Tongcheng has become famous in recent years, not for its economy or its snacks, but for its college entrance examination.
For most high school students across the country, the Tongcheng mock exam paper is comparable to the Huanggang secret exam paper.
Of course, these things originally had no impact on Zhou Ze, as his bookstore had long since gotten rid of its reliance on "living people's business".
The industrial structure upgrade and transformation have been completed, and we are making money from the dead.
However, the fat man who came to find me last time found me again.
The purpose is simple. The next semester is the college entrance examination semester, and the fat man plans to do something big again and do the pirated secret files business.
There must be many twists and turns here, and even an extremely complicated chain of interests. Zhou Ze is not very clear about it. In fact, Zhou Ze believes that Xu Le will not be clear about it either.
The reason why Fatty planned to recruit Xu Le to join his gang last time and this time was entirely because he wanted to take advantage of the interpersonal relationships among some of Xu Le's classmates.
Xu Le is in the middle and is actually a middleman who satisfies both parties.
Stupid,
But it is most reassuring.
Piracy is an unavoidable obstacle in the current domestic social life. Even the so-called "copycat" culture derived from it seems to be booming and in full swing. It has even begun to gradually move away from the category of derogatory terms and develop into a neutral term.
But no matter what, it is illegal after all. Although the current trend has made this phenomenon almost universal, if you are unlucky and get targeted, it will always be a very troublesome thing.
Zhou Ze rejected the fat man, and the fat man left in a sullen mood. Before leaving, the fat man standing at the door lit a cigarette and touched his gold chain that was falling apart.
Cursed:
"Sabi."
Zhou Ze continued to sit behind the counter and read a book. The fat man's visit was nothing more than a small episode in his life during this period.
As usual, after cleaning the bookstore, the female corpse sat on a chair with her eyes closed, leaning against the wall, as if she was in a daze or dozing off.
The lives of the two people were tainted with an atmosphere similar to that of an old lady's foot binding.
Zhou Ze was contented, thinking back to what he had looked forward to most in his previous life, which was to live the way he was living now, wasting time, reading books, and daydreaming.
You don't have to be prepared to face emergency patients at any time, nor do you need to urge yourself to climb up bit by bit all the time.
For the female corpse, she has been lying in the coffin for two hundred years and has long been accustomed to boredom and silence. Now, it is just a drizzle.
Compared to the "calm as water" bookstore, Xu Qinglang is much more high-spirited and motivated. He is wealthy and does not have much pursuit of metaphysics. Instead, he thinks about how to make money and develop with his own abilities.
Therefore, Xu Qinglang was very unhappy with the decadent lifestyle of the master and servant in the neighboring house!
"Look at you, you're as lazy as a dead person every day." As usual, Xu Qinglang came over to smoke a cigarette after a busy day and threw some sarcasm at Zhou Ze.
"I was a dead man anyway." Zhou Ze waved his hand and blew out a smoke ring.
"Look at you, you've lived two lifetimes, but now you don't have much money. I'm a man with more than 20 houses, and I'm still working hard."
As usual, after belittling Zhou Ze, one has to praise oneself.
Zhou Ze glanced at Xu Qinglang and said with a smile: "Are you preparing a dowry for yourself?"
"You can't spit out ivory from a dog's mouth." Xu Qinglang raised his head and looked at the night sky (the roof), "I want to live a more comfortable life when I retire in the future."
"More than twenty houses have attracted ghost ladies to come and carry you back to get married. If you work harder, make more money, and buy more houses, then next time you can try to get a female ghost king who is considered a good match for you. Then I, a ghost messenger, can also benefit from your success.
If you become rich and powerful, don't forget me."
"Hehe." The female corpse who was dozing next to her was very cooperative with her boss.
"It's almost eight o'clock. I have to get ready." Xu Qinglang said after looking at the time.
"What?" Zhou Ze was a little surprised.
Generally speaking, Xu Qinglang goes to bed very early at night.
"Today is the opening day of the Confucian Temple. The college entrance examination is just a few months away. I have a relative in my hometown whose child is taking the college entrance examination this year. He asked me to go to the Confucian Temple to burn incense for him."
"Are you willing to go for this?" Zhou Ze knew Xu Qinglang's personality. It was a bit exaggerated to say that he was indifferent and selfish, but he was just too lazy to care about anything other than making money.
"I ate his family's food and received help from him when I was a child. Otherwise, I don't know if I could live to see the demolition. So I have to repay this favor." Xu Qinglang said seriously.
"Yeah." Zhou Ze nodded.
"How about we go together?" Xu Qinglang suddenly invited, "Help me get the first chance to incense?"
"Is the first incense stick also rare in the Confucian Temple?"
"Hey, it's always a good start, isn't it?"
"I don't have much strength." Zhou Ze had seen how crazy those who wanted to be the first to burn incense were. With his body, he really couldn't bear it, unless he used his fingernails to clear a path, but he couldn't knock down everyone around him, right
"Ask her." Xu Qinglang pointed at the female corpse, "She's as strong as an ox, help me carry it."
The female corpse frowned, ready to retort.
"Do you want to go out for a walk?" Xu Qinglang raised his eyebrows.
The female corpse immediately swallowed the words on her lips and smiled for a moment.
She never left the bookstore these days.
There was no way out, Zhou Ze could only nod and agree. He was worried about the female corpse running away alone. Even though she was now a caring maid, people's hearts were hidden in their stomachs, let alone a zombie without a "heart"
Zhou Ze even believed that if his ability disappeared one day, the first person to eat up his flesh and blood might be this female corpse who was now servile to him.
The three of them took a taxi to the Confucian Temple. It was a bit exaggerated to say that there were huge crowds of people outside the Confucian Temple, but it was also packed with people inside and outside.
Poor parents in the world.
Xu Qinglang met the relative couple he had mentioned outside the Confucian Temple. They were two middle-aged people who looked very honest and loyal.
Of course their son didn't come. Everyone was trying to win a prize, but no one was stupid enough to believe that he could really get into high school. There were basically no students at the scene. They were probably all studying at home.
The Confucian Temple in Tongcheng is "cleaned" after the New Year. As to why it is not held before the New Year, it may be that the masters in the Confucian Temple feel that it is a bit degrading to compete with those monsters and ghosts for incense during the New Year.
It would be better to wait until after the New Year.
I see that there are few people coming and going in front of your door, but I have a large number of believers here, which shows my A-level character.
As for the specific reasons and what the situation is like in other parts of the country, Zhou Ze is not sure. Customs mean inexplicable rules, who can explain them clearly
Just like the incident that has been hotly discussed online recently about a father-in-law kissing his daughter-in-law at a wedding in a city next to Tongcheng, it can also be attributed to the so-called customs, which makes even less sense.
With a squeak,
The redwood door was opened.
All of a sudden, the parents waiting outside turned into "ferocious beasts" and rushed into the Confucian Temple.
The female corpse took the lead, followed closely by Xu Qinglang and his couple of relatives, just like Zhao Zilong at Changbanpo.
Zhou Ze didn't join in the fun. He just squatted on the curb outside the door and smoked.
As he was smoking, Zhou Ze unexpectedly found that the cigarette in his hand suddenly went out.
Zhou Ze ordered again, but the next cigarette he smoked suddenly became tasteless.
"Hehe." Zhou Ze threw the cigarette butt down and looked around. He knew that his cigarette was being offered as incense.
Do not eat the fragrance, do not care about the tribute,
Just for this mortal cigarette,
I don’t know what kind of monsters they are.
Zhou Ze naturally didn't have the anger of "Fuck, how dare you steal my cigarettes?" He was a stowaway a month ago, and only became a temporary worker half a month later.
There is no such thing as "everyone is promoted to a higher position" or "this road is opened by me" in his mind.
“Bang!”
A gong sounded.
In this night, it seems so abrupt and so harsh.
Zhou Ze looked over following the sound.
In the flower garden behind the Confucian Temple, a short dwarf old man walked out, holding a gong in his hand and a cigarette in his mouth, and skipped out.
The old man even deliberately glanced at Zhou Ze, opened his mouth and blew out a smoke ring, as if to thank Zhou Ze for the cigarette.
Zhou Ze also laughed.
He lit all the remaining cigarettes in his hand with a lighter and placed them on the ground one by one, leaving only one for himself to smoke.
Soon, the cigarettes on the ground were extinguished, and the dwarf old man danced even more happily, as if he liked this capable young man more and more. His little pockets were bulging, probably full of cigarettes.
The old dwarf led the way with a gong.
Behind him, a group of people slowly followed out.
It's not the parents who just rushed into the Confucian Temple.
But they were a group of people dressed strangely.
The few people in the front, wearing feather fans and silk scarves, staggered and looked dejected, and slowly followed the old man's footsteps as they walked forward.
After them, there were two people with long greasy braids and dull eyes, but they still followed the old man.
Some of the people who came after them started to dress in more and more modern styles, and the last few even wore modern clothes, looking no different from ordinary high school students.
But some of them had green faces, some had broken skulls,
Out of professional habit, Zhou Ze quickly analyzed that the following students either died of taking poison or jumping off the building.
One of them, Zhou Ze, looked familiar. I seemed to have seen his photo when I was reading the news a few years ago. He committed suicide by jumping off a building due to pressure due to poor performance in a mock exam.
The dwarf old man walked forward while beating the gong, and the group of "scholars" behind him followed them like puppets.
They are like a parade.
Go around the Confucian Temple.
The pedestrians nearby,
No one could see them except Zhou Ze.
"Bang!"
A gong sounded.
"You don't need to build a tall building to live in peace, there is a golden house in the books!" the dwarf old man shouted in a hoarse voice.
"Bang!"
Another gong sounded.
"Don't be sad that you don't have a good matchmaker when you marry a wife. You will find a beautiful woman in books!"
The old dwarf continued shouting.
After walking around the Confucian Temple three times,
This strange team slowly disappeared.
After a while,
After burning incense, the parents began to walk out of the Confucian Temple.
They had satisfaction on their faces.
With expectation,
With the earnest hope that his son will become successful.