Chapter 7: Investigating and Punishing

  The old man wearing the sanitation uniform mysteriously disappeared under my eyelids like that. At this moment, I was thoroughly frightened. So I hastily got on the car and drove directly to the rental company.

  After returning the car to the rental company, as it was getting late, I rushed to an inn, opened a room and planned to rest here for a while before rushing back home tomorrow.

  In the room, I first took a shower and then lay alone in bed.

  Lying in bed, I couldn't sleep at all. To be honest, if someone told me a ghost story or something supernatural before, I would just laugh it off and not take it seriously. But after experiencing this series of events myself, I had to take it seriously.

  I'm now wondering what this old man Yin Liu is doing, why he opened a small wooden hut at the crossroads to matchmake in the middle of the night? It's obvious that this small wooden hut isn't for ordinary people to matchmake, it's so late at night, who knows if it's really for ghosts to matchmake! Zhao Yang is the real proof.

  But why did Old Man Yin want me to be a matchmaker for ghosts? What's in it for him?

  And what did that sanitation worker say to me in the end? Did he know Zhao Yang well all along? Why did he say that the Sun family owed him and who knew they were wrong?

  What's been on my mind all along is that if the Zhao Yang I saw before and the young man drinking are both ghostly creatures, does it mean that after a person dies, they may become a ghostly creature that appears at night? Does it mean that my three girlfriends who died mysteriously might also become ghostly creatures lurking in the dark?!

  The moment this thought emerged in my mind, I became spirited. If they could turn into ghosts wandering at night, if I really saw them, wouldn't I be able to figure out the real reason for their death?

  Although I admit that I am very likely to be a jinx, just as Yin Lao Liu said, and any girl who is with me will not have a good ending. But I always feel that things are not so simple...

  After thinking wildly like this for a while, I don't know how long I thought about it, and unknowingly, I fell asleep.

  In my dream, I dreamed of my three girlfriends. One by one, they rushed towards me with their mouths wide open, their faces covered in blood, and shouted that they were going to eat me up. They said it was all because I had killed them and now I had to pay for their lives with mine. The next moment, they pounced on me together, opening their mouths to reveal sharp fangs stained with blood, and began to gnaw at me.

  I was startled in an instant, and with a scream, I woke up from my sleep like this.

  After waking up, I found myself covered in cold sweat. Sitting on the bed and calming down for a moment, I lit a cigarette and started smoking.

  To be honest, I'm not really a smoker, but so many things happened suddenly that made me extremely anxious. Since I don't know how to drink, in order to calm down, I started learning to smoke.

  Smoke is burning at my fingertips, so gentle, so mysterious. My face appears and disappears in the mist of smoke.

  I can feel the bewildered expression on my face and those... somewhat tired and empty eyes.

  "How could this be? Why is it like this? Is heaven playing a joke on me? It's really ridiculous!"

  After smoking three cigarettes in a row, I suddenly felt dizzy. I knew it was because I had smoked too much at once. So I quickly got up and first checked my phone to find that it was around 5:30 am. Then I went to the bathroom to take a cold shower, and after washing up, it was already 6:30 am. Only then did I dress properly and prepare to check out and return to the village.

  After I left the hotel, I came to the bus station and took a small bus heading to Beishan Village, leaving Wachi.

  Around nine o'clock, I returned to Beishan Village. After getting off the bus, I didn't rush to my own village, but instead headed straight to the Beishan Cemetery. I was going to find Yin Laoliu and have a good argument with him, I wanted to ask him why he made me do such a shameful job!

  This time, Yin Lao Liu did not go out, but stayed in a small wooden house under the cemetery.

  When I pushed open the small wooden door with a huff, and saw Old Yin Six lying on the bamboo chair sipping tea with relish, I was so angry that my lungs were about to burst!

  Without any courtesy, I walked up to Old Six Yin's side, picked up the cup on his tea table that was full of tea water, and directly drank it all in one gulp.

  "Hey! Ge Dong, what are you doing?! This is a top-grade red robe and this is top-grade good tea! Even if you want to drink it, you have to savor it, who drinks like you, gulping it down like it's worthless water?! Seeing me drink the tea he had brewed in such an impolite manner, Yin Lao Liu shouted at me with some pain."

  "Yin Lao Liu, you fart! What's this nonsense about worthless water? In these times, even water is valuable. Without it, you can't even make a decent cup of tea! And another thing, what's with the 'extreme' or not extreme business? I just drink it like regular water, and it still tastes like pee!"

  Seeing my fiery temper, Yin Lao Liu asked me: "Little guy, what's wrong with you? Looking like this, your temper doesn't seem small. Who provoked you? Tell me, I'll help you settle the score!" Yin Lao Liu said to me with a sense of justice.

  "Who provoked me? Nonsense, of course it's you who provoked me! I'm asking you, who did you ask me to be a matchmaker for in the middle of the night? Is it a ghost? I went to investigate that Zhao Yang who came to my cabin at dawn yesterday to ask me to be a matchmaker, and it turns out he died on August 14th of xx year. What's going on here!"

  I directly asked him, and Yin Lao Liu looked at me with a strange expression before slowly saying to me: "Oh, you actually used the vacation I gave you to investigate your customers! This is not good, you know that customers are gods, and investigating customers is extremely unethical!"

  "Stop! Don't give me that nonsense! Didn't you tell me to help someone with matchmaking tonight? Is this what you call matchmaking?! I'm getting angrier the more I talk!"

  "What's wrong? You just said the object of matchmaking isn't a living person, but a dead one..."

  "It's death... It's a dead person. Why didn't you tell me earlier? This is deception!" Hearing his explanation, I was even more furious and my whole body was trembling with rage.

  "Tell you? Don't you know that all my businesses are related to the dead? I have a coffin shop and a paper money shop in town. Here in North Mountain, I've enclosed land to open a cemetery, giving the dead a home, letting them move into a mansion with excellent feng shui. And of course, when I asked you to be a matchmaker, it was for the dead!"

  Yin Lao Liu responded to me with a tone as if he was describing something very ordinary, and I suddenly got angry.

  "I'm out of here, you can go find whoever you want!"

  "Are you not going to intervene? If not, I'll expose that matter and let your dad go to jail!"

  "If you dare to confess, believe it or not, I'll...I'll..."

  "What's wrong with you?"

  When I met him, I didn't know how to respond for a moment, and Yin Laoliu looked at me with a sly smile.

  "I'm done... anyway, I can't do this unreliable job anymore, just spare me! And my dad was the one who helped get rid of the bad guys for these villagers back then, he's a good person. Although he committed a crime, you can't turn him in, or else not only will I not forgive you, but also our village and all the people in this northern mountain village won't forgive you!"

  Here is the translation:

  "Upon hearing this, Old Yin laughed slyly: 'What you said isn't wrong. In a certain sense, your father was indeed a hero. However, we live in a society governed by law now. The villagers remember his good deeds but don't tell outsiders. But if people don't know about it, it's only because no one has dug it up yet. Alas! I won't say anything about this matter, but you still have to continue doing this job. It's not because I'm forcing you, but because you have a reason that you must continue. This is what your grandfather entrusted me with before he passed away.'"

  "What's with my grandfather? How did it get to him again?" Seeing Yin Laoliu mention my grandfather, I curiously stared at him with wide eyes.

  Seeing me looking at him like this, Yin Lao Liu said: "Your grandfather and I are both good at studying the mysteries of the universe, so we naturally became close friends. When your grandfather was dying, he entrusted me in front of your parents, saying that if one day you really harmed someone with your evil energy while outside, when you thought of coming to find me, I would definitely help you get rid of the evil energy on your body. In other words, Ge Dong, your fate has determined that you will be dealing with ghosts for this lifetime, so for your own sake and for the people around you, accept your fate!"

  "Am I supposed to spend my whole life dealing with ghosts? No way! I don't believe it!" Hearing him say that, I shook my head desperately.

  "Don't believe me? Don't believe it? You can go back and ask your father, he'll know if I'm talking nonsense. Oh, right! On your way back, tell your father that I've been calculating his fortune recently, and it seems like he's got a prison sentence coming his way - 80% chance of it happening, but someone has to say it out loud. Tell him to stay home more often, don't talk too much, don't stick his head out, and don't offend the neighbors on either side. Otherwise, this prison sentence might just become a reality!"