"!!!"
Song Miaozhu instinctively took half a step back at the sight of the writhing crowd of ghostly customers gathered at her storefront.
And it wasn't as if she was being dramatic.
Ghosts, after all, had no physical form. They didn't queue up in neat lines like the living. Instead, they clustered in floating, amorphous blobs—densely packed, three-dimensional tangles of spectral bodies.
The size of the crowd pressing against her shop entrance was directly proportional to the size of the doorframe—jammed together into a pulsing mass of indistinct shapes. It was impossible to tell where one ghost ended and another began. One glance, and it wasn't unusual to see a single ghostly face sporting three eyes and four mouths—all belonging to different spirits layered on top of one another.
What made it even more unnerving was their silence.
These ghostly customers were incredibly disciplined. Determined to make every bit of their afterlife currency count, they refrained from shouting or raising a ruckus, conserving both their ghost energy and lifespan.
So when Miaozhu stepped into the shop this morning, the sudden sight of that ghostly swarm caught her completely off guard.
Still, she recovered quickly, smoothing her expression and greeting the first three ghosts who drifted into the shop.
No introductions were needed today. Every early visitor had either missed out yesterday or hadn't brought enough ghost-money to make all their intended purchases. She even recognized some of them.
Take the old ghostly granny with no teeth and a shriveled mouth, for example—Miaozhu remembered her coming in yesterday looking for candy.
Back then, Miaozhu hadn't stocked any, so the old woman had reluctantly left with a single bag of preserved plums.
"Granny, we just got a fresh shipment of sweets today—have a look and see if there's anything you like?" Miaozhu said, lifting the candy box onto the counter for the ghost to browse.
The old woman leaned forward, her face twitching as if to inhale the sugary aroma, but Miaozhu quickly shut the box and reminded her, "Granny, payment first—then you get to enjoy!"
Ghosts didn't eat the way the living did. They experienced flavor through scent. But once a ghost had "tasted" an item, it couldn't be resold. That's why Miaozhu kept all her stock behind the counter. She couldn't afford to let her shop operate like a living-world supermarket where customers picked their own goods and paid at the exit.
A single accidental sniff from a broke ghost could mean a total loss.
"Can't have freeloaders inhaling my stock."
The granny chuckled sheepishly. "Forgive me—it's been so long since I tasted sugar. Give me 500 hell coins' worth! The sweeter, the better."
~
As the night progressed, inventory dwindled rapidly. Yesterday's stock had lasted under two hours; today's larger supply sold out in the same timeframe. Another dozen bulk orders were placed by new arrivals.
Once shelves emptied, Song Miaozhu apologized to remaining ghosts and turned to her high-value clients.
Skateboard Ghost was first through the door. "Boss! Your shop's even busier today—I got here slightly late and couldn't squeeze in!"
"Welcome, honored guests!" She relaxed the entry limit, ushering them inside.
Car Crash Ghost cut straight to business: "Got my quote? I need that car. Paper vehicles fall apart after two drifts—no steel, no soul!"
"Tell me you!" Skateboard Ghost groaned. "My mom even burned me a smartphone, but it's just for show! Can't use it at all!"
"I've searched every corner of Fengdu City for decent products," he continued, exasperated. "The better the quality, the older the shopkeeper, and the more outdated the goods. It's like having money but nowhere to spend it."
"Thank heavens you offer real-world procurement, Boss Song! Otherwise, how is this paradise? Feels more like punishment!"
Miaozhu handed them each a thick folder and a printed price list. "Here's everything I've prepared. If the price works for you, just leave a deposit worth half the total."
"Thirteen thousand eight hundred total? That's not bad," said Skateboard Ghost breezily. "So I just need to pay six thousand nine hundred as a deposit, right?"
"Exactly," Miaozhu confirmed. "Just note that electronic goods don't last very long in the underworld—hope that's okay?"
"Pfft, the phone's only 20K!" He waved this off. "But carrying that much hell paper's a pain. Do you sell gold ingots here? I'll take one third-grade ingot, ten second-grade, and ten first-grade."
Song Miaozhu's smile brightened. Big spender.
"One third-grade, ten second-grade, and ten first-grade ingots come to 21,000 hell coins."
He charged them on the spot, then slid six second-grade and eight first-grade across the counter. "Deposit!"
Marking his order confirmed, she handed a receipt: "Return in one week for pickup after final payment."
Next, Gaming Ghost shoved forward, waving his catalog. "Boss! The Paradise console! And every game listed!"
Song Miaozhu hesitated. "The console is 6,000, and all 100 games total 60,000… Your budget was 30,000?"
Her thick game catalog hadn't been compiled altruistically.
Gamer Ghost hesitated. He wasn't as wealthy as Skateboard Ghost. But with the Qingming Festival coming up, his family was bound to burn some extra offerings. Plus, he hadn't even claimed this year's ancestral pension yet.
"A ghost could survive without food, but not without games."
He gritted his teeth and raised his budget. What should've been enough to cover the full cost now barely paid the deposit.
Miaozhu added 33,000 hell coins to her ledger. "Deposit received. Come back in a week for pickup. Since you've ordered so many cartridges, you can choose to store them here and retrieve them when needed—that way, they'll last longer."
"Deal!" Gamer Ghost beamed. "The added service made it all feel worth it."
While the skateboarder and gamer's transactions wrapped up smoothly, Car Crash Ghost, however, had gone ominously quiet. He had eagerly flipped it open… only for his eyes to bulge at the number.
"Ten million? When I was alive, it only cost five million!"
And that wasn't even the cheapest model!
"That's hell coins," Song Miaozhu reminded him gently.
"But hell coins are tied to lifespan! Shouldn't they be more valuable? 10 million equals 2,000 years of lifespan!"
He had assumed it would cost a few hundred thousand, tops.
"They are worth more," Miaozhu agreed, "but this is cross-world purchasing. It's no easy task, especially for something this expensive."
"Forget it! Not worth it! I'd rather get a premium paper horse and gallop around like the wind!" Car Crash Ghost grumbled as he stormed off.
He said that, but deep down, it broke his heart.
"Alive, I had a garage of supercars. Dead, I can't even afford a damn coupe. What was the point?"