Editor: Xinghe
Translator: ChuRen/ YuQiChen
Su Ling listened casually.
It was just a story about a rich second-generation attending a funeral and continuously encountering ghosts, a normal occurrence.
Fan Ziqi: …Your mom is normal!
Su Ling smiled faintly, “You haven’t provoked evil ghosts, just evil spirits, no need to worry too much. Look, they’re just resting on your shoulders right now, not harming you, right?”
Infected by Su Ling’s nonchalant tone, Fan Ziqi was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but then he heard the last sentence…
They?
Fan Ziqi, in a “whoosh”, jumped two feet high in shock, tears streaming down his face, “B-boss Su, help!”
Su Ling tilted his head, locking eyes with the evil spirits.
Unlike evil ghosts, evil spirits lack cultivation and cannot manifest clear features, only appearing as a dark humanoid figure. From their vague appearance, they all seemed to be young ghosts.
However, on Fan Ziqi’s left shoulder was an evil spirit, on the right shoulder another, and there was even one above his head – looking like a three-headed, six-armed being.
“Go back, the paths of humans and ghosts are different. Over time, Fan Ziqi will be harmed by you.” Su Ling advised kindly.
The face of the evil spirit on the head cracked open, then slowly expanded, the crack spreading all the way to the ear, its inside swirling with blood-red mist.
It looked like it was grinning.
The monk, wearing a safety helmet, in a muffled voice said, “Boss, he’s mocking you.”
Su Ling sighed heavily, reluctantly saying, “Since you won’t accept my goodwill, don’t blame me. Monk, give Mr. Fan a Buddhist prayer bead.”
Upon hearing this, the evil spirits laughed even harder.
Buddhist prayer beads? It didn’t sound scary at all, alright?
Only Fan Ziqi, upon hearing Su Ling speak so casually, was on the verge of tears.
He didn’t dare move randomly, his legs trembling uncontrollably, hesitantly asking the monk, “D-dare I ask Master for your surname?”
The monk serenely bowed as a Buddhist gesture, saying, “This humble monk’s surname is Shi, name Kongzang, an outer staff of our company.”
Fan Ziqi was struck by the down-to-earth term ‘outer staff’, which lessened his fear a bit. He continued, “Master, that’s quite an uncommon name. Is it the ‘藏’ character with multiple pronunciations?”
As a result, the monk chuckled darkly and added, “No, it’s not. It’s the zang from the word ‘Funeral1葬禮 zàng lǐ’”
Fan Ziqi, tears welling up in his eyes, regretted deeply – why did he have to be so talkative?
“Monk, don’t scare Mr. Fan.” Su Ling intervened in time, giving a warning glance at Shi Kongzang.
The monk smirked, quietly suppressing the malevolent aura around him, and handed Fan Ziqi a black Buddhist prayer bead about the size of a walnut.
The moment Fan Ziqi took the prayer bead, the dark energy around him immediately dissipated. The evil spirits were caught off guard, screeching in pain before swiftly fleeing.
Feeling a cold sensation running down his spine, Fan Ziqi anxiously asked, “Boss Su?”
Su Ling gave a faint smile, “They’re gone.”
Fan Ziqi breathed a sigh of relief, expressing his gratitude, “Thank you, Boss Su.”
“No need,” Su Ling smiled warmly and kindly, “This Buddhist prayer bead costs 889, Mr. Fan, remember to settle the bill later.”
Fan Ziqi: …
“Are the ghosts gone? Will they come back? Am I safe now?” Fan Ziqi, coming back to his senses, fired off several questions in succession.
Su Ling’s smile faded slightly as he shook his head, “With the prayer bead, those evil spirits won’t return. However, the evil spirits are nothing compared to what’s really haunting this house!”
Terrified by Su Ling’s words, Fan Ziqi dared not let them go back.
He threw the keys to the old mansion into Su Ling’s hands and then, like a bolt of lightning, jumped into his sports car and fled into the night.
In the vast house, only Su Ling, Shi Kongzang, and Sheng Ze remained.
Su Ling casually found a spot in front of the altar, sat down cross-legged, and began rummaging through his things, “Ghost-exorcising sword, bought from Maoshan Sect; Ghost flute, bought from descendants of Zhong Kui; Thunder-summoning talisman, drawn by myself…”
Su Ling pulled out a bunch of random items and shoved them into Sheng Ze’s hands, saying, “If things escalate later, don’t come up, remember to hide behind and protect yourself.”
Looking at the pile of “junk” in his hands, Sheng Ze’s mood was quite complex.
“Boss, aren’t you being too biased?” Shi Kongzang complained.
Su Ling, angered by this, sneered, “Do you need props to save your life? Every time something happens, you run faster than anyone else – you have two legs, that’s enough!”
However, Su Ling still gave Shi Kongzang a few talismans, just in case.
Shi Kongzang was deeply moved, “Boss, rest assured, I will be your little brother2underling for life after life!”
Su Ling: Hmm… That sounds a lot like a curse.
Sheng Ze stood quietly beside them, lowered his gaze, and pulled out the “Demon-exorcising sword” from the pile of props.
The Demon-exorcising sword was covered with dozens of messy spells, densely filling the blade. However…
Not a single one was drawn correctly.
Sheng Ze, feeling a headache coming on, asked Su Ling, “How much did you spend on this?”
“It was originally 6,000! Luckily, I’m quite familiar with the Taoist practitioners from Maoshan, so they gave me a 20% discount in the end.” Su Ling replied happily, with a face that was too innocent and silly to be exposed.
Sheng Ze fell silent for a moment, reluctantly saying, “It’s not bad.”
While the two were distracted, Sheng Ze wiped away the original patterns on the sword, then used his finger as a brush to draw a Ghost King command on it.
With the emergence of the Ghost King, everything in all directions shall submit.
The malevolent aura in the hall instantly weakened by half, and the previously incessant ghostly cries paused for a few seconds, seemingly unable to react.
—How could a mere old mansion have the aura of a Ghost King?!
The ghosts: utterly confused.jpg
At this moment, Su Ling rubbed the back of his neck and curiously remarked, “Why do I feel like the yin qi here has weakened?”
Shi Kongzang remained silent, furrowing his brows as he suspiciously glanced at Sheng Ze.
Pretending not to notice, Sheng Ze handed the transformed Demon-exorcising sword back to Su Ling and softly coaxed, “I don’t know how to use this thing either, so you better keep it yourself.”
Being coaxed in such a gentle tone, Su Ling’s mind became a bit muddled and he obediently took it back, saying, “Oh.”
Watching how his boss was deceived right before his eyes, Shi Kongzang thought to himself…
There was still some time before the spirits became most active at midnight. Feeling restless, Shi Kongzang took out his phone and joined a certain group chat—
《The Promotion and Salary Increase, Annual Million-Dollar Target Group》
Group Members: 5.
Apart from Sheng Ze and Su Ling, it was a group with all the company’s employees.
[Amitabha]: Do you guys know who that new employee that came in today is?
[Meng Xiaoman, the Most Beautiful in the Universe]: I just processed his documents, it seems like he’s an ancient ghost.
[I’m Not a Bookworm]: Finally, a new employee in the company? Is it a guy or a girl? What do they look like?
[Amitabha]: It’s a guy, good-looking face, the boss is almost smitten.
[Meng Xiaoman, the Most Beautiful in the Universe]: Yeah, very handsome! Your title as the Underworld’s Most Handsome is about to be taken over, @Chang Family’s Elder Brother.
[Chang Family’s Elder Brother]: …There are rankings in the Underworld?
[Chang Family’s Younger Brother]: Kongzang, don’t digress. What’s up with the new employee?
[Amitabha]: Nothing much, I just feel like something’s off about him, worried that the boss might be deceived.
[Meng Xiaoman, the Most Beautiful in the Universe]: It’s fine, anyway, the boss gets deceived every day…
[Amitabha]: You make a good point, maybe I’m worrying too much…
As midnight approached in the group, Shi Kongzang was still chatting away, but the Fan family’s old mansion remained eerily quiet, unchanged.
Resting his chin on his hand, Su Ling yawned, “What’s going on? Could it be that the vengeful spirits are too scared to come out when they see us?”
Su Ling’s casual remark inadvertently hit the truth.
Sheng Ze guiltily lowered his head.
“Never mind, let’s wait a bit more,” Su Ling started folding paper cranes out of boredom.
In the flickering candlelight, amidst the huge black and white photos, and the stark white wreaths… Su Ling sat in this eerie environment, nonchalantly folding dozens of paper cranes.
…Half past one in the morning.
When no one was paying attention, a wisp of black mist silently advanced along the blue brick floor. At the same time, the people in the black and white photos suddenly revealed a sinister smile, their gazes subtly shifting from staring straight ahead to looking sideways towards Su Ling and the others.
The black mist quietly circled behind Su Ling. The eyes in the photos of the deceased gradually filled with black, turning into two dark holes.
Yet, Su Ling and the others remained dozing off, completely unaware.
The black mist behind Su Ling transformed into a long snake, ready to lunge menacingly towards the three of them.
Then… it was grabbed by a paper crane.
The paper crane held the snake’s head and gave it a strong shake. With a “snap,” the black snake was shattered into pieces.
“Trying to be sneaky, huh? Attempting to sneak attack from behind!” Su Ling angrily glared at the black and white photos, fearlessly staring into those two black holes.
The photo ghost seemed stunned for a moment, then quietly changed their eyes back to normal.
Photo ghost: …Can’t fight, can’t provoke, too scared.
“Surrendering? No way!” Su Ling lifted the exorcism sword, raising an eyebrow at the photos.
The menacing black mist entwined in the photos suddenly paused, then disappeared completely in an instant.
– The speed of escape was quite impressive.
Su Ling: …
“Boss, should we chase after them?” Shi Kongzang asked.
Su Ling sighed irritably, “One evil ghost, over a dozen evil sprits, all running in different directions, how do we chase them?”
Shi Kongzang sighed with worry, “But now we haven’t caught anything, it’s not good to report back empty-handed.”
Su Ling pondered for a moment, then reluctantly said, “No choice, let’s see if they come back before sunrise.”
As a result, the three of them stayed up all night until dawn, but the evil ghost never returned.
With dark circles under his eyes, Su Ling opened the doors of the old mansion in a bad mood, only to see Fan Ziqi waiting outside.
Fan Ziqi had spent the night at the inn last night. When he woke up to a sunny day, feeling that it didn’t seem like a haunted day, he mustered up the courage and came back.
Seeing Su Ling and the others coming out, Fan Ziqi’s heart was filled with hope. “Boss Su, is it resolved?”
Su Ling: “…No.”
“Then, what do we do?” Fan Ziqi started to worry again, “Tonight is the seventh day. The Fan family members have to come back to keep vigil. If we don’t resolve this, it’s bound to cause trouble.”
Su Ling suddenly looked up, staring at him with wide eyes.
Fan Ziqi was startled and stuttered, “I-I have something on me again?”
Su Ling shook his head and said, “It’s okay, let’s go back and get some rest first. We have to keep vigil tonight, right? Let’s do it together!”
The seventh day of the dead was also a feast for spirits. Those evil spirits and ghosts were bound to take advantage of this opportunity to cause mischief, and then they can be taken down in one fell swoop… for the reward this time.
Su Ling was a bit happy.
Fan Ziqi was delighted to hear this, nodding repeatedly. “That’s great. Boss Su, rest assured, as long as you can resolve it, money is not a problem!”
Su Ling raised an eyebrow at his words and gave a signal to the monk.
Shi Kongzang made a Buddhist gesture, took a few steps forward, and smiled warmly, “You’re too kind. Considering the customer has always been the principle of our company. By the way, look here, I have a protective amulet. For just one thousand and eight, it can protect you from negative energy tonight. It’s simply a great value, an essential item for ghost-catching and evil-expelling…”
Seeing the excited nods and “yes” from Fan Ziqi, Sheng Ze couldn’t help but feel like he had found a gold mine in him.
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