I had already accepted the fact that I was about to become a Corpse Collector.
Hearing Corpse Head Song say that, I did not say much.
As long as I could stay alive and make money, collecting corpses was fine.
It was better than dying with no one to see my grandpa off.
Besides, Corpse Head Song had not asked me to give up school.
This semester was almost over anyway. Next semester would be internship time...
Corpse Head Song packed up his fishing gear and had me carry the case and equipment.
He was like a total show-off.
He carried that giant black carp barehanded and walked ahead by himself.
Once we left the dock, he headed toward the barbecue stalls, terrified that nobody would notice him.
After leaving the dock, we had only walked four or five hundred meters, but he dragged it out for a full forty minutes.
At last, we reached a place called Yin Yang Street.
Following the street inward, the thirteenth storefront was Corpse Head Song's shop.
I looked up and found that it was nothing like I had imagined.
I had thought that, as someone who collected corpses, Corpse Head Song would run a funeral service shop.
Something like a one-stop wedding-and-funeral service, or perhaps a Feng Shui Hall.
Yet Corpse Head Song's shop was actually a fishing gear store.
It even had an especially tacky name: "Big Fish Fishing Gear Store."
Still, the fishing gear store was quite large.
It had three storefronts, and the decor looked luxurious.
Corpse Head Song stood at the entrance and said to me:
"Xiao Jiang! This is my shop. Not bad, right?"
"It's very nice!"
I replied with a smile.
Corpse Head Song laughed several times.
"Other than collecting corpses, this is my only hobby..."
As he spoke, he set down the giant black carp and opened the glass door.
I followed Corpse Head Song into the shop.
Once he turned on the lights, I saw that the interior was quite spacious and genuinely well decorated.
Besides displays of all kinds of fishing rods and shelves full of bait and gear, there was also a huge aquarium ecosystem tank.
He was clearly a Corpse Collector, yet he had opened a fishing gear store.
Corpse Head Song did not introduce much else and simply continued:
"Come upstairs with me. We're going to pay respects to the Grandmaster."
I gave an "Mm" and followed Corpse Head Song farther inside.
The shop was quite large and had two floors.
At the very back of the fishing gear store were a kitchen and a small dining area.
Then there was a wooden staircase leading upstairs.
The stairs creaked beneath our feet as we went up to the second floor, which was a little over one person tall.
There were three rooms, one of them locked.
Outside was a living room with a large television.
Beside the stairs in the living room was a shrine.
It was covered with red cloth, so I had no idea what was being worshipped.
All I could see was a small bronze incense burner nearly full of ash.
Corpse Head Song led me directly to the shrine, took out three sticks of incense and lit them, then bowed before the red-cloth-covered shrine.
He said:
"Grandmaster above.
Your disciple Song Decai has encountered this boy, Jiang Ning, by fate.
I have decided to accept him as a disciple and pass down the Yin Sect Dharma Incantation.
May Grandmaster bear witness and grant us good fortune."
After saying that, Corpse Head Song respectfully bowed three more times.
Then he inserted the three incense sticks into the burner.
At the same time, he reached out and removed the red cloth covering the shrine's memorial tablet.
Only then did I see what was inside.
Within the black shrine frame stood a red memorial tablet.
Six golden characters were written on it.
"The Seat of the Emperor of Fengdu."
I knew of Fengdu—the ghost city of the underworld!
But I did not know much about the Emperor of Fengdu.
Just from the name alone, I knew the Grandmaster I was worshipping had to be formidable.
As I looked at the memorial tablet, Corpse Head Song spoke:
"Jiang Ning, today, before the Grandmaster, I will accept you as my disciple.
I hope that from now on, you will conduct yourself properly and study diligently.
Do not commit evil because it seems small, and do not neglect good because it seems small."
Hearing that, I had no more hesitation.
Seeing a teacup nearby, I poured myself a cup of cold tea.
I knelt on the floor and kowtowed three times to Corpse Head Song.
Then I raised the bowl of cold tea.
"Master, I will remember your teachings. Please have some tea!"
At first, Master did not care about such formalities at all.
He had merely seen that my Eight Characters were suitable and that I had some affinity with him, so he wanted to take me as a disciple.
But seeing that I knew the proper etiquette, he smiled at me.
"Good, good!"
With that, he took the cold tea I offered and took a small sip.
After drinking, he set down the teacup.
Then he said to me again:
"Xiao Jiang!
Since I accepted you as my disciple today, I will give you a Dharma name.
Once you have a Dharma name, you will clearly feel the Fortune Blessing you receive.
And the Grandmaster below will know that a disciple like you exists.
When you go down there in the future, you will have someone looking out for you."
I looked at Master. I did not fully understand what he meant.
But I said nothing.
After thinking for a moment, Master spoke again:
"Your Eight Characters are light, and your fate is too frail.
You carry calamities with you, so your Dharma name will be Du'e!"
Du'e.
It sounded all right, and it was fairly auspicious.
I did not mind it either.
Whatever it was called, as long as it kept me alive.
Seeing that I had no objections, Master picked up a brush nearby.
He quickly wrote my birth date and Eight Characters, along with the Dharma name Du'e, on a piece of yellow paper.
Right before my eyes, he burned the yellow paper before the Grandmaster's memorial tablet.
Then he gestured for me to kowtow to the Grandmaster.
He also said that I could only stop when he told me to.
I had never taken a master before, so I assumed this was one of the initiation rules.
Thus, I bowed before the Grandmaster's memorial tablet.
One, two, three...
Master stared at the yellow paper in the brazier.
Only after I had finished eighteen kowtows did the yellow paper talisman in the brazier finish burning.
Only then did Master tell me to stop.
I felt like I had kowtowed myself dizzy.
Yet Master looked at me with utter surprise.
"Xiao Jiang, you're something else.
When Yu Long and I entered the sect, it was over after three kowtows.
But when you paid respects to the Grandmaster, you kowtowed eighteen times.
One kowtow, one blessing. The Grandmaster granted eighteen blessings.
It seems the Grandmaster is very pleased with you, his new disciple!"
As he spoke, he patted my shoulder and motioned for me to rise.
His eyes were full of delight as he looked at me.
I smiled awkwardly.
I had kowtowed eighteen times, but I did not feel any blessing at all.
I was even wondering whether the paper had been too damp and therefore burned too slowly.
My apprenticeship process was very simple.
I kowtowed a few times, acknowledged the Grandmaster, received the Dharma name "Du'e," and once the paper finished burning, it was done.
Master Corpse Head Song did not immediately teach me anything.
He merely pointed to one of the rooms.
He said I would sleep in that room tonight.
After I woke up, he would accompany me to the school to see what was going on.
First, we would settle the matter concerning me.
If some filthy thing was causing trouble, we would also collect some Fortune Blessing along the way and stabilize the Four Calamities on me.
Finally, he would take me to collect the blessing granted by the Grandmaster.
Hearing that, I froze on the spot.
The earlier parts were easy enough to understand.
If there was a problem, we would deal with it.
But going to collect the Grandmaster's "blessing"?
Did such a thing really exist?
I asked curiously:
"Master, is this blessing real? You can actually collect it?"
But Master only smiled.
"Of course!
I don't know about other branches.
But our lineage has this Fortune Blessing.
Otherwise, why would I have made you kowtow so many times?"