Mao Jinxia and Xu Jingsi—one older but sharp-minded with decades of sales experience, the other young but already seeking stability in Fengdu, well-versed in modern living-world goods. Individually, each had shortcomings. But together? They complemented each other perfectly.
Song Miaozhu decided to put them on probation together, letting them learn from one another. Even if Mao Jinxia was hoping to reincarnate now that spiritual energy was returning to the world, it would still take a long time for her to earn enough merit to do so. And that merit could only be accumulated through diligent work—right here, in this shop.
On the bright side, Xu Jingsi could learn from Mao Jinxia's experience in sales and management. If the shop expanded in the future, she might take on greater responsibilities.
Having made her decision, Song Miaozhu posted a notice of employment at Anshou Hall the moment she returned, pinning it to the shop door along with both of their résumés.
Word spread through the queue of ghostly customers outside the store like wildfire.
Excited murmurs broke out among the crowd—especially from a few ghosts who happened to share names with the chosen applicants. For a moment, no one cared about shopping. After all, the store restocked every day. What was missed today could be bought tomorrow. The crowd parted to make way, eager to see who had landed the coveted positions at Anshou Hall.
Soon, the real Mao Jinxia and Xu Jingsi squeezed their way to the front of the crowd.
Mao Jinxia: A perm-haired, sunglasses-wearing granny in a floral dress and leather shoes.
Xu Jingsi: A bob-cut young woman in a high-waisted hanfu, clutching a round silk fan.
Their outfits were Fengdu-fashionable—brightly colored but clearly ungraded paper crafts.
After a glance at each other, both bowed. "Boss."
Song Miaozhu nodded. "Your probationary period will last one month. You'll work six hours per day and earn 600 hell coins per month. If there are no issues, come inside. For today, you'll shadow me and observe. Starting tomorrow, the shop's all yours."
"No problem!" both women responded immediately.
They were long-time job seekers, and this opportunity was a windfall. Most stores in the underworld offered only 500 hell coins a month—trial periods often lasted a year, and monthly pay during that time could be as low as 300. Even those jobs were fiercely competitive. By comparison, Anshou Hall offered generous compensation and relatively light work. It all felt too good to be true.
Song Miaozhu adjusted the shop's occupancy limit to allow more people inside and led the two new hires behind the counter into the merchandise area. It was already a cramped space, with shelves and goods packed to the brim. Even though there was only a small patch of room left near the door for customers, having three people behind the counter felt claustrophobic.
But neither Mao Jinxia nor Xu Jingsi seemed to mind. Crowding was an everyday reality in Fengdu City. Ghosts were immaterial, after all—blending into each other came naturally.
Both stood quietly by and watched as Song Miaozhu served customers.
Whenever a customer requested an item far from the counter, Mao Jinxia would float over quickly to retrieve it. Xu Jingsi followed her lead and began helping as well.
Song Miaozhu took note of their initiative with a quiet nod of approval.
What surprised her most was Mao Jinxia. Despite only hearing about the mortal realm from other ghosts over the past decade—and never witnessing it firsthand—she was surprisingly familiar with the shop's product lineup. She could locate items with speed and accuracy, rivaling Xu Jingsi's performance.
That level of preparedness didn't come out of nowhere. Clearly, she'd done her homework.
After a while, seeing that both women had a decent grasp of the merchandise, Song Miaozhu called them forward. "Next, I want each of you to try assisting a customer."
The three next ghostly patrons lined up in front of the three employees—one each.
Even when presented with bulk order requests, the two newcomers managed to handle things quite well.
This was where Mao Jinxia's relative lack of knowledge about modern mortal goods became noticeable. But her quick thinking and smooth talk more than made up for it. When asked about items the store didn't carry, she skillfully promoted the shop's custom-order service—and even managed to name a few popular mortal-world goods to entice interest.
Xu Jingsi, on the other hand, had excellent knowledge of mortal items. If a customer had a vague idea but no specific product in mind, she could offer tailored recommendations. However, her tone was purely informative—there was no strong sales push. She would simply lay out what she knew and leave the decision to the customer.
Together, they were efficient. The store's throughput tripled.
What usually took a full hour to sell was now cleared in just over twenty minutes.
When one of the custom-order customers returned to browse product details, Song Miaozhu personally walked them through the process again, with the two newcomers at her side. By the time the last ghost left the store, not even half an hour had passed.
"How are you two feeling about the work so far?" Song Miaozhu asked. "Think you can handle the shop on your own tomorrow?"
"Yes!" both replied without hesitation.
They weren't confident about working solo just yet—but as a team, they were sure they could manage.
Xu Jingsi admired Mao Jinxia's experience and eloquence, feeling reassured that she had someone to ask when uncertain.
Mao Jinxia, for her part, felt secure knowing that Xu Jingsi could fill in the gaps when it came to unfamiliar mortal products.
"Good. For the next month, you'll be working together. Your shift starts at the beginning of the xū hour (7 PM) and ends at the close of the mǎo hour (5 AM). During this time, you'll learn from each other. If, by the end of the trial, one of you still can't manage the shop alone, neither of you will stay on.
But—if you can both operate the shop independently, I'll give you each a 100 hell coins bonus, in addition to your regular pay, and hire you full-time."
Both women looked at each other and nodded. The shop required two employees anyway, so they weren't in competition. Their cooperation now became genuine mutual support.
"All right, you're free to go. Report on time tomorrow. I've granted you both temporary shop assistant access," Song Miaozhu said.
Before leaving, Mao Jinxia turned and asked, "Boss, is there any way I could get a copy of the custom-order product list to study?"
"Sure," Song Miaozhu replied. "I'll give you a printed copy tomorrow."
After they left, she tallied the day's earnings and converted all of it into ghost lifespan—a total of 328,841 hours.
She wasn't even dead yet, and already had more than seventy-five years' worth of ghost lifespan banked.
Currently, this was the only convenient way to store such large amounts of underworld currency and carry it with her. Of course, when it came time to spend it, she would need to transfer that lifespan into coin molds to make use of it.
To prepare for that, she pulled out three empty third-grade ingot molds and three empty second-grade ones, placing them in a cloth pouch. If she didn't end up using them, they could still be sold later.
With that done, she lit a white candle and stepped out of Anshou Hall, cloth pouch in hand.
Since today's work ended early, she decided to make a trip to the Underworld Commerce Division at Fengdu's magistrate office to learn how to upgrade and expand her shop.
The store was far too small, and the limited display space couldn't keep up with growing demand. Once business hours extended in the future, her inventory would need to scale up too.