I Run a Pawnshop at Midnight

Grandpa left behind two inheritances: a pawnshop on the verge of closing, and a page of rules that must never be broken. Shopkeeper’s Rules: One, open at midnight and send customers on their way at dawn. Two, living pledges can be redeemed at will; dead pledges cannot be reclaimed. Three, pour tea for each customer. One cup buys one hour. Four, do not turn to page thirteen of the ledger. Five, when the collector comes knocking, make it follow the rules. At midnight, the first customer walked in, pawning seven days of his life for a hundred thousand yuan to save his daughter. The next day, a local news alert read: Man dead for three days, body discovered this morning. From then on, the little pawnshop on Changle Street opened punctually at midnight. People pawned their lifespans, put their luck up as collateral, sold their memories, rented out their shadows... Lin Zhu turned no one away, settling every deal in cash as the business grew bigger and bigger. Until the day the collector came in person. Smiling, Lin Zhu spread out the pawn ticket and, with a swift turn of his hand, put the collector up for sale over the counter. As it lay dying, it smiled and told him a secret: “You think your grandfather owned this shop?” “He was the thirteenth customer.”