1
I'm a merchant who does business with ghosts. Just as the name suggests, I trade with the dead.
Every year on the Ghost Festival, when the Gates of Hell open, I set up a stall to do business with ghosts.
The reason I can trade with ghosts is that my family has practiced this trade for generations.
But the requirements for becoming a ghost merchant are very strict:
—First, this trade can only be passed down to daughters, never sons.
—Second, you must be born on the winter solstice in a lunar year during a yin month, with an extremely yin constitution.
If ordinary people touch the things sold to ghosts, they'll fall ill or suffer bad luck at best—and die at worst.
Today was the day the Gates of Hell opened.
Eleven at night.
I went to an intersection near the school. There were no shops here, and the area was surrounded by chemical plants, so hardly any students passed through. Waist-high weeds grew thickly along both sides of the road, and there wasn't a single streetlight. The silence was so terrifying that there wasn't even an insect chirping or a dog barking.
I set a bowl of rice on the road, lit an incense stick, and planted it in the middle of the bowl. Though the wind was strong that night, the incense smoke still rose straight into the sky.
I clasped my hands and bowed. “This is your humble servant's first time doing business. If I make any mistakes, I hope you ghosts will be generous and forgive me.”
Then I spread out a red cloth and arranged my wares on it.
I felt the temperature around me suddenly drop. A few hazy white figures began gathering before my eyes, one terrifyingly pale face after another appearing.
A pallid hand lifted the porcelain bowl from the ground.
I was secretly delighted and hurried to make my pitch. “You have such a good eye, ma'am! This bowl is an antique from the Ming dynasty. I could tell at a glance you lived back then, right? Using this bowl is sure to make you feel right at home.”
A strange, tinkling laugh rang out. Clearly, the lady ghost was very pleased.
But just then, I heard a group of men and women laughing in the distance. A group of people approached my stall.
Two of them were people I knew very well: my roommates, Hoàng Kiều Kiều and Lý Diễm. They were arm in arm with their boyfriends, dressed in revealing, sexy clothes.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều stepped in front of me and gave me a scornful look. “Oh, isn't this the poor girl from the dorm? This is hilarious. Are you so broke you have to set up a stall in the middle of the night?”
“No wonder people say bookworms have nothing but books in their heads. There isn't a soul around here. Who are you planning to sell to, ghosts?”
She lightly kicked the porcelain bowl the lady ghost had just picked out. It wobbled, clinking against the ground.
“Honestly, everything you're selling looks so tacky. Just looking at it makes me feel dirty.”
The whole group burst out laughing.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều's words darkened my expression. The white figures around us shuddered more violently, and I clearly heard their cold, tinkling laughter.
Clearly, the ghosts were displeased.
No ghost likes having its taste mocked.
“Don't touch things so carelessly! These aren't things you can lay your hands on!” I shouted sternly.
Annoyed, Hoàng Kiều Kiều turned to her boyfriend with an aggrieved look. “Honey, look at her! It's just a broken bowl. Why is she making such a big deal out of it?”
Her boyfriend, Hoàng Lôi, was the son of a member of the school's board of directors. They often bullied their classmates, relying on their family's connections.
Hoàng Lôi sneered, his tone brusque. “How much is this bowl? We'll buy it, then. Why are you so upset? It's just a cheap bowl.”
I gave a cold, crooked smile. “You can afford to buy it, but you don't have the life to use it!”
“You…!”
Hoàng Lôi was furious, the veins on his forehead bulging. A second later, he smiled maliciously, then suddenly grabbed the bowl and hurled it to the ground.
Crash!
The bowl shattered, its pieces flying everywhere.
“Now that the bowl's broken, let's see how you'll sell it!” Hoàng Lôi taunted me.
2
My expression instantly turned dark.
Hoàng Lôi looked extremely pleased with himself.
When he saw how angry I was, he laughed more and more wildly.
“Don't look at me like that. It's just a cheap bowl I broke, isn't it?”
“This bowl doesn't even look like anything fancy. Five hundred should be enough to pay you back, right?”
“Anyway, you poor nobodies are just vermin in this society. Money is one thing I'll never run out of!”
He reached into his pocket, pulled out 500 đồng, and threw it right at my face.
A gust of cold wind blew past, sending the bills flying everywhere.
It was pitch-dark, and no one noticed the dark red, almost black blood oozing from the broken bowl on the ground.
My first thought was: He's as good as dead.
“Nhân Nhân, your family is really poor, isn't it? Why don't you hurry up and pick that money up?” Lý Diễm laughed scornfully.
“That 500 đồng must be your spending money for the whole month, huh?”
But she didn't know that a ghost had drawn close beside her, glaring at her with blood-red eyes.
“Achoo!” Lý Diễm suddenly sneezed loudly.
“Why did it suddenly get so cold?” she muttered, but no one heard her.
Seeing that my expression remained cold, Hoàng Kiều Kiều began plotting something else.
Her eyes darted around, then settled on the steamed buns on my stall.
“Those buns smell delicious. I'm a little hungry myself. Nhân Nhân, you wouldn't mind if I had one, would you?”
“Those buns have already been reserved. You can't eat them,” I warned coldly.
If the living eat food meant for the dead, they will surely die!
“Why can't I eat them? I can just pay you. These are only cheap buns—I'll buy them all!”
Hoàng Kiều Kiều quickly snatched a bun and shoved it into her mouth.
I didn't have time to stop her.
“So good! It's really delicious!”
Her eyes went wide as she stuffed herself with buns until her cheeks bulged, chewing voraciously.
At the sight, everyone else was stunned.
Lý Diễm, still doubtful, picked up a bun too and took a bite.
Soon, she too began devouring it in great mouthfuls as if it were a feast fit for a king.
In no time, the four buns on my stall had been eaten by the four of them, without a crumb left.
But they had no idea that as they devoured the buns, pale, ghostly faces were crawling onto their shoulders, glaring at them with eyes full of hatred.
Hoàng Kiều Kiều let out a satisfied burp.
She licked her lips, completely unaware that a streak of blood was running from between her teeth.
“You look so gloomy, I thought I’d eaten something incredibly precious. Come on, steamed buns probably cost two or three yuan each. I’ll pay you ten yuan apiece, okay?”
Hoàng Kiều Kiều wiped her mouth and sneered at me.
“We ate all four. I’ll transfer you forty yuan. That’s enough, right?”
A moment later, I received a payment notification from her.
But I calmly sent the money back.
“Tô Nhân! What’s that supposed to mean? You think it’s too little?”
“These are just cheap steamed buns. Are they really worth more than forty yuan?”
Lý Diễm said, frowning in annoyance.
“I do business with the dead. Now that you’ve eaten food meant for the dead, I shouldn’t accept this money.”
“What you owe isn’t money. It’s your lives.”
“You won’t survive the next three days. If there’s anything you want your families to know, tell them now.”
I gave them an eerie smile and fixed them with a penetrating stare.
My gaze made them all tremble, sending an involuntary chill down their spines.