Then I slowly walked over to the young man who was grilling skewers in front of the barbecue.
The young man was about 20 years old, with dyed blond hair and blue tattoos on his arms. He looked like a scoundrel.
Seeing me walking towards him, the man raised his eyebrows slightly.
He didn't initiate a conversation with me.
The female boss standing nearby smiled and asked, "My dear, the food you want to bake is not yet cooked. I will bring it to you when it is cooked. Just go to your seat and wait."
I replied calmly, "It's okay, we're not in a hurry. I came here just to take a look and see if there's anything special about this barbecue."
The woman said "Oh" but didn't say anything else. She went to work in the small house.
I stood in front of the barbecue grill, covered my mouth and nose, and stared at the young man calmly.
The black smoke from the barbecue was thick, but I could still see the young man's face.
The man's face was not blackened or yellowed by the smoke, but rather looked a little pale. The ghost on his back had two small claws holding the young man's chest, and the sharp claws seemed to be piercing into the man's flesh.
But he was completely unaware.
The ghost's red tongue also stretched to the young man's mouth and nose, sliding constantly, and even licking the young man's face from time to time. I noticed that every time the ghost sucked away a little bit of the young man's "vitality", the young man's vitality would weaken a little.
It seems that the young man does not have much vitality sucked away by the ghost every time, but I still understand the principle of "one penny a day, a thousand pennies a thousand days". And I am afraid that if the young man is sucked away like this, he will not last a thousand days.
Seeing that I was staring at him, the young man finally spoke, "Big brother, what can I do for you?"
I raised my head slightly and said with a smile, "It's okay, I'm just curious about your barbecue industry."
Although my answer made the young man feel bored, he continued, "It's nothing. Barbecue is very simple. With a stove, some charcoal, some meat, and some seasoning, anyone can make something delicious."
At this point, the young man seemed to have thought of something. He asked me, "Brother, are you planning to open a barbecue restaurant?"
It turned out that the young man thought that when I asked him about barbecue, he thought I was going to open a barbecue stall.
I shook my head and said, "No, I'm not interested in opening a barbecue stall. By the way, why isn't your business as popular as other barbecue stalls?"
The young man sprinkled seasoning on the grilled skewers in his hand and put them into the bright white iron plate.
Rubbing his hands, the young man explained helplessly: "Brother, to be honest, I don't know what's going on! Logically, the barbecue stalls on our street use similar ingredients, and the barbecue techniques are not much different, but the business of other barbecue stalls is better than mine."
"I don't know the reason! Maybe the diners think the taste of our barbecue is not right."
The young man's face was full of bitterness when he said these words.
I thought about it and asked again, "By the way, brother, when did your barbecue stall start to become quiet? It can't always be like this, right? If it had been like this, I think you and your wife would have quit long ago."
The young man took the skewers of meat from the transparent bag and put them back on the stove.
The charcoal fire made the skewers sizzle. Soon, the aroma of the meat spread.
Floated away.
The young man replied, "Business has been slow since two months ago. At that time, we only had a small house. Sometimes, customers wanted to sit inside the house, but there was no room. So my wife Lingling and I found some workers to expand the original place."
"Originally there was a gap of more than one meter wide on the left side of the small house, but later it was occupied by our expanded house."
"Since that time when we expanded the house, our business has been declining day by day. These days, there are even fewer people patronizing. You saw it when you came over, but there were only two tables of guests."
At this point, the young man sighed and said, "Alas! This house was originally left to us by my father. He used to run a barbecue business here and was known as 'Barbecue Old Wang'. At that time, countless people came to our house to eat barbecue, and they all praised the taste of our barbecue. Who would have thought that it would become like this in my hands? Maybe my husband and I were just unlucky."
"If business continues to be so slow, I'm afraid we'll have to close down soon."
The young man said that their business was good before they expanded the house, but after that, it became deserted.
Could it be that the ghosts are staying here and not leaving because of the expansion of the house
I stood in front of the barbecue stall for a while, and then walked towards the small house behind the young man.
The small house is not big, only about 20 square meters, and the furnishings inside are just tables and chairs.
The female boss named Lingling was busy cleaning inside the house.
There was no one else in the small house except the female boss.
I walked quickly into the little house.
The female boss was very surprised to see me come into the house.
She thought I was looking for a toilet, so she said, "I'm sorry, brother, there's no toilet near our house. If you want to use the toilet, I'm afraid you have to go to the middle of the village, next to the 'Yimei Hair Salon', there's a public toilet."
I waved my hands and said, "No, no, no, I'm not going to the bathroom! I'm just taking a look."
"Just take a look?"
The female boss muttered something, with a puzzled look on her face.
But when my eyes fell on the west wall of the small house, I discovered that there was a Taoist statue of Zhong Kui enshrined on the table on that wall.
Zhong Kui has a leopard head, round eyes, an iron face, curly beard, and wide-open eyes. He gives people a feeling of being upright and righteous.
Zhong Kui said that the statue was inside the small house, so the ghosts naturally didn’t dare to enter!
When I looked at the female boss, I found that the dead ghost on her back had already gone off her body and was floating at the door, staring at the Taoist statue of Zhong Kui with fierce eyes.
I thought there was something wrong with that wall, but after a closer look, there was nothing wrong with it. Not to mention the entire small house, it was very clean, and there was nothing that could attract ghosts to stay. Even if there were, I'm afraid that if Zhong Kui Daoist Statue was placed in the room, no ghost would dare to come in.
But why do all those ghosts gather here and not leave
I'm afraid there's something odd going on here.
Then I walked out of the little house quickly.
When I moved to the left side of the house, I noticed that there was a gap between the newly built walls. Through the gap, I felt a gloomy atmosphere.
No, no... There's something wrong with the gap in that wall.
Seeing that no one else noticed me, I chanted the eye spell and then raised the sky on my left hand.
Eyes open.
The third eye opened, and green light shone through the gap.
When I looked over there with my divine eye, my heart suddenly tightened and a slight smile appeared on my face.
I understand, I understand why those ghosts gathered at the door of this barbecue restaurant and didn't leave.
There are many ways for ghosts to go to the underworld. In addition to the ghost-catching Taoist priests performing rituals to open the "Yin and Yang Road" for ghosts to send them to the underworld, the most common way is for ghosts to leave through the "Ghost Gate" and go to the underworld on their own.
The Ghost Gate is actually a door between the living world and the underworld. There are Ghost Gates in many cities in the living world. The wall on the young man's house is the path for ghosts to leave, which is what I call the Ghost Gate.
But at this moment, the ghost gate is blocked by the wall, which will confuse the ghosts and make them think that this road is blocked.
Ghosts can actually pass through walls, but when they are deceived, they cannot identify the location of the "ghost gate".
In addition, there is a statue of Zhong Kui in front of the wall, which repels ghosts even more. When ghosts approach the statue, the righteous spirit emanating from it can drive them away.
That's why those ghosts dare not approach the Ghost Gate.
Generally, ghosts can sense where the ghost gate is in a city. Now they have sensed the location of the ghost gate, but they cannot enter the underworld, so they can only stay in the world of the living.
It is precisely because they have been in the world of the living for too long that the ghosts have some resentment towards the owner who built the wall. That is why the ghosts gather here instead of going to other ghost gates.
Now that I understood the whole story, a slight smile appeared on my face.
Afterwards, I collected my third eye.
When the female boss came out of the small house, she happened to see me laughing again.
Her eyes were weird, as if she was looking at a psychopath.
I smiled at her.
At this time, a voice came from the little monk Yuquan, "Brother Yang, the skewers are ready, come over and have some!?"
I ignored the female boss's gaze and turned around and walked towards the young monk Yuquan.
Soon, after I sat down, the young man who had finished grilling the skewers came over to Yuquan and me with a shiny white iron plate.
Yuquan was really hungry, and after the lamb skewers were served, he began to eat them voraciously.
The young man looked towards Yuquan with a look of surprise.
He asked me quietly, "Hey brother, is your friend really a monk? Why do monks eat meat?"
I smiled and explained, "He's not a monk, he's just suffering from severe hair loss and is now bald!"
The young man laughed at what I said.
But when he turned around and was about to leave, I reached out and grabbed the young man's arm.
The young man turned his head and asked me, "Why, brother, do you have anything else to do?"
I looked at him with a smile and said, "I can help your barbecue restaurant return to its former popularity. How about it? Do you want to hear my advice?"
The young man's face was full of surprise.
There was suspicion in his eyes, and perhaps he had already regarded me as a charlatan.
At this time, the man’s wife, the female boss, also came over.
The female boss asked me, "Brother, is what you just said true? Can you really help our business recover to its previous state? Are you kidding us on purpose?"
I curled my lips and shook my head. "I'm not kidding. I'm serious. I really have a way to make your business better."
(to be continued)
(End of this chapter) (End of this chapter)