Chapter 10 - First Encounter
Translator : KuroShinji
TL/Checker & Editor : SilentDawn
Editor & Proofreader : Mariabel
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Gu Ye took Gu Yang to a relatively empty street. There was a shop selling wreaths and funeral clothes at the other end of the street. Its back door faced a hospital, but the business was still quite good. Gu Ye walked to the door and watched the familiar shop with a complicated emotion deep in his eyes.
“Brother, this kind of shop is somewhat unlucky. What do you want to buy that you have to come here, ah?” Gu Yang didn’t want to get off the taxi.
Gu Ye dragged him out. “Wait here for me. I’ll take you to eat delicious food later.”
“Oh.” Gu Yang stayed put at the door.
Gu Ye entered the shop and shouted, “Shopkeeper, is there a small box of 1081 Cinnabar?”
The shopkeeper was an old man, and hearing Gu Ye ask about the best item in his shop, he lifted his thick eyelids and glanced at the boy momentarily before becoming disappointed at what he saw. He stood up slowly and walked equally as slow to the nearest counter, saying with a hoa.r.s.e voice, “There was a young man who liked to buy this cinnabar, but unfortunately…”
“If there’s fate, then you might meet him again.” Gu Ye said with a smile.
Instead of continuing with the topic, the old man shook his head and handed the cinnabar over. “Lad, you look bright and have a handsome face too. You also know to buy the good stuff. What sect are you from?”
“I don’t know, Master never told me.” Gu Ye pointed to several other items and said with a smile, “I’ll have to trouble you to pack one of each of these as well.”
“You have good eyes, all of these are quality items.” The old man smiled and wrapped everything up, “It’s exactly 3,000.”
Gu Ye paid, put them into his backpack, and made Gu Yang carry everything when he got out of the shop. That kid was eating a lot recently and was growing at the speed of bamboo.
“Brother, what did you buy?” Gu Yang felt uneasy at the thought of buying anything from this kind of shop.
“Things that ghosts like,” Gu Ye answered seriously.
Gu Yang immediately felt a shiver down his spine. Running around carrying those things on your back, aren’t you afraid of attracting ghosts?!
“Just kidding, I’m just scaring you!” Gu Ye took his brother to rent two shared-bicycles and said with a smile, “Let’s go. I’ll take you to eat delicious food. Let’s eat our fill this afternoon for our work later.”
Gu Ye then took Gu Yang to the other side of the hospital where there were several small restaurants. “This place’s beef noodles are good.”
Gu Yang looked up and saw a big sign board that read “Beef King,” on it was a cow painted with two horns, along with a big bowl drawn on the far right of the sign board. The shop looked very affordable with an atmosphere of normal day-to-day people, and Gu Yang wondered how his brother who rarely went out knew about this place.
It was lunch hour at this time, so there were many people in the shop. It took them both a while to find a seat in the innermost place, and Gu Ye shouted with a smile, “Boss, two bowls of beef noodles with extra beef and eggs each!”
“Okay!” The chubby owner was a friendly person who always smiled when he spoke.
Before long, two bowls of beef noodles were sent to their table, and Gu Yang asked in surprise before even being able to pick up his chopsticks, “That’s a lot of beef! How much is it per bowl?”
“Only 25 yuan a bowl.” Gu Ye handed a pair of chopsticks over to Gu Yang. “Quickly eat.”
Gu Yang marveled at such a worthwhile bargain before pulling his bowl of noodles before him. After tasting it, he raised his thumb to the owner and his wife with his cheeks full and praised, “It tastes great!”
Seeing that the brothers were both polite and good looking, the owner’s wife smiled and served them an extra small helping of cold dishes.
Gu Ye kept his head down and ate his noodles silently with a smile. The familiar taste of the noodles stimulated his taste buds, and Gu Ye felt his heart clench, somehow.
He was an orphan and had been in an orphanage ever since he could remember. He was adopted by his master when he was six years old, and from then on, he would get up early in the morning and go to bed late at night with his master everyday. He had to learn Taoism after school, and when he was tired and didn’t want to learn, his master would scold him. Once, he ran away from home in a fit when he couldn’t stand it anymore and got lost. When he became hungry, his master found him and spanked him before taking him to eat. That was the only time his master had ever beaten him, so Gu Ye remembered it vividly. Later, when his master pa.s.sed away, he would go eat noodles whenever he missed the old man.
While Gu Ye was immersed in his feelings, there was a pop at the door followed by a shocked “Ah!” and a woman’s scream right after that.
Gu Ye looked up and saw a bit of Sha Qi flashing past, and his eyes darkened. Something bad must’ve happened!
An elderly lady at the door shouted exaggeratedly, “Boss! Your shop’s sign board fell down on people again!”
Panicking, the boss and his wife ran out, and the entrance immediately became noisy.
“What’s going on with your shop? This has happened several times already! Did you encounter evil spirits or something?”
“Let’s not talk and go to the hospital now! This big sister’s head is bleeding!”
“Please, someone help me take her to the hospital first!”
……
The shop owner ran back into the shop with a pale face, took some cash, and hurriedly went out again. His wife looked at the big sign board that had fallen dispiritedly and silently wiped her tears. All of their hard work in these two months were in vain yet again.
Gu Ye shook his head. The back of this shop was facing the hospital. In general, any premises that faced buildings like hospitals, slaughterhouses, funeral parlors, prisons, garbage dumps, red light services and the like will cause their owners to suffer bankruptcy through unlucky “coincidences.” Besides, the shape of the window’s awning was not right. In Feng Shui, it was often said that “evil has a form.” The awning’s shape was sharp on both sides. Were it not for both the owner and his wife being good people and always treating others with kindness, they would have been the ones to suffer. The window hadn’t been like this when he came here before. He didn’t know when it had been changed.
Gu Ye ate his fill, wiped his mouth, and took out fifty yuan to settle the bill. The owner’s wife squeezed out a smile that looked more like a crying expression and said, “Is it delicious? If it is, then come here often.”
Gu Ye nodded, took out the last gourd he had on him, and handed it over to her. “The shape of the awning should be changed to a flat one. The sharp design should be sc.r.a.pped. Hang this gourd on the window facing the hospital in your kitchen. Don’t seal the window, and things like this shouldn’t happen anymore in the future.”
The lady asked in a surprised tone, “How do you know there’s a window facing the hospital?”
That window was only for ventilation purposes. They were the ones who had made the window, and it was extremely small. It couldn’t be seen from the outside.
Not wanting to explain, Gu Ye put the gourd on the other side of the table and dragged Gu Yang out with him. He had to buy some gourds in the afternoon, or he wouldn’t be able to play with ghosts anymore.
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The brothers took the entire afternoon to buy all the things Gu Ye wanted, and in the evening, they took a taxi to a stadium and experienced what was called “a wave of humans” as soon as they got off the taxi. Both sides of the entrance were crowded with hordes of girls holding up sign boards and shouting like crazy. Even the cold weather couldn’t dampen their enthusiasm. Both Gu Ye and Gu Yang were trapped inside the wave for a few moments.
“Little brothers, I didn’t expect you guys to also be Rui-Ge’s fans! You guys arrived just at the right time!” A very beautiful girl went up and enthusiastically put a big and elaborately designed sign board into the brothers’ hands. “This is a bit heavy, so you guys hold it carefully, okay. Come and cheer with us! Rui-Ge is the best in the world! Jia You! Jia You! Jia You! Rui-Ge has to take proper care of himself!”
Gu Ye’s face went cold. He didn’t know what these fans would think once all of their Rui Ge’s previous actions were revealed.
Gu Yang who was squeezed by the crowd and was ill at ease. “Brother, did you find the wrong person?”
Gu Ye’s expression remained cold. “You don’t believe in your brother?”
“No, no, no. I believe in you!” Gu Yang quickly shut his trap.
At this time, an MPV slowly stopped under the guidance of the security personnel, and Gu Ye could feel his ears slowly turn deaf under the screams of the crowd.
A young man dressed in a low-key gray parka got off the car and waved to the fans before saying in a gentle manner, “It’s so cold, you darlings all need to be careful so you won’t catch a cold. For those who don’t have tickets, you need to go home, don’t wait here.”
Gu Ye saw the girl who had previously talked to them cover her mouth, and with tears shining in her eyes, said, “Rui-Ge is so kind and warm. I’m so moved!”
Gu Yang straight-forwardly asked, “Your mother also always reminds you to wear more layers. You’re not moved by that, tho?”
The girl immediately turned to Gu Yang sharply and said, “Are you really Rui-Ge’s fan? You’re not a fake fan here to make trouble, are you?” As soon as her words fell, the people around them instantly stared at the brothers with an unfriendly gaze, looking as if they would attack them the moment Gu Yang answered affirmatively.
Gu Ye held the sign board with one hand while pinching Gu Yang’s ear with the other. “My brother isn’t sensible, please don’t mind him. I’ll take care of him.”
After being dragged out, Gu Yang immediately felt as if he had escaped a calamity. “Popularity really is terrible. So many people have been duped by Li Rui.”
Gu Ye sneered, smiling coldly with his pair of inky black pupils looking as if he could see through the world’s mask. “You should know, just because you know what someone looks like, it doesn’t mean that you know their heart. Ghosts and spirits are unfathomable, but people’s hearts are even more baffling.”
Gu Yang, who had been squatting on the ground, looked up towards his brother’s profile. For some reason, he felt that his brother, who he was so familiar with, seemed to be so distant at the moment.
At this time, the fans who had tickets were already inside the stadium. Looking over in their direction, Gu Ye said, “I don’t want to wait and only enter when the concert is over.”
“Then you’re going to let that ghost sister go in by herself?”
“There are too many people here so the Yang Qi is strong. She won’t be able to hold on.”
Gu Yang couldn’t think of another idea. “Then what should we do?”
Gu Ye pointed to a fence and said with a serious tone, “You squat down and let me step on you. I’ll send her in through this window. When we get back, I’ll buy you some tanghulu.”
Gu Yang : “…”
He suddenly got the feeling that his brother only brought him along today just for him to carry bags and be a stool.
Gu Yang knelt on all fours by the wall and said, “Then hurry up. It’s dark already. Mom will definitely kill us if she has to call us home.”
“I know.” Gu Ye agreed. Just as he stepped on Gu Yang’s back and was about to climb up, he felt a strong ghostly presence approaching. It was so cold that Gu Ye could feel it freezing his lungs. He immediately turned around warily and saw a luxury-type sedan coming from afar. The car was shrouded in Zi Qi, and the top was covered in an auspicious cloud with countless Rui Qi streaming around it. This was an extremely rare aura, the Imperial Aura. But what was even more shocking was the ghost general in armor sitting on the roof. The ghost was tall and burly with a ghost mask covering his face and a broadsword bigger than an adult in his hand. His temperament practically screamed danger.
The dense, ghostly spirit and the purple Imperial Fate from the car owner were perfectly integrated. Gu Ye’s eyes widened in shock. This was the first time he saw this kind of strange destiny in his life!
Gu Yang followed Gu Ye’s gaze and yelped in shock, “What the f.u.c.k! That’s a discontinued Maybach, ah! It costs more than ten million yuan! Dad fancied this car, saying that its sleek design with black paint reflects luxury and stability, which shows not only the owner’s wealth but also their good taste. Unfortunately, they stopped making it! Dad can only buy Rolls-Royces and he didn’t have an appet.i.te for several days after that.”
Gu Ye was not in the mood to listen to his chatter, so he said in a rare serious tone, “Lao Si, this kind of person is like G.o.d’s son, the son of destiny. Even ghosts and deities wouldn’t dare to provoke him. If you happen to run into him in the future, do not offend him.”
Gu Yang smiled bitterly. “Brother, can you get off my back first before lecturing me?”
Gu Ye laughed and apologized. “Sorry!”
Gu Yang was helpless. You say so brother, but you’re still distracted.
If there was anyone from the business circle pa.s.sing by, they would certainly recognize the owner of the Maybach. He was the famous financial genius of the country, a rich young man who was also the youngest on the Forbes’ list of rich people and the heir of the Yu Family, Yu Ze. This young man, who was only 26 years old, created a miracle when he returned to China three years ago. In only half a year, he elevated the crumbling YeHong Technology Corporation to the peak. Now, he’s the leader of the domestic electronics industry, his company has also entered the world market.
Yu Ze was wearing a white shirt with his hair meticulously combed back. From his cufflinks to his collar, every detail showed his perfectionist personality with a sense of indifference and solitude. Even the small mole on the outer corner of his eye failed to bring any liveliness to his temperament. In other words, his whole being was practically shouting “stay away!”
Just as Gu Ye was peeking into his destiny, Yu Ze happened to glance his way and saw Gu Ye stepping on his brother to climb the wall.
The secretary standing beside him also saw this and lamented, “Yet another high school student who doesn’t learn well. His parents raised him so well, yet their son is climbing a wall to chase a celebrity.”
Yu Ze turned away and said in an indifferent tone, “It’s their freedom.”
The secretary smiled and said, “You’re different, Mr. Yu. You’ve always been brilliant. By the way, do you really want to take that road? I heard that there have been many accidents there recently, and some people have said that it’s haunted.”
“Oh, there are ghosts in this world? Why haven’t I seen one?” sneered Yu Ze.
——————-
Small theater : Your long awaited Gong.
Yu Ze : “There’s no such thing as ghosts in this world.”
Gu Ye looked at the roof of his car : “Of course, of course, you’re absolutely right~”
Yu Ze : “…”
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T/N (Kuro) : I really am sorry for the sporadic updates and the delayed update. Have no excuse for that, really. I got distracted during Eid. Really am sorry for that.