."

"Mm?"

"If my body could still move, I could have made some other things to sell here tonight, or helped run errands to fulfill some wishes. But now that I can only sit here while walking the yin, I can't do a single practical thing. The only thing I can sell is this bit of Yang lifespan.

Although I'm paralyzed, I still have a long time left, but in my situation, living one more day is just dragging Mengmeng down for one more day.

It's better to sell these burdensome days and exchange them for some yin virtue for Mengmeng.

My granddaughter is a good person, but she's too proud. It's really unnecessary for her to guard this coffin shop for me; it only delays her youth."

The old man's attitude toward his granddaughter reminded Li Zhuiyuan of his own great-grandfather.

"How much can you sell?"

"Not much. Those who truly have great merit wouldn't be wandering ghosts like this."

"That's true."

"But selling a little is better than nothing; even a mosquito's leg is meat."

Li Zhuiyuan pointed to the inner room and asked: "Aren't you going to wake Yin Meng?"

"I can't wake her. Not everyone can walk the yin; she can't." Hearing this, Tan Wenbin immediately smiled. This meant Runsheng couldn't walk the yin either, yet he had managed to do it!

"Can't this be learned later?"

"Some are born with it, and some might learn it by chance after encountering things later. But it can indeed be learned."

"So, you deliberately didn't teach her?"

"Mm. What's the point of learning this? Being able to see these things isn't necessarily a good thing. In peaceful times, this trade won't be prosperous.

To tell you the truth, I hope she can live a happy life, find something she likes to do, marry a good man later, have a child, and live the life of an ordinary person."

Great-grandfather also hoped for this for him.

"I think she's learned it quite well herself."

"Just consider it physical training. If a girl knows a bit of skill, she won't be easily bullied."

At this moment, Tan Wenbin spoke up: "Brother Yuan, my head is so dizzy, it hurts so much."

The old man said: "Blockhead, go back to sleep. If you walk the yin for too long, people can't take it. Don't lose control and drift onto the street later, or you'll become a wandering ghost."

Tan Wenbin asked fearfully: "That... how do I end it?"

"Each family has its own incantations." The old man looked at Li Zhuiyuan. "You didn't teach him?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Close your eyes, imagine you are at the bottom of the sea, and are floating up."

The old man: "..."

Tan Wenbin obediently closed his eyes and began to imagine. His heels were even raised, and his hands were gently brushing up and down.

After a while, Tan Wenbin opened his eyes, his expression very painful: "I can't wake up, Xiao Yuan, my head hurts even more, ah..."

Li Zhuiyuan didn't know what to do either and could only look at the old man: "Old Man, do you have a method?"

"I..." The old man stood up, walked to Tan Wenbin, muttered for a while, and then slapped Tan Wenbin on the forehead. Tan Wenbin flew backward, passed through the wall, and entered the inner room.

Tan Wenbin, who woke up in the coffin, although his head was splitting and he was incredibly sleepy, still forced himself to climb out of the coffin, lifted the curtain, and came to the outer room again.

But he saw the door panels still standing there, and no other shadows were to be seen. Only then did he realize something, patted his forehead, crawled back into the coffin, closed his eyes, and started snoring directly.

"Alright, he's back. If this kid hasn't learned it before, he has some spiritual aptitude. Has he been through things?"

"He has."

"Oh, then it's caused by bumping into too many things."

"Will you get tired if you walk the yin for a long time?"

"You certainly won't get tired; you're very solid."

"How solid?"

"You must have been standing outside the inner room earlier, listening to us talk, and I didn't sense your presence the whole time."

"Be more specific."

"This... you really don't know?"

"Does it look like I'm pretending?"

"It doesn't. It's just very surprising. You don't know? How did you train?"

"It's also from going through many things."

The old man shook his head: "No, going through things can only open your mind to walk the yin. You have clearly been tempered."

Li Zhuiyuan thought of A Li.

If it meant tempering, then it should be when he entered A Li's "field of vision" to look at the scenery.

Every time he "came out" after looking at the scenery, he would be dazed and uncomfortable for a good while, but after doing it many times, the side effects became smaller and smaller.

After waiting for a long time, no second black shadow came to the door.

Li Zhuiyuan asked: "Is business bad?"

The old man smiled: "Running a coffin shop, you wouldn't expect guests to be crowding the door."

"Are you doing another business? I don't want your Yang lifespan."

"Besides Yang lifespan, what else can I give now?"

"I'll give Yin Meng money in reality, and you teach me how to walk the yin now."

The old man leaned back. Although he had long sensed something was slightly off, he really didn't expect such words to come out of the boy's mouth.

"Are you doubting my Liu family identity?"

"No, I've confirmed it, because only in the Dragon King Temple could such strange things happen."

"Are we doing this deal or not?"

"We are, but I can't take your money."

"No, I must pay, because free things are often more expensive."

"You've misunderstood. It's just that I feel I can only teach these basic things, and I'm really embarrassed to take your money."

"What I lack is the basics."

"Alright then. I can teach you the twelve yin-walking methods passed down by my Yin family, but learning this will take a long time. How long will you stay here?"

"I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon."

"This yin-walking method has many details and taboos. It's hard to truly learn the basics without someone teaching you by word and example.

Why don't you consider staying here for a while longer?

For example, stay for a month, so you can at least ensure you learn one method."

"It's fine, just teach me."

"Then I'll list the twelve methods, you pick one, and we'll familiarize ourselves with it tonight?"

"No need, let's start from the first one."

"Oh... alright."

At first, even knowing the other party was a Liu family member, the old man still felt this child was a madman, with a heart higher than the sky.

But as he taught, he realized that he was the one who was the frog in the well.

For every method, he would first describe it, then demonstrate it, and finally point out the things to watch out for.

The boy would sit in the chair, ponder for a while, and then be able to use it. The first time was awkward, the second time was skillful, and the third time it was perfect.

The second, the third... it was all like this.

Halfway through, he even started to suspect if the other party had already learned the Yin family's yin-walking methods and had come here specifically to put on a show and verify them, but he quickly dismissed this thought.

Because for the last three methods, even he didn't know them yet; he could only repeat the incantations and points to watch out for that had been passed down through generations to the boy, and he couldn't demonstrate them.

The boy, as usual, sat in the chair and pondered for a while, then analyzed it for him: Based on the consistent characteristics of the previous nine methods, shouldn't the next step be like this, shouldn't it be like that, and where is the key point here?

Then, the boy used it.

After the other party used it, he even taught him in reverse, letting him try to practice it.

The teacher-student relationship was quietly reversed.

The old man never dreamed that one day he would be taught his own family's ancestral methods. This was truly too absurd, but the facts were right before his eyes, and he couldn't help but believe them.

What was even more of a blow was that after the other party learned it, broke it down, and explained it to him in detail, he felt greatly inspired and his understanding deepened by another layer, yet he still couldn't use it for the time being.

By the time the other party finished learning everything, the sky outside was still dark, and there was still a good while before the rooster crowed.

The old man was very frustrated. He leaned against the wall dejectedly, looking at the boy who was still full of energy, and let out a sigh: "No wonder you are a Liu family member."

To this, Li Zhuiyuan only smiled. For him, these were really just basic questions, concepts he had skipped over seriously before and was now going back to supplement his understanding of.

"It's just that things are liberated now. If it were in the past, when you grew up, you would definitely be one of those big shots who could summon wind and rain."

"Old Man, was the Liu family very powerful in the past?"

Having finished learning, Li Zhuiyuan was willing to chat, especially about stories of the Liu family in the past.

"Look at what you're saying. There has always been a saying on the river: 'Flowing imperial courts, iron-clad Cao Gang.'"

Many of those famous Cao Gang big shots in history were just small gods like the Liu family's Dragon King, pushed to the front stage.

Back then, the only family that could compare to the Liu family in reputation was the Qin family.

Such big families didn't care about those small matters on the river at all; they focused more on the secrets beneath the river, which was their true foundation."

"Old Man, you really know a lot."

"Ha, there are many travelers from all over the world here. In my early years, I also loved making friends and liked to set up a 'Dragon Gate Array' to chat."

"The sky is about to brighten, you should also rest. Actually, I'm also so tired I can't take it anymore, heh heh."

"Mm." Li Zhuiyuan nodded, "Today, only two guests?"

"Right, that's it."

The first guest came in when he just opened the door, and the second guest came in halfway through the teaching.

"However, the second guest didn't pay."

"Ah?" The old man froze for a moment. He remembered that the boy was pondering with his eyes closed at that time, and he didn't expect him to still notice this. He immediately explained, "The deal didn't go through, so naturally, there's no need to pay."

"Didn't go through? But after the second guest left, your complexion immediately became very ugly."

"I'm tired, really, I haven't been this hard-working in a long time."

"You said it yourself, these are all basic things. Even if the first nine methods were all demonstrated, it was just a small effort."

"So, Old Man, are you tired, or is it because you gave away a large amount of Yang lifespan to the second guest?"

"You're joking, heh heh."

"I can read faces; your time is running out."

"You..."

"Is it inconvenient to say?"

"It's that I have no face to say it."

The old man lowered his head and rubbed his face with his hands, half in shame and half in shock. This boy before him had clearly sensed it long ago, yet he had insisted on waiting until he had finished teaching all twelve methods before bringing this up.

This kind of thinking and character was truly too terrifying.

"Then, let's not talk about it."

Li Zhuiyuan raised his hand, preparing to snap his fingers to end the yin-walking. It had taken a long time today, and he felt he should sleep until noon. Fortunately, it wouldn't delay the afternoon boat.

"Let's talk about it. I'm afraid that if you leave late during the day, you'll still find out."

"I'll find out?"

"My son is dead."

"Yin Meng said that after her parents divorced, her father went to the south to work and had no news since."

"I originally also thought he couldn't stand the stimulation of the divorce and ran to the south alone immediately after the divorce, not wanting his daughter or this home."

"And the truth?"

"He died."

"Died?"

"He didn't agree to the divorce, and was killed by that woman in collusion with the man she is now married to. The body was sunk under the West Bay."

"Then how did the divorce happen?"

"In our small place, the rules might be stricter now. In the past, just holding a banquet for the wedding was enough; there was no need to get a certificate. If a certificate was needed, we would just make one up temporarily."

"Divorce was even simpler; each returning to their own home counted as divorced."

"At that time, he left a letter saying he was useless, a waste, couldn't even keep his wife, had no face to continue staying at home, and was going to the south to work to make something of himself, so don't miss him."

"He was already dead then, and the letter was forged."

"And you never suspected it?"

"I was stupid, I really never suspected it."

"Then who told you?"

"He came back himself. At the temple fair last month, he came home and told me himself."

"Because they were building a bridge at West Bay, his remains were dug up when they were laying the foundation. So much time had passed that the police had no way to investigate."

"I'm very angry, so I plan to..."

"I'm tired, my head hurts so much."

"Ah?"

"Let's not talk, I'm sleeping."

Waking up from sleep, he really did sleep until noon.

Li Zhuiyuan climbed out of the coffin, and Runsheng was holding a rag, helping to wipe the counter.

Seeing Xiao Yuan wake up, he immediately went into the inner room and pushed Tan Wenbin, who was still fast asleep and catching up on sleep, awake.

"Hey, you can really sleep." Yin Meng said with a smile.

"Mm." Li Zhuiyuan responded.

Tan Wenbin rubbed his eyes and came out. It was noon, and he shouted directly: "Yin Meng, your grandfather isn't dead."

"Of course he's not dead. I said yesterday he was dead; he just had a cerebral infarction and couldn't wake up."

"Is that so? Did you say that yesterday?" Tan Wenbin recalled carefully.

Li Zhuiyuan: "She didn't say that."

But the meaning in her words was about the same as her grandfather being dead, although, it was indeed about the same.

Tan Wenbin immediately apologized with a fawning smile: "That, I'm sorry, heh heh, I got it wrong."

Yin Meng said: "Want lunch? I'll make it."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Let's go out to eat."

He still had a bit of a shadow from last night's pig's trotters.

At this moment, two boys walked into the shop. They looked only two or three years older than Li Zhuiyuan, and both ran in with red, swollen eyes.

"Sister, sister."

"Sister."

As soon as the two boys entered, they called Yin Meng sister.

"Who are they?" Tan Wenbin asked.

"Born by my mother later."

"How come it feels like your relationship with them is pretty good?"

"Mm, when they occasionally come to the county town, I'll buy them something to eat and give them some pocket money."

Tan Wenbin: "You're actually quite a good person."

"Is that so?"

"Good to the point of being brain-damaged."

At this moment, the two boys ran over, hugged Yin Meng, and cried:

"Woooo, sister, it's bad, Mom and Dad both fell into the river pond this morning and drowned!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 71 =====