Inside the Funeral Shop, Xu Qing used blood as a medium, weaving the ten strands of blood from his fingertips like a child playing with string. He continuously twisted and turned them, finally creating a blood worm with wings that resembled a tiny green cicada.
The abdomen of the blood worm, shaped like a paper-cut cicada, vaguely showed dozens of tiny green cicada larvae the size of grains of rice.
The mother and offspring were tied together, and the cicada curse was initiated.
Xu Qing, who was well-prepared, looped the mother string around his golden copper plate, while the baby worm flapped its wings and landed into his money pouch.
At the mouth of the pouch, a red-green light flickered briefly. If Xu Qing hadn't been staring at it, he might have thought it was just his eyes playing tricks on him.
"Is it done?"
Xu Qing took out a copper plate and, with a hopeful attitude, went to the backyard. He then used all his strength to throw it over the wall.
He wasn't worried about hitting someone. Even if a copper plate hit someone's head, it would be like a raindrop at most, causing just a small bump that his wife could blow on, and it would be gone before long.
After throwing the copper coin, Xu Qing stood in the backyard, looking up at the sky. But after waiting for what felt like half a cup of tea's time, the copper plate didn't fly back flapping its little wings.
Maybe he used too much force, and the mother coin couldn't receive the signal?
Guessing the right amount of force, Xu Qing threw out another copper coin, this time using only half his strength, but still, he saw no sign of the copper coin returning after waiting for a while.
Could it be that the Coin Returning Technique is ineffective?
Xu Qing eyed the remaining coins in his pouch and decided to give up.
It was fortunate that he only threw two copper plates earlier. If he had thrown the silver in his pouch, it would have been a considerable loss.
He was still counting on that money to collect the bodies!
...
Returning to the front of the shop, he found the naked corpse of the freeloader still lying strewn across the broken bed. Xu Qing thought it was improper to leave it exposed like this, which was quite indecent.
Following the method of corpse collectors, he should be finding a separate compartment to store the body, and wait to accumulate enough bodies to either sell them all at once or transport them to the charity graveyard.
There was, in fact, a compartment in the Funeral Shop where Liu Youdao used to store the bodies. He even rested in there himself sometimes.
Stacking a pile of corpses by the bedside for decoration was quite bold!
Xu Qing had no such interest; he found no fascination with corpses.
After some thought, Xu Qing concluded that he should procure some coffins to use as temporary storage. When they were full, he would then bury them on an auspicious day.
Regardless of whether those bodies were good or bad in life, everyone ultimately deserves a proper burial.
If one just tossed the bodies into the wilderness or sank them into a river, they could eventually decay and attract plague gods, which would indeed be a great sin!
...
Underground Street, where Xu Qing lived, had an infamous nickname, Death Street.
It was because this street was packed with shops related to funerals.
There were coffin shops, paper mache shops, and incense and candle shops, all located here.
Recently, a new Funeral Shop had just opened, offering embalming and burial services.
At this time, Wu Yaohua, the shopkeeper of the Paper Mache Shop, stood idly by his entrance with nothing better to do. To his left and right were two wreaths, symmetrically placed, and a half-exposed paper horse head.
Wu Yaohua, cracking sunflower seeds and watching the sparse passersby, refrained from shouting for business like other shopkeepers did, considering that a quiet business was manageable, but getting his leg broken was not!
Ever since Wu Yaohua started this paper mache business, he found fewer relatives visiting him, and during the holidays, only the shopkeepers from this street would exchange greetings. Occasionally, when they had nothing to do, they would chat together.
As he cracked his seeds, Wu Yaohua noticed the young owner of the newly opened shop next door showing up.
Glad for the company, Wu Yaohua perked up!
Stuffing the seed shells into his pocket, he enthusiastically waved to Xu Qing, resembling a tout welcoming customers at a brothel.
"Hey, young man, come over and sit down. We can chat since we're both free."
Xu Qing, who was about to leave, gave it some thought and decided to foster good relations with his neighbors, so he approached the entrance of the Paper Mache Shop.
Wu Yaohua hurriedly brought out a small stool and offered a handful of sunflower seeds to Xu Qing.
Not being accustomed to eating sunflower seeds, Xu Qing politely declined: "Old Wu, my internal heat is too high recently, I can't eat these."
He then took out some small dried persimmons from his bag and said: "I have some snacks here. I heard these are sunset red persimmons from Gannan. They're not only sweet but can also help reduce internal heat. Give them a try."
"That sounds great! I must give them a good try!"
Sometimes, interactions between people are that simple. With this exchange, the two became closer.
As they munched on the sweet dried persimmons, the two began to chat idly.
Mostly, it was Wu Yaohua talking and Xu Qing listening.
The main topics were popular neighborhood gossip, with occasional personal questions such as how old are you, are you married, where's your hometown...
Eventually, Wu Yaohua got to a recent famous local scandal!
As it turns out, the scandal involved Liu the landlord from Tongzi Street, whom Xu Qing had met and provided last rites for a few days back!
"Every family has its troubles. Who would've thought that the wealthy Liu landlord, who gave out porridge to refugees from Yaozhou, would be deceived by his wife and steward for so many years? They not only had children together but also lived in his manor, spending his money while raising their own child."