After my grandmother called me home in my dream, my spiritual energy revived

Chapter 27 Fengdu Government Office
Song Miaozhu read "Fengdu New Ghost Notes" from beginning to end, but there was no map of Fengdu City.

Only one chapter specifically lists the streets and alleys of Fengdu City.

It clearly states: "The streets and alleys of Fengdu all start from the government office and end at the city gate. In the middle of each alley is a memorial archway, through which ghosts travel to and from the Yin residence. There are thousands of ghost shops on each side, and every hundred shops have a street entrance, allowing them to connect to the adjacent streets and alleys."

In other words, as long as Song Miaozhu keeps walking towards the starting point of Yinshui Lane, he can reach the government office.

There are only a thousand ghost shops on both sides of each street, with numbers 1 to 1000 on one side and 1001 to 2000 on the other side.

Anshoutang is at No. 414 Yinshui Lane, so if she walks forward and passes 414 ghost shops, she will reach the government office.

After passing by about a dozen ghost shops, Song Miaozhu saw what was written in "Fengdu New Ghost Notes" and headed to the intersection of the adjacent street.

There are signposts at the intersection. Going left leads to Cuiliu Lane, and going right leads to Chunyi Lane.

However, the fork in the street was shrouded in thick gloom and fog, and it was impossible to see what was going on inside.

Although Song Miaozhu was a little curious, she didn't explore further. She only had one hour left to stay in the underworld today, so she had to rush to the government office as soon as possible.

As she hurried on, she paid attention to the numbers on the lintels of the ghost shops on the street to judge how far she had walked.

Although I didn't look closely, I found that these ghost shops were of different sizes.

Some are incredibly large, with storefronts exceeding ten meters, or even having more than one floor.

But such cases are rare. She only saw one along the way.

But Song Miaozhu had never seen another shop as small as hers, Anshoutang, on this street.

She had expected this.

In "The Secret Art of Paper-making", an ancestor mentioned that Fengdu had implemented a ghost shop rank system for a period of time in the past.

The Ghost Shop is divided into four major levels: Heaven, Earth, Darkness and Yellowness, and each level has three grades: upper, middle and lower.

Ghost shops of different grades have different functions and permissions.

However, this grading system was later abolished, and compensation was given to the ghost shops that had spent resources to upgrade during the grading process.

From now on, all the functional permissions of the Ghost Shop can be rented or purchased with ghost money.

Only the Heavenly Grade Ghost Shop had the special function of connecting Yin and Yang. After it was abolished, it could no longer be purchased and used. The ancestors did not agree to compensation and finally preserved it.

In the entire Fengdu, there is only Anshoutang, a heavenly ghost shop left over from the past.

The number of streets and alleys in Fengdu City has been increasing.

Yinshui Lane is one of the streets in Fengdu City that appeared very early and has a relatively long history. It ranks at the forefront among the streets and lanes listed according to the time of their appearance in "Fengdu New Ghost Notes".

Even though each ghost shop may have had more than one owner, the ghost shop that has been permanently expanded by spending ghost coins will not change back.

Over the years, there are naturally many spacious ghost shops in Yinshui Lane.

It's the case with Anshoutang, a ghost shop that has been restored to its original state with each new owner. It now looks very shabby here.

When Song Miaozhu thought of this, she floated even faster.

"Number 5 Yinshui Lane!"

"Number 4 Yinshui Lane!"

……

Seeing that they were almost at the end, Song Miaozhu floated higher and looked forward, but all he saw was a void filled with gloomy energy and gray fog.

When she finally reached No. 1 Yinshui Lane and arrived at the starting point of Yinshui Lane, there was a road in front of her that went deep into nothingness.

There is a sign on the side of the road, pointing to the depths of the gray fog, with the words "This is the way to Fengdu Prefecture Government Office" written on it.

It looked similar to the side roads she had encountered along the way that led to adjacent streets and alleys.

From time to time, ghosts would float forward and then quickly disappear. Song Miaozhu also followed their example and plunged into the thick fog.

After walking in, she found that everything in front of her was gray and she could not see anything.

After taking two or three more steps, the scene suddenly became clear.

A group of towering palaces stands here, solemn and majestic.

It was exactly the same as the picture of Fengdu government office that she saw in "Fengdu New Ghost Notes".

The ghost that had just disappeared in the gray fog appeared again.

And there were many times more ghosts coming here than she had seen in Yinshui Lane before.

If what is written in the notebook is true, and all the streets and alleys in Fengdu start from the government office, then perhaps the ghosts from all the streets and alleys will appear here.

However, they seemed to be used to it, and they all floated into the sky and flew towards the various palaces in the government office.

Each palace in the government office has different functions.

This time, Song Miaozhu was going to the Underworld Merchants' Office, which was the largest hall in the southeast corner of the Fengdu Prefecture Yamen.

She didn't waste any more time and floated towards the Underworld Merchants Division.

When they arrived at the temple gate, it was wide open, but inside it was pitch black, like the mouth of an abyss. The ghost that had floated in before disappeared after entering the door.

The first time is unfamiliar, the second time is familiar, it feels similar to the previous intersection.

Song Miaozhu had discovered long ago that the spatial relationship of Fengdu City was not as orderly as that in the world of the living.

If the streets and alleys that cannot be listed on the pages are all as wide as Yinshui Lane and are all connected to the government office, it would be impossible given the size of the government office palace.

Walking into the fog may mean walking into another space.

She stepped into the palace and indeed did not feel the dimness she saw outside the palace. Instead, she entered a room that looked like an office.

The room was filled with bookshelves on every wall. In front of the bookshelves was a desk, and behind the desk sat a ghost dressed in a ghost messenger's clothes.

He also wore a badge on his chest that read "Xing Peng, No. 1023 of the Underworld Merchants Division."

The numbering is done in Arabic numerals, which have only become widely used in modern times.

"Who are you? What do you want to do?"

Song Miaozhu thought to herself that this tone must belong to an ancient ghost. She floated to the empty chair in front of the table and sat down. "I'm the owner of No. 414 Yinshui Lane. I'm here to inquire about upgrading the ghost shop's functions."

"Shopkeeper, please show me your receipt!" said the ghost.

Song Miaozhu summoned the golden key from her soul.

The ghost picked up an inkless brush on the table, tapped the golden key, drew a golden thread, and led it into a large book on the table that read "Ghost Shop Archives".

The book turned automatically without wind, and stopped at one of the pages. The ghost reached out and grabbed that page, and took out another book.

This time it is "Ghost Shop Files - No. 414 Yinshui Lane".

It wasn't over yet. The book continued to flip through the pages and stopped at the last page. The ghost grabbed it again and pulled out another thin book with less than two pages.

The ghost officer raised an eyebrow: "The shop you just took over?"

"Yeah." Song Miaozhu said.

"Here's one for you." The ghost took a book from the bookshelf behind her and gave it to her:

"This 'Ghost Shop Function Catalog' lists all the functions currently available at Fengdu Ghost Shops, as well as the rental and purchase prices. Sometimes there are limited-time promotions, such as during the recent Qingming Flower Festival, there was an APP test event. You can check to see if you meet the requirements."

The ghost spoke very smoothly. After finishing his routine work, he turned to the files of the store at No. 414 Yinshui Lane during the period of management by the current generation of owners.

(End of this chapter)