Thinking about the commissions earned from living in haunted houses, Hei Hei, who had eaten half a meal, began to drift back. The streetlights on both sides of the alley were dim, stretching the shadows of office workers and drunks returning home late at night.
Hei Hei lowered his head, and the light penetrated his body and fell on the ground, leaving nothing.
After so many years of being a ghost, he was still not used to it... When he looked up again, he suddenly saw fine white particles floating in the sky. It had snowed without him noticing.
Hei Hei reached out to catch it, and cast a small spell to make the snow fall on his palm. Because there was no body temperature, the snow would not melt at all when it came into contact with his skin.
The spell disappeared, and the snow passed through his palm like a light.
Hei Hei raised the corner of his lips a little sadly, turned around, and saw that Uncle Zhang, who was selling candied haws at the entrance of the alley, was about to close his stall. He still had most of the candied haws left on the half-round wooden rack behind him.
In the winter, Grandpa Zhang sold candied haws (tanghulu) and in the summer, sour plum soup, hawking his wares on a beat-up bicycle through the streets. Back then, Heihei, a child, always avoided him. Heihei, a kind man who knew Qi Ye's life was not easy, would always offer him candied haws whenever he saw him. Qi Ye offered him money
, but he refused to take it. After a while, Qi Ye, too shameless to accept favors, simply avoided Grandpa Zhang. Later, Qi Ye heard that Grandpa Zhang had died in a car accident when he was seventeen. It was also a snowy night like this, the roads slippery, the driver drunk, and Grandpa Zhang, with his hearing and legs weak, was hit.
Heihei frowned, lowered his head, bent over, and formed a handful of fine snow into a ball, muttering something to himself. A moment later, he walked over to Grandpa Zhang's side and tossed the small snowball into his coin bag. As he turned and left, he stole a string of candied haws.
Business was slow today for Grandpa Zhang, who had barely made a buck when his fortunes changed. He rode his rickety little bike back home, his hands and feet clumsy from the cold. Just as he passed Maoer Alley, he thought he saw a shadowy figure pass by. A chilling wind blew, and he shuddered, looking back at the empty alley. Nothing but falling snow and the streetlights.
Goosebumps spread across Grandpa Zhang's skin. He glanced at his string of candied haws. It seemed... one was missing? He shook his head, trying to convince himself that his suspicions were just a lie, humming a little tune to bolster his courage as he continued on.
Just as he was about to leave the alley, the cloth bag he had hung on the front of his bike, holding his change, suddenly gave way, sending steel keys tinkling and clattering into the snow. He cursed inwardly, then pulled his bike over and squatted in the snow, picking up the steel keys one by one.
The night was cold, and his candied haws were covered in snow.
Just as he was filled with resentment and his own bad luck, a large cement truck sped past. The driver, drunk, was speeding on the narrow, snowy road. If he hadn't stopped, he and his truck would have been crushed into a pulp, becoming a ghost in the womb.
Grandpa Zhang meticulously groped in the snow for a long time before finally collecting all sixteen coins. He then looked at his string of candied haws and muttered to himself, "There's definitely one missing. It's strange! "
Seeing the snow falling harder, Grandpa Zhang hurried home. Meanwhile, Heihei, clutching the candied haws he'd found, didn't bother to take a detour to the main entrance and instead slipped through the wall through the flowerbed and into the house. Qi Ye, who had taken the medicine, had already woken up. He had just finished a bowl of porridge and was washing dishes in the kitchen. The sound of running water made Qi Ye look up at Heihei, who had drifted in from outside. Instead of being startled, he felt a sigh of relief. Then, his sight stopped at the candied haws in Heihei's hand. Heihei naturally noticed his focus and put the candied haws to his mouth: "Uncle Zhang gave it to me." Qi Ye was stunned, and wiped his hands on his clothes before taking the candied haws: "Uncle Zhang can see you too?" Heihei: "No, I let him." "..." Heihei moved closer and reached out to touch Qi Ye's forehead. Sure enough, it was not so hot anymore. Qi Ye's eyelids twitched, and a cool and damp air hit him in the face: "Is it snowing outside?" "Yes, the snow is light now, but it will get heavier in the second half of the night and it won't stop for a while." Heihei vaguely remembered that on the morning when he heard the bad news about Uncle Zhang, heavy snow fell for three consecutive days. "Did you take the medicine?" Qi Ye nodded, a bit unsure about what to do, holding the candied haws. "You...thank you tonight." Heihei smiled, but the clown mask on his face didn't convey his smile. "Why are you being so polite to me?" Qi Ye was suspicious. " Myself?" Heihei quickly tried to make amends. "One of us." Qi Heihei shook his wrist, and the red string tugged at Qi Ye's middle finger. Finally, Qi Ye smiled, raised his middle finger and said to Heihei, "You, you're too much of a stranger." Facing this shameless and ruthless old man, Qi Ye unconsciously dropped his mask of forbearance and calmly cracked a joke. Heihei was stunned by his reaction, then felt a little flattered with satisfaction. When he was a kid, he used to be so damn...adorable when he cursed. After washing the dishes and pots, Qi Ye was forced by Heihei to drink the fever-reducing granules. The medicine was bitter, and he hated bitterness, but luckily he had a string of candied haws in his hand. Because the heater was on in the room, the sugar coating on the candied haws had softened a little. Qi Ye took a bite and it was sweet and sticky. "Can you eat it?" Qi Ye held up the remaining candied haws in front of Heihei and asked in a low voice. Heihei glanced at him and said, "Obviously not." "That's a pity. Uncle Zhang's candied haws are the best." Heihei laughed and blurted out, "I know. I've been eating them since I was a child." Qi Ye was stunned and suddenly felt that he had opened a taboo. After a moment of silence, he couldn't help but ask, "Did you live nearby before?" Heihei nodded, his tone as light as if he was talking about someone else: "I lived here for eighteen years, and then I moved away." Qi Ye pursed his lips in silence and smiled faintly, "So, maybe we have met before." "Not necessarily. When I was your age, you were not even born yet." What Heihei said was right. When he was still alive, where was Qi Ye? To be precise, there was no Qi Ye in front of him. Qi Ye didn't believe his exaggerated description at all, and followed his teasing and asked: "How old are you, old man?" Heihei curled his lips: "How can ghosts have ages?" At this moment, Qi Ye realized that he was chatting with a ghost at this moment. He was really blinded by the sweetness of this string of candied haws. "Heihei." The other party asked him to call him that, so he went along with it. "Huh? " "How did you die? " Heihei was silent. "Since we have a ghost contract, I can always ask these things, right?" "Yeah." "If you really don't want to tell me, also..." "I died suddenly." Qi Ye felt that this ghost was perfunctory with him: "Sudden death...Did you work overtime or stay up all night surfing the Internet?" Heihei laughed: "I'm just kidding, I guess I... committed suicide." "Huh???" Qi Ye obviously didn't expect that this careless old villain would actually die by suicide.
Heihei didn't lie. He only had a fleeting recollection of this memory, a vague impression that, unable to bear the torture of the Heavenly Punishment Pillar, he chose to self-destruct, thus igniting the Three Thousand Karmic Flames.
"In my previous life, I was a villain and a fierce ghost who committed suicide. That's why other ghosts are afraid of me. You've made a pact with me, and you've won."
"..." Qi Ye naturally didn't comment too much on other people's pasts. He only heard that ghosts who committed suicide have a hard time reincarnating, and he felt a faint pity for Heihei.
This old villain must have had a difficult life.
Heihei: "Don't feel sad for me, I have no relatives and don't want to reincarnate, I'm very free, and now I'm obsessed with you."
"..."
As soon as these words came out, Qi Ye's sympathy for him disappeared in an instant: "You always wear a clown mask on your face, why is that?"
Heihei's face finally changed, and for a moment he became unserious again: "I'm ugly, I'm afraid of scaring people."
"Can I be uglier than a clown?"
"Much uglier, to be honest, I was burned to death and my face was ruined."
These words were half true and half false. Qi Ye automatically imagined the image of a tragic old man who was a ***... Suddenly he didn't know what to say.
After a moment of silence, Qi Ye said to himself: "Then change the mask, something nicer."
Heihei smiled: "Sure, you buy it for me?"
Qi Ye said seriously: "Okay."
Heihei: "Your balance of 68 yuan? I also used 65 yuan to buy medicine."
Qi Ye raised his eyebrows: "...You checked my balance???" Heihei curled
his lips: "I just took a look while buying medicine for you."
Qi Ye looked suspicious: "...How do you know my password?"
What's yours that I don't know? Aren't they all mine? Heihei smiled but didn't answer. Suddenly, he said mysteriously: "Yes, let me discuss a way to make money with you. If you make this money, you don't have to work anymore." What else can
a ghost teach him to make money? Qi Ye looked at him doubtfully and didn't agree.
Heihei knew that he didn't believe it in his heart, and continued to whisper: "Three months, two hundred thousand."
Qi Ye widened his eyes slightly. He had never seen two hundred thousand in his life.
"You've never seen so much money in your life, have you?" Heihei understood the other person's thoughts and smiled with ease: "Go and live in the villa at No. 83 Liu'an Road for three months, and you can get this money. You don't have to do anything else."
No. 83 Liu'an Road, why does it sound a little familiar? Wait -
"Isn't that the famous murder and dismemberment haunted house?"
"Yes, a boss bought it and is recruiting people to live there for a few months to remove the name of the haunted house, so the money is enough."
Of course it's a lot. This house is notoriously haunted. Many so-called masters have been there and can't do anything. Some even get sick or have accidents after returning home. Living there for a few months is like making life-threatening money.
Qi Ye narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at the funny clown in front of him, and said lightly: "Are you serious?"
This old vicious man, does he want him to die quickly?
Heihei held up two fingers and said, "Two hundred thousand."
Qi Ye: "..."
Heihei looked at him, stifling a smile and said seriously, "A bet?"
"My life?"
"I bet on whether the ghosts in the haunted house can feed me."
"..."
"Whether to bet or not, just one word."
Qi Ye suddenly laughed. This eccentric old man in front of him made him feel trustworthy for some reason. "Two hundred thousand, bet."
Heihei smiled heartily and patted him on the head. "Alright, with me here, no ghost dares to touch you."
As soon as he finished speaking, the lights in the house went out with a snap, and the heating stopped.
Damn it, the electricity bill is not paid...