Otherworldly Merchant

Li Mazi thought for a bit, then said, “Well, who else could be? It definitely has to be Zhou Yu [1]. During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhou Yu became a great governor of Western Wu at a young age. He was very intelligent and resourceful. Of course, only a talented young man like him could be famous nation-wide. But, he was very jealous of the genius, Zhuge Liang. He wanted to cause trouble for Zhuge Liang in everything he did. However, Zhuge Liang outsmarted him, causing Zhou Yu to die while feeling extreme jealousy and anger! Before he died, he faced the sky and screamed: I was already here, so why was Liang ever born? ...So, you mean Zhou Yu, right?” 

I nodded. “Right, it’s Zhou Yu. If you think about it, what’s Zhou Yu’s weapon?” 

Li Mazi shook his head. “I don’t actually know that.” 

“Zhou Yu’s weapon was a Guding broadsword bestowed by Sun Jian. In legends, his Guding broadsword was made of gold. It was possible that before he died, Zhou Yu vomited blood on it. Later on, someone melted and forged it into a gold ingot, circulating it around. Then, in modern days, it was made into that golden necklace,” I carefully analyzed.

Wang Shaocong immediately asked me, “How can we make Qingqing throw that golden necklace away?”

I patted his shoulder. “Is your body okay? Tonight, we’ll need your assistance.” 

“No problem,” Wang Shaocong said. “What do you want me to assist you with?” 

“Tonight, you have to stop your girlfriend by shaving her face. Of course, you don’t need to really shave her, just pretend that you’re doing it!” I told him. 

Wang Shaocong was a little scared. “What if my girlfriend flies into a rage? True love you must hold dear, but life is much more precious.” 

I then said, “If you can’t do that, should I be with your girlfriend tonight?”

Wang Shaocong waved his hand. “No need. I’ll do it.” 

Next, I asked Li Mazi to collect a drop of blood from the fingertips of one hundred evil people. Li Mazi just stared at me. “Where am I going to find one hundred evil people? Moreover, how do I get the blood from their fingertips? If you want me to be beaten to death, just spit it out. No need to beat around the bush.” 

I shot Li Mazi a fierce look. “Think about it. You can go to the prison to check. The eviler they are, the better. Blood from murderers is the best.” 

Li Mazi grinned evilly and looked at Wang Shaocong, “Let Wang Shaocong find a solution. I’m just a humble citizen. I don’t have any relationships with prison officers!”

Wang Shaocong then made several calls. Soon, he found a chance as he knew a prison which was doing health-checks for its prisoners. They’d easily have a chance to take a drop of blood from the prisoners. 

Two hours later, Li Mazi triumphantly returned with enough blood to fill half a large coke bottle. 

I was a little surprised and asked Li Mazi, “Oh, I only asked you for a drop of blood from each person. Why did you take so much?”

“Well, weren’t you worried that you wouldn’t have enough blood to use? I took a syringe from each prisoner. If I sold this amount of blood, I could earn several thousand renminbi.”

I scoffed, “You idiot, this large amount of blood of yours is mixed. Who’d want to use it?”

Wang Shaocong forcibly made the hospital staff discharge him from the hospital. After taking a few pain-killers, he left to see Qingqing while clutching his chest. 

The rich were always rich. Wang Shaocong didn’t even bother to fix his broken car and just left it at his company. He then drove away in an Audi R8. 

We followed Wang Shaocong to Qingqing’s apartment building. 

However, we didn’t expect to see Wang Shaocong bump into Qingqing at the entrance of the residential area. Since we were worried that Qingqing would see us, we quickly drove to a remote corner and carefully watched the situation from there. 

At first, Qingqing wasn’t happy at all as she scolded Wang Shaocong. But, Wang Shaocong’s attainment in flirting with girls was excellent. With a simple explanation, he coaxed Qingqing into his car and entered the building.  

Li Mazi sighed. “After we’re done with this, I must learn from him how to deal with girls!”

Yin Xinyue hit him. “You don’t need to ask for his advice because it’ll be a waste.”

Li Mazi immediately asked her why. Yin Xinyue answered, “Because you’re poor and ugly.” Her answer upset Li Mazi for quite a long time. 

I drove to a parking lot behind Qingqing’s apartment, and from this place, we could see into her apartment. I’d specially asked Wang Shaocong to keep the curtains open. 

The pair had been watching TV all day long. They didn’t even go out for dinner, but ordered from a restaurant. 

Wang Shaocong did have the good sense to also order food for us. After eating, Li Mazi rubbed his fists and looked up with anticipation. “A good show’s about to begin!” 

Enraged, Yin Xinyue cursed at him. Then, she lowered her head to play with her phone. 

Around eleven or twelve p.m, Wang Shaocong and Qingqing began to flirt with each other. They first hugged and kissed. Then, they leaned against the window and did whatever things they wanted. I snorted, “Shameless! This Wang Shaocong is showing off to us!”  

I nudged Li Mazi, asking him not to crane his neck to watch in case others could see us. 

As I pulled him back, Li Mazi wasn’t pleased. However, he couldn’t complain about anything. 

It was a long, arduous wait until the pair had finished their business. A moment later, it seemed like Qingqing was fast asleep. Wang Shaocong walked to the window and flashed us an ‘OK’ gesture.

I then patted Li Mazi’s shoulder. “It’s time to take action.” 

We all hurried to Qingqing’s apartment. 

Wang Shaocong opened the door for us and we hid in the bathroom, signaling for Wang Shaocong to start. 

Wang Shaocong held the razor shakily. Indeed, he was scared. 

I cursed him under my breath for being a chicken. Since we were here, what was he afraid of?

He eventually began to shave Qingqing’s face, but he tried his best not to touch her. 

My request was that he try his best to get as close to her skin as possible, without hurting her. 

Li Mazi was annoyed and asked me, “What are we doing? Shaving?” 

I explained, “Do you know that Zhou Yu was actually a handsome man? His moniker was ‘Zhou the Beautiful Youth’.” 

Li Mazi shook his head. “I didn’t know that. I only knew that Zhou Yu was a man with great luck as he got a wife called Little Beauty.” 

“Zhou Yu was a handsome man. Of course, he treasured his appearance a lot. He had an obsession with his face, and now his face has been scratched. Do you think he’ll ignore that?” I smiled. 

As soon as I said that, Qingqing shrieked. She rolled and got up from her bed. 

Wang Shaocong was terrified and immediately paled. Then, he rushed toward the bathroom where I quickly covered his mouth and prevented him from talking. Carefully, I observed Qingqing. 

Qingqing sat up on her bed, opened her mouth wide, and screeched. Her ear-splitting shrill lasted for quite a long time. At the same time, her eyes bulged, and her face twisted strangely. 

The ear-piercing sound Qingqing made lasted until she had no more strength to resist and some unnatural clucking, clattering sounds arose from her throat. They sounded horrible, like a machine crackling. Hearing it, I couldn’t help but have goosebumps. 

Afterward, Qingqing got off the bed and fell face-first on the ground. She didn’t even wiggle anymore.

Wang Shaocong was so tense. He wanted to go out and lift her up. However, I stopped him, preventing him from moving while carefully observing her. 

Qingqing lay face-down on the ground and didn’t move. I exhaled gently, then stood up and grabbed the coke bottle. I was about to check the mirror in the bedroom. 

If I weren’t wrong, this mirror would now reflect something strange... 

However, I didn’t find anything odd in the mirror or any situation I couldn’t imagine. Everything was normal and quiet. 

I furrowed my brows. This situation wasn’t something I’d expected. In theory, after the evil spirit from the necklace was expelled, it would have to find somewhere to dwell and protest against us. The most likely possibility was to show its aggrievance in the mirror because it had done that through the mirror several times. 

This time, the mirror didn’t have any strange commotion, which was really confusing.

Unless… There was another mirror here! 

Right, we’d predicted a lot, but we’d calculated wrongly! I cursed under my breath and headed to the bathroom to ask Wang Shaocong if there was another mirror in this place. 

However, as soon as I came close to the bathroom, I gawked in shock and goosebumps arose on my skin. I almost dropped the bottle of wicked people’s blood!

1. Zhou Yu was young and ambitious, but was always being upstaged by Zhuge Liang, who was more talented. This saying is used to lament the fact that there’s always someone better than you, and that person is outshining you at every turn.