Chapter 25: Twenty-fifth day of quitting the circle, I'll let you ask questions! ...
Silence, still silence.
Until the light in the lane ahead turned green, the car carrying people returning home from work rushed past with the accelerator on, and the dust raised by the car flew all over Sang Qiqi's face.
She raised her hand in embarrassment to wipe away the dust, and said with a forced smile: "I like it. I like it very much."
I like it so much that I have the urge to blow up the underworld and hang all the leaders on the Naihe Bridge.
Jingyu's eyes seemed to casually sweep over her crackling fingers and ferocious expression. He coughed lightly and hung his helmet on the rearview mirror while explaining, "This is none of my business. If you want to hold a grudge, don't hold it against me."
Ever since Jingyu met Sang Qiqi, he knew that she was a vengeful person.
Or perhaps the entire underworld knows that she holds a grudge.
This story begins when she first entered the underworld and obtained the employment consent letter.
During Sang Qiqi's interview, her interviewer was none other than Lin Bo, Yama Luo of the First Hall. When Lin Bo asked her to introduce herself, Sang Qiqi confidently replied, "I have many strengths, but my best qualities are my excellent memory and strong execution."
Lin Bo expressed great satisfaction.
The main reason for hiring new employees this time was because of an employee named Yu Peng in their First Hall who was always late and left early, neglecting his work and taking advantage of his uncle, who was a member of the Ten Hells of Hell, to do whatever he wanted. Lin Bo felt pain in his eyes, his head, his legs, everything—he was simply uncomfortable. For his own health, he didn't bother to consider his uncle's opinions and just wanted to find someone to replace Yu Peng.
Therefore, what Sang Qiqi said about "strong execution ability" really hit Lin Yanluo's heart.
Moreover, this girl looks fair and clean, well-behaved, and is definitely not an annoying thorn like Yu Peng.
As a result, less than two days later, Sang Qiqi slapped him hard in the face.
When Sang Qiqi talked about having a good memory, she meant that even after twenty years, she could still remember when she was a child, a fat boy with a mole on his face called her a jinx and pushed her into a cabinet in the orphanage and locked her up for an entire afternoon.
What Sang Qiqi meant was her strong execution ability. She meant that as soon as she took office as an employee of the underworld, she used her authority to enter and exit the human world and the underworld at will to find the residence of the fat guy. She scared him so much that he fell headfirst into the toilet and stayed in the rehabilitation hospital for two whole months.
It turns out that a good memory means holding grudges, and strong execution means taking revenge quickly.
Thinking of this past event, Jingyu immediately explained a few more words: "I was also entrusted by someone. The underworld only gave me a total budget of one thousand yuan. I spent a lot of effort to find this small tricycle for you, and the gas cost me one hundred and fifty yuan. It should be cheaper, but the car just got a new battery and the brakes were repaired, so the price didn't go down."
Sang Qiqi: "...Then why is this budget in your hands?"
Jingyu thought for a moment and replied, "Maybe it's because I have experience?"
Sang Qiqi thought of his dusty van. Bai Yingxin told her that Jing Yu had quickly bought the van at a bargain price right after it was pulled back from the accident scene.
Okay, that makes sense.
But Sang Qiqi still disliked the tricycle and cursed the stingy person in charge of the underworld countless times in her heart, wishing him to go bankrupt soon.
Sang Qiqi casually threw the keys to the tricycle on the cashier's counter and turned to go to Mrs. Li's house.
When she arrived, she heard a group of aunts and grandmothers complaining about Li Erhai's family. Out of curiosity, she went over and found out that since she exposed the fact that he stole the old lady's money that day, Li Erhai had only shown up when burning incense, and had not even been seen at other times.
"His wife is even more hilarious. She must have felt ashamed and took her daughter back to her parents' home. She didn't even bother to act anymore."
"Not only that, last night when I passed by Erhai's house, I found their daughter crying the whole time. I don't know what's going on."
"I know this. Erhai and his wife stole the old lady's money, and his daughter's boyfriend's family found out. It seems the boyfriend's mother is very angry, and the marriage is going to be ruined."
"How do you even know this?"
"The man's mother works at the same place as my sister. She even went to my sister yesterday afternoon to ask for information."
"Come to think of it, it's not just Li Erhai. I haven't seen Ma Si all day today."
"Ma Si and his mistress had an encounter last night. They both fell into the river and struggled for a long time before getting up. Now they are both in the hospital."
"Then this ghost can be considered to be doing justice for the heavens."
Sang Qiqi nodded in satisfaction and retreated to a corner to chat with the old lady and Fu Rui. From what Fu Rui said, he wanted to wait for the ghost messenger to take the old lady to the underworld, and then he would go with her. Sang Qiqi had no objection, but repeatedly reminded him, "Be sure to remember my five-star review."
Late that night, Sang Qiqi called Jingyu as promised, and took the old lady and Fu Rui to have a midnight snack together.
She went to the underworld and bought a lot of barbecue. Considering the old lady's bad teeth, she also bought some porridge and noodles, but the old lady didn't like it and insisted on drinking. Sang Qiqi had no choice but to go to Boss Xu and buy two bottles of plum wine that he brewed himself.
After the barbecue, it was almost dawn.
After the final funeral ceremony, the hearse carried the old lady's body to the funeral home.
Sang Qiqi went with them. Seeing Li Dahai's family crying with red eyes, the old lady who had been smiling for the past two days finally couldn't hide her emotions. She wiped her eyes and sighed heavily.
Separation between life and death is the most hurtful.
But the old lady quickly calmed down, and without caring whether her eldest son and his family could hear her, she muttered a lot: "Alright, alright, you're already sixty and still crying like this, aren't you ashamed? Hurry up and pack up and go home. You've been busy during the day and keeping vigil at night these past few days. You haven't slept for a long time. Go catch up on some sleep."
After a while, several ghost messengers came to the old lady and Fu Rui, greeted Sang Qiqi, and took her away only after getting her consent.
The old lady and Fu Rui took two steps and turned back.
The old lady cast a deep glance at her eldest son and his family gathered around them, then looked at Sang Qiqi. Sang Qiqi stood there, waved at them, and said with a smile, "I'll come visit you two when I'm free. If you need anything, you can always send a dream to your family, or come directly to the First Hall to find me."
-
After finishing the work for the old lady's funeral, Sang Qiqi accepted the fee from Li Dahai and handed Fu Rui's signature to Li Yucheng.
Li Yucheng stared at the postcard until his eyes nearly went blind. He then asked Sang Qiqi in disbelief, "How did you know I liked Fu Rui? And this autograph...it's probably hard to keep right now, right? Why are you giving it to me?"
Avoiding the rest of the Li family, Sang Qiqi raised her eyebrows and said, "Of course your grandma told me."
"Don't joke with me at a time like this—" The word "bar" was slowly swallowed back into his throat under the gaze of Sang Qiqi's dark eyes. Li Yucheng inexplicably remembered Sang Qiqi's cold body temperature that night, and he couldn't laugh anymore.
But the next second, Sang Qiqi snorted, "You're so timid."
Li Yucheng: “…”
After scaring Li Yucheng and avenging what happened that night, Sang Qiqi was about to say goodbye to Uncle Li and his group. However, just as she took a step forward, a middle-aged woman in her forties entered the Li family's living room. After greeting Li Dahai and his family, she approached Sang Qiqi and asked for her business card.
He even shared an interesting piece of gossip: "Didn't the Feng family go to the funeral home today? The hearse broke down on the way and was rear-ended by a car. I heard it was so bad that the coffin lid flipped over and Old Master Feng's body almost fell out. It scared the Feng family half to death."
Aunt Wang stood nearby, listening intently. Although she felt it was unethical, she was still a little angry. She snorted, "No wonder we saw a hearse parked on the side of the road with its hazard lights on on the way back. If you do too many unscrupulous things, you'll definitely get punished."
She was not referring to Liu Wenliang, but to the old Feng family.
Liu Wenliang's handling of the Li family's funeral was certainly dishonest, but were the Feng family any good? They knew they had contacted Liu Wenliang first, yet they still resorted to trickery to get rid of him first. It was a bit despicable. Furthermore, the Feng family had been doing construction projects for years, and they owed a lot of money, and their reputation was almost ruined.
She heard last night that someone took advantage of the Feng family's business to gather a group of people and go to their house to ask for money.
When the Feng family refused to pay, they blocked the door and refused to leave. The mourning hall where Old Master Feng's body was placed was filled with chaotic noises. Some people even cursed his son and grandson in front of the old man's portrait. This caused the Feng family to complain and they even called the police.
This policeman is also very busy. He has been on patrol for two consecutive days and met people who were doing their work.
However, the Feng family's situation was more difficult to handle than the Li family's own conflict. The workers simply declared, "We won't leave unless you pay us."
There was no other way. The Feng family could only pay part of the wages to the workers and suppliers under the mediation of the police. They also wrote a letter of guarantee under the supervision of the police, promising to pay off all the debts within a month.
"I also heard last night that Old Feng told Liu Wenliang to delay paying for the funeral and that he would pay when he was less strapped for cash. Liu Wenliang's face immediately darkened." The middle-aged woman chuckled. "I don't know whether he paid in the end, but considering the Old Feng family's habit of refusing to pay, Liu Wenliang might suffer a big loss this time."
After sharing the gossip, the woman didn't stay for long. She just said to Sang Qiqi, "Boss Sang, I'll call you when I need you."
Sang Qiqi nodded in agreement, then said goodbye to the Li family again and again and rode away on a shared bike. She didn't notice that Li Yucheng had quietly walked up to her eldest brother while she was listening to the gossip and whispered, "Brother, have you told Boss Sang that I like Fu Rui?"
Li Yufeng was a little puzzled: "Why would I tell this to Boss Sang? If you were a fan of Boss Sang, I wouldn't say anything more."
Li Yucheng: "...What about my parents? Have you mentioned it to Boss Sang?"
Li Yufeng: "Mom and Dad can't even say Fu Rui's name, okay?"
Li Yucheng: “…”
After a few seconds of silence, seeing Li Yufeng's strange expression, he suddenly slapped his mouth.
You're such a dead mouth, I'll let you ask questions!
-
After lunch, Sang Qiqi dozed off in the shop when she heard the sound of a car engine outside. Lazily opening her eyes, she saw a man in casual clothes walk in. As soon as he saw Sang Qiqi, he introduced himself: "Hello, Mr. Sang, I have an appointment with you to pick up the goods today."
Sang Qiqi understood: "Final exam, right?"
The young man nodded vigorously: "Yes, yes, yes."
"Okay, here we are." Sang Qiqi led the group towards the shelves. The last row was neatly lined with various fishing gear. Sang Qiqi pointed at the fishing rods and other gear and gave detailed introductions. After checking the items, she brought out the custom-made urn for Ka Qimo. "Take a look and see if there are any problems. If not, you can leave with the final payment."
Ka Qimo had already viewed all the paper crafts in Sang Qiqi's shop during Jiang Zhen's livestream. Having seen so many different and intricately crafted paper crafts, he had expected to be unsurprised by his custom fishing gear. However, the opposite was true. The fishing rod was foldable, making it easy to pull out and push, and it looked very sturdy. When not in use, it could be stored in a heavy box for easy storage.
What’s the difference between this and a real fishing rod!
That’s awesome! His brother will definitely like it!
Ka Qimo's eyes were full of admiration, and those sincere sighs made Sang Qiqi very satisfied.
"Don't worry, Boss Sang. I'll post a short video advertising for you!" A bright smile appeared on his tanned face. "I have three million followers on Douyin. I'm sure I can bring you a lot of business."
Kaqimo's real name is Wu Luan, and his brother is Wu Mo. They once opened a fishing account on Douyin, originally intending to just post about their daily fishing routines and compare who caught more fish. They ended up gaining quite a few followers. Later, when his brother unexpectedly passed away, Kaqimo struggled to close the account, but chose to preserve all the memories it held.
Now, every time I go fishing, I still record a video and put a chair and a fishing rod next to me.
When Wu Luan talks about advertising, he means what he says, without any ambiguity.
The paper figurines and urn were taken away at around 1:00 p.m., and the video was uploaded and forwarded to Sang Qiqi's WeChat at 3:00 p.m.
Click on the video.
Wu Luan greeted the camera, "Good afternoon, friends. I'm not fishing today. I'm sharing some paper-cutting with you. A few days ago, after seeing Mr. Jiang Zhen's livestream exploring his shop, I went to Sang Qiqi's funeral home and ordered a lot of fishing gear to be buried with my brother. I just brought all this stuff back, so let's see it for everyone."
The camera shifted from him to the floor, where a lot of paper figures were piled.
"First, look at this box. Inside is my brother's favorite fishing rod!" He held up his phone, pointed the camera at the box, and then opened the lid, revealing the exquisite fishing rod inside. He picked up the paper fishing rod and waved it in front of the camera, squinting his eyes and smiling. "How about it? This fishing rod is pretty good, right? It's a one-to-one replica! I'll burn it for my brother tomorrow. He'll be so happy."
He talked on for a long time, saying a few more words about each item, and those words were all about the interesting fishing experiences that the two brothers had in the past.
The old fans were quite emotional and felt depressed when they heard this.
"Oh, right, there's also this urn. My brother's previous urn was made of wood, and I found some signs of insect infestation a few days ago, so I thought of replacing it. I talked to Boss Sang for a long time before deciding on this urn. Isn't it interesting?"
Wu Luan held up a fishing-style urn and showed it around. He zoomed in on the little man sitting next to him and said, "Look, it looks a lot like my brother. Okay, that's all for the video. I need to sort things out and then go see my brother. Bye."
Within half an hour of the video being posted, it received hundreds of comments.
[Oh my god, you said this is a paper fishing rod?!]
[I just saw the screen recording of Jiang Zhen's funeral service visit on Weibo yesterday, and today I saw the unboxing video of netizens! So interesting, hahahaha]
[Oh my god, I can’t imagine how happy I’ll be when someone burns these things for me after I die/crying]
[Oh my god! The quality is really good! I'm looking forward to ordering the paper figurines for my grandma!]
[This urn is so beautiful! My brother has been asking for an Ultraman urn. I've contacted several funeral homes, and every owner praised it to the skies. The Ultraman they ended up making was even more bizarre than a monster. / tears streaming down my face]
[No, buddy, how old is your brother when he starts thinking about his afterlife?]
[He's eight years old, but he's sick. The doctor said he might not survive the summer, so everyone wants to fulfill his every wish. He's so cute.]
[…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.]
[It’s okay, our whole family is in a good mood. After all, death isn’t the end, forgetting is.]
[Go find Sang Qiqi upstairs! I won an urn in a raffle on Weibo a while ago. It was free, but the workmanship and painting were amazing. It would have cost at least four figures at a regular funeral home. I took a photo, you can take a look.]
[Thank you, thank you. I see. It's so exquisite that it's visible to the naked eye. I'll send her a private message on Weibo right now.]
Sang Qiqi hadn't missed this most-liked conversation. She had a Douyin account, but it wasn't verified. After receiving no response from her private message, she logged onto Weibo and, amidst the hundreds of abusive messages, accurately located the recent private message.
The avatar of this account is Ultraman. When you open the homepage, you will see photos with his younger brother, as well as various photos and short videos of his younger brother cosplaying Ultraman.
Sang Qiqi replied to the call, but the other person seemed to be glued to Weibo. Within two seconds, a friend request appeared on Sang Qiqi's WeChat. Once accepted, the other person explained their brother's situation in detail and asked if Sang Qiqi could help make an urn for Ultraman's ashes.
Of course Sang Qiqi should agree.
The other party happily said thank you, gave a deposit, and left his address.
In the following few days, Sang Qiqi packed up all the paper-made items that netizens had previously ordered. Netizens were also very supportive and drove to the site to pick up the goods themselves, so that the broken three-wheeled vehicle was still parked at the door and Sang Qiqi had never driven it once.
That afternoon, she finished making the Ultraman urn and placed it on the shelf to dry.
In her free time, she saw the pink paint on the corner and finally walked over to pick it up. She first spent money to buy some white paint to cover the black tricycle, and then painted it with pink paint. The ugly black tricycle turned into an ugly pink tricycle. Well... although it was still ugly, it was at least a little better looking.
Bai Yingxin watched the whole process from the window and praised it politely, "The quality of this car has instantly improved."
Sang Qiqi raised her eyebrows, changed the subject, and asked Bai Yingxin: "Where is your boss?"
Bai Yingxin: "Guests are coming, and the boss is dressing up as a ghost to scare people."
Sang Qiqi: “…”
It's really nice to open a haunted house. You can just throw your body and act out your true self, which guarantees that every customer will have fun.
"What about you, are you going to deliver the goods now?"
"All the orders have been completed, so I can rest for the next two days."
After a busy few days, Sang Qiqi decided to take a break. She first went to a hot pot restaurant for a delicious meal, then went to the underworld to visit Fu Rui and Old Lady Li. They lived in a large villa on the outskirts of the underworld. The old lady now had dentures and reading glasses, as well as a nanny and housekeeper to serve her. She lived a carefree life and even square-danced with the elderly men and women in the neighborhood every night.
After the dance, Fu Rui went to pick her up, which made all the old ladies and old men very envious.
"What about you?" Sang Qiqi handed Fu Rui a cup of Mengpo's fruit tea and asked curiously, "Are you still quite bored?"
"Yes, a little bit." Fu Rui said truthfully.
When he was alive, he was either working or on his way to work. Now that he was suddenly idle and had nothing to do, it was really boring.
but……
He smiled at Sang Qiqi and said, "I plan to find a job here. When I went to the First Hall the day before yesterday, they said that if I wanted, I could just jump the queue and be reincarnated, but I want to stay here."
He wanted to see his grandmother and A Liu again and talk to them.
"Then remember to keep your eyes open," Sang Qiqi reminded him. "Also, I suggest you come to the First Hall. What the other halls are most in need of is executioners."
Sang Qiqi imagined the scene of Fu Rui holding a blade ghost, and her eyes twitched, feeling it was quite inconsistent.
"Well, I'll pay attention." Fu Rui nodded, then remembered something, "By the way, Grandma Li and I both gave you a five-star rating. Did you receive it?"
Sang Qiqi: "Of course!"
Although that blockhead Cui Jing deducted two points from her because she took Fu Rui and the old lady to scare Ma Si and the other two.
But it doesn't matter. She has a lot of points now, so she can easily scare a scum like Ma Si several times.
—
A black Maybach sped along the road.
Li Cheng, dressed in a pure black suit, sat in the back seat of the car, and next to him sat Hou Mingzhi, who had a head full of white hair.
Hou Mingzhi was a professor of acting at the Beijing Film Academy. He retired two years ago and has been recuperating in a sanatorium ever since. This time, he was traveling with Li Cheng to visit his former student, Fu Rui.
Speaking of Fu Rui, Hou Mingzhi couldn't help but sigh.
Such a good child died young and left this world early.
"I heard that you are going to ask that kid named Qiao Tianyi to star in your movie? I've seen his performance, and he looks a lot like Fu Rui." In fact, it shouldn't be said to be similar, but exactly the same. Those details are portrayed in a completely one-to-one ratio.
Li Cheng lowered his eyes and said calmly, "Your information is outdated. Qiao Tianyi's assistant killed someone and hid the body. I don't plan to cooperate with him anymore. Besides, he gives me a strange feeling."
"Oh? How do you mean?"
"His acting is indeed excellent, with some resemblance to Fu Rui, but... his theoretical knowledge is completely disproportionate to his acting. This might not be quite accurate, but I can offer an analogy: it's like someone who never went to school but managed to get the top score on the college entrance exam." Li Cheng said, swiping his phone screen. The secretly filmed video of Qiao Tianyi's awful audition was playing on the screen. He handed it to Professor Hou and said, "This feels right."
Hou Mingzhi took a look and quickly pushed the phone away: "Oh my god, the old man's glaucoma was just cured, and he's going blind again."
What the hell is this.
So eye-catching.
Li Cheng twitched his lips at Professor Hou's reaction, exited the video, and concluded, "If this is his acting, combined with the feeling he gave me when talking to him, there's nothing wrong with it."
Li Cheng was not very willing to mention Qiao Tianyi. Fu Rui had passed away in the past two years, and Qiao Tianyi had reaped too many benefits from the title of 'Little Fu Rui', which made him feel a little nauseous.
When I first agreed to let Qiao Tianyi star in the new drama, I just wanted to find out why there was such a dissonance and what was going on with that incredibly familiar acting.
In silence, his fingers naturally entered Fu Rui's name in the search box of Weibo.
However, when the page jumped and the latest content was refreshed, Li Cheng was slightly stunned and his brows frowned a little.
Not missing the instantaneous change in his expression or the sudden darkening atmosphere in the car, Hou Mingzhi asked curiously, "What's wrong?"
Li Cheng stared at the screen.
The latest Weibo post came from a netizen named [Love Someone for a Long Time]. She posted two pictures, which were the front and back pages of a postcard. The front page had a simple hand-painted pattern, and the back page had a signature written in a flamboyant style.
Then there was a note: So happy! I received a celebrity photo from a girl in the group, and it had Brother Fu's signature on it! Looking at this signature, I don't know why I suddenly had the urge to cry, as if he was always by my side.
This signature, this postcard...
Li Cheng's eyes deepened, and he suddenly said to the driver, "Turn around and go to Fu Rui's apartment."
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