Chapter 97: I’ll Take It All

The carpenter uncle angrily slammed the table at this point, stating that he was absolutely not one of those industry scum who tarnished the reputation of their ancestors and had no moral integrity.
He still used the most ancient form of Vanquishing Sorcery, with its main functions being to exorcise evil and avoid disaster.

I remained noncommittal about his claims and just said with a polite smile, “I believe your vanquishing objects can indeed exorcise ghosts, but I can’t use them, because the ghosts pestering me… are truly my parents.”

“Ah, this…”
The carpenter was embarrassed to hear this.
It turned out the customer was being troubled by the ghosts of her own parents.
No wonder she needed a yin cabinet to enshrine their departed souls.
And if this was true, for such a young girl to have lost her parents, she was truly pitiful.

I noticed the carpenter suddenly looking at me with very sympathetic eyes.
He said, “I spoke out of turn.”
“How about this? I’ll sell you the shrine for forty thousand yuan, and I’ll throw in a set of sacrificial utensils.”
“I can also come to your home to help you install it.”
“What do you think?”

A normal shrine could be bought for a few thousand yuan, but the one I had my eye on was no ordinary item.
Not only was the wood precious, but the craftsmanship imbued it with yin energy, and the carvings were also extremely exquisite.

The incense holder imitated the style of a temple with carved beams and painted rafters.
The double doors were carved with auspicious cloud patterns, and the inner walls of the cabinet had golden dragon and phoenix reliefs.
It was extremely beautiful, and all handmade.

Forty thousand was indeed not expensive.
The shop owner might have even given me a discount.
Plus the free sacrificial utensils and home installation, it was a real bargain.

“How can I trouble you like this? You still have a shop to run,” I said politely, though I actually really wanted the boss to come and install it.
After all, this incense holder wasn’t too small, and I didn’t know the best way to set it up.
Even the orientation and position of such an ancestral shrine were particular.

“It’s no problem.”
“I don’t keep the shop open until late anyway.”
“I close up at dusk.”
“Anyone who dares to do funeral business around here after dark… it’s hard to say if the shop owner is even a living person,” the carpenter laughed.

I thought of the offering takeout I ordered at the hotel, the silent delivery man, and the mysteriously disappeared shop.
I felt this deeply.
Those who dared to do business at night were not to be trifled with.

“Then thank you so much.”
“By the way, I’ll buy one of your wood carvings too,” I said.
I was still very interested in these vanquishing objects, especially after hearing that they could exorcise ghosts.

My new home was too bare right now.
If I could have a vanquishing object to protect the house, it should bring me some security.

“Alright, my best carvings are all here.”
“Pick whichever one you like,” the carpenter said happily, seeing another sale coming his way.

But I had no idea what symbolism each animal had, so I simply asked Xiao Qing, “Which animal is good to buy?”

Ou Zhiqin thought for a moment and then replied, “A Pixiu.”
“It symbolizes warding off evil and also has the meaning of bringing wealth.”
“I think buying a Pixiu would be good.”

“The little lady has a good eye.”
“But that Pixiu is also one of my finest works.”
“I won’t sell it for less than two hundred thousand,” the boss said.

Two hundred thousand was definitely a bargain.
The jade hairpin artifact I gave to Xiao Qing was one hundred and seventy thousand.
This vanquishing object wood carving, which was claimed to be able to exorcise evil and devour ghosts, was not expensive at all for two hundred thousand.

Not to mention that the wood looked very high-grade, the artistic level of the wood carving itself was also very high.
Just selling it as a piece of art could probably fetch around a hundred thousand.

However, I couldn’t tell that it was the finest piece.
I mainly relied on the aura to judge the strength of an artifact.
The yin energy of these wood carving ornaments was all about the same, so there didn’t seem to be much difference.

“No problem, I’ll take this Pixiu.”
“That’s two hundred and forty thousand in total.”
“Can I pay by scanning a code?” I asked.
The shop owner was a little surprised; he didn’t expect this young girl to buy something over two hundred thousand without hesitation.

I had only intended to buy an add-on, but it turned out the add-on was more expensive than the incense holder I originally wanted to buy.
But it didn’t matter.
I seemed to be enjoying the pleasure of spending money more and more.

Perhaps it was because I was used to being poor, and now I suddenly had a large sum of money that I hadn’t earned through hard work.
So I had no psychological burden in spending it.
Considering that I might have to split the inheritance with those Xia family relatives in the future, the more I spent now, the more I could enjoy myself.

“Alright, please wait a moment, young ladies.”
“I’ll pack up the things you bought and then drive them over directly.”
“You two can also catch a ride with me,” the carpenter said and went to pack the wood carving.

“Brother Xiao, I’ll go home with you.”
“That craftsman… I’m not very comfortable with him,” Ou Zhiqin said.
She always felt that a carpenter who knew Vanquishing Sorcery was not very trustworthy.

A tall and burly man going to the home of a lone girl… it was hard to say what might happen.
Although I felt that having Xiao Qing there might not change anything—she was so delicate and soft that even Cao Bao could push her away—I was still very grateful to her.

So our original plan to part ways after buying the incense holder, with me and Xiao Qing going to our respective homes, changed to Xiao Qing accompanying me home.

While waiting outside the shop, I saw the man who had gone into the funeral shop with the heavy yin energy earlier stagger out.

His face was dazed and deathly pale, like a zombie.
The yang energy in his body had dropped to an extreme low.
In my eyes, it was as if two of the three flames in a human body had been extinguished, and the last one was like a candle in the wind, completely unable to stop the yin energy from invading his body.

The man was holding a large handful of money, and his pockets were also stuffed full of it.
But with a single glance, I could see that both the money in his hands and in his pockets was hell money.
He was completely oblivious to it, still clutching the hell money like a treasure.

I couldn’t imagine what terrifying things he had encountered in that funeral shop.
When I looked at the funeral shop again, it had actually closed.

And it wasn’t a normal closing for the day.
In the blink of an eye, the colorful wreaths and paper flowers at the entrance had disappeared, leaving only a rusty iron door tightly shut.

Its sign seemed to have been scorched, and I couldn’t make out what words were written on it.
The iron door was covered in a thick layer of dust, looking as if it had been abandoned for a long time.
But I had clearly seen it in business just now, and I had almost walked in.

Now I was extremely glad that I had trusted my intuition and not gone in.
Otherwise, the ones who turned into walking corpses might have been me and Xiao Qing.

Just then, I heard the sound of a motorcycle.
The carpenter had driven a three-wheeled motorcycle and stopped at the shop entrance.
The incense holder and Pixiu statue I bought were in the back compartment.

“Get in, young ladies,” the carpenter said, getting out of the vehicle.
Xiao Qing and I sat in the back.
The carpenter closed the shop door, climbed back into the driver’s seat, and asked, “Where do you live, miss?”