Lu Qingjia woke up again in a free-fall manner, and this time it was already morning.
He realized that this dream seemed to be a turn-based battle between humans and ghosts; as long as a winner was determined, regardless of how long the dream lasted, waking up would always be in the morning.
There was no such thing as insufficient sleep in the middle of the night, nor the situation of falling asleep again and entering another dream. Of course, the same applied to the fat guy.
Lu Qingjia glanced at the paper-made phone in his hand, which had now turned to black ash.
However, logging into WeChat with his real phone revealed an additional transfer, though the amount did not match what he received in the dream.
In the dream, he received a transfer of five thousand yuan, but in reality, it was only five hundred.
This was easy to explain; perhaps it was due to the disparity in currency value between the underworld and the living world.
Just like the ghost money he brought in, which amounted to hundreds of billions but turned into less than three hundred in reality. It was evident that in that world, the value of currency varied based on its origin and cost, and whether in the underworld or the living world, it would automatically convert to the purchasing power of that realm.
The five thousand yuan did not turn into a pile of useless ghost money, which suggests it wasn’t burned by someone in the living world for their family. It should have been earned through labor or fraud, and the purchasing power of this money could likely be converted to reflect the normal currency purchasing power ratio between the two realms.
Of course, the fat guy’s money was another matter entirely, as it was directly tied to his life and could not be converted into paper currency in the living world. It was likely useful for purchasing things in the underworld, and perhaps for other purposes as well.
To clarify the specifics, Lu Qingjia felt he needed to drag the fat guy into the dream again tonight.
The fat guy had been quiet for two days and had finally regained some energy. He didn’t know if it was because Lu Qingjia helped him scam back some money, but the guy finally had some flesh on his face again, unlike before when he looked terrifying.
However, while having breakfast, the fat guy quickly shook his head at Lu Qingjia’s suggestion: “Go again? No way, brother, I still have dozens of pounds to regain!”
Lu Qingjia replied, “We have to go. I left too many clues last night. If that family decides to report it, I’m afraid I’ll be handcuffed as soon as I enter. If I don’t wake up tomorrow, you’ll have to take my place.”
The fat guy was almost in tears. To be honest, the ease with which Lu Qingjia had managed to get back the money he was scammed out of over the past two nights made the fat guy feel that things were just that simple with Lu Qingjia.
Since childhood, although Lu Qingjia had a mischievous side and liked to tease them, his cleverness and quick thinking in tough situations often made people rely on him.
The fat guy also understood that it was shameless to leave matters of life and death entirely to Lu Qingjia, and after holding it in for a long time, he finally said like he was going to the execution ground: “Fine, I’ll go!”
“If things go wrong, you wake up immediately. I’ll stay there; this time I won’t be scammed again.”
Lu Qingjia smiled: “Tonight, we’ll split the money fifty-fifty.”
Then he started ordering the fat guy to work, and the fat guy complained that he had a tough battle to fight at night and that Lu Qingjia wouldn’t let him off the hook.
Lu Qingjia said, “Look at your current physique. If you don’t exercise or diet, you’ll lose weight back to normal in just a few days. Where can you find such a good deal?”
“Aren’t you always shouting about wanting to find a partner? If you move around more now, you can get your body in shape, and it’ll be easier for me to arrange things for you.”
The fat guy, hearing this, seemed to be injected with a shot of adrenaline. By the end of the day, he worked harder than the two strong men Lu Qingjia had hired.
That night, Lu Qingjia split the money in half, but considering the differences in sleep time and location, there might be discrepancies in where they ended up.
So, he and the fat guy slept in the same bedroom and he ordered the fat guy, who had the skill to fall asleep instantly, to confirm he was asleep before he could sleep.
After some preparations, they managed to ensure there were no discrepancies in time and location, and the fat guy fell into a dream just a few seconds later than Lu Qingjia.
This time, they found themselves in a bustling night market, somewhat like a specialty shopping street filled with tourists.
The surrounding noise was deafening, with calls from vendors holding loudspeakers trying to attract customers. Among the service staff, he noticed many with pale faces, bright red blush on their cheeks, and slightly stiff movements; they were likely paper figures.
These details added a touch of eerie and sinister to the originally lively and bright night market. The fat guy didn’t dare to look closely at those paper figures, thinking that everyone present was actually a ghost, and he shrank his body, clutching Lu Qingjia’s arm tightly—
“Jiajia, let’s change places. There are too many people here, and you didn’t say you left a lot of flaws last night. What if the ghost officers come looking for you?”
Lu Qingjia replied, “Oh, you don’t need to worry about that.”
“What?”
“First of all, whether the underworld’s sword can cut the souls of the living world, that old lady’s family dared to scam money tied to your life, which is equivalent to murder. If they report it, they’ll probably be the ones who can’t handle the consequences.”
“So, it’s highly likely they won’t make a fuss.”
“Damn it—” The fat guy’s face twisted, looking like he wanted to explode on the spot.
Lu Qingjia patted his shoulder and smiled: “Don’t worry, this game is indeed simple.”
“That family only knows some petty tricks and scams, with no technical content at all. Just play to their greed, and we can turn the tables on them without needing to set a trap.”
“Your previous optimism was right; cheer up, this is a good thing.”
The fat guy looked at him expressionlessly: “So, does that mean you’ve set traps for someone before?”
Lu Qingjia stiffened for a moment, then looked at the fat guy with an increasingly benevolent gaze, making the fat guy shiver.
Then Lu Qingjia really started to stroll around the street. Surprisingly, the goods in the ghost market, in terms of variety and quality, were quite similar to reality.
Lu Qingjia even tried various snacks from the street vendors. He didn’t know if it was due to greater competition in the underworld, but the flavors were generally better than in reality.
The fat guy cautiously avoided the surrounding ghostly citizens and living paper figures, looking at Lu Qingjia with despair: “You’re really shopping?”
Lu Qingjia said, “The prices here are comparable to reality, but the currency exchange rate is ten to one, which means buying here is like making a profit.”
“If you could go back and forth infinitely, you could get rich just by reselling.”
The fat guy quickly shook his head: “I’d rather be a glorious teacher of the people. Although the salary is low, at least no one is trying to scam my life.”
As they spoke, the two entered a department store filled with all kinds of goods, including many second-hand luxury items.
A paper figure salesgirl, with a pale face and lips as red as blood, dressed in a red cheongsam, greeted them.
Lu Qingjia had quite a bit of money on him now. Besides the few hundred from the fat guy and the several thousand he had scammed yesterday, after realizing the quality conversion of ghost money, he had also called someone to send over a good amount of high-quality ghost money.
Calculating, he had several tens of thousands on him.
Ignoring the fat guy, who was trembling and too scared to look at the paper figure salesgirl, Lu Qingjia pointed at the real and paper-made products on the shelf and asked, “Excuse me, how long is the usage time for these two items?”
Lu Qingjia had realized this issue when he saw the paper-made products in the store the previous night, and confirmed it this morning after his paper phone was rendered useless.
In the underworld, there were two forms of products: one was paper-made, and the other was real. These two could not be the same.
The evidence was those two packs of Chinese cigarettes that allowed entry into the dream; regardless of whether in reality or in the dream, they were still cigarettes and had never turned into paper-made forms.
If everything in the underworld could exist in paper-made form and transform into real forms when needed, then the existence of shelves would be unnecessary; wouldn’t all products be paper items to save space?
Moreover, in the store, both paper-made and real products coexisted, but the price difference was vast.
For example, in the second-hand luxury goods section, a Rolex watch looked like it was priced in the tens of thousands for real second-hand goods, while the paper version was only a few dozen.
Since they were commonly sold, it indicated that the products indeed had usage value, just like the short-lived paper phone he had last night.
Thus, the difference between the two types of products was clear.
As expected, the paper figure salesgirl’s answer confirmed Lu Qingjia’s speculation: “The lifespan of local products is comparable to that of the living world, with slight variations based on personal usage habits.”
“Paper-made products have effective usage times at the bottom; sir can choose based on price. The usage time for paper-made products starts counting once the packaging is opened.”
Lu Qingjia nodded, then took out the few pieces of currency related to the fat guy’s life: “What about purchasing with this?”
Upon seeing this currency, the salesgirl’s smile became even more enthusiastic, her blush and the corners of her lips looking as if they were dripping blood, which scared the fat guy to hide behind Lu Qingjia.
The salesgirl’s slightly stiff voice said, “Although soul currency has purchasing power equivalent to ordinary currency, the paper-made products purchased with soul currency can erase limited usage time. Please use it cautiously, sir.”
“I recommend this garden villa for you. Although relatives in the living world will burn the house when they bury you, the usage time is only one year, just enough for you to adapt without being homeless. Properties purchased with soul currency will never expire, significantly reducing your living costs in the underworld, and you can even earn stable income by renting out extra rooms. It’s absolutely worth it.”
So that’s how it is. This money is indeed important, important enough to be capital for a ghost to start anew. No wonder that old lady’s family was so desperate to scam it.
Hearing this, the fat guy quickly tucked the money away: “Damn, it seems this thing is not only important when alive, but also needs to be arranged well when dead. If I had spent it recklessly without knowing at first, I wouldn’t even have a place to cry.”
Having clarified what he wanted to know, Lu Qingjia didn’t disappoint the paper figure salesgirl and bought a second-hand Rolex watch, which cost him a few tens of thousands.
The paper figure salesgirl regretted that they didn’t use soul currency, but this was still a considerable sale, and her service became even more attentive.
After leaving the store, Lu Qingjia directly put the watch on his wrist, a faint smile flashing across his lips as he pulled the fat guy towards a less crowded area.
The fat guy, relieved to leave the crowded ghostly place, suddenly saw a ghost riding a bicycle ahead, with a stack of pink paper falling from it.
The fat guy hurried a few steps forward and saw it was a stack of money, looking thick enough to be around ten thousand. Just as he was about to pick it up, someone jumped out from the side and snatched the money first, grinning: “Brother, let’s split it.”
“This money, let’s share it.”
The fat guy was about to say he didn’t plan to pocket it, but he heard Lu Qingjia say, “Sure, after all, it’s a windfall; sharing it is fair.”
The fat guy glanced at Lu Qingjia. Although he didn’t trust this guy’s integrity, he wasn’t someone who had been greedy for small gains since childhood.
If he were to take advantage of someone, it would only be because he enjoyed seeing the expressions of those who were taken advantage of, like being cut with a knife. So the fat guy quickly realized something was off and fell silent.
The middle-aged man smiled at this, appearing to be in a good mood as if they were all in this together.
Just as they were about to split the money, they saw the bicycle returning along the same path.
The man quickly hid the money in his inner pocket, and the owner of the money, looking anxious, got off the bike and asked the group, “Did you see anyone pick up money?”
The middle-aged man naturally shook his head in denial: “No, my two cousins and I just came out of the night market and are heading home.”
The owner was anxious: “Impossible, I felt it drop right here. At first, I didn’t think much of it, but after walking a bit, I checked my pockets and realized the money was gone. If it wasn’t you, who else could it be?”
“Really not!” The man insisted: “You can’t just accuse someone without evidence, can you? I could say you’re trying to scam us.”
The owner said, “There’s not a single person around here. I’ll call the ghost officers to ask. In just a few minutes, someone must have seen something.”
The middle-aged man’s expression changed for a moment, as if he was afraid of the police or trouble, and he pretended to be calm: “Alright, alright, I’m scared of you. You first tell me how much money you lost and what it looked like. We can open our bags for you to check.”
After the owner described the amount, the man opened his bag, revealing two stacks of money. He showed it to the owner: “I just withdrew this from the bank, and the serial numbers are still consecutive. Here’s the withdrawal slip.”
After showing his own, he called Lu Qingjia and the fat guy: “Come on, you two, open your bags for him to see.”
Lu Qingjia, eager to prove his innocence and wanting to quickly send the owner away, took out all the remaining money from him and the fat guy: “Look, we have less than four thousand combined, far from what you said, and it’s all loose change.”
The middle-aged man chimed in, taking the money from Lu Qingjia’s hand and showing it to the owner: “See, this is all the cash we have, none of it is yours, right?”
The owner scrutinized them closely, cursed his bad luck, and reluctantly rode away.
The middle-aged man then casually stuffed Lu Qingjia’s money into his own two thousand, not giving the two any chance to suspect or be vigilant, and handed the bag containing the money to Lu Qingjia: “Brother, that guy probably hasn’t gone far. You hold onto this for now, and we’ll split it when we get to a safe place.”
Lu Qingjia smiled in agreement, and the fat guy sighed in relief as the money returned to them.
Seeing Lu Qingjia put the black leather bag containing the money into the suitcase he had brought, he walked a bit further, confirming there was no one around before opening the suitcase to take out the leather bag, preparing to take out his money and return the two thousand to the middle-aged man.
Then they would split the money they had found that the middle-aged man had hidden.
However, before he could open the leather bag, they heard the sound of a bicycle bell, mixed with the owner’s voice searching for them.
The middle-aged man snatched the leather bag and said to Lu Qingjia and the fat guy: “Not good, he probably heard something from a witness.”
Saying this, he took advantage of the shadows to hide the hidden ten thousand into the black leather bag and handed it to Lu Qingjia: “You hold onto this for now, and we’ll see how it goes.”
The fat guy was more nervous than a thief due to the sudden situation, and in the blink of an eye, the owner was back in front of them.
Seeing the three of them, the owner, furious, rushed forward and grabbed the middle-aged man by the collar: “You bastard, someone just told me it was you who picked up the money.”
“Where is it hidden? Speak!”
“Didn’t we just check your bags?” the middle-aged man replied.
The owner sneered: “You only showed me your bags; you haven’t searched your bodies. Hiding a few tens of thousands on you isn’t a problem, right? I didn’t have evidence before, but now I want to search you. Otherwise, you know what the ghost officers will do.”
The middle-aged man also appeared furious: “You’re being unreasonable, aren’t you? Don’t you see how quiet it is around here? There are three of us big men, and how many of you?”
There were three big men on their side, and upon hearing this, the owner indeed showed some hesitation.
Then the middle-aged man changed his tone: “But we’re all law-abiding citizens, not thugs. Since you say the money is ours, we should clear our names.”
“How about this? I’ll go with you to find the ghost officers and assist in the investigation. My two cousins won’t come along.”
After hesitating for a moment, the owner agreed: “Fine.”
With this agreement, the middle-aged man pulled Lu Qingjia and the fat guy aside and said: “Brothers, you saw it too. This guy is being persistent. We can’t take the money with us to meet the ghost officers.”
“You should take the money away first. We’ll meet at the self-service bank near the entrance of the night market later and split it then.”
“But all the money is with you, and I just withdrew two thousand. We’re just strangers meeting by chance; saying we trust each other is a bit hollow.”
“You need to leave something of equivalent value with me to reassure me.”
As he spoke, his eyes glanced at the Rolex on Lu Qingjia’s wrist.
Lu Qingjia smiled faintly: “This watch is worth more than all the money we have combined.”
The middle-aged man chuckled: “This thing can only be sold for that much in a legitimate store. Selling it privately would be lucky to get half that price; I wouldn’t bother.”
Lu Qingjia nodded: “That’s true.”
He quickly took off the watch, avoiding the owner’s line of sight, and handed it to the middle-aged man. The man took the watch and immediately stuffed it into his pocket, taking less than two seconds.
Then the middle-aged man left with the owner, and once the two figures disappeared, Lu Qingjia and the fat guy finally left their spot.
The fat guy wiped his cold sweat: “Damn, that was nerve-wracking. This is why you shouldn’t be greedy for small gains. If I hadn’t been so greedy at the start, it wouldn’t have felt like a roller coaster ride.”
He continued: “I say, when we meet that guy later, we should advise him not to take this money, right?”
Lu Qingjia looked at the fat guy with a caring gaze, then took out the black leather bag containing all the money that the middle-aged man had given him and tossed it aside without even looking.
The fat guy lunged forward to catch it: “Dad, there’s my soul currency in there!”
Saying this, he quickly opened the bag, only to find it stuffed with rough pink counterfeit bills.
