Money Harms One's Life

The two of them finished eating and left Tang's Restaurant one after the other.

Xu Changshou looked pained, and the knife in his hand was nowhere to be seen.

Where had it gone?

He had pawned it to the restaurant. Even if beaten to death, he never would have imagined that treating this fool Qin He to breakfast would cost him eight taels of silver.

Luckily, they had eaten noodles. If they had eaten meat, it would have eaten him out of house and home.

"Sir, how about... I see you back?"

Seeing Xu Changshou's constipated expression, Qin He felt rather embarrassed. Once the Corpse Eating Immortal Skill kicked in, he had failed to put on the brakes.

"No need. Go back and rest. See you around."

Xu Changshou hurriedly waved him off. Good lord, see me back? What if his overly hospitable father invited him to stay for lunch? Was the Xu Family supposed to keep living or not?

"Then... take care, sir. Next time, let's have steamed buns instead. Steamed buns are cheap."

Xu Changshou stumbled and hurried away.

The Grand Canal docks were always bustling in the early morning. No matter how impoverished the Great Li Dynasty's people became, it did not affect this golden waterway.

Qin He rubbed his belly as he strolled back at an unhurried pace. One breakfast had added another five years of inner strength to him. Together with the previous five years, he now had ten years of inner strength.

He was curious what level ten years amounted to. Spotting a cattle-hitching post by the roadside, he secretly circulated his inner strength and slapped it.

Bang!

Stone chips flew everywhere. The stone post, as thick as a thigh, shattered into seven or eight pieces.

Qin He jumped in fright. After glancing around, he hastily covered his face and bolted.

The cattle market proprietor ran out after hearing the noise, unable to make heads or tails of it. Looking left and right, he discovered that the cattle-hitching post had been smashed into a pile of rocks. He cursed furiously, "Which turtle bastard did this? That's wicked enough to smoke!"

The Corpse Burning Facility was far less lively during the day than at night.

There was only one constable left guarding the gate. Most of the Corpse Burners had returned to their rooms after breakfast to sleep and regain their strength. Outsiders would not come to such an unlucky place, and no poultry or livestock were kept here either, so the Corpse Burning Facility was particularly quiet by day.

Three or five Corpse Burners leaned lazily against the base of the wall, airing out their lice.

With ten additional years of inner strength, Qin He did not feel tired in the slightest, so he walked over and leaned against the wall with them.

When they saw Qin He, they finally perked up a little.

Someone among them had seen Xu Changshou take Qin He into Tang's Restaurant that morning.

The fifteen copper coins' worth of food they received each day barely filled the Corpse Burners' stomachs. A place like Tang's Restaurant was something they did not even dare dream of.

"Kid Qin, did Xu Changshou treat you to drinks?" The speaker was Old Liangtou, thin and gaunt, the oldest among the Corpse Burners. He had been at the Corpse Burning Facility for quite some time, and his eyes lit up whenever alcohol was mentioned.

"No drinks." Qin He honestly shook his head.

"You went to a restaurant and didn't drink? Then what did you eat?"

Old Liangtou looked disappointed, as though Qin He's drinking would somehow satisfy him as well.

"Shredded meat noodles."

"What a pity. Ahh." Old Liangtou shook his head and lay back down.

"What's so good about alcohol? Meat is the real good stuff." Liu Sanjin sidled over and asked with a grin, "Kid Qin, what kind of meat did you eat?"

Qin He froze for a moment, then shook his head. "I ate too fast. Didn't get a close look."

"Hey, you eat meat without even looking at it? What a waste." Liu Sanjin looked deeply regretful.

"It went into my belly, so it wasn't wasted." Qin He patted his stomach and grinned.

He truly had not tasted what kind of meat it was. The ingredients in this time and space were vastly different from those of the time and space he had come from.

Forget the meat—even the noodles tasted different.

"Kid Qin, didn't you get five taels of silver last time? Why not leave this ghostly place?" The last Corpse Burner to speak was Crippled Li. One of his legs had been crippled for some unknown reason, and he bobbed up and down as he walked.

"Exactly. Stay here, and sooner or later you'll die. Go out and try your luck—maybe there'll still be a way to live." Liu Sanjin chimed in.

Qin He smiled but said nothing.

The Corpse Burning Facility was a treasure trove to him now. How could he possibly leave?

He would not trade it even for a dragon throne.

"In times like these, human lives are like grass. What way to live is there? We're all short-lived ghosts. Die early, get reincarnated early." Old Liangtou tilted his head back and changed positions, muttering softly, "If I'd known, I should've died back in my hometown. At least I could've fallen leaves returning to their roots. Now, when I die someday, I'll only be a lonely wandering ghost."

The other Corpse Burners looked at Old Liangtou and fell silent.

They were all refugees from faraway places. They had drifted to a foreign land in search of a way to survive, only to arrive at a fate of waiting to die.

Qin He raised his head and looked at the sky. Not a drop of rain had fallen in the Capital City for half a year. Every day blazed beneath a brilliant sun, while the vast north was steeped in desolation.

The Grand Canal did not lack water, but the growing number of refugees foretold increasingly difficult times. Every morning at daybreak, government runners pushed flatbed carts through the streets, carrying out one emaciated corpse after another from every nook and cranny.

Once the carts were full, they dragged them to the Mass Grave for burial.

Qin He had never experienced fleeing famine himself, but his former self retained miserable memories of it.

More than three hundred members of the Qin Clan had migrated from Jinxi. They encountered government soldiers on the road, and more than half died. They encountered rebel troops, and another small half died. They encountered bandits, and half died again. Then there were those who starved to death on the road, thirsted to death, died of exhaustion, or were killed and eaten for their flesh... In the end, only this single strand of hair—him—reached the Capital City.

"If I had money, I'd definitely have a proper meal of meat. Nothing but meat. It'd be worth it even if I died the next day after eating my fill." After a long while, Liu Sanjin muttered.

"Alcohol is the essence of grain. Eating meat without alcohol is eating loneliness." Old Liangtou retorted.

"You old drunkard, if you've got the guts, go save copper coins to buy liquor like Crippled Li. But you don't have the nerve."

"Money harms one's life. That's courting death."

"..."

The two of them started bickering again.

Qin He looked at Crippled Li. Saving copper coins was a "very bold" thing to do in the Corpse Burning Facility.

Lowly people had tough lives. To Corpse Burners, money was an ominous thing that broke one's fate.

They were born with poor destinies, destinies cursed by heaven. They could not bear wealth; touch the aura of wealth, and they would die.

Thus, the Corpse Burners used all fifteen copper coins they received each day to exchange for food, not keeping a single coin, terrified that money would damage their fate and cause a corpse to pounce on them.

Qin He had always followed this rule before, spending all fifteen copper coins every day. He was curious what Crippled Li wanted to do by daring to save copper coins.

"Hehe, I just think that if I die without ever tasting what women are like, then my whole life will have been lived for nothing. I asked around—the Old Alley Entrance only charges fifty copper coins for one go. I'll save five copper coins a day, and in ten days it'll be enough."

Crippled Li rubbed his hands awkwardly, his face flushing red as he chuckled.

"How many more days?" Qin He asked.

Crippled Li held up one hand. "Five days."

"Soon."

Qin He nodded.

At that moment, Crippled Li's face shone with the pure, Madonna-like radiance of someone willing to risk his life for one shot at perpetuating the human race.

Old Alley Entrance, fifty copper coins.

Qin He silently committed it to memory.

The day passed lazily.

As nightfall approached, more corpses awaiting incineration were delivered to the Corpse Burning Facility.

The constables assigned out the corpses, then shut and locked the doors one by one. Work began.

The corpse assigned to Qin He was brought into the room by Xu Changshou.

Xu Changshou's expression was somewhat grave. "Be careful tonight. Burn this corpse, and I'll give you tomorrow off."

Qin He's heart gave a slight jolt. Those words signaled that the corpse was inauspicious.

This was also a rule of the Corpse Burning Facility. If they encountered a particularly dangerous corpse and successfully burned it, they could take a day off the next day.

Previously, it had mostly been Horse Butcher who got a day off about once every ten days or half a month.

Now that Horse Butcher was dead, it had fallen to him.

Xu Changshou did not say much else. He left the corpse behind, locked the door, and departed.

Qin He let out a soft breath and slowly lifted the shroud. His hand suddenly paused.

Good lord, Horse Butcher.