"After leaving Huaihua Alley, Song Miaozhu was still puzzling over what had just happened.
"Is handmade funeral paper in vogue again?" she wondered. Even the owner of the escape room next door had come to buy her gold paper ingots.
"Wait... is he seriously planning to use them to honor his ancestors? Or is he going to set them up in that creepy escape room of his as props?" she muttered to herself.
Either way, it didn't matter to her. Those low-quality paper ingots were just practice scraps, by-products of her idle work.
After grabbing dinner at Aunt Chen, Song Miaozhu returned to the room where she stored the résumés and began sorting through them. She didn't get to bed until eleven, when the ghost shop officially closed.
Four hours later…
[Wealth Vault Deposit: ¥657,682]
The moment the payment notification chimed, Song Miaozhu opened her shopping app and placed orders for all the high-value items she'd added to her cart earlier. These were pre-paid purchases from her clients—the sooner she bought them, the sooner they'd arrive.
Once the shopping was done and the kittens fed, she collapsed back into sleep.
The next morning, she moved another batch of resumes into the ghost shop, packing the space to the brim. Then, she headed to Anshou Hall Paper Shop.
Though the custom wooden signboard wouldn't arrive for another month, leaving the shopfront as shabby as ever, the interior was fully stocked.
Today, she was officially open for business.
She didn't announce it to anyone. No publicity. No fanfare.
Just her, arriving early with her kittens to mind the store.
She ordered takeout for lunch and stayed until dusk, when she finally closed up shop and left.
On her first day of business, she didn't sell a single thing—not even a bottle of water. But during the idle hours, she did compile the product catalog and pricing sheet for the intention orders she'd received the night before, printing out neat copies. She also began filtering through the mountain of résumés.
At first glance, the résumés looked endless. But more than half of them didn't meet even the basic requirements: deceased for less than ten years, and with a decent understanding of new trends and goods from the living world.
Earthside technology evolved at lightning speed—plenty of living people couldn't keep up, let alone the dead.
Only ghosts who had died relatively young and not too long ago were likely to meet both criteria.
Even among those, a large portion had low virtue scores and short underworld lifespans—exactly the ones desperate for work to earn more hell coin, also known as ghost lifespan.
But a low virtue score meant questionable character, and that was a dealbreaker for Song Miaozhu.
After all, during a ghost's judgment, having "no wrongdoing" already earned merit. If one had a decent temperament—even if they weren't a saint—they could rack up a respectable virtue score.
Unfortunately, ghosts who had died recently tended to live comfortably off their initial underworld grants, yearly stipends from the Fengdu authorities, and the offerings sent by their still-living families. Very few were in a rush to find a job.
Back home, after closing the shop, Song Miaozhu kept reading.
By 10 p.m., after rigorous elimination, she hadn't found a single candidate who fully met her requirements. In the end, she could only choose the best of the mediocre—two resumes, reluctantly kept.
Candidate #1: Xu Jingsi
Death: 3 years ago (age 18, suicide by jumping).
Record: Punished in hell for the sin of suicide; otherwise clean. Occasionally helped elderly cross streets—moderate virtue merits.
Background: Her parents divorced after her death, remarried, and started new families. They rarely mourned her now.
Mindset: Even post-punishment, she had no desire to "live" again. The memory of hell terrified her—she'd rather stay dead forever than risk reincarnation.
Motivation: "Need income to stay in Fengdu permanently. Lifespan won't last forever."
Pros:
✔ No intention to reincarnate → stable long-term employee.
✔ Died young → familiar with modern living-world goods.
Cons:
✖ Zero sales experience.
Candidate #2: Mao Jinxia
Death: 10 years ago (age 68).
Background: Former supply depot clerk, department store saleswoman, and clothing boutique owner—a career-driven powerhouse.
Downsides: Neglected family; divorced. Son moved abroad. Died alone, with few mourners.
Afterlife Biz: Donated wealth before death (high virtue merits). Tried replicating her living-world business model in Fengdu—buy low, sell high. Failed spectacularly.
—Why? In the underworld, handmade goods held value. Most shops were run by deceased morticians or craftsmen.
Current Status: Surviving on underworld welfare.
Motivation: "Save up for reincarnation before the spiritual resurgence."
Pros:
✔ Sales veteran.
✔ Learned from failure → understands Fengdu's market now.
Cons:
✖ Older, deceased longer → possibly outdated knowledge.
✖ But—she'd stayed curious in death, spending her scant lifespan to chat with other ghosts about their lives. Adaptable.
Song Miaozhu tapped the resumes.
"Not ideal… but workable."