Chapter 17
017. Failing to transfer to psychiatry, Lu Yunji retaliated by ordering the most expensive dishes in the entire restaurant and opening two bottles of the priciest wine, trying to make Xie Changshi’s wallet bleed heavily.
Yet such provocation was no different from playing pretend for Xie Changshi.
“If you’re really that bored, go home earlier and hold a couple more meetings,” Xie Changshi said with a slight lift of his eyelids, placing a perfectly peeled shrimp into Rong Jing’s bowl, his voice calm.
Lu Yunji rolled his eyes. “No way.”
After finally getting off work, why would he want to go back for more meetings? He wasn’t some masochist.
He glanced at Rong Jing, his narrow peach blossom eyes blinking. “It’s been twelve years since we last met, and I haven’t caught up with Little Tail yet.”
Then he asked Rong Jing, “Little Tail, where did you go without a word back then? Don’t you know how bad Xie Changshi’s mood was during that time? He wasn’t paying attention in class, often daydreamed, and got publicly scolded by the homeroom teacher in front of the whole class. Terrible, right?”
Rong Jing paused with chopsticks in hand.
His attention shifted from the bowl before him to Xie Changshi’s face, but before their eyes could meet, the man raised a hand and gently turned Rong Jing’s face away, his tone even. “You believe what he says?”
Rong Jing thought, that made sense—Lu Yunji had always loved teasing him.
Lu Yunji’s eyebrows lifted slightly, a meaningful glint in his gaze.
Though the situation wasn’t as exaggerated as Lu Yunji described, it was true that during that time Xie Changshi was distracted.
The math teacher was calling out page and question numbers, but Xie Changshi looked down to find a Chinese textbook on his desk.
At lunch, he didn’t follow the crowd to the cafeteria but walked off campus instead, instinctively thinking there was a little hungry zombie waiting at home.
When he realized this, he lowered his eyes and quietly returned to the cafeteria, where Lu Yunji had already prepared an extra lunch and pushed it over.
Thinking of this, Lu Yunji couldn’t help but poke Rong Jing’s pale arm again. “Little Tail, you still haven’t told me where you went.”
Rong Jing bit the shrimp tail, blinking. “Went back home.”
Oh.
Back home, huh? No wonder.
“Where’s your hometown?”
“Coffin.”
Lu Yunji was stunned, turning to Xie Changshi. “Where’s that? Why such an ominous name?”
Lu Yunji considered himself well-traveled—he often traveled during college and had seen much of the country—but he’d never heard of a place called ‘Coffin.’
Xie Changshi glanced down, catching the mischievous spark in Rong Jing’s dark eyes, and couldn’t help but smirk.
He then answered Lu Yunji: “It doesn’t matter if you don’t know now; you’ll find out later.”
Lu Yunji: “Huh?”
---
How did Xie Changshi suddenly become so cryptic?
While Lu Yunji was still puzzled, Xie Changshi calmly added, “There will be a chance to go.”
“Is that so?”
“Mm.”
Their conversation flowed smoothly, and Lu Yunji didn’t notice Rong Jing, who was almost burying his head in his large bowl, grinning widely and suppressing laughter.
It had always been Lu Yunji teasing him before; this time, finally, he and Xie Changshi were teasing Lu Yunji.
…
The dinner went fairly harmoniously.
Before parting ways in the restaurant’s underground garage, Rong Jing rubbed his round belly, yawning and revealing half his face from behind Xie Changshi, saying to Lu Yunji, “I collected five hundred from you today. That fortune-telling you asked for doesn’t count. If you want anything else read, come find me anytime.”
Hearing this, Lu Yunji raised an eyebrow.
He had only gone to Changhua Street to get a reading from Rong Jing to see if Little Tail still remembered him and wasn’t particularly interested in fortune-telling itself.
Lu Yunji asked, “What if I don’t want anything else read?”
Rong Jing, reluctantly but honestly, said, “Then I’ll give you your money back.”
Lu Yunji was observant and found Rong Jing’s expression amusing. Despite having Xie Changshi beside him—who may have been a bit poor twelve years ago but certainly wasn’t now—he still fussed over five hundred yuan. Nowadays, five hundred or a billion added on wouldn’t be a problem.
Well, though reluctant to admit it, Xie Changshi was right.
Rong Jing was still a tender little rice cake, nothing like a black sesame dumpling with a bad heart.
He couldn’t break the habit of teasing Rong Jing, but casting a glance at Xie Changshi, he held back and nodded. “Alright, but let’s call it a day today. Next time when we have a meal together or when you and Xie Changshi come to the company, I’ll get a reading from you.”
Lu Yunji lazily waved at both of them and turned toward his car.
Seeing this, Xie Changshi also took Rong Jing back to Yunjiang Bay.
After a full day’s work, Rong Jing finally had a bit of surplus energy. Once home, he laid his head on the table and began bookkeeping.
Xie Changshi stood beside him for a few seconds, amused.
Rong Jing’s bookkeeping only recorded income, a bit self-deceptive.
“Finish your books and rest early.”
“Mm, got it. Good night.”
“Good night.”
Half an hour later, just as Rong Jing lay down hugging a doll, he heard a ‘toot toot toot’ knocking at the window. Barefoot, he got out of bed, drew back the curtain, and met a tired, pale, utterly disheartened ghostly face.
Rong Jing: “...Why are you here?”
---
Cheng Puyu politely asked Rong Jing if he could come in. After receiving permission, he floated through the wall and plopped down on the floor, looking extremely aggrieved like a wronged ghost. “I wanted to ask you, if I accidentally, carelessly, thoughtlessly, and purely unintentionally scared someone unconscious, can I still stay in the mortal world?”
Rong Jing listened to this string of disclaimers, feeling overwhelmed, and curiously asked, “What did you do?”
Cheng Puyu was silent for two seconds before deciding to tell the truth.
“Brother Song asked me to handle a client who’s an idiot, very demanding. The more I coaxed him, the more difficult he got. This is wrong, that is wrong, and he even asked me how employees at Xie’s company could be the best in the country with such poor skills... I got really mad. It was clearly his own problem, but he blamed me. I lost it, appeared at his house through the internet cable, and scared him unconscious.”
Cheng Puyu had been a ghost for years; this was only his second time losing control. The first was because Xie Changshi was too alluring, this time because the client was just too unbearable.
But after calming down and seeing the person passed out, he was also scared. Checking the person’s breath and finding he was simply unconscious, he immediately called 120 (emergency number) and then came to Rong Jing for help.
Thinking about his misdeed, Cheng Puyu hung his head like a guilty puppy.
Rong Jing patted his shoulder and said after thinking a moment, “Go to the hospital and check if the person is alright.”
Cheng Puyu gave a dry “Oh” and floated away.
---
The next morning.
Song Qing came to Yunjiang Bay with breakfast. As soon as he entered, he eagerly shared news with Rong Jing and Xie Changshi: “I saw on Moments that that Chen Rong from the Jiang family said he met a ghost last night!”
Xie Changshi frequently encountered ghosts and wasn’t particularly concerned.
Rong Jing, however, paused while drinking milk and leaned in to inquire, “What happened?”
Song Qing opened Moments and found Chen Rong’s post.
Chen Rong: Damn, I must be going crazy. I was chatting with someone from the Xie family last night when suddenly a ghostly figure appeared. I thought I was seeing things, but it floated closer and scared me unconscious.
Comments below read: “Maybe Mr. Chen has been too tired lately.”
Chen Rong: Maybe? I thought the same, maybe I was hallucinating. But when I woke up, I was in the hospital. The doctor said someone called 120 for me, but I live alone. Besides a ghost, who else would call for help? *smile*
Song Qing pointed to a photo Chen Rong posted—a ‘Hundred Ghosts Dispersal’ talisman with a watermark still on it, downloaded from the internet—and sighed, “Looks like the ghost he met was quite friendly, knowing to call 120 for an emergency.”
Rong Jing’s eyes flicked sideways, landing precisely on Cheng Puyu, who was clutching a pillow, curled up on the opposite corner sofa, looking guilty.
He nodded in affirmation: “Indeed.”
Then he kindly reminded, “By the way, remember to tell him that talisman is the wrong one. It’s not a Hundred Ghosts Dispersal talisman; it’s a Summoning talisman.”
“Summoning talisman?”
“Yes,” Rong Jing propped his cheek, mercilessly adding, “It summons vengeful spirits.”