Hotpot Restaurant 17
Summer nights in Fengdu are not quiet, full of the calls of insects.
With the hustle and bustle of the daytime crowd gone, ghosts love come to out at this time to roam about and make new friends.
As an old ghost, Elder Lu was also in among the wandering ranks.
He dragged his feet, scratched his slightly bulging stomach under his white undershirt, and with an indescribable expression, walked to a nearby park where ghosts gathered at night.
The park was neat, orderly, and tightly controlled. There wasn’t even a single homeless person spending the night there; it belonged completely to the group of ghosts.
The group of ghosts were not similar to the aunties who gather to square dance. They came in slowly in small groups, and would then start to about move freely. The movements that they couldn’t do as humans could all be done after becoming ghosts.
Spinning fifty-six times in the air, all sorts of splits and rolls, burrowing into the ground or leaping in the air—they were only limited by their own imaginations.
Such gravity-defying movements that would even wake Newton from his grave made for an interesting scene to watch.
Fengdu has several such gathering points.
Elder Lu had been to two, and had gotten to know many ghosts.
An old ghost who knew Elder Lu before his death had become an extremely close friend in their afterlives. When he saw Elder Lu, he waved his hands frantically, “Lu Zi! Over here, over here!”
Elder Lu shuffled over to him and sighed heavily. “Zheng Zi!”
Zheng Zi saw that Elder Lu’s wrinkled was drooping, and bearing a very distressed expression. He chuckled, “You’re already a ghost, why are you still so full of sighs? Others are going to laugh at you!”
Elder Lu gave another long sigh. “You don’t understand.”
Zheng Zi didn’t understand many things when he was alive. After he died, his mind was no longer limited by the body, and he could learn everything quickly. He wasn’t happy at being told that he would not understand. “If you don’t tell me, how do you know if I understand or not?”
Elder Lu glanced at Zheng Zi, “I accompanied my son out today and saw a monster.”
Zheng Zi was taken aback, “Oh? A monster?”
A ghost that was passing by heard Zheng Zi’s words and immediately scratched his head and started acting like the Monkey King, Sun Wukong. “Monster, where are you running off to!”
After saying this, the ghost flew away.
Zheng Zi was so amused that he laughed until he fell to the ground, pounding it.
Elder Lu scowled; he couldn’t laugh at all.
He really did see a monster!
After his laughter died down, Zheng Zi floated next to Elder Lu and stood there. “Tell me where you saw the monster. I’ve been a ghost for so long, but I’ve never seen a monster.”
Elder Lu glanced at Zheng Zi and wiped his face, troubled. “I’ve not seen one before either. Who would have thought that there are monsters in this world.”
He described the whole situation to Zheng Zi in detail, “Didn’t I mention the other day, that I got a business opportunity for my son? To redesign a hot pot restaurant. It’s for a little girl who can see ghosts. I thought it was a rare opportunity, so I got her to look for my son to help her. Who knew that this little girl has a bird in her house…”
It’s not strange to have a pet bird.
But he never could’ve expected that it wasn’t an ordinary bird at all.
“The bird was covered with fire, so bright and dazzling. It was very red, with a little orange, like a big fireball! You know the sun, right? I thought it was a sun right before my eyes. The whole bird, it was on fire. There was a fierce heat coming from it like the sun!”
Elder Lu’s vocabulary was limited, and he was trying to describe the scene as best as he could.
A student-looking ghost poked his head out of the ground. “The sun is emitting light and heat in the form of nuclear fusion at all times, as well as that heatwave called the solar wind, which can be regarded as a storm on the sun. So that should be an extremely powerful monster with a core that is compressing and withholding an explosion all the time.”
Elder Lu clapped his hands, “Yes, yes, that’s the feeling. Boom! Explosion, and fire waves!”
Zheng Zi listened and felt something was amiss, “But if there was really such a monster, then the earth would’ve been destroyed long ago.”
How could the sun exist on Earth?
When Elder Lu heard this, he insisted adamantly that he wasn’t mistaken, “That’s why it’s a monster! It looks just like an ordinary pink bird now! It looks like a parrot to me!”
The student ghost emerged completely from beneath the ground. “A pink parrot? There are lots of parrots of this colour. A common one is the pink sulphur-crested cockatoo.”
Elder Lu couldn’t distinguish between different species of parrots, and waved his hand, “That’s not important.”
At this moment, several ghosts who had overheard the conversation came over.
“Old man Lu saw a monster?”
“There are ghosts of course, so of course there are monsters.”
“Then, will it eat ghosts?”
“I’ve been on earth for decades, but this is my first time hearing about monsters! It must be nonsense.”
A ghost raised a question, “Is it possible that some animal died and its soul lingered around that parrot? After all, up to now, all of us ghosts have not seen any monsters. The sun was also very big today, maybe that affected your vision?”
The ghosts thought that it was a good explanation, and they all nodded in agreement.
Elder Lu was rather unconvinced.
But he was also at a loss of what to say.
“Say, have you ever thought… Maybe most of the ghosts who have seen monsters are gone. Just like… all those who have seen Niutou Mamian have been taken to Hell,” another ghost raised a new point of view.
This point of view sounded quite intimidating.
The group of ghosts began to feel a little anxious. They exchanged looks, not knowing if they should believe this point of view.
A ghost suggested, “Why don’t we go take a look now since there’s else nothing to do? Let’s take it as tonight’s activity!”
Another ghost who was happily observing as an unconcerned bystander immediately seconded the motion, “Yes, let’s! I’ll go, I’ll go.”
“Me too!”
“Ah, I’m a little scared. I won’t go.”
“I’m still young, I won’t go.”
“You’ve been a seven-year-old ghost child for over thirty years, ‘still young’ my foot.”
“Hahahahaha——”
In the end, the ghosts were divided into two groups: one continued to chat in the park, and Elder Lu would lead the other to the place where he saw the monster earlier today.
A group of ghosts travelling in great numbers at night; it was quite an interesting scene.
Along the way, a ghost asked, “Where is it again?”
Zheng Zi replied on Elder Lu’s behalf, “A hot pot eatery, according to what Lu Zi told me.”
When Elder Lu heard this, he stopped dead in his tracks. He suddenly realised that he had only been talking about the monster and had forgotten to mention another important thing——they were heading towards a hot pot eatery; a hot pot eatery where ghosts could also eat.
He was now bringing so many ghosts there, won’t it then become full of ghosts in future?
Then, would he still get to eat hot pot?
Elder Lu smacked his head and frowned; he felt that this was getting complicated.
The ghosts were all gathered around him, even if they were only there because they thought it might be interesting to see the monster together…
Elder Lu turned and scanned the ghosts present, “I have something I need to say first.”
All the ghosts, including Zheng Zi, stopped and looked puzzledly at Master, “What’s the matter?”
The old man stood in front of the group with a fan in his hand. The scene of the old ghost in front of the randomly dressed group of ghosts, old and young, looked more fantastical than the sight of monsters.
Elder Lu took a good look at the ghosts and spoke carefully, “The place we’re going to go tonight is a little bit different.”
The ghosts looked puzzled.
It’s just a hot pot eatery, how different could it be?
Elder Lu’s expression grew serious as spoke emphatically, “This hot pot eatery is one where we ghosts can eat.”
The question marks above the ghosts’ heads were almost tangible.
They knew every word that made up the sentence, but why did they sound so incomprehensible when strung together?
What is a hot pot eatery where ghosts can eat?
Ghosts can eat actual hot pot?
Ghosts can eat hot pot!
One ghost managed to recover himself, and stuttered with shock, “W-what, e-eat hot pot?”
The student ghost who had come along was also stunned, “That’s not scientific.”
Elder Lu glanced at him, “As ghosts, there’s no need to talk about science.”
The student ghost felt attacked and wilted instantly, “That’s true.”
Then, the ghosts recovered one by one as they understood the meaning of Elder Lu’s words.
“We ghosts can eat?!”
“Hot pot!”
“Oh my god!”
“Can I really finally fill my stomach!”
“It’s already been two years since I’ve had anything to eat! I even swore that I would go off to the Underworld this year when the Gates of Hell are open!”
“I really just want to eat a ton of chilli!”
The group of ghosts wailed and cried, and the scene became increasingly fantastical.
Elder Lu started fanning himself as he shouted, “Okay, okay. This is not the main point!”
The ghosts calmed themselves down; then, they found themselves facing a new conundrum—if that wasn’t the main point, then what was?
Elder Lu had to spend quite some effort to calm everyone down again. Then, he said, “The daughter of the hot pot eatery’s boss—the young boss—can see ghosts!”
Every ghost was dumbfounded—apart from the monster, there was also a human who could see ghosts?
Elder Lu continued to dispense information, “And the eatery is really small! If all of us go there to eat, then go off and tell others about it, in the end, there will be too many ghosts and not enough food to go around!”
All the ghosts were shocked again.
Elder Lu was right!
Just then, in the hearts of all the ghosts, the monster and the human who could see ghosts were no longer of any importance. The only important thing was that they could eat at this hot pot eatery, and that its food was rather limited.
The solution suddenly dawned on Zheng Zi, “All of us here who will go there tonight, cannot tell anyone else this secret!”
The whole group nodded.
Seeing that all the ghosts understood what was at stake, Elder Lu nodded with satisfaction. “Yes. We cannot tell anyone about this. Alright, now, continue to follow me.”
The group of ghosts raised their spirits, and forged on with gusto.
The walk took quite a while, but presently, no ripples of alarm were caused by this group of ghosts.
In a land of 1.3 billion people, a few dozens of ghosts was nothing.
It was only when they were one street away from the Meng’s hot pot eatery that Guifeng, who was already lying down, opened his eyes.
The lights had been turned off for the night, and the curtains were blocking out most of the light outside. However, Guifeng’s red eyes were still bright and eye-catching.
He didn’t get up; he lay quietly in wait for the approaching ghosts.
Ignorant and foolishly fearless.
He didn’t expect that by scaring one ghost, he would attract a whole group of ghosts here.
Will an entire city of ghosts come next time?
Guifeng was restrained by the balance between the human realm and the Underworld. He had to give up most of his power before he could slip past the heavy supervision and enter the human realm undetected.
And now, this bunch of ghosts might ruin it all.
Guifeng focused his eyes on Meng Xiaoni.
Meng Xiaoni……
Could see ghosts.
Guifeng got up and walked over to the side of her head.
The pillow sank down from his weight.
Meng Xiaoni turned unconsciously.
Guifeng lowered his head and pecked her. “Wake up. Ghosts have come. A group of them.”
Meng Xiaoni, whose face was being attacked by a torrent of pecks, opened her eyes in fright, “What what what?”
She was met with a pair of red eyes, and she heard the owner of the eyes say, “A group of ghosts have come for the boss1. May I trouble you to get out of bed.”
Footnotes:
1boss: as in boss in a video game
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