Chapter 49: Spirit Communication
In the first half of the night, the moon was bright and the stars were few, but later on, a big dark cloud drifted in from somewhere and covered the whole sky.
It was the National Day holiday, and autumn had clearly arrived. The wind at night felt especially cold and lonely.
There were fewer and fewer people walking on the sidewalks. The street food stalls started packing up, and the number of cars on the road dropped a lot.
Yu Fan was full of energy, playing mobile games. During holidays, his sleep schedule naturally shifted to later hours.
He lost one game and felt a bit annoyed. But when he turned his head, he saw that Li Mu, who was sitting next to him, had somehow fallen asleep.
“Li Mu’s sleep schedule always seems so healthy,” he mumbled, looking at how Li Mu was sleeping.
Li Mu didn’t seem to care about comfort. He had taken off his shoes in the car, pulled his legs up, and curled up, leaning back against the seat.
Maybe his position wasn’t very comfortable, because his light snoring kept stopping and starting. Every now and then, he moved a little, as if trying to find a better way to sleep.
Yu Fan thought about moving to the front seat so Li Mu could lie down properly, but just as he grabbed the door handle, Chen Yi suddenly said, “It’s almost time. Get ready.”
Chen Yi’s voice startled Li Mu awake.
His body shook a little, and he quickly became alert. “Is it 3 o’clock already?”
“Yeah, almost.”
Yu Fan picked up a bowl and chopsticks from the front passenger seat, looking out of the car with a troubled face.
Even though it was late at night and there were very few people around, there was a night food stall not far from the crossroad. A few people were still eating and drinking there, and other pedestrians passed by every now and then. It wasn’t exactly quiet.
Why are all these people still awake at this hour?
He felt nervous and didn’t want to get out of the car with the bowl and chopsticks in hand. It was just too embarrassing.
“As long as you’re not embarrassed, it’s other people who will feel awkward,” said Li Mu, rubbing his eyes after just waking up, trying to encourage him again.
Chen Yi also nodded calmly. “If you want to go down this path, you’ll have to deal with even more embarrassing stuff later. Like doing spirit dances in front of hundreds of people.”
Yu Fan imagined that scene and immediately got goosebumps, almost having an acute attack of embarrassment.
He looked at Chen Yi with admiration.
No wonder this guy’s a pro, he’s really thick-skinned.
“Then how about you go?” Yu Fan handed the bowl and chopsticks toward Chen Yi.
But Chen Yi didn’t take them. Instead, he looked down, pulled out a handgun, attached a silencer, and asked, “If you go, I can protect you. But if I go, can you protect me?”
“Fine…”
“Don’t use the gun unless you really have to,” Chen Yi said as he drove the car to the zebra crossing at the crossroad. “Even with a silencer, it’s still loud.”
Yu Fan got out of the car slowly, like a bride about to be married, looking back at the car every few steps. But no matter how long he dragged it out, he still ended up standing in the middle of the road.
At that moment, there was another pedestrian waiting at the traffic light. When they saw Yu Fan walking over with a bowl in his hands, they looked at him with a curious face.
Being stared at like that, the feeling of shame hit him all at once. His face started to feel hot.
He swallowed nervously and glanced at the time on his phone, quietly muttering to himself.
They say that if someone is nearby, it won’t work very well.
So… can we just forget about it?
Yu Fan looked back at the car with pleading eyes, hoping someone would save him. But all he saw was Li Mu giving him a big thumbs-up with a straight face.
With a sigh, Yu Fan pushed down the shame from being watched by others. He lowered his head, closed his eyes, and started tapping the bowl with his chopsticks in a steady rhythm.
The person nearby jumped in surprise at his actions and looked at him more strangely than before.
“Crazy guy, doing this in the middle of the night…”
The person glanced at the traffic light, which had just turned green, and quickly crossed the street.
Yu Fan heard what the person said, and it made him feel even worse inside. But his face didn’t change at all, he tried hard to copy Li Mu’s cold, expressionless look.
In this kind of situation, the calmer you are, the less awkward it feels.
Probably.
Too bad he never learned to play any musical instruments. If he could play ‘Canon in D’, people might think he was an artist instead of someone crazy.
There were still a fair number of people and cars around, so even with his eyes closed, the noise from the traffic made it impossible to calm down.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps and someone yawning. Another passerby had walked up next to him.
Zhang Hui looked at the person in front of him with a puzzled face, checking him out from head to toe. After thinking for a moment, he remembered seeing this guy earlier that afternoon with his cousin.
“Li Mu’s classmate?”
“What are you doing here?”
Yu Fan didn’t reply. Zhang Hui noticed his eyes were tightly shut, and his face was slightly red.
Could it be that his family is so poor that he has to come out and beg?
“But his clothes don’t look cheap…”
Zhang Hui couldn’t figure it out. After a moment’s thought, he pulled two coins from his pocket and dropped them into Yu Fan’s bowl.
Since he was a friend of Li Mu, he might as well help him out a little. It’s not a lot of money anyway.
“You’re a grown man with hands and feet. Go home, okay?” Zhang Hui said with a tone full of pity.
But Yu Fan still didn’t open his eyes, and his face turned even redder from embarrassment.
Just as Zhang Hui was about to say something else, he heard soft footsteps from behind. He turned and saw Li Mu jogging over. Without saying a word, Li Mu grabbed Zhang Hui by the arm and pulled him to the side.
“Wait, why are you here too?”
Li Mu really wanted to laugh, his shoulders were even shaking a bit, but he kept a serious face and said, “We’re filming a graduation video!”
“Graduation videos are this intense now?” Zhang Hui looked back at Yu Fan in shock. “Begging in the middle of the night?”
“No, it’s for a short video,” Li Mu said, barely holding back laughter but speaking very seriously. “We’re doing a test for social media, to see how much a blind beggar can make in one day. Please don’t interfere, it’ll mess up the data.”
“You’re doing that at night? Shouldn’t you be testing during the day, like near a bus station?”
“We already did that during the day.”
Li Mu made things up as he went, while smiling at Yu Fan.
Yu Fan looked like he was about to explode.
Wait, focus. Be serious. We’re here to drive away ghosts, real ghost hunters in modern times!
After leading Zhang Hui away from the safety island, Li Mu pretended to film Yu Fan with his phone and said to Zhang Hui, “Go on, do your thing. Why are you still up at this hour anyway?”
“I just woke up and came out to grab a bite.” Of course, Zhang Hui wasn’t going to admit that he’d been sleeping on a park bench nearby, that would be too embarrassing.
“I’ll go now then,” Zhang Hui said. Before leaving, he glanced back at Yu Fan one more time, still feeling like he’d been tricked.
These two must be doing something shady, right?
But then again, there are lots of weird videos on social media these days. People do all kinds of crazy stuff just to get views. Compared to that, what Li Mu and Yu Fan were doing didn’t seem that strange after all.
Just then, Li Mu suddenly let out a deep sigh.
“What’s wrong?” Zhang Hui asked curiously.
“Why do I keep running into people I know at this hour?” Li Mu said with annoyance. He didn’t care about strangers, but when it came to people he knew, he felt like he had to explain things.
He looked toward the girl who was now walking across the street toward Yu Fan, cursing in his heart but keeping a straight face as he urged Zhang Hui, “Go on, don’t worry about me.”
“Alright then.”