Chapter 334 - 327: How to Spend This Money?

Chapter 334: Chapter 327: How to Spend This Money?

Xiaohong was a young man from the 21st century. Although he wasn’t highly educated, he didn’t really believe in all that stuff about gods and ghosts.

But after starting work here and reading a lot of "related materials," he’d actually grown scared.

So now, hearing Old Dan mention "scaring ghosts" made his heart skip a beat.

"Brother... Brother Shan... We’re in charge during the day, and they’re in charge at night. Let’s not get involved in this!"

Old Dan chuckled. The young man was a good kid, just a bit timid. It was amusing that someone with his disposition had found a job at a cemetery.

"Those two are thieves, stealing tin foil ash. Come on, let’s go chase them off and confiscate what they’ve collected."

"Tin foil ash? That stuff sells for money?"

"What do you think? It sells for almost twenty yuan a jin. During Qingming Festival, we can each make an extra month’s salary off it. We can’t let these guys get a piece of that."

Hearing this, Xiaohong realized what was going on. It seemed he’d just been scaring himself for no reason.

He and Old Dan put on their overcoats, grabbed flashlights and clubs, and quietly slipped out the door.

In the distance, inside the cemetery, were two men in their thirties stealing the tin foil ash. Their methods were practiced, and their tools were quite professional.

Each had a short-handled broom and a special snakeskin bag.

A bottomless dustpan was sewn onto the mouth of the bag. They would place the dustpan-bag contraption on the ground and sweep furiously. They could clean the tin foil ash from a grave in just a few seconds.

Most people are cremated these days. After death, a person no longer occupies a large plot of land, but rather a space just a foot or two wide in a cemetery. The custom of visiting graves, however, remains the same.

Thus, the terraced rows of graves were practically gold mines. Even though not every grave had ash, the harvest was still substantial.

The two thieves had each filled their snakeskin bags nearly halfway.

"Xiaoliu, Xiaoliu, how much you got?"

"Half a bag. At least twenty-something pounds! What about you?"

"Heh heh, I’m more than halfway full. Little Grey Mountain is a real jackpot. I bet we’ll each make two thousand yuan tonight."

At this, both men chuckled softly.

"It’s a little cold, though. The other day at Xiaodesheng, we were out till dawn and it wasn’t this cold."

"The weather’s probably turning..."

The two chatted idly, but their hands never slowed. They worked in an orderly fashion from top to bottom, one sweeping the upper tier while the other swept the lower.

"Heh heh, look at this one! There’s so much!"

In front of the man called Xiaoliu was a grave with a huge pile of tin foil ash, some of it not even fully burned. It was at least ten times more than other spots, and there were even offerings on paper plates placed on top.

The one on the lower tier looked up.

"Oh, that one must be newly deceased. That’s why there’s so much."

Xiaoliu paused.

"Even for a new death, this is a lot, isn’t it? Normally for the seventh-day ritual, most of the burning is done at home. At the gravesite, it’s usually just a token amount."

"Uh, maybe they were a rich family."

"Bullshit. A rich family would buy such a small grave? The eastern section is all large tombs, ’single-family detached’ ones, even. Why wouldn’t they buy one there? Why buy a ’townhouse’ plot over here?"

The guy below thought about it and agreed, but then something felt off.

"Damn it, we’re here to sweep ash, not play detective. Enough with the crap, hurry up. After this, we’ll head to another spot. If we stay too long, we’ll run into the cemetery guards. This part of Little Grey Mountain is patrolled at night. Once they find out it’s been swept, they’ll be on alert!"

Xiaoliu took out his phone and checked the time. It was already a little after eight. The patrol on Little Grey Mountain started at nine, so they didn’t have much time left to steal the ash.

"Right, right, hurry up! We only have about forty minutes left. Let’s try to fill the bags!"

...

Old Dan and Xiaohong, who had snuck up quietly, were now less than a few dozen meters from the terraced graves on the slope. Xiaohong, who had been nervous, saw the glow of a cell phone screen and immediately felt his courage return.

’Son of a bitch. If they can use a phone, they must be human. The nerve, stealing right under our noses!’

The sky wasn’t completely dark. Although it was before Qingming, the night sky was clear, and visibility was decent.

He exchanged a look with Old Dan, raised his flashlight, and decided it was time to go "scare some ghosts."

But before Xiaohong could rush up excitedly, a strong hand blocked his chest, while another forced him down.

It was Old Dan.

Xiaohong looked at him, confused, only to find that Old Dan’s breathing was a bit ragged.

Old Dan quietly pointed in that direction, then covered Xiaohong’s mouth and turned his head to face the same way.

At first, Xiaohong was annoyed, wondering what the hell the old man was doing. But after staring for a dozen or so seconds, his eyes flew wide open.

"Mmmph—"

The large hand on his mouth pressed down firmly, preventing him from making any loud noises.

Old Dan pulled Xiaohong back, seeing the young man’s face was already covered in sweat, his expression one of utter terror.

"Shhh..."

...

"Hiss~ It’s so damn cold! Feels like it’s still winter!"

Xiaoliu positioned the dustpan on his snakeskin bag and began to rapidly sweep the ashes in front of this "fat sheep" of a grave.

But then, a sharp, hair-raising voice echoed faintly.

"Why... are you stealing... my things?"

The hand Xiaoliu held the broom with froze instantly. A chill enveloped his entire body, as if he’d been plunged into an icehouse.

The feeling was hard to describe, but it was as if his body was about to freeze solid. His scalp tingled, and goosebumps erupted all over his skin.

"Brother... Brother Hu..."

Xiaoliu didn’t dare look up. He mechanically, tremblingly, turned his head just enough to see his accomplice by the next row of terraced graves.

Even in the darkness, he could see that the other man’s face was as white as paper, his body frozen in place.

"Why...?"

CREAK... CREAK... CREAK... CREAK...

The eerie, piercing voice was accompanied by the creaking of bones.

Xiaoliu didn’t even dare to breathe. He started scooping the tin foil ash he had just swept into his bag back out with his hands.

"S-sorry... I’m s-sor... ah, no! I... it... ah, no, I didn’t mean to!!"

"I’ll... give... give it back. You are magnanimous... please... spare me..."

Xiaoliu’s voice was already on the verge of tears.

Below him, Hu Zi also didn’t dare to breathe, his heart feeling like it would leap out of his chest.

On the gravestone in front of Xiaoliu, a long-haired figure was perched in a bizarre posture. Its head and neck were twisted ninety degrees to the left, and its body was completely devoid of color.

The strange creaking sounds came from the movement of its head. Every time it did so, Xiaoliu and Hu Zi felt a chill shoot from the top of their heads to the tips of their toes.

"Since... you’re stealing it... then you... must know how to use it, right?"

The sharp, faint voice sounded again.

"My family... said they burned this for me to use... but I don’t know... how to use it... You two... you must know, right?"

My God, Xiaoliu and Hu Zi wanted nothing more than to run, but whether from fear or some other reason, their legs were frozen stiff, numb and cold, and useless. They were also afraid of provoking the thing in front of them.

But how could they answer that question?

"You go... right, go to the Underworld! You can spend it there!!"

"How... am I supposed to go?"

CREAK... CREAK...

"I’ve been guarding this pile of paper ash... for so many days... How am I supposed to spend it... You tell me?"

The two men couldn’t answer a single one of these questions.

They had no idea how to get to the Underworld. And how to spend that money was something only the dead should know. But now, a dead person was asking them!

"We... we really don’t know!!"

Xiaoliu struggled to raise his head, only to see the thing was practically face-to-face with him. Its eyes were pitch-black voids, and its body was contorted into a bizarre shape.

His mind felt like it exploded. The terror sent him tumbling backward, and he fell onto the next tier of graves, landing right next to Hu Zi.

"No... you do know... otherwise why would you steal from me... You’re! Lying! To! ME!! AHHH~~~"

The ghost seemed to lose its mind. Its shriek suddenly escalated, and its face twisted into a horrifying grimace.

"GHOST!!!" "RUN!!!"

Xiaoliu and Hu Zi were suddenly filled with a strength they didn’t know they had. They sprinted wildly to the side, abandoning their tools and their haul, wishing their parents had given them two more legs.

"Lying~~to~~me~~~AHHH~~~"

CREAK... CREAK... CREAK...

They were running faster than they ever had in their lives, but the sound of grinding and rattling bones behind them was suddenly getting closer.

...

Old Dan and Xiaohong were hiding behind a slope in the distance, crouched as low as they could possibly get.

They were desperately clamping their hands over each other’s mouths, their hands and faces soaked with sweat they didn’t dare wipe away.