He Jian’s words came suddenly, and a chill shot up my back: “What do you mean? What do you mean by ‘real’?”

The young man said seriously: “Didn’t Brother Han say that the thing in No. 29 is a kind of collective evil entity? The police uncle also said last time that it hadn’t caused such serious trouble before. I was thinking, could our situation be related to your constitution, boss? Like maybe originally the thing in No. 29 wasn’t this troublesome, and it was the variable you brought that made the problem worse. I’m trying hard to recall last night now…”

As the young man spoke, his whole face wrinkled up. I was afraid that if he changed gender again in broad daylight, that would be a huge problem, so I quickly grabbed him and said: “Enough, I’ll handle this. If it’s about my constitution…”

I muttered to myself, but quickly felt his words were like a basin of cold water poured over my head.

“If you believed in this stuff, could you still keep opening shops after seven investment failures? This haunted house where four people died might not even be as unlucky as you.”

“Boss, it’s safer for me to hold this. Don’t keep stacking buffs on yourself… Let me share some of the burden.”

“Many things in this world have their predetermined fate. When you hit walls again and again, your fate is already laid out before you.”

I suddenly remembered some things I’d heard before. Now thinking about it, almost everyone seemed to have hinted that the series of situations happening at No. 29 might not just be its own problem.

It was possible that I was also part of the problem.

My heart sank, and before I could think more, my phone on the table vibrated frantically—it was Han Sha calling.

Forty minutes later, He Jian and I rushed back to the shop by taxi.

The situation on the first floor was still relatively stable. Although the shop’s menu wasn’t complete today, there were still quite a few customers. When they saw me return, the discussions in the shop exploded instantly.

A young couple whistled at me, pointing upstairs in a mysterious manner: “Boss, something seemed to happen upstairs just now. It scared your shop’s little sister quite badly.”

Seeing their expression of enjoying the drama, I thought to myself that if these young people knew how serious No. 29’s problems really were, they probably wouldn’t want to eat cake but attend funerals instead. After all, who could imagine that at one o’clock noon, when the sunlight outside was strongest, the second floor of Huangliang Yimeng would be haunted?

In broad daylight, the big sister had finally come out to boost her KPIs.

When I found Han Sha in the kitchen, his complexion was very ugly. He only said one sentence to me: “I’ve roughly controlled the situation upstairs, but Xiao Song is in bad shape. You’d better go up and check on her, boss.”

“…”

In my concept, with Song Nanshi’s courage, she could probably sit at a table with three Sadakos playing mahjong until dawn without any problem. However, what Han Sha had said on the phone was clearly—

“Xiao Song was so frightened by the thing on the second floor that she screamed and broke some things. The customers downstairs heard it too.”

What level of fright this must be, I really couldn’t imagine.

Before going upstairs, I uneasily asked Han Sha again: “Are you sure there’s no problem on the second floor? If Xiao Song with her strong horoscope could encounter this, Xiao He and I are both high-risk groups now.”

Hearing this, Han Sha just looked at me wearily and said softly: “I can’t guarantee anything to you now… With things having reached this point, actually no one in this house is safe, not just us, but the customers too.”

My heart dropped.

Who could have imagined that in just one month, No. 29 had already super-evolved to this degree… Even able to cause trouble in the daytime—it had really turned the world upside down!

Looking at the dark entrance to the second floor, my heart inevitably began racing wildly. I brought He Jian slowly upstairs, and as soon as we reached the second floor, I heard Song Nanshi’s soft sniffling.

Shit.

More fatal than making a beauty afraid was making a beauty cry. In our world of face-worshippers, this was unforgivable. An unknown fire immediately surged in my heart as I strode into the room, only to see Song Nanshi’s painted dolls shattered all over the floor. When she saw us come in, she frantically wiped her face, but her eyes and nose were still red.

“Boss… be careful not to get cut by the ceramics.”

Song Nanshi’s voice was thick with nasal congestion when she spoke, making me even more furious.

In the past, even though Bai Liu bullied me every day, if any jerk dared to make her cry in front of me, that would be unforgivable.

During the period when Bai Liu was getting divorced, my former brother-in-law made her cry too many times. That’s why the first thing I did after they got their divorce certificate was to punch both of us into the police station.

I carefully sat on the edge of the bed: “What happened? Old Han said you were frightened. Was it because of that bathroom again?”

Song Nanshi sat hugging her arms very stiffly, and upon hearing this, nodded with very small movements: “There weren’t enough dolls… I wanted to come up and get some. One doll had rolled under the bed, and I reached out to try to get it, then…”

As she spoke, she slowly loosened her right hand that had been tightly pressed against her other arm. Immediately, I saw five blue-purple scratches on her fair arm, as if someone had gripped her forcefully.

I sucked in a cold breath: “This is…”

Song Nanshi mumbled: “I got scratched when I reached under the bed. I was so startled that I couldn’t help… I think I scared the customers downstairs. I’m sorry, boss.”

He Jian asked: “When did these things in the room break?”

Song Nanshi curled herself into a tiny ball: “After I got scared, I desperately tried to pull my hand back, then inexplicably dropped a few dolls. Fortunately, after just breaking a few, I managed to pull my hand back. I stuffed the others into the quilt, so they didn’t break.”

She lifted the quilt, and indeed the remaining painted exorcism dolls were all intact, piled inside. She said quietly: “Good thing not too many broke. There should still be enough for today… I should have time to repaint the broken ones tonight.”

“What time is it to worry about this? The important thing is that you’re not hurt.”

I couldn’t stand seeing the beauty’s red-rimmed eyes. I pulled out tissues to wipe away her remaining tears: “Don’t stay upstairs anymore. Come downstairs first. I’ll discuss with Old Han later how to handle this… If not, I’ll book you all hotel rooms tonight to sleep outside.”

Mom used to say that even delicious cake is useless if no one eats it. Similarly, if this house really hurt everyone around me, then even if it could make money, it couldn’t be kept.

I made up my mind and was about to pull Song Nanshi downstairs, but just then, there was suddenly a series of loud sounds of plates crashing downstairs!

“Old Han!”

My heart went cold as I rushed downstairs, only to see that all the customers in the room were also in a confused state. A few bold ones wanted to rush into the kitchen to see what was happening, but Han Sha shouted them out.

“Don’t come in!”

Han Sha’s voice seemed to suppress extreme pain, sounding almost distorted at first hearing. Before I could react, there came a woman’s sharp laughter from the kitchen, making my blood run cold instantly.

This couldn’t be serious… Really seeing a great ghost in broad daylight!

With this sound, not only I but most customers’ faces changed color. The boy who had just whistled at me was now completely huddled next to his girlfriend, trembling as he said: “Honey, let’s go… If we don’t leave now, it might be too late.”

As soon as he finished speaking, that woman’s laughter rang out again at just the right moment, and this time it was directly in surround sound… If I hadn’t developed a strong heart over this past month, my legs might have given out by now.

However, just because I didn’t scream didn’t mean others wouldn’t.

After experiencing a brief blank moment, this more deadly fact immediately popped into my head, but obviously it was too late.

The boy from before shuddered, his sanity visibly dropping to zero completely. Before his girlfriend could speak to comfort him, the boy had already let out a sharp, brief scream and rushed out the door without looking back!

“Broad daylight… haunted in broad daylight!”

The boy’s voice echoed through the small street, and instantly all of No. 29 fell into complete chaos.

Within just a few minutes, the packed first floor was completely empty. Even the customers waiting at the door disappeared directly. After that scream, No. 29 completely returned to the desolate state of more than a month ago.

Huangliang Yimeng was finally left with only me and my three employees.

“Old Han! Are you okay!”

I rushed to the kitchen door and frantically pounded on it. With things having reached this point—coming out in broad daylight to wreck my business—even Lin Zhengying would have to bow his head to such evil forces.

I no longer felt sorry at this point. After all, in just these two days, I’d watched He Jian and Song Nanshi both suffer. I absolutely couldn’t allow anything to happen to Han Sha under my watch.

After pounding for a while, Han Sha’s very weak voice came from inside: “Boss… I’m sorry, I couldn’t save your plates.”

Naturally, I couldn’t care about pretending to be poor at this point. I said irritably: “I’m a rich second generation—do I lack money for your broken plates! Having you work for me doesn’t mean you should literally sell your lives to me! It’s no big deal if I don’t run the shop—I can still live the rest of my life. Open the door!”

After waiting a bit more, there was finally movement inside. The moment Han Sha opened the door, my whole back went numb.

Half of Han Sha’s face was covered in blood, his clothes were covered in it, the floor was covered in it—the entire kitchen looked like a murder scene. Han Sha’s face was deathly pale, looking not like a killer but like a corpse risen from the dead.

“What were you doing…”

I sucked in a cold breath, my gaze falling on the peachwood sword broken in two on the floor: “Were you having a knife fight with it? And you lost?”

Han Sha leaned against the stove and said softly: “Boss… listen to my advice. This house really isn’t suitable for business, and you’re not suitable for business either. In the future, draw clear boundaries with your family and don’t get involved with them. If you do that, perhaps in another two years, you’ll be able to open a shop.”

At the end, Han Sha seemed relieved, his expression comparable to giving final words. I didn’t know where he was injured, so I went up to pull him up: “Stop talking about useless things. With so much blood, you need to go to the hospital for examination. After all, you still have a daughter…”

The more I thought about it, the more annoyed I became. I told Song Nanshi and He Jian to clean up the shop and take the day off, then pulled Han Sha to go out and call a taxi.

“Boss… I’m sorry I couldn’t save your business. I didn’t want this either.”

At the door, Han Sha, like a bloody mess, was still talking nonsense to me. While calling a car, I also had to reply to the explosive messages in the customer group. Busy beyond measure, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

“You’ve never been this polite to me normally. Don’t suddenly act like you’ve found your conscience and want me to give you end-of-life care… Let me tell you, you still need to introduce someone to take over my house later. You absolutely cannot have anything happen to you right now.”

“Is that so…”

Han Sha smiled bitterly and stopped talking. I called several taxis but none would come around to pick us up at the back door of Guan Yinli. Just as I was considering calling Bai Liu’s driver directly, there was suddenly the sound of a car braking hard nearby, followed by urgent high-heel clicks approaching from far to near. When I looked up, Bai Liu with a gloomy expression was already in front of me—she hadn’t even brought a driver.

“Sister?”

I called out, but Bai Liu completely ignored me. She directly walked behind me, looked at Han Sha and said softly: “Han Laosan, you really shouldn’t have come looking for my brother.”

After saying this, Bai Liu delivered a slap across his face.