“To be honest, your question is a bit complicated.”

After a moment of silence, Han Sha smiled.

“How complicated?” Zhao Huaimeng displayed the persistence of a journalist.

Han Sha’s gaze shifted, and he said gently, “As I mentioned before, cultivating the Dao also requires eating. Miss Zhao, I’m also just an ordinary worker. The boss provides me with food and shelter, I work for the boss—isn’t this only natural?”

But Zhao Huaimeng persisted, “However, I saw some gossip before, saying that Mr. Han, you have a daughter…”

“Are you planning to write about this in your column, Miss Zhao?”

Before Zhao Huaimeng could finish, Han Sha interrupted her, his expression suddenly turning cold, “I thought that with your publication’s level of professionalism, you wouldn’t write such gossip in a column.”

Having been a journalist for many years, Zhao Huaimeng immediately saw through the hostility in his eyes, and alarm bells rang in her mind.

Within half a second, this Daoist had completely changed his demeanor. It seemed the people in this shop were even more difficult to deal with than she had imagined.

Left with no choice, she softened her tone, “I just hope to write about this shop with more depth and humanity. This is also my first time writing this type of article… Mr. Han, if you don’t mind…”

“Of course I mind.”

Han Sha squinted, showing no mercy even when faced with her pitiful act, “I hope your publication won’t write unnecessary things in the end. But if you insist on writing a reason for why I work here…”

He thought for a moment, then directly stood up, coldly dropping a line, “The great Dao is simple, knowing is easy but practicing is difficult. This shop has a good boss. Miss Zhao, people like me who drift around everywhere don’t get free cake just anywhere.”

“…Cake?”

Zhao Huaimeng was still trying to digest the meaning behind these words, but Han Sha had already left her to go to the kitchen. Soon, a girl dressed all in black hurriedly ran out from the kitchen. Due to her rushed steps, she almost “fell” into the seat across from Zhao Huaimeng.

“Sorry, sorry!”

The girl frantically poured herself a glass of lemon water, “That… that, I was just in the back learning new piping and frosting techniques from the boss. Brother Han said you wanted to interview each of us?”

Song Nanshi, former mortician at Yu Jiang Funeral Home, now a pastry chef at Huangliang Yimeng.

Zhao Huaimeng didn’t want to dwell on her recent failure. She quickly glanced at her homework. No matter what, this young girl in front of her surely couldn’t be more difficult to deal with than that Daoist.

She decided to start with casual conversation to build rapport, “Miss Song, right? I heard online before that you stayed at this shop because you like—”

“Cough!”

Halfway through her words, Song Nanshi had already sprayed lemon water all over half the table.

The girl’s face turned bright red, “That… you’re not going to write about this in the column, are you?”

“…”

Really not expecting that even casual chat could go wrong, Zhao Huaimeng hurriedly explained, “Miss Song, actually I just wanted to know what your reason for working at this shop is? After all, not everyone is willing to work in a haunted house, right?”

She thought she had expressed herself clearly enough, but the girl across from her obviously misunderstood. For some reason, she suddenly began quietly talking to herself, “So if I take this opportunity to get it written into the interview, the boss will see it, and if the boss sees it, maybe he’ll realize…”

She murmured, then suddenly looked up with bright, sparkling eyes, her speech suddenly becoming very rapid, “Big sister, then I’ll tell you! Our boss is really, really a very good person. If it weren’t for him, I couldn’t have changed careers to become a pastry chef. Even though he’s very timid, he’s not afraid of my profession. He lets me make dolls, accompanies me to sweep graves, and brings roses to my grandparents… The key thing is, the boss’s cakes are really delicious! Can you write all of this in the column?”

…

Sister, I mean, wouldn’t a direct confession be better?

The columnist felt a headache coming on.

Although she finally had something to write about, the editor’s requirements were already quite ridiculous, and now if she had to add some idol drama plot elements…

After thinking about it, she decided to try her luck with the next person. Helplessly, she said, “Miss Song, I understand what you mean. How about if I write that your reason for staying at Huangliang Yimeng was finding a new direction in life?”

“A new direction in life…”

Song Nanshi murmured, repeating her words, then quickly nodded happily, “That’s right! The boss helped me find it! Big sister, don’t forget to praise the boss for me! I’ll go call Sister Lei out for you!”

With that, Song Nanshi disappeared from the front hall in a flash. After a while, a pregnant woman with a slightly protruding belly came out instead.

This one was even more heavyweight.

Zhao Huaimeng rallied herself and carefully looked at her notes.

Lei Hong, reportedly a former police officer, and her husband was…

“Hello, I’m Lei Hong.”

While Zhao Huaimeng was organizing her thoughts, the woman had already sat down directly across from her. After sizing her up and down, Lei Hong said efficiently, “Old Han invited the media for interviews to advertise, but from your appearance, it seems you want to write about something else. No matter what you want to write about me—”

She paused, “Don’t write it.”

Zhao Huaimeng: “…”

Lei Hong gently stroked her belly with her hand, “I’m pregnant, my husband is still on duty, I don’t want the interview to cause any unnecessary trouble. So if you must ask me why I came to work here, you can say I think the boss here is a decent person, and if I’m working for him, I can accept even a haunted house.”

Finally, she glanced lightly at the person across the table, “Girl, you should know that pregnant women have many taboos, and the child can’t hear rumors either, right?”

Who was it that said they could accept haunted houses earlier?! Isn’t that taboo?!

Zhao Huaimeng was becoming increasingly curious about what kind of divine being this shop’s boss was, and how he managed to gather all these difficult people to work for him one by one.

After a moment of silence, she wanted to make one last effort, “But this reason has already been mentioned by Mr. Han and Miss Song.”

“Really?”

Lei Hong raised her eyebrows, looking at her with amusement, “The fact that we all made up the same lie, doesn’t that better prove that the boss is a decent person?”

It only proves that what she’s writing is complete nonsense!

The columnist internally rolled her eyes massively.

Just like the editor said—first half haunted, second half crime-solving, and then the boss is also a golden finger who conquered everyone?

No! Absolutely not!

After Zhao Huaimeng viciously rejected her editor’s outline in her mind and threw it in the trash, at just that moment, Huangliang Yimeng’s boss Bai Yang also walked out from the kitchen, not forgetting to hand Lei Hong a cup of hot water, “Brother Lei, I made you stand too long just now, hurry up and rest… If Team Leader He found out I was mistreating his pregnant wife, wouldn’t he kill me?”

Just like in those photos online, Bai Yang looked young and easy-going, practically the perfect interview subject.

Hope immediately rekindled in Zhao Huaimeng’s heart.

As long as she could get something useful from the boss, this article might still have a chance!

“Your employees all think you’re a great boss.”

Thinking of this, she eagerly went up to shake the newcomer’s hand, “Boss Bai, have you ever thought about why they like you and this shop so much?”

In an instant, the person shaking hands with her stiffened.

Bai Yang said, “Generally speaking, this might not be a good story.”

Zhao Huaimeng continued asking, “Then why did you initially open a horror-themed internet-famous restaurant? And living in a haunted house?”

Bai Yang’s expression became subtle, “To be honest, this story is probably even worse.”

With just two short questions, Bai Yang’s image in Zhao Huaimeng’s mind had already changed from a soft boss to a master of deflection.

After much internal struggle, she had no choice but to fish that damned outline from her editor back out of the trash.

No matter what, office workers needed to eat and had to complete their tasks.

With no other options, the journalist finally threw out her backup question without hope—about that damn horror internet-famous restaurant opening guide.

“Then Boss Bai, Huangliang Yimeng has already succeeded and opened a second shop… If, I’m saying if, someone else wanted to replicate this successful model, what experience do you have to share? Or rather, if you were asked to write an opening guide, what would you write in it?”

She dejectedly opened her notebook, deciding to jot down a few words and then go back to start her fabrication. But unexpectedly, after hearing her question, a deep sigh soon came from across the table.

“Although it’s a long story, since you’ve come all this way, I can tell you an abbreviated version. I mean, if by chance you’re not afraid of ghosts or swindlers, and you’re also a broke sucker, then this guide might be of some use to you.”

Bai Yang thought for a moment, finally opening his mouth with a pained tone.

“If you want to open a shop like this, first remember that as long as a person is willing to go all out—”

Before heading to the new branch of the internet-famous restaurant Huangliang Yimeng, Zhao Huaimeng carefully browsed through the shop’s online reviews and related news reports. Among them, she picked out the most impressive sentence to serve as the title for her exclusive interview.

If she really had to say, Zhao Huaimeng felt she had quite some fate with this restaurant.

On a midsummer day last year, she and her ex-boyfriend had once gone there out of curiosity. They broke up that very day, for no other reason—within just a few hours, the entire internet witnessed her ex-boyfriend let out girlish screams as he ran out of that restaurant, and soon after, he blamed this incident on her.

As one could imagine, due to this reason, Zhao Huaimeng had always felt that Huangliang Yimeng restaurant indeed had something mystical about it—

Not the good kind.

Hearing that this new branch of Huangliang Yimeng was again located in a “haunted house,” Zhao Huaimeng specially wore the Buddhist prayer beads her mother had blessed for her. She drove eastward all the way, finally stopping in front of Jiefang Road Pedestrian Street, not far from Guan Yinli.

Just like Guan Yinli, Jiefang Road was also Yu Jiang’s established commercial district. Not only was it riverside, but it was also a transfer station for Lines 1 and 2. Nearly ten years ago, the shop prices in the Jiefang Road commercial district had already skyrocketed. Looking around, almost all establishments that could establish themselves in this location were top-tier internet-famous dining establishments like “Tea Something Moonlight.”

Obviously, for an internet-famous restaurant, being able to open a branch in such a location meant something in itself.

Following the navigation, Zhao Huaimeng went deeper and deeper. Finally, after circling around a malatang shop for nearly fifteen minutes, the severely nearsighted reporter finally noticed an inconspicuous neon light sign at the entrance of an equally inconspicuous alley nearby.

Huangliang Yimeng was another twenty meters further in.

The narrow alley, which could only accommodate two people walking side by side, was long and deep. The latter half was actually an uphill staircase. Zhao Huaimeng fingered her prayer beads all the way. Just when she began to doubt whether she had taken the wrong path, finally, a cluster of opening flower baskets appeared out of nowhere on the small platform halfway up the stairs. As the overcast wind blew, the porcelain dolls hanging under the eaves swayed with the wind. She turned her head and saw a small storefront by the mountain path, with four characters written on the metal sign.

Huangliang Yimeng.

Opening a shop in a place like this… did they really want people to eat there?

While she was stunned, a tall, thin middle-aged man in a Chinese-style jacket hurriedly came out of the shop. Upon seeing her, he first squinted and sized her up for a moment, then immediately pulled a business smile across his face that would make even editors afraid, and came forward to shake her hand.

“You must be Miss Zhao. I’ve been waiting for you for quite a while… I’m Han Sha. I’m the one who contacted you on WeChat before.”

The middle-aged man had a faint medicinal smell about him. Zhao Huaimeng remembered him too.

At Huangliang Yimeng’s old shop in Guan Yinli, Han Sha was the Daoist who handled the cash register.

She instinctively asked, “Daoist Master, you not only handle mystical affairs in the shop but also external business cooperation negotiations?”

Han Sha smiled, “Daoists need to eat too, Miss Zhao. It’s hard to find suitable work these days. Learning more skills never hurts… Modern Daoists face quite intense competition.”

He ushered her inside. In an instant, Zhao Huaimeng’s vision opened up.

It turned out that behind Huangliang Yimeng’s modest storefront was a shop built against the mountain, with a very high ceiling. It looked like it used to be a grocery store, and even the original wooden structure had been completely preserved. There were six or seven tables inside, and above the cash register hung an old photograph showing a smiling woman applying cream to a child’s nose.

At this moment, the sound of a high-speed mixer was coming from the back of the shop. Han Sha said calmly, “The boss is in the back with two pastry chefs trying out new menu items. It might take a while longer. Miss Zhao… although our boss has strong technical abilities in cake-making, honestly speaking, for many business matters, you’d get better answers from me than from him.”

Zhao Huaimeng: “…”

Actually, when she watched the interview about Huangliang Yimeng’s haunting last time, she had already discovered that this shop’s spiritual boss was indeed someone else.

She hesitated for a moment but couldn’t help whispering, “Um, I heard this shop is also in a haunted house. Is that true?”

As if not expecting her first question to be this, the Daoist paused, but then nodded without hesitation, “Indeed. The place where you’re standing now had a child who hanged himself three years ago. It was suicide.”

Zhao Huaimeng: “……..”

Was this something that could be said so casually?

The reporter’s scalp tingled, and for a moment she felt uncomfortable all over. Her hands rapidly worked the prayer beads as her mouth went dry, “Then… you people are…”

Han Sha noticed her nervousness and gently shook his head, “Miss Zhao, you don’t need to be nervous. That child has long since passed on… Three years ago, she chose this path because she was diagnosed with a rare disease and didn’t want to burden her parents. Originally, her parents couldn’t bear to sell this house because they missed their daughter, but now, their second daughter has been diagnosed with the exact same condition…”

Though the words weren’t finished, the rest of the story was self-evident.

Suddenly, Zhao Huaimeng felt as if she had been choked. She remembered that Han Sha had mentioned before that Huangliang Yimeng’s branch, like the main store, was also an internet-famous restaurant with a charitable nature.

It was said that recently, the shop owner had reached cooperation with Yu Jiang Rare Disease Care Association, recruiting family members of rare disease patients who urgently needed money but had limited working hours to work as servers or delivery staff in the shop. This both supplemented their living needs and allowed more people to understand rare diseases, contributing to rare disease charity work.

As an internet-famous restaurant that was already quite unconventional, even after its transformation, Huangliang Yimeng was still playing an unexpected card.

Han Sha said, “Miss Zhao, I can understand your confusion, but we chose to open a shop here not because this is a haunted house, but because the original homeowners really needed financial help. After all, ‘haunted house’ is just what outsiders call it, but actually, for those who once lived here, all so-called haunted houses are irreplaceable existences. Can you understand what I mean?”

For some reason, when saying these words, Zhao Huaimeng vaguely felt that a trace of melancholy appeared in the Daoist’s eyes, but soon, he resumed his ethereal, sage-like appearance and began carefully explaining the charitable model of this branch to her. Finally, he didn’t forget to show her all the shop’s qualification certificates.

“That’s basically it. We spent nearly a year preparing this shop, and there were quite a few difficulties in the early stages. But because we recently got new overseas investors, we’ll finally be opening the day after tomorrow. Miss Zhao, is there anything else you’d like to know now?”

After talking at length, Han Sha invited her to sit at a corner table. As lemon water was placed before her, Zhao Huaimeng’s spirits lifted.

She knew that her exclusive interview was truly beginning from this moment.

After all, she couldn’t allow her column to be filled entirely with advertisements, even though her editor had initially wanted her to write a sponsored article and had even come up with the title: “Horror Internet-Famous Restaurant Opening Guide.”

Zhao Huaimeng couldn’t help but roll her eyes massively in her mind.

Saying something about just needing to clearly describe Boss Bai’s arduous shop-opening process, and saying that readers would definitely love to read cool stories with both hauntings and case-solving. But please, she was a columnist for Yu Jiang Daily, not a novelist. With her professional integrity, she couldn’t possibly produce such sensationalist material to fool her readers.

No matter what—

Zhao Huaimeng took a deep breath, pulled out her notebook to look at the homework she had done beforehand, and said, “Actually, after the case at 29 Guan Yinli was solved, the controversy about haunted houses has gradually subsided. Mr. Han, please rest assured that I won’t focus on writing about this in this column either, because compared to the house itself… actually, what I want to know more about is the stories of the people in the house.”

“…People?”

“That’s right, your stories.”

Zhao Huaimeng finished speaking concisely and looked intently at the person across the table.

“I want to know more about why you initially chose to work in such a horror-themed internet-famous restaurant? And what is the reason that makes you continue to follow Boss Bai of Huangliang Yimeng… Mr. Han, could you please tell me first?”