Even Ghosts Beg Me to Burn Them Paper Money

Chi Mian had yin-yang eyes and had been able to see ghosts since childhood. When she was twenty, the only foster father who had ever raised her passed away. That year, the daunting task of burning offerings to her ancestors during the Qingming Festival fell to her. At her ancestors' graves, Chi Mian put on a tearful performance, then used the drizzle of Qingming to burn the small bag of joss paper she'd brought until not a scrap remained. A few days later, a ghost decked out in gold and silver, dripping with wealth, visited her home in the middle of the night. Chi Mian squinted at it for a long while before recognizing the obscenely rich ghost as the ancestor she'd paid respects to a few days earlier. Chi Mian was startled. Hadn't her father said the three generations before them had all been poor ghosts? "What brings you here?" She trembled, afraid her ancestor would think she'd brought shame upon their family. Instead, the old ancestor grinned, showing off a mouthful of gold teeth. "I've come to thank you for bringing glory to our family!" "..." * Chi Mian discovered by chance that any paper offerings she burned would become real offerings in the underworld. The paper money she burned became actual currency in the underworld. When she burned a wreath, the recipient received a flower basket made of real flowers. A paper pork knuckle she burned was sent to an underworld auction and sold for an unprecedented price. After that, ghosts kept coming to her door, asking her to burn all kinds of strange and unusual things. A month later, as her business expanded, her visitors came not only from the underworld, but also from the human world. "Young lady, could you burn me a TV? The underworld's entertainment options are so boring!" "Big sis, I'm a starving ghost. Could you burn me a chicken leg? After I eat it, I'll go get saved and reincarnated." "Miss Chi, my boyfriend died young. I wrote him a love letter. Could you..." Chi Mian had spent twenty years pretending she couldn't see ghosts. On Qingming of the year she turned twenty, all that effort went up in smoke. Theme: Even ghosts beg me to burn them paper money.