Volume 2 Chapter 7: Drunkards in the Square
The Ghost Shop is not in the business of exorcising ghosts and warding off evil spirits, but is all about helping ghosts solve their problems, so it can be said to be a holy place among ghosts. Besides, I have never offended any customers in the three years since I took over the shop, so it is impossible for ghosts to take revenge wantonly. Could it be that they have no money to spend like the drunkards I met in the underworld, so they come here to steal some things and resell them?
It doesn't look like it. Apart from a few broken bottles and cans, everything else is intact and nothing is missing, so this possibility can be ruled out.
I lowered my head and thought again, and suddenly I remembered a ghost. It was her! The one that was driven away from Fu Xueman's house. I almost burned her to death with the True Lord Fire Curse. Before she left, she threatened to take revenge on me. The time was about the same. She was injured by me using the Golden Light Divine Curse and the Chopstick God, and was burned by the True Lord Fire Curse several times. It took at least a month to recover. Now that she has recovered , she came to attack my shop.
I didn't think she was that powerful that day, but she was able to break into my store. This is not something that ordinary ghosts can do. It seems that I really need to be careful with her.
I turned around and saw Shen Bing lying on the table, her hands supporting her chin, her beautiful eyes open, looking at me quietly. She was rarely so quiet, but this revealed a kind of quiet beauty, with a unique charm.
"Do you know who the murderer is?" When she saw me looking at her, she immediately asked with great energy.
"Well, there may be some clues. Maybe they are here to cause trouble." I nodded.
She curled her lips, stood up, looked around and said, "You always say that your shop is full of Taoist magic tools, why don't I see any of them? It would be strange if they can keep away ghosts!"
I couldn't help but laugh. How could an outsider see that? So I pointed at the Azure Dragon and White Tiger at the door and explained to her that the two statues were used to guard the door. My great-grandfather had once cast a spell on the statues and offered a talisman. As long as I brought the ghost peach wood tablet with me into the store, the Azure Dragon and White Tiger would rest, and the ghosts could enter and leave the store at will without being harmed . As soon as I left, they woke up and began to guard, and the ghosts could not get in at all.
After saying this, he pointed to the eight small coffins on the beams and said, "I can't just take care of the customers. After the store opens, all the magic tools inside will fail. If there are evil ghosts, I won't be able to resist. But I can't use magic tools that can directly restrain ghosts, so I used the Eight Coffins to suppress ghosts. This is a way to fight yin with yin and poison with poison. It forms a line of defense between me and the table. If the ghost wants to attack me and crosses this line, it will be suppressed by the Eight Coffins to suppress ghosts."
The most powerful one is the magic bottle on the shelf, which contains magic water with thousand-year-old spiritual energy. If you don't get close, the bottle is just an ordinary bottle, motionless. If an evil ghost gets close, the magic water spiritual energy will surge out and turn the ghost into a puff of green smoke.
Shen Bing paced around the store with his hands behind his back, listening to me with great interest. He asked, "The Dharma Bottle is so powerful, is the ghost already over?"
I shook my head and said, "From the bottle, it seems that the ghost has escaped. If the ghost is the incarnation of the magic water, there should be black gas at the edge of the bottle mouth, and the smoke that the ghost turned into will eventually fall at this place. The black line on the bottle shows that she was attacked by the magic water's spiritual energy and exhaled ghost gas, so she must have been injured."
Shen Bing asked again: "Don't you have the soul-chasing flag? Why can't you find where the thief ran off to?"
I laughed and said, "The soul-chasing flag can only be used at night, because ghosts are like me, hiding during the day and coming out at night. They hide very well during the day, and it is basically difficult to find their traces."
This matter came to an end, and it was time to talk about our personal affairs. I asked her to help me again. She refused to agree, thinking that it would be too cruel to Xue Man, and she couldn't bear it. And she also deceived my mother, and she felt even more guilty.
Finally, she said to me seriously: "You are a very righteous man in my mind. Don't be a Chen Shimei and make me look down on you."
When she mentioned Chen Shimei, it reminded me of the scene at the train station. I said, "You've already made me Chen Shimei once, why do you still think so highly of me?"
When I said that, her face suddenly turned red, and she lowered her head and said, "I was just kidding you, wasn't I?"
I snorted. "Are you kidding? How can a man and a woman joke like this? Besides, I've been in your body for a whole day. When I sleep, I have a problem. I like to touch my body randomly..."
"Ah" Shen Bing suddenly screamed, and I was so scared that I thought there was a ghost in broad daylight. I immediately turned around and looked around, but there was no movement.
"You bastard, you bastard, I won't talk to you anymore." Shen Bing yelled and ran out of the store.
I closed the shop and chased after her home. Shen Bing was already sitting in the living room chatting with my mother. When she saw me come in, she immediately turned her head to look at the TV, as if she was particularly afraid of meeting my gaze, and her face was red. I felt ridiculous. It had been so long, and she was still shy to mention this matter. Was it that serious?
We are in a plain area, there is nothing interesting here. In winter, it is like a dried corpse stripped of clothes, dry and lifeless everywhere. Stay at home. With my mother around, Shen Bing can't talk freely, so I took her to the street for a stroll in the afternoon.
A small town is not like a big city. The closer it gets to the New Year, the quieter the streets become. Only the square in the center of the town is lively, with many street stalls, mostly selling children's products. Kites, balloons, toys, small trains and so on attract many children. The sound of children laughing and playing can be heard from far away.
Shen Bing liked to join in the fun, so she ran over there and saw a stall selling air guns to shoot balloons. She was so childish that she wanted to play a couple of games. As a police officer, her shooting skills were not good. Even though the boss had adjusted the air gun's sights crooked, she still hit the target with every shot, making the boss look mad.
I thought to myself, this is just a toy for kids, you'll blow up all their balloons, what business will they have? I pulled her and was about to leave, when I suddenly heard a bunch of kids in front of me screaming and running away in all directions. A few adults ran over there, it seemed like something had happened.
Shen Bing put down the air gun and pulled me over. At this time, people were already surrounding us in three layers, and we couldn't see what was going on inside even if we stood on tiptoe. Shen Bing pushed hard and finally squeezed in.
It turned out that there was a drunk lying on the ground. The circle was filled with a strong smell of alcohol. There was a large pool of blood under his face. A street lamp pole beside him was also stained with blood. Judging from the situation, he was drunk and didn't look at the road, and crashed into the street lamp. However, according to the degree of injury, it is impossible to hit so badly at the speed of walking, unless he ran.
Two men turned the drunkard over, saw who he was, and sent someone to call his family.
"Isn't this Liu San? He doesn't usually drink, how come he drank like this?" Someone recognized the drunkard and whispered to the people around him.
"His business has lost money this year, and he often drinks and beats his wife."
"I heard from our children that he deliberately crashed into the lamppost."
"How pitiful! His business suffered losses and he is in debt. If he dies, how will his wife and child survive?" someone sighed.
