Supernatural Academy 3

Kapitel 13

I remember that ad. Luo Yi donated all the proceeds from filming it to the Red Cross, which was quite a topic of conversation and improved his image. But what about Little Ma? My mind raced, and I asked, "That ad, was it Little Ma who funded it for you?"

Luo Yi grunted in response, then remained silent. He put his hands in his pockets and sat down next to me.

"So it turns out that Brother Ma..." It turns out that he not only has a triad background and controls the production company to launder money, but also secretly supports environmental protection. It shows how complicated people really are.

Luo Yi said, "Now I have nothing but respect for him."

"But why does acid rain make us visible?" I think I understand a little, but there are still many things I don't understand.

Luo Yi shook his head and said, "I don't know either, Brother Ma won't say."

Let me think about it. I went through the bits and pieces of information I'd gleaned before about the formation of acid rain in my mind. Sulfuric acid dioxide emitted from factories and nitrogen oxides from cars rise into the air and meet water vapor, forming small droplets of sulfuric acid and nitric acid. These droplets acidify the water vapor, and when they fall to the ground, they become acid rain. In other words, the entire sky and earth are a large conduit, with air circulating and acidic substances everywhere. Sulfuric acid and nitric acid are highly corrosive; anything that comes into contact with them will be eroded and dissolved. The existence of the yin nature of ghosts is inherently contrary to this yang world. If we consider decline as yin and growth as yang, and humans as yang and ghosts as yin, then this is a process of old yin giving rise to young yang. Humans slowly wither in this process, while ghosts take the opportunity to grow stronger. Human yang energy diminishes, while ghost yin energy grows.

Last night, I strolled slowly in the acid rain, absorbing nourishment directly from it. As a result, I wasn't harmed at all; on the contrary, I felt enriched and substantial. The Mercedes driver and the security guard, however, became weak in the rain. Their eyesight and vigilance lessened, and they actually helped me.

I understood this, and not wanting to explain further to Luo Yi, I asked again, "Then how come you got pregnant if you didn't get caught in the rain?"

Luo Yi said, "Strong acid is everywhere in the air, why do we have to get rained on? Brother Ma concentrated the strong acid vapor from the Wuli River at the door, and that's how we took shape."

What an amazing guy, Little Ma! If Yama (the King of Hell) is the leader of the underworld, then he must be the left and right protectors.

I remembered something and asked again, "Won't your relationship with Qingqing have any impact on her?" Okay, I admit, besides caring about Leng Qingqing, I had another ulterior motive for asking this.

Luo Yi's face turned very ugly again, and after a while he said, "Yes."

I pressed further, "What is it?"

Luo Yi said, "From then on, she never saw us again."

I panicked as soon as I heard that and exclaimed, "How can that be? She can't see us. Is she going blind? Or is she trying to leave?"

Luo Yi chuckled and said, "You silly little sister, you really are a simpleton."

Seeing him still laughing, I felt a bit annoyed. Suddenly, I understood and said happily, "So that's what you meant! You didn't explain clearly, making me worry for nothing. That's great! Qingqing won't have to suffer like this anymore." For a moment, I forgot that "we" meant ghosts. When Luo Yi said Leng Qingqing could no longer see us, he meant she would no longer see ghosts. Wasn't that a wonderful thing for her? "Will you two still be together in the future?" I asked again. How strong is this kind of hurt?

Luo Yi turned her face away and said, "Don't ask anymore, and don't even think about doing the same thing. It won't do you or anyone else any good. Little Ma and I will find a way to get you back. Just wait a little longer."

I was so embarrassed that I couldn't face him, so I buried my face in the sofa and chuckled. Luo Yi couldn't help but laugh out loud too. Ming Jie heard the noise and came over, asking, "What are you laughing at?" She was wearing a smoky gray, sheer, semi-transparent, dark-patterned long cheongsam, and she floated over like a wisp of smoke, light and graceful as a fairy.

Luo Yi looked up at her, his expression changed, and his eyes widened. I knew that in that moment of confusion, he thought he saw Meng Xixi.

Mingjie felt embarrassed by his gaze, smiled shyly, and lowered her face. That moment of beauty was radiant. Luo Yi and I were both stunned, speechless for a moment.

Suddenly a voice exclaimed, "My God, where did such a beauty come from?"

Upon hearing this, Luo Yi's expression changed again. She sat even lower on the sofa and whispered to me, "This is bad. You should go down and help out for a while."

I nodded, stood up, and went to greet them, saying, "Who's speaking here?"

A man in his thirties, slightly older than Luo Yi, stood downstairs. He was quite handsome, clearly a pretty boy, and his suit looked very high-class. His attire, demeanor, his words, his eyes, and Luo Yi's evasiveness all suggested he was someone from Luo Yi's circle, but I didn't know him. I composed myself, took Ming Jie's arm, and went downstairs. We walked very slowly, trying to come up with a reason to deceive him, while simultaneously letting Ming Jie's charm slowly unfold, first bewitching that pretty boy.

Sure enough, the pretty boy kept his eyes fixed on Sister Ming and didn't even glance at me. It took us almost five minutes to get from the second floor to the main living room. I waved my hand and said, "Please sit down." I reached out and helped Sister Ming sit down like a lotus leaf swaying in the wind.

The pretty boy was staring at the pretty girl so intently his eyes were practically crossed. Mingjie had never met anyone like him before, so she turned to face him, looking at me and waiting for me to speak. I deliberately remained silent; I wanted to embarrass the pretty boy so that we could take control.

The pretty boy looked Mingjie up and down, left and right, a broad smile on his face, as if he'd found a priceless treasure. I thought it was about time, so I coughed, and he snapped out of it, his eyes fixed on me. He glanced at me, a look of disappointment on his face, then returned his gaze to Mingjie's face.

"Don't be so disrespectful. Even if I'm not beautiful, you don't have to ignore me so obviously." I coughed again, and the pretty boy finally became alert, sat up straight, and asked, "Who are you two ladies? Why are you staying here? Do you have some kind of relationship with Luo Yi?"

As I expected, he knew Luo Yi. I pretended to say "Oh," and asked, "You know Luo Yi?"

The pretty boy said, "Yes, I know him. We're good friends. I used to be his manager. My name is Chen Brown."

So he was Luo Yi's manager. Looking like that, why doesn't he act in movies himself and instead becomes a vampire manager? What's the point? I instantly lost all liking for him, especially since he was staring at Ming Jie like a lecherous ghost. What else could he be but a vampire? And he even has this weird, neither-here-nor-there name, Chen Brown. I think "Vampire Chen" would be better. That Vampire Chen said, "Miss, you haven't told me your relationship with Luo Yi, or how you got here." He then glanced at Ming Jie and asked, "And what is this young lady's relationship with Luo Yi?"

A thought flashed through my mind, and my wicked nature kicked in, so I said, "I am Luo Yi's sister."

Vampire? Upon hearing this, Chen became suspicious and said, "Nonsense, I'm so familiar with Luo Yi, how come I've never seen your sister before?"

I scoffed and said, "His parents divorced and remarried, and had several younger siblings. How many have you met? Can you name any of them?"

He was immediately stumped by my question and fell silent. After a while, he finally asked, "What's your name, miss?"

I chuckled inwardly and said, "My name is Ross."

He paused, then said, "Screws?"

I chuckled and said, "You're silly. It's Rose. My older brother is Luo Yi, and I'm Luo Si. He's Yi, and I'm Si, it's just a little something." As I said this, I winked at him.

He nodded in agreement, but then realized something was amiss and said, "Wait a minute, Luo Yi's original name was Luo Jialiang. You're his sister, so you shouldn't be called something like Luo Jia something, like Luo Jiasi?"

I wagged my finger at him and said, "The name Luo Jialiang doesn't sound impressive, so why would I follow that ranking? Of course, Luo Si isn't my real name either. Didn't I say? I'm ROSE, it's a transliteration."

The pretty boy wasn't interested in me and asked Ming-jie, "Where's this young lady? She's not also Luo Yi's sister, is she?"

I wanted to scare him, so I said, "This is Mrs. Luo Yi, surnamed Ming. Mrs. Ming."

The young man was indeed terrified and exclaimed, "Impossible! I handled everything for Luo Yi. I know exactly when he got married. Who are you people? What are you trying to scam? And how did you get in? This house has already been handed over to the bank. How did you end up living here?"

I asked, "Then what are you doing here?"

The pretty boy said, "The house is going to be auctioned off, so I'm here to pack my things." His eyes suddenly fell on Ming Jie's cheongsam, and he said, "Didn't I buy this dress for Yi Ge? How come Madam Ming is wearing it?"

I laughed and said, "I already told you, she is my elder brother's wife. Now that my elder brother is gone, all his property belongs to his wife. It won't be so easy for you to auction off my elder brother's property."

Money trap

There's an old saying, "So frightened their faces turned green," which I always thought was an exaggeration. But watching the pale-faced young man in front of me suddenly turn green, I realized it was true—someone really did turn green from fright because their bile rushed to their head. I was secretly delighted, smiling as I watched him, wondering what he would say. To be honest, I wasn't usually this mischievous. Ever since my emotions separated from me, I've become a bit of a prankster, always looking for amusement. It seems those heartless villains, like Empress Lü, Bai Qi, and Zhu Di, who kill without hesitation, also have their emotional souls separated from their original bodies, right? Thinking about this, I felt a pang of fear. I had to quickly reunite my soul with my body; otherwise, I'd become a villain.

The young man's expression returned to normal slightly, and he asked, "What kind of proof do you have? Like a marriage certificate, a will or something? Otherwise, it's just empty talk. The bank and the court could say that you've damaged someone else's property without authorization. I'm afraid you'll get into trouble."

Huh, he's worried about us? I didn't expect him to be a good person? We're just here for a short stay. What if the courts or the police come knocking? We can easily disappear. But that would be so boring. He scared me with just one sentence? I refuse to believe it. My conscience, which had just surfaced, was devoured by that Ah Huang guy. I said, "My sister-in-law and I have always lived in the countryside. I don't understand any of this. In our rural area, we get married, that's it. What proof do we need? We've already paid our respects to Heaven and Earth, and that's proof enough. How about I ask the Heavenly Emperor and the Earth God to come out and take a look? You're the agent, and my brother is a big star. We're both in the film industry, so let's do it like in the movies. Let's learn from 'The Fairy Couple,' where the locust tree acted as matchmaker, and the Heavenly Emperor and the Earth God became witnesses for Luo Yi and Madam Ming."

The pretty boy laughed heartily and said, "This Rose Sister is quite amusing; what she says makes sense, but the courts and banks won't listen to that. How did you get in here?"

I scoffed and said, "Look how stupid you are. Of course, my elder brother gave us the key to this house. We were traveling around in the countryside when we heard the bad news about him, and we were so heartbroken that we couldn't continue our journey. Madam Ming fell seriously ill, so we only arrived yesterday."

After listening to my boastful words, the pretty boy kindly said to Sister Ming, "Madam, please accept my condolences. Although Brother Yi has passed away, I was his friend, and I will take good care of you. However, you still need to provide proof before I can return Brother Yi's belongings to you. Brother Yi has one last sum of money in my hands, and I've been wondering whether to give it to his father or his mother, or perhaps donate it to charity?"

"You little rascal, trying to trick us with money. You might get tricked by others, but you're in big trouble with us. I'm a ghost, what use is your money to a ghost? You'd rather use it as paper money for burning than have ink on the banknotes." I sighed and said, "Just donate it to charity, it'll be good for my brother. Poor brother, he earned so much wealth, but he hasn't even enjoyed it much, and now he's so young..." I turned and pretended to wipe away a tear, then decided to disgust him further, saying, "It's rare to find someone as good as you, taking money that nobody knows about and holding onto it, waiting to give it back to its rightful owner, instead of spending it yourself. These days, there aren't many people like that."

The pretty boy sighed and said, "Brother Yi left us too soon, so young. It's truly a case of heaven being jealous of talent."

I watched him with great interest, and he watched me with great interest too. What's that called again? "Mutual appreciation," huh? Recognizing a hero and valuing another, I almost wanted to rush over and call him a "soulmate." Why did I feel so much in common with him?

The pretty boy stopped beating around the bush, coughed, and said, "Mrs. Ming and Brother Yi's marriage certificate?"

I didn't press him further and said, "It's true that I can't prove that the lady is my elder brother's widow, but I have a letter left by my elder brother for my sister-in-law, saying that all his property will be inherited by her. How much property does Luo Yi have now? Why is he auctioning off this house?"

The pretty boy seemed quite surprised and said, "Really?" I nodded. The pretty boy said, "No less than that number." He held up his fingers to indicate, and I asked, "Is the unit 100 million?" The pretty boy said unhappily, "Of course." It seemed that whether it was 100 million or not was not enough to explain Luo Yi's superstar status.

My curiosity was piqued, so I asked, "So what's the situation now?"

The young man said, "Since Brother Yi didn't leave a will, his property will be jointly inherited by his parents. However, several other women also claim to own a portion of Luo Yi's property, making the situation very chaotic. The conflicting claims from his parents are already a headache. Take this house, for example; everyone wants it, but the bank loan isn't paid off yet, and they don't want to pay it back. So the bank has to foreclose, auction it off, and then divide the money. It would be best if Madam Ming had a will. As long as the paperwork is complete, this mess can be quickly sorted out. Those bloodsucking lawyers can go home and stop constantly coming to watch us, sending us bills for hundreds of dollars an hour. Who knows how much they've done? How much of this is fictitious, misleading, or fake accounting?"

I clapped my hands and exclaimed, "Tom Cruise's 'The Money Trap,' that's exactly what their law firm does!" The pretty boy slapped his thigh and said, "Right." We both burst out laughing. The pretty boy said, "Little sister, you really know a lot about movies." I said smugly, "Of course, my brother's in that line of work, how could I not know?" The pretty boy said, "Then can I see Brother Yi's letter?"

I had already thought of this when I was bragging, so I calmly said, "No problem, I'll go get it. Sister, you sit with Mr. Chen for a bit, I'll be right back."

Mingjie smiled at the pretty boy after hearing my words. The pretty boy immediately stared at her intently and asked, "What is your name, madam? May I ask?"

I rolled my eyes at him, thinking to myself that this guy was truly a heartless traitor. At least I lied to him and said that this was his brother Yi's wife. You know, one shouldn't mess with a friend's wife, right? Besides, we were getting along so well just now, and he's completely lost his mind as soon as he sees a beautiful woman. I snorted and went up to the small living room on the second floor. Luo Yi was sitting in the corner of the sofa, frowning as soon as he saw me. I smiled slightly and said, "Do you remember we talked about starting a company? Well, it really happened."

Luo Yi asked, "What kind of crazy idea have you come up with this time?"

"Isn't that a wicked idea?" I laughed and said, "You're not leaving anytime soon, so don't you need a place to stay? What's the point of sharing a room with someone? You might as well move in yourself. You write a note, and I'll give it to Sister Ming, and all your assets will be transferred to her. Then this place will be a legitimate haunted house, and no one can take it away. For the transfer, you might need Sister Ming's ID, but I reckon that'll be easy. You can ask Brother Ma to get a fake passport or something; it should be a piece of cake. I'll have Chen Brown be Sister Ming's agent, and he'll continue to manage your assets. Let him be shady if he wants; he's familiar with the business."

Luo Yi smiled and shook his head, saying, "I don't know how you manage to think of that. How come I didn't think of that?"

I stuck out my tongue and said, "A gentleman can be deceived by his methods. You're used to being a hands-off boss, so it's easy for them to fool you. I'm used to playing pranks and causing trouble; I can't live without stirring things up." I pulled out a small Queen Anne-style table in the living room, and sure enough, there were paper and pens inside. I laid them out in front of Luo Yi and said, "Write something vague, the more sloppy the better. For the date, just write... um, when did you go on vacation alone last year?"

Luo Yi said, "During the Spring Festival? I went alone during the Spring Festival..." He suddenly stopped talking. I chuckled and didn't expose him. I wasn't interested in knowing where he went; I guessed he was with some woman again—maybe Meng Xixi? Luo Yi picked up a pen, thought for a moment, wrote a line, and finally signed his famously flamboyant signature. It's said that this signature was designed by experts to be simple, beautiful, and written in one stroke without pausing, so that he could sign autographs for fans quickly and appear very cultured.

I picked up the paper and read: "I, Luo Yi, hereby declare that all my property, both during my lifetime and after my death, shall be jointly managed by my wife, Mingming, and me." Following this was his signature and the date. I gave him a thumbs-up and said, "Well written! This doesn't look like a will; it sounds more like a promise to a loved one." I blew on the ink to dry it and rubbed the letter haphazardly against the curtains. The cleaning ladies came yesterday; they only dusted and waxed the furniture. They vacuumed the curtains, but didn't take them down to wash them, so some residue was inevitable. I wiped the paper with the curtains, and it looked only about 80-90% new. Anyway, it's only from the beginning of last year; it can't be too old.

I carefully folded that invaluable piece of paper, worth hundreds of millions, put it in an envelope, and swaggered downstairs, holding it up in my hand. The pretty boy and Sister Ming were chatting happily, completely oblivious to what I was upstairs doing. When I sat down, they seemed quite displeased, as if I had disturbed their pursuit of a beautiful woman. I placed the envelope on the coffee table, pushed it towards him, and said, “Brother Chen, you’re a good friend of my brother, so I’ll call you brother too. Here’s the thing, Mrs. Ming knows nothing about finances, and I need to go back to my studies. In the future, she’ll be all alone here, and if anything happens, she won’t have anyone to help her make decisions. Why don’t you continue to be her agent and financial advisor, helping her with investments and managing everything, just like you helped my brother before? Is that alright? I know this is asking too much. Brother Chen is a very busy man; his clients are all superstars whose names alone would shake the world. He certainly won’t have time to deal with Mrs. Ming’s miscellaneous affairs. But we’re just ordinary women who don’t understand these things. If we don’t rely on Brother Chen, who else can we rely on? Brother Chen, what do you say?”

Damn, that pretty-boy vampire tried to lure us in with a small sum of money from Luo Yi, but I didn't fall for it because I'm an unyielding and incorruptible little female ghost. But his rhetoric was brilliant; anyone would be tempted. I immediately put it to use: I'd use billions of dollars to corrupt and win him over. I don't believe he could pull it off. A beautiful woman plus gold—any man would be tempted, unless he's not human and is a ghost like us.

He wasn't a ghost, of course; he was just a money-grubbing vampire. Hearing about such a lucrative deal, Mr. Chen Brown's eyes lit up, his face beaming like a flower. He readily agreed, saying, "What are you saying? Yi-ge was my good friend. Now that he's gone, it's only right that I take care of his widow. Once the will is notarized and everything is settled, leave Mrs. Ming's affairs to me. You can go back to your studies, sister." He picked up the envelope from the table, took out the surprisingly heavy, thin piece of paper, read it, and exclaimed in surprise, "It really is Yi-ge's handwriting!"

I gave a mock snort, feigning annoyance, and said, "Brother Chen, what do you mean by that? Do you think I'm lying? You call yourself my brother's good friend, but you don't understand him at all? Is he the kind of person who doesn't take care of his family and friends? Who among his people hasn't benefited from him? Back when he was filming 'The Black-Clad Hero,' didn't he give each of his stunt doubles a motorcycle? Madam Ming is his wife, of course he'll take care of her."

The pretty boy blushed slightly and said, "That's not what I meant. It's just that I'm so familiar with Brother Yi, how come I've never heard him mention his wife? I only know that he asked me to buy Mengxixi's... and this date on it, wasn't Brother Yi going to Taxidi at that time, with that person..." He glanced at Sister Ming, swallowed the name of a certain woman, and said, "Meeting, and he still asked me to buy the plane tickets."

Seeing that the lie was about to be exposed, I remained calm and collected (of course! How could my heart be racing?), and said, "A smokescreen. My brother is afraid the media will find out, isn't he? This is called a feint. 'A feint to the east while attacking the west, to steal cotton-padded coats,' haha. Brother Chen, which old movie is that line from?"

The young man was stumped by me and said, "I can't remember." I said dismissively, "You're in this line of work? You're not dedicated to your job at all." Seeing his displeasure, I said with a grin, "Actually, I forgot too. I was just trying to ask someone. I think it was something like 'Marching into the Dabie Mountains'?" The young man was a bit confused by my rambling, and the key problem was that he couldn't grasp anything. He just asked a random question, "What about Madam Ming's identification?"

I said, "I'll show you next time you come. I can't reveal all my cards to you at once, who knows if you'll leak them to the press?"

The gigolo immediately said, "Madam isn't in this circle, so of course she doesn't need to show her face. I'll handle it, so don't worry."

I nodded and said, "Of course I trust you. My elder brother trusts you with his affairs, so what else could you possibly worry about, Madam?" I picked up the envelope and said, "Then Madam, please keep this safe. You can come and get it when you need it. It would be best to take a photocopy; such important evidence would be terrible if lost." The young man nodded in agreement. I looked at the dark sky outside and asked, "What time is it now? There are only the two of us women at home, so I won't keep you for dinner." I had to get rid of him quickly; I had my own things to do.

The pretty boy said, "It's only a little past four o'clock. It only looks like night because it's dark. Madam and sister, would you like to go out for dinner together? I bet you two aren't in the mood to cook, are you? How about I accompany you out for a meal?"

I said, "No, it's too much trouble to go out in the rain. I've heard that acid rain can damage cars and other things. It's really bad for Brother Chen to be out running errands in this weather."

The young man grunted and said, "I've seen the news too. I didn't expect a rainstorm to cause so much damage." Seeing that we really didn't intend to go out, and not wanting us to stay, he could only stand up and say, "Then I'll be going. Please don't see me off, madam."

I said, "No need to see me off, have a good trip." I quickly shooed the pretty boy away, but he turned back for one last, lingering look at Sister Ming before leaving. Sister Ming maintained her usual composure, smiling silently, while the pretty boy walked away with a flirtatious look in his eyes.

Friendship is priceless

As soon as Mr. Chen Brown closed the door, I jumped up and rushed to the small living room on the second floor. I said to Luo Yi, "Oh no, brother, your agent is a lecher." When I said "lecher," I lowered my voice, afraid that Sister Ming would hear me. "You didn't see the way he looked at Sister Ming. He was leering at her, giving her one flirtatious glance after another. I think he wants to get both her and his money. I don't know what he's up to. Maybe he wants to marry Sister Ming, then your money will be his money. You have to be careful."

Luo Yi stood up with a laugh and walked downstairs, saying, "What am I worried about? You always misunderstand the situation we're facing, thinking everything is the same. You don't care about your own affairs, but you're so concerned about these useless things."

I followed behind him, feeling a little guilty, and said, "No, not at all. Didn't I coax him out of the house? Who wouldn't be suspicious if two women suddenly appeared in an empty room? Luckily, I was good with my tongue and managed to fool him. Otherwise, if he had called the police or security guards to check our identities, we wouldn't know what to do. You made a bad choice in your friends, befriending someone like that. Who knows how much money he's swindled from you. Seriously, brother, has this guy done anything bad before? Like stealing your girlfriend, tripping you up, leaving you speechless and unable to complain?"

Luo Yi said, "He took my money. I'm his boss. What benefit does he get from doing that? As for whether it's shady or not..."

"Just like Lord Wei Xiaobao, if you're lenient with your subordinates, they'll naturally work for you?" I replied with a smile.

“That’s right. You haven’t experienced much, but you’ve read a lot of books. That’s exactly right.” Luo Yi walked around the room, lifted a corner of the curtain, and said, “With this kind of rain, it’s really not good for us to go out.”

I asked, "You're going out? To Fisherman's Wharf again? What for? Is it because of me?"

Luo Yi pulled the curtains open wider and said, "Well, what else would we come back for?"

The thought of going back excited me, but I was also a little reluctant to leave him and Sister Ming. I said, "Brother, what are you and Sister Ming planning to do? You don't want to go back, do you? Are you just going to stay here and play around like Brother Ma?"

Luo Yi was silent for a while, then said, "My body has already turned to ash, so there's not much point in me staying. But since I'm here, I might as well stop and see what happens. This situation is quite an adventure. Besides," he smiled, "didn't you help me snatch up all the houses? If I don't stay, I'll be letting you down."

Luo Yi and I both burst into laughter. We never imagined that our friendship from the Ghost Realm would actually turn into something like siblings. Then, remembering something, I asked, "Will I forget you guys when I get back?"

Luo Yi chuckled and said, "Once you wake up, have your kids and live your life. Why do you need to remember a few ghosts? They're not good memories anyway, so it's best not to remember them."