"Even with three hundred guts, I wouldn't dare mess with the Jing family. If we were found out, it wouldn't just be a matter of spending three months at the police station..." Master Zhou said sheepishly.
"Think it through carefully," Bai Yuhuai said calmly.
Master Zhou met his gaze, and although it was calm and unruffled, Master Zhou shuddered: "...You're not giving me five hundred guts now, are you? I'll do as you say."
"Teach him," Bai Yuhuai said to the young man.
Although the young man didn't quite understand the intention, he nodded obediently: "Stay with me for a couple of days first."
Master Zhou had no choice but to follow the young man out, trembling with fear.
Only then did Lin Zhi timidly peek out from behind the curtain again, saying weakly, "Did you... kill someone? Did you kill... Liu Dongfeng?"
"He wasn't a person, he was a ghost," Jing Jiujiu said, pulling out his phone and finding the news article about Liu Dongfeng titled "Man Dies Mysteriously in Theater." He handed it to Lin Zhi to see.
Jing Jiujiu: "Here, can you read?"
Lin Zhi: "No, I can't."
Jing Jiujiu: "..."
Jing Jiujiu: "Then how do you know what's written in the script?"
"They recite it many times every day, so I remembered it. And Liu Dongfeng would also tell me about it."
Jing Jiujiu had to remind him tactfully yet honestly: "If you can't even recognize characters, how can you think about teaching others to act?"
The illiterate Lin Zhi closed his mouth in shame.
For a moment, he forgot about what kind of ghost Liu Dongfeng actually was, and how terribly he had died.
Jing Jiujiu asked: "Was Liu Dongfeng your friend?"
Lin Zhi nodded.
Jing Jiujiu: "If he was a good friend, he should have sent you to school."
Lin Zhi stared blankly: "School?"
Jing Jiujiu: "Yes, illiteracy makes it hard to get anywhere in life."
After hearing this, Lin Zhi closed his mouth again in shame.
Jing Jiujiu briefly explained to Lin Zhi what kind of person Liu Dongfeng was.
But being just a chaotic entity, he couldn't really empathize. How disgusting and terrifying it would be for a human to sneak into someone else's house and watch them sleep. Naturally, he also couldn't comprehend how despicable Liu Dongfeng was as a person.
Indeed, he was still too uncultured.
Jing Jiujiu sighed quietly.
Bai Yuhuai had already listened patiently for long enough. Seeing the air suddenly fall silent, he spoke softly: "If one cannot distinguish between good and evil, there's no benefit in remaining in this world..."
Lin Zhi's heart tightened, and he quickly looked at Jing Jiujiu: "No, no, no, I can still be saved."
Jing Jiujiu also hurriedly turned to look at Bai Yuhuai.
"Today, when Little Cheng was moving around in the theater, he already set up an array. It's an ancient array specifically for capturing chaos," Bai Yuhuai paused, then said: "Don't you want to use chaos to mold a new set of bones?"
The "Little Cheng" he mentioned was the young man who could catch ghosts.
Lin Zhi: !
Jing Jiujiu: ?
Jing Jiujiu asked in confusion: "How do you mold it?"
Bai Yuhuai: "Chaos neither lives nor dies. Only by eating it can one use it to fill oneself."
Lin Zhi: !!
Lin Zhi: "Jiujiu, don't eat me." "I'm not chaos, I'm a person!" Lin Zhi shouted.
Jing Jiujiu's brows slowly furrowed: "...Let's not do this after all." Jing Jiujiu looked at the bloodstains on Lin Zhi's military uniform: "It's all bloody, I couldn't eat it anyway."
Lin Zhi didn't seem very happy to hear this.
Was the boy in front of him disgusted by him?
"Why don't you eat me after all," Lin Zhi shook his military uniform, "I'm not that dirty, really."
Jing Jiujiu just tugged on Bai Yuhuai's sleeve, walking towards the exit, saying softly: "It's no longer just a mass of energy, a mass of consciousness. It has been infused with human thoughts by Liu Dongfeng. Eating it would be like eating a person. It's so strange. Let's just leave."
"What he's been infused with isn't the mindset of a normal person," Bai Yuhuai reminded him.
"It's still weird. It's like having another person inside my body... coexisting with him day and night..."
Coexisting day and night?
Bai Yuhuai's eyelid twitched.
Bai Yuhuai: "Mm, you have a point. Then let's not eat it." He paused: "We can think of other ways. There's bound to be uninitiated chaos somewhere in this world."
Since they weren't going to eat it, this chaotic entity held no meaning for them anymore.
Bai Yuhuai led Jing Jiujiu towards the exit of the theater.
Lin Zhi: ?
How could they just leave like that?
Lin Zhi hurriedly chased after them.
Are they really that disgusted by me?
Well, he did say I was ugly last time.
Lin Zhi couldn't stand it anymore. He chased after them, shouting: "Why don't you just eat me... Just try a taste... I'm very clean... Maybe I even taste good."
The director was peering through the glass window of the bubble tea shop, staring intently in the direction of the theater.
Oh no... Why haven't they come out yet?
Did they anger that whatever earth-bound spirit and start a killing spree?
The director couldn't wait any longer. He went downstairs and walked to the outside of the theater, one hand firmly gripping his phone, ready to call the police at any moment... Call... Huh?
"Brother Bai!" the director shouted, his big mustache quivering.
Bai Yuhuai nodded slightly: "Everything has been taken care of."
The director asked cautiously: "Really?"
Jing Jiujiu couldn't help but add: "Actually, there's still something in there. But it's not a ghost. It's just a bit... uneducated..."
The director asked tremblingly: "What... what kind of thing?"
Lin Zhi heard the conversation outside from behind the door. Feeling both ashamed and unwilling, he scratched at the door: "But... being illiterate doesn't affect how good I taste!"
On this side, Jing Jiujiu noticed the director's frightened expression. After thinking for a moment, he turned back and went inside the door.
Lin Zhi saw him and his face lit up with joy.
"Mm, you're right, you are a person," Jing Jiujiu said.
Lin Zhi was taken aback.
Jing Jiujiu asked him: "Do you remember what kind of person Lin Zhi was?"
"A general."
"Do you know what a general does?"
"...Kill people." Lin Zhi licked his lips and said excitedly: "I know all the lines. Lin Zhi likes to cut his opponents into thousands of pieces after killing them. That's why he got the nickname 'executioner' in the army. Doesn't that sound impressive? Don't you think so too?"
As he spoke, Lin Zhi turned around: "Do I look handsome?"
After saying this, Lin Zhi thought for a moment: "Maybe I look more handsome when I'm killing people."
Jing Jiujiu denied this: "That's not right. Generals don't slaughter civilians, nor do they torture others. There have been many famous and impressive generals in history. Compared to them, Lin Zhi is like a colorful cloud in the sky versus mud on the ground. You should learn from them."
As soon as Lin Zhi heard the word "learn," he thought of his illiteracy and eagerly asked: "Where can I learn?"
"There's an old radio prop in the dressing room. If you tune it to FM 324, the radio station tells these stories every day."
Lin Zhi vaguely remembered this.
"Think carefully about what you want to do," Jing Jiujiu paused, then said seriously: "Otherwise, you're no different from that man in the long gown, or that actress who played the hanging woman. You're all failing to do what you should be doing. You're all terrible."
"I'm not terrible, I'm better than them," Lin Zhi said defiantly, then dashed off to the backstage to find the radio.
Jing Jiujiu turned and came out: "Alright, let's go."
Bai Yuhuai: "Radio?"
Jing Jiujiu tilted his head and leaned in close to him, saying: "When I was in the castle before, I often listened to the radio. Because there was no TV to watch."
Bai Yuhuai glanced back.
Jing Jiujiu spoke again: "He thinks he's a person, so let him be a person. Being human is the hardest thing in this world. Humans have to follow countless rules and regulations."
Bai Yuhuai gave a soft acknowledgment, not asking Jing Jiujiu why he did this.
The director listened, completely confused.
Jing Jiujiu gave him a slight smile: "It's fine now, that thing won't cause any trouble." "Let's go," the latter half was said to Bai Yuhuai.
The haunting incident at the theater was thus quietly resolved, with so little commotion that it didn't even alert the gossip reporters. It's just that Meng Hexin had his head cracked open, so naturally the new play's performance fell through, and Jing Jiujiu didn't get to see it.
In the car, Bai Yuhuai told him: "I'm going to join a new production."
Jing Jiujiu asked for details and learned that he was joining a new film crew. He had never been to one before, so his attention was immediately drawn to this, gradually forgetting about the play.
...
It was the fourth day since the Jing family had privately hired masters at great expense. The secretary handed a list to Jing Tinghua.
"There are only these three people in total," the secretary said.
Jing Tinghua frowned. "Too few."
The secretary also frowned. "I don't know who leaked the news about Master Chou's death. Some people are too afraid to come now."
Jing Tinghua sneered coldly, "They work in this field, yet they're so cowardly!"
The secretary asked, "Should we bring them here?"
"Of course, take them to the prepared location."
The secretary nodded in understanding and went to make a phone call.
At 5 PM that day, these three masters were brought into a car together.
One of them was Master Zhou.
As for the other two, one was a middle-aged man in a suit and tie, looking more like an insurance salesman than a feng shui expert, known as Master Wang; the other was a young woman wrapped in a nun's robe, appearing to be studying from abroad, known as Shaman Ma.
Master Zhou glanced at them, thinking to himself that he looked more the part than they did.
"We're here," said the driver in the front.
Everyone looked out the car window. Master Wang's face changed first, angrily saying, "What does this mean? Is the Jing family testing us?"
Outside was a graveyard.
Master Zhou, having been a charlatan for many years, wasn't particularly afraid of such a place.
He dusted off his sleeve and said, "The Jing family is a prestigious household, of course they wouldn't easily employ just anyone. This approach is understandable. I wonder if there's an apology gift prepared for afterward?"
The driver finally smiled, "Of course there is. For those with real ability, Mr. Jing has prepared a hefty sum, along with an apartment in the city center."
Hearing this, Master Wang immediately fell silent.
Shaman Ma promptly opened the car door and got out first. "Tell us, what do you want us to do?"
The others naturally followed suit.
"I heard there's a ghost in this area, living on a tombstone. Whenever someone comes to pay respects, it steals the offerings and scares the visitors out of their wits," the driver said.
Master Wang: "Is that all?"
The driver's expression remained unchanged. "I'll come to pick you all up in the morning." With that, he drove away.
To demonstrate his steadiness, Master Zhou was the first to choose a tombstone to lean against and sit down. Only he knew how panicked he truly was inside.
The driver had just left.
Shaman Ma suddenly raised her head and said, "...It's twilight."
The sounds around the graveyard gradually faded away. As the wind picked up, everyone felt a chill, even though the sun hadn't completely set yet.
"Damn it, why didn't they mention that besides the tombstone ghost, there are so many vengeful spirits of those who died tragically?"
Master Wang and Shaman Ma's faces changed dramatically. They hurriedly crouched down and began drawing talismans and setting up formations, busying themselves frantically.
Master Zhou sat rigidly in place, unable to see even half a vengeful spirit, only feeling increasingly cold.
The sky grew darker.
The moment the sun completely sank below the horizon.
Master Wang cried out in shock, "So many little ghosts?!"
Countless pitch-black shadows crawled out from underground, beginning to dance atop the graves.
Shit, shit, shit!
Master Zhou was frozen stiff.
Those shadows quickly targeted the three living humans.
They swarmed in.
It's over, it's over.
If only I had run away earlier.
Master Zhou remained rigid, unable to even make a sound from his throat.
But in that instant, a faint light shone from his body, like a tiny lamp in the dark night - small, but steady and unwavering.
Those little ghosts vanished like smoke in an instant.
Master Zhou felt the small glass bottle in his pocket.
It was the one that Mr. Bai had given him... It actually worked?
The next day, when the driver came to pick them up, they were all still alive. However, when he turned to report to Jing Tinghua, he only mentioned one person.
Driver: "This Master Zhou is extraordinarily capable. As soon as the sun set, the others hurriedly began setting up formations and drawing talismans, but he was different. From beginning to end, he sat there steadily, completely unfazed. Those filthy things seemed like mere ants to him."
Jing Tinghua was also a bit surprised. "Is that so?" "First, give him 400,000 yuan, then send someone to follow him home. We must investigate his background thoroughly before employing him."
"I've already asked. He said he previously did feng shui readings and exorcisms for some female celebrities. He might have been underutilized before. He's not just some random con artist."
"Still, we need to verify carefully. These matters are not trivial."
"Yes, yes, you're right."
The driver immediately went to carry out the instructions.
The driver brought Master Zhou 400,000 yuan in cash.
When countless banknotes were laid out together, the impact was naturally indescribable. This was also the Jing family's way of flaunting their wealth.
Master Zhou was overjoyed, of course, and quickly picked up the money and left the Jing building.
The driver immediately sent someone to follow him, but unexpectedly lost him halfway.
The driver had no choice but to call Jing Tinghua.
Jing Tinghua was silent for a moment. "...It seems he truly has some ability. Since we lost him, he likely used some kind of technique. Wait until tomorrow when we invite him to the Jing residence, I'll question him personally."
After hanging up the phone, Jing Tinghua finally felt at ease.
Someone could fill Master Chou's position, and everything would soon return to normal. If this person proved useful, he wouldn't mind paying more.
Meanwhile, Master Zhou got off the car and hurriedly entered a small courtyard.
In the courtyard, Bai Yuhuai and Jing Jiujiu sat opposite each other, playing a board game.
Master Zhou put down the leather suitcase he was carrying, took out the money, and said excitedly, "This is all from Jing Tinghua!"
"Come, come, half for Mr. Bai, half for me." "And a large portion for the young master."
Master Zhou was excellent at reading the room!
This young man clearly had a lot of influence.
Master Zhou looked at Jing Jiujiu and patted his chest, "When I earn 30 million, I'll give you 15 million!"