A Guest In A Ghost House

At the front of the group was a huge, bald man with a remarkable amount of flesh on his face. He gave off the vibe that he wasn"t a good person. At his side was one of the men who had been scared by the ghost playing with the table puzzle.

"So tell Tiger, what are you afraid of at this…place?" The bald man, apparently named Tiger, clapped his hand down on the shoulder of the timid man as he looked around with a mildly disdainful expression. The man nodded several times but remained silent.

Tiger let out a sigh, then slowly sauntered over to the boss of the stall. "Well, Boss," he said. "I hear the establishment you"re running here isn"t exactly clean." The disdainful expression reappeared on his face as he looked the boss up and down.

The boss smiled pleasantly and shot a quick glance at me before saying, "What? I"ve always taken sanitation very seriously."

"Hey, no need to lie to me," Tiger smiled, patted the boss on the shoulder as he had with the timid man, then grabbed a long stick full of roasted meat and began to eat it in front of the boss.

Xiao Lingdang was dissatisfied and cried, "Hey! That"s ours."

Sister Hua"s face had also gone dark. She looked at me and pointed to the bald man while saying, "You, go."

I go? I thought, but I knew I was about to go. I could not handle being scolded, especially not by Sister Hua. I plucked up all the courage I could muster and then stood up, slowly approaching Tiger.

I could tell as I approached him that he was puzzled by the scene. The night market stall was empty of guests, but empty kebab sticks and beer bottles were strewn about the tables, chairs and floor. It really looked like the boss was terrible at keeping his stall clean, and this disorder was no way to stay in business.

As the only visible person present, when I stood up, I naturally attracted the attention of everyone who had just walked up. Even Tiger put down the new kebab he was chewing on to stare at me.

To tell the truth, I had never been in a confrontation like this. My legs trembled, but I thought that at least Tiger seemed less frightening than Sister Hua. I stopped a few feet away from Tiger, then inadvertently coughed.

Well, since he certainly won"t be afraid of me, let"s hope that he"ll at least pity me…

"You have a lot of guts." Tiger looked at me, squinting his eyes slightly. He stuck his tongue out and slowly licked his lips. He might have been trying to intimidate me, but this close to him, I thought he just looked silly…and quite oily.

"Well, Tiger." I finally spoke and was pleased to find that my voice didn"t sound as nervous as I thought it would.

Tiger looked at me expectantly as the men behind him began to speak up.

"Oh, you"re going to call him Tiger?"

"Call him Brother Tiger!"

"No, call him Master!"

I looked at them, trying to channel the same calmness that I had when speaking, then looked back to Tiger and waited.

"Interesting. You, boy. You"re going to confront me?" Tiger looked at me, laughed, then said, "What exactly do you plan to do?"

As soon as he was finished, I spoke up. "Hey, I have a lot of people on my side."

Tiger burst out laughing in response, his thugs quickly following suit. "Yes, I see that they"ve all come to protect you!" He gestured to the tables that to him were empty.

I smiled and nodded, then lightly said, "I can see that you"ve brought a lot of people with you, but in fact, I also have a lot of friends." I sounded smug, and my att.i.tude clearly surprised Tiger.

The man looked confused, wondering where my boldness came from when I had no one by my side to protect me. I let him think for a moment before fiercely waving my hand. After my gesture, the look Tiger gave me switched from wariness to a disturbed expression, as though he had now decided that I was an idiot.

I looked back after a moment of nothing happening to realize that none of the ghosts had been paying attention to our conversation. They were all in their own conversations, waiting for the boss to grill up more meat.

So much for dramatic effect…

"You"re bluffing." Tiger finally reacted, coming forward a few steps and looking like he was going to hit me in the face.

I jumped back and yelled, "If you don"t come and help me, you"ll never get this barbecue again!"

Tiger was frightened by my shout, and I wondered what he was thinking. I was almost glad that he didn"t know what was going on. It was embarra.s.sing having to bait the ghosts to help me with barbecue.

Luckily, my threat seemed to have worked. I saw that Tiger"s eyes were looking over my shoulder and had begun to bulge. He looked sweatier than he had moments ago. It even appeared as though he"d peed his pants.

"So, believe that I have friends now?" I laughed at Tiger and casually looked over my shoulder.

"Agh!" Although Sister Hua and the other beautiful women looked the same as always, the other guests had really played their part. Some were carrying their heads, others were rotting, a few stuck their tongues out longer than I thought possible, and all of them looked very, very dead. My stomach rolled.

I heard scrambling in front of me, and I turned to see Tiger and his men rus.h.i.+ng towards the van. Before the door had even closed, the van roared to life and careened out of its parking spot, swaying left and right as if the driver was drunk.

Unfortunately for one of his men, the swaying of the van had knocked him out onto the road and onto his head. He looked at us in horror with blood dripping down his face before running after the van, wailing.

The ghosts, satisfied that their work had been completed, shouted for the boss to serve them. I realized that the boss had disappeared at some point, and when he reappeared, he avoided looking at any of the ghosts. Instead, he busied himself with cooking the meat as quickly as possible. Wise move.

"Wu Rui, go get alcohol. Oh, I"m so tired! I"m ready to relax," Sister Hua called loudly to the cheers of the other ghosts.

I was unable to protest after the a.s.sistance the ghosts had provided me, so I simply avoided looking at their gruesome faces and went to go grab a few cases of beer. Tonight I"d gotten off easy, and it wouldn"t hurt to wash away our worries with a big, drunken party.

Hours later, the ghosts were still going strong, and the boss had even had to leave to buy more food as the ghosts had already eaten everything at his stall. The ghosts called the boss over to drink with us. Everyone had realized the boss was a good man by this time, so Sister Hua used her tricks to make everyone visible to the boss.

It was dawn when the ghosts finally left the stall to return home. I had remained sober, but the boss was still at the messy stall and was incredibly drunk. I wondered, if this boss was this drunk, who was I supposed to look for to settle the bill?

Maybe I"ll get lucky and not have to pay the total…

Around that time, the boss"s wife appeared after realizing the boss hadn"t come home. She rushed into the stall, chastising the boss for how drunk he was. I felt slightly embarra.s.sed but also slightly appreciative for the interruption. The boss waved me away and slurred out that I could settle the bill another day.

I quickly rushed home to collapse. Originally, I"d planned to get my new room organized, but it looked like that was a task for another day.