"You should know about this. It's much like the story of the dragon brought to life by painting in its eyes. Once the eyes are painted, the dragon comes alive. The same goes for paper figures—they can attract evil spirits to possess them."
"I've heard of that," Jiang Cheng replied.
"Have you heard of the Three Never-Makes?" Du Moyu's voice dropped even lower. His expression shifted, growing more cautious, with an indescribably strange look in his eyes.
Jiang Cheng instinctively paid closer attention. "Tell me about it."
Du Moyu didn't keep him waiting. "There's a folk saying that Paper Figure Makers have three kinds of people they never make figures for."
"The first is a shrew. Someone like that was fierce and quarrelsome in life, and after death, she's bound to harass others. You have to avoid her while she's alive, and steer clear of her after she dies."
"The second is a pregnant woman. One corpse, two lives; the baleful energy is extremely strong. Not only Paper Figure Makers—even people in other yin trades wouldn't dare get too close to such a corpse."
"The third is their fellow tradesmen—that is, people in other yin trades. Seamsters of Corpses, executioners, corpse drivers, the funeral home's corpse watchers, and us corpse retrievers all count."
After a pause, Du Moyu continued, "People like us are born under an ill-starred fate. We don't belong to the cycle of karma and reincarnation."
Jiang Cheng frowned and reminded him, "We're only playing the role of corpse retrievers in this world. We're not corpse retrievers in real life. Why are you getting so deep into character?"
"That's called empathy. Every qualified author needs to master it. That way, you can better connect with the characters in your book—worry about what they worry about, think what they