Chapter Two: "shujin bird"(two)

Inside the Yuanbao Hall's inner chamber, incense wafted through the air, surrounded by stacks of incense, paper money, and various paper-made items. Taoyao was manipulating a newly made paper figure, saying, "Your skills haven't improved much. How could you make such a fat and ugly girl? Aren't you afraid the customer will be dissatisfied and jump out of the coffin to find you?"

"The customer liked plump beauties in life," Ye Fengjun said lovingly, placing a plate of pastries in front of Mohya and the fox, patting their heads affectionately. "Eat more. You both look so thin. Have you ever had a good meal following Taoyao?"

Mohya's eyes were filled with tears, his expression screaming "You understand me" in capital letters.

"Ye Fengjun, stop fabricating other people's lives," Taoyao retorted without looking back. "You make it sound like following you leads to a good life."

She put down the paper figure and turned to Mohya, who had just put the pastries in his mouth, and said, "If I were you, I wouldn't eat food given by such a person."

"But... it's so delicious!" Mohya grabbed one with one hand and fed the other to the fox in his arms. Both of them looked very happy while eating.

Ye Fengjun sat down, happily watching them across the table, and asked, "The little fox is very cute. Why does its tail look like a rabbit's? Does it have a name?"

"Get lost!" Taoyao said.

"Why are you cursing me?" Ye Fengjun shook his head. "You haven't made any progress in temper."

Taoyao rolled her eyes. "Who has time to curse you? I said this fox is called Get Lost."

Ye Fengjun chuckled, "Do you have a grudge against each other?"

"No, no, it's not called Get Lost!" Mohya, with crumbs of pastries all over his mouth, hurriedly denied.

"I've said it, either it or you," Taoyao pointed at Mohya and then at the fox. "Or it can be called Mohya, and you can be called Get Lost. Your choice."

Mohya's face turned red with embarrassment. "Taoyao, you can't always bully people like this! Didn't we agree to compromise? Let's call it Get Lost together!"

Taoyao snorted.

"Roll-roll... It's not much better," Ye Fengjun scratched his nose. "You two have been together for so many years. Even if there's no love, there's still affection, right? It's not warm at all."

Taoyao remained silent, her gaze falling on a black lacquered wooden box in the middle of the shelf. There was no lock on it, only strange patterns painted in gold lacquer.

Except for her and Ye Fengjun, no one could open this box.

Her fingers just lightly brushed the box, and the lid obediently popped open, revealing not gold or silver treasures but a stack of white papers, seven inches long and three inches wide, each with a small red dot in the center, resembling cinnabar marks.

She closed the lid, put it back in place, and said, "Did you call me here just to discuss how I get along with Mohya? It seems like a waste of the paper I gave you."

"Why be so stingy? There's still so much left. It'll be enough for the next few years," Ye Fengjun said nonchalantly.

"You seem to be doing well in business," she said, sitting at the table, neither drinking his tea nor eating the pastries he offered.

"It's okay," Ye Fengjun smiled slightly. "People die like falling leaves, and falling leaves meet again in the Ye season. My name is appropriate, and Yuanbao Hall is also well opened. There's really no worry about business. Look, yesterday, Master Huang from the south of the city bought a whole set of paper offerings from me for ancestral worship. That was a generous move. It was the most expensive supreme set in my Yuanbao Hall, with mansions, carriages, golden boys, and jade maidens..."

"Don't boast too much. When you were down and out, you had no skills other than folding paper. Fortunately, I had the foresight to suggest you open a paper offering shop. The best thing you've done in your life isn't naming yourself or opening this shop; it's meeting me!" Taoyao interrupted him unceremoniously. "And I don't mean you're making money off dead people, I mean the 'paper' business! Remember the last time I gave you a thousand sheets? Now there are less than two hundred left."

Ye Fengjun shrugged. "Business is naturally better."

"Our Roll-roll has patronized your shop before," Taoyao nodded towards the fox.

"Really? No wonder I don't dislike it," he chuckled. "But unfortunately, there are too many monsters coming to me. I can't remember them all."

He paused and changed the subject. "But the quantity you gave me last time was indeed much more than before. You suddenly become so generous?"

"I'm helping you earn more money, and you still complain?" Taoyao retorted.

"I'm thinking for your own good," Ye Fengjun said earnestly. "Everyone knows you're lazy. Despite being known as a 'ghost doctor,' you spend years cocooned in Taodu and rarely venture into the martial world. It takes extraordinary luck for someone to find you for treatment. With so much 'paper' distributed now, there will inevitably be many more monsters coming to find you than before. Aren't you annoyed?"

"Whether they come to me is one thing, whether I go to them is another. You don't need to worry," Taoyao glanced at him. "As long as you handle the tasks I assign you well, I won't give you a hard time. Our agreement will remain valid forever."

Ye Fengjun seemed relieved. "It's said, 'When someone has died, burn paper for them when needed.' But for Miss Taoyao, it's 'When someone hasn't died, burn paper for them when needed.' It's quite a good story to tell."

Taoyao looked up at the sky. "That's a pretty accurate summary."

In the Yuanbao Hall in Shu, the "paper" is considered a lifesaver in the eyes of many monsters. As long as one obtains this paper, writes down their identity and condition, burns it, the contents will be conveyed to Taoyao. Whether she is willing to extend a helping hand depends solely on her mood.

Taoyao and Ye Fengjun are old acquaintances, and they have a gentleman's agreement to keep each other's pasts secret, including Ye Fengjun's true identity.

In short, he is just an ordinary resident of Chengdu now, making a living by managing this small paper offering shop named Yuanbao Hall. He also earns more money and treasures by secretly selling the "lifesaving paper" given to him by Taoyao to the monsters. Life is quite comfortable for him.

However, due to the frequent comings and goings of monsters in Shu, it inevitably attracts the attention of certain "experts." The saying that "there are many monsters in Shu" has spread widely. Therefore, in addition to the flourishing Taoist temples on Qingcheng Mountain, various "experts" from other places have also been coming to Shu without interruption over the years.

For Taoyao, these cultivators are neither enemies nor friends, and she has set a rule for Ye Fengjun: only sell paper, don't meddle in other affairs.

This rule, Ye Fengjun has always followed very well.

But this time, the person who came to her for burning paper happened to be Ye Fengjun.

If it weren't for him, she would have already left Chengdu with Mohya and Roll-roll, heading for Bianjing. It is said that under the emperor's foot, Bianjing is the most lively place with countless wonders and oddities, which is worth a visit.

At this moment, a plate of pastries had almost been finished, and Mohya and Roll-roll were licking their mouths in sync.

"Is it delicious?" Ye Fengjun asked.

"It's delicious," Mohya said, still wanting more. "But I felt a little roughness at the end. What kind of pastry is this?"

"Rough?" Ye Fengjun was taken aback and blurted out, "I added jujube flower honey to this poison. It should taste slightly sweet and not rough."

Mohya was petrified on the spot, mouth agape, pointing at him. "You... you gave us poison to eat?"

"I was just trying it out. They say the Tang Clan in Shu is the best at using poison in the world. I don't believe it." Ye Fengjun was a little annoyed. "This kind of poison I made, when ingested, not only won't cause intestines to rot, but will also make the internal organs clear and the breathing smooth, and then one will ascend to the heavens in a beautiful dream. Isn't that impressive?"

"But I don't want to ascend to the heavens yet. I'm still young, and I still want to beg for alms." Mohya cried in panic. "In ancient times, Shen Nong tasted all the herbs, and now why don't you try the medicine yourself?"

Ye Fengjun waved his hand apologetically. "I don't like sweet things."

"You..." Mohya clutched his stomach, then hurriedly asked the fox, "Roll-roll, how are you feeling?"

Roll-roll rolled its eyes around and let out a satisfied belch.

"It's over..." Mohya choked up. "Amitabha, I didn't expect today to be the day of my demise. I don't know if I can see the Buddha after death. I hope the Buddha will let Roll-roll be reborn as a human in the next life, and not be a confused fox poisoned to death. Wuu wuu wuu."

Taoyao chuckled at his misfortune. "You're just greedy. I told you early on not to eat things from this guy. He's a weirdo who sets fire to people if a business deal doesn't go well. How dare you eat his stuff."

"Taoyao, won't you save me or Roll-roll?" Mohya hugged her leg sadly. "I won't be able to chant sutras for you in the future. If you feel lonely, I'll leave the Buddhist beads for you as a memento."

"Don't! If you're really poisoned to death, he did me a favor." She pushed him away before his nose could start dripping.

"Now is not the time for final words," Ye Fengjun patted Mohya's shoulder, squeezing his eyes at him. "I have the antidote!"

"Ah?" Mohya's sadness turned to joy. "So you didn't intend to poison me?"

"If you didn't buy anything from me and bargain for it, why would I poison you?" Ye Fengjun said earnestly. "I just want you to tell me all your feelings after taking the poison, and then before you die from poisoning, I'll give you the antidote. Don't worry."

Mohya cried with a mournful face. "Can't you give it to me now?"

"I said I was trying the medicine. How can it work if you don't hold on until the last moment? Just consider it helping me if you and Roll-roll die." He grinned.

"Um, Mr. Ye, what we're discussing now is a person's and a fox's life. Can you show a little more serious attitude?" Mohya held Roll-roll and wanted to get angry but was afraid of breaking the precepts. There's no normal person around Taoyao!

Before he could finish his sentence, an unusually loud rumbling sound erupted from Mohya and Roll-roll's stomachs at the same time. Then, Mohya let out a loud fart, jumped up, and ran off with Roll-roll.

Taoyao covered her nose, glaring at Ye Fengjun. "What did you give them to eat?"

"It's a new medicine, inevitably there will be some effects that even I don't understand." Ye Fengjun poured himself a cup of tea with a smile. "You can have some too, the tea is not poisoned."

"Who would believe you." Taoyao impatiently said, "Quickly tell me, what did you do to waste one of my papers?"

Ye Fengjun put away his smile. "Will you help me save a monster?"

"Help you save a monster?" Taoyao raised an eyebrow. "I thought you only did business with the dead and practiced poison and cruelty to animals."

"I love this world very much," Ye Fengjun said seriously, "and I respect every life, including the deceased."

"What kind of monster?"

"The Shujin bird."