Otherworldly Merchant

The way the body had been found this time looked very similar to the other boy who was found dead in the same spot. 

His body was curled up inside the same golden silk quilt. His face was frozen and he wore a strange smile, just like the other boy. Apparently, he also froze to death. 

There’s definitely something wrong with that quilt!

The two dead bodies were wrapped in the same quilt, so it couldn’t have been a coincidence. They must’ve encountered something strange and supernatural before their deaths. Whatever it was might be the reason why they died like they did. 

The police behaved in the exact same way as they did with the first body, protecting the scene and collecting all the forensic evidence they needed. Eventually, the corpse was taken away by the family and the graveyard was struck with silence once again.

After everybody had left, I decided to have a look at the quilt. This time, Li Mazi didn’t stop me. He also thought it could be an otherworldly item and knew it could be very valuable. It was like we had bumped into easy money midway home. 

I couldn’t help but laugh at Li Mazi’s greed. Even if the quilt was an otherworldly item, I wouldn’t dare to take it! And even if I did, I wasn’t sure anyone would buy it! After all, who would pay money to buy a quilt that killed people?

As I got closer to the quilt, I felt the temperature drop. The quilt and its power scared me as I didn’t know what it might be capable of. 

When I touched it, I instantly felt a blast of cold through my fingertips, like I was touching a block of ice.

It was strange that such a soft blanket could feel so cold. It felt like it had been sitting outside in the middle of a harsh and bitter winter. 

I will never forget the feeling of that quilt. 

I immediately moved my hand away from the quilt. “I think this quilt might be an otherworldly item. I think it’s evil. I don’t want to touch it and I don't think you should either. Let’s go.”

But Li Mazi didn’t want to go. He insisted that we should take the blanket so I could get rid of the negative energy surrounding it. That way, we’d be able to sell the blanket later on.

I scoffed at him, “Someone would have to be out of their mind to buy a quilt that people have died in.”

Li Mazi pouted his lips. “Well, it’s hard to understand the world of the rich. What if someone wants to buy it? It’s an important opportunity. Business opportunities are everywhere, and you have to seize them!”

I really admired Li Mazi for his boldness. “I don’t know where this golden quilt came from and if we want to understand it, we have to find out its origin. Let’s go back to the hotel and work out what we are going to do and then we can come and pick up this quilt.”

Li Mazi agreed but he left with great reluctance. 

On the way back to the hotel, I finally understood why Li Mazi wanted to keep the golden quilt so much. 

It turned out Li Mazi had been hoping to collect some antiques during this trip to Xishuangbanna. 

Even though we had solved the road-blocking ghost case in Yin Xinyue’s hometown, we were still very poor and weren’t earning any money. When we came across this golden quilt, he realised the potential and became hungry for it. 

When Li Mazi and I worked together, we earned a lot of money, but he spent most of it on treating his son’s leukemia so his living conditions weren’t that good now.

This quilt was a rare opportunity so Li Mazi didn’t want to miss it. 

Even though I said I wasn’t willing to take the quilt, I was still curious to find out more about its origins. How could it freeze people to death and how could it just randomly appear in the graveyard?

Perhaps, it was the otherworldly merchant’s occupational disease. When they see otherworldly items or anything similar, they would be in awe. 

It was like a car-lover. Every time car-lovers see a new car getting released, they would hate themself for not immediately buying one. 

After spending some time thinking about it thoroughly, I finally had an idea about where the quilt came from and how it could do what it did. 

The previous owner of the quilt must have been frozen to death, and that quilt had absorbed the user’s endless resentment. That was why it didn’t keep people warm but froze them to death instead. 

And, the two recent deaths were all the sons of rich and noble families. It meant the quilt’s owner must have hated the noble and rich people a lot while he was still alive. And why was that, I didn’t know. Perhaps the quilt’s owner was exploited or framed by the powerful when he was still alive. 

Didn’t the great poet Du Fu also have a quatrain about it? Literally, he wrote, the rich left meat to be spoiled while poor people died of cold on the street. 

However, the most important thing here was, why did those second-generation rich kids decide to steal items from the grave in the middle of the night and provoke that quilt? There was something strange about it.

If we could find out why the two came to that desolate graveyard, we could easily solve the problem. 

Li Mazi saw me staying idle for quite a long time, asking “What are you thinking about?”

I sighed and told him my thought. Li Mazi gave me a thumb-up. “As you could guess the quilt’s origin, have you thought of how to deal with it yet?”

I shook my head. “There are more things to study. As long as we understand all the matters, we can find the right treatment for the right disease.”

Li Mazi said, “Well, that’s easy, right? We just go there and ask directly.”

I shot him a fierce glance. “You want money so much that you don’t want your life anymore? Those rich kids’ deaths are strange. If you go there and rub salt in their wounds, I wouldn’t be surprised if they kill you.”

Li Mazi scratched his head. “It was a slip of my tongue. Don’t consider that.”

Anyway, we didn’t have to go and see them, they came to us instead…

One day, I went out for a bowl of beef noodle. When I came back, I almost vomited as I was sick of it. The only food I could buy in this town was beef noodle and I had eaten the same dish for the entire week. 

I was pondering whether I should find some villager here and buy a chicken to ease my need. 

When I made up my mind and came to ask the hotel’s owner if he knew someone selling chicken, he told me someone had left me a phone number and asked me to call him as it was an urgent matter. 

I was scared, really. I thought the enemy was here, and my first reaction was to collect my stuff and run! 

Call that phone number? Impossible! Isn’t that no different from courting death? 

However, what the hotel’s owner said next stopped me from running away. 

The hotel’s owner told me that the man had left me some advice, and it was of my best interest to listen to him. Otherwise, he would disclose my whereabouts. 

Listening to the hotel’s owner, I sighed in relief. 

From that sentence, I figured the man wasn’t my enemy. 

I became bolder and called the number. 

An old man with a strong voice and a touch of vicissitude picked up the phone. My first impression of him was that he must have been a bold and ruthless guy when he was young. 

He didn’t tell me much through the phone but asked me to go to his house. His house wasn’t far away from this town as it was in a village nearby. 

I asked, “How did you know where I am?”

The old man sneered. “In this circle, there’s nobody I can’t find.”

I was startled. If he said so, he clearly meant that he was an otherworldly merchant like me. 

My imagination started to run wild. If this old man had come to me out of the blue, it must be something related to that golden quilt! 

But still, I couldn’t verify whether he was a friend or an enemy. With the thought of “eggs shouldn’t be put in the same bag,” I decided to go there on my own while Li Mazi and Yin Xinyue would seize the chance to run away. 

Li Mazi, no doubt, agreed with my plan. No matter what, he was a chicken. But Yin Xinyue didn’t look pleased. She wanted to go with me so we could take care of each other in case we needed help. 

I hesitated for a while, but I knew it would be useless to continue the conversation. Eventually, I agreed to let Yin Xinyue accompany me. 

I used Li Mazi’s car. I had driven less than ten kilometers to reach the old man’s village. 

It was a rundown village. Garbage was everywhere. I could even see the mud-walled houses built in 1970s. The air was reeking with urine smell and poultry’s discharges. 

The old man’s lodge was even worse. Garbage piled up at his door, attracting a lot of flies. I wondered how long he had stayed inside that shabby house... 

Yin Xinyue felt disgusted. “Is that old man one of those otakus?” 

I was speechless. “I have never seen an old otaku before.”

I walked over and knocked on the door. An old, hunch-backed man wearing a military coat opened the door. He looked at me and then Yin Xinyue. “The man can go in but not the woman.”

I couldn’t do anything else but let Yin Xinyue wait outside. In the dim-lit room, I scanned the old man’s house. 

This room was a big mess with many crumpled, balls of paper. Some yellowed, old books sat quietly on a desk, which seemed to be the only wooden furniture in the house. Everything else was made of stone. 

There were so many bottles and jars hung on the walls. They all looked like antiques. If I didn’t watch my head while walking around the room, I could bump into those hanging jars. 

In this dirty room, there was nowhere to sit. And, the old man didn’t look sorry for his dirty house. He casually took off his shoes and sat on his bed, looking at me. 

I didn’t know when he had washed his feet last. The sour smell from his feet made me dizzy. 

“Young man, what do you think of my place?” the old man asked smilingly. 

I furrowed my brows. “It’s very unique.”

It was the only thing I could come up with to give a compliment. 

The old man smiled. “Young man, you will soon have a style like mine.”

I raised my brows. “Not necessary, sir.”

“Hmph! Seems you haven’t understood this circle.” The old man fumed strangely. “Being an otherworldly merchant, no one would have a decent end. Both your grandfather and father couldn’t avoid a tragic death. You couldn’t find their remains, right?”

I was stunned, looking at him with shocked eyes. “You knew my grandfather?!”