Midnight Bookstore

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

Zhou Ze did not think the faceless woman would dare to act outrageously. She must have more restrictions than he did. Otherwise, she would not bother disguising herself as Doctor Lin to get closer to him.

That being said, Zhou Ze felt uncomfortable knowing that the woman was ‘interested’ in him.

She could be a security guard at a shopping mall, a truck driver, or an old woman waiting for him to help her cross the street.

She might even be an understanding elder sister inviting you indoors to enjoy some tea in a little courtyard.

[TL Note: Drinking tea is Internet slang for sex trading.]

As long as he was interacting with someone, as long as he stepped out of the door, she would find a chance to approach him, meaning that he had to be on alert at all times.

Zhou Ze had no clue what the woman wanted from him. However, since most female ghosts in horror stories enjoyed feeding on a man’s Yang to replenish theirs, it was likely that the faceless woman had a similar goal.

Or maybe she wanted his body?

Maybe she wanted to replace him as the temporary Envoy of Hell?

Zhou Ze could not tell if the little girl was aware of the situation he was in, but he believed even if she knew about it, she would not intervene. On the other hand, it was possible that the little girl was the one who had released the faceless woman in the first place.

The faceless woman seemed to be concerned about something else since she did not attack him right away. That being said, the faceless woman might just be afraid of his nails considering how obedient Bai Yingying was now.

The faceless woman forcibly tried to keep him behind when he first visited Hell. However, he managed to break free after wounding her with his nails. The encounter might have scared her, so she had no choice but to seduce him this time.

Most importantly, Zhou Ze was feeling a little dejected.

The Ghost Amber had increased his desires by ten or a hundred times, yet he still managed to control himself. Instead of being proud of his willpower, he was oddly distressed.

—

Zhou Ze sat at the counter and flipped through some books. He searched on the Internet for information about the faceless woman, to see if he could learn anything useful.

Zhou Ze did not learn anything valuable, but he did find Stephen Chow’s Forbidden City Cop. He and Bai Yingying ended up spending half the afternoon watching the movie.

The anti-protagonist did not have a face, and had the ability to claim someone else’s appearance, too.

It was evening when they finished the movie. Zhou Ze asked Bai Yingying to unlock the door.

Bai Yingying was hesitating a little, “Boss, aren’t you scared that she will come back again?”

“So we aren’t going to make money?” Zhou Ze asked in return. “Perhaps you can contribute some of your funerary goods so I can afford the expenses?”

The gyonshi smacked her lips and went to unlock the door.

She was indeed rich. Madam Bai was the daughter of a wealthy family, so there were lots of funerary goods buried with her. Madam Bai had also stayed in the living world for two hundred years. She had left all her possessions behind, since she could not bring them with her.

Zhou Ze could easily tell she had money, seeing how Bai Yingying would buy lots of bags whenever she had the chance to go out.

Zhou Ze initially thought the woman had stolen the money from the bookstore, but he stopped suspecting her when he realized that the bags she bought were worth more than the whole bookstore.

Madam Bai had hired eight porters and a palanquin to escort Xu Qinglang, who had more than twenty properties to his name, and Bai Yingying was particularly fond of branded bags.

It was clearly not a piece of good news to a single man like him. It was difficult for him to win the affection of a woman, even after he died and turned into a ghost!

Not long after the bookstore opened, after the same time it took for Zhou Ze to brew himself some tea, a middle-aged man came in through the door.

Bai Yingying stood there and stared at him.

Zhou Ze instinctively looked at the man too. Even though his rationality was telling him that the faceless woman would not visit him with a different look so soon, it was necessary to remain cautious.

The man was wearing a leather jacket. Many spots on it had whitened. He was wearing a pair of old leather shoes and a pair of casual pants, too. He did not particularly stand out.

He was wearing a tall hat, and looked a little comical.

The middle-aged man went to the shelves and rubbed his hands. He was looking for a book to read, but he frowned and complained, “Boss, there are novels and boring books here. Don’t you have anything else?”

“There are more here,” Zhou Ze signaled to Bai Yingying to get the box behind the counter.

Bai Yingying did so. The man crouched down and flipped through the books in the box. The covers of the books were intolerable to the eye, including Young Teenager Ah Bin, Gatekeeper, and Chen Pipi.

[TL Note: Young Teenager Ah Bin is a webnovel, Gatekeeper is an author, and Chen Pipi is a character in the webnovel Nightfall.]

The middle-aged man’s fingers trembled in anger. He shoved the box away.

“What the heck are all these!?” the man snapped furiously and pointed at Zhou Ze, “Are all the owners of bookstores shameless like you!? Such corruption, such corruption!”

Zhou Ze lit a cigarette and placed his feet on the counter. He completely ignored the man.

The man turned around and headed for the exit. When he reached the entrance, he caught a glimpse of some books that were barely acceptable for him. He stopped and picked up Outline of National History written by Qian Mu. He found himself a stool and started reading it.

Zhou Ze could not care less about the man. He was not too concerned about who his customers were, whether they were human or a ghost. Even those that were neither human nor ghost were welcome. He just needed to keep an extra eye out for the faceless woman during this period.

Zhou Ze’s phone started ringing. He took it out and realized it was from his sister-in-law.

“Hello,” Zhou Ze said carefully.

The faceless woman had contacted him with Doctor Lin’s WeChat last time, and now he was getting a call from his sister-in-law. It was likely that the faceless woman was trying to pull the same trick on him.

“Brother…” the sister-in-law said coquettishly. Zhou Ze hung up the call right away.

Something was odd, something was definitely odd! Since when was the girl so nice?

It sounded like she was taking the initiative to offer half her buttock, just like Doctor Lin had told him she would wear stockings next time.

Zhou Ze did not think he… he did not think Xu Le’s face was handsome enough to win the affection of every woman he interacted with.

The phone started ringing again. It was from his sister-in-law again.

Zhou Ze accepted the call after a slight hesitation, “Hello?”

“Xu Le, you assh***, how dare you hang up on my call!?” Her character was back to normal.

“What do you want?” Zhou Ze responded coldly.

“I was doing some revisions with my friend at KFC when my purse was stolen. Can you spare me some money for the time being? Around seven or eight thousand will do.”

Zhou Ze hung up the call again.

-Mmm, it must be the faceless woman.-

Even if it was not her, Zhou Ze simply assumed she was the faceless woman when he heard the girl asking for money.

-That must be it.-

The phone started ringing again. Zhou Ze was a little annoyed. The middle-aged man looked at Zhou Ze with a frown, too. It was obvious that the constant ringing disturbed him.

“Sorry about that, I’ll switch it to silent mode,” Zhou Ze said. The man lowered his head and continued to read.

The girl kept calling him. Zhou Ze had no choice but to accept it again.

“Xu Le, you can’t turn a blind eye to the needy. I’m just borrowing your money, alright? In return, I won’t tell my parents and my sister about the woman with a Maserati, deal?”

“Go and tell them instead.”

“…” the sister-in-law.

-Stop sounding like you have nothing to lose. You still have a chance to fix the situation!-

Zhou Ze only had a few thousand yuan left after paying expenses recently. If he gave it all to the girl, he would have no choice but to live like a pauper.

“Xu Le, I’m begging you, please. I’ll be honest with you. My best friend and I went to a night club and we both lost our purses. I can’t afford to let my parents and my sister know what happened, or they are going to scold the crap out of me. My friend needs to pay for her drawing classes tomorrow. She had the money in her purse. She can’t afford to miss the payment.”

“Just ask her to talk to her parents,” Zhou Ze said.

“Her family isn’t well-off. She had only saved up the money by working during the winter holiday. Her family won’t give her the money. Xu Le, I’m only borrowing it from you. I’ll give it back once I get my allowance next month.”

Zhou Ze was about to reject it, but the girl added, “I assume you have agreed. Our cab has arrived at your bookstore. Luckily, I still have some money in my WeChat, so I can still afford a cab, or you wouldn’t even see me here.”

The call ended. Two girls walked into the bookstore.

The girls seemed to be students. They were dressed normally, but they did have some makeup on.

Girls at their age were usually beautiful plain. Wearing makeup was actually overdoing it. Unfortunately, they would never understand it.

Zhou Ze stood up and approached the girls.

“Xu Le, brother, please help us!” The sister-in-law started acting coquettishly.

The girl beside her seemed a little timid, standing awkwardly beside his sister-in-law.

Zhou Ze was trying to come up with an excuse when the middle-aged man suddenly rose to his feet, breathing heavily. Blue veins were surfacing on his neck, as if he was sexually aroused!

Zhou Ze placed his hand on the man’s shoulder to suppress him.

He told Bai Yingying, “Go get the money.”

Bai Yingying took five thousand from the counter and handed it to Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze took the money and gave it to the sister-in-law, “Remember to pay it back.”

“Got it.” The sister-in-law glanced at Bai Yingying and asked, “Who’s she?”

“A staffer; your sister knows her,” Zhou Ze explained.

“Oh, alright.” The sister-in-law did not ask further, since she was asking Zhou Ze for a favor. She left the bookstore, dragging her friend along.

The middle-aged man was about to chase after the girls, but Zhou Ze quickly pressed him against the window.

Would Zhou Ze give away his money so easily if the man had not lost his mind all of a sudden?

“I guess a dog can’t stop himself from eating shit, right?” Zhou Ze said. “I was struggling to make the call, but it seems like there’s no need for that anymore. I should send you back to Hell.”

The middle-aged man kept struggling.

“You still refuse to admit it?” Zhou Ze laughed in amusement. He pointed at the window and said, “Look at what you’re wearing on your head.”

The man looked at his reflection in the window.

He was wearing a tall hat written with huge black words A Dressed-Up Animal.

The man was startled. He immediately stopped struggling and murmured, “A disgrace to the educated… a disgrace…”