Song Nanshi cried so hard she could barely breathe. Because she looked truly pitiful, I had no time to think about the content of her words, relying purely on face-judger instinct to pull her into my arms and wipe her face.

“Stop crying first, speak slowly… I didn’t say I was going to do anything to you.”

Now I finally understood what Bai Liu had said earlier – just based on a tear-stained face, people really would pay for it.

I don’t know what I look like, but anyway I can’t stand Song Nanshi’s crying appearance. This girl doesn’t even wear makeup normally, and when she cries it’s to the degree that one look makes my conscience ache.

Making a beautiful woman shed tears – this is committing a crime!

For some reason, once Song Nanshi was in my arms, she cried even more pitifully, soaking several tissues in my hands in succession. I wiped frantically, and seeing this, Bai Liu gave me a meaningful look: “Indeed, she’s quite similar to you. When you were little and I accused you of stealing my cookies, you cried just like this too.”

I rolled my eyes: “How is this the same thing? I was crying because you’re clearly my biological sister, yet you’d quibble over me eating one of your little cookies… knowing full well I like sweet things.”

Bai Liu said with amusement: “How is it not the same? Aren’t you both feeling wronged? You even went around telling people, ‘I love my sister the most, but sister called me a thief’… Why don’t you ask this young lady what she’s feeling wronged about?”

Thinking about it calmly now, that was indeed the case.

Although Song Nanshi did deceive me, I’m not blind to this extent. Setting aside the fact that this girl really doesn’t have any scheming nature, whether it was helping me in the kitchen or going out to help me research information, the enthusiasm she showed couldn’t have been fake.

Just because she was deceived by someone, I suspected there were problems with her character – anyone would feel wronged by that.

Thinking this way, I immediately began to feel bad about it and softened my voice: “Don’t cry anymore, I went too far… I should settle this account with Han Sha, it’s not your fault, okay?”

Song Nanshi finally stopped crying after a while, sniffling as she looked at me with teary eyes: “B-Boss, you won’t kick me out, will you? I… I finally have…”

Now not only Bai Liu, but even Han Sha, the culprit, couldn’t help laughing out loud, saying thoughtfully: “I think I did another good deed.”

“Shut up, you.”

I glared viciously at Han Sha, helped Song Nanshi wipe away the remaining tears on her face, and said gently: “We can’t open for business anyway, so how about I treat you to cake later? I know you like cheesecake.”

Song Nanshi mumbled: “Boss, you really don’t blame me anymore? I actually… when I first came to work for you, I really did have other thoughts.”

What kind of day is today – everyone wants to confess and seek leniency.

I sighed. Even my greatest anger had been extinguished by her storm of tears, and I said helplessly: “Don’t worry, today is a day of universal amnesty. The one ahead of you who should be beheaded is still alive and kicking, so what are you worried about?”

Song Nanshi blinked: “Even if… I originally wanted to be a haunted house beauty?”

“…”

I was shocked.

Over the years I’d heard of many beauty combinations – fried chicken beauty, braised meat beauty, and all sorts. Even my sister was once called the chili sauce beauty, but…

What the hell is a haunted house beauty?

Although human kinks are free, people can’t… at least shouldn’t.

Bai Liu burst out laughing: “So that’s all it was. I was wondering how my investigation could be wrong… I thought you came here coveting the boss’s good looks.”

Song Nanshi bit her lip awkwardly: “Before, some of my colleagues said they wanted to shoot short videos at funeral parlors and such, thinking they might go viral… But I always felt that filming such things at funeral parlors was too disrespectful to the dead. I thought, since I’m brave anyway, why not try somewhere else…”

“So you came here specifically because No. 29 is a haunted house? You wanted to live in a haunted house?”

I was greatly shocked.

It’s 2022, and human diversity has already developed to this extent.

Song Nanshi’s face reddened as she hastily explained: “Not really! At first I came for the house, but later… later I stayed because of you, Boss…”

The girl’s voice grew smaller and smaller. Seeing this, Bai Liu sighed heavily and squeezed Song Nanshi’s shoulder.

“My brother has failed at investments too many times these past two years. Now his head is full of nothing but making money… You’ll have to work hard afterward. He wasn’t this oblivious to romantic hints before.”

Song Nanshi immediately nodded like a pecking chicken. Bai Liu added: “If he dares bully you again, just cry… Some people, as long as you cry, he’ll agree to anything. This is my secret weapon for dealing with him since childhood.”

“Can’t you teach her something good?”

I brought Song Nanshi a piece of cake with no good grace, but thought to myself that my sister is definitely more cautious than me in business matters. Now she seems to quite like Song Nanshi, which means there’s probably really only Han Sha as the “infernal affairs” agent here.

And now the key point is how to handle this real infernal affairs agent.

As the voices at the door dispersed, I knew this crisis was temporarily over. However, how Huangliang Yimeng should continue operating afterward was still a problem.

Thinking of this, I directly pulled over a stool to sit down: “Since everyone’s telling the truth now, let’s be completely open and honest and solve some practical problems… I don’t want to be closed for several days.”

Han Sha understood and sat down across from me: “What do you want to ask?”

“You said this house really has problems. So far, which things were you deceiving me about, and which were real?”

If my sister had verified Song Nanshi and He Jian’s identities, then at least it ruled out the possibility of the three of them working together… But the strange occurrences in this house definitely couldn’t have been done by Han Sha alone.

No. 29 really does have problems.

Hearing this, Han Sha said very straightforwardly: “The sounds upstairs and the newspaper weren’t my doing, neither were the hair and blood. Little He’s possession definitely wasn’t me. I originally planned many schemes, but I didn’t expect this house to have such big problems. I didn’t need to scare you at all – just improvising on the spot was enough.”

Wait…

Calculating in my mind, I couldn’t help but gasp – damn it, at least more than half of these were actual supernatural phenomena from the house itself.

I was shocked: “This house is so severely haunted, yet you still had the heart to deceive me… Big brother, are you really that unafraid of death?”

Han Sha shrugged, simply and clearly: “I hate your father more. Besides, I really have practiced Taoism – what do I have to fear?”

I was momentarily speechless, gritted my teeth, and began to interrogate him properly.

“Were all your rituals fake?”

“The rituals were real, but they don’t have the effects you wanted. Most were just for blessings… If there really were spells in modern times where burning some paper would be effective, your father would have been cursed to death by me eight hundred times already.”

“What about your magical implements? Didn’t they break in the middle?”

“They broke long ago – both the sword and bells. Don’t you remember when you first wanted to ring the bell and I wouldn’t let you? They were already broken then. As long as you don’t shake them with the right force, they’ll immediately shatter.”

“Then you fucking… dared to move in without even having real equipment?”

“How could I not have any? The red string I put on you is real – I regularly take it to the temple for renewed blessing.”

Han Sha shook his wrist: “I got this for my daughter. In the most dangerous moments of these ten years, this red string has always been on her.”

Hearing Han Sha mention his daughter, I took a deep breath to suppress my anger: “If the shadow I saw and Little He’s possession weren’t your doing, then this house’s situation is comparable to Zhou Yan. Big brother, how can you still have the leisure to act with me here? Aren’t you afraid something will happen to you and leave your daughter alone?”

But Han Sha just looked at me with amusement: “Boss, being afraid of ghosts is childish behavior. Over these years, the demons and monsters I’ve seen in people are much more terrifying than these. Having seen those, do you think I’d still fear this?”

Another person who knowingly heads toward tiger mountain despite knowing tigers are there.

I rubbed my temples with a headache: “You’re really something. Acting until you even believed it yourself, and even cutting yourself for the sake of acting. I really admire you.”

But Han Sha’s expression became serious as he said flatly: “I’m willing to go to such lengths because I really hope you’ll leave this house. Boss, haven’t you noticed? Almost every time something appears in this house, it’s targeting you. I’m not lying about this. Business people should have their own principles for weighing pros and cons… I don’t want my daughter to be unable to eat her favorite cakes in the future.”

“Who would have thought, Han Laosan, that you’d actually gotten emotionally involved.”

Bai Liu crossed her arms and said sarcastically from the side: “No wonder. Today’s performance even involved spilling blood, but in the end, because you didn’t open the door, the customers didn’t see anything – it was all for nothing… You actually didn’t want to deceive him anymore at the end, did you? Acting against your conscience, not bad.”

Hearing this, Han Sha just leisurely returned a very business-like smile: “I’ll calculate all these sacrifices into that price afterward.”

Speaking of which—

I looked at Bai Liu helplessly: “Do you really think he can be a partner?”

Bai Liu stared at Han Sha intently: “You don’t know his money-making abilities… He hasn’t been idle these past ten years, going from restaurants to beauty services, even medical aesthetics. Though he operates guerrilla-style, he’s touched almost every business trend. His methods are rather unsightly, but he’s made quite a lot of money… The fact that his little girl is still alive and well is the best proof.”

I shivered and asked dryly: “Makes… makes a lot?”

Bai Liu smiled: “Although our family’s patriarch brought down his company back then, he hasn’t stopped treating his daughter’s illness all these years… His daughter’s annual medical expenses, even with insurance, come to at least 500,000 yuan and up. Yet while making money, he still has leisure time to come here and act with you. Compared to someone who only knows how to make cakes and has no business sense whatsoever, tell me if he’s worth partnering with?”

“…”

Thinking about how I’d gone bankrupt with seven stores in a row, and the money I made might just be pocket change compared to his, I couldn’t say anything no matter what, and could only stare at Han Sha somewhat awkwardly.

Damn it, no wonder this guy was so slick with various review apps… He’s probably been a boss longer than me.

Han Sha still wore his blood-stained shirt, looking particularly like a beast in gentleman’s clothing, completely different from when he pretended to be a Daoist. He smiled and said: “The Executive President of Bai Family Chili Sauce is paying me to help – I’ll have to ask for an astronomical price… Miss Bai, do you really want to hire me to help your brother open a shop?”

Bai Liu sat down beside me and said straightforwardly: “I can repay double what my father owed you back then. Not only that, if my brother’s shop does well, I can give you additional compensation to ensure your daughter can afford her medicine every year… These days I’ve watched you act quite happily for a few thousand yuan at my brother’s place. Now with him as your boss – this naive sweet thing – and me as the big spender paying you, helping him is equivalent to making my father unhappy. What’s there to be dissatisfied with in such an arrangement?”

“Hmm…”

Han Sha seemed to consider with difficulty: “Bai Yiming humiliated me many times back then, so if you want me to vent this anger, I have one condition.”

My heart tightened, thinking this guy wouldn’t actually want me to kneel and lick his shoes. Just as I was thinking wildly, Han Sha looked at me with interest.

“My daughter likes your cakes. From now on, whenever she wants to eat them, you have to make them for her.”

“…”

“Ha, you really do quite like my brother.”

After a long silence, Bai Liu sneered.

“If you can agree to this condition, then I can stay here and work for you Bai family people.”

Seeing me reluctantly nod, Han Sha crossed his arms with satisfaction.

He said: “Let’s start by solving the first problem… If you really want to open a shop here, we need to figure out how to coexist with this haunted house.”