"How deceitful the human heart is! Or rather, ghost heart, to be precise. How could Little Miguel just trust a complete stranger—oh no, a stranger of a skeleton—so easily?"
"Not at all. I actually think this skeletal man looks quite kind-hearted. He shouldn't be a bad person—oh no, a bad skeleton."
"You can know a person's face, but not their heart. Besides, they're nothing more than a pile of bones now; who knows what kind of intentions he's harboring underneath? What if he sells Little Miguel off somewhere? I've heard from the elders that some wandering souls look for substitute bodies."
"Bless my soul, touch wood! I think that Land of the Dead in the Celestial Screen looks quite well-established. Look at that so-called Office, it even has skeleton runners similar to yamen bailiffs. I trust Little Miguel won't be so unlucky as to run into undead human traffickers."
The common folk beneath the Celestial Screen became increasingly captivated by Miguel's fantastical journey. The premise of a living human entering the Land of the Dead was still quite novel to certain ancient planes, leaving them all eager to know whether Miguel would ultimately secure a blessing from his family and whether he would meet his great-great-grandfather.
The skeleton introduced himself as Hector. It seemed he had died of food poisoning during his lifetime, and he currently faced one major trouble: no one in the real world offered offerings to his photograph.
Upon learning of Miguel's situation, Hect…
Chapter 177