If this had been before...
Young Master Gu might have felt like teasing a bright, youthful girl like her.
Everyone knew the young master of the Gu family was gentle and tender toward women.
But ever since a certain manipulative girl had humiliated him that day, Gu Zhe had temporarily lost interest in all that.
His current circumstances were worlds apart from his former life. How could he be in the mood to flirt?
Besides!
Heh. Women would only slow down my sword draw.
He looked at his creations.
He thought about his innate ability.
Gu Zhe really wanted to try it right away.
What would be different after I burned my creations?
I'm called the Mysterious Origami Craftsman, but what's so mysterious about it?
If an underworld really exists, are my deceased Gu family ancestors still there? Is it the underworld I imagine? And if there's an underworld, are there other strange, wondrous worlds too?
All of this...
There was so much Gu Zhe wanted to explore.
He really wanted to take his creations and make an offering to his late grandfather and other elders right away.
Ahem. They won't turn up their noses at how ugly these are, will they? It's the thought that counts, after all.
But after looking at the bright weather and thinking it over, he decided to wait until dusk or until it grew darker before burning them. He would stick to tradition.
That would also keep him from disturbing the shops doing business on either side. The one on the other side sold urns, another highly profitable business.
It would also spare him from attracting sanitation or municipal workers by burning paper in broad daylight.
From his occasional outings over the past few days, he had learned that this was a street of funeral businesses. Some people here also handled funeral arrangements, so scattering and burning joss paper on the street was inevitable.
But they mostly did it in the dim light of dusk.
That was perhaps the greatest concession the municipal authorities made to this street of "folk traditions."
Gu Zhe copied the girl next door's approach to minding her shop.
He basked in the sun, read reference materials, and cut out paper figures, horses, and the like.
Then he waited for customers to come.
Unfortunately...
He got his sunshine, but no customers.
He watched the girl on his right make several sales of incense, candles, and joss paper, along with some drinks and snacks.
He also watched the owner on his left sell an urn supposedly made of golden camphor wood. Judging by the owner's expression, he had made a tidy profit.
But his own shop...
Not a single sale.
Gu Zhe was feeling a little unhappy.
Uncle Gu wasn't concerned about that paltry sum.
Mostly, he still remembered the strange, disdainful expression on one curious customer's face after seeing his creations.
Then there was the girl next door's uncontrollable laughter and the urn shop owner's teasing.
Gu Zhe was so annoyed that he almost pulled up his panel to show them what hidden talent looked like, to let them know his paper effigies were divine treasures concealing their brilliance!
But considering that they couldn't see it, much less understand the reality of the "inner world," he could only swallow his irritation.
He kept learning from books and videos. Until he found spirit points that would let him level up while lying around, he still had to grind!
Nothing to do today but sunbathe by the door!
Slowly...
The sun sank, the sky began to darken, pedestrians disappeared, and passing taxis flashed by.
Gu Zhe counted on his fingers. The time had come.
He fetched an iron basin from the little storeroom, then brought out an incense burner.
He set them beside the road.
After a moment's thought, he took out his paper horse figurines, paper human figurines, paper figures, paper clothes...
"Pfft, uncle, are you sure you're not trying to make your ancestors angry...?"
Gu Zhe couldn't be bothered to argue with a brat.
"Hehe, forgive me for being blunt and free-spirited. Uncle, good medicine tastes bitter..."
"Zhaodi, time to go..."
The little supermarket closed, and a middle-aged woman who still retained her charms came out. She looked a little like the girl, and he could tell she had been a beauty in her youth.
But right now, she was looking at him warily. Her gaze became even less friendly when she saw how cheerfully the girl was joking with him.
As a woman with experience, how could she fail to see that this bearded, teasing man was hardly much older than her daughter? More importantly, beneath that exterior, he was rather handsome.
She was terrified some stray dog by the roadside would carry her daughter off.
She gave her daughter a reproachful look, then glared warily at Gu Zhe.
She also cast a disdainful glance at the shabby furnishings inside the neighboring shop.
The changes in her expression were like an entire episode of a melodramatic rural soap opera playing out in an instant.
Gu Zhe couldn't help marveling at how much drama went on inside these women's heads.
"Zhaodi, don't talk nonsense. We're going home..."
Gu Zhe couldn't help chuckling either.
"Zhaodi?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk... In this day and age, someone still names their daughter..."
"You!!"
The sharp-tongued girl finally blushed.
That name really was distinctive!
"You, you, you... What's that smile supposed to mean? What's wrong with Zhaodi... what's wrong with Zhaodi... You're still laughing? Ah... you're still laughing..."
Gu Zhe lowered his head and continued arranging his things.
He said calmly:
"Easy, girl. Your name is pretty awesome too!"
"You... hmph..."
Under her mother's watchful gaze, she finally stopped paying attention to this uncle who looked as though he had a bit of a story behind him.
After all, a handsome older man was an "uncle." An ugly one was a "geezer."
So what if you're handsome?
How dare you laugh at my name?
He watched the mother and daughter slowly leave.
Gu Zhe smiled and shook his head.
Being an ordinary person wasn't actually as difficult as he had imagined.
But I'm not becoming a corporate slave. There's no way I'm working for someone else!
At that moment, the urn shop owner next door closed up too.
"Young man, you're living in the shop? Well, you've got guts. My son told me there are plenty of spooky rumors going around these days. Didn't expect someone so young to be so brave."
As he spoke, he looked at Gu Zhe's pile of things.
Amusement flickered in his eyes.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. That craftsmanship certainly has personality..."
The man was a greasy fat fellow, not a beautiful woman.
Gu Zhe couldn't be bothered to raise his head.
"Maybe I should stock some urns too!"
"Uh, you're joking, young man. You wouldn't be interested in my little business. Ahem, the most important thing in life is perseverance. Keep at it... Anyway, I'll leave you to it..."
Gu Zhe was speechless. Why was it always the sons who knew the truth?
As if I've never been anyone's son. Why don't I know anything?
First, he lit two candles.
Then he placed three sticks of incense in the burner.
"Grandpa, and all my ancestors... ahem, have you eaten yet...? Well, I do hope your souls really are still wandering around somewhere, and that there really is an underworld..."
The Gu family had always spoken casually with one another, elders and juniors alike.
When he was little, his grandfather hadn't seemed too concerned with rules either, so Gu Zhe wasn't overcome with melancholy now.
Everyone in the Gu family took things in stride.
"Well, ancestors, our family barely enjoyed a few good years before falling on hard times again. Hmm, forget it, no business talk today. Your descendant Gu Zhe has brought you a few local specialties to burn!"
"Remember to leave good reviews and feedback, ancestors!"
Once he finished speaking...
Gu Zhe began burning his offerings.
Flames rose.
Gu Zhe's expression shifted.
He looked at the three sticks of incense, where wisps of blue smoke rose straight into the darkening sky...
As the offerings burned...
An inexplicable connection formed within Gu Zhe.
He could sense something emerging after they burned, then rising with those wisps of blue smoke...
And then...
It drifted and drifted... drifted and drifted...
As though floating through endless nothingness, through waves of flickering light and darkness...
Like a little boat lost at sea, like someone who had lost their way... it kept drifting and drifting... unable to find anywhere to land...
Then the blue smoke slowly dispersed.
That inexplicable connection vanished somewhere unknown as well!
An understanding dawned within Gu Zhe.
There had been no target to guide it. In fact, the smoke from the incense had merely been drifting at random, and that connection had followed it instinctively.
Neither had a destination or any location to home in on!
His expression turned grim!
Either no underworld existed in this world.
In that case, his early development as a Mysterious Origami Craftsman would be hampered.
He recalled that sensation of nothingness, like endless waves.
It seemed this world really wasn't as simple as ordinary people imagined.
Or... there was another explanation...
His ancestors no longer existed. Perhaps they had already reincarnated, or perhaps there were no souls or afterlife at all, and death meant vanishing into nothingness!
He stood there for a long time.
Amid the dim, flickering embers, he watched the street grow ever quieter.
Gu Zhe's eyes were deep and unreadable.
Suddenly, something stirred within him.
A remark from the taxi driver flashed through his mind.
"My son said what happened in '99 can't be kept secret anymore?"
He opened his phone.
He searched through various forums.
He recalled the mottled points of light and waves he had sensed within that void.
He began taking the various pieces of information seriously.
He didn't know how much time passed.
He read countless posts that seemed like products of the imagination.
He summed them up one by one.
Gu Zhe noticed one common feature.
All the dubious rumors and stories had begun five years ago.
So...
It had only started five years ago?
Anything before that didn't count?