Hearing Bai Liu’s tone, she wasn’t surprised at all by these people’s arrival. A suspicion vaguely rose in my heart as I whispered: “Sister, when you said you couldn’t suppress this, could it be because…”
“He still expects me to work for him, so of course he can’t completely tear things apart with me. It’s just competing in resources… but in this regard, I have to admit I’m still a bit too naive when it comes to dirty tricks. If it were me, I’d never think of such shameless methods like reporting to the police station right after opening.”
Bai Liu crossed her arms, her voice cold, and with the smell of smoke all over her, she looked exactly like a godmother from Guan Yinli, completely different from her past obedience in front of my dad.
All this time, it had been my sister protecting me. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t even have had the chance to try these seven times – I would have been dragged back early to be his chili sauce prince.
Thinking of this, I gritted my teeth: “Sister, what do I need to do to help you?”
Bai Liu looked at me with amusement: “It’s too late to suddenly embrace Buddha’s feet and try to be a domineering CEO… But fortunately, though I can’t count on you for other things, with your face and personal charm, Boss Bai, you still have something going for you.”
The voices at the door were bustling like a market. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes: “At a time like this, can you please stop flirting with me…”
But Bai Liu shook her head: “I’m not flirting with you. After all, based on my understanding of Daoist Han, given how unscrupulous he’s been doing business these past few years, what he did in your shop was indeed despicable in intention, but if I’m to evaluate it, his methods were really quite wishy-washy.”
“Huh?” I was shocked. “Are you really my biological sister?”
Bai Liu shrugged: “He wanted you to suffer losses. First was to make you sell your house at a loss for an eye for an eye, second was to completely ruin your reputation and cut off your retreat. If it were me doing this, internally I’d deceive you about the house being haunted, externally I’d spread rumors online in the first week saying a customer died here, then after making you collapse and willing to sell the house at a reduced price, I’d put cockroaches in your cakes and expose your personal information so you’d never have business again.”
“…”
I was silent for a while: “Is that what the one at home wants to do?”
Bai Liu glanced at me sideways without speaking. At this moment, Han Sha smiled and stood up: “Truly worthy of being Bai Yiming’s daughter. But I really don’t want to use such lowly methods on your brother… After all, though he has a face identical to Bai Yiming’s, in terms of scheming, he’s like Bai Yiming got him as a free gift with phone credit.”
“Don’t you dare say you’ve suddenly found your conscience now. I don’t buy that act.”
I glared at him.
Han Sha ignored me, just walked to Bai Liu’s side and sighed: “Your heart as an older sister is really big enough. This house is truly unclean – when I urged him to sell quickly, I wasn’t deceiving him… I don’t want him to die in this place.”
Bai Liu smiled: “So, we should reach a consensus on what happens next, shouldn’t we?”
Han Sha, covered in blood yet still genteel, straightened his collar and cuffs, saying flatly: “I can help you, but you should know that everything I do has a price… I still have a daughter at home receiving medical treatment. My rates aren’t cheap.”
“Of course, my brother’s future isn’t cheap either.”
“… Deal.”
I listened in confusion. Bai Liu turned back to look at me and quickly patted my face with satisfaction: “Perfect, that miserable face is just right. Go out in a moment and don’t speak – just let Daoist Han and me talk.”
Having said that, she gave Han Sha a meaningful look. Without another word, he opened the glass door. As the security shutter was pulled up, I was shocked to discover the entrance was surrounded by a dense crowd of reporters and self-media people.
The scale was exactly the same as my opening day, but this time I already knew what was going on.
These people were most likely all found by my dear father who expected me to inherit his throne.
Thinking about how he treated Mom made my teeth itch with hatred. In this regard, I couldn’t match Bai Liu – I couldn’t act to that degree. Facing this situation, even though I tried hard to squeeze out an ugly smile, my entire face still couldn’t help but droop.
At this moment, reporters had already shoved microphones directly into Han Sha’s face.
“Daoist, what’s with the blood on your body? Are the supernatural incidents that happened in this shop before real or man-made?”
What a pointed question.
I clenched my fists, realizing that my dad might have known all along that Han Sha’s purpose for working in my shop wasn’t pure. However, he was perfectly happy with this result.
After all, even if Han Sha was taking revenge on the wrong person, as long as I would go back, his goal would be achieved.
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Remembering Bai Liu’s words, I had to bite my teeth tightly and stand aside without saying a word.
At this moment I heard Han Sha say flatly: “This is not human blood, just chicken blood. As for what happened before, I was just rehearsing rituals – there are no actual evil spirits causing trouble. Please rest assured.”
“…”
Cold sweat broke out on my back as I finally understood why my sister told me not to speak. After all, there was a delicate balance here – the balance an horror-themed internet-famous shop couldn’t break.
If we admitted Huangliang Yimeng really had ghosts, it would immediately raise the risk of eating cake, and some timid customers would inevitably hesitate when coming again.
However, if we said it was completely man-made, the haunted house filter of No. 29 would be completely shattered, and the gimmick I had worked so hard to package would be unusable. In this matter, the best approach was to keep No. 29’s true face forever veiled – the unknown is the ultimate magic that makes people pay for curiosity.
And Han Sha was obviously calculating this very thing now.
The reporters who came for money naturally weren’t so easily dismissed, persistently asking: “What about the sound of breaking dishes that customers heard, including a woman laughing – were these also rituals?”
Hearing this, Han Sha just looked at him flatly, then spoke a sentence that shocked my entire family.
“Breaking dishes was needed for the ritual. As for the woman’s laughter… that was actually me laughing.”
“…”
Not just me – all the reporters present were stunned.
The most terrifying liars in the world are serious liars. Han Sha lied so brazenly without blushing or his heart skipping a beat, holding his head high with a confidence like “I am the queen,” causing the reporters in front of him to immediately look down, seemingly starting to doubt Han Sha’s gender.
How much money was Bai Liu paying Han Sha to make him say such nonsense?
I was greatly shocked and instinctively looked at Bai Liu’s face, only to find this woman just looking at Han Sha with reverence, seemingly completely immersed in the act.
As expected, after a few seconds of silence, the reporter crowd quickly exploded. Facing the microphones thrust forward competitively, Han Sha didn’t even blink.
“Just spirit possession techniques… Daoist methods are vast and profound. After cultivating for ten years, I’ve only scratched the surface. I really didn’t expect to frighten the customers in the shop. I’m very sorry.”
In just a few sentences, Han Sha brushed off the chaos he had single-handedly created while also reaffirming his identity as a Daoist.
“He’s a fraud, but he’s also a fraud with real skills. For example, he really did practice Taoism for ten years.”
Remembering Bai Liu’s words, I belatedly realized Han Sha was using his identity to create a smokescreen for this shop. Just like that grand opening ceremony, performing rituals as precaution didn’t mean there were ghosts, but having a real Daoist in the shop perfectly proved that No. 29 was indeed a haunted house.
Seeing Han Sha about to brush off the matter so simply, several unwilling self-media people began targeting my sister, asking: “May I ask if you’re the behind-the-scenes investor of this shop? Did you know about what happened this morning?”
Bai Liu seemed to have been waiting for them. Hearing this, she just very boss-like handed over a business card with two fingers: “I’m in the chili sauce business. This is my brother’s shop… I rushed here from the company this morning when I heard something happened at the shop. A lot happened today – I hope you won’t disturb my brother anymore.”
Having said that, Bai Liu pulled me back into the shop. In unison, more than ten phones and cameras turned to my face in an instant, making my heart skip a beat.
Damn, last time I was on Weibo it was because I went to the police station. Today, going on trending topics again with this ugly face right after crying – I might as well die!
I frantically tried to cover up, but in all the chaos, I only managed to sniffle and say “stop filming” before the security shutter was pulled down again and Bai Liu quickly pulled me to the very back of the shop.
The commotion at the door hadn’t ended yet, but obviously, Bai Liu and Han Sha had finished their performance.
Bai Liu pinched my face and looked at it – the worry that had been on her face just moments ago had completely disappeared: “With your tear-stained face on Weibo, I think those little girls will definitely be interested again… What they say online is right – you really are soft and cute enough, Yang Zi.”
“…”
I took a deep breath: “So you had me go out just to sell my tear-stained good looks?”
“What else?” Han Sha said flatly. “Aren’t internet-famous shops just doing business with you face-judgers?”
I rolled my eyes, furious: “It’s not your turn to teach me how to do things. I haven’t finished settling accounts with you yet.”
No matter what deep hatred this person had with our family before, just thinking about how he not only wanted to give me trouble himself but also instigated Song Nanshi to join him in deceiving me made me unable to swallow this anger. I said resentfully: “You still say your methods aren’t despicable? If they’re not despicable, why did you get others to join you in deceiving me?”
Before this, Song Nanshi and He Jian hadn’t been able to get a word in for a long time. Hearing me speak now, Song Nanshi’s eyes immediately reddened again.
He Jian hurriedly handed her tissues, boldly saying: “Boss… I think Sister Song might have really done that for business. You’ve seen how hard she worked before, haven’t you?”
“I…”
Song Nanshi was already naturally fair-skinned, and when she cried, her eyes turned as red as a rabbit’s – damn it, I didn’t dare look too much, afraid that while my mind was thinking about not forgiving her, one more glance at a beauty’s tears would make my mouth disobey my brain.
Han Sha looked at me with amusement: “Didn’t expect you to be so heartless, Boss.”
“Shut the fuck up.” I steeled my heart. “One thing is one thing. I may be soft-hearted, but I also don’t like being deceived. I never treated you badly before, so is it really that fun for you all to deceive me one by one?”
Hearing this, Han Sha just smiled meaningfully: “Putting other things aside, in this house, Little Song might be the person most like you, Boss. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so easily deceived by me… She really was thinking of you. I also saw this point and wanted to remove your right-hand person, so I approached her when you two weren’t around.”
Seeing Song Nanshi start to sob softly again, Bai Liu couldn’t stand it first. She walked over to help wipe her tears and shot me a reproachful look: “I already told you, I’ve checked the backgrounds of everyone else in this house. Your other two young employees have no problems. Can’t you trust me on this? At the end of the day, you were deceived for so long yourself, so can’t you allow this young lady to have good intentions that led to bad results?”
The first rule of face-judgers: in front of good looks, people have no principles.
He Jian also pleaded for Song Nanshi: “Boss… if you ask me, the strange things that happened in this house weren’t completely fake either. Look, when I got possessed, that wasn’t Brother Han’s doing. Though Sister Song deceived you this time, she definitely wouldn’t have always deceived you before. Just don’t be angry anymore, okay?”
The second rule of face-judgers: when two good-looking people speak together, there’s a stacking effect.
I sighed and convinced myself that at this point, even Han Sha had turned around to help me. Bai Liu obviously hoped we would cooperate, and continuing to hold grudges at this moment wouldn’t do any good.
Not to mention, if I searched my heart, I really couldn’t bear to give up such a beautiful girl helping me wash dishes and make cakes.
After hesitating, I walked over wanting to hand Song Nanshi a tissue. However, whether it was because my expression was too grim, the girl seemed to misunderstand my intention. The moment I reached out, she grabbed my arm and instantly broke down crying.
“Boss… please don’t be angry with me anymore. I really wronged you. I came to work at your place with my own agenda too…”