Zhan Yan was very sympathetic.
Lu Jiandong's fate was equally tragic. In the cutthroat business world, few bosses remain truly unassuming, yet his romantic interest turned out to be a time management guru with eight broken legs. Passersby couldn't believe he was unaware of this, mistaking him for some twisted individual who thrives on cheating.
Yan Yan casually brushed aside other gossip.
Tian Youcheng, the ghost, passed an elementary school English test and, clutching a handwritten cheat sheet, prepared to haunt Matthias again.
Tian Youcheng, haunted by the lingering influence of &* (%), was consumed with rage over his days of grueling English study. He resolved to teach Matthias a lesson.
Zhan Yan:!!!
He grabbed his phone and bolted out, shouting, "President, I need to run an urgent errand! I'll catch up on it after work tonight!"
Zhen Hua was startled by him. "Wait a minute! You can come back tomorrow."
She figured Ling Yuteng's scandal might last a few more days, so there was no need to panic.
As Lu Jiandong, one of the mango growers, was sobbing, he suddenly heard a muffled sound from the opposite side: 'Old Ma? What's wrong, Old Ma?'
Opposite: "Zzzzz..."
Lu Jiandong: "...Not my fault, Lao Ma, but your drinking capacity's getting worse. Next week when you come, let's have a couple of bottles of white wine and you'll get a taste of it!"
Matthias: "Zzzzz..."
Lu Jiandong: "That's enough! You go to sleep. I'll hang up."
He put down his phone and went to the tap to rinse his head with cold water. Looking up at his own face in the mirror—red and swollen—his teeth clenched, he muttered, "Damn it..."
Ling Yuteng, you dare to mess with me...
After a good cry to clear his head, the big boss—after all, he's the boss—got ready to start cleaning up the mess.
However, Lu Jiandong was unaware that Matthias was not in the hotel, but in a private bar room.
A few minutes ago, Matthias suddenly felt dizzy. He set down his glass and looked at the bottle, puzzled. He had only drunk less than half of it—why did he feel sleepy now?
He shook his head, got up, and opened the door to go to the bathroom to wash his face. As soon as he opened the door, he collapsed to the floor.
The waiter was startled and rushed over to help him up: "Sir? Are you alright? How are you? Please wake up!"
Matthias: "Zzzzz..."
The sound of the snoring was very soothing.
The waiter sniffed. There was a smell of alcohol on him.
Don't worry. It was just a case of drunkenness.
But he's so drunk and still a foreigner, making communication so hard. Should we call his friends to check on him?
He noticed a call screen from a recent call on his phone.
Just as the waiter was about to call back, Zhan Yan—who had been monitoring the situation through the gossip system—simply dialed the number.
" hello ?"
The phone was answered: "Hello, may I ask if you are the owner's friend?"
" speaking ."
I'm a waiter at Little Lucky Bar. Your friend got drunk here. Could you please take care of him?
"Okay, I'll go now."
The other party provided the address. Zhan Yan hung up and immediately hailed a taxi, asking the driver to get him there as soon as possible.
With his eyes closed, he logged into the Super Forum from the back seat, sending a private message to the admin's domain. He forwarded the address that had previously shown signs of garbled anomalies, then pulled out the liquid he'd prepared from the forum's premium threads—a temporary yin-yang eye opener. The base was plain water mixed with various additives. Fortunately, it only needed to be applied to his eyelids; if it had to be dripped into his eyes, he'd probably have given up.
After applying the eye cream, Zhan Yan glanced around but noticed no difference.
Well, probably because there are no ghosts around.
He had specifically vetted this method, which boasts the highest success rate. The thread claimed it's the most basic way to temporarily open eyes—anyone can succeed unless they're completely clueless, though the odds are still about one in ten thousand.
When they arrived at the bar, Zhan Yan noticed Matthias had already been laid down on the sofa, with a waiter seated beside him.
When Zhan Yan arrived, the waiter breathed a sigh of relief and handed him over to take care of him.
After bidding farewell to the waiter, Yan Zhan locked the door and glanced at the social media feed.
Tian Youcheng, the ghost, tried to enter a dream but was interrupted by a waiter, which made him furious.
The ghost Tian Youcheng stood by Matthias, waiting for the moment when no one was around to enter his dream again. When he saw you enter, he became furious.
Yan Jian scanned the private room. The only people there were Matthias, who was fast asleep, and himself.
Unfortunately, you seem to be the one in a million with no talent at all.
Zhan Yan:...
Jian Yan swiftly drew out the Eight Treasures Cinnabar and smeared a line on his forehead. Whether he could see the ghost was beside him—safety was paramount! He had already applied the cinnabar on his palm during the journey, making it slightly visible on his forehead, and would apply it again upon arrival.
He took two more steps forward to test the waters.
The spectral Tian Youcheng felt the overwhelming pressure emanating from your body and recoiled in fear.
Great! The Eight Treasures Cinnabar my sister gave me really works! No wonder it's a quality item that earned the' Unrecognized' certification from the system!
Jian Yan is also going to smear Matthias.
Tian Youcheng was in a hurry.
He lunged forward, but was forced back by the Ghost King Seal on Zhan Yan's body.
When Tian Youcheng first saw Zhan Yan enter, he assumed he was just an ordinary person. But as the young man drew closer, he suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of dread.
The air was chillingly cold, the darkness oppressive—like being submerged in a bottomless pit, the icy cold so intense even ghosts could not endure.
He was just trying to collect a debt. Why make him face such a formidable figure?
That terrifying big shot still had vermilion ink on his forehead! The vermilion mark burned as fiercely as the sun!
As the temperature fluctuated between hot and cold, Tian Youcheng felt like he was about to catch a cold from the heat. He was deeply distressed, but under immense pressure, his emotions, previously disrupted by the abnormal code, gradually returned to normal.
Tian Youcheng, haunted by ghosts, found memorizing English vocabulary excruciatingly painful, and he began to sob in anguish.
The ghost Tian Youcheng regained his sense of reason because he felt the tremendous pressure.
Zhan Yan:???
Is learning English vocabulary really that stressful? It actually has this amazing effect!
Now that Tian Youcheng has regained his composure, we can finally talk. Let's settle this while we still can.
Zhan Yan said, "Tian Youcheng."
Tian Youcheng was startled, feeling both wronged and afraid. He didn't dare to run away, but stammered a timid' ah.'
Unable to hear Yan Zhan, he relied entirely on the 'bystander monitoring system' to catch Tian Youcheng's words. After gauging the situation, he turned to look at the air and asked,' Why are you clinging to him?'
Your position is a full body length to the left of Kiyotani Yūsuke's, and he suspects you're a blind man in a dark room.
Jian Yan cleared his throat with a light cough and adjusted his gaze without showing any emotion.
Seeing the boss's willing-to-talk attitude, Tian Youcheng felt a surge of resentment welling up inside him. He lunged at the ground and began to wail:
"Sir~~"
With a voice and a tone.
I was a man from the Xuande era of the Ming Dynasty. In my lifetime, I lived frugally and saved up some family savings, and was known for my generosity and frequent help to neighbors. This is Ma Dazhuang, my former neighbor...
"Speak in plain terms," said Zhan Yan, his face expressionless.
Now that you're studying English, why bother with those half-baked, half-sententia lines!
Ma Dazhuang owed me a debt before he died. I couldn't accept his death without repaying it, so I tried to reclaim the debt. But I never found him, nor did I get reborn. Now I've finally found someone, only to discover he's become a foreigner!" Tian Youcheng explained it all in one breath.
Zhan Yan was momentarily at a loss for words. How many years had passed since the Xuande reign of the Ming Dynasty? It must have been around five or six hundred years, right?
"Did you have any debts that you didn't pay before you died?"
He reclaimed everything one by one. If he couldn't get it back, would he be reborn?
Tian Youcheng said with a mix of sorrow and anger, "Yes, I did. But after I died, I found the others one by one, and they all repaid their debts to me. Only Ma Dazhuang! I never found him! I couldn't bear it! I waited and waited... searched and searched... and now I'm stuck here, never having reincarnated!"
Zhan Yan felt it was hard to say.
"...Yan? How did you end up here?" Matthias mumbled, still half-conscious.
He didn't drink much, but he fell asleep only because Tian Youcheng kept forcing him into dreams. Now that Tian Youcheng had stopped doing so, after all this time, he finally woke up.
Zhan Yan stared at the handsome face with a high nose and deep-set eyes. "...Ma Dazhuang."
"What?" Matthias asked, his eyes fixed on Tian Youcheng. "Who is this man... God! You're the man from my dreams! How did you end up here? Am I still dreaming?"
Some people can see ghosts with karmic ties when their luck is low. Matthias, who had just been forcibly intruded upon by Tian Youcheng in a dream and was now half-asleep, could actually see Tian Youcheng.
"No," Zhan Yan replied in Spanish, just as he was about to explain, Matthias had already started babbling again.
"Yan? I really dreamed of you this time!"
"You are a good friend who keeps your promises!"
"Can you translate for me what he is saying?"
Tian Youcheng looked at you expectantly.
Zhan Yan:...Never mind, if you think it's a dream, then just think it's a dream. If Matthias finds out you're seeing ghosts, who knows what might happen.
Tian Youcheng kept whining: "Sir, you have no idea how hard English is! I barely passed the exam, and now this foreigner won't even understand what I'm saying!"
Matthias gave Tian Youcheng a puzzled look, then turned to Zhan Yan with the same bewilderment. 'What did he say?'
Zhan Yan said, "He said you don't understand English."
Matthias was furious and blurted out a string of heavily accented English.
Tian Youcheng raised his arm and read aloud the small note above: "Can You Sibike remove the putty? Ah, the oriole sings thunder!"
Zhan Yan snapped, "...Go back to Spanish! And speak Chinese to me!"
Yan Yan helped the two people switch back to their native language, and they finally sorted out the communication.
Matthias: "What do you think I owe you?"
Tian Youcheng: "Two hens."
Zhan Yan:?
You've been waiting for hundreds of years just for two hens?!