CH 16

In so many years, no one had ever dared to tell Pi Xiu to get lost. However, he didn’t get angry. On the contrary, Pi Xiu laughed a little as he tucked Wen Xi’s raised hand back into the quilt.

‘Indeed, I’m a thousand times more suited to make money than to fall in love. The little itch I felt just now was nothing more than an illusion.’

‘In this world, what else could make me happier than making money?’

‘Of course, such a thing doesn’t exist.’

As the sun set in the West, and the land was covered with the golden light of the sun, Wen Xi woke up with a start. As soon as he opened his eyes, Wen Xi was met by Pi Xiu’s beautiful face, which looked strangely peaceful as he slept.

‘Look at you, aren’t you sleeping very well after saying you didn’t want to sleep?’ Wen Xi smiled and carefully tried to free himself from Pi Xiu’s arms, getting up from the bed to wash himself. However, as soon as Wen Xi moved, Pi Xiu woke up.

“Are you awake? Don’t you want to keep sleeping?” Pi Xiu closed his eyes again.

When Wen Xi looked at the time, he realized that it was dinner time, so he said: “I won’t sleep anymore, it’s time to get up.”

Wen Xi sat on the bed. Right when he was about to get up, he was suddenly dumbfounded as he remembered something. Wen Xi turned his head to Pi Xiu and asked: “Last night, didn’t Wu Zu say that he would come today to ask Jia Suzhen if they knew each other from before?”

Pi Xiu, after reacting two seconds later, nodded: “Yes, yes he did.”

“What would happen if Jia Suzhen tells Wu Zu about his past life with her?” Wen Xi asked.

Pi Xiu: “Then she will disappear.”

Wen Xi: “If she’s not here anymore, wouldn’t your merits also be gone? As well as any kind of information she could have about Taotie….?”

Pi Xiu: “!!!”

Mr. Pi got up with a twist and rushed out, still dressed in his pajama pants, while Wen Xi followed him closely behind. Both men rushed down the stairs in a hurry, but it was already too late. The protagonists of the drama have already met, and were looking affectionately at each other.

Pi Xiu’s eyes darkened, as if he was thinking: ‘It’s over. It’s certain now that I will lose the merits and information about the Taotie.’

Wu Zu looked at the waitress in front of him with a shy smile and a red face, asking her: “Miss, have we met somewhere before?”

The two men at the stairs held their breaths. Pi Xiu’s eyes were locked onto Jia Suzheng’s figure, frantically squeezing his eyes trying to see her expression. It was as if Pi Xiu was asking: ‘Please, don’t screw up at this critical moment.’

Wen Xi clenched the staircase railing with both hands. The atmosphere was so tense, he didn’t even dare to breathe.

The nervousness of both old men didn’t rub off on the young student at all. Wu Zu simply looked at Jia Suzhen, who was staring at him without saying anything, so he asked again: “Miss, we have met before, have we?”

‘Have we met before? Of course we did.’ Jia Suzhen was in a trance. After all, when she first met Scholar Wu in the Wen Residence, he also told her the same thing.

He was a bit foolish and clumsy, while she, who had witnessed matters concerning love many times, was able to see through the twists and turns inside young Scholar Wu’s heart with a single glance. Back then, it was obvious that they had never seen each other before. Yet he could smile at her and talk to her, as if they were old friends who had met again. But now that more than a hundred years have passed, and it was obvious that this time they did meet before, still Jia Suzhen shook her head.

“I haven’t seen you before.”

Pi Xiu and Wen Xi sighed with relief. Bu Wu Zu was anxious.

He stepped forward and said: “But I, I clearly…..”

“What is it exactly?” Jia Suzhen raised her eyebrows, making her carefully outlined eyebrows arch like a crescent moon. With her beautiful eyes, Jia Suzhen looked at the young man in front of her and smiled: “Do you think I’m a beautiful woman who’s trying to seduce you? How come that, at such a young age, you can’t understand what a good deed is?”

Wu Zu hurriedly shook his head: “No, no, I….”

‘No? What does he mean by ‘no’? Does it mean that he doesn’t find me attractive?’

Jia Suzhen stiffened: “You don’t think I’m beautiful?”

Jia Suzhen somewhat regretted that she had put on light makeup today.

“No, that’s not what I meant! I really think that Miss looks familiar, so we must have seen each other before.” As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Wu Zu felt like a psychopath. ‘If she says that she hadn’t seen me before, why do I have to insist shamelessly on the matter?’

Wu Zu took a few steps back, to distance himself from Jia Suzhen, and said: “I may have got it wrong. But Miss does look exceptionally beautiful when she sings.”

Jia Suzhen couldn’t help, but laugh out loud, and she had to cover her mouth with her hand to regain her composure. Jia Suzhen looked at Wu Zu with loving eyes. Eyes that, despite being full of affection, seemed to have no feelings at all. She waved her hand and said: “Alright, alright. I have never seen you before, but now I do. Is there anything else?”

Wu Zu shook his head, feeling embarrassed when he realized that she was looking at him again. Wu Zu smiled wryly and returned to his table. He was disgusted and annoyed at his own recklessness as well as his lack of understanding.

Wu Zu wiped his face, feeling for the first time that there was something wrong with his appearance. ‘If I were as handsome as Takeshi Kaneshiro or Wu Yanzu1, even if the Miss really didn’t know me, she would have said that she does anyway.’

‘No matter how bad it is, if I were like Jia Baoyu2 and told this Miss that I’ve known her from before, I wouldn’t have felt as awkward and embarrassed as just now.’

‘In the end, it’s just a matter of appearance.’

As Jia Suzhen watched Wu Zu leave, she stood in place for a while, unable to hide the smile on her face. Jia Suzhen then headed to the kitchen and served two large bowls of Rock Sugar Lotus Seed soup under the watchful gaze of the Monkey Spirits.

Pi Xiu took Wen Xi towards the kitchen door and hurried to say to Jia Suzhen: “Come with me, we need to talk.”

Their Boss came to investigate with a spirit of complaint. As for the Monkey Spirits and Lil Broom, they didn’t dare to look directly at their Boss, who was dressed in nothing more than a pair of tie-dye beach pants that he bought at the night market for 15 Yuan. So, they tried to look anywhere, but him.

Jia Suzhen agreed, put aside the dishes in her hand, and followed the exploiting class.

Once the three individuals stood in the corridor, Pi Xiu cleared his throat and said in a low voice: “We both saw when Wu Zu approached you just now.”

Jia Suzhen immediately looked at him with a frown. But as soon as she frowned, she relaxed, smiled and calmly asked: “Gongzi thought that I would tell him about his past with me?”

Pi Xiu nodded his head honestly: “After all, you like him so much. Besides, Female Ghosts are prone to commit these tricks. Did you really think that I wouldn’t expect you not to tell him that you did know him?”

Wen Xi silently nudged Pi Xiu in the back, asking him to speak more politely.

Jia Suzhen wasn’t offended in the least. On the contrary, she formally bowed to Pi Xiu and Wen Xi: “Gongzis, don’t worry. I won’t tell young Wu what happened between us in his past life.”

Pi Xiu looked at her, and doubtfully asked: “Can you really refrain from doing so?”

Jia Suzhen smiled and nodded: “I held back just now, so I’ll be perfectly capable of holding back in the future.”

Jia Suzhen then looked out of the corridor, where her distant eyes fell on the figure of Wu Zu dressed in his school uniform. She said softly: “Besides, he doesn’t look like Scholar Wu at all. Compared to this kid, I still prefer the manly and handsome Scholar Wu.”

Pi Xiu: “……”

‘Even though she has waited for him for so long, she cannot ignore his ugliness, hmm?’

Pi Xiu began to rejoice that Wu Zu had this appearance. ‘Fortunately, he doesn’t look like Wu Yanzu, whose name is one character apart from Wu Zu’s3, as Jia Suzhen wouldn’t be able to resist at all and would want to follow him until the end of his life.’

Pi Xiu breathed a sigh of relief. But still, he said with a heavy tone: “There’s an old saying that says: Men don’t have ugly appearances4. Actually, he…..”

“If Wen-gongzi’s appearance was ugly, would you still be willing to keep him by your side?” Jia Suzhen asked back.

Wen Xi: “……?”

Wen Xi: ‘What do you mean by ‘keep him by your side’?! What does this have to do with me?!’

Jia Suzhen looked at Wen Xi and asked him: “If Pi-gongzi had an ugly, greasy and creepy face, would you still be happy to be near him, Wen-gongzi?”

Pi Xiu: “……”

Both men looked at each other and thought to themselves: ‘Jia Suzhen is quite right. Who doesn’t like a good-looking person? I’m not a fool!’

When Jia Suzhen saw that the men in front of her stopped talking, she raised a strand of her hair and said: “Besides, if a man only wants to look for an attractive woman, why can’t women look for a handsome man?”

Pi Xiu: “……”

‘Did the Monkeys teach Jia Suzhen how to use Weibo?!’

‘A woman from a feudal society shouldn’t be able to make such a direct and modern statement. The learning ability of this Female Ghost is too scary.’

When Wen Xi saw that Pi Xiu frowned again, he loudly said to Jia Suzhen: “As long as you understand. Go back to work.”

After dismissing the Female Ghost, Wen Xi noticed that Pi Xiu was still frowning as he closely looked at Jia Suzhen. Wen Xi reached out a hand, pulled at Pi Xiu, and said: “She has already said that she will not tell Wu Zu about his past. You can stop worrying now.”

Pi Xiu looked at Jia Suzhen’s back as she carried some bowls of soup, and his frown deepened: “That’s not what I’m thinking about.”

“Then what are you thinking?” Wen Xi asked.

Pi Xiu took two steps forward. At the same time his face suddenly darkened: “Damn it! Jia Suzhen, that Female Ghost, has served two large bowls of Rock Sugar Lotus Seed soup again!”

Wen Xi: “……”

Wen Xi took a deep breath and headed towards the kitchen to look for food, ignoring this greedy demon in the process.

In the kitchen, the Monkey Spirits gave Wen Xi sideways glances. However, as soon as Wen Xi turned to look at them, they immediately turned around, pretending to look elsewhere.

Wen Xi paid no attention to them. He simply served himself some food, with the intention of going back upstairs and eating alone. As soon as Wen Xi left the kitchen, he heard the Monkey Spirits whispering among themselves.

Wen Xi paused his steps and raised his eyebrows. After hearing what the Monkey Spirits had said about him, Wen Xi let out an angry laugh.

“Only those who have committed heinous crimes in their past lives will be tortured after death.”

“Although he’s a ghost, he will never walk the righteous path.”

“He uses his body and handsome appearance to serve the Boss. He loves to complain and snitch on us too….!”

Wen Xi stood in the corridor for a long time, waiting for his mood to calm down before going back upstairs to eat with Pi Xiu.

When Pi Xiu saw Wen Xi’s absent-minded appearance, he asked Wen Xi a few questions. However, no matter what, Wen Xi didn’t say anything. He simply smiled.

After eating and drinking enough, Pi Xiu watched over the guests in the hall, leaving Wen Xi to wander alone. Now that his soul body was much more stable, Wen Xi no longer needed to avoid the sunlight, so he was now able to enjoy the sunset.

Taking advantage of Pi Xiu’s distraction, Wen Xi poured himself a large bowl of Rock Sugar Lotus Seed soup. As he ignored the loose-mouthed Monkey Spirits, Wen Xi headed to the swing set in the backyard. After sitting down, he ate as he swayed.

This was a high-class private area in the Restaurant, where customers weren’t allowed until the Spring Festival. Wen Xi was happy to be alone and in complete silence. As he slowly savored the sweet taste of the soup in his mouth, Wen Xi listened as the wind blew through the treetops, shaking the leaves as some fell softly to the ground.

After sitting for a while, Wen Xi began to feel as if someone was watching him from behind. However, as soon as he turned around, Wen Xi could only see the tall white wall and nothing else.

Wen Xi frowned, stared at the wall for a long time, then turned around again. However, less than a second after turning around, Wen Xi faced the wall again, repeating this movement several times. Still, he wasn’t able to find anything unusual, so he felt a little relieved and continued to eat the Rock Sugar Lotus Seed soup.

After taking two mouthfuls of soup, Wen Xi saw Lil Broom with a broom in hand, coming this way to sweep the floor. Wen Xi wanted to greet him, but before he could do so, Wen Xi saw the boy’s face change at the sight of him.

‘The sharp-tongued Monkeys couldn’t curry favor with the Boss’s wife, and even Hou Er was bullied for it. I’m sure I will be bullied as well.’ Lil Broom, after hearing what the Monkeys said about Wen Xi, could only assume that Wen Xi was mean. Lil Broom began to fear that Wen Xi would encourage his Boss to buy a robot to sweep the floor, causing him to lose his job.

“Where are you going?” When Wen Xi saw that the boy, who hadn’t taken his eyes off him a few moments ago, was about to run in a panic, Wen Xi called out to him. Seeing Lil Broom fearfully turn around, Wen Xi raised his hand and motioned for him to come closer.

Lil Broom froze in place, holding the broom in his hands not knowing if he should go or not. However, since Lil Broom was even more afraid that Wen Xi would tell his Boss that he had ignored him, Lil Broom slowly walked towards Wen Xi. He stammered: “I, I didn’t, I didn’t k-know t-that you, you were h-here. I just, I just c-came to sw-sweep the fl-floor.”

“What are you mumbling about?” When Wen Xi saw Lil Broom walking towards him, Wen Xi took out a piece of candy from his pocket and gave it to him. “Won’t you get tired of sweeping such a big courtyard on your own?”

Although Lil Broom saw the candy, he didn’t take it. Instead, Lil Broom replied in a whisper: “I, I w-won’t get t-tired.”

“You don’t like candy?” Wen Xi waved the candy in front of Lil Broom’s eyes and asked: “How old are you? How long have you been working here?”

Lil Broom shook his head, then nodded. Hearing Wen Xi’s laugh, Lil Broom lowered his head further, causing the broom in his hands to hit the ground. In a voice as tiny as a mosquito buzz, Lil Broom replied: “I-It’s b-been over, over 70 y-years since B-boss pi-picked me up a-after I, I t-took a, a h-human f-form.”

“Did he make you start working as soon as you transformed? He really has a dark heart5 for employing child labor!” Wen Xi deliberately said, as he stuffed the candy in Lil Broom’s hand. Wen Xi then asked: “Do you want to drink the Rock Sugar Lotus Seed soup?”

Lil Broom suddenly looked up and said out loud: “N-no, he, he d-doesn’t ha-have a dark, dark h-eart! B-boss is a, a g-good D-demon!”

“Oh, is that right?” Wen Xi was stunned. Seeing how the boy’s face started to blush as he looked down again, Wen Xi couldn’t help, but find it hilarious. Wen Xi pulled Lil Broom back and asked: “How can he be good? I see how fierce he is, and I thought he was forcing you to work here.”

Lil Broom, still holding the broomstick in his hands, shook his head: “No, n-no. I, I w-would ha-have s-starved to d-death if I, I h-hadn’t m-met the B-boss. The M-monkeys too. The m-mountain t-they w-were l-living on was, was b-burned, and t-they had n-nothing to, to e-eat.”

Wen Xi nodded: “So he found you, gave you food and a place to live in exchange for hard work. Does he even pay you a salary?”

“Y-yes!” Lil Broom nodded as he took courage to smile at Wen Xi. “B-boss is, is a g-good man.”

Wen Xi couldn’t stop himself from nodding. After giving Lil Broom another piece of candy, he asked: “Then, can you tell me why you wanted to run away as soon as you saw me?”

The smile on Lil Broom’s face froze. As he looked at Wen Xi, who was beautifully smiling at him, Lil Broom was so scared he couldn’t utter a single word.

Ko-fi goal for extra chapies~~ (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ