Volume 2 Chapter 6: Ghost Invasion
In the end, she didn't agree to help me, but she didn't say no either. After dinner, I took her to the town and let her stay in a hotel. Although the hotel conditions in the town were not good, they were quite clean and more convenient than staying at our house. We chatted in the guest room until after ten o'clock, and then I left.
The shop was closed during the Chinese New Year and only opened on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, so I went straight home. When I entered the door, my mother was waiting for me and asked me what was going on. I told her the truth that I had not contacted her before and it was Shen Bing who came to my door herself.
My mother said to me earnestly, "Xiaofeng, you are grown up now, you have to make your own decision on what to do. To be honest, I like Shen Bing very much. If she doesn't mind that we are from the countryside, I have no objection."
I felt warm inside after hearing these words. I held my mother's hand and said, "Mom, I know you are in a difficult situation. We are from the same town, and breaking off the engagement may hurt the relationship. Let's not talk about this during the New Year, let's put it aside for now."
Mom sighed, "You're thinking of me. I'm glad you did. I'm just afraid that he's from the provincial capital, just like Yaxue three years ago. If he doesn't stay in town with you, it will be a waste of joy in the end."
I thought it was definitely a false hope, and I still didn't know whether Shen Bing would be willing to help. I patted my mother's hand and said, "Mom, don't worry, I have my own ideas."
The next morning I got up early and ran to the hotel to pick up Shen Bing. Because the hotel was two streets away from my home, I was afraid that she would get lost again because she was unfamiliar with the place. When I arrived at the hotel door, I saw Fu Xueman and Shen Bing walking out, and I wondered what was going on.
Seeing me standing there in a daze, Fu Xueman chuckled and said, "This hotel is also owned by Fan Xiaobing, and it happened to be my turn on duty this morning. Someone said that a beautiful woman stayed here on the night of New Year's Day, so I guessed it was Shen Bing, so I came to take a look."
It seems that she is in a good mood today, not jealous at all. This generosity makes me look at her with a new perspective. In fact, I know almost nothing about Xue Man. I only know that she likes blue sky and white clouds and reading poems. I saw her jealous and resentful behavior at the dinner table yesterday. I thought she was a shocking and narrow-minded girl. I didn't know she also had a generous and tolerant side.
I said "Oh", "What does your shift have to do with Fan Xiaobing running a hotel?" In fact, I didn't even know what shift she was on, looking at my fiancé's job.
Fu Xueman looked at me with a bit of resentment, and said with a self-deprecating smile: "I am an accountant in Fan Xiaobing's company. I am on duty on the second day of the Chinese New Year. Do you know now?"
After she said that, I finally understood that I was working under Fan Xiaobing. This Fan Xiaobing is the richest man in our town. He owns the sauna, KTV, and restaurant businesses. It's a small town, and he still has a company. A little cat with a word "king" written on its head is still a little cat, and it can never become a little tiger.
Fu Xueman also said that she was afraid that Shen Bing would get lost, so she took her to my house. Now that I was here, she was no longer needed. She went back to her duty, smiled and waved to us and left. I looked at her from behind and felt very puzzled. This girl is really fickle. In addition, we only spent three serious times together today (not counting the time at her house), but she gave me three different impressions. Which one is the real her?
Shen Bing was very well behaved today. She stood aside and listened to us talking, but didn't dare to speak. After Fu Xueman left, she said, "Your fiancée is a very nice person. She was very affectionate to me today. I can't be so cruel as to ask me to help you."
When I heard her say that, I had another opinion about Fu Xueman in my heart. She was plotting against Shen Bing. Anyone who had been in contact with this girl for a long time could see that she was a big-breasted and brainless person. If you put a little effort on her, you will get the effect. Look, Fu Xueman's enthusiasm touched this silly girl and made her unwilling to participate in this game.
After returning home and having breakfast, Shen Bing said that she had not looked at my shop properly because she had encountered a female ghost that night, and wanted to go and have a look today. I said it was a shabby shop, and there were no treasures worth appreciating except for some bottles and jars of medicine powder. What was there to see? She secretly nodded at my mother, and I understood that she wanted to go out and talk to me alone, and she was too restrained in front of my mother.
As soon as he went out, Shen Bing closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "I feel so relaxed, so relaxed. I don't know what happened today. I always feel guilty in front of your mother, as if I have done something wrong to her."
I shook my head and ignored her. This girl was as soft-hearted as my mother. She felt guilty before she even agreed to help me. I took her to the front of the store and was about to open the door when I suddenly realized something was wrong. Two door panels were slightly bent inward. These old-fashioned door panels were made by my grandfather's generation. They have been used for many years, exposed to wind and rain, and have never been out of shape. Today, they suddenly deformed, which means someone has moved them.
Although the things in the shop are very valuable to ghosts, they are of no use to humans. Who would want to steal my shop? I squatted down and checked for traces. There were no suspicious footprints and the door panel had not been opened. Oh my god, could there be a ghost thief?
"What are you looking for on the ground?" Shen Bing asked behind him.
I waved to her, stood up, took out the key, opened the door, lifted the two door panels and squeezed in. This has become a habit, and I have never opened the door completely. When I went in, I saw that several bottles and cans on the shelves were smashed to pieces on the ground, and the powder was spilled all over the floor. The plaque on the wall had also been moved, and the lower left corner was tilted downward.
Shit, a ghost really came in here and destroyed everything here. Did the magic tools in the store go to sleep? I turned around and first uncovered a piece of black cloth on the left side of the door. Underneath was a blue dragon statue made of bluestone, with black air on the dragon's eyes. Then I uncovered the black cloth on the right side, and found a white tiger statue made of jade, with black air on its eyes.
I lost my temper. This ghost must be very powerful. He could pass the test of Azure Dragon and White Tiger. I walked to the table and looked up at the eight small coffins as big as shoe boxes hanging from the beams. This was the eight coffins set up by our ancestors to suppress ghosts! Damn, two of the ropes of the eight small coffins were entangled with each other.
Then walk around the table and look at the vase on the shelf. It is said that this was brought by my great grandfather from the Zhenwu Temple in Wudang Mountain. It contains half a bottle of magic water, which has never dried up for hundreds of years. This is the last line of defense against ghosts, and it is also the most powerful. However, there is a faint black line from top to bottom in the middle of the bottle, which is the ghost energy left behind!
Shen Bing followed me in. Seeing that I looked unhappy and the broken bottles and cans on the floor, she knew that there was a thief. She was a former police officer and had experience in investigating crime scenes. She crouched down and walked around the store a few times and said to me, "This thief has very good anti-detection skills and didn't leave any clues."
I sighed and said, " Of course you can't find any clues if it's a crime committed by a ghost."
She exclaimed, "Ah!" and asked me with wide eyes, "Is there anyone who dares to steal from your store?"
This question made me blush. A ghost shop couldn't even stop ghosts. It was a slap in the face of me, the inheritor of ghost stories!
