Corpse Retriever.

Chapter 69

“Ah…mmmm!”

Just as Tan Wenbin was about to scream, a hand covered his mouth and blocked it back.

He widened his eyes and stared at the old face in front of him in horror.

The old man smiled and was about to say something when he found that the young man put his arms up, wrapped his legs down, and used his waist to twist.

"what?"

The old man let out a sound of surprise, as if he recognized that this was a close combat technique.

"Well?"

Tan Wenbin was completely stunned because he found that he had grabbed nothing, as if the old man had no entity at all, but the problem was that his mouth was actually covered by the other party.

"Young man, I'm going to let you go, but please don't make any noise. I'm old and I can't stand any more shouting."

Tan Wenbin nodded.

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

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

"hehe."

The old man was amused. He stood up and turned out the coffin where Tan Wenbin was.

"Yuanzi, Runsheng!"

Tan Wenbin continued shouting as he sat up and looked at the old man warily.

The old man ignored him and walked to another coffin. He stretched out his hand and waved at an incense burner placed below. The incense burned and wisps of white smoke rose.

He took a deep breath and the white smoke separated into two streams and entered his nose.

"what……"

The old man made a comfortable sound and a sickly blush appeared on his face.

"Yuanzi, Runsheng!"

Seeing that Tan Wenbin was still persisting, the old man sighed: "Don't shout, they can't hear you."

Tan Wenbin finally stopped shouting and asked in confusion, "Who are you?"

"You are sleeping in my house, why are you asking who I am?"

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

"Yes, it's me."

"Are you haunting me?"

"What do you mean by haunting? I'm not dead."

"not dead?"

"Nonsense, if I were dead, why would I haunt my granddaughter as a ghost and ruin her fortune? I'm not crazy."

"Then you..."

The old man pointed to the coffin behind him and said, "Here, I'll sleep on this bed."

There were two coffins in the outer room, which was the shop, and three in the inner room. Tan Wenbin had taken it for granted that all three were empty, but he did not expect that there was someone lying in one of them.

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

"I'm just confused, silly boy, aren't you from the same industry?"

"What business?"

"The corpse recovery business."

Tan Wenbin straightened his chest and said firmly: "Of course!"

"Then don't you know that you are walking in the underworld now?"

"Walking in the Yin?" Tan Wenbin touched his body, "Is this called walking in the Yin?"

"When I came out, I didn't want to bother with you, but you kept jumping around there, so I pulled you back, but you kept yelling."

"What about my friends?"

"When you're in the Yin state, you can't see living people, so your shouting just now was useless."

"Will not……"

"Can't do anything?"

"Uh, nothing, nothing, no, I didn't see you out during the day, why did you come out at night?"

"I wish I could go out during the day. My body is not strong enough." The old man pointed at his head. "I had a stroke. I am paralyzed."

"So you just go out to do activities every night?"

"Bullshit, do you really not understand or are you pretending not to understand? Who can go to the underworld as easily and frequently as eating and drinking?"

"Is not it?"

Tan Wenbin raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

"Snapped!"

He always thought that Xiaoyuan's action of snapping his fingers and closing his eyes to walk in the dark was very stylish.

"Today is Ghost Festival, we have to get up at night to do business."

"It's so late, what a hell of a business."

"That's not it."

Tan Wenbin: “…”

"I'm not going to talk to you anymore. I have to open the store."

The old man walked through the curtain and into the front shop. Then he was stunned because he saw the boy standing in the front room.

The boy was looking at him with a scrutinizing gaze.

The old man was surprised and asked, "I haven't even opened the door yet, how did you get in?"

Li Zhuiyuan did not answer.

The old man touched his head and said, "No, you are not wearing a robe. I see. Are you with that stupid kid?"

Li Zhuiyuan nodded.

Tan Wenbin also ran over from the inner room at this moment. Seeing Li Zhuiyuan, he immediately waved his arms excitedly: "Brother Xiaoyuan, I'm in the dark, I'm in the dark!"

The excitement was like that of a child discovering that he had just learned to ride a bicycle.

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

"What do you mean?" Tan Wenbin asked curiously.

The old man pointed at the boy and said, "I didn't know he was standing here before. This proves that he is very strong."

"solid?"

"Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimps, you are the shrimp."

“Are you a big fish?”

The old man glanced at the boy again and said calmly, "Little Fish."

Li Zhuiyuan had already noticed the "movement" in the house. He had also been in secret for a long time. He had also heard the previous conversation in the house and knew that the old man was Yin Meng's grandfather, but he did not let down his guard.

But now, he was sure that the other party was "harmless" because he showed weakness.

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

There was no way, he really didn't know how to fight in the Yin state.

The last time I faced the little girl in red in Road Bully Village, I also used powder to drive her away.

The book by Wei Zhengdao that I have read so far does not discuss the Yin-walking in detail.

This should be a basic subject, so basic that Wei Zhengdao was too lazy to mention it, but Li Zhuiyuan just doesn't know how to do it.

It's like he can do high-level calculations but "can't" add, subtract, multiply or divide.

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

This is also why he would often overdraw and have nosebleeds. Although it is because he is still young and his body is not well developed, it is mainly because he starts with massive calculations.

"Brother Yuan, right?"

The old man indeed had a different attitude towards Li Zhuiyuan, and even added a polite word after his address, unlike when he called Tan Wenbin a fool.

"Yeah." Li Zhuiyuan responded, "Hello."

"Yin Fuhai, you are sitting at Fengdu Pier. I wonder which pier Yuan Ge is sitting at or which Dragon King he is worshipping?"

As he spoke, the old man also made a set of hand gestures on the river.

Not every industry has its own jargon and hand gestures. This form of mutual identification is meant to eliminate contradictions and avoid conflicts.

Another person who is familiar to the public and likes to put on this kind of posture is the bandit.

The word "wharf" means the local boss, and "chazuo" means that he is just a part of the wharf, not the one who owns the big boss.

The Dragon King refers to everyone on the river.

Li Zhuiyuan rarely came into contact with serious colleagues, and these messages were also analyzed based on the literal meaning.

But he didn't know what to do. What position did his great-grandfather hold?
Nantong Haohe Wharf?
But in fact, the place where his great-grandfather lived was far away from the Haohe River in the urban area. Most importantly, no one had taught him how to use the local hand gestures. He couldn't just copy them, right?

It’s probably because my great-grandfather was too unreliable, as his great-grandson didn’t even know how to announce his home address when he went out.

In comparison, Li Zhuiyuan felt that Uncle Shan from the Runsheng family might understand something about this, but Uncle Shan never did this to his grandfather. Maybe he never considered Li Sanjiang as a real colleague at all.

The only thing Li Zhuiyuan knew was the inner sect etiquette of the Qin and Liu families, but it was not appropriate for him to perform this.

However, when the boy did not return the greeting, the old man became angry and spoke in a harsher tone:
"If you look down on me, a resident of Fengdu Wharf, why do you live in my house?"

Li Zhuiyuan had no choice but to return a set of Liu's inner sect gifts.

If you return this gift, you won’t have to say anything more about your family background.

It was obvious that the old man was connoisseur of good things. The moment he saw this set of return gifts, his entire body turned transparent.

This was because he was scared and almost ended his Yin state.

I guess even the body lying in the coffin, which was paralyzed by a cerebral infarction, twitched twice.

After a long time, the old man calmed down. This time when he spoke, not only did his previous anger disappear, but he also put on a flattering expression:

"The Liu family is here to visit us. We are honored guests and rare guests. It's great! After so many years, someone from the Liu family has come to visit again."

There was no flattery in the old man's expression.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, "Do you know the Liu family?"

"I've heard of all the old turtles on this river."

"I mean, did you know that there is no one left in the Liu family?"

"I know." The old man said calmly, "It is precisely because I know how the Liu family died that I respect them even more."

"My last name is not Liu."

"A registered outer sect?"

"Ah."

At the Ding family banquet in Shancheng that night, Grandma Liu pushed herself forward to return the gift. Although she had not yet formally become the disciple, the fact that she would be a registered disciple in the future was a tacit understanding between the two parties, and they only had to wait for A'li's illness to recover.

"It's the same. Please forgive me, my dear guest. I can't entertain you in person."

"Don't be so formal. I'll call you old man and you can call me Xiaoyuan. This way we'll both feel more comfortable."

"Honorable guest... Oh no, Brother Xiaoyuan is a friend of my Mengmeng?"

"I guess so, but I'm here to repay Yin Zhiwang's favor."

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

"Is the old man no longer doing business?"

"Ah, what needs to be done, what needs to be done."

The old man walked to the door of the store. Yin Meng had inserted the door panel back when closing the store at night. The old man did not move the door panel, but put his hand on a mirror on the wall and turned it gently.

The originally thick door panel became somewhat transparent at this moment.

Li Zhuiyuan and Tan Wenbin both saw that outside, on the street which should have been quiet in the late night, a series of black figures appeared.

However, there are also a few bright ones among the black figures.

They should be living people. There are two drunk people walking around with their arms around each other, and two people who are alone.

So when you have nothing to do late at night, it’s best not to wander around the deserted streets alone, because the streets may be much more lively than what you see.

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

Tan Wenbin stood at the end corner of the counter, carefully looking at the "pedestrians" outside.

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the other side of the old man and asked, "Is this a ghost street feature?"

"I have heard of similar places in other places before, but I have never been there, so I don't know the details. But there shouldn't be many places like our Fengdu Ghost Street."

"Are they ghosts?"

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

Tan Wenbin asked, "Have you ever caught one to study?"

The old man waved his hands and said, "You are a guest if you come to my door. This is not a black shop."

At this time, a black figure walked in. His figure was blurry and could not be seen clearly. One could only vaguely identify him as a person.

He stood in front of the counter, and the old man was mumbling something to him, but Li Zhuiyuan couldn't hear clearly what he was saying.

After a while, the black shadow left and left a piece of money at the door of the store, which fell into the water tank.

As soon as the money fell in, it turned into black ash and scattered.

The old man smiled and stroked his beard.

Only then did Li Zhuiyuan realize that this was the purpose of the water tanks in front of every shop.

But Yin Meng himself didn't know that what he said was a wrong usage that was spread by word of mouth.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, "What's the deal?"

The old man smiled and said, "Yang Shou."

"Ok?"

“If I were still able to move, I could make some other things myself and sell them here tonight, or help run errands or fulfill wishes. But now I can only sit here in the shadows and can’t do anything practical. The only thing I can sell is my life span.

Although I am paralyzed, I still have a lot of time left. But in my situation, living one more day means being a burden to Mengmeng.

It would be better to sell these burdensome days and gain some good karma for Mengmeng.

My granddaughter is a good girl, but she is very proud. She has been waiting in this coffin shop for me, which is really unnecessary and will only delay her youth."

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

"How much can it sell for?"

"It won't sell for much. If you really have great merit, you won't become a lonely ghost."

"Too."

"But every bit we can sell counts. Even a little bit counts."

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

"She can't be woken up. Not everyone can escape. She can't escape." Upon hearing this, Tan Wenbin immediately smiled. This meant that Runsheng couldn't escape either, but he did it!

"Can't this be learned later?"

"Some people are born with it, and some people may learn it by chance after encountering something, but it is definitely learnable."

"So you didn't teach her on purpose?"

"Well, what's the point of learning this? Seeing these things is not necessarily a good thing. In a peaceful time, this industry will not be prosperous.

To be honest, I hope she can live happily, find something she likes to do, marry a good man, have a child, and live an ordinary life. "

Grandpa, this is also what you expect of me.

"I think she has learned it quite well."

"Just think of it as strengthening your body. Girls who have some skills will be less likely to be bullied."

At this time, Tan Wenbin said, "Brother Xiaoyuan, my head is so dizzy and hurts."

The old man said, "Silly boy, go back to sleep. Walking in the underworld for too long will make you unbearable. Don't lose control and float down the street, or you'll become a wandering ghost."

Tan Wenbin asked fearfully, "How... does it end?"

"Each family has its own formula." The old man looked at Li Zhuiyuan, "Didn't you teach him?"

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

Old man: "..."

Tan Wenbin obediently closed his eyes and began to imagine. He even stood on tiptoe and gently moved his hands up and down.

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

Li Zhuiyuan didn't know what to do, so he could only look at the old man and said, "Grandpa, do you have any ideas?"

"I..." The old man stood up and walked in front of Tan Wenbin, muttering for a while, then slapped Tan Wenbin on the forehead. Tan Wenbin flew backwards, passed through the wall and entered the inner room.

Tan Wenbin woke up in the coffin. Although he had a splitting headache and was extremely sleepy, he still forced himself to climb out of the coffin, lifted the curtain, and went to the outer room again.

But he saw that the door was still there and there was no other figure. Then he realized something. He patted his forehead, went back into the coffin, closed his eyes, and began to snore.

"Well, he went back. If this kid hadn't learned anything before, he would be quite spiritual. Has he experienced anything?"

“Yes.”

"Oh, that's because of too many collisions."

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

"Of course you are not tired. You are very strong."

"How do you make it strong?"

"You should have been standing outside the inner room and listened to our conversation, but I didn't sense your presence the whole time."

"Be more specific."

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

"Does it look like it's fake?"

"No, I'm just surprised. You don't know how I trained?"

"It's also because I've been through a lot."

The old man shook his head: "No, experience can only open up your mind and go in the dark. You have clearly been tempered."

Li Zhuiyuan thought of A-li.

If it refers to training, then it should be about entering Ari's "field of vision" to see the scenery.

Every time he "came out" of seeing the scenery, he would feel dazed and uncomfortable for a while, but after doing it many times, the side effects became less and less.

After waiting for a long time, the second black shadow did not come.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, "Business is bad?"

The old man smiled and said, "A coffin shop won't have so many guests."

"Whether you do another business or not, it will cost you your life."

"Besides life span, what else can I give you now?"

"I give money to Yin Meng in real life, and now you teach me how to do shady things."

The old man leaned back. Although he had already noticed something was wrong, he really didn't expect such words to come out of the boy's mouth.

"Are you doubting the identity of my Liu family?"

"No, it is confirmed, because only in the Dragon King Temple can such a strange thing happen."

"Do you want to do this business?"

“I will, but I can’t charge you for it.”

“No, I have to pay because free ones are often more expensive.”

"You misunderstood. I think the basics are all I can teach you. I'm really embarrassed to charge you."

“What I lack is the foundation.”

"Okay, I can teach you the twelve Yin-walking techniques passed down by my Yin family ancestors. It will just take a long time to learn. How long will you stay here?"

"I'll leave tomorrow afternoon."

“This method of walking in the underworld has many details and taboos. It is difficult to really learn it without someone to teach you by example.

Or, would you consider staying here longer?
For example, stay for a month, so you can at least learn one."

"It's okay, you teach me."

"Then I'll list all the twelve methods, you pick one, and we'll get familiar with it tonight?"

"No, let's start with the first one."

"Oh fine."

At first, even though he knew that the other party was a member of the Liu family, the old man still thought that the kid was a lunatic with high aspirations.

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

For each method, he first describes it, then demonstrates it, and finally points out some points of attention.

The boy sat on the chair, thought for a while, and then was able to use it. The first time was clumsy, the second time was skillful, and the third time was perfect.

The second, the third... it was all the same.

Halfway through, he began to suspect whether the other party had already learned the Yin family's Yin-walking method and came to him deliberately to pretend to verify it, but he quickly dismissed the idea.

Because he himself did not know the last three methods, he could only repeat to the boy the formulas and precautions passed down from generation to generation; he could not demonstrate.

The boy was still the same as before. After sitting in the chair and thinking for a while, he came to analyze with him: Based on the characteristics of the previous nine methods, should he do this or that next? What is the key point here?

Then the boy used it.

After the other party used it, he also taught me in reverse and asked me to try to practice it.

The relationship between teachers and students was quietly reversed.

The old man never dreamed that one day someone would come to teach him his ancestral skills. This was really too ridiculous, but the fact was before him and he had no choice but to believe it.

What's even more devastating is that after the other person learns something and breaks it down and explains it to you, you feel greatly inspired and your understanding has deepened, but you still can't use it for a while.

By the time the other person had finished learning everything, it was still dark outside and there was still a long time before the roosters crowed.

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

In response to this, Li Zhuiyuan just smiled. To him, this was really just a basic question. He had skipped a lot of steps before and now he was going back to make up for his understanding of the concepts.

"It's because we've been liberated now. If it were before, you would definitely be a powerful figure when you grow up."

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

After finishing his studies, Li Zhuiyuan was willing to chat, especially about the Liu family's past stories.

"Look at what you said. There used to be a saying on the river that the imperial court is changing, but the Cao Gang is unchanging.

Many of the famous Cao Gang bosses in history were just small gods pushed to the surface by the Dragon King like the Liu family.

Back then, the only family that could rival the Liu family in fame was the Qin family.

This kind of big family doesn't care about the little things on the river surface at all. They are more focused on the secrets under the river surface. This is their real foundation."

"Master, you know so much."

"Ha, there are many visitors from all over the world here. In my early years, I also loved making friends and chatting.

It's almost dawn, you should rest, actually, I'm also exhausted, haha."

"Yes." Li Zhuiyuan nodded, "Only two guests today?"

"Yes, it is."

The first guest came in just as the door opened, and the second guest came in halfway through.

"But the second customer didn't pay."

"Ah?" The old man was stunned for a moment. He remembered that the boy was thinking with his eyes closed at that time. He didn't expect that he still noticed this. He immediately explained, "The deal was not concluded, so naturally there is no need to pay."

"Didn't the deal come to fruition? But after the second customer left, your expression immediately turned ugly."

"I'm really tired. I haven't worked so hard in a long time."

"I've said before, these are just basic things. Even if I demonstrate the first nine methods, it's just a piece of cake.

So, old man, are you tired or because you gave a large sum of money to the second guest?"

"You're kidding, haha."

"I can read your face. Your time is coming to an end."

"you……"

"Is it inconvenient to say?"

"I'm too embarrassed to say it."

The old man lowered his head and stroked his face with his hands, feeling half ashamed and half frightened. The boy in front of him had obviously noticed it a long time ago, but he insisted on waiting until he had finished teaching him all twelve methods before he brought up the matter.

This kind of thought and character is really terrible.

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

Li Zhuiyuan raised his hand and prepared to snap his fingers to end the Yin-Yang. Today's session took a long time and he felt that he should sleep until noon. Fortunately, he did not delay the afternoon boat.

"Well, tell me. I'm afraid you'll find out if you leave late during the day."

"Would I know?"

"My son is dead."

"Yin Meng said that after her parents divorced, her father went to work in the south and has not been heard from since."

"I originally thought that he couldn't stand the shock of divorce, so he ran away to the south immediately after the divorce, leaving his daughter and this family behind."

"What are the facts?"

"he died."

"died?"

"He refused to divorce, so the woman and the man she is now married to killed him. His body sank to the bottom of Xiwanzi."

"How did you get divorced?"

"We are a small place, and the rules may be a little strict now. In the past, we only needed to hold a wedding banquet, and we didn't even need to get a marriage certificate. When we needed the certificate, we could just get one temporarily.

Divorce is even simpler, just go back to your own home and it's considered a divorce.

At that time, he left a letter saying that he was useless and a waste, that he couldn't even keep his wife, and that he was too embarrassed to stay at home any longer. He was going to the south to work and try to make a name for himself, so don't worry.

The man was dead by then, and the letter was a forgery.”

"You never doubted it?"

"I'm stupid. I never doubted it."

"Who told you that?"

"He came back on his own. He went home for the temple fair last month and told me that himself.

Because they were building a bridge in Xiwanzi, his body was found when the foundation was being laid. As time went by, the police had no way of finding it.

I was very angry, so I planned to…”

"I'm tired and my head hurts."

"what?"

"No more chatting, let's go to sleep."

When I woke up, I found that I had slept until noon.

Li Zhuiyuan climbed out of the coffin and saw Runsheng holding a rag and helping him wipe the counter.

Seeing Xiaoyuan woke up, he immediately went into the inner room and woke up Tan Wenbin, who was also still sleeping soundly.

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

"Yeah." Li Zhuiyuan responded.

Tan Wenbin came out rubbing his eyes. In the middle of the day, he shouted, "Yin Meng, your grandfather is not dead."

"Of course he's not dead. I never said he was dead yesterday. He just had a cerebral infarction and he won't wake up."

"Really? Didn't you say that yesterday?" Tan Wenbin recalled carefully.

Li Zhuiyuan: “She didn’t say that.”

But the implication of his words was almost the same as saying that grandpa was dead, although, it was indeed almost the same.

Tan Wenbin immediately apologized with a smile: "Um, I'm sorry, haha, I made a mistake."

Yin Meng said, "Would you like to have lunch? I'll make it."

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

Last night’s pig’s trotters still left a bit of a shadow.

At this time, two boys walked in from outside the store. They looked to be only two or three years older than Li Zhuiyuan. They ran in with red eyes.

"elder sister."

"sister."

As soon as the two boys came in, they called Yin Meng "Sister".

"Who are they?" asked Tan Wenbin.

"My mother gave birth to me later."

"Why do I feel like I have a good relationship with you?"

"Well, when they occasionally go to the county town, I will buy them some food and give them some pocket money."

Tan Wenbin: "You are a very nice person."

"Is it?"

"As good as water in the brain."

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

"Oh, oh, sister, it's bad, mom and dad fell into the pond and drowned this morning!"

(End of this chapter)