Otherworldly Merchant

“Hehe!”

A series of bizarre laughter came from the hall. It startled me, so I turned around to look. However, the hall was empty. No one was there.

When my eyes shifted back to Li Mingming, I was dumbstruck.

Four shadows had appeared behind him. Although they were all dim, I could tell they didn’t belong to him because their movements were different from Li Mingming’s.

Li Mingming held the rooster with both hands while the four shadows behind him held their hands over their heads. I had no idea what they wanted to do.

While I was about to get the old man to act, Li Mingming let out a squeaking sound. He sounded as if he was hiccuping. Then, his body arched and crouched like a dog on the ground.

The rooster in Li Mingming’s chest wiggled and flew away. It then started to peck on the rice on the ground.

Since the rooster and Li Mingming were connected by the red thread, from an aspect, their fates overlapped. As the rooster pecked the rice grains on the ground continuously, Li Mingming’s head also dropped and lifted constantly. It was as if he was ‘pecking’ the grains, too.

But he didn’t actually peck. Whenever his head dropped, it hit the ground loudly. I could see that his forehead was almost bleeding. If he continued acting this way, I was afraid that his head would burst open and his brain splash out.

I needed to take action now!

I nodded to the old man. He walked out of the corner and wielded the butcher knife, chopping off the rooster’s head.

The rooster’s head fell off, and the blood splashed everywhere. Its body kept wiggling and trembling, dyeing the whole living room red.

I grabbed two swam eels and squeezed some drops of blood on Li Mingming’s neck.

This wasn’t an easy task since Li Mingming had been mimicking the rooster. He was kicking, flapping, and rolling around. I struggled to smear the eel blood on his neck.

The rooster convulsed for a while then laid still. As a result, Li Mingming also collapsed on the ground.

The old man was restless and asked me, “Will Li Mingming die?”

I shook my head and asked him to take a closer look. Not long after Li Mingming had collapsed, the shadows underneath him gradually left him. They moved to the rooster nearby.

The scene was really scary. The dead rooster had four human shadows now!

The shadows seemed to pluck the rooster’s feathers unceasingly, fiddling with its body. However, they didn’t do it for a long time as they soon returned to Li Mingming’s feet.

My heart skipped a beat. What’s going on? Did they know that we’re trying to ‘swap their fates?’ 

 While I was still considering this possibility, Li Mingming stood up from the ground. The shadows underneath him had now merged into one.

I could clearly see that the shadow was holding a book in his hand. We had failed to deceive the shadows, and the spirit living in the ‘Three Strategies of Huang Shigong’ book had now shown up!

Li Mingming’s eyes were rolled back as he walked on the tips of his toes, heading towards the window.

The old man was scared. He raised the butcher knife but he didn’t know what to do with it. I grabbed his butcher knife because I was afraid he would do something stupid. I asked him to watch Li Mingming, who was stiffly walking toward the window.

It seemed the spirit wanted to make Li Mingming jump off the building.

The old man trembled and asked me, “What should we do now?”

What should we do now? We can only keep an eye on Li Mingming. If we actually engage in a fight with the spirit, I’m sure we won’t be able to overpower him!

Li Mingming struggled his way to the window. He picked up the book and carefully flipped through it.

I cautiously tied Li Mingming with a big rope, just in case he jumped through the window.

But even after a long time, Li Mingming didn’t do anything. He just read the book. It was as if he was really infatuated with it.

It was very rare to see a ghost that still craved studying. I suddenly felt that the situation was somewhat hilarious.

While I was still contemplating, Li Mingming dropped the book. Then, he quietly lay back on the ground.

The strange shadow beneath his feet was gone.

I exhaled in relief. It seemed that the soul didn’t want to kill Li Mingming.

The blood-red mist that covered the book also began to scatter.

I immediately burned three joss sticks for the book. The sticks burned slowly, with the wisps of smoke moving towards the book.

A moment later, Li Mingming woke up. He seemed to have become another man. His attitude toward the old man changed completely, and he continuously apologized to him.

The old man was still flustered and thought that Li Mingming was still possessed.

“Li Mingming, what happened while you were unconscious?” I asked.

Li Mingming had a wry smile and pointed at the book, ‘Three Strategies of Huang Shigong.’

I picked it up and looked at the first page since Li Mingming had stared at the first page the entire time.

The first chapter was about loyalty and filial piety. It wasn’t about military tactics.

“Elders are the foundation of society, and they have a lot of experience. Be modest and ask them for direction…”

It seemed the spirit didn’t want to take Li Mingming’s life. He just wanted to teach him to respect the elderly.

Li Mingming grimaced and said, “Actually, I’m not the sort of man that disrespects others, especially old people. I was forced to do so. Old people have experienced a lot of hardships, and they’ve dedicated their lives to this society. When they are senile, society should respect them. But now, with the current regime, we can’t do anything to ensure their welfare…”

“You’re making me feel embarrassed now.” The old man couldn’t hold in his laughter. “I could have just found another place to set up my stall, but I was angry at you guys and couldn’t let it go.”

“For thousands of years, no man was able to solve this kind of contradiction between the social echelons, let alone you two.” I smiled and said, “Everything is for our survival, right? All right, I should go. You two can solve this problem by yourselves now.”

Before I left, the old man persistently asked me to keep the ‘Three Strategies of Huang Shigong.’ He told me that it could help me in the future.

I kindly received the book. Besides the fact it was an otherworldly item, its historic value alone made it very expensive.

However, I had no plan to sell it. This antique had a great history, and I was unwilling to let it go.

China was a state of etiquette. Since ancient times, we were taught to cherish the children and respect the elderly. However, I understood that it was just a farce to keep up appearances.

The older generations had spent their whole lives building this country, and now, when they were senile, society didn’t take care of them. Quite the contrary, it made things harder for them; it wasn’t fair.

However, this wasn’t a problem that a person or a policy could solve. If we wanted society to show concern for the elderly and solve this contradiction, we had to set a good example first and change people’s mind!