“Stop right there! Don’t run!”
Panting, I chased after a young woman with delicate makeup and a slender, alluring figure.
Damn, how could she run so fast in high heels?
The stylish young woman turned around, made a face at me, then smugly turned back and kept running.
I roared, leaped into the air, and tackled her to the ground.
A curious crowd quickly gathered around us. Two women fighting—and both of them beautiful—immediately drew everyone’s attention. Quite a few people even pulled out their phones to take pictures and record videos.
“What are you doing?! You creep! Are you harassing me?!”
The young woman flailed her hands like a cat, punching and kicking wildly as she kept yelling, “I told you, I have a boyfriend! I’m not into women! Stop following me! We could never be together!!!”
The crowd erupted, their curiosity blazing.
“Hey, don’t shove! My shoe fell off!”
“Move! You’re blocking my camera! I have tons of followers—let me film first!”
I looked helplessly at the woman possessed by a female ghost, my head pounding like it was about to explode.
Bách Linh was a female ghost I’d only just subdued. In life, she’d been a famous singer during the Republic of China era. After offending a warlord’s wife, she was strangled to death. She became a vengeful ghost after she died, often possessing beautiful young women to seduce men, then draining their yang energy and stealing years from their lives.
I hadn’t locked her up for long, but somehow she’d escaped last night.
“Shut up! Get out of her right now!”
I squeezed the woman’s middle finger hard, trying to force Bách Linh out. “Ow, ow, ow! Let go! I’m not coming out!”
When she felt herself about to be forced out, Bách Linh shut her eyes, gritted her teeth, grabbed my head, kissed me on the lips, and blew a breath of ghostly energy into me.
As the ghostly energy entered me, my whole body went rigid.
Taking advantage of the moment, Bách Linh shoved me away and ran off. She even threw me a sorrowful look as she cried, “I love you! But we have to bow to reality. Accept your fate, and don’t come looking for me again!”
“Forget me!”
After saying that, she covered her face and pushed through the crowd to escape.
By the time my body could move again, the crowd was in an uproar. Countless people surrounded me, taking pictures and videos. I couldn’t get through no matter how hard I tried.
That cunning female ghost!!!
At last, traffic police arrived to disperse the crowd, and I finally got away—but Bách Linh had disappeared.
Hmph. Think you can escape me? Not a chance.
When I had her in my arms, I’d slipped a tracking talisman into her pocket.
An hour later, I was carrying a burlap sack with Bách Linh cursing inside. I slammed the sack, and she immediately fell silent.
At the amusement park entrance, I greeted the staff, then headed back to the haunted house. The ghosts gathered around me.
That’s right, I run a haunted house at the amusement park. Including Bách Linh, there are four ghosts here now—barely enough for four themes.
It was past eleven in the morning, and the haunted house wasn’t open yet.
I closed the door and lit a stick of incense in the northwest corner. As the smoke curled upward, the ghosts gathered around.
Chu Hoài Khoan, the stiff-faced hopping vampire, bounced over.
“Did you let Bách Linh out?”
“I…”
Before I could finish, Trương Minh Minh, the eight- or nine-year-old ghost boy, ran over. “Linh Châu, you have to see this! You’re trending!”
He rose onto his tiptoes and thrust his phone into my hand.
“Breaking! Brave young woman confesses to her girlfriend in the middle of the street!”
“Those two beautiful girls are such a perfect match. Why can’t they be together?!”
“We support you two! Don’t let other people’s judgment stop you!”
“Sob, ‘Forget me!’ really moved me!”
“I know the girl in the tracksuit! She runs the haunted house at the amusement park!”
“Ahhh, and the other girl—isn’t that Tống Phỉ Phỉ, the richest family’s heiress in the city? She just got back from abroad!”
I slammed the sack onto the ground. “Bách Linh! Look at the mess you’ve made!!!”
“Ow, you’re hurting me~”
Dressed in a figure-hugging qipao, Bách Linh stretched languorously, then used Chu Hoài Khoan to help herself up.
“Oh, I’m trending?”
She covered her mouth and laughed, brimming with feminine charm. “Why the long face? Trending is a good thing! More attention means more business, and more business means more money for you!”
“If business gets any worse, you won’t even be able to buy incense for us. And let me make one thing clear: I won’t use cheap incense. Don’t even think about trying to fool me!”
I took a deep breath and collapsed into a chair in despair.
I was wrong. I shouldn’t have argued with my senior fellow disciple. If we hadn’t argued, I wouldn’t have gone off on my own. If I hadn’t gone off on my own, my temple wouldn’t have gone bankrupt. If my temple hadn’t gone bankrupt, I wouldn’t have spent my last bit of money buying this haunted house. And if I hadn’t had the haunted house, I wouldn’t be trending right now.
I’d erased the memory of the woman Bách Linh possessed and quietly taken her home.
Great. Now that people have seen this video, they’re bound to come looking for me. How am I supposed to explain this?
“Enough fussing. Eat first.”
Hà Tỷ, the water ghost, floated over and looked at me gently. “Linh Châu, I made braised pork, garlic stir-fried broccoli, and carp-and-tofu soup. Go eat. We still have to open for business this afternoon.”
Hà Tỷ was a ghost I’d found, and the most unusual one I’d ever met.
She had no memories. She didn’t know who she was or how she’d died; her entire past was gone.
I’d found her on the riverbank, standing there dazed, her whole body covered in algae.
The first thing she asked me was, “Do you know who I am?”
Since I didn’t know her name and had found her in the river, I called her Hà Tỷ.
Hà Tỷ loved cooking and cleaning. Thanks to her, our place was spotless and we had three meals a day. I guessed she must have been a mother who loved her children dearly when she was alive.
After eating with a heavy heart, I changed the sign outside to “Open.”
The four ghosts took their places, returning to their respective themed areas.
Hà Tỷ was in charge of the first theme.
She had plenty of ideas, and she’d insisted on buying many of the things in the room.
The room was set up like an old-fashioned two-bedroom apartment: a small living room, an old-style kitchen, and a simple bathroom with an old ceramic tub.
A few strands of algae floated in the bathtub. A candle flickered in front of the bathroom mirror, making the room feel even gloomier.
Each haunted room concealed a key; only after finding it could visitors open the door to the next room.
Giang Bắc Châu was a famous science blogger, but he was popular not for his science content, but for his looks.
He had alluring eyes, fair skin, and a gentle air. He looked like every girl’s first love, warm as sunshine.
That day, he was livestreaming, but his fans kept messaging him, asking him to explore a haunted house.
“Blogger, you should livestream a visit to the haunted house at Vui Vẻ Amusement Park! I heard the owner is a beautiful young woman!”
“Exactly! I went to that haunted house last week. It scared me to death—I swear, the ghosts there felt real!”
“Want to watch him explore a haunted house? Type 1 if you do!”
Seeing the screen filled with 1s, Giang Bắc Châu smiled helplessly, his expression gentle.
He had to listen to his fans, so he packed up, took his phone, and set out.
“Hello! Welcome to Maoshan Haunted House!”
I looked up and gave him my standard eight-tooth smile. Then I saw a flood of comments pop up on his phone screen: “Oh my gosh, the haunted house owner is gorgeous!”
??? What was this?
Giang Bắc Châu smiled apologetically. “Hello, would you mind if I livestreamed your haunted house?”
Livestream?
Tiểu Minh had told me it was all the rage, and that lots of struggling businesses used livestreams to sell their products.
Thinking of the three-digit balance in my account, I nodded enthusiastically.
Giang Bắc Châu walked inside with his phone, while I pulled out my tablet and opened the security camera feeds.
For safety’s sake, I’d installed lots of cameras throughout the haunted house. After all, they were real evil spirits. Even though I’d tamed them and they wouldn’t hurt anyone, I still had to be careful.
As soon as he pushed the door open, Giang Bắc Châu went rigid, his face full of disbelief.
Huh? Was my haunted house really that scary?
Hà Tỷ hadn’t even appeared yet!
He reached out with a trembling hand and touched the pillow on the sofa. It was soft, just like the ones his mother used to sew.
The cloth on the table was also his mother’s favorite kind: green with a checkered pattern.
He wiped away his tears, overwhelmed by longing for his mother.