RI Chapter 1

“The weather is dry, be careful of fire hazards.” The night watchman’s clapper sounded, and the residents of Hejiang Alley hurriedly closed their doors and windows.

Immediately afterward, a hotel deep in the alley opened its doors.

A young man, dressed in a tattered long blue robe, yawned and slowly lit and hung the white lantern at the door. A strange, cold wind blew past, and the plain white lantern turned into a red one. The deep, quiet alley revealed a strange and eerie atmosphere.

“Sigh, a customer so early today.” The young man glanced at the alley entrance and turned to go inside.

The inn wasn’t large, about two storefronts wide, with two floors and a courtyard in the back. Upon entering, there was a long table covered with bottles and jars, with an accounting counter behind it, and three empty tables on the left.

As soon as the young man sat down, that strange wind blew again, extinguishing the candles in several households in the alley, who huddled inside, afraid to go out.

There was a plate of peanuts on the inn’s counter. The young man reached out, picked one up, and put it in his mouth. Before he could swallow, a woman with long hair covering her face and wearing a white robe floated in.

“Hey, hey, don’t you know to knock before entering?” The young man said to the woman with a slightly annoyed tone.

“Hehe.” The woman’s laughter was a bit eerie. Hearing the young man’s words, she actually backed out and knocked on the door.

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“Step back,” the young man said with slight urgency.

After floating in, the woman gave the young man a Wanfu greeting like a young lady from a wealthy family, and said in a high-pitched voice, “Innkeeper Lei, I want to ask you for medicine.”

The man’s voice was already creepy, and speaking in a falsetto made it even more unpleasant.

The young man suppressed his discomfort and said, “Speak, what do you want?”

The man suddenly walked closer, reached out with his withered, plump fingers, and brushed back his hair, revealing a rotten face with indistinguishable features.

The young man immediately felt like he was going to throw up what he had eaten yesterday. He suppressed his nausea and asked, “Hurry up and say it, what medicine?”

The man seemed a little embarrassed, and a hint of hideousness flashed across his rotten face. He said in a pinched voice, “I want a Snow Beauty Pill.”

The young man nodded and pointed to the table on the left, saying, “Go wait over there, I’ll go get it for you.”

The man seemed very happy, gave a shy smile, which made his face even more hideous, and floated to the side.

The young man found a white porcelain bottle on the long table in front of him, with the words “Snow Beauty Pill” written on it. He handed the porcelain bottle to the woman.

“One Snow Beauty Pill, I’ll give you one Blood Pearl.”

The woman took it with both hands, looked at him gratefully, turned around, took a Blood Pearl out of her mouth, placed it on the long table, and left.

The young man’s name was Lei Yun. He was an orphan from a young age, and was adopted by the old innkeeper of this inn ten years ago. Before the old innkeeper died, he inherited the inn.

The inn was called Changsheng Inn (Immortality Inn). The location was good, and in theory, such a good place and such a fortune, the old innkeeper shouldn’t have guarded it alone, and there should have been people coveting this family property, but there weren’t any. No one in the entire Hejiang Alley dared, and even no one in the entire Changnan City dared.

Have you ever seen an inn located in a remote alley? Who opens the door at night and closes it in the evening? The entire Hejiang Alley is very gloomy in the middle of the night. Even the night watchmen usually don’t want to stay here, so as not to bump into something dirty.

Lei Yun sighed and leaned listlessly on the counter, idly playing with the Blood Pearl in one hand.

Ten years ago, he survived a car accident and transmigrated to this place, becoming a beggar. The three months he spent in a ruined temple fighting for food with a group of beggars were the most difficult days of his life.

Other transmigrators become princes or emperors, or at least young masters from wealthy families, martial arts heirs, or something like that, but he became a beggar.

It was snowing heavily, and he was still begging at the city gate with a broken bowl, praying that a kind-hearted person would pass by and give him a few coins to buy a tattered cotton coat to get through this cold winter, otherwise he would become the most tragic transmigrator in history, not living a magnificent life, but freezing to death and starving to death.

At first, he had fantasized about a life of great achievements in ancient times, but after looking at his thin body, he gave up. If an old beggar in the ruined temple hadn’t been kind enough to see that he was small and share a piece of cake with him, he estimated that he would have died today.

Lei Yun huddled in the corner, countless figures passing by in front of him, until an old man with a cane stopped in front of him.

He quickly performed the skills he had learned from other beggars these past few days, shouting: “Grandpa, grandpa, please be kind and give a small one a few copper coins, it’s too cold, good people will be rewarded, please give me some.”

The old man in front of him stood motionless, his sharp eyes staring loosely at him. Lei Yun couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart. He didn’t perform it wrong, did he? Everyone else begged like this, what does this person want?

The old man stared at him for a long time, making him feel uneasy. He couldn’t help but say: “Old man, if you’re not going to give me anything, go aside, don’t block me from begging.”

Pedestrians on the street passed by and threw two coins into the bowl of a beggar on the side, making Lei Yun even more envious. Why was this old man still blocking his way?

“Do you want to eat your fill and dress warmly?” The old man’s voice was a little shrill, and a hint of hope rose in his sharp eyes as he looked at him.

Lei Yun couldn’t help but shiver. This old man was strange, but he still said, “Yes.”

After all, he was a transmigrator, it was impossible for him to be so unlucky, maybe he could meet a benefactor or something.

A slight smile appeared on the old man’s withered face, and he said, “If you want to, then come with me.”

Lei Yun thought for a while and caught up with the old man’s footsteps, arriving at this inn.

As soon as the old man closed the door, he told him that after he died, he could inherit this inn, so he unhesitatingly took the old man as his master.

He got to eat his fill and dress warmly as he wished, and even had a sweet dream before going to sleep, fantasizing about the wonderful life of his transmigrated life, until he was awakened in the middle of the night by a strange sound downstairs.

Dong, dong, dong, dong.

Lei Yun’s small body huddled on the stairs, looking through the cracks at the downstairs, tightly covering his mouth.

Where did he go? Was the old man downstairs performing a corpse amalgamation? He was done for, he had to escape quickly.

“Awake? Then come down.” The old man’s shrill voice rang out, especially clear in the quiet room.

He hesitated for a moment, and carefully went downstairs, only to see the corpse under the long table suddenly get up. Lei Yun was so frightened that he fell to the ground.

The old man just smiled slightly when he saw this and said, “This is my newly accepted disciple.”

The corpse, which had originally been facing away from him, turned around, looked at him, and smiled, “Congratulations, Innkeeper Lei.”

The old man said with satisfaction: “Two Blood Pearls.”

The corpse took out two pearls from its mouth and handed them to the old man, floating away.

“Scared?” The old man walked to the counter and put the pearls in a white jade box.

Lei Yun composed himself, looking at the old man in horror. He definitely hadn’t seen it wrong. The long knife under the long table was the best proof at this moment.

The old man had a sparse beard. He stroked it, walked up to Lei Yun, and, without allowing him to refuse, picked him up and sat him on a stool on the side.

“It’s my fault for not telling you what our inn does.”

Lei Yun thought to himself, what can an inn do? It’s nothing more than providing lodging and meals. His body was that of a child, but his mind was that of an adult.

“My name is Lei Jin, and I’m the thirteenth-generation owner of this inn.” The old man paused and looked at Lei Yun, continuing, “Although the inn is located in the realm of the living, it does business with the dead.”

Lei Yun felt a chill down his back. The dead, that’s just dead people, isn’t it?

“Before people die, they always have many regrets. The inn’s founder signed an agreement with the King of the Underworld to help the dead fulfill their wishes in the human world. The reward paid by the dead is split equally with the Hall of the King of the Underworld. I’m not young anymore, so I looked for you to inherit my position.”

Lei Yun clenched his teeth, afraid of shivering, and looked at the old man.

The old man smiled slightly and said, “Don’t be afraid, these dead people all have something they want from us, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Just now, that person, no, dead person, what was going on?” Lei Yun certainly hadn’t seen it wrong, the old man was holding a long knife and hacking at the person’s body.

The old man grinned – and said, “That dead person was shot through the heart with ten thousand arrows before death. After death, there was a poisonous arrow that hadn’t been pulled out of the body, and even the ghost’s soul had that thing. So, he asked you to pull it out for him. I’m old and don’t have the strength, so I used a knife to split it open and take it out.”

Ignoring Lei Yun’s expression, the old man said with some pride, “I’ve earned a lot of pearls this month.”

“What are pearls used for?” Lei Yun asked the old man curiously.

The old man looked at him, smiled mysteriously, and said, “Naturally, it’s for prolonging life.”

“Then, why do I look like I’m about to die?”

The old man’s expression was slightly vicissitudes, and he looked at him strangely, saying, “Because, my successor has appeared.”

In the days that followed, Lei Yun followed the old man to learn the inn’s affairs. Three years passed in a flash, and the old man began to leave the world on that summer night.

Since the old man left, Lei Yun guarded the inn alone, and his original grand ambitions gradually disappeared in this inn.

Before the old man died, he told him that he had been dead for seven hundred years, and had seen his relatives live and die. It wasn’t until that day that the founder’s soul tablet lit up that he knew his successor had appeared.

“Sometimes longevity is very painful, A’Yun, you will understand in the future.”

The last sentence the old man said before he died was forever engraved in Lei Yun’s heart.

At first, he was very happy that he had the ability to live forever. He stayed in the store, listening to every dead person tell their story. The longer the time passed, the more lonely he became.

Years passed, dynasties changed, and emperors came and went, but he was always there. In Hejiang Alley, one household after another changed, but the Changsheng Inn was always there.

In the blink of an eye, a thousand years had passed. The once great Song Dynasty had become Hua Country, and his Changsheng Inn was no longer mysterious and eerie in the neon-lit night.

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