When work ended, I went to the night market. I found Boss Shi at his stall looking worn down. When he saw me, he began calculating my total for the night before. When I told the boss the conditions of the ghosts, he began to pack up quickly. He'd only opened for the evening out of fear that the ghosts would want to eat. If not for his fear of Sister Hua, I doubt he would have even gotten out of bed. However, it seemed that he overestimated their resilience.
That night, I rested early, and in the morning I went to Yan'er's room to prepare it. Today was the third day since I'd bought the Ghost House, and it was time for me to live there to fulfill the agreement I had with the authorities.
Moreover, since I'd purchased the Ghost House, I was eager to give it a new reputation and get some decorators in to fix it up. Besides the inner décor being extremely outdated, parts of the house were dilapidated to the point of being unsafe. It would be nice to give the house a fresh makeover.
I left the house briefly to eat, and when I came back, the house was full of activity, as though all of the residents and guests were making up for their absence yesterday. I got to work serving guests, but as I went back and forth from the bar to their tables, I began thinking about Lulu. I'd heard that her relatives were going to come by the house, which I'd never heard of happening for any of the other ghosts.
Truthfully, I was frightened by Lulu's attitude today. Rather than staying behind the bar, she was out walking around and talking to regulars. After the recent party, everyone's relationships seemed better and the guests and staff were all much more eager to chat. Still, it was strange seeing Lulu participate in the chatter.
However, when I tried to join in on a conversation, Sister Hua quickly stopped me and made me stick to my work.
No fair, I thought.
One of the tables was full of ghosts who had drunk together at the barbecue stall. Their names were Mr. Zhang, Mr. Lee and Mr. Wang. They were all considered old ghosts, as the youngest had died nearly 60 years ago. While it was strange that they hadn't yet left the world, some ghosts really had no desire to give up worldly comforts to enter the cycle of reincarnation. I listened in on their conversation as I did my work.
"The ground palace was so big that I got lost soon after I went in. I heard the experts say it was some kind of emperor's tomb? There were many good things there."
"The tomb of the emperor? Oh, no. Is his soul still there? If you make friends with his soul, you'll probably hear lots of stories."
"Does the emperor want to get to know people like that?"
"I've heard that when the emperor died, he was buried with his concubines, although I've heard there weren't many of them…"
I listened in on their conversation before I became too curious to stay quiet. "Excuse me, gentlemen. Is the ground palace you're talking about the one that we found a while ago?"
The three men nodded in response.
The three ghosts quickly nodded. I remembered that it had been on Mr. Jiang's land, but we'd met troubles soon after and then forgot about the palace altogether. I wanted to talk to the ghosts more about what they'd seen and heard when I suddenly felt like I had eyes on the back of my neck. I turned around and saw Xiao Lingdang staring at me intently.
"What's the matter, Xiao Lingdang?"
She quietly hissed through her teeth, "You should be working."
I figured she was repeating orders from Sister Hua, but when I followed her eyes to the other side of the room, I only saw Lulu looking at me, wearing an incredibly cold expression. I quickly said goodbye to the three ghosts and then approached Lulu.
As I walked, I whispered to Xiao Lingdang, "What's wrong with Lulu?"
Xiao Lingdang seemed stunned for a moment, and said, "You don't know? You're hopeless." Then she shook her head and walked away.
Ever since I found her skin, she's become more and more unlikable…
I put on a warm smile as I greeted Lulu and got her typical cold "hum" in response. I looked at the bar and realized there were no plates or drinks to deliver. I turned back to Lulu and said, "Well, what did you need me to do?"
Lulu looked at me disdainfully, then handed me a small cup. "There are so many people here. Congratulations on moving into this house the day before yesterday. Why don't you toast everyone to thank them for their business?"
As soon as I heard her words, my hands started shaking, because Lulu seemed very abnormal. I'd just drunk with everyone the night before yesterday. Surely I didn't need to toast them again today. What was wrong with Lulu?
Truthfully, since the events with Wu Ting and Wu Jian, Lulu hadn't seemed like her normal self. However, today she was particularly strange.
I put the cup on the bar, then carefully said, "We've all already drunk together to celebrate. Surely it would be strange to thank everyone again."
Lulu hummed again, opened her mouth as though she was going to speak, and then simply straightened the cup that I'd set on the bar.
I said abruptly, "Lulu, if you have anything you need me to do, please tell me." Her eyes fluttered to the glass, and I continued, "I really don't think another toast is necessary. What did you really want to tell me?"
Lulu hummed yet again, then finally spoke while looking at the glass. "You're not allowed to live in that room."
I was stunned, then realized that there'd been a mistake. The room Yan'er had given me was supposed to go to Lulu. No wonder she'd been so strange today. Although she always wore a cold face, I knew that she felt deeper emotions that she was simply incapable of expressing. I must have upset her deeply for her to actually speak up about this issue. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do to fix it that night.
"Lulu, I'll just stay there one night because of the deadline, then tomorrow I'll clean out another room to stay in. How about that?"
Lulu immediately frowned and shouted, "No way!"
The shout startled me, and I saw Lulu's face flush a little. I looked around, and some of the guests were staring at me and Lulu. I couldn't help blushing myself. Although none of the guests knew what we'd been discussing, I felt a little embarrassed, as though they heard me insisting on sleeping in Lulu's room.
After a moment, once I'd recovered from the shock and the guests had turned back to their conversations, I asked Lulu in a quiet voice, "Well, Lulu, where should I sleep?"