Otherworldly Merchant

I hurried to pull him up. “Sir, you shouldn’t do that! Please tell me what happened first. Then I can see how I could help you.”

The beggar stood up. He sighed and took a quick glance at the howling fatty in the living room. He wiped his tears with the back of his hand.

It turned out this jade ring was an heirloom in their family. He didn’t know how many generations it had been with his family. According to his family’s rule, this jade ring was to be given to the oldest son when he got married. This ring was meant to keep the family safe and wealthy.

It seemed the jade ring had worked well. Although their family wasn’t the richest, they were famous and had status. They thought all the merits belonged to this jade ring.

However, ever since the old beggar had given the jade ring to his oldest son, things started to turn abnormal.

His oldest son was about to get married soon, which kept his family busy for several days in a row. However, they rarely saw him. Most of the time, he stayed in his room and no one knew what he was doing.

The old beggar couldn’t stand it anymore. How could his son just stay in his room and not come out to see his relatives for his wedding?

He kicked the door to his son’s room open and got ready to pull him outside to give him a lesson.

If it were any other day and his oldest son wanted to be a shut-in, he’d let him off.

However, it was an important moment, so the old beggar was really enraged.

However, as soon as he stepped into his son's room, he was petrified. His oldest son, a slim, young man, was nowhere to be seen. A fat man had taken his place. His mouth didn’t even rest while he was sleeping. He kept chewing on a big chunk of pork.

The old beggar didn’t even recognize him at first. If the face wasn’t the same as his son’s, he would have thought that a stranger had just broken into his house.

The old beggar immediately woke his son up. “Hey, what happened?”

Even though his son had always liked eating, he wasn’t this fat.

Yet, it hadn’t even been three days and he had doubled his size. His head was as big as a pig’s. As for his stomach, no one knew how much food was in there; he looked like a pregnant woman.

As his father, the beggar was frightened and worried.

His oldest son told him that he didn’t know what had happened. When he woke up, he felt very hungry. He ate to fill his stomach then went to bed again.

When he checked his big belly, he jolted back in surprise. The guy even wondered if this really was his body.

As his legs couldn’t bear the weight, walking was now a hard task for him.

If the story were to spread, the other villagers would be scared. As such, the old beggar closed the door and refused to meet the guests. Then, he called his family members to gather in his son’s room.

After looking at the oldest son’s new appearance, everybody was startled. His mother rolled her eyes and said, “Look at you, how can you get married now?”

Without waiting for his father’s answer, the oldest son caught a glimpse of the leftover food from the pre-wedding party. He didn’t say anything but jumped forward and dug in. No one could pull his head out of the food.

Eight pork legs, a whole chicken, and a bucket of rice were finished in the blink of an eye.

That amount of food could feed more than five men, and he had finished it all by himself. Moreover, he seemed to be addicted to food as he wanted to eat more.

His family gawked in fright. He was so strong and they couldn’t stop him! Eventually, they had to tie him up with a thick rope.

However, the young man was now too strong. As soon as he saw food, he would just break the rope. Feeling helpless, his family had to use steel wire to tie him…

Since that day, as long as the oldest son saw food, he would risk his life to eat. Eventually, his family members didn’t dare to eat anything in his presence.

Without food, the oldest son became angry. He quarreled and shouted, which disturbed the neighbors.

Later on, his family was desperate. They pretended to be a family of beggars that was too poor to afford food.

After considering everything carefully, they concluded that it was the work of the jade ring heirloom.

Before the oldest son had got into contact with that jade ring, he was just a normal guy. However, ever since he had touched the ring, he started to have these strange symptoms.

The old beggar was a superstitious guy. He thought that there was some ghost in this ring.

He visited several temples and monasteries, looking for help to deal with the spirit in the ring. However, it was useless.

Even if the oldest son didn’t have the ring on him, his symptoms didn’t cease. He had eaten so much that he now barely looked human.

Feeling helpless, the old beggar had to ask everywhere for help. Eventually, he learned about my place and came to me.

He was afraid that I wouldn’t buy his story, so he showed me a photo of his son when he was still thin.

After looking at the photo, I was startled. The man in the photo seemed gentle and was smiling brightly. He looked like a well-educated young man living in the countryside.

And now, he was a pig. His facial features had all been affected.

I’d been running my shop for quite a long time. Yet, there were so many rare items I had never seen before. It was my first time seeing some otherworldly item that could make people fat.

I remembered the grain pouch that made people die of starvation. But now, the jade ring in front of me would make people die of overeating. If the two items were put together, I wondered what the effect would be.

Still, I wasn’t sure that it was the jade ring’s doing. I thought it might be a coincidence since I knew several diseases that could make people fat in just a short time.

“Did you take him to the hospital to get checked?” I asked the old beggar.

The beggar stooped his head in distress. “We’ve visited more than ten hospitals, both big ones and small ones. Our family’s savings are almost gone. However, the test results are quite similar. He has high blood pressure and diabetes because of his fat body. Besides that, he’s quite alright and his body functions well.”

Actually, it wasn’t a hard situation to solve.

As I long as I knew what kind of otherworldly item it was, I could trace back to learn about its origin.

Then I told the beggar, “Sir, I can give this case a try. But I’m not a hundred percent sure I can solve it. If I can solve this, I won’t take any payment. You just need to give me the jade ring.”

The old beggar nodded. “As long as you can solve this issue, I can give you my family’s entire savings, let alone this jade ring!”

I told him to leave the ring and his oldest son in my shop tonight. I advised the others to stay in a nearby motel. Tonight, I would try to see what this jade ring could do and if I could get some clues.

The beggar nodded immediately. However, he was worried that I couldn’t subdue his son alone. “Do you want to keep some men here to help?”

“No need, I have an assistant.”

Of course, the assistant was Li Mazi. Li Mazi and I had a tacit understanding. He’d know exactly what I wanted him to do. I didn’t ask him to help me kill ghosts or subdue the monsters. He just needed to assist me during the dangerous times.

I called Li Mazi. However, he rejected my offer. “I don’t have free time. I need to take care of Chu Chu.”

I didn’t push the matter any further. Li Mazi had a lot in his head to worry about for now. In case something dangerous happened while we were dealing with the otherworldly item, I was afraid that his home would be destroyed again.

I couldn’t do anything other than ask the beggar to leave Er Kui here with me.

Er Kui was young and strong. He had been with the oldest son for quite a long time so he knew how to subdue the fat man.

I asked them to help me move all the edible things out of my house, including the belts. I was afraid that when the man lost his mind in his hunger, he could even dare to eat the leather belts!

Then, I went to the market to buy many mirrors. I wanted to hang big, small, round, square, and even full-length mirrors on all my walls.

This method was called, “Uncrossable Spirit-Expelling Mirror.” It was really useful for seeing ghosts and it could push the spirits out of the otherworldly items. Moreover, I could arrange some small formation on the mirror to protect myself.

As I was using cinnabar mixed with dog blood to draw the spells on the mirror, Li Mazi arrived. Seeing my empty room, he was taken aback. “What’s going on Little Brother Zhang? Are you going to move out, or are you going to open a mirror shop?”