“Ah… mm!”
Just as Tan Wenbin was about to scream, a hand suddenly covered his mouth, stifling his voice completely.
His eyes widened in terror as he stared at the old face before him.
The old man chuckled, just about to say something when he noticed the young man wrapping his arms and legs around him, twisting his waist to exert strength.
“Eh?”
The old man displayed a puzzled expression, seemingly recognizing the wrestling technique being used.
“Mm?”
Tan Wenbin was completely baffled, realizing that he was grasping thin air, as if the old man had no physical form.
Yet he could still feel the hand firmly covering his mouth.
“Listen, young man, I’ll let you go, but don’t make a sound. I’m old and can’t handle loud noises.”
Tan Wenbin nodded.
The old man removed his hand from Tan Wenbin’s mouth.
“Yuanzi, Runsheng, there are ghosts!”
“Hehe.”
The old man laughed, standing up and opening the coffin Tan Wenbin was lying in.
“Yuanzi, Runsheng!”
Tan Wenbin continued to shout, propping himself up and warily watching the old man.
The old man ignored him completely, walking to another coffin, waving at an incense burner positioned underneath it.
The incense flared up, releasing thin wisps of white smoke.
He took a deep breath, and the smoke split into two streams that entered his nose.
“Ah…”
The old man exhaled in comfort; a sickly flush appeared on his face.
“Yuanzi, Runsheng!”
Seeing Tan Wenbin still insisting, the old man sighed, “Stop shouting, they can’t hear you.”
Tan Wenbin finally ceased shouting, confusedly asking, “Who are you?”
“You are sleeping at my place, and you ask who I am?”
“Your place?” Tan Wenbin seemed to realize something and asked, “Are you Yin Meng’s grandfather?”
“Correct, that’s me.”
“You’re not dead yet?”
“What do you mean by not dead? I’m not a ghost or anything.”
“Not dead?”
“That’s obvious! If I were dead, why would I haunt my granddaughter and ruin her luck? I’m not that foolish.”
“What about the…”
The old man pointed to the coffin behind him. “I sleep on this bed.”
There were two coffins in the outer room, which was the shop, and three more in the inner room.
Tan Wenbin had thought they were all empty, not realizing that one contained a living person.
“What is this then? If you're not a ghost, why couldn’t I touch you just now?”
“That’s what I find strange. Aren’t you supposed to be in the business?”
“What business?”
“The corpse retrieval business.”
Tan Wenbin puffed up his chest, resolutely stating, “Of course!”
“Then don’t you know you’re currently in the realm of shadows?”
“In the realm of shadows?” Tan Wenbin felt his body, “Is this what they call walking in the shadows?”
“I initially didn’t want to pay you any mind, but who knew you were jumping around that I had to pull you back, and unexpectedly, you shouted out.”
“What about my friends?”
“When walking in the shadows, one can’t see the living, so calling out earlier was pointless.”
“No way…”
“No way, what?”
“Uh, it’s nothing. Why did you walk out at night? Didn’t you show yourself during the day?”
“I wish I could come out during the day; my body isn’t fit for it.” The old man pointed to his head, “I had a stroke, and now, I’m paralyzed.”
“So you come out at night to be active?”
“Don’t speak rubbish; do you truly not understand, or are you pretending? Who walks in the shadows as casually as eating or drinking?”
“Isn’t that so?”
Tan Wenbin snapped his fingers.
“Clap!”
He had always thought that when Xiao Yuan snapped his fingers and closed his eyes to walk in the shadows, it looked quite impressive.
“Today is the Ghost Festival; we should get up and do some business at night.”
“Doing ghost business at such a late hour?”
“Isn’t that right?”
Tan Wenbin: “…”
“Enough chitchat; I need to open the shop.”
The old man walked through the curtain to the front room, and upon entering, he froze.
He saw a boy standing there gazing at him with a scrutinizing look.
The old man was puzzled. “I haven’t opened the shop door yet; how did you get in?”
Li Zhuiyuan didn’t answer.
The old man rubbed his head, “Wait, you’re not in robes! I see now, you’re with that foolish boy!”
Li Zhuiyuan nodded.
Tan Wenbin had also rushed over from the inner room.
Seeing Li Zhuiyuan, he excitedly waved his arms, “Brother Yuan, I walked in the shadows! I really walked in the shadows!”
His excitement resembled that of a child who just learned to ride a bicycle.
The old man stroked his chin, looking at the boy and said, “So you are the real deal.”
“What do you mean?” Tan Wenbin asked curiously.
The old man pointed to the boy, “I didn’t know he was standing here before, proving he’s quite solid.”
“Solid?”
“Big fish eat small fish, and small fish eat shrimp; you’re just a shrimp.”
“And you’re the big fish?”
The old man glanced at the boy again and said lightly, “Small fish.”
Li Zhuiyuan had already sensed the stir inside the room; he was already in the realm of shadows.
He had heard the previous conversation and was aware of the old man’s identity but still remained cautious.
Now, however, he was sure that the old man was “harmless,” as he had shown weakness.
In truth, during this time, the boy had been wrestling with a question in his mind: Should he pounce on him and bite him?
He just didn’t know how to fight in a walking shadow state.
Last time in Roadband Village, he had also used powder to disperse that little girl in red.
The books he had read from Wei Zhengdao didn’t detail walking in the shadows.
This should be a fundamental subject, so basic that Wei Zhengdao didn’t bother to mention it, but Li Zhuiyuan just didn’t know how.
It was like knowing how to perform advanced calculations but “not knowing” addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.
He could manage it because even though he didn’t understand what “addition or subtraction” meant, he memorized the answers from basic arithmetic.
This was also why he often overexerted himself and ended up with a nosebleed; while it was partly due to being still young and undeveloped, the main reason was that his initial calculations were astronomical.
“Brother Yuan, right?”
The old man treated Li Zhuiyuan differently, adding a courteous term to address him, unlike how he called Tan Wenbin a foolish boy.
“Yeah.” Li Zhuiyuan acknowledged, “Hello.”
“Yin Fu Hai, with a spot at Fengdu Dock. May I ask which pier you belong to, or which Dragon King family do you follow?”
As he spoke, the old man made a series of gestures that mimicked actions on the water.
Not every trade develops jargon and hand signals; these kinds of identification are used to defuse tensions and avoid conflicts.
Another group well known for such gestures, are bandits.
The dock symbolizes local powers, and inserting oneself refers to merely being a part of it, not dominating it.
The Dragon King refers to the ruling power on the water.
Li Zhuiyuan had rarely interacted with serious peers; he analyzed this information based on literal meanings.
But he didn’t know how to reply.
What was his family’s position?
Was his great-grandfather from the Hahe Dock in Nantong?
In reality, his great-grandfather lived far from the urban area’s Hahe, and most importantly, no one had taught him about local gestures.
He couldn’t just mimic the gestures blindly.
He couldn’t help but blame his great-grandfather for being unreliable, leaving his great-great-grandson clueless about how to report his family ties when he stepped out.
In comparison, Li Zhuiyuan felt that Brother Runsheng from the mountain might understand some of this, but that mountain elder never practiced this set of gestures towards his great-grandfather.
Perhaps he truly didn’t regard Li Sanjiang as a proper colleague.
All that Li Zhuiyuan knew were the internal door rites from the Qin and Liu families, but practicing them didn’t seem fitting.
However, upon noticing the boy hadn’t reciprocated the greeting, the old man became angry, the tone becoming harsher:
“If you look down on my Fengdu dock so much, why are you staying in my house?”
Li Zhuiyuan could only helplessly return a greeting from the Liu family’s internal door.
Returning this set of rituals meant he didn’t need to elaborate on his family ties anymore.
It was clear the old man recognized the importance of the return greeting; upon seeing it, the old man became transparent in an instant.
He appeared shocked, almost ending his state of walking in the shadows.
It seemed like even the body lying in the coffin moved slightly due to the stroke.
After a while, the old man calmed down, and when he spoke again, not only had his earlier anger dissipated but he showed a much more amiable demeanor:
“The Liu family has arrived; honored guest, rare visitor, it’s wonderful! It’s been many years since a Liu family member has traveled the river.”
There was no flattery in the old man’s eagerness.
Li Zhuiyuan asked, “You know of the Liu family?”
“Any turtle that has been on the river for years has heard of them.”
“I mean, do you know the Liu family is no more?”
“I know.” The old man replied calmly, “Precisely because I understand how the Liu family met their end, I respect them even more.”
“I’m not surnamed Liu.”
“Is it a registered outsider then?”
“Yeah.”
That night at the Ding family banquet in the mountain city, Granny Liu had pushed him forward for a greeting.
Though he had yet to formally enter the door and become a disciple, being a recorded disciple was an unspoken understanding, just waiting for Ah Li’s health to improve.
“That’s the same. Please excuse the old man; I can’t personally entertain you.”
“Don’t stand on ceremony; I’ll call you old man, and you can simply call me Xiao Yuan. That way, we feel easier with each other.”
“Honored guest… oh no, Brother Xiao Yuan, are you a friend of my Mengmeng?”
“I suppose, but I’m here to return a favor in the realm of shadows.”
“Ancestor? Oh, I see. Then your standing is quite high.”
“Is the old man not doing business anymore?”
“Ah, I still am; I’m still doing business.”
The old man walked to the shop door.
As night fell, Yin Meng had placed the door panel back, yet the old man didn’t move to lift the panel but placed his hand on the wall and turned a mirror slightly.
The once sturdy door panel now appeared somewhat transparent.
Both Li Zhuiyuan and Tan Wenbin saw the bustling shadows outside, where the streets, quiet in the early hours, revealed darker figures.
Yet among these shadows, several bright figures mingled.
Those must have been living people, a couple of whom were drunkenly leaning on each other, and two others were solitary.
So, it was best not to wander alone on the cold streets late at night, as they were much livelier than one could see.
The old man returned to the counter, seemingly waiting for customers to arrive.
Tan Wenbin stood cautiously at the corner of the counter, eyeing the “pedestrians” outside.
Li Zhuiyuan walked to the old man and asked, “Is this a specialty of the ghost street?”
“I heard about a few other places having similar occurrences, but I haven’t been there, so I don’t know the specifics. However, places like our Fengdu Ghost Street are quite rare.”
“Are they ghosts?”
“Yes, and no. Every Ghost Festival, they come out at night on this street.”
Tan Wenbin asked, “Haven’t you caught one to study?”
The old man waved his hand, “Once they come to our doorstep, they are guests; this isn’t a black shop.”
At that moment, a shadowy figure came in.
Its form was vague, too indistinct to see clearly, but it was evidently human.
The figure stood at the counter, and the old man murmured something back and forth with it.
Li Zhuiyuan couldn’t make out what they were saying.
Moments later, the figure left, tossing a piece of money into the water jar by the door.
As the coin fell in, it instantly turned into black ash and scattered.
The old man smiled slightly, stroking his beard.
It was then that Li Zhuiyuan realized the use of the water jar in front of the shop.
Yet Yin Meng herself didn’t know, saying it was a misconception passed down incorrectly.
Li Zhuiyuan asked, “What was the transaction about?”
The old man laughed, “Yang lifespan.”
“Hmm?”
“If my body were still able to move, I could do a few other things to sell tonight, helping out with some wishes, but now I can only sit here as a shadow. There’s nothing real I can do, and the only thing I can offer is this sliver of Yang lifespan.
Even paralyzed, I still have a long time left. But in my condition, living another day is just another day of burden for Meng Meng. I’d rather sell off this surplus time for her to gain some Yin virtue.
My granddaughter is good, but her pride is high; there's no need for her to keep watch over this coffin shop, and it only delays her youth.”
The old man’s attitude toward his granddaughter reminded Li Zhuiyuan of his great-grandfather.
“How much can you sell?”
“Not much. If someone had great merits, they wouldn’t end up like these wandering spirits.”
“True.”
“But selling a bit is still better than nothing; even mosquito legs are meat.”
Li Zhuiyuan pointed into the inner room and asked, “Aren’t you going to call out for Meng Meng?”
“I can’t wake her; not everyone can walk in the shadows. She can’t.”
Tan Wenbin smiled upon hearing this, as it meant Runsheng couldn’t either, but he managed to!
“Can’t this be learned later?”
“Some people are born with it; some might coincidentally learn it after encountering something. But it can indeed be learned.”
“So, you intentionally didn’t teach her?”
“Yes, what’s the point of learning this? Seeing these things doesn’t necessarily mean anything good. In peaceful times, this trade doesn’t prosper. To speak frankly, I hope she can live happily, do something she likes, marry a good person in the future, have a child, and live like a normal person.”
His great-grandfather hoped for nothing less for him.
“I see her learning quite well on her own.”
“Just consider it as exercising; knowing a bit of self-defense helps avoid being bullied.”
At that moment, Tan Wenbin spoke up, “Brother Yuan, I'm feeling dizzy and my head really hurts.”
The old man remarked, “Foolish boy, you should go home and sleep. If you linger in the shadow too long, it will become unbearable; don't lose control and drift off onto the street, or you’ll become a wandering spirit!”
Tan Wenbin fearfully asked, “Um… how does it end?”
“Every family has their own chants.” The old man looked at Li Zhuiyuan, “Didn’t you teach him?”
Li Zhuiyuan replied, “Close your eyes and imagine you’re at the bottom of the sea, rising up.”
The old man: “…”
Tan Wenbin obediently closed his eyes and began to visualize, his heels lifting as he gently waved his hands up and down.
After a while, he opened his eyes, his expression pained. “I can’t wake up, Xiao Yuan, my head hurts even more, ah…”
Li Zhuiyuan was also unsure how to help, glancing at the old man, “Old man, do you have any methods?”
“I…” The old man got up and walked to Tan Wenbin, muttering a few words before slapping his palm against Tan Wenbin’s forehead.
Tan Wenbin flew back, crashing through the wall and into the inner room.
Waking in the coffin, Tan Wenbin felt a splitting headache and overwhelming drowsiness, yet he forced himself to crawl out, lifting the curtain and returning to the outer room.
He found the doorpane still standing and no one else in sight.
Realizing this, he slapped his forehead and dove back into the coffin, closing his eyes to sleep immediately.
“Well, he’s gone back. If this lad hadn’t learned it before, he does have some spirit; has he experienced something?”
“He has.”
“Oh, that explains it.”
“Oh, will it be tiring to walk in the shadows for too long?”
“Of course, you won’t be fatigued. You’re quite solid.”
“How solid?”
“You should have been standing outside the inner room and listening to us talk, while I had no perception of your presence at all.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“This… you really don’t know?”
“Does it seem like I’m pretending?”
“Not at all! It’s just surprising; have you really never trained?”
“Not really. Just gaining experience can lead to enlightenment in walking the shadows; you clearly seem to have trained.”
Li Zhuiyuan thought of Ah Li.
If it were training, it should be connected to him entering Ah Li’s “view” to gaze at the scenery.
Each time he returned after viewing a scene, he ended up dazed and uncomfortable for a while, but after numerous times, the side effects diminished.
Waiting a long while for a second shadow to arrive proved futile.
Li Zhuiyuan asked, “Not much business today?”
The old man chuckled, “A coffin shop isn’t going to be bustling with guests.”
“You don’t want your Yang lifespan for other businesses?”
“Other than Yang lifespan, what else can I offer?”
“I’ll give Yin Meng money in reality in exchange for you teaching me to walk in the shadows.”
The old man leaned back, realizing something was off but hadn’t expected such words from the boy.
“Are you doubting my Liu family identity?”
“No, I’m confirming because only a Dragon King temple can have such strange occurrences.”
“Is the deal on?”
“Sure, but I can’t take your money.”
“No, I must offer money because free things often cost more.”
“You misunderstand; I genuinely feel I can only teach you the basics, and I’m not comfortable taking your money.”
“What I lack are the basics.”
“Alright, I can teach you the ancestral twelve methods of walking in the shadows from the Yin family, but this will take time. How long do you plan to stay here?”
“I’ll be leaving tomorrow afternoon.”
“Walking in the shadows has many details and taboos. Without someone beside you as a mentor, it’s tough to really get started. Would you consider staying a bit longer? Like a month? This way, I can ensure you learn a method.”
“It’s fine, go ahead and teach.”
“Then I’ll list out the twelve methods, and you can choose one for us to familiarize yourself with tonight?”
“No need, let’s start with the first one.”
“Oh… okay.”
At first, despite knowing the other party was a Liu family member, the old man still viewed this child as a lunatic with ambitions higher than the heavens.
But as he began to teach, he soon realized that it was indeed he who was the frog at the bottom of the well.
With each method, he first described it, then demonstrated it, before finally emphasizing key points.
The boy sat in the chair, contemplated for a while, and could then use it.
The first attempt was clumsy, the second nimble, and by the third, it was perfected.
For the second and third methods… it was all the same.
During the teaching, he began to doubt whether the other had learned the Yin family's methods before, deliberately coming to validate himself here, but he quickly dismissed this thought.
For the last three methods, he himself still didn’t know how to perform them, only able to recite the chants and notes passed down through generations to the boy, with no means to demonstrate.
Yet the boy continued the same way, contemplating in his seat, then analyzing the methods based on the lineage of the previous nine methods, pondering if it should be like this or that, detailing the critical points.
Then, the boy would successfully execute it.
After the boy did it, he even taught the old man back, allowing him to practice.
The teacher-student relationship quietly reversed.
The old man never anticipated that one day, someone would come to pass on his family’s teachings, something so absurd but undeniably true.
What was even more taxing was that after the boy learned it, he would refine and break it down to explain it to his teacher, deeply inspiring the old man and allowing him to comprehend further, yet he still could not execute it.
By the time the boy completed his lessons, it was still dark outside, with plenty of time before the rooster would crow.
The old man felt a sense of frustration, leaning against the wall dejectedly, staring at the still energetic boy, and sighed, “No wonder you are a member of the Liu family.”
To this, Li Zhuiyuan merely smiled; to him, this was truly a basic question, merely revisiting concepts after taking a significant jump in learning.
“Now that you are free, if it were before, you would have undoubtedly grown to be a figure calling the wind and summoning the rain.”
“Old man, did the Liu family have great power in the past?”
Having finished his studies, Li Zhuiyuan was willing to chat, especially about tales of the Liu family’s past.
“Look at how you say that! On the river, a saying goes, ‘Flowing courts, iron is the treasury.’ Many of the renowned treasury hall figures in history were merely like the Liu family serving as the little gods on the stage. In those years, only the Qin family had a name to stand alongside the Liu family. These large clans weren’t invested in the small matters on the water; they focused on the hidden depths below, which was their true essence.”
“You know a lot,” Li Zhuiyuan remarked.
“Hah, many passersby from all around come here. Back in the day, I also loved making friends and enjoying a good story. The sun is about to rise; you should get some rest. Truthfully, I’m nearly exhausted myself, hehe.”
“Yeah,” Li Zhuiyuan nodded, “Only two customers today?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
The first customer came in as soon as the shop opened, and the second one had entered midway through the lessons.
“But the second customer didn’t pay.”
“Ah?” The old man was taken aback, remembering that the boy had been contemplating with his eyes closed.
He hadn’t expected he'd noticed this and immediately explained, “The deal didn’t go through, so naturally, there’s no need for payment.”
“Didn’t go through? But after the second customer left, your expression suddenly turned grim.”
“I was just tired, really. I haven’t had that much difficulty in a long while.”
“You said that these were all basic things; demonstrating the first nine methods wasn’t much effort for you. So, old man, are you tired because of that, or due to the fact that the second customer cost you a large amount of Yang lifespan?”
“You’re joking, haha.”
“I can read faces; your life is nearing its end.”
“What?”
“Is it inconvenient to say?”
“It’s embarrassing to admit.”
The old man lowered his head, rubbing his face, a mixture of shame and shock crossing his features.
The boy before him had clearly seen through everything but had waited until he finished teaching the twelve methods to bring it up.
Such astuteness was truly frightening.
“Well then, let’s not say anymore.”
Li Zhuiyuan lifted his hand and prepared to snap his fingers to end his walking in the shadows.
He had spent quite a bit of time today and felt he should sleep until noon, but thankfully, it wouldn’t hinder his afternoon boat.
“Let’s speak after all; I’m afraid you’d find out if you leave late.”
“I’d find out?”
“My son has died.”
“Yin Meng said after her parents divorced, her father went south to work, and since then, there’d been no news.”
“I used to think he couldn’t handle the divorce and just ran south right after, abandoning his daughter and family.”
“What’s the truth?”
“He’s dead.”
“Dead?”
“He didn’t want the divorce, and the woman conspired with the man she married now, killing him. His body sank at the bottom of West Bay.”
“How did the divorce happen?”
“In small places like ours, times may seem stricter now, but in the past, you just held a banquet for a wedding and didn’t need to register. If you needed proof, you got it on the fly. Divorces were even simpler—you just returned to your families, and that’s it.
At the time, he left behind a letter saying he was useless, a waste of space, and couldn’t keep his wife, feeling no face to stay at home, so he went south to work, hoping to make something of himself; Don't worry about him. He was dead back then, and that letter was forged.”
“Did you never suspect?”
“I’m foolish, truly never suspected.”
“Who told you?”
“He returned himself. Last month at the temple fair, he came back and told me in person. Since they were building a bridge at West Bay, they discovered his remains while laying the foundation. With the years that had passed, the police had no leads to follow. I was very angry, so I planned to…”
“I’m tired; my head hurts.”
“Ah?”
“Enough talk; I’m going to sleep.”
After a deep sleep, he indeed woke up by noon.
As he crawled out of the coffin, Runsheng was busy rubbing the counter with a cloth.
Seeing Xiao Yuan awake, he rushed into the inner room and woke Tan Wenbin, who was still fast asleep.
“Hey, you’re really good at sleeping,” Yin Meng laughed.
“Mm.” Li Zhuiyuan responded.
Tan Wenbin rubbed his eyes, emerging from sleep, and directly shouted, “Yin Meng, your grandpa isn’t dead!”
“Of course he’s not dead! I never said he died yesterday. He just had a stroke and hasn’t woken up.”
“Is that so? You didn’t mention that yesterday?” Tan Wenbin was carefully recollecting.
Li Zhuiyuan: “She didn’t mention it.”
Though implied, the meaning was very similar to saying that grandpa was dead, even if it quite nearly was.
Tan Wenbin immediately apologized sheepishly and with a grin, “Uh, sorry! Hehe, I got it wrong.”
Yin Meng asked, “Want to have lunch? I can cook.”
Li Zhuiyuan replied, “Let’s eat out.”
Last night’s pig trotters still left a bit of a shadow on him.
At that moment, two boys walked into the shop, looking just a couple years older than Li Zhuiyuan.
They entered with red eyes.
“Sister, sister.”
“Sister.”
As soon as they entered, the two boys shouted for Yin Meng.
“Who are they?” Tan Wenbin asked.
“They are from behind my mom.”
“Why does it feel like you’re close to them?”
“Yeah, whenever they come to the county, I buy them some snacks and give them a bit of pocket money.”
Tan Wenbin responded, “You’re pretty nice!”
“Really?”
“Nice to the point of seeming a bit foolish.”
Just then, the two boys rushed forward, crying out, “Waa, sister! Not good! Mom and Dad fell into the river and drowned this morning!”
(End of Chapter)