Lu Mingran was making a packet of instant noodles. He didn't hear what Su Yun behind him was saying, but he guessed it. He sat there, nonchalantly continuing to make the noodles, and even looked back at Su Yun with a blank and innocent expression.
Su Yun's lips were stiff. After mumbling a few words, he hung up the phone in a state of utter despair.
Where could he find someone to take over the night shift in such a short time?
As time went on, starting at eleven o'clock, Su Yun kept looking back at him: "Yesterday, I remember you left around this time yesterday."
"I'm happy to work a little longer today."
As she spoke, Su Yun flicked the rag in her hand and then splashed water all over her face.
*Pfft*—Lu Mingran couldn't help but laugh. At the same time, he decided not to tease Su Yun anymore. While picking at the remaining sausage in the instant noodle cup with his fork, he casually said:
“I heard from others that someone saw you talking to the air at night.”
If it were anyone else, Su Yun would definitely deny it. But Su Yun had told him about the unusual nature of her eyes last night, so Su Yun tacitly agreed.
Su Yun said, "Actually, I only insisted on staying here for the first half of the night after Wanwan came."
"That……"
Having learned the reason from the novel's plot, Lu Mingran wanted to ask him about it. At the same time, it started raining outside.
Lu Mingran's heart skipped a beat; she knew they were approaching that plot point. Unfortunately, Su Yun wasn't leaving now.
Taking advantage of the heavy rain, Lu Mingran had an excuse to stay. The rain was pouring down, almost submerging the steps. Su Yun continued with his work as usual, while Lu Mingran waited, her nerves on edge.
Finally, the door was pushed open.
A girl, soaked to the bone, walked shivering toward Su Yun as soon as she entered.
"Wanwan?"
Su Yun was stunned: "You, didn't you resign?"
Chapter 9 Want to become a Grandmaster? No way (9)
A woman, with wet hair plastered messily to her face, looking pitiful and shivering from the cold, is very likely to evoke sympathy.
What's more, this person was someone Su Yun knew. He rushed over with a towel and poured Wanwan a cup of hot water.
"I wanted to come back to get something, but I didn't expect it to rain."
As she spoke, Wanwan glanced at Lu Mingran beside her. Lu Mingran could tell that Wanwan had something else to say to Su Yun, but was unwilling to speak because of the presence of strangers.
Lu Mingran's thought was: Then I'll suffocate you right now, suffocate you to death.
According to the subsequent developments in the story, the reason why Mr. Hu later came to his door to finalize the matter of taking on a disciple was because of this Wanwan.
Starting a year ago, Wanwan began dating a man who had been dead for a long time but would haunt her.
In the realm of supernatural tales, the idea of a human-ghost romance isn't particularly unusual, and Wanwan quickly grew frightened and wanted to break up with him.
At this point, Su Yun intervened. When he noticed that every night, a pale-faced boy in a school uniform stood outside the glass window, staring at them with a sinister look, he realized something was wrong.
Su Yun had been seeing ghosts for years, so he took some precautions to make the supermarket relatively safe in that regard. In the latter half of the night, when the ghosts roamed freely, Wanwan could hide inside the supermarket. During the first half of the night, Su Yun stayed there alone, occasionally trying to persuade the man.
As time went on, a delicate balance formed between the three of them. The man stopped talking and didn't take any further steps. Wanwan came here every night, and apart from being very nervous, nothing else happened.
Now that Wanwan has resigned, Su Yun is worried that something has happened to her, but Wanwan won't talk about it, only saying that she came back to pick up some things.
Lu Mingran sat there seemingly playing a game, but his gaze was actually secretly following Wanwan the whole time. After Wanwan opened a drawer and took out a bag, she hurriedly prepared to leave.
"boss!"
Lu Mingran called out, "It's raining so hard outside, aren't you going to see her off?"
As she spoke, Lu Mingran pulled out two umbrellas and handed them to the two of them without saying a word, then said to Su Yun:
"Leave the shop to me. You take the girl home, then go home."
Despite Su Yun's unwilling and resistant gaze, Lu Mingran pushed the two of them out. Not only that, he looked at them with amusement.
Seeing this, Su Yun wanted to swear to God that he had never had any improper thoughts about Wanwan.
Lu Mingran saw through Su Yun's thoughts. He wanted to say that he trusted Su Yun and hoped that Su Yun would not have any feelings for that person.
Because Wanwan is a man.
The book says that before falling in love with that male ghost, Wanwan was a cross-dressing master.
————————————————————————
Is it reliable to leave Lu Mingran in the store?
That's obviously a bit unreliable.
As soon as the two of them left, Lu Mingran started rummaging through the cash register cabinets. If he hadn't casually pinned an employee badge to his chest, passersby who saw him rummaging through the cabinets would have called the police immediately.
Finally, Lu Mingran found what he was looking for in the third square on the right.
A small piece of dark green ancient jade tied with a red string.
That wasn't something that had always been there; Wanwan put it there under the pretense of retrieving something after she came over.
The jade was extremely deep and intense in color. As Lu Mingran stared at it, she felt as if the jade was also staring back at her in a cold and gloomy way.
It's better not to watch it.
Lu Mingran found a short, ancient sword that Su Yun had placed in the cabinet—the novel said it was a keepsake from his parents. He looked at the sword and put the jade inside.
What followed was a boring night. With the rain pouring down, who would come to buy anything? By the time Lu Mingran had stayed up until dawn, her eyelids were so heavy she could barely keep them open.
What startled him awake and made him stand at attention was a figure that suddenly appeared at the door that morning.
Mr. Hu.
Mr. Hu did not dress like a charlatan today. On the contrary, he was dressed very respectably and did not wear his sunglasses.
As Mr. Hu approached, Lu Mingran adopted the sweet-talking attitude expected of a shop assistant, saying, "Sir, you look very energetic."
Mr. Hu, pressing his cane, smiled and said:
"There's nothing I can do. I was taken to a 're-education' center yesterday. I've decided to change my ways after I get out today, at least to dress like a law-abiding citizen."
The well-behaved citizen remained calm and focused on settling the bill for Mr. Hu.
Mr. Hu added, "Luckily, there was one person I had helped before, otherwise I don't know how long I would have been lectured."
"Oh, right..." Mr. Hu watched Lu Mingran's hand movements, "I've helped quite a few people, so I still have a lot of goodwill towards them."
The meaning is quite clear: Lu Mingran, you can forget about sending me to various places across the country that provide free food and lodging next time.
Lu Mingran was also very tactful and praised him, saying, "Look at what you're doing. You're almost like a teacher with students all over the world, with success stories everywhere."
"Alright, enough with the small talk." Mr. Hu composed himself. "Where's the owner here?"
"He's not here, he went to class."
As soon as Lu Mingran finished speaking, she saw Su Yun carrying a bag of steamed buns, walking in from outside the door, still sleepy-eyed.
Chapter 10 Want to become a Grandmaster? No way (10)
I'm going to die! I'm going to die!
With unprecedented speed, Lu Mingran ran to the door in a few steps, turned Su Yun's body around so that he was facing the hot pot restaurant, where spring was in full bloom.
At the same time, she gritted her teeth and asked him, "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in class?"
"I……"
"Stop talking, the air is so fresh this morning, look—"
Lu Mingran turned Su Yun to the left: "I think the square dancing in the park needs you."
Then turn him to the right: "If you really can't take it anymore, go home and continue sleeping."
The bag of steamed buns that Su Yun was carrying swung back and forth with these movements. He felt like a kite, a kite that was being pulled and tugged by others, stubbornly carrying the steamed buns.
Their whispering didn't escape Mr. Hu's notice, and soon, the sounds that Lu Mingran really didn't want to hear reached him:
"Su Yun?"
Su Yun turned around, looking completely bewildered.
"Hmm, hello," Mr. Hu said, showing the item in his hand. "Is this your student ID?"
Now Lu Mingran understood why he hadn't succeeded on the bus; it turned out Su Yun's student ID had ended up in Mr. Hu's hands.
Seeing that someone had picked up his student ID, Su Yun broke free from Lu Mingran, thanked her with a smile, and went over. Lu Mingran even heard him say:
"Our teacher who teaches Classical Chinese consulted the oracle this morning and said it's not a good day to go out. No one could persuade him otherwise, so we didn't have any classes this morning."
Hearing this, Mr. Hu became interested: "Oh? Your teacher can tell fortunes?"
"He taught us the I Ching and the Eight Trigrams."
At this moment, the system, which had been feigning death for a long time, warned Lu Mingran in her ear: "Their relationship has progressed to one percent."
Lu Mingran could tell this without the system saying it.
Just like in the novel, Mr. Hu's gaze towards Su Yun always carried a hint of fatherly affection. They chatted idly, one standing behind the cashier and the other sitting at the long table.
When Su Yun mentioned that their teacher taught this, Mr. Hu asked him how the teacher taught it and pointed out several mistakes made by Teacher Gu.
If this continues, those two lines of dialogue are bound to appear:
"Mr. Hu, you know so much."
"So, do you want to learn?"
...Before those two sentences were uttered, Lu Mingran walked over and stood between the two of them, pretending to be busy, trying her best to prevent them from seeing each other.
In short, it's basically a giant, strategically movable humanoid barrier, the kind that's really annoying.
Su Yun tilted her head, trying to catch a glimpse of Mr. Hu through the gap under Lu Mingran's arm.
It could be said that although the two of them were in a spacious area, the way they were talking to each other at that moment was just like two cellmates in a prison cell who wanted to see each other, craning their necks and stretching their necks.
"Hey—Lu Mingran, you, you stop wiping this side. You've already wiped this shelf a hundred times."