Corpse Retriever

Chapter 5

The squatting old man slowly stood up. Once he was upright, Li Juxiang suddenly felt his back didn’t seem as hunched as before.

“Hey?”

The old man patted his waist, thinking to himself that this Granny Liu was truly something. He hadn’t even properly spoken to her yet, just stepped into her house, and already his body felt much looser.

He didn’t linger and headed straight inside.

“Cuihou, you and Xiao Yuanhou go finish your meal.”

After giving her instructions, Li Juxiang followed inside. Liu Jinxia’s eyesight was poor, so she needed to be there to take notes during discussions.

“Brother Yuanhou, shall we go back to eating?”

“Yeah.”

Li Zhuiyuan responded. Though the discomfort in his body hadn’t faded, he tried to take a step forward.

With the first step, he felt the prickling chill on his head slow down, and the icy sensation on his left cheek, like a block of ice pressed against it, began to ease.

But as his second step landed, Li Zhuiyuan suddenly realized the chill hadn’t gone away. The cold on his left cheek returned, and now his right shoulder felt like it was pressed by a block of ice.

By the third step, the cold on his left cheek vanished again, shifting to his left shoulder, while the cold on his right shoulder remained.

As Li Zhuiyuan took a fourth step, his foot not yet fully down, the icy chill on both shoulders sharpened abruptly.

“Hoo…”

Li Zhuiyuan took a trembling deep breath and slowly pulled his foot back. The chill on his shoulders returned to its previous level.

He couldn’t see anything, but he could imagine: earlier, an old woman had been half-squatting in front of him, her right hand on his left cheek, her left hand stroking his head, saying:

“This fine boy, he’s real good-looking.”

As he’d started walking, the old woman had shifted her position, her hands gradually sliding down to rest on both his shoulders—a motion to brace and lift herself.

If he kept walking forward, she would climb up.

She

wanted him to carry her on his back!

…

The shady room on the first floor was Liu Jinxia’s office.

The room was large, but stepping inside, it felt oppressively cramped.

Wooden crates were stacked in a ring, swallowing up seven or eight tenths of the space, filled entirely with all sorts of ritual tools, scriptures, and statues.

If you opened a few crates, you’d see Laozi and Buddha arm in arm, or Guanyin with not a child but a crucified Jesus at her feet.

Years ago, Liu Jinxia had harbored dreams, answering the call of the new era, hoping to blend the strengths of many schools and forge a path uniquely her own.

But sadly, the backward market around Shinan Town couldn’t embrace such avant-garde ideas.

Liu Jinxia had no choice but to accept her fate, falling back into the traditional role of a blind fortune-telling granny.

So, in this room, what got used was just a black-lacquered wooden table, a few stools, and two white candles.

“Hiss…”

Liu Jinxia wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. The candle smoke stung, and it seemed those candles would have to go too.

By then, the old man sitting across from her had finished his story, looking at Liu Jinxia with respect.

Since arriving, not only had his hunched back eased considerably, but his mind was no longer foggy. He could even speak much more clearly.

The old man’s surname was Niu, named Niu Fu, from neighboring Shigang Town. He’d come today to arrange his late mother’s underworld birthday ritual.

Yesterday, his younger brother Niu Rui had come for the same reason. Liu Jinxia had received him before heading to Li Weihan’s house.

The old Niu family had two brothers and a younger sister. Their father died early, and their widowed mother raised the three of them alone.

Now, they were all over fifty, each a grandparent themselves.

Half a year ago, their mother passed away.

But since the funeral, troubles in the three siblings’ households hadn’t stopped—someone falling ill here, an accident there.

At first, no one paid much mind, but the frequency grew, and the incidents got worse.

Not long ago, Niu Rui’s son, riding home from work, crashed into a ditch, breaking several ribs. If a passerby hadn’t found him in time, he’d have been a goner. Niu Fu’s hunchback had also gotten dramatically worse. Even seventy- or eighty-year-old hunchbacks in his village weren’t as bad as him. And to think, half a year ago, he wasn’t hunched at all.

Add to that the siblings occasionally dreaming of their mother, and they began to suspect her lingering attachment hadn’t faded. They planned to hold an underworld birthday ritual for her, burn a blood scripture, dispel some evil, and pray for peace.

But now, the brothers had a conflict. The younger, Niu Rui, wanted to host the ritual at his house, but the elder, Niu Fu, insisted it had to be at his.

To outsiders, it might seem like the brothers were being filial, vying to handle such a tedious, heartfelt ritual to show devotion to their mother.

Liu Jinxia clearly didn’t buy it. Her eyesight was fading, but her heart was growing sharper.

Among the people she dealt with, ones like Li Weihan were rare. Most had a guilty conscience. As the old saying goes, flipped around: if you’ve done something shameful, you’re always afraid of ghosts knocking.

Still, Liu Jinxia wouldn’t dig to the bottom of it. She just said lightly:

“Don’t tell me your sister wants to host too?”

“Yeah, she does too.”

Liu Jinxia raised an eyebrow.

By village custom, a married daughter becomes a guest. She might visit her parents’ home a few times a year, bring her husband for New Year’s, and that’s enough to keep up appearances.

If her parents fall ill, a daughter who tends to them at their bedside and sees them off is praised as filial by neighbors and kin.

Since daughters don’t inherit property, they’re only expected to show up and lend a hand for their parents’ care or funeral affairs, not to pay.

But this third Niu sibling, a daughter, wanting to host her mother’s underworld birthday ritual… that didn’t fit custom at all. No matter how filial, that’s not how it’s shown. It’d be different if the family had only daughters and no sons, but she had two older brothers.

Liu Jinxia lowered her eyelids and said, “This is easy to settle. Since you all want to be the main host, then all be the main host. Borrow a spot on your village’s public dam, set up three altars, prepare three sets of birthday offerings, burn three blood scriptures.”

Niu Fu was stunned for a moment and asked, “Can… can it be done like that?”

Liu Jinxia nodded. “It can. Hold it together, in one place. Your mother won’t have to split her time. Your brother Rui Hou gave me his family’s birth dates and eight characters yesterday. You give me yours today, and tell your sister to send hers in the next couple of days. I’ll prepare the invocation for you.”

One job, one payment—now it was one job, three payments. Liu Jinxia was profiting.

Niu Fu hesitated, then nodded. “Alright, that’s how it’ll be. I’ll go back and tell them to do it together.”

“Good. Once all the eight characters are here, I’ll set a specific date for you.”

“Make it quick,” Niu Fu urged. “Hurry.”

“I understand.” Liu Jinxia nodded, signaling he needn’t worry, then stood to see him out.

Niu Fu’s backside had barely left the stool when he seemed to recall something, sat back down, and said, “One more thing. For the underworld birthday, we need Granny Liu to preside over the ritual.”

A ritual affair is a ceremonial matter, and presiding over it means inviting someone with know-how to oversee things, to keep mischievous spirits at bay.

As for what “know-how” meant, it was all up to interpretation. If no one else was available, even a pig butcher could preside.

Because Li Sanjiang’s family dealt in paper offerings, whenever he delivered them, he’d automatically preside over the ritual, getting a free meal and a small cash gift from the host.

But those “automatic” gigs were low-cost, with thin cash gifts. Asking outright for someone to “preside” was a whole different price.

Niu Fu quickly added, “The cash gift’s no issue, Granny Liu. We… all three of our families will pay.”

“Like that, huh…” Liu Jinxia’s heart started to race, an inexplicable unease creeping in.

“And also, please ask your village’s Uncle Sanjiang for us. We want to invite him too.”

Liu Jinxia swallowed hard. She didn’t agree right away, instead saying:

“I’ll talk to Sanjianghou, but I don’t know if he’s free. You give me the eight characters first, and I’ll calculate the date for you. That can’t be delayed.”

“Okay, okay, okay.”

Next, Niu Fu took a cloth bundle from his pocket, unwrapping it layer by layer to reveal a stack of curled-up Great Unity bills.

He licked his fingertip and started counting the money.

Liu Jinxia took the first payment but pushed back the second. “The presiding matter—we’ll talk after I discuss it with Sanjianghou.”

“This…” Niu Fu was clearly reluctant. “How about we settle it now?”

Liu Jinxia said firmly, “Until the matter’s clear, the money doesn’t need to be settled. That’s the rule.”

“Alright, then. Thank you for your trouble, Granny Liu. I won’t go to Uncle Sanjiang myself—I’ll wait for your word.”

“Yeah.”

Niu Fu opened the door himself and left.

Li Juxiang went to support her mother and asked, puzzled, “Mom, what’s wrong?”

This deal was worth a whole season’s earnings. Li Juxiang couldn’t understand why her money-loving mother was hesitating, and it didn’t seem like she was holding out for a higher price.

Liu Jinxia said softly, “These are farming folk, not some rich or noble types. They’re this easy to deal with and hand over money this readily—there’s only one reason for that.”

“What reason?”

“Spending money to ward off disaster, that’s what.”

“Mom, you mean?”

“Xianghou, tell me, what kind of mother, after passing on, would haunt her own kids?”

“That’s true.”

“And what’s even harder to fathom is, how many sons and daughters, living uneasy lives, would suspect it’s their own mother in the ground messing with them? Unless they’d done something worse than beasts.”

“Mom, then this job?”

“Forget it. We’ll talk it over with Sanjianghou first. If he thinks it’s fine to go, we’ll go and earn all that money. Ugh, they’re offering way too much.”

“And if Uncle Sanjiang says not to go, you’d let it go?”

“What’s the point of earning money you don’t have a life to spend?”

“Fair. Uncle Sanjiang’s skills are reliable. If he’s there, we can feel at ease.”

“His skills…” Liu Jinxia furrowed her brow, seeming to struggle for words, but still affirmed, “With him there, you do feel grounded.”

(Continue in Next Part)