Translated by Hua Li ^_~
After discussing the matter, Master Zhang, seeing that Gou Liang was still unwell, tactfully took his leave.
When it was time to pay the bill, the five hundred yuan bill handed by Gou Liang suddenly burned into ashes, frightening the cashier with a scream.
“Sorry, can I pay with a card?”
“Sure…”
The cashier tried to maintain a professional calmness but looked at Gou Liang with curiosity and inexplicable fear.
In the elevator, Master Zhang asked, “What was that just now, nephew?”
Gou Liang nodded to him, “That was the money handled by Sun Zhuozhuo. I just blocked the evil for him. Looks like tomorrow Master Zhang will have a good business.”
Master Zhang wryly smiled, “Nephew, don’t mock me.”
He thought that the Sun family would directly seek Gou Liang’s help after these two unsuccessful attempts. However, Sun Zhuozhuo’s father was a down-to-earth businessman. Although he knew Gou Liang was more powerful than Master Zhang, he did not bypass him and directly contact Gou Liang.
So, the next morning, Master Zhang was invited to the hospital by Father Sun, and out of gratitude, he took the initiative to ask for Gou Liang’s help.
*
When he received Master Zhang’s call, Gou Liang was negotiating with the boss of the Ruyi Tower, sitting on the floor to raise the price.
To heal Bi Xia’s soul as quickly as possible, cover up the hostility, and speed up his own recovery, Gou Liang had been staying in Qizang Pavilion for the past few days as it had better Feng Shui.
It was still early before the business hours, and there were no people on the antique street. The boss of the Ruyi Tower, wearing a mask, came to seek Gou Liang’s help, asking to buy peace charms and exorcism talismans painted by Father Meng.
As the saying goes, those in the same trade are often at odds with each other. Ruyi Tower and Qizang Pavilion stood facing each other, and when Father Meng was still alive, Ruyi Tower could be described as having few customers. After finally enduring Father Meng’s passing, they managed to seize the business that originally belonged to Qizang Pavilion. That’s how they attained the present situation of thirty years on one side of the river, thirty years on the other.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Now, to seek help from their old rival, they naturally had to disguise their true intentions.
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Gou Liang gestured, “Less than this amount, forget it.”
Boss Zhou’s smile froze, but he still said, holding back, “Ten thousand for ten? Isn’t that a bit expensive—”
“Boss Zhou is joking,” Gou Liang interrupted him. “Ten thousand each, no negotiations after the due date.”
“Nephew, this shows that you don’t understand the rules. The exorcism talismans outside are at most a thousand each. I’ve been in this business for over twenty years. Nephew, this is not righteous.”
“So what? After more than twenty years, you still haven’t achieved any legitimate cultivation. You can only deceive and rely on the customer base my father left behind. Now, I don’t know what bad things you’ve done, breaking even your signboard and causing a lawsuit involving a person’s life. I doubt your business will last much longer.”
“You!”
Just then, Gou Liang’s phone rang.
“Uncle Zhang is calling so early… Okay, I’ll come right away.”
He hung up, waved the talismans in his hand, and said, “Do you want them or not? If not, I won’t serve you. I have a lot to do today.”
Boss Zhou, with a stiff face, handed over one hundred thousand and took ten talismans. He left the shop, and his expression immediately turned dark, muttering, “Brat, everyone knows you’re a short-lived ghost with a bad fate! Daring to show off in front of me, sooner or later, I’ll make you go down and find your ghostly father!”
He walked back to Ruyi Tower just as the new signboard, newly installed, suddenly fell!
Boss Zhou quickly unlocked the door, narrowly escaping the danger by rolling inside.
Bi Xia sneered, “He got off easy.”
Gou Liang raised his voice, “Enough playing. Go change your clothes; we need to go to Dong Street to have a bowl of wonton before leaving.”
When Gou Liang and Bi Xia arrived at the hospital, Sun Zhuozhuo had just woken up.
Upon seeing Gou Liang, he burst into tears, “Qining, if it weren’t for the protective talisman you gave me, I wouldn’t be able to see you today.”
Gou Liang sneered, saying, “Didn’t I tell you to go home early for the past three nights? How did you agree to that?”
The Sun couple asked for the details, after hearing the story, becoming annoyed. Mother Sun poked her son’s head and said, “You pig head, risking your life for a woman!”
Sun Zhuozhuo, seeing that his mother was blaming the girl with black straight hair, quickly explained, “Mom, Su Su originally advised me to leave early yesterday. I stayed on my own, it has nothing to do with her.”
Mother Sun wanted to scold him more, but Gou Liang intervened, “Tell me in detail about yesterday’s situation.”
Sun Zhuozhuo dared not conceal anything.
It turned out that his cosplay group recently took on a new project. A wealthy book fan of “Ancient Mansion Tales,” Zhi Susu, the girl with black straight hair whom Sun Zhuozhuo fell in love with at first sight, funded them to shoot scenes from the novel.
Originally, there was a male character in the scenes who required high facial attractiveness and had long flowing hair. Sun Zhuozhuo, unable to find a suitable person, showed Su Su a photo of Bi Xia. Su Su, usually reserved and goddess-like, covered her mouth and screamed, insisting on having Bi Xia help. Money was not an issue for her.
Sun Zhuozhuo sought Gou Liang’s help for this matter.
Seeing that Gou Liang was not feeling well, he knew it would not go well. So, tactfully, he didn’t mention it. Later, given Gou Liang’s reminder, he intended to leave early, but they were shooting a night scene yesterday, which was the scene of the female protagonist from the novel, Su Su was involved. He couldn’t bear to leave.
Who would have thought…
“Everything was fine, but unexpectedly, at eight o’clock, the haunted house suddenly had an incident.”
Sun Zhuozhuo still shuddered when recalling the events.
The old house had an antique clock, and when eight o’clock arrived, the alarm clock set by Sun Zhuozhuo, along with the clanging of the pendulum clock, rang together. In the spacious old house, it seemed somewhat eerie, and a girl in the group jokingly said that the scene was like a copy-paste from a certain horror movie. Just as she finished speaking and the clock’s chime echoed, the lights they were connected to started flickering.
A chilly wind blew in, and the candle lit by the female lead went out.
Everyone was already nervous, but they didn’t expect that as soon as the candle extinguished, the lights went out, and their equipment burned out, frying the circuits. The cameraman was heartbroken.
Since they couldn’t continue shooting, they decided to leave, but when they counted the people, one person was missing.
“You guys don’t know how scary it was. When we started counting, I clearly saw Director Mao standing next to me. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared without a sound.”
When they shouted a few times and got no response, they dispersed to search.
Using their phones as flashlights, a strange and eerie horror movie soundtrack suddenly played from their phones, making someone scream on the spot. Afterward, a screensaver of a cheongsam beauty appeared on their phone screens. After smiling at them, she suddenly started bleeding from all seven orifices, incredibly eerie and terrifying.
Some of the girls were so scared that they threw their phones away, but the horrifying part was that the phones kept chasing them.
The braver cameraman suspected someone was playing a prank and angrily yelled at the person responsible to come out; otherwise, he wouldn’t be polite. However, Sun Zhuozhuo immediately thought of Gou Liang’s instructions, knowing that things were definitely not that simple.
“I quickly told everyone to leave, but unexpectedly, after I finished speaking, all the doors and windows closed with a gust of cold wind. We couldn’t push them open no matter what…”
Sun Zhuozhuo spoke, described the scene to them.
The frightened girl was already in tears, expressing her desire to go home. Some tried to make phone calls, but the cheongsam-clad female ghost in their phones began singing a mournful opera, making it impossible for them to either turn off their phones or call for help.
Sun Zhuozhuo was frightened to the core, clutching the protective talisman given by Gou Liang tightly in his hand. It was the only thing helping him keep a facade of composure.
He instructed everyone to gather around him, hoping to provide a bit more safety.
But the group’s director was still nowhere to be found, and they were all on edge. Despite their attempts to search again, nobody dared to go, and they were even afraid to call out loud for her to come back.
Sun Zhuozhuo had collaborated with this director for several years, and their relationship was good. Although frightened, they discussed and decided to invite the more courageous atheist photographer to join them in the search.
“Azhuo, I’ll go with you.”
Su Su said.
“No way!”
Sun Zhuozhuo naturally refused to let her take the risk, but Su Su insisted, stating that she had chosen the location, so if something happened, she couldn’t just ignore it.
Unable to persuade her, Sun Zhuozhuo could only agree. The three of them instructed the others not to wander around, and as they were about to follow the direction of the restroom to find the director, a heart-wrenching scream suddenly came from upstairs—
It was the voice of the director, Mao Xiaoliu!
Oh, hopefully I already know that everything is alright now
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