Otherworldly Merchant

The old man lived alone. He didn’t have a family nor a child and selling roasted sweet potatoes was his livelihood. Moreover, he often occupied the sidewalk to make more profit.

At first, Li Mingming knew that the old man was living with difficulties, so he turned a blind eye and let him do his business on the sidewalk. However, urban areas were recently implementing a program called “For a Civilized City,” which focused on cleaning the peddlers and vendors on the sidewalks. Li Mingming couldn’t sympathize with the old man anymore, and he could only ask him to leave.

The old man was bold. Every time, he would create a scene with the law enforcement officers. Eventually, out of reluctance, Li Mingming had to confiscate his cooking tools. At first, the old man quarreled and struggled against him a lot. Then, he went silent. After giving him a verbally educated talk, Li Mingming returned the tools to him.

After that, the old man seemed to have changed. From that day on, he no longer occupied the entire sidewalk to sell sweet potatoes.

However, old men who lived alone were often stubborn and narrow-minded. I didn’t believe that a verbal lesson could make such an old man change into a new person!

“When did you start encountering those ghosts?” I asked Li Mingming.

Li Mingming took a deep breath and said, “It was one day after I gave him back his tools!”

I glanced at Li Mingming, who suddenly realized something. “Damn it, is he the bastard that harmed me?

I shushed Li Mingming. “Let’s follow him and we’ll know.”

Li Mingming nodded. Then, we both stealthily crept over.

The old man sneakily went to Li Mingming’s father’s grave. He checked around to see that no one was there and started to dig up the grave.

Li Mingming was furious. He was tempted to dash from the tree we were hiding behind. However, I quickly stopped him as I wanted to see what the old man was going to do. I suspected that the otherworldly item wasn’t in Li Mingming’s house but in his father’s grave.

This old man looked around seventy or even eighty years old. He was very skinny, but his physique wasn’t bad. He looked strong and agile as he dug up the grave. His strength wasn’t less than that of a young man.

Shortly after, the old man had dug the ground until revealing a black coffin. The coffin looked a bit decayed and there were signs of it having been soaked in water.

He squatted and cleared the layer of dirt on the surface of the coffin. Then, he picked up something from the ground and tucked it away into his clothes, using the soil he had just excavated to refill and level the grave.

As I had guessed, the otherworldly item was right there!

Li Mingming was restless. Eventually, he ignore me and sprinted forward.

As soon as Li Mingming left the cover of the tree, the old man noticed him. He was scared and hurled his shovel aside, running away madly.

But how could an old man like him compete in a race against Li Mingming, a young man? Li Mingming caught him shortly after and pinned him onto the ground. Then, the young man punched the old man, making him shriek in pain.

I was worried that Li Mingming would kill him, so I walked forward and pulled him back.

Li Mingming hadn’t vented his anger yet. He glared at the old man and shouted, “I even treated you well, how could you harm me like this?! I’m going to kill you!”

The old man returned to his senses. Although he was bruised, he didn’t look scared anymore. He glared back at Li Mingming. “You’ve hit an old man! I’m going to report this to the police! They will arrest you!”

Then, the old man took out his phone and was ready to call the police.

Li Mingming was enraged. He jumped and attempted to hit the old man again. I stopped him and went to look for the thing that the old man had hidden away in his clothes.

It was surprised to find that it was a book. It was an old, damaged book with many pages stuck together. The pages had turned yellow.

The cover of the old book had five big words on it: Three Strategies of Huang Shigong. [1]

As soon as I seized the book from him, the old man became flustered. He didn’t care about his wounds and stood up, trying to snatch it back.

Li Mingming kicked the old man and sent him back to the ground. He then jumped on him and restrained him.

“I understand now.” I looked at the book again, and a lot of things became clearer in my mind. This book was the otherworldly item that had caused all those problems.

Li Mingming asked, “Brother, is this the root of all my troubles?”

I nodded.

Li Mingming was even more enraged. He started to strangle the old man. “You... you were trying to harm to me!”

Li Mingming was so furious that he had lost his mind. The old man wiggled in pain but he couldn’t break free.

I pulled Li Mingming back and said coldly, “Although I don’t have any way to persuade the cops, it’s obvious that you have attempted to kill Li Mingming. I’ll notify the ferrymen of the Netherworld that you have attempted to murder people. When your time comes, Yama will definitely send you to Hell.”

The old man was scared, his face turning pale.

“Well, you still have time to atone for your sins,” I said. “Why did you want to kill Li Mingming?”

“I didn’t want to kill him,” the old man said. “I just wanted to teach him a lesson. He didn’t respect me, an old man.”

I was dumbstruck. He was so stubborn that he planned to use such wicked means to harm people, only because they didn’t respect him.

Li Mingming scolded him before I could ask any more questions, “What are you talking about?! I took care of you every day! I’m only following the orders of my superiors. That’s why we want to transform the city, and that’s why we’re very strict with the peddlers. What else could I do?”

“Hmph, why didn't any of your superiors come and trouble me? You’re the one who caused me trouble and confiscated my tools. Who else should I give a lesson besides you?”

Li Mingming was speechless after listening to the furious old man. He bared his teeth and glared back at him.

I smiled awkwardly and said, “How did you obtain this otherworldly item? Did you know it can actually kill people?”

“What the heck is an otherworldly item?” The old man looked at me with a confused face. “I just wanted to give this kid a lesson. I didn’t want to hurt him. I did this because he’s troubled me and cut off my livelihood.”

I didn’t have the time to explain things to him, so Li Mingming would slowly make things clear for him later. The main problem right now was to figure out the origin of this otherworldly item and how to break the curse.

“If I’m not wrong, this book must be written by the number one strategist working for Liu Bang, Zhang Liang. How come you have it? Also, how did you know you can use it to teach someone a lesson?” I asked.

I knew some things about this book.

Rumor said that young Zhang Liang couldn’t fulfill his ambition so he looked gloomy all the time. One day, as he was crossing a bridge, he saw an old man who was sighing.

“What’s wrong, sir?” Zhang Liang asked.

“My shoe fell into the water. Can you help me fish it up?” said the old man.

Zhang Liang pitied the old man. He didn’t hesitate and jumped into the river to pick up his shoe.

The old man was so pleased that Zhang Liang knew how to respect his elders. He told Zhang Liang that it was their destiny that they had bumped into each other at this place. He gave the young man a book about military strategy as a gift. That book was the Three Strategies of Huang Shigong.

With the Three Strategies of Huang Shigong, Zhang Liang eventually became the top strategist in history! He helped Liu Bang, the first Han Emperor, defeat Xiang Yu the Conqueror, bringing peace to the world and making an outstanding figure in history!

I thought that this classic had been lost, and never expected to see it here. This was really thrilling.

1. One of the Seven Military Classics of Ancient China.