The new store opens with great joy.
For Zhou Ze, the decoration of the new store, the rent, and any other expenses you can think of were not actually paid for by Zhou Ze.
Xu Qinglang paid half, and the remaining half was the money earned from Bai Yingying's burial objects.
Of course, Xu Qinglang is preparing to "semi-retire" next, and only plans to sell coffee and make snacks in the bookstore and live a healthy life.
When it comes to making money, Zhou Ze can only rely on him.
Fortunately, no one doubts Zhou Ze's ability to make money. The new store is located on South Street, which has a large flow of people and should also have a lot of ghost traffic.
As long as Boss Zhou displays his professionalism of not being afraid of hardship and staying up late and constantly sends these ghosts that come to his doorstep to hell to be reformed and become human again, it shouldn't be a problem for him to make a lot of ghost money.
At that time, everyone can just squat in front of the bookstore, burn paper money and wait for people to drop their wallets. Even the bank transaction fee will be waived.
The overall tone of the bookstore is soft and dark, and the bookshelves inside are not arranged very densely. Newspapers and magazines that are updated more quickly are in a separate row, novels are in one row, and other serious books are in a separate area.
As for supplementary teaching materials and the like, Zhou Ze did not buy any more.
The bookstore has a second floor, which is divided into three rooms and a bathroom, which serves as everyone’s living area.
On the first day of opening, there were no fireworks or flower baskets or salutes; everything seemed simple and peaceful.
The old Taoist priest was very tactful and cleaned the house with Bai Yingying. Zhou Ze sat behind the bar and savored the cocktail that Xu Qinglang had just mixed.
After taking a sip, he put the glass down. The little monkey picked up the glass and secretly took a sip. Then he found it extremely unpalatable and kept sticking out his tongue.
Tang Shi was alone in her bedroom upstairs. She was a homebody and if she had nothing to do, she could stay in her room all day and she wouldn't feel bored.
By the time everything was packed and really ready to welcome guests, it was already after dusk and the sky had darkened.
Bai Yingying held the plaque in one hand and hung up the "Late Night Bookstore" sign. Then she jumped down, clapped her hands, and after making sure that she had placed it properly, she smiled with satisfaction.
Afterwards, she followed her boss' instructions and hung and fixed the two couplet plaques "Just listen to it" and "Thus have I heard" on the left and right ends respectively.
This is the sign brought back from the old store.
Bai Yingying once asked Zhou Ze what "Just listen to it at random" and "Thus have I heard" meant, and Zhou Ze explained that it was simply a story he had heard himself and was telling everyone about it.
It does not represent my personal opinion, just listen to it for fun, don't take it seriously.
Bookstores are still doing business with dead people, and business with living people can only be considered a supplement. After all, there is a "Tongcheng Bookstore" not far from South Street, which is a large bookstore specializing in selling physical books. It is extremely difficult to compete with it, and there is no need at all.
Zhou Ze remembers that when he was a child, "Tongcheng Bookstore" was considered the most influential bookstore in the hearts of Tongcheng people. However, in recent years, with the continuous compression and recession of the physical book market, Tongcheng Bookstore has also reduced its business area, and it looks a lot more shabby than in its heyday.
It can only be said that with the popularity of mobile phones and screen reading, most people have gradually forgotten the habit of reading with the smell of ink and paper.
Everything is done and on track, and the next step is to wait for business to come.
In fact, business is booming. Since the restaurant officially opened at 7pm, several groups of customers have come. They all ordered a cup of coffee or other drinks and sat there to rest and chat. They are all living people.
When a living person came, Zhou Ze simply stopped moving. Instead, Xu Qinglang kept greeting people and preparing drinks, and was very busy.
It was already half past nine after seeing off these groups of guests. Xu Qinglang took a sip of water and looked at Zhou Ze who was rocking in the rocking chair. He suddenly felt very unbalanced!
"Old Zhou, I think we can put up a sign saying 'No living persons allowed', what do you think?"
"Then the Industrial and Commercial Bureau will come to your door the next day." Zhou Ze rejected Xu Qinglang's proposal without hesitation.
"But I feel this is more tiring than running a noodle shop." Xu Qinglang looked resentful.
He previously opened a noodle restaurant, but not many people actually went to the restaurant to eat, and most of the orders were for takeout. Whenever he wanted to take a break, he could simply close the takeout software. But now that customers are coming in, you can't just kick them out, can you
"Look, it's coming."
Zhou Ze looked outside the door.
It seems that it is really due to the location. The real business today is coming very quickly.
An old woman came in, leaning on a cane, with a thin and slightly shriveled figure, and her eyes were wide open, as if she had died with her eyes open.
There was a hint of resentment in the old woman, which meant that she actually still had some obsessions, so she was unable to go to hell or enter reincarnation.
But her resentment is still far from turning her into a fierce ghost, and she still belongs to the category of "harmless" ghost.
"Prepare the food." Zhou Ze said to Xu Qinglang.
Xu Qinglang did not complain about the hard work this time. In fact, it was he who suggested preparing food for those who were about to be sent to hell.
He felt that Zhou Ze's previous action of sending the ghost directly to hell was too simple and crude, without any foreplay, too dry and lacking in service quality.
Therefore, he suggested preparing some food before sending people to hell, as a farewell gift, and people would even leave some paper money for the dead.
It's just like a movie theater, in addition to the main source of income from movie tickets, there is also a lot of income from selling Coke and popcorn.
The dishes were also simple, a plate of dried radish, a plate of peanuts, a bowl of rice with chopsticks stuck upside down, and a cup of old rice wine.
Everything is ready-made, so you just need to put it on a plate, it’s not a hassle.
The Taoist priest placed the small table, prepared the small stools, and pulled up the curtain to block the view from outside. Otherwise, other customers who came in would probably be frightened if they saw this scene.
This can also be considered a small private room, a small private room specially prepared for ghosts.
Zhou Ze came over with the teacup in his hand and said to the old woman, "Please."
The old woman was a little hesitant, and it could be seen that she was a little scared, but she was more afraid of Zhou Ze, so she could only sit down tremblingly.
Xu Qinglang handed a bottle of cow's tears mixed with talisman water to the old Taoist. The old Taoist put it on his eyes and saw the old lady.
Honestly speaking, the old Taoist hasn't encountered this kind of thing of opening the door to welcome ghosts since he left the underworld shop. For a moment, he felt a little sad and couldn't help but think of his boss who was still in Chengdu.
But it will be soon.
Lao Dao has sent a notification to his fans in his live broadcast room, where he has not broadcast live for several months, that he will resume live broadcasting in the early morning of April 1, which is approximately after 00:20 on March 31.
That day was the day the boss said he would come back.
Bai Yingying also came over with a small stool. The old woman was a little shy. There was a zombie, a ghost messenger, a mysterious cultivator, and an old Taoist priest whose crotch seemed to be steaming.
The old woman means Alexander.
Surrounded by this pack of wolves, her little bit of resentment was really insignificant.
"Eat, so you can get going."
Zhou Ze urged.
The old woman smiled, lowered her head and started eating.
Just like tigers are scary, but when facing the keepers in the zoo, the tigers are like kittens.
If the old woman went out and accidentally caught someone's eye, that person would probably be frightened sick or faint, but at this moment, she could only eat obediently.
"Auntie, how did you die?" the old Taoist asked at this time.
The Taoist priest is an active person. Even though he is old, the older he gets, the more talkative he becomes.
He would chat with the little monkey, telling him how he had conquered a big monkey and suppressed it under the Five Finger Mountain 500 years ago.
The monkeys also showed their support. As long as the Taoist priest bought some snacks, the monkeys would sit there and listen to him for an entire afternoon, waving their hands from time to time:
"What a roar!"
"Three touches and tearings."
The old Taoist was confused. He knew that the old woman was speaking in dialect, so he looked at Zhou Ze.
"He died of illness." Zhou Ze translated.
The Tongcheng dialect is very different from Mandarin.
"Auntie, this won't work. Even if you become a ghost, you can't forget to study. You have to learn Mandarin well, otherwise you will end up in hell.
Think about it, there are so many people on Huangquan Road, it would be hard to find someone who can speak Tongcheng dialect. How boring it would be if there is no one to chat with on the road. "
The old Taoist reminded kindly.
The aunt was a little embarrassed and could only lower her head to eat.
"Do you have children?" the old Taoist asked again.
"Yu Guo, oh."
The old Taoist looked at Zhou Ze again, meaning, "You should translate quickly."
"I have a daughter." Xu Qinglang translated.
"Then your daughter must have burned a lot of paper money for you, right?" The old Taoist rubbed his hands.
The old woman was stunned for a moment when she heard this, then smiled bitterly and said, "The family conditions are not good." (Translated by Xu Qinglang)
"Your family is not well off?" The old Taoist was not discouraged and continued, "It's okay. Paper money is not expensive anyway. As long as your child has you in his heart, he can have more paper money."
"I'm lying in bed, with no money for treatment." (Translated by Xu Qinglang) The old woman said, put down her chopsticks and wiped her tears.
"How pitiful." The old Taoist also wiped his tears.
Bai Yingying also pouted, feeling a little uncomfortable.
"My daughter asked me on the hospital bed whether I wanted to continue the treatment. I was lying in bed, unable to speak or move. She cried and told me to blink if I didn't want to continue the treatment. If I didn't blink, she would continue the treatment even if she had to sell everything she had."
"This girl is not bad." The old Taoist said, "What did you do?"
"I blinked, then went home from the hospital, and then died." The old woman continued to wipe her tears.
"It's not easy either. You are also considering your children. That's really great. It's not easy either. Your children also need to live." The old Taoist joined in the sadness.
In fact, there are many such things in reality, especially when facing some terminal illnesses, which means constantly throwing money at it, and many families cannot afford this way of spending money on treatment.
"Auntie, you are great." Bai Yingying.
"I'll pour you another glass of wine." Xu Qinglang.
At the same time, Zhou Ze felt a little amused and helpless as he saw everyone around him with tears in their eyes.
He pointed at the old woman's eyes, which had been wide open since she entered the room, and asked:
"How did you blink?"
The old woman heard this,
Don't cry anymore,
He immediately said viciously:
“She asked me,
Mom, let me ask you, if you don’t want to continue the treatment, just blink. If you don’t blink, you must continue the treatment even if you have to sell everything you have.
Then,
Waited five minutes.
I just can't help it.
Blinked.
She immediately began to wipe her tears and said:
good,
mom,
I know what you mean.
We won’t treat it anymore.”