Table of contents

"Chapter 1: Beautiful even in death"

"Old Wang, the funeral home's cold storage attendant, called me and said he had something to do that evening. He asked me to cover his shift and find time that night to check whether the cold storage equipment was running properly."

"It was only a matter of checking the equipment, nothing complicated, so I agreed."

"After nightfall, I fell asleep and completely forgot what Old Wang had asked me to do."

"The next day, Old Wang was dead. He had died in cold storage!"

"I heard he had returned to cold storage the previous night and suffered a sudden death."

"Old Wang's family caused a scene at the funeral home and received compensation from the director. Old Wang, meanwhile, was left at the funeral home. His family said they would return in seven days to arrange his funeral."

"Old Wang probably never imagined that after spending half his life watching over cold storage, he would end up occupying one of its refrigerated cabinets himself."

"With no one left to watch over cold storage after Old Wang's death, I was temporarily assigned to the job. Out of guilt toward him, I didn't refuse."

"At noon, I went to cold storage to see Old Wang and also glanced at the deceased lying beside him."

"Both had died before their time. I sighed at life's unpredictability."

"Looking at the girl's bare face in the refrigerated cabinet, I recalled the occupation listed in her file. If she could have decided for herself, she surely wouldn't have wanted to leave this world without any makeup."

"So I asked the funeral home's mortuary makeup artist to do the girl's makeup."

"I didn't know whether it was my imagination or the makeup, but when I slid the girl back into her cabinet, I felt as though she was smiling."

"Somehow, something that belonged to me seemed to have grown heavier by two qian."

That was everything in the revised text.

In this version, Chen Miao hadn't died. No one had!

But that wasn't the end.

Just as Chen Miao finished reading the chapter, more writing appeared at the end.

[Chapter 1 completed. Gained yin virtue (two qian), received Qian Xiaomei's gratitude (Makeup · proficient), incurred Wang Tao's resentment (seven-day grudge). Side story unlocked!]

Yin virtue?

Makeup proficiency?

Seven-day grudge?

A side story?

What was all this?

"Chen Miao, come take a look. Is this all right?"

Shi Manman's voice pulled Chen Miao out of his bewilderment.

He closed the book and walked over to look.

"You're really good at this."

Chen Miao's praise was heartfelt.

"Thank you. WeChat transfer or cash?"

Chen Miao paused, then took out his phone and transferred four hundred yuan to her.

"Sent."

"Thank you. Feel free to call me if you have more work. You'll always get twenty percent off."

Seeing the rare smile on Shi Manman's face, Chen Miao nodded. "Definitely."

After Shi Manman left, Chen Miao reached out to slide Qian Xiaomei back into her cabinet.

As he did, he recalled the book's contents. He glanced down, and his heart lurched.

Qian Xiaomei's face bore a smile much like the one Shi Manman had just shown.

It seemed to be... satisfaction?

Click!

The cabinet door closed. Nothing happened.

Before leaving, Chen Miao glanced at Old Wang's cabinet again.

Resentment?

Did Old Wang have an unfulfilled final wish too?

But why hadn't the book predicted anything about Old Wang?

Or would I have to wait until tomorrow to see it?

Chen Miao didn't open Old Wang's cabinet. He left cold storage directly.

After returning to his office, Chen Miao opened the book.

But the moment he opened it, he froze.

The first page should have contained the story, but it had changed. It was now a table of contents!

Table of contents

I. Preface

[Author information]

[Skills list]

[Miscellaneous arts list]

[Items list]

II. Main text

[Chapter 1: Beautiful even in death]

III. Side stories

[Chapter 1 side story: Old Wang's resentment]

IV. Appendix

[Redemption list]

"What are these?"

Chen Miao turned to the next page and saw [Author information]:

[Name: Chen Miao]

[Age: 24]

[Occupation: Funeral rites specialist]

[Yin virtue: Two qian]

[Current status: Haunted by resentment (seven days)]

Chen Miao's heart jolted when he read the final line!

Recalling the words that had appeared earlier, Chen Miao now understood where this "haunted by resentment" status had come from.

He felt helpless, but there was no way to reason with Old Wang.

He turned the page and saw [Skills list]:

[Funeral Hall Arrangement · beginner]

[Funeral Rites · proficient]

[Eulogy Writing · proficient]

[Makeup · proficient]

"Are these the skills I already have?"

Chen Miao turned another page!

The [Miscellaneous arts list] and [Items list] were empty.

Chen Miao paid them no mind. He skipped the main text and turned straight to the side story!

"Chapter 1 side story: Old Wang's resentment"

"After helping Qian Xiaomei with her makeup, I somehow gained a little insight into the world!"

"Perhaps there really were things beyond my understanding that I knew nothing about."

"But having never encountered any of this before, I had no idea how to make sense of it. All I could do was set my questions aside and carry on with my life."

"That night, I had a dream."

"I found myself in a cramped space. It was freezing. As though caught in sleep paralysis, I could only look around, unable to move at all."

"I didn't know how much time passed in the dream. When I woke, I found that I had caught a cold and felt a little weak."

"I thought the dream had merely been a fluke, but over the following days, I kept having the same dream!"

"Every time I woke, my health deteriorated a little more."

"After the seventh dream, I never woke again."

"I died."

Chen Miao's expression darkened as he read the final line.

I'd only just dealt with Qian Xiaomei, and now there was Old Wang?

Although this wouldn't kill him in one go, the problem was that Old Wang's resentment was clearly different from Qian Xiaomei's. In her case, entering cold storage would kill him, but he would be fine if he stayed away.

Old Wang's resentment, however, followed Chen Miao around!

Perhaps Chen Miao would be fine if he didn't sleep.

But going seven days straight without sleep?

Chen Miao fell silent.

He continued turning the pages, intending to examine every change in the book.

When he reached the [Redemption list] in the appendix, he found even more entries than in the main text and side story!

[One pair of Red Candles] (one qian of yin virtue)

[One pair of White Candles] (one qian of yin virtue)

[Four Incense Sticks] (one qian of yin virtue)

[One bucket of black dog blood] (one qian of yin virtue)

[One bag of glutinous rice] (one qian of yin virtue)

[One qian of cinnabar] (one qian of yin virtue)

[One bowl of rooster blood] (one qian of yin virtue)

[One large sheet of yellow Talisman Paper] (one qian of yin virtue)

[Hundred-year-old peach wood] (two qian of yin virtue)

[Hundred-year-old jujube wood] (two qian of yin virtue)

[Hundred-year-old willow wood] (two qian of yin virtue)

[Hundred-year-old pagoda tree wood] (two qian of yin virtue)

[One bowl of rooster comb blood] (two qian of yin virtue)

[One copper coin] (two qian of yin virtue)

Besides these entries, Chen Miao noticed a line in the upper-right corner of every page of the redemption list.

"Current yin virtue: Two qian"

Chen Miao understood all the words, but wasn't this sort of thing usually found in an in-game shop?

A redemption list in a book?

How did I redeem anything?

Chen Miao ran a finger over the entries, and something suddenly stirred within him.

As his finger moved, images of the items appeared in his mind one after another.

Chen Miao was certain he hadn't imagined any of those items beforehand.

And when he moved his finger away from an entry on the page, the corresponding image vanished from his mind.

Even when Chen Miao instinctively tried to recall it, the image was no longer as clear.

After repeated attempts, Chen Miao confirmed that the images appearing in his mind came from the book.

"Could I really redeem these?"

Chen Miao instinctively decided to test it. Then he watched four Incense Sticks materialize out of thin air on the appendix page!

At that moment, his finger rested precisely on the [Four Incense Sticks] entry!

The sudden appearance of these items gave Chen Miao quite a fright.

But once he remembered the book's miraculous nature, he quickly accepted the change.

"Hmm?"

Picking up the Incense Sticks, Chen Miao noticed something unusual.

Compared with the incense normally stocked at the funeral home, these four sticks were clearly different even in appearance.

The funeral home's incense cost only ten or twenty yuan for a large bundle. It was yellowish brown, with a visibly grainy cross section.

That was because binding powder was added during production. Actual aromatic material probably made up less than half of each stick.

The Incense Sticks in Chen Miao's hand were purplish brown, with irregular streaks of oil. Their purplish-black cross sections even had a waxy sheen, a sign of high oil content!

As a funeral rites specialist, Chen Miao had studied this at school. This incense should have been hand-rolled from pure material, with no binding powder!

Hand-rolling wasn't a gimmick. Without binding powder, incense made from pure wood powder would break if pressed by machine, so it had to be rolled by hand.

Moreover, this kind of incense had to dry in the shade under constant humidity for seven to fifteen days. Drying it too quickly would cause cracks.

Looking at the Incense Sticks, Chen Miao switched on his computer and began searching.

Before long, he found information about this incense.

"Jiangzhen Incense: Semi-sinking grade costs 500–1,500 yuan per gram, sinking grade costs 2,500–5,000 yuan per gram, and Qinan Grade costs 8,000–15,000 yuan per gram."

Although Chen Miao hadn't lit any of the four sticks to examine their smoke, judging by their appearance alone, they should have been... Qinan Grade!

One incense stick weighed around 0.2 grams. That meant a single stick cost over 1,500 yuan, and four were worth six thousand!

Because the incense was rolled by hand, it was less dense than the pressed kind and burned a little faster, so each stick would burn for around eighteen to twenty-five minutes.

In other words, once lit, a single stick of incense would burn through nearly a hundred yuan per minute!

If all four burned at once, that would be four hundred yuan a minute!

As Chen Miao marveled at the cost, something suddenly occurred to him.

"Why four sticks?"

Looking at the four sticks of incense in his hand, Chen Miao suddenly recalled a saying.

Three for gods, four for ghosts!

Were these four sticks of incense meant as an offering to ghosts?

PS: This book uses the conversion of one jin to ten liang, and one liang to ten qian, to make the units easier to remember and convert.