After adding Ye Yingjie to My Ghost Employees—
Zuo Si looked over the remaining six students. None of them stood out. All of them were driven purely by obsession, and even the most promising among them ranked no better than average in terms of growth potential.
So they’d just have to settle for scaring people in the haunted house. Nothing more useful than that.
Zuo Si packed up his things and brought Li Xiulan to the school gates.
He glanced around. The taxi driver was nowhere in sight.
Zuo Si let out a mildly disappointed sigh.
“Hah~ This guy really won’t take double fare?”
Nothing to be done. They’d have to walk.
Li Xiulan was quiet the whole time, her gaze drifting absently to Zuo Si’s backpack, lost in a daze.
With nothing better to do, Zuo Si pulled up the backend of his livestream and checked his earnings.
Over twenty thousand yuan…and that was after all taxes and fees. A tidy sum.
He withdrew it on the spot, intending to use it toward Li Xiulan’s treatment costs at the sanatorium.
Truthfully, Li Xiulan’s mental state wasn’t in terrible shape. Learning that Ye Yingjie didn’t blame her had visibly steadied her emotions. Still, to be safe, Zuo Si planned to have her rest and recover for a while before she re-entered ordinary society and tried to live a normal life.
He had briefly considered offering her a job at the haunted house…but with Ye Yingjie already there, and the boundary between the living and the dead being what it was, he worried that prolonged proximity would only deepen the grief between mother and son.
Beep. Beep.
A car horn. Zuo Si turned around…and there it was: the same taxi from last night.
So the driver couldn’t resist the temptation of money after all.
Well, it was broad daylight. Nothing to be scared of.
“Take us to the nearest sanatorium.”
Zuo Si and Li Xiulan climbed into the back seat. Li Xiulan had her face covered, so the driver didn’t give her a second look.
“So, how about it? I told you, didn’t I? Every ghost and demon is nothing but a paper tiger!”
The moment he was in the car, Zuo Si launched into cheerful banter with the driver, buzzing with energy like he’d taken a stimulant.
“Oh please,” the driver said, glancing at him through the rearview mirror. “You were probably just lucky, kid. Look at the state of you…that’s not the face of someone who had a quiet night.”
His eyes drifted to the woman beside Zuo Si.
Hard to tell much with her face covered, but from her build she was clearly a middle-aged woman.
The driver let out a snort. “Alright then, you little rascal. Bold taste…going for the older type, huh? I’m impressed. I really am.”
Zuo Si’s face flushed red. “Hey hey hey… watch what you’re saying! This auntie just happened to cross my path this morning, alright? And you actually know who she is…she’s the female ghost you were going on about last night!”
The driver barked a laugh. “Sure, sure, little bro. Save the tall tales. What, you moonlight as a ghost-catcher now?”
“Tsk, why don’t you believe me?” Zuo Si shook his head helplessly and gestured for Li Xiulan to show her face.
Li Xiulan, perhaps wary of startling the driver too badly, only uncovered half her face.
The driver glanced into the rearview mirror with a grin…and in the span of a few seconds, watched that grin collapse entirely: smile gone, eyes blown wide, body shaking.
“WHAT THE FCK, A GHOST!!!”
“YOU, WATCH THE ROAD!!!”
Sccrrreeeech—
A violent burst of brakes. The taxi lurched to a stop, narrowly avoiding the utility pole at the roadside.
The driver sat trembling, too frightened to turn around, his voice cracking: “She…she’s really human? Not a ghost?”
Zuo Si pressed a hand to his forehead. He should’ve known better than to let the man look.
This guy drives night shifts and he can’t handle this?
“Have you ever seen a ghost out in broad daylight? If you want to die, don’t drag us along with you.”
“I…I’ve just never seen a person who looks like that!” The driver fumbled the key back into the ignition with shaking hands, restarted the car, then seemed to realize how that sounded and turned toward Li Xiulan with an awkward look. “S-sorry, ma’am. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s fine,” Li Xiulan said. She didn’t seem bothered at all. Two words…flat and unbothered…and then she closed her eyes and rested.
*****
The nearest sanatorium was an hour’s drive away.
Once Zuo Si had Li Xiulan settled in, he paid twenty thousand yuan upfront and arranged a private psychologist to see her daily.
With regular treatment, she’d find her way back. He was sure of it.
Before he left, he told her: if the money ran out, just ask him for more.
And if it didn’t run out…consider it a safety net for the life ahead.
Li Xiulan gave a small nod. She didn’t say much. Her eyes drifted once more to Zuo Si’s backpack, and something in them softened…a quiet look of release.
*****
Dejing Middle School. Teaching building. First floor.
A broad-shouldered man with a heavy stubble-covered jaw stood with his face dark as a storm cloud, fury radiating off him in waves. He bit down hard, veins rising across his forehead one by one.
Bang. He kicked a desk clean apart.
“WHO?!” he roared. “WHO TOOK MY EVIL YIN GHOST GU POISON?!”
*****
Zuo Si arrived back at the haunted house right at nine in the morning. The line at the entrance was already snaking down the block…plenty of people had shown up at the crack of dawn to buy tickets early.
Lin Zihao was out front cheerfully managing the queue.
Ding Ruxiao, meanwhile, sat off to one side with a frown, lost in thought.
Zuo Si pushed that aside for now…first things first. He needed to get Meng Miaoxue and Ge Hong stationed in the Terror Scenario or it wouldn’t be complete.
He headed inside and spent three thousand fear points restoring both their spirit forms to full condition, then placed their vessel objects in their respective operating theaters.
As for the remaining fear points…he’d hold onto them for now. In three days the next Daily Task would refresh. He’d figure it out then.
New tasks refresh in three days. Should be enough time to rest.
He stepped back outside, exchanged a quick greeting with Lin Zihao, then dragged a chair over and sat down beside Ding Ruxiao.
“What’s going on? You look miserable.”
Ding Ruxiao was wearing light makeup, but it wasn’t hiding the exhaustion underneath. There was a faint undercurrent of worry between her brows.
“I…” She started, then stopped. Like she couldn’t figure out how to begin.
“Whatever it is, just tell me. With me around, what do you have to worry about?”
Zuo Si was bone-tired…but Ding Ruxiao wasn’t just anyone. If he didn’t find out what was bothering her, he wouldn’t be able to sleep easy either.
She hesitated a moment longer before finally saying:
“Do you remember that old woman…the one selling jianbing?”
“Of course. Shen Xiujuan, right? What about her?” Zuo Si’s brow furrowed.
“I… I don’t really know how to explain it. I’m just a little scared of her.”
“Why?” Zuo Si couldn’t quite make sense of it. Ding Ruxiao had only seen the old woman once…and in broad daylight, at that. Why would she be frightened?
Unless… Ding Ruxiao had run into her again after they’d parted ways yesterday?
Ding Ruxiao’s frown deepened as she thought it through.
“After we split up yesterday, she just… followed me. All the way back to my apartment. She didn’t say a word to me the whole time…just kept smiling at me. And I don’t know why, but every time I looked at her, I got this crawling feeling in my chest.”]