Not Knowing You're Dead

　　The phone that Strass said, in fact, the general severe ghosts claiming life and harming people, will not use such fancy means, really want to kill you, directly on the hands, but also engage in what dead people comb.

 Stein and I looked at each other, wondering what Strass was trying to say, did it mean that Markus had lied to us?

　　Strass goes on to say that this Markus, ah, could be a ghost as well!

　　That statement, as if it blew Stein and I apart, both of us jumped right up.

　　Stein said no. A big living person just stood in front of us, could it be a ghost? Don't scare us.

　　Nope, that Markus is pale and haggard and really doesn't look normal.

　　But he did have an explanation, saying that it was because of the use of a dead man's comb, which can comb away the living's yang energy, that's why he was pale and his body was getting weaker and weaker.

　　But it's all his side of the story, and we can't confirm whether the real situation is or isn't.

　　That's when Strass asked us if Markus, the supermarket salesman, worked the night shift.

　　Stein scratches his head and says it seems like it, because it's nighttime in all his stories.

　　Strass adds that that means he hasn't seen the sun, and if it's all traveling at night, it's possible that he's dead on his own and he doesn't even know it.

　　You're dead and you don't even know it? Is there such a wicked thing?

　　Strass said there was, he had seen it happen once, a farmer died of heatstroke doing farm work alone in the fields, and then he came home with a hoe by himself during the night, and his family didn't notice anything wrong until the next day when someone found the farmer's body.

　　The farmer's family didn't believe it at first, they could see the farmer lying on the bed when they opened the room, how did the man die? Isn't this nonsense?

　　Later, someone carried the body of the farmer to the farmer's home, the farmer's family took a look, the body is hard, less than they do not believe, and then scared straight to the evil, the family all rushed to run out, do not dare to go home again.

　　Then the farmer's family found Strass, and Strass, not believing it then, went to the farmer's house with a razor in his hand, when there was a body in front of the farmer's house, the same one.

　　But the farmer's family said that the farmer was in the room, and they didn't know what was going on, and it was particularly evil and weirdly scary.

　　His family should have been saddened by the death of the farmer, but by this shock, they were only afraid instead.

　　No one else dared to enter, but Strass wasn't afraid and went in with a razor.

　　Upon entering the room, Strass saw the farmer lying on the bed with the covers over his head.

　　Strass lifted the covers, and as soon as the farmer saw the light, he immediately shrunk to his position at the end of the bed, and asked Strass what he was doing.

　　Strass goes up and slaps him and then says he's dead, know it or not.

　　The farmer said bullshit, he's alive and well, how come he's dead?

　　Strass, seeing his disbelief, hastened to carry the body in, and the peasant howled at the sight of his corpse, and finally disappeared in a trail of black smoke drilling out of the window.

　　After hearing what Strass said, Stein and I were straight up evil... there are people who die without knowing it... Markus can't be like that, can he?

　　But think of it this way, if Markus is a ghost, then all the problems are explained.

　　First, Markus can see ghosts while others can't. If he's a ghost, isn't it normal for him to be able to see ghosts?

　　Secondly, the bald woman wanted the dead man's comb, and the only dead man's comb she claimed to have was in the hands of a ghost, so it would make sense that she kept asking for Markus when she got to the supermarket!

　　Thirdly, that Brzenska had no grudge against Markus and couldn't have haunted him after his death and demanded his life. It's possible that Brzenska was trying to tell him that Markus was dead and was going to reincarnate with him.

　　There are a few more details in this that can't be made clear, but they're all told by Markus from his own first point of view, who thought he wasn't dead, so there are inevitably a lot of inaccuracies in there.

　　For example, if he goes to work at the grocery store, or if he burns rag dolls for little girls, or if the bald woman says he's dying, some of these may not be true.

　　That's when Strass adds that if that Markus is really a ghost, then when he combs his hair with a yang comb, he loses his hair until it falls out.

　　But there is a slight advantage to combing his hair with a comb from the yang world, it can increase his yang energy a little bit and make it less difficult for him to move around in the yang world.

　　A living person combing his hair with a dead person's comb will comb away his yang energy, and a dead person combing his hair with a living person's comb will increase his yang energy.

　　Got it, a lot of mysteries were solved when Strass put it that way, and I finally figured out why Markus is bald, and why he can't stay away from that comb.

　　Needless to say, I'm now certain he's a ghost, and it's a good thing Stein asked this shaver to ask, or I'd be screwed!

 I know better than anyone what happens when you give a ghost a tattoo, and the scene of a thousand ghosts surrounding the house that night is still fresh in my mind.

　　We hastened to give Strass thanks, before hanging up the phone respectfully, this Strass is not small in age, otherwise it would not have retired back to the countryside, is considered an old shaver, his insight is really broad, we dictate a few times he knew the way.

　　Stein asked me what I should do next. What if that Markus comes back? He's a ghost.

　　I wasn't worried about Markus but Antonio, if Markus was a ghost then the things he said must be off, what kind of person was that bald woman, I didn't have a clue in my mind, Antonio hadn't come back till now and I was a bit panicked.

　　Markus came in the evening, there was no sun then, Antonio left in the evening too, now it's after 10pm, no news from him at all, no answer on the phone, I wonder what happened?

　　"Going to get him?" Stein asked.

　　I shook my head and said not for now, and that it was a bit late at night, plus we didn't know which nunnery Antonio had gone to, and it was hard to find, so we'd have to wait for news from him.

　　Another thing I don't understand is that if Markus is a ghost, then Webster must have known about it, so why did he push Markus toward us?

　　Tattoos of Gods and Ghosts are so taboo that even Raul Master's protégé Philip knows about them, there's no reason why Webster wouldn't know about them; there must be some hidden agenda.

　　I asked Stein if he knew where Webster lived. Why don't we ask him?

　　Stein says he knows. That Webster lives under the overpass.

　　I laughed bitterly and said that Webster was also a master, so he didn't have to be so shabby as to live in a flyover so miserable, right?

　　Stein said I don't know, that Webster fortune-telling money, all used to do good deeds, basically do not spend money, sometimes have to beg for a living.

　　I'm a little confused as to why you would go begging for a living when you don't spend the money you earn from fortune telling. What kind of strange habit is that? With Webster's ability, he should be able to earn a lot, even if he uses it for charity, how can he keep a little bit for himself? If he has to sleep on the flyovers and beg for a living, it's a bit of an act.

　　Stein says that Webster did it for a reason. Fortune-telling, that's leaking information to the heavens!