On the first day of opening, I moved into He Jian’s room.
This kid He Jian was so easygoing—even with the landlord moving into his room, his first reaction was still to give me the bed. While worrying he’d get sold someday and still help count the money, I forcibly pressed him onto the bed and laid out bedding on the floor.
Han Sha said that absorbing people’s yang energy didn’t exist in reality. The special nature of virgin men was only because their desires hadn’t awakened and they lacked practical experience. Even if some evil spirits wanted to take advantage, what they needed to do was beyond your scope, like how when you’re young, you’d automatically wake up at crucial moments in certain dreams.
In other words, as a pure love warrior, He Jian had high magic resistance, but this yang energy couldn’t be shared—he couldn’t cover teammates. My sleeping in his room now was just for good luck, like placing a lucky charm by the bedside.
After preparing materials for the next day, I went upstairs to shower. By the time I finished at 10:30, He Jian had already watched his parents’ video call. When I entered, he was changing into pajamas. I don’t know how these college students trained to become male Bodhisattvas during their spare time from classes. He Jian was lean and muscular, but for some reason, despite his young age, he had quite a few scars on his body—three or four obvious ones on his back alone.
I couldn’t help asking: “Xiao He, those on your back weren’t from working out, were they? My sister keeps urging me to exercise. I’m looking for reasons to argue against it.”
He Jian pulled down his shirt somewhat embarrassedly and smiled bitterly: “No, boss. Didn’t I mention I was in an accident with my dad when I was little? These are from then… The doctor said I was lucky to have a good constitution or it would’ve been worse, so I’ve been working out ever since.”
After speaking, seeing me holding a blanket and pillow, he started worrying again about the boss sleeping on the floor while he took the bed. He tried to snatch my things to put them on the bed. I really wasn’t a match for a young person’s strength and could only say helplessly: “You haven’t even been PUA’d at a big company—where does this strong hierarchical consciousness come from? Look at Old Han—he never acts polite with me. I bet if I wanted to sleep in his room, he might charge me for the floor space.”
He Jian still wouldn’t let go of my blanket, looking aggrieved: “Brother Han has skills, so he’s not afraid of being fired by you, boss. I’m just a recent graduate with no experience. If you fire me, it’ll be hard to find work.”
I almost laughed at his response, thinking this kid probably didn’t know how much we dessert people were appearance-obsessed—our hiring was like a brothel madam’s. Looking this fresh and pretty, thinking about getting fired by me was wishful thinking. Without someone paying your ransom, neither you nor Song Nanshi could leave this shop.
I thought for a moment and said: “How about this—if you’re really worried I’ll give you trouble, I’ll get a double bed tomorrow and we’ll both sleep on it. Would that put you at ease?”
When I said this, He Jian probably hadn’t expected his boss to be so devious. His face immediately turned green as he snapped off the lights: “Boss, if the floor’s too hard, just tell me!”
The room immediately quieted down.
Honestly, this was my first time sleeping on the floor of an old house like No. 29. Getting used to it was impossible, but if I had to choose between encountering ghosts and being undignified, I’d definitely choose the latter. Plus, after such a busy day, I originally wanted to consider marketing strategies before sleep, but as soon as I lay down, my whole body felt crushed. Within two minutes, I was unconscious.
Looking back, I really underestimated this house, so much so that I didn’t realize the troubles from Huangliang Yimeng’s first day were far from over.
I don’t know how long passed before I opened my eyes with difficulty. Checking my phone, it showed 3 AM—only three hours since I’d lain down.
Generally, with my sloth-like sleep quality, sleeping over twelve hours was easy. By comparison, waking up naturally after three hours was extremely absurd. I was groggily wondering if the floor was too hard and was turning over to continue sleeping when a cold breeze came. I shivered for no reason and, looking closely, discovered the door was actually open.
A few hours ago, I had personally closed that door.
I instantly became mostly awake and sat up abruptly to call He Jian. But turning my head, there was no one on the bed. He Jian’s blanket was messily bunched to one side, but his slippers were still on the floor.
This kid—going to the bathroom barefoot in the middle of the night?
Given all the trouble this house had caused during the day, I was already somewhat scared. After waiting a while, He Jian still hadn’t returned. The hallway was pitch black without even the sound of a toilet flushing. I began feeling something was wrong and also got up in the darkness, tiptoeing to the doorway to look outside.
No one was in the hallway, and the bathroom door was also open. Only the mirror glinted dimly in the darkness, vaguely reflecting my face.
Obviously, He Jian wasn’t on the second floor.
This kid—had he gone downstairs barefoot in the middle of the night?
Thinking of the staircase where two people had died, my heart sank. I turned on my phone’s flashlight and walked to the staircase. Sure enough, I saw a figure flash past the corner on the first floor. When I called out “Xiao He” in a suppressed voice, there was no reaction at all—he just silently walked into the first floor.
…What the hell?
Goosebumps rose on my back. Although He Jian had only shown his face briefly in the flashlight’s range, in that instant I could clearly see his expression was extremely wooden. His eyes couldn’t even focus properly—he was almost like a puppet being controlled by strings.
Obviously, that wasn’t He Jian’s normal state, or rather… was that He Jian?
I suddenly remembered what Han Sha had said earlier about the San Qing Ling being able to both drive away evil and summon souls. He had worried about me being possessed by random things.
So why was He Jian the one with problems in the end? This wasn’t “Empresses in the Palace”—it couldn’t be that whoever I favored would become collateral damage, right?
My heart turned cold at this thought, and I immediately rushed downstairs. I originally wanted to turn on the lights to check his condition, but they say sleepwalkers shouldn’t be startled awake easily. Now I didn’t even know what He Jian’s situation was—it was better not to disturb him rashly.
“Xiao He, are you okay?”
I shone my flashlight and found him standing with his back to me, head down in the kitchen. No matter how I called, there was no reaction. Just as I was considering whether to call Han Sha down, He Jian suddenly moved.
Under my flashlight, he slowly pulled open the drawer beneath the stove, then drew out a fork.
My palms immediately began sweating.
“Xiao He… did you hear me? What are you doing with the fork?”
I asked anxiously, but He Jian remained unmoved. With his back to me, he began slowly raising the fork, then gripped it with his left hand, pointing the tines at his neck.
“Xiao He, what are you doing? Wake up!”
When I realized what he was about to do, I fell into an ice cave, because not long ago Han Sha had done exactly the same thing in front of us. I immediately lunged forward to grab the fork from his hands while shouting: “Old Han! Come down and get to work!”
Almost instantly, I experienced the strength difference between He Jian and me. A few hours ago, when this kid was fighting me for the blanket, he was really going easy on me. Now with all his muscles exerting force, even though I was nearly six feet tall, I could barely hold onto his arm. I had to cling to his back like an octopus to barely prevent him from stabbing the fork into his neck.
“Damn, did you grow up eating fertilizer…”
I squeezed the words out through gritted teeth. In just a few seconds, my back was soaked. I barely held on until the overhead light came on and Han Sha shouted behind me: “Fire bell exchange, destroy ghosts and eliminate evil—”
Before he finished, suddenly He Jian was like a machine that had been unplugged. The fork in his hand clattered to the floor, and he silently went limp in my arms.
“Xiao He!”
I felt his forehead—it was covered in sweat. I quickly laid him flat and had Han Sha come check his condition.
“What happened?”
Han Sha was wearing pajamas and holding a peachwood sword. Whether it was from being woken in the middle of the night, he looked murderous.
I briefly explained what had just happened. Han Sha’s expression immediately turned ugly. He went to feel He Jian’s forehead and blurted out: “This is bad—it really found him.”
“He wasn’t actually possessed by something, was he?” Thinking of He Jian’s strength just now, which really didn’t seem human—he struggled like a wild beast. “Didn’t you say his constitution could break evil spirits? How did it become like this?”
Han Sha gritted his teeth: “I said before, this house is too malevolent. Even with my ten years of Daoist cultivation, I nearly died here twice. Although he’s a virgin, he’s still just an ordinary person. He can’t always rely on…”
“He’s awake.”
Song Nanshi, who was trying to take He Jian’s pulse, interrupted us. Looking down, I found He Jian’s brow furrowed as he groaned and struggled to open his eyelids: “It hurts…”
Now just thinking about how I had implicated this young man made my conscience feel like it had been punched twice. I quickly asked: “How do you feel? Where does it hurt?”
He Jian looked aggrieved: “Feels like someone hit me from behind… Boss, my back hurts.”
He reached back to touch his back, right where I had forcefully locked my arm around him. I was speechless for a moment before asking: “You don’t know what just happened at all? If you hadn’t been so strong, I wouldn’t have had to use all my strength to restrain you.”
Hearing this, He Jian looked at me very confused, then said after a long while: “Speaking of which, I think I had a nightmare. I dreamed a customer came to the shop—a girl. She said there was no fork for eating cake and asked me to get one from the kitchen, then… then what happened?”
“What did that girl look like?” Han Sha asked.
He Jian frowned as he recalled: “She seemed… a bit fat, extremely pale, with heavy makeup, wearing red clothes, and for some reason, she was wet, like she’d been rained on.”
A woman in red clothes with deathly pale skin and fat.
The more He Jian described, the colder my heart became, and fine sweat broke out on my palms.
Obviously, the woman He Jian described closely matched what Manager Hu had told me about—the previous tenant who had been soaked and swollen in bloody water…
I looked at Han Sha, whose expression was very grave: “It’s definitely her—the woman I saw at the staircase that day. She’s been here all along, and with deep resentment. I don’t know if it’s because Xiao He disturbed her before, so this time she came directly for him.”
My heart sank to the bottom: “So what do we do now? If even Xiao He’s constitution can’t handle her, aren’t I definitely dead?”
Hearing this, Han Sha sighed: “Boss, I told you from the beginning this house isn’t as suitable for opening a shop as you think. To put it bluntly, today’s incident could happen again anytime. If you want to minimize losses, you might as well look online now to see if any professionals are willing to take over this place…”
“You mean there are people who specifically handle haunted houses?” I was stunned.
Han Sha looked at me seriously: “Of course there are, and unlike me taking odd jobs outside, knowing all kinds of techniques but mastering none… there are also Daoists who specialize in handling malevolent sites.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but just then Song Nanshi suddenly pressed my arm: “No, boss. If it’s really this malevolent, you absolutely can’t sell the house at this time.”