Early the next morning, after doing the basic inventory, I temporarily left the shop to Han Sha and Song Nanshi, and took He Jian out straight to Luohan Temple.

Being young after all, after sleeping a few hours He Jian was fully recharged. Seeing my half-dead appearance in the taxi, he couldn’t help asking: “Boss… so what exactly happened last night…”

I rolled my eyes: “So you don’t remember at all?”

He Jian felt a bit guilty: “Uh… the latter part I naturally know—Brother Han pointed a sword at my nose, then you and Sister Song pressed me to the ground.”

I sneered: “You beast, don’t make it sound like several of us bullied you. Do you know that last night it was you who took advantage of me?”

It could be said that before last night, the most tragic misunderstanding I’d experienced in life was being mistaken for her ex-husband by drunk Bai Liu. However, compared to He Jian possessed by a female ghost, what was drunk Bai Liu? At most a drunk little kitten.

Ordinary people would find it hard to imagine a boy over 180cm tall acting like a woman but having the strength of a lion when taking action.

In the end, Han Sha had considered using a folding stool to hit him. To prevent either us or this kid from getting more seriously injured, I could only sacrifice myself, agreeing nicely that I would always stay, and taking advantage of the other party’s relaxation, finally the three of us together subdued “He Jian.”

Afterward, like a heartless scoundrel who pulls up his pants and leaves, He Jian had no memory of what happened, and Han Sha hadn’t expected this kid’s problems to be serious to this extent. He suggested I take He Jian to a temple or Taoist monastery with strong incense offerings the next day to calm his spirit, and also see if he showed any resistance to divine statues to determine whether the big sister was still in his body.

As they say, when in doubt, go to Luohan Temple. This time upon entering, I directly bought 888 yuan worth of incense, thick as a lighting version of a Gatling gun, comforting myself that since I hadn’t bought them work injury insurance before, this money would have to be spent anyway—there was no escaping it.

Luohan Temple wasn’t very large. I pulled He Jian along to worship hall by hall, seeing all five hundred-plus Arhats in succession, but He Jian showed no abnormalities at all. Instead, he had the excitement of a paid vacation and even wanted to take tourist photos with me.

I didn’t know if this kid was truly big-hearted or had come to terms with things. In comparison, I seemed more like a worried parent.

After all, He Jian was really too young, and his parents were disabled. If working at my place really cast some inexplicable shadows over the rest of his life, I couldn’t get over it psychologically.

After burning incense in front of the Great Buddha Hall, I asked carefully: “Did you feel uncomfortable at all along the way just now?”

He Jian sent photos of himself burning incense to his family, saying inexplicably: “Just felt a bit smoky… I’d never been to Luohan Temple before. I didn’t know the incense offerings were so popular here.”

I was stunned and said strangely: “You kid were such a dedicated student before? Fine that you never dated, but never even came to Luohan Temple—you’ve wasted being a Yu Jiang native!”

Hearing this, He Jian immediately touched his head somewhat embarrassedly: “Actually, I always said I’d come, but because my dad has trouble with his legs, there was never an opportunity… When I was burning incense just now, I was thinking of burning some for them too, praying for my mom’s health to improve soon.”

…

Could you not say such things to me with that face!

The little guilt I had in my heart exploded on the spot after He Jian said this. This kid originally came to work at my shop to be able to go home frequently to see his parents—his filial piety was witnessed by heaven and earth. Now he’d been affected to the point where even his gender would occasionally change. If I didn’t take responsibility for him, I’d truly be inhuman.

I instantly understood the mentality of those “mom fans” online. With a grand wave of my hand, I patted him: “Buy! You can buy everything! Go pick out some prayer beads for yourself. Don’t worry about the price—boss will reimburse you today.”

I pushed He Jian into the Dharma goods circulation area, having prepared myself for major bleeding. Who would have thought this kid, after picking and choosing, only chose three strings of not-too-expensive camphor wood prayer beads, saying pitifully that he wanted to bring two strings for his parents too… As you can imagine, my conscience was instantly shot full of holes like a sieve. In the end, I forcibly replaced them with three strings of small-leaf red sandalwood before calling it quits.

“Boss, you’re way too good to people. I used to think all business people were old capitalists. I’ll definitely work hard this afternoon when we get back!”

Coming out of Luohan Temple, He Jian was very moved and kept thanking me. With the blessing of that face, last night’s incident had long been thrown to the back of my mind. I looked at the time—it was only eleven o’clock: “It’s still early. How about I treat you to a meal?”

He Jian blinked: “Boss, you’re not hiding some side business from us, are you? I haven’t seen you this generous at the shop.”

At this point, this kid had been dragged into such a situation because of me. Some things couldn’t be kept hidden forever. I laughed: “Saving money is a virtue, but saving money doesn’t mean having no money. Tell me first, what do you want to eat?”

Without any surprise, He Jian and I ended up walking into a hot pot restaurant. I didn’t give He Jian a chance to look at the menu and directly ordered all the signature dishes, saying: “You’re still growing. Eat more… Old Han also said that encountering such things repeatedly, even if your physical foundation is good, you can’t keep taking abuse like this.”

He Jian looked at the total price on the menu and was so shocked he didn’t dare move. After a long while, he said carefully: “Boss, we won’t be kept here to wash dishes later, will we? When I came before, I only dared order one-third of this amount.”

I poured him some Laoying tea: “Worried I’ll give you trouble again? Don’t worry—if we really get kept here to wash dishes, someone will rescue me and fish you out in the process.”

He Jian looked carefully at my expression. It didn’t seem like I was joking, so he felt relieved and started putting goose intestines in the pot, sighing: “Then I won’t be polite, boss. I haven’t had a proper hot pot meal in ages. When I ate with the guys from the dorm before, you had to be quick to grab good stuff like goose intestines.”

I laughed: “You have time to eat hot pot with roommates but no girlfriend? You’re not bad-looking either. What were you doing in college to still be single? No one you like?”

He Jian smiled bitterly: “It’s not that… there’s no one I like, it’s just that with my family situation, even if I had a girlfriend it would be unfair to drag her down. I have to take care of my dad and work part-time—no time to accompany anyone. At most I could just eat hot pot with the dorm guys.”

“…”

I sighed.

You have to know, when I was He Jian’s age, relying on my sister’s support, I lived completely wildly. When I was abroad, I’d often take three or four hour trains to other cities just to try a new cake. It wouldn’t be excessive to call it wasteful spending.

I picked up another piece of goose intestine for him: “Speaking of which, your parents aren’t anxious either. A perfectly good university graduate working at my small shop instead of doing proper work—if it were my dad, he’d want to kill me.”

“That’s because your family hasn’t encountered any major incidents, boss, so they have such high expectations for you… My parents just hope I can live well.”

He Jian wiped his sweat and suddenly smiled: “When I was little, my dad told me that nothing compares to living peacefully for a lifetime. Speaking of which, boss, I don’t think I’ve ever told you about the accident my dad and I encountered before?”

I shook my head, thinking to myself this kid was lucky to have met me. Otherwise, a 68-yuan plate of goose intestines could make him spill his heart out, and I’d really worry about him being manipulated by other capitalists in the future.

He Jian said lightly: “When I was in middle school, one day my dad was driving me to school when we suddenly encountered a woman chasing a van on the road. She was chasing and crying, saying the people in the van had taken her daughter. Everyone on the whole street could hear her cries for help, but no one dared to stop the van because it was driving so fast, like crazy, running red lights all the way.”

I opened my mouth, and precisely because I’d already guessed the ending of this story, the voice in my throat seemed stuck.

He Jian unconsciously touched his back, as if the wound still burned: “At that time… my dad only hesitated for a moment before driving to chase them. That was the first time I’d been in such a fast car. My dad pressed the accelerator several times and quickly caught up with that car. Then before I could react, I heard a loud crash, and then the car flipped. I was hanging upside down in the car at the time, watching the people from the van trying to escape with a child, but this time finally several people surrounded them and brought them down.”

“So there you have it.”

He Jian shrugged, not continuing with the aftermath: “No one knows which comes first—tomorrow or an accident. It’s good enough to live peacefully.”

Obviously, this kid’s honest nature was inherited from his dad.

He Jian spoke in a very relaxed tone, but just thinking that he could now be said to be the biggest victim of Huangliang Yimeng’s haunting, my conscience kept getting beaten up.

Heaven knows whether that big sister would possess his body again in the future. If my shop really didn’t continue operating, this kid couldn’t carry such a bizarre affliction for the rest of his life.

The more I thought about it, the more annoyed I became. Finally I couldn’t help it: “I should never have moved to sleep on the floor in your room. Who knew this ghost thing was so scheming? Even if it possessed my body instead, at least I’m not as refined as you—I’d be easier to subdue…”

“What are you thinking, boss?” He Jian said blankly. “Your life force isn’t as strong as mine.”

“But I…”

I hesitated for a moment, then finally made up my mind and said solemnly: “Didn’t you worry before about living in this haunted house without after-sales service? Now you can rest assured. Even if I sell the house, I definitely won’t ignore what’s happening with you. If Luohan Temple can’t handle it, I’ll take you to other places to seek help. At worst, I’ll donate more incense money to build a temple—I don’t believe we can’t deal with this evil spirit.”

Having said this much, He Jian finally heard something was off and looked at me quite shocked: “…Boss, why are you suddenly being so generous and good to me? You don’t have any inappropriate thoughts about a pure college student like me, do you?”

I thought to myself this kid had no practical experience but plenty of random thoughts, and rolled my eyes: “What are you thinking? Since you told me about your family situation, I’ll return the favor and tell you about mine, how about it?”

He Jian nodded with complete confusion.

Logically, at this moment I should have had a beer or a cigarette, but unfortunately I couldn’t handle either. Having no choice, I could only order some iced jelly and began: “Actually, I’m not as poor as you all think.”

He Jian blinked: “Boss, you really do have a side business?”

Young people’s minds were still pure. I smiled: “I mean, my family situation actually isn’t this bad. Really speaking, if something’s truly wrong with you, I could support you and your family for the rest of your lives without any problem. My family can back me up on this.”

He Jian gradually understood, his eyes bright: “Boss, is your sister that amazing? I, I, I… I can’t handle you, boss, but I should be able to handle your sister!”

I laughed at his audacity: “It’s no use if you can handle my sister—you’d need to be able to handle my dad. After all, my sister is actually just an employee. She works for the Bai family, and I ran away precisely because I didn’t want that job. Who could have imagined that trying to be self-reliant and earn some money would be so difficult? Not only did the previous seven shops close down, but this one can even encounter ghosts. I really don’t know what debts I owed in my past life…”

I sighed at the end, originally wanting to promise that the Bai family would definitely take responsibility for him to the end. Who would have thought the young man would thoughtfully rub his ring finger and suddenly murmur:

“Looking at it this way, perhaps the real ghost… might have followed you here, boss.”