“Arrived, get out,” Bo Si said.
After parking the car, the two of them walked into the coffin shop.
The coffin shop was quite large, as if several storefronts had been knocked through to form one. Inside, it was packed with coffins and all kinds of funeral goods. The coffins were of all sizes, with every dimension available. Further inside, there were also many small ash urns.
This was the first time Gu Yi had come into contact with such things. Besides being astonished, he also found them somewhat novel. These coffins were exquisitely made, and because the materials differed, so did their texture. Even the patterns carved on each coffin were different. Some were emerald-green cypresses, some were vast auspicious clouds, and some were soaring dragons in flight. Gu Yi stared so hard his eyes nearly went straight.
Although they were things meant for the dead, just looking at them, he could not sense the slightest trace of deathly aura. On the contrary, they seemed like works of art, displayed in a museum.
The front door of the coffin shop was transparent glass, which meant that whether it was day or night, anyone standing at the entrance could take in the entire coffin shop at a glance.
From the moment the car drove into this street, Gu Yi had already seen that it was extremely remote. But on second thought, that made sense. A coffin shop opened in a bustling district was always a little strange.
The coffin shop was at the very end of the street. Its neighbor was an old lady who sold noodles. Business was not very good, but the old lady looked very kind, with white hair and hardly any teeth left. She often smiled, and when she did, her eyes narrowed into slits, giving people a very friendly and gentle feeling.
Before entering the coffin shop, Bo Si greeted the old lady very warmly. “Shou Granny, you’re still up this early today.”
Shou Granny chuckled. “Not early, not early. It’s Boss Bo who’s come late. Huh? You brought a little boy today. Who is he?”
Bo Si pushed Gu Yi forward and introduced him. “His name is Gu Yi. He’s an employee I hired.”
Gu Yi thought to himself that it was not hiring at all, it was clearly a threat.
But on his face, he still smiled politely. “Hello, Granny.”
“Good, good, what a good boy.” Shou Granny smiled so much that she could hardly close her mouth. “It’s been so many years, and this is the first time I’ve seen Boss Bo hire an employee. Good, good. This young man looks hardworking at a glance. How old are you this year? Do you have a girlfriend?”
Gu Yi said somewhat shyly, “Granny, I’m eighteen this year. I’m still a high school student, and I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“When you come here, you’re no longer a high school student. You can have a girlfriend.” Shou Granny said with a smile, “Little Eighteen looks clean and tidy. You’ll definitely be able to get a girlfriend very soon. Boss Bo, you need to help Little Eighteen keep an eye out.”
“Don’t worry, Shou Granny. This brat’s affairs from now on are all under my care.”
Bo Si turned to Gu Yi and said, “Come on, let’s go into the shop.”
After going inside, Gu Yi asked, “Is Shou Granny running the shop by herself?”
Bo Si answered, “Yes.”
“But she’s an old woman. Running a noodle shop without anyone to help her, doesn’t she have children?”
Bo Si glared at him. “You’re a newcomer, and your curiosity is so strong? You can’t even manage your own affairs, and you still have the heart to care about other people’s business?”
Bo Si sat in the shop, brewed himself a cup of tea, and slowly started drinking it.
Gu Yi saw that he had put in a lot of tea leaves, so he kindly reminded him, “Drinking strong tea first thing in the morning isn’t good for the stomach.”
Bo Si smiled. “You little brat, you really are a busybody. You want to manage everything.”
Gu Yi awkwardly scratched his hair and said, “Aren’t you my boss? I’m caring about you.”
“Caring?”
Those two words seemed to spark Bo Si’s interest. The smile in his eyes deepened. “This is the first time I’ve heard of an employee caring about his boss.”
“Shou Granny said I was the first employee you hired. You used to run this coffin shop all by yourself?”
Perhaps Bo Si was in a good mood, because this time when Gu Yi asked, he did not show any impatience. Instead, he answered patiently, “Yes, always by myself.”
“Then why did you choose me? You seem to know a lot about my affairs. Did you know me before?”
Bo Si lifted his head and looked at him. After a moment of silence, he said, “No. It was just that you were going to jump off a building, and I thought it would be a pity for you to die, so you might as well live and help me. Anyway, with your personality, you probably couldn’t find a girlfriend, and I’m not afraid that one day you’ll fall in love and run off.”
“……”
Gu Yi decided to change the subject. “Boss, why is our shop called Zhong Xiang Wu?”
“Isn’t it nice?”
“Not exactly, it just has a bit of a Hong Kong-style teahouse feel to it.” Gu Yi’s lips curved slightly. “Does it mean that a person finally obtains peace and tranquility?”
Bo Si’s eyes darkened a little. He bit a cigarette between his lips and lit it with a lighter. “I don’t know. The name was given by that person. I just used it.”
“That person?”
“You don’t know him. Don’t ask.”
Seeing that Bo Si had started smoking, and Gu Yi could not stand cigarette smoke, he said nothing more and looked around the shop.
He stopped in front of a beautiful large coffin. Beside the large coffin was a smaller one, and on it was pasted a POP sign: Summer promotion, buy one get one free.
“……”
The corner of Gu Yi’s mouth twitched.
“Boss, I want to ask you one more question.”
“Ask.”
“Does our coffin shop normally get any customers?”
Bo Si calmly smoked, unhurried. “The people who should come will naturally come. As for selling coffins, both you and I have to stay spiritually detached.”
“But Boss, the slogan you wrote doesn’t seem detached at all……”
Gu Yi pressed his throbbing temples and looked toward the entrance again. On the door, Bo Si had written the four large characters “Welcome” in bright red brushstrokes. The red ink had not dried yet, and it seeped down the glass. The visual effect was practically no less frightening than The Ring at Midnight……
How was this a coffin shop? It was clearly a haunted house, hey!
Gu Yi could not hold it in anymore and stepped forward. “Boss, I think……”
“I think you need a set of work clothes.”
Bo Si cut him off and pointed to a small room inside the shop. “The clothes are over there. Go change. What you’re wearing really does not match the standard of our coffin shop.”
“Boss, look, since the coffins here are made so beautifully, shouldn’t your shop be decorated a little more, um, brightly?”
At the very least, don’t use red ink to write such terrifying words at the entrance……
Bo Si gave him a sidelong glance.
Then he smiled. That smile was indescribably good-looking. “Coffins and shop fronts are all illusion. No matter how beautiful they are, no matter how bright they are, they’re still made for the living. As for the dead, they need nothing. As long as they can find their way home and fulfill the wish they had while alive, that’s enough.”
Gu Yi froze.
Before he could fully understand those words, Bo Si said, “Hurry up and change. If you drag this out any longer, I’ll deduct your salary again.”
Gu Yi went into the small room Bo Si had pointed out.
Inside, there really was a set of clothes. They were folded very neatly, and on top of them was a slightly glittering work badge.
Gu Yi unfolded the clothes. They were black, and the style was hard to describe. They looked a bit like the old Zhongshan suits, but they were also very long, reaching all the way to his knees. Gu Yi carefully and seriously put them on, fastened the work badge to his chest, and tucked his jade pendant carefully inside his clothes. When he walked over to the mirror, he almost could not recognize himself in it.
This face was both familiar and unfamiliar, because without the birthmark, he still could not adapt to it right away.
Shou Granny said he looked clean and tidy. In fact, before today, he had still been a monster despised and ridiculed by everyone.
It was like a dream.
When Gu Yi came back out, Bo Si was still sitting at the table smoking. Seeing him come out, he lightly tapped the tabletop. “Come here.”
Gu Yi walked over and sat down in front of him.
There was a small box on the table. Bo Si said, “For you, but the money will still be deducted from your salary.”
“What is this?”
Curious, Gu Yi opened the box and found a flip phone lying inside.
“I’ve already put the SIM card, the phone credit, and my number in it. If anything comes up later, just use this to call me.”
“Um, Boss……” Gu Yi swallowed and said, “Since it’s all being deducted from my salary anyway, why not buy a smartphone……”
“Forget it. With that bit of salary of yours, once you buy a smartphone, it’ll be almost gone. Besides, smartphones are for picking up girls. I’m afraid if you have a phone, you’ll spend all day not focusing on work. For you, being able to reach me is enough. You don’t need anything else.”
“Then, Boss, may I ask, how much is my salary?”
Bo Si smiled. “That depends on how many coffins you can sell.”
“But, b-but……”
“Alright, I still have a date today, so I’m not staying to watch the shop. Remember to call me if anything happens. The prices are all written on the coffins. Just stay here and keep watch.”
Just like that, on his very first day of work, Gu Yi was abandoned by his own boss.
He did not know what he should do, so he cleaned the shop once, rearranged some of the messy goods, and then stood guard in the shop, waiting for customers to come.
However, as expected, by six in the afternoon, not a single customer had come in.
He sat at the table, staring blankly at the ashtray Bo Si had used, and only then did he remember that he had forgotten to ask Bo Si what time he got off work.
He called Bo Si using that flip phone. On the other end, there was deafening music, and Bo Si only threw him one line: the normal working hours were seven in the morning to six in the afternoon, but he had slept in for three hours this morning, so if he wanted to avoid having his salary deducted, he would have to make up those three hours today.
Gu Yi thought that since they had not made any sales today, there would definitely be no commission. If his salary was deducted again, how was he supposed to get by in the future? Sighing, Gu Yi decided he had better make up those three hours.
The coffin shop street was remote. By eight at night, there was basically no one outside. Occasionally, when the wind blew past, one could still see dust kicked up from the ground.
Gu Yi thought the time was enough and wanted to ask Bo Si when he would be back so he could close the shop. Just then, a country couple supporting each other walked up to the shop entrance. “Little brother, little brother.”
The woman called to him and waved. Gu Yi noticed and walked over.
“Auntie, what is it?”
This was a middle-aged couple, dressed in a rustic manner. The woman spoke with a bit of an accent. Their bodies were covered in mud, especially their trouser legs, as if they had just come back from working the fields. The woman said, “Little brother, do you know how to get to XXX Road?”
“Go straight ahead, turn left, and keep walking, and you’ll get there.”
Gu Yi pointed ahead.
The woman nodded gratefully, wiped her dirty hands on her clothes, then took out something wrapped in a white handkerchief from her chest. She handed it to Gu Yi and said, “Little brother, thank you. This is a specialty from our hometown, give it a try, it’s very tasty!”