DNDAS

Chapter 35: Progressiveness

Pada pada.

Water dripped onto the floorboards, producing faint sounds. Fu Li's arrival hadn't attracted the attention of his colleague, Old Luo. Old Luo stretched out a frozen-stiff hand and started knocking on the door thrice, over and over again.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Even the way it sounded was stiff. There was no noticeable difference in the intervals between his knocks.

Fu Li walked over to the door and told Old Luo, "You're blocking my way."

Old Luo's movements halted. He slowly turned his head and looked at Fu Li, muttering repeatedly, "Accept one's payment, do one's bidding. Accept one's payment, do one's bidding..." As he muttered, he made a grab for the edge of Fu Li's top.

Fu Li leaned his upper body to the side and avoided the hand Old Luo extended.

"Little Fu, why were you gone for so long?" Zhang Shan opened the door. Seeing that Old Luo was also present, he joked, "Old Luo, where did you go tonight to let loose? You're wet all over?"

Hearing Zhang Shan's voice, Old Luo turned and glanced towards Zhang Shan. A smile appeared on his face. "I specially came to find you."

"What for..." Zhang Shan hadn't even completed his statement when he was pushed by Fu Li into the room. Without any preparation, he nearly took a tumble.

Clang!

He looked up and saw Fu Li squeeze into the room before firmly pulling the door shut. Old Luo's hand was wedged in the door crack, causing him to let out a pained yell. This scene frightened Zhang Shan till he momentarily lost the ability to speak. Only a long while later did he ask, "Little Fu, are y-you possessed?"

He just finished uttering these words when he saw Old Luo's hand drop!

"Hand, hand, hand!" Zhang Shan pointed at the arm that had dropped onto the ground, his voice sharp and hoarse. "His hand dropped off ahhh!"

"Brother, don't get too excited," The green-haired yao patted Zhang Shan on the shoulder and tapped him on the forehead. "You're dreaming."

"Dreaming?" Zhang Shan walked to the restchair in a daze, seated himself, and then slumped over, falling asleep.

"A person's mind is hard to fathom," The green-haired yao watched Fu Li stamp down on the broken hand with one leg. The hand instantly vanished in a puff of smoke. Shaking his head, he sighed with emotion, "I didn't expect the person outside to actually have chosen this brother as a death-substitute. But this brother has quite a lot of guts, he even dared to pick up a red packet containing a death-substitute talisman."

"He didn't pick it up," Fu Li stamped his foot. "I picked up the red packet."

The green haired-yao, "..."

Their yao race really had it hard – they couldn't even bear to waste that bit of money.

"Then what should we do now?" The green-haired yao didn't understand. "Why did that vengeful ghost outside insist that it was this brother who picked up the red packet? Did he already choose this brother as his death-substitute while he was still alive?"

"It's possible his birthday happened to be suitable," Fu Li recalled the location at which he had picked up the red packet that day. Zhang Shan would definitely pass by that area during his patrol. Perhaps at moments unknown to Zhang Shan, Old Luo had also thrown similar red packets at places he would definitely pass by.

Knowing that one might die, and thus finding someone else to die in place of oneself – did this stem from the humans' innate fear of death? Zhang Shan's life expectancy was considered long among humans. Making someone like him a death-substitute would require one to pay a debt, did these humans not understand this concept?