Corpse Retriever

”A bit clearer now, but I’d still like to hear more.”

”Heh.” Liu Yumei picked up her teacup, sipped, and asked, ”Have you read Tang Yin’s ’Song of the Peach Blossom Hermitage’?”

”I have.”

”The last two lines?”

”’The world mocks me as mad, I laugh at those who can’t see through it. Remember the tombs of Wuling’s heroes—no wine, no flowers, just hoes and fields.’”

”Exactly. You laugh at him for not understanding, he laughs at you for not knowing how to live.”

”Granny Liu, are you saying my great-grandfather pretended to be hard of hearing just to avoid listening?”

”No, your great-grandfather isn’t as good an actor as you, little one.”

”Granny, you’re joking.”

”What do you think of your great-grandfather?””He has stories. Sometimes I think I understand him, other times I realize I’m lost.”

”You’re overthinking. Try seeing things simpler—don’t tangle yourself in so many loops.”

”Granny Liu, now you’re tangling me.”

”Your great-grandfather is just that—your great-grandfather. Nothing special. The only difference between him and others is probably that he’s rich—no, extremely rich.”

”Extremely rich?” Li Zhuiyuan pondered. What did “money” refer to here?

”When a man has too much money, he tends to float, becomes self-righteous, and stops listening.

But what can you do? He’s rich, isn’t he?

Sometimes, money lets you do whatever you want. Problems get smoothed out with it.

But greasing the wheels with cash is something done in the shadows—even the person handing out the money often doesn’t know where it all ends up. Still, things somehow get resolved at a certain point, and they themselves are left baffled at how they made it through.

The people around him, though, they’ve all caught on over time. They’re not truly angry, more like frustrated but helpless. Eventually, they grow numb. They accept it.”

Li Zhuiyuan asked, ”Granny Liu, if I live with a rich person, can I strike it rich too?”

Liu Yumei looked at the boy with a layered expression. She knew—he understood.

”Ha! Where would you find money lying around to pick up? At best, you might scrape together a few coins from some crevice on the dam—who knows how long that’d take—just enough to buy Ah Li a piece of candy.”

Li Zhuiyuan took out the bill his great-grandfather had given him. ”So, Great-Grandfather doesn’t even know how rich he is?”

”He probably thinks he’s modestly well-off, never realizing just how ridiculously rich he is—rich to the point of overflowing.”

”Then can Great-Grandfather use that money himself?”

”Hehehe…” Liu Yumei chuckled, covering her mouth. ”What a silly question. If he doesn’t know he’s that rich, how would he know how to use it?”

”But the money still gets used?”

”Yes, it gets used.”

Li Zhuiyuan drank the tea in one gulp. The questions that had long haunted him about his great-grandfather finally began to unravel.

The money they spoke of was a metaphor—for fortune, for luck.

Those blessed with abundant fortune often escape danger and find blessings after misfortune.

According to Granny Liu, if you look at it simply, his great-grandfather was just a typical Corpse Retriever from Siyuan Village.

In fact, Grandpa Shan seemed more professional in their line of work.

Which made his great-grandfather’s good fortune seem almost eerie.

Because he wasn’t particularly skilled, and his tools were mostly for show. Without a proper vessel, good luck manifesting could become chaotic and absurd.

Like during the memorial feast at the Niu family—Blind Liu and Grandpa Shan were bewitched and left in a mess, but his great-grandfather just fell asleep peacefully and was totally unharmed.

Or that drinking episode the other night—he conveniently drank too much, passed out, and woke up thinking it was just a dream.

Even just now, when Zhuiyuan confronted him face-to-face about that night, he hadn’t really listened—dismissed it as a child’s tall tale.

This pattern defied reason. Once might be chance—every time, though?

So was he avoiding it?

No—it was something influencing him, steering him toward safety.

He wasn’t pretending to be dumb. Some invisible hand was guiding him during critical moments, making his behavior appear foolish.

With that perspective, the past events started to make sense.

Why he sometimes seemed profound and sometimes unreliable. Why Blind Liu and Grandpa Shan seemed frustrated yet powerless. They’d known him for decades. Perhaps, like Liu Yumei said—they’d simply accepted it.

Li Zhuiyuan could hardly believe someone’s luck could be this immense.

He recalled the fate reading he’d done for his great-grandfather—his first attempt, which turned out completely reversed. It had shaken his confidence.

But what if he hadn’t been wrong?

Later readings for people like Xue Liangliang and Zhao Hequan proved accurate.

If he hadn’t been wrong about his great-grandfather, then that fortune must have been so overwhelming, it reversed the reading completely.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, ”So Great-Grandfather never suspected?”

Liu Yumei nibbled on a pastry. ”Who would? A life with no illness or strife, living carefree—and always dry despite walking by the river? Who’d dig into that and question it? And if they uncovered the reason, what then? Change it? That’d be crazy.”

Li Zhuiyuan realized how dumb his question had been. Who’d think good luck was a sickness?

But then another thought struck him. ”Would that money be used on others too?”

”What, you hoping to pick some up too?”

”No, just hypothetically. Would it affect me?”

Liu Yumei’s lips pursed, her eyes evasive. She seemed reluctant to answer.

Zhuiyuan pressed on: ”There’ve been times I found dirty money—my first instinct was to hide it from Great-Grandfather. Only after a while would I realize I shouldn’t. But when I did tell him, he never believed me.

Now I get why he didn’t believe. But what about my change in reaction—was I influenced?”

”You really want me to tell you?”

”I do, Granny Liu.”

”But I fear you’ll regret knowing.”

”I won’t.”

Liu Yumei traced the rim of her teacup with her finger, eyes falling on the bill in front of them.

”Some things already had their price marked in secret. The deal’s been made.”

Li Zhuiyuan jolted, staring at her in disbelief.

She went on: ”Tell me, ever since you moved in with your great-grandfather—how are you any different from Runsheng’s grandfather?”

Zhuiyuan stared blankly at the ground, his mind racing through past events.

His great-grandfather had forced himself to work for the Niu family despite being injured. But it was Zhuiyuan who dealt with the Cat-faced Granny, devising a plan and ensuring her demise by the peachwood sword.

His great-grandfather was invited to Jiuwei Port to exorcise a spirit—but Zhuiyuan went to the River Engineering Dept., contracted the blight with Xue Liangliang, and eventually solved the Bai family case with the help of Liangliang and Uncle Qin—while his great-grandfather just napped.

Just the other night, his great-grandfather drank with two unholy beings and thought it was a dream—Runsheng didn’t see it, and only Zhuiyuan witnessed everything and had to prepare for the fight.

All tied to his great-grandfather—but handled by him.

So really, what difference was there between him and Grandpa Shan?

”I know you, boy. You can see dirty money. Tell me—when did it start?”

Zhuiyuan recalled—it started after meeting Little Oriole… no, after leading her along the path of the shade, under Great-Grandfather’s guidance, it intensified.

In The Chronicles of the Orthodox Demon-Suppressing Arts, this resembled ”walking the shade.”

Too much yin energy clinging to a living person blurs the path between the living and the dead, letting them see what shouldn’t be seen. The book even noted: ”The more introspective, the stronger the effect.”

Zhuiyuan looked at Liu Yumei and asked instead, ”Is this why Uncle Qin left?”

”Dirty money always finds a place to be spent. You either live like an ordinary person, head down—or be the one pushed forward to take the hit when disaster strikes.

I know you, boy. You’ve been poring over books lately—you’re obsessed with dirty money.”

”Granny Liu, why are you telling me all this today?”

”Because you’re smart. Even without a teacher, just by reading, you learn frighteningly fast. If I don’t warn you now, you might figure out how to break your great-grandfather’s luck.”

”But why would I want to?”

”That’s not my concern. I just know you might soon have the ability. I still have to live here with Ah Li—I don’t want you messing up the harmony.”

”Can it be broken?”

”It can,” Liu Yumei said firmly. ”No matter how rich someone is, true hardship can still defeat them. Li Sanjiang’s money only works here in this little town. That’s the first point.”

She paused.

”Second—when old folks get used to their rhythm, and someone disrupts it, their lives unravel too. They might’ve lived longer otherwise—but end up with only a short time left.”

”Then just now—”

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