One Drunken Remark Made Me Royalty in the Underworld

Guo Chuang, owner of a funeral business, has been down in the dumps lately. Traditional burials are falling out of favor, and his little shop has been closed for half a month. Even making ends meet has become a problem. After downing a whole bottle of cheap liquor at a small restaurant, he stumbles into a dilapidated temple to the Lord of Fengdu on the outskirts of town. Facing the dust-covered statue, he drunkenly laments his dire straits. In a moment of reckless impulse, he blurts out that he wants the deity to be his godfather, promising to keep the altar stocked with chicken, duck, fish, and meat in exchange for the protection of this big shot from the underworld.

It was nothing but drunken nonsense, but the divine consciousness of the Lord of Fengdu, who was absorbing incense inside the statue, actually responds. “This old man accepts you as my godson.” The words shake dust from the temple roof, but Guo Chuang assumes he's hallucinating and sleeps on a prayer mat all night.

The next day, work comes his way for the first time in ages: a family in town wants to give their daughter, who died of illness, a funeral according to the old traditions. Overjoyed, Guo Chuang takes the job at once, setting up the mourning hall and keeping watch over the coffin as planned. But after nightfall, strange noises come from inside the coffin. Then the lid bursts open, and a woman in white sits bolt upright. Her eerie sobs fill Guo Chuang with terror, and he drops dead on the spot.

When he opens his eyes again, Guo Chuang has been shackled and hauled to the underworld by the Black and White Impermanence. The Judge opens the Book of Life and Death, ready to write his name among the dead, but suddenly notices the tiny inscription beside it: “Righteous son of the Lord of Fengdu.” Every underworld official in the hall pales, and even the fearsome Impermanence temper their hostility. Only when the imposing Lord of Fengdu appears in his black robe does Guo Chuang realize that last night's drunken words came true. The funeral director who could no longer make a living in the mortal realm has actually become the underworld big shot's godson. This journey to the Yellow Springs turns out to be the beginning of his change in fortune