Main characters:
Hu Xiaoba (male lead, general goods vendor and owner of the Supernatural Curiosities Shop at Dawn Base; sharp-tongued and greedy, but loyal)
Qin Yu (female lead, doctor at Dawn Base Hospital; rational and sharp-tongued, cold on the outside but warm at heart)
Wang Bajie (male supporting character, scavenger at the base and Hu Xiaoba's childhood friend; honest and gluttonous)
Zhou Li (antagonist, director of the base's Supply Management Bureau; greedy and cowardly, hostile toward Hu Xiaoba)
Role in this installment: Introduces the post-apocalyptic setting and the protagonists' struggle to survive, triggers the awakening of the golden finger, establishes the absurd twists of the protagonist's first contact with the ghost world, and foreshadows the birth of the Supernatural Curiosities Shop.
Plot:
(1) At three in the morning, I'm squatting in a ramshackle tin shed outside the base's eastern wall, counting today's “takings”: half a packet of moldy compressed biscuits, two leaking batteries, and a gas mask with only one side left. Wang Bajie kicks the door open, chewing on some unidentified jerky, and says a building has just collapsed in the western ruins. There might be old military rations inside. My eyes light up, but as soon as I reach the entrance to the ruins, a patrol catches me red-handed. Zhou Li leads the squad himself, wearing gleaming leather boots. He jabs me in the ribs with an iron rod. “Hu Xiaoba, scavenging illegally again? Do you know who controls this area?” I grin apologetically and say, “Just picking up scraps to get by.” He sneers. “Trash like you doesn't even deserve to be cremated after you die.” In the end, he fines me three packs of compressed biscuits. When the worst is over, good fortune follows. Main characters:
Hu Xiaoba (male lead, general goods vendor and owner of the Supernatural Curiosities Shop at Dawn Base; sharp-tongued and greedy, but loyal)
Qin Yu (female lead, doctor at Dawn Base Hospital; rational and sharp-tongued, cold on the outside but warm at heart)
Wang Bajie (male supporting character
