"But I never expected to run into two living people like you," Mr. Hu sighed.
Lu Mingran kept shrinking back and asked him, "Then why don't you hurry up and take the girl back to her family?"
"Why give her to her family? She needs to stay with me for a while so she can be reincarnated."
"I should take that Song Wanwan back with me."
After Mr. Hu finished speaking, a hint of worry appeared on his face:
"Your friend Su Yun is ultimately too weak. He can see ghosts, but sometimes he doesn't recognize that this little girl is also a ghost."
In other words, if the original novel's plot had unfolded as it should, the person Su Yun kindly pulled down was also a ghost.
Lu Mingran understood the implication in his words: "You want to take him as your apprentice?"
Speaking of this, Mr. Hu suddenly got angry and started banging his cane on the ground repeatedly.
"If you bastard hadn't reported me, I would have already taken my disciple in!"
Chapter 12 Want to become a Grandmaster? No way (12)
I'm sorry, it's a bit embarrassing...
But Lu Mingran felt deeply that he was destined to be that bastard.
At the risk of being hit by Mr. Hu's cane, Lu Mingran told him:
"I don't want you to take him as your apprentice."
"You're his friend, right? If so, are you willing to watch him waste his talent for the rest of his life, trapped in this little supermarket forever?"
...
Lu Mingran really wanted to say that when the author started to deviate from the main plot and turned a perfectly good, healing-themed ghost story male protagonist into an overbearing, arrogant protagonist, that was probably what he was thinking too.
How is he supposed to explain this to Mr. Hu? Say that in order to make the future stories more realistic and reduce the readers' resentment, he has to do everything he can to stop you?
Lu Mingran had no choice but to put on a calm front and ask Mr. Hu in return:
"So, what exactly do you like about him? What makes him suitable?"
The tone of this statement is a bit off; it's too sour and a bit like lemon, which could easily lead to misunderstandings.
Mr. Hu stroked his chin and looked at him, asking, "Do you perhaps want to become my apprentice?"
Before Lu Mingran could answer, he muttered to himself, "You're just not right anywhere on your body."
Lu Mingran: "..."
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The next day, when Su Yun returned, he kept rubbing his back, saying that the student council officers were going crazy again, making them practice radio calisthenics until midnight in order to put on a show for the leaders.
"Oh, by the way, how was last night?"
It would have been better if Su Yun hadn't brought this up, because the mention of it reminded Lu Mingran of a meaningful look that Mr. Hu had given him.
There's always a feeling of being threatened.
Besides, what the customers said later also made Lu Mingran uneasy. Some regular customers told him that when Wanwan was here, the temperature in the store was always very low and cool at night, but it became hot when he came in. They wondered if he was just unlucky with air conditioning.
Lu Mingran thought that if she told them that the store's original night shift employee was actually a ghost, the convenience store probably wouldn't be able to stay open.
"By the way, I have a question for you."
Su Yun rubbed his back and asked, "Have you found a place to live recently?"
According to Su Yun, a family in their community is renting out their house for a relatively low price. If Lu Mingran is interested, she can go and take a look.
"That……"
Lu Mingran blinked: "Could you pay some of my salary so I can pay my rent?"
While eating, Su Yun mumbled an "okay," then looked at her phone and said, "Hey, why did Wanwan suddenly go back to her hometown?"
————————————————————————
A day later, Lu Mingran went to see the house. Just as Su Yun had said, the landlords were an elderly couple who were going to stay with their daughter. They were very kind, and the rent was reasonable.
In fact, Lu Mingran wasn't picky. He would leave sooner or later, so he just needed a place to stay. The elderly couple showed him the rooms, but he only glanced at them briefly and quickly finalized the arrangements.
Before leaving, the enthusiastic couple insisted on giving Lu Mingran a bag of brown sugar twisted dough sticks so he could take them with him and enjoy them at his leisure.
As Lu Mingran was declining, she turned her head and suddenly saw a yellow paper pasted on the door of her neighbor across the street. At first glance, it looked like a talisman.
The elderly couple noticed he was staring at this, so they patted him on the back reassuringly.
"It's alright. Old Zhang's son has just run into some trouble and they're getting someone to take care of him."
The elderly couple, being older, were naturally more accepting of such matters than Lu Mingran. As for Lu Mingran, it wasn't that he couldn't accept it, but he had overheard some sounds coming from his neighbor's house through the door, and they sounded somewhat familiar.
That evening, he talked to Su Yun about it, and Su Yun recalled for a moment and said:
"Is this Aunt Zhang's family? Something has happened recently. Their son seems to have suddenly fainted, and the hospital couldn't find anything wrong with him."
So, having exhausted all other options, they hired a charlatan?
Later, Lu Mingran heard Su Yun say:
"Speaking of which, I am quite destined to meet his son. We share the same birthday and were both born in the morning."
...
Lu Mingran's hand holding the snacks froze.
He recalled that last night, when discussing the reasons for taking on apprentices, Mr. Hu had said something like this:
“Su Yun is suitable in every way, but the most suitable thing is his birth date and time.”
Chapter 13 Want to become a Grandmaster? No way (13)
If it really is related to the Eight Characters (Ba Zi), then wouldn't that person be a good match?
The novel never mentions such a character; Mr. Hu simply took Su Yun in and left. Looking back now, it seems Mr. Hu could have easily chosen someone else.
Lu Mingran was lost in thought when Su Yun came over and patted him twice: "What are you daydreaming about?"
After being patted a few more times, Lu Mingran finally came to her senses and turned to look at him.
Su Yun looked at this person, feeling somewhat helpless.
Lu Mingran was in a daze when they first met. Looking back now, Su Yun realized that his initial thought of Lu Mingran as a homeless man was probably a misunderstanding. From then on, this man followed him around. Su Yun always felt that he had ulterior motives, but he didn't know what he could possibly gain from Su Yun.
"Hello, Lu Mingran."
Su Yun brought over two cans of drinks, sat down next to him, and waved the cans in front of his eyes: "What are you thinking about all day long?"
They're thinking about how to break you up with your master.
Lu Mingran silently answered in her heart, but said aloud, "What could I be thinking? I wasn't thinking about any young girl."
Su Yun realized he was talking about her and Wanwan, so she tried to hit him with the jar: "I have no feelings for her."
"She's gone, why are you so worried about her?"
Su Yun found his question strange:
"When familiar people leave, it always feels a little strange."
What's more, he's incapable of dating. Someone as strange as him would definitely scare people if he were to be with a girl.
Lu Mingran listened to him, just smiling, and silently opened a can of drink and drank it. Su Yun continued talking about how many partings there are in the world, and how after his parents passed away, he had become more accepting of being alone.
"Then, what if one day..."
Lu Mingran slammed the jar on the table and gazed out the window at the bustling traffic.
"If I leave, will you miss me?"
————————————————————————
Lu Mingran truly believed he could leave, as long as he could find a replacement.
As for the boy who was unconscious, Lu Mingran thought that being unconscious in this kind of supernatural world was probably due to being possessed by an evil spirit, so it was best to leave him with Mr. Hu.
Lu Mingran shared the brown sugar twists the elderly couple had given him with Su Yun. After he had his fill, he went to the apartment again under the pretext of looking at houses. This time, as soon as he went upstairs, he noticed that the door to his neighbor's apartment across the hall was open, and he could see into the living room at a glance.
The house was filled with smoke and fumes, and it was unclear what kind of ritual was being performed; it was unsettling to look at. Lu Mingran suppressed her discomfort and curiously peered inside. On the living room wall hung a family photo of the three of them. The boy in the middle looked quite like Su Yun at first glance, both having a well-behaved appearance.
He stared for so long that he didn't notice the woman of the house opening her bedroom door and coming out. The woman didn't chase him away; she just stood there staring at him until he realized something was wrong and stood up straight in fright.
"Hello, Auntie!" Lu Mingran pointed to the door behind her. "I'm here to look at the apartment."
Before Lu Mingran could finish speaking, the bedroom door opened again, and a black cane emerged.
Upon seeing the owner of the cane, the woman said very respectfully:
"Mr. Hu."
————————————————————————
Lu Mingran didn't know how she should feel right now.
On the one hand, he was very happy. He had searched high and low without finding it, but it came to him effortlessly. He didn't need to look for it or recommend it; Mr. Hu found the child himself.
On the other hand, he found things rather strange, because it was said that Mr. Hu had been in contact with this family for a long time, much earlier than he had been in contact with Su Yun. If that was the case, why didn't he revive the child and then take him in?
From the moment they went downstairs to the moment they sat in the pavilion in the community, Mr. Hu and Lu Mingran walked side by side in silence.
Finally, Lu Mingran couldn't hold back any longer and asked:
"Mr. Hu, you calculated Su Yun's birth chart by looking at the date of birth on his student ID, right?"
Mr. Hu nodded.
"Then...I heard that this family's son shares the same birthday as him?"
Mr. Hu then smiled and told him that the birth chart needs to be specific to the exact hour, not just the same day.
However, Mr. Hu also said, "But if I want to take on apprentices, he is also an option."