I Set the Prices for Creatures from the Classic of Mountains and Seas

At Zhangzhou Port, a container from Penang declared a load of sixty tons of coir pith, but weighed 190 kilograms over on the scales. When the doors were pulled open, a pig that could curse was sprawled beneath the coir pith. Shiqi squatted down and looked for two seconds. “First grade, mixed stock, worthless.” In this city, every living thing that comes in from the sea has to be inspected, graded, and entered into the System. There are seven grades. Anyone can take away first-grade mixed stock, sixth-grade forbidden goods are confiscated by the authorities under the law, and seventh-grade goods are unlisted. There is no such category in the ledger. He was an outside contractor who inspected cargo in the port district. He had never once misgraded anything. That was because he himself had once been graded as cargo. Twenty-two years ago, there had been seventeen living captives in that shipment. The first sixteen had all been redeemed. He was the only one left. He had no surname, no ID card, and in the Maritime Trade Office's System, the entry under “Item Name” read: “Living captive.” All he wanted in this life was to accomplish one thing: move himself from the cargo column into the people column. That night, Commissioner Yao turned his phone screen toward him and said two things. Whatever you carry is what you are. Reach sixth grade, and you belong to the authorities. Shiqi understood. For every beast he took in, he would move one step closer to that threshold. If he didn't take them in, the things with gaping mouths on his body would eat him first. Later, he took in a nine-tailed fox, a Taotie, and a Bifang. He also went to Penang and Malacca, where he saw even more distasteful names in other people's Systems. That pig stayed with him the whole time, cursing three times a day and saying whatever it pleased. The number in the grading column climbed year after year. He drew closer to becoming human, and closer to being confiscated by the authorities.