Chapter 151: They’re on the Same Side!
Early the next morning, Li Mu was woken up by someone knocking on the door.
When he opened it, Ren Tianyou was there, handing him a breakfast.
“I remember you usually skip meals, but now your body isn’t as strong as before. You need to eat three good meals a day,” he reminded from outside the door.
Li Mu yawned and nodded, scratching his messy hair as he took the breakfast.
“I’m heading to work now.”
“Work?”
“My family pulled some strings to help me get a job driving for a boss. The pay’s not as good as before, but at least I get health insurance and benefits,” Ren Tianyou explained, peeking inside the apartment.
He saw Yu Fan lying on the floor, looking sleepy. “When are you going to class?”
“In half an hour.”
Ren Tianyou nodded. His eyes stayed on Li Mu’s face for a moment before he turned and left.
Damn! If he had known Xiao Mu was a girl, he wouldn’t have treated her like a little brother all these years!
Now, even having a small crush on her feels wrong, though they’re not related at all!
“Who was that?”
“Brother Tianyou from next door,” Li Mu said as he carried the breakfast back to the couch.
Yu Fan sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Why do I feel like he cares about you too much?”
Li Mu felt like his tone was kind of jealous.
He sniffed the air and said with a teasing smile, “Huh? Where’s that jealous smell coming from?”
“......”
Yu Fan stood up and walked over, ignoring the joke. He leaned in and asked, “Why is there only one breakfast?”
“Because he doesn’t like you.”
Yu Fan, thick-skinned as always, replied confidently, “Well, I am really handsome. Of course other guys don’t like me.”
After breakfast, Li Mu suddenly remembered that he and Yu Fan had taken a taxi home the night before.
It was still early, and getting a taxi now would be hard. He’d probably have to take the bus, which meant he’d be late to school.
If he had known, he would’ve asked Tianyou to leave for work a bit later.
Yu Fan was brushing his teeth when he got a phone call from Chen Yi.
After stepping out of the bathroom, he told Li Mu, who was helping Xiao Jing fix her hair and makeup.
“We found the ghost’s location in Yingfeng Town.”
“Hmm?”
Li Mu didn’t even look up, clearly not that interested.
Before, he still had hopes that fighting ghosts might help him become a boy again, or maybe help him find his parents. But now, he had pretty much given up.
He was tired, both in body and mind. All he wanted now was to study hard and get into a good university. Plus, Xiao Jing was back with him, living a quiet life with his little sister didn’t seem so bad.
“So you’re not planning to go?”
“Nope.”
Li Mu nodded. “I’ll take the bus to school by myself. You can go.”
“What about Xiao Jing?” Yu Fan looked at the little girl getting her hair braided.
“I’ll go with my sister!” she said happily.
“Is it really okay to take a kid with you while hunting ghosts?” Li Mu asked.
“I’m already a grown-up!”
If Xiao Jing had still been alive, she’d be around sixteen or seventeen by now, so really, she wasn’t much younger than them.
But since she had no memory of her life before death, and had spent years as a ghost without much contact with people, her mind was still kind of like a young teen’s.
Li Mu thought for a bit, then patted her head. “How about this, you go have fun with Yu Fan, I’ll give you some money. Just enjoy walking around Yingfeng Town.”
“Okay!”
Yu Fan muttered under his breath, “I’m going there to fight a ghost... Since when is that called having fun?”
“Just leave Xiao Jing at a hotel while you're dealing with the ghost.”
Now that Xiao Jing had a real body, even though she couldn’t go out without makeup, at least ghosts couldn’t sense her anymore. That made Li Mu feel pretty safe about her.
Besides, if Chen Yi could take care of someone like Li Mu, surely he could take care of Xiao Jing too.
“Alright, fine.”
The first bus was almost there. Li Mu quickly finished helping Xiao Jing get ready, then rushed out the door.
……………………………………
“Spirits of heaven and earth, drive the evil ghost away!”
A talisman was thrown into the air. It burned by itself without wind, and the ashes gently floated down onto Zhang Hui’s head.
The old fortune-teller looked at the ashes in Zhang Hui’s hair and pointed, saying, “The bad luck that was stuck to you has now been removed. From now on, you’ll be free of bad luck and won’t meet any evil ghosts again.”
“That’s it?” Zhang Hui didn’t feel any different.
“Bad luck has no shape, you wouldn’t feel it,” the old lady said as she slowly stood up and took another talisman from a drawer.
She said seriously, “This is a safety charm I’ve blessed. Burn it to ash, drink it in water, and it will keep you safe your whole life.”
Zhang Hui stared blankly as she lit the talisman with a lighter and dropped it into a bowl of water. The paper turned to ash, floating on top.
“The safety charm, five thousand,” she said as she handed him the bowl.
“Are you robbing me?! You said it was free!” he exploded in anger.
“No, the last one was free. This one is five thousand.”
He stood up, pointed at her, and yelled, “You’re a damn scammer! If I drink this I’ll probably get diarrhea!”
The old woman calmly replied, “It’s already burned. Whether you drink it or not, it’s still five thousand.”
“Damn it!” Zhang Hui turned to leave, but the old lady grabbed his arm.
He shook her off lightly, and the frail old woman fell to the floor, crying, “He hit me! He’s bullying an old lady!”
“......”
“Five thousand,” she said again, sitting up. “I have clear prices! Even the Trade Bureau can’t do anything about it! The charm’s already burned. If you don’t pay, you’re not leaving. Or I’ll call the police!”
Zhang Hui's face darkened. “You’re a scammer and you’re calling the police?”
“Clearly marked prices!” the old woman repeated.
Clearly marked, my butt! You said it was free when I got here!
“I don’t have that much money,” Zhang Hui said, sighing as he looked at her lying on the floor like a drama queen.
“You win, okay? How about three hundred?”
“Do you think you’re buying vegetables or something?”
As the two argued about the price, Chen Yi walked into the small wooden house with Yu Fan and Xiao Jing.
He didn’t expect to walk into this kind of scene.
Chen Yi sighed, “Aunt Zhou, you’re scamming people again?”
The old lady looked at the three people entering and quickly got up, moving surprisingly fast. Then she put on her weak, elderly act again and coughed lightly.
“This is called psychological treatment, not a scam. I even have a government-approved mental health certificate.”
Zhang Hui looked at the three people at the door, completely confused.
Wait... wasn’t the guy in front the same policeman he saw last night? And behind him, one was his cousin’s classmate, and the other was the dead girl in the bathtub.
So... they’re all working together?!
He shivered and, without thinking, hid behind the old lady. He pointed a shaking finger at Xiao Jing.
“Ghost! It’s her!”
Even though he was pretty sure the old woman was a scammer, right now she was the only one who made him feel safe.
“Why is it you again?” Xiao Jing clearly didn’t like Zhang Hui, mostly because he was ugly.
The old woman also looked at Xiao Jing and said cheerfully,
“What ghost? Don’t be superstitious. Oh, and you still haven’t paid the five thousand for knocking me down earlier.”
“Wasn’t that for the ghost-repelling talisman?!”