Otherworldly Merchant

Li Mazi determinedly groped his way to the ship owner, and patted his shoulder. “Hey man, how are you? Don’t be afraid of that bitch. We’re here to help you.”

Right at that moment, I heard a commotion. It seemed someone or something was walking around the room.

“Who’s there?” Li Mazi asked nervously. “Don’t run around. It’s so dark here, it won’t be good if you break some antiques.”

I listened carefully and determined that the noise came from around Li Mazi.

Either Li Mazi or the ship owner were walking around!

I immediately prompted, “Li Mazi, grab the ship owner and don’t let him run wild! It seems the man has problems again. Find the chain and tie him up!”

Li Mazi took a deep breath then said shakily, “Little Brother Zhang, don’t tease me. It’s you who’s running around, right? Because I’m holding the ship owner by his shoulder.”

Hearing that, my heart twitched. Not good, something has happened!

I hurriedly called out, “Yin Xinyue, turn on your flashlight. Let’s see what’s happened!”

She shivered as she replied, “Yeah.” Then, she switched on her flashlight.

However, as soon as she did that, she screamed and dropped her flashlight. It rolled down the stairs as it turned off.  

I was taken aback. “What happened?”

Yin Xinyue’s voice trembled in fear, “The ship owner… he-he’s a ghost!”

“What?!” Li Mazi shrieked and tried to run away. However, he had forgotten that we were inside a narrow storage chamber. Thus, after two steps he hit a shelf and face-planted on the ground.

I pulled him up and helped him steady himself.

Still shivering, Li Mazi asked, “Yin Xinyue, how do you know that the ship owner is a ghost?”

“His legs were walking around you,” Yin Xinyue said, “but his upper body stayed put as you were grabbing him.”

Let alone Yin Xinyue, if I had seen that, I would have been scared witless.

The ship owner’s upper body and lower body were separated? And his lower body could walk around on its own?

Li Mazi and I couldn’t help but tremble.

“Yin Xinyue, seize this chance and come to us,” I said. “It’s safer to stay together.”

Yin Xinyue stumbled, trying to get off the stairs. After she clutched my arm, she stood in the corner.

“Hey, ship owner, do you hear me?” Actually, I was a little bit doubtful about what Yin Xinyue had told us. In the tense atmosphere and the dim light from the flashlight, perhaps Yin Xinyue had just imagined it.

What answered me was the noise of unsteady footsteps coming from the remote corner opposite us. It didn’t seem to want to approach us. I swept my foot to find the flashlight as I wanted to illuminate this narrow room.

However, as soon as I stretched my leg out, Yin Xinyue suddenly spoke up, “Brother Zhang, your arm feels so cold.”

I said, “No, it’s not… Hey, my left arm or right arm?”

“Right arm,” answered Yin Xinyue.

I shuddered, shouting, “Hurry, let go of that arm. It’s not me!”

Yin Xinyue was terrified and shrieked. I used one arm to embrace her to my chest and kicked in the direction she was sitting at. “Get lost! No matter what you are, get out of here!”

However, I just kicked air.

I got an unexpected harvest though. Unknowingly, my foot stepped on the flashlight. I was immediately excited and I knelt to grab the flashlight and tried to turn it on. Unfortunately, the battery had fallen out when the flashlight was dropped.

I didn’t care about the possible dangers. Gritting my teeth, I gathered my courage to use my hands to search blindly on the ground.

One of my hands touched a freezing cold arm. Immediately, it reacted and gripped my hand. It was really cold, like a big block of ice and numbed my hand. However, I just shook it off. I managed to kick the arm aside, then I continued to search for the battery on the ground.

Luckily, I finally found it. Without any hesitation, I installed the battery and turned on the flashlight.

At the same time, the freezing arm tried to stop me. Helpless, I had to ask Li Mazi for help, who was already annoyed. And angry people forget their fear easily. He stood directly in front of me.

Although I didn’t see what Li Mazi was doing, from the commotion I knew he was punching and kicking hard towards the other person.

When the flashlight was switched on, I immediately shone it towards Li Mazi.

He was wrestling with air. There was nothing in front of him but empty space. Then, I checked the ship owner. He was sitting intact on his chair. His body wasn’t like what Yin Xinyue had described, it wasn’t divided.

However, his face was dark, his eyeballs were bulging, and he was foaming at the corners of his mouth. 

Shit, he’s suffocating!

I rushed over, pulled the ship owner to the ground and sat on him. Then, I forced open his eyelids and shone the flashlight directly into his eyes.

The ship owner took a deep breath then screeched and got a hold of himself. He lay flat on the ground, screaming and crying.

I then shone the flashlight around the room. I found a pair of legs, walking back and forth at the corner we were at a moment ago. The light wasn’t bright enough so our vision wasn’t clear, but it did look like a pair of human legs.

However, there were only two legs. There was no upper body.

It seemed what Yin Xinyue had seen wasn’t just an illusion!

The pair of legs just wandered in the corner. It didn’t walk forward and it did not seem to want to hurt us.

I forced myself to clear my mind, asking loudly, “Who are you? Why do you want to harm him?”

Li Mazi was confused, asking me, “Who are you talking to?” I pointed at the pair of legs. He immediately tensed and grabbed the hem of my shirt.

However, the legs didn’t answer.

Li Mazi said, “It doesn’t have a mouth, how can it answer?”

I thought Li Mazi was right.

“You should go away,” Li Mazi declared. “This friend of mine is as known as Nanjing’s Zhong Kui [1]. There’s no ghost in this world he can’t take care of. We don’t want to hurt you, so we’re giving you a chance right now!”

But the legs just kept walking back and forth in the corner. They didn’t seem to have the intention to leave.

I told Li Mazi to stop persuading it, “That pair of legs can’t leave the room because the ‘Ban Liang’ coin is right here. It can’t leave the coin.”

Yin Xinyue asked worriedly, “What should we do now? We can’t just sacrifice ourselves like this, right?”

“Don’t worry, if we can’t do this the easy way, then we must get rough!”

I took out the rhino horn from my pocket and gave out instructions, “Li Mazi, burn the rhino horn! Yin Xinyue, you hold on to the peach wood stick. If that thing comes close, just hit it!”

I opened a bag of refined salt and walked towards the ship owner. I forced him to open his mouth and poured the salt directly into his mouth.

The ship owner struggled angrily as I scoffed, “If you don’t want to die, behave and cooperate with me!”

He immediately settled down. However, from the grimace on his face, I could tell that it was really uncomfortable for him to have a mouth full of salt.

Li Mazi started to burn the rhino horn. However, as it was a little damp, he couldn’t ignite it immediately. I had no other choice but to take off my shirt and let him burn that instead. Then, he threw the rhino horn into the bonfire.

After the rhino horn dried, it slowly ignited with wisps of smoke twirling up. The smell and smoke slowly permeated the entire small room.

I was forcing those legs to take action!

Everything in this world has some sort of nemesis or counter. If it released a stench, it would be countered by a good aroma. I hoped this trick of mine would work.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhong_Kui