The traffic light ahead turned red and the car slowly stopped.
On both sides were bright street lights, casting light on half of their faces.
Lu Yingjiu spoke word by word: "Which priest are you?"
Jing Xian said: "I am not..."
"Stop making excuses." Lu Yingjiu said bluntly, "With your strength, you are at least a famous priest. No matter how you look at it, you are alive, and you have stayed in the world of the living for a long time. I can only think of one possibility: you came to the world in your physical body."
Jing Xian didn't respond, but just stared at Lu Yingjiu.
"You should know that priests are completely different from ordinary ghosts." Lu Yingjiu looked at him, "The price of a priest's physical body coming here is, on the one hand, his strength is restricted, and he may not even have one or two cents left. On the other hand, it means he is gambling with his endless life. If you die here, you will really die, and your soul will be scattered. But I can say that only a madman would do this."
"To be honest," he said, "I can't think of any reason why any priest would do this."
"Jing Xian, why did you come to this room? Do you have an unfulfilled wish and want to ask me for help?"
The two looked at each other for a long time.
The street lamp fell on the bright moonlight on the road, and was lightly covered by the shadows of the trees, making the sky seem sparkling.
Jing Xian turned his head to look at him, there was not much expression on his face and no emotion could be seen.
After a long while, Jing Xian said, "No, I don't have any unfulfilled wishes."
Lu Yingjiu let out a breath.
He said, "Then please go back. I like being with you very much, but this is not the place for you. You are a priest, and I am a demon. We should never have met in this life. As I said before, ghosts have different paths and it is not just talk."
His tone was not strong, but firm.
Lu Yingjiu recalled the days when Jing Xian and him were together - Jing Xian was good to him, he knew it. As for Ye Feng's statement that Jing Xian was not after his money but only after his sex, Lu Yingjiu was not very sensitive to the emotional aspect and was half-believing and half-doubting.
But only one thing is certain: Jing Xian likes him very much.
No matter what kind of like.
He was also reluctant in his heart: although he had only been with Jingxian for ten days, it was rare to meet someone who was willing to travel with him after so many years.
Ye Feng was quite righteous and had accompanied Lu Yingjiu during his most difficult time. But Ye Feng's style of doing things was different from Jing Xian's, as were many other friends and his own life, which were different from Jing Xian's existence.
Although Jing Xian and he seemed to come from two different film sets, their auras matched and they got along well with each other. They could be said to be a perfect match - perhaps since childhood, Lu Yingjiu had been looking forward to having such a friend.
A friend who can almost be described as "hitting it off at first sight".
This is also the reason why Lu Yingjiu has not yet made it clear to Jing Xian.
Now, sitting in the suffocating silence in the car, Lu Yingjiu thought that he was also a very selfish person.
He has always shown strong principles. However, Lu Yingjiu should have asked Jing Xian to go back the day he found out that he was a priest.
But he just wanted to have some company time.
Jing Xian came to the room because of a momentary impulse, so he should stop it all.
Now it was time to put it off, he had been putting it off for too long.
"Is this a farewell?" Jing Xian asked.
"…Yes." Lu Yingjiu replied, "The reason why I'm talking about this today is because the Yin energy tonight is particularly strong, which is the best time for you to return to the ghost world. If you miss it, you may have to wait another month or two."
"This is not a request, this is a friend's request. Jingxian, go back tonight."
There was a suffocating silence.
The traffic light turned green, but Jing Xian did not step on the accelerator, and the car stopped quietly at the empty intersection.
Jing Xian knew that what Lu Yingjiu said was right. This invisible law in the world would bind people and ghosts, even him.
But he doesn't care.
Not to mention that his strength was restricted, even if he was blind or disabled, no one would dare to say a word to him.
He had slept for more than ten years, and the ghosts were leaderless and in chaos, each showing their wild ambitions. Even so, no matter how rampant those evil spirits were, no ghost dared to set foot on his resting place.
—They didn't even dare to get half a step closer.
but…
There was a hint of guilt in his words as he welcomed the wine.
For Lu Yingjiu, this night was already chaotic enough. What he needed most was probably a moment to calm down and sort out his emotions and thoughts.
Lu Yingjiu insisted, "Jingxian, let's go back tonight, now."
Jing Xian: “…”
Jing Xian whispered, "This is like you are 'asking' me to do something. You know I can't refuse you... I understand what you mean."
He took a deep breath, lightly stepped on the accelerator, and the Pagani cut through the night.
The two of them were silent all the way until Jing Xian parked the car downstairs of Lu Yingjiu's building.
They got out of the car and stood in the night wind.
Jing Xian said: "So I'm really leaving?"
"Yeah." Lu Yingjiu nodded and smiled, "It's not that we don't want to meet each other. If you want, you can come in the form of a ghost."
Although they both knew that ghosts only stayed in the world of the living for a few dozen minutes each time.
There was nothing special about this farewell.
Jing Xian stood beside the car and hugged him tightly.
Lu Yingjiu smelled a familiar cold fragrance, like flowers blooming in the snow under the moon.
Finally, he felt Jing Xian's body gradually becoming lighter, and the strength with which he was hugging him gradually weakening.
Finally, the sky brightened, and his arms felt empty. The light that had been blocked by Jing Xian shone down, shining brightly.
Lu Yingjiu stood there for three seconds.
The wind was getting stronger and stronger, and his clothes were thin, so he felt a little cold on his back.
Then he smiled lightly and walked home.
The lobby was empty, and everyone else had already gone to bed. He got on the elevator and slowly climbed up the floors. The elevator door opened with a ding, and the voice-activated lights in the corridor lit up in response.
Lu Yingjiu turned right, but the corridor on the right was pitch black.
He turned on the flashlight on his phone and shone it upwards, and saw that the light bulb above his head was broken, with glass shards on it.
This building is too old, and the property management doesn't really care about things. Lu Yingjiu kicked the glass shards to the side to avoid getting cut, and thought she would have to call them tomorrow and ask them to change the light bulb.
When he arrived at his door, he opened it and the cow cat came to greet him, rubbing its tail erect against his feet.
Lu Yingjiu squatted down and scratched its chin, but the cow cat was circling at the door, meowing, as if looking for something.
Lu Yingjiu was stunned for a moment, then remembered that Jing Xian had been feeding the cat every day during this period of time.
This cat has no conscience. Its eyes light up when it sees cat food. It quickly establishes a close relationship with Jingxian, who feeds it. Perhaps it is more looking forward to Jingxian's return home than to Lu Yingjiu.
He grabbed the cow cat, rubbed its head, and said with a smile: "You little white wolf, have you forgotten who is your master so quickly? He will not come back."
The cat didn't understand what he said. It swung its tail and yawned lazily.
Lu Yingjiu heated a cup of milk, sat down at the table, and took a deep breath.
Jing Xian left. He seemed to have let go of something, and the strong sense of guilt finally disappeared - on this night, among so many chaotic thoughts, this kind of relief was simply precious.
I have to say, Jing Xian really understands him very well.
Even leaving was in accordance with his wishes, without pestering him or making things difficult for him.
His heart was still empty, but he always controlled his emotions and suppressed his reluctance. When he picked up the pen to draw the talisman paper again, he was the calm and self-controlled Lu Yingjiu as usual.
…
At noon the next day.
The tea restaurant was bustling with activity and the sound of cups, bowls and chopsticks colliding constantly.
Ye Feng concentrated on cutting a large steak. The medium-rare beef oozed juice, dipped it in black pepper sauce and served with onions and French fries, which whetted his appetite. Lu Yingjiu, who was sitting opposite him, maintained his usual elegance while eating, drinking mushroom soup slowly and leisurely.
After eating most of the steak, Ye Feng suddenly looked up and asked, "Why didn't I see your sponsor today?"
"What sponsor?" Lu Yingjiu said, "I've already said that Jing Xian is an employee of my firm."
"Okay, okay, okay, if you say so, then so be it." Ye Feng said, "Where did he go? Did he finally realize that a salary of 6,000 yuan is not worth all the running around for him? It seems that he is not such a sucker."
Lu Yingjiu didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Why do you act so much every day? You just went back to your hometown because you don't want to work anymore. Why don't you eat quickly? Didn't you say you had to be there at two o'clock to meet the client?"
Ye Feng immediately sped up and took big gulps of food. When he choked, he drank water desperately.
The agency's address is not far from the restaurant, only ten minutes' drive away.
Lu Yingjiu drove his second-hand Honda.
Jing Xian left behind two or three luxury cars, neatly and shiny, parked in his garage. But Lu Yingjiu was used to driving a junky car to the scene, and after all, those were Jing Xian's things, not his.
When he went to get the car in the morning, he was stunned for a moment, as if Jingxian was still there.
When they arrived at the house, he went upstairs with Ye Feng.
This was Ye Feng's commission. He was simply bored and had no time to spare, so he followed him here to take a look.
The client was an old lady who talked a lot to Ye Feng. The gist of the story was that there were people knocking on her window every morning. But she lived on the 12th floor, so how could there be people outside
Ye Feng asked her about the situation in detail.
Lu Yingjiu sat on the sofa, holding a glass of water nonchalantly.
He subconsciously touched the longevity lock on his chest.
This was not a difficult case, and Ye Feng quickly figured out the situation: there had been a person in this building who committed suicide by hanging himself on the rooftop, and it was probably because his resentment had not yet dissipated, and he was harassing the residents every day.
So, facing the blood-red light of the setting sun, Lu Yingjiu and Ye Feng went up to the rooftop.
That person committed suicide by hanging himself on a clothesline.
Originally, the rooftop was full of colorful quilts and clothes drying in the sun, but after the death, people thought it was unlucky and rarely dared to go up there. Now, the rooftop is just an empty clothesline, swaying in the wind.
Ye Feng pasted talisman papers around the rooftop. Lu Yingjiu stood behind him and said, "Put this one a little further to the left. Also put two more talisman papers on the southwest corner. Also put one on the west side..."
After arranging all the talisman papers, Ye Feng made a gesture and the talisman papers began to burn. Then a sharp scream was heard in the air!
All the clotheslines were instantly tightened, as if some weight was hanging on them, such as... a corpse.
The wind was blowing hard, and it sounded like crying. In front of them, a hanged ghost with a pale face and a long tongue slowly appeared.
The hanged ghost looked around and his eyes quickly fell on Lu Yingjiu, who didn't even have a piece of talisman paper.
It swung its long scarlet tongue and rushed forward with a scream!
Then he screamed and died, dispersing into a cloud of black mist.
The whole process took no more than half a second.
Lu Yingjiu clapped his hands: "Okay, let's go back and hand in the commission."
Ye Feng muttered: "Every time I go out with you, I feel like it's too fast."
The road greets the wine and smiles.
After the problem was solved, the old lady was very grateful. She even pulled Ye Feng's hand and said that she had never seen such an efficient exorcist. She would definitely write a thank-you letter and present a banner to Ye Feng.
Ye Feng kept saying no more, no more.
"Besides, I'm not the one who's awesome." He turned around and tried to point the way to the wine, but failed.
Lu Yingjiu had already gone downstairs - he guessed that the old lady would continue to nag for a long time, so he decided to go back to the car to catch up on some sleep.
Ye Fengguo was entangled by the old lady for ten minutes, and finally got away and returned to the car: "Ah, you are very fast."
Unexpectedly, Lu Yingjiu was on the phone.
He remembered the matter of the light bulb and prepared to ask the management office to fix it.
The person who answered the phone was a lazy middle-aged woman. Lu Yingjiu explained the situation to her and asked her to change a light bulb.
But the aunt said nonchalantly: "Oh, I understand the situation. We don't have enough workers this day, and the master is also very busy. I can only arrange it for you as soon as possible."
"When is the earliest time?" Lu Yingjiu asked.
"I don't know about that. I guess it will take at least two or three days."
Lu Yingjiu hung up the phone.
Ye Feng asked: "Why, the light is broken?"
"Yeah." Lu Yingjiu said, "I don't know how the light bulb broke. The property management doesn't really take care of things, so it will probably take a long time to fix it."
"That's really inconvenient." Ye Feng muttered, "Why don't you consider moving to another neighborhood?"
Lu Ying wine is a good thing.
In fact, if he wanted, he could buy an apartment in the city center with full payment and move out now.
But Lu Yingjiu shook his head and said with a smile: "I'm used to it. You know I tend to miss the past."
Ye Feng didn't say anything more.
He knew the reason why Lu Yingjiu stayed here.
Lu Yingjiu's family was poor when he was a child. The cost of hiring an exorcist and the money for incense and praying to gods and Buddhas were huge expenses, which they could not afford at all.
After a long time, the first person to collapse was Lu Yingjiu's father.
He made the most cowardly decision: divorce and let go.
So in the days that followed, Lu Yingjiu's mother Zhuang Xue went around asking for help, while working a part-time job and eating the cheapest boxed lunches, just to save some money to ask for the next helper.
Lu Yingjiu was very talented, and after she learned to draw talisman paper, she was relieved of a lot of pressure. The ghost marriage made the situation significantly better, and Zhuang Xue was overjoyed - the work pressure was reduced, and she no longer lived in anxiety every day. She even had some extra money, so she bought flowers home after get off work and hummed a song while arranging flowers in the living room.
Every time she arranged flowers, Lu Yingjiu would come back and study various talisman papers beside her.
Unlike him, Zhuang Xue had absolutely no talent for exorcising ghosts.
Even though she tried her best to practice exorcism for Lu Yingjiu, until now, the talisman paper still looked like a bunch of ghostly talismans and she didn't understand anything.
Therefore, Zhuang Xue just happily arranged the flowers and harassed Lu Yingjiu from time to time: "Hey, which one do you think is beautiful?"
Lu Yingjiu looked away from the talisman paper, took a closer look at the flowers and plants, shook his head and said, "I don't think there is any difference."
Zhuang Xue complained: "Why didn't you inherit any of my aesthetic taste?"
After a while, she asked, "Do you prefer baby's breath or dogtail grass?"
"Dogtail grass." Lu Yingjiu answered, and drew the lines steadily with his hands.
A few seconds later, when he put the finished talisman paper aside, he felt a tingling sensation on the back of his neck.
When he turned around, his mother was tickling him with a piece of dogtail grass. When she saw him turning around, she bent over with laughter.
Lu Yingjiu said helplessly: "You have tickled me so many times, what's so fun about it?"
"I was just about to say something, why do you talk so old-fashioned and meaningless?" Zhuang Xue poked him with a dogtail grass, "You are so young, why don't you show some childishness and vigor? I look forward to it every day, will you cry and ask me for pocket money to buy a lollipop? Come on, cry for your mother."
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
Lu Yingjiu: "Am I really your biological child..."
"That's right." Zhuang Xue said, "No one else can give birth to such a cute child." She ruffled Lu Yingjiu's hair, "If you were a little more willful and acted like a spoiled child to me, it would be even more perfect."
Later, their family financial situation became better and better, and they finally bought a second-hand house when Lu Yingjiu was in high school.
—That’s where Lu Yingjiu lives now.
The second-hand house was not expensive, but it was much better than their previous small house of no more than 50 square meters.
Lu Yingjiu has made a lot of money and can buy a bigger and more luxurious house, but what he misses most is this home.
After all, this place once held large bouquets of blooming flowers.
"… "
Ye Feng came back to his senses and saw Lu Yingjiu looking out the window.
Ye Feng followed his gaze and looked out.
There were people selling flowers on the street, budding roses, large carnations, orchids and baby's breath, with crystal water droplets on the petals, attracting many girls to gather around and chatter about the prices.
Ye Feng said: "Why, do you want to buy flowers?"
"No, I just remembered that my family used to buy flowers for us." Lu Yingjiu said.
Ye Feng said "Oh" and then said, "Your mother's flower arrangements are really beautiful, but unfortunately I am full of artistic germs and don't know how to appreciate them." He smiled and said, "I still remember that the sentence she often said to me before was 'Don't you think you are not like a child?' Then she encouraged me to take you to the Internet cafe to play, saying that you are almost stupid."
Willful and spoiled.
Lu Yingjiu has been isolated from these two words since childhood.
He has always been extremely restrained, with rational thinking far outweighing his emotions. Therefore, Zhuang Xue never got what she wanted.
Ye Feng just said this casually, but he didn't expect Lu Yingjiu to reply after a second: "I was willful before."
"Ah?" Ye Feng asked.
"It was just once." Lu Yingjiu looked at the blooming bouquet and thought of Jing Xian, "There won't be a next time."
Facing the last rays of sunset, Honda set off.
Lu Yingjiu dropped Ye Feng off on the way and drove back home.
When he took the elevator upstairs, he was ready and turned on the flashlight on his cell phone.
The management is so inefficient that it's understandable that the light bulb was not changed.
But to his surprise, after he took a few steps, there was light in front of him and the light at the door of his house was on.
Lu Yingjiu was just thinking that the property management was finally doing something when he suddenly stopped under the light bulb.
Something is wrong.
He squinted his eyes and looked at the lightbulb in the dark.
The glass, the tungsten filament, the lamp holder... everything was normal, and the bulb emitted a soft glow, welcoming him home.
But he just sensed a very faint and faint yin energy.
this…
This is a hell light bulb!
—Lu Yingjiu came to the conclusion instantly.