That night, Song Miaozhu stayed up late labeling each item in her ghost shop with its name, use, and price. She printed the labels and affixed them neatly to the shelves.
To make browsing easier, she added large category signs for each section: Candy, Spicy Snacks, Chips, Beverages, Alcohol…—everything clearly organized at a glance.
Once that was done, she walked to the front of the store—the original, compact section where it all began. Outside, a long line of ghost customers still waited patiently. After the current batch of customers was helped by the two staff members, Song Miaozhu paused the flow at the entrance.
"Everyone, please hold on a moment. Give me just three minutes to reorganize the store layout. After that, you can come in to browse freely. Once you've noted the item name and number, please proceed to the counter to pay and pick up your goods. The browsing area can hold up to 500 customers at a time. The checkout area can accommodate six customers in line."
With that, she activated a spatial shift and moved the original store front—all of it—to the very back of the shop. The entrance now opened into rows of Yin-Wood shelves lined with various goods.
She then placed all existing shelves, products, and empty spirit ingots into the shop's warehouse space, while today's nether coins were transferred into the money vault. The checkout counter remained in the outermost section—it would now serve as the permanent payment zone.
Next, Song Miaozhu embedded the entrance points for the [Ghost Shop Money Vault] and [Ghost Shop Warehouse] directly into the counter. Two clear labels, "Vault" and "Warehouse," were etched into its surface.
She called over Mao Jinxia and Xu Jingsi and instructed them, "When a ghost customer names the product they want, just touch the 'Warehouse' label and focus. You'll be able to see inside and retrieve the needed goods instantly.
Likewise, when receiving hell coins, you can touch 'Vault' to deposit the funds. The same goes for giving change—you'll find it all there.
Both the vault and warehouse are linked to me. I can sense them no matter where I am.
Here's a product catalog. You can use it to look up item numbers and match them to their corresponding products…"
Once Mao Jinxia and Xu Jingsi fully understood, Song Miaozhu opened the doors. In an instant, ghostly figures flooded in, swarming between the shelves, murmuring excitedly as they browsed.
Many ghosts from ancient times, who had only planned to buy cigarettes, wine, or candy, found themselves captivated by the sheer variety of modern goods—and ended up spending far more than they intended.
Mao Jinxia and Xu Jingsi, now operating faster than ever, no longer had to rummage through shelves or count coins manually. A single thought while touching the warehouse entry point, and the desired item would appear in hand. When coins were received, they simply checked the amount, then transferred them into the vault.
Lower-grade ingot money was stored in large Yin-Wood boxes. Certified-grade hell coins were stacked out front for easy access. Though the staff couldn't enter the vault or warehouse directly, storing and retrieving items was now seamless.
Song Miaozhu had also placed her Heavenly Bank treasure bowl inside the vault—after all, it counted as a monetary item. From now on, whenever she needed to convert hell coins into yuan, she could simply process the exchange within the vault.
Once the two clerks were fully adapted to this new retail workflow, Song Miaozhu floated outside to take a look. The shop had expanded drastically inside, but from the outside, it looked unchanged—still just a modest storefront.
There was a function called [Ghost Shop Facade] that allowed her to expand the shop's external appearance, but it was outrageously expensive. Each square meter of facade cost 100 times the amount of internal space.
Still, her shop was already famous in Yinshui Alley. Ghosts flocked from all over just to line up; the crowds spilled down the street and around the corner. It drew enough attention as it was. She decided not to rent the expansion—at least for now.
With so much still left of her allotted time in the underworld, returning to the living world so soon felt wasteful. Besides, her physical body was resting while she was here anyway.
So she fetched some gold paper from the spirit-paper shop and brought it into the ghost shop warehouse to practice folding spirit ingots. Though the usual spiritual light didn't manifest, the practice itself felt no different from doing it in the living world.
When her allotted two-hour stay finally ended, she returned to the land of the living. Before bed, she transferred all the stock from the attic into the ghost shop's warehouse.
At 7:00 a.m., Song Miaozhu's first instinct upon waking was to check the ghost shop and warehouse.
It was past closing time, and although the front door was shut, Mao Jinxia and Xu Jingsi were still inside, familiarizing themselves with product samples and cross-checking the catalog.
A stack of purchase request forms had already been compiled on the counter from the previous night. She picked them up and examined them. Much of the stock she'd placed in the warehouse had already sold. And her vault—overflowing with hell coins.
After counting, she found 383,484 coins. An astonishing 170,000 had come from individual sales alone the night before.
Later that day, the renovation company's project manager would arrive to discuss remodeling the ancestral home. She wanted to restock in advance, so she converted all uncertified nether coins in the vault into yuan.
[Wealth Vault Deposit: ¥443,692]
There were still 471,479 hell coins remaining in the vault.
While eating noodles at a breakfast stall, she casually messaged Boss Wu:
[Miaozhu]: Boss Wu, can you send over another truckload of goods this afternoon? Same specs as last time.
[Wu Lao'er General Merchandise Wholesale]: Already? It's only been three days. You sold everything from that big load already?
[Miaozhu]: Yup. [deposit sent]
[Wu Lao'er General Merchandise Wholesale]: Got it! How about after 4:00 p.m.?
[Miaozhu]: Works for me!
After breakfast, she brought her kittens back to the old house.
Not long after, the renovation manager arrived. They discussed the renovation plans, settled the deposit, and Song Miaozhu began sorting through the house.
She carefully packed valuables, family heirlooms, and her personal items. Out of curiosity, she tried placing them in the ghost shop's warehouse—and to her surprise, it worked. Though such items couldn't remain in the warehouse long-term without being damaged by yin energy, it made a perfectly good temporary storage solution.
By the time she finished, it was past lunch. While ordering takeout, a thought struck her:
"Can cooked food stay fresh in a Yin-Wood Chest?"
She ordered two identical meals—one to eat, one to test.
Hours later, she opened the chest.
The food was still steaming hot.
"Looks like the ghost shop's menu just expanded."
"Perishables like cooked food and fruit can now be sold—just store them in Yin-Wood containers!"