Buy Two at Once

Uncle Fang's sighs always came so suddenly. Wen Qingkong paid them no mind.

They worked with the dead. If they did their jobs properly, then they deserved every last bit of what was owed to them. How could they give up fighting for their rightful interests just because they had it slightly better than those refugees?

To put it bluntly, Uncle Fang's way of thinking was to back down whenever possible.

Unfortunately, this world did not work that way.

You thought that if you took a step back, others would take one too, and then everyone would be happy.

In reality, you took a step back, and their eyes lit up. Heh, time to take another step forward!

As Wen Qingkong let his thoughts wander, his gaze suddenly stopped.

It was them!

The night before last, when he had stitched up a corpse for the first time, he had worked on the bodies of the Huangzhuang Four Brothers.

From their Life's Flashback, he had learned that the eldest brother was married, with a wife and a six-year-old daughter.

The gentle, virtuous wife and the adorable, lively daughter from that Life's Flashback remained vivid in Wen Qingkong's memory.

Yet he had never expected that, in just two days, the eldest brother's wife and daughter would come to this street to sell themselves.

Wen Qingkong frowned deeply. If he had not seen them, that would have been one thing, but now that he had, he truly could not bear to ignore them.

But the rules of the Corpse Seamstress Workshop forbade Corpse Seamstresses from venturing too far away, much less going to that street.

"Hehe, they're really pretty!"

"If only I could buy one!"

The Corpse Seamstress from Sewing Corpse Chamber Number Eight was over thirty, ugly-faced and obese. At that moment, he was staring lecherously at the women being sold along the long street of Caishikou Execution Grounds.

Who knew what filth was running through his head? Drool was even trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Uncle Fang frowned and glared at him in disgust. "Li San, have you forgotten how you ended up here?"

Li San scratched his head and grinned. "Don't worry, Uncle Fang. I haven't forgotten. But I really want one. I haven't touched a woman in over a year."

Before Uncle Fang could speak, the Corpse Seamstress from Chamber Seven snorted. "You've got less than two liang hanging between your legs, yet you spend all day thinking about nonsense. Is that little bird of yours even bigger than an actual bird's?"

Li San's face instantly turned red, and the fat all over his body rippled like waves.

Wen Qingkong secretly wondered, This is a chaotic era of famine. Everyone else is skin and bones, so how is Li San still this fat?

Li San pointed at the Corpse Seamstress from Chamber Seven, his lips trembling. "Y-you... how can you slander me like that?"

The Corpse Seamstress from Chamber Seven clicked his tongue, utterly disdainful.

"Li San, do you think we don't know about that little incident of yours?"

"You climbed over a wall into some widow's home, trying to force yourself on her. But after thrusting away for an entire hour, you still couldn't get it in. In the end, the widow's neighbors caught you!"

"After they dragged you to the magistrate's office, if there hadn't happened to be a shortage of Corpse Seamstresses at the time, do you think trash like you would have ended up here?"

Li San rose to his feet in fury. He wanted to curse, yet could not get the words out, his entire body shaking like a sieve.

Seeing this, Wen Qingkong hurriedly said, "He's not going to pass out from anger, is he?"

The Corpse Seamstress from Chamber Seven was startled as well. Though he had been taunting Li San, he did not want to cause a death.

Uncle Fang quickly pinched Li San beneath the nose. After quite a while, Li San finally came around.

A little later, and his eyes might have rolled back.

The Corpse Seamstress from Chamber Seven also let out a breath of relief, muttering several curses under his breath.

"Lai Er, watch your mouth."

Uncle Fang tried to calm him down.

The Corpse Seamstress from Chamber Seven nodded, his voice muffled. "I know, Uncle Fang. Who would've thought he was so easily provoked?"

So the Corpse Seamstress from Chamber Seven was named Lai Er.

Wen Qingkong committed it to memory. The original owner had not been here long and had kept too much to himself, so he had not even learned the names of all the Corpse Seamstresses.

The Corpse Seamstress from Chamber One was no longer young either. He looked to be around Uncle Fang's age.

He liked smoking dry tobacco. With a puff from his pipe, he looked as pleased as though he had ascended to immortality.

"Ah, now that I think about it, Little Wen is just the right age. Us old fellows already have one foot in the grave. Who knows when we might die?"

"Little Wen is so young and hasn't even had a taste of women yet. If he had the money to buy one, that would be good. At least he could leave behind an heir."

After hearing the Corpse Seamstress from Chamber One, Uncle Fang nodded in wholehearted agreement.

"Old Zhou is right. Little Wen is at that age already. It's just a pity he has no money."

The Corpse Seamstress from Chamber One was called Old Zhou.

Wen Qingkong remembered that as well.

He asked curiously, "Uncle Zhou, Uncle Fang, can we bring people into the Corpse Seamstress Workshop?"

Uncle Fang looked at him in surprise, then slapped his forehead. "Oh, right, I forgot. Little Wen hasn't been here long, so there are a lot of things he doesn't know."

Gathering his thoughts, he said to Wen Qingkong, "Little Wen, we people are confined to this Corpse Seamstress Workshop. You know that the most fundamental rule is that we cannot leave. We stay in this workshop until we die."

"But after so long, especially for young men like you, who can endure going without women for that long?"

"So the court allows us to marry and have children, but our wives and children must live here in the Corpse Seamstress Workshop too."

"The second floor is our home."

"But you must remember this: once a Corpse Seamstress, always a Corpse Seamstress. Generation after generation will be Corpse Seamstresses."

"Your children will grow up surrounded by this work. Wouldn't they be the best candidates to become Corpse Seamstresses?"

"In truth, the court would love nothing more than for us to marry and have children."

"But we don't want that. It's one thing for us to deal with corpses every day, but how could we let our children deal with corpses too?"

As he said this, Uncle Fang sighed again. Wen Qingkong felt that even one more wrinkle had appeared on Uncle Fang's face from that sigh.

"Then who should we buy from?"

The moment Wen Qingkong said that, all the Corpse Seamstresses stared at him.

Uncle Fang said in disbelief, "Little Wen, you really want to buy someone? Do you have money?"

Wen Qingkong considered it. "I probably don't have enough money, but if they have food to eat, I imagine they would be willing."

Uncle Fang furrowed his brow. "Our food is already becoming scarcer and scarcer. With one more person, you might not even be able to fill your own stomach. And... and if a Corpse Transformation happens, what will your woman do?"

Wen Qingkong thought seriously of the four brothers' tragic deaths. How were one woman and a six-year-old girl supposed to survive?

If he had not known, that would have been one thing. But now that he did, he could not simply stand by and do nothing.

Of course, the premise was that he had obtained the monk's Shaolin Golden Bell Shield. By cultivating a breath of true qi every day, he did not actually require much food.

Most importantly, he was not some rigid moralist. If food truly became scarce, then with his martial arts, getting some grain from the wine-and-meat aristocrats of the capital should not be much of a problem.

"I'll be fine."

Wen Qingkong finally made up his mind.

Seeing that he had decided, Uncle Fang did not try to persuade him further. Wen Qingkong was fifteen, after all, and truly at the age when he needed a woman.

At the thought, he could not help sighing again. What a sin.

This damned world!

"Little Wen, which one have you taken a fancy to?"

Wen Qingkong pointed at the eldest of the four brothers' wife and daughter. "Them."

Uncle Fang and the other Corpse Seamstresses froze. Following the direction of his finger, they stared at Wen Qingkong in astonishment.

What a kid!

He wasn't buying one at a time. He was buying two at once!