Chapter 203 – Yan Yu’s General Store, A Visitor Arrives - Part 2
“Husband, let’s go take a look,” Yan Yu said with a hint of mystery.
Li Yuan didn’t bother asking questions. Hand in hand with his wife and daughter, he stepped through the doorway.
As soon as they stepped through the door, a warm, sunlit atmosphere seemed to blossom all around them.
They found themselves in a spacious, well-lit shop. Large windows let in plenty of light, and there were chairs and a tea table by the window. At the center of the store stood a curved counter and display shelves. Inside one of the glass cabinets were rows of rouge compacts and small black pouches.
A woman in gray hurried in, wearing a warm smile. A wooden tray hung from a strap across her chest. It was empty of rouge, so she bustled to the display, restocked her tray with fresh rouge, and scurried out again, loudly chanting the same lines on loop.
“Take a look, take a look! Finest rouge and powder, fair prices for all! New shop opening, come one, come all!”
At that moment, the back door through which Li Yuan and the others had entered opened again. Feng’er, who had been standing by the window, drifted outside, her long black hair hiding much of her face. She stood before a cabinet, not venturing out like the gray-clad vendor, but simply remaining there like a silent, frozen ghostly statue.
Li Yuan was fascinated by it all. He glanced briefly at the items in the display—rouge compacts and those small black pouches. Seeing a brightly lit shop that sold only two things felt jarring, as though it were strangely understocked.
Standing beside him, Yan Yu explained, “The peddler is still selling rouge. I used human skin to shape it into a woman, but ghosts don’t really have fixed forms anyway. What we saw just now, the room in the back, was basically an inner chamber.”
Li Yuan nodded in understanding. It was akin to an employee break room. He then asked, “What about Feng’er? What does she sell?”
He had wondered this for quite some time, ever since seeing Feng’er sell Bear for a whole one mace. It wasn’t him simply questioning whether Bear was worth that amount. Li Yuan had seen terrible criminals go for only one cash. As ruthless as Bear might be, how could he fetch a hundred times more than someone else?
Yan Yu said, “Husband, you have to remember that not every ghost domain happens to appear in a populated area. Some appear in the middle of nowhere with no people at all, leaving the pitiful ghost there with no way to kill; they can’t find anyone.”