Chapter Five: Zuo Guan Yun

  The city is a beautiful and prosperous coastal city, and as someone like me who came down from the mountains, I naturally look out of place in this city. In the midst of the bustling crowds, my outfit looks so gaudy and ridiculous.

  I don't think I'm extremely handsome, but I can say that I'm reasonably good-looking. However, it's because of my hairstyle that gives me a big "bonus", and the number of people who turn their heads to look at me is incredibly high!

  It's no wonder others look at me with a strange gaze, I myself feel awkward when looking at my own reflection. Wearing a loose and dull grey robe, carrying a yellow bundle on my back, wearing straw sandals on my feet, this getup is already quite embarrassing, not being beaten up is already a blessing.

  Of course, my self-esteem is very strong. In order to avoid becoming a laughing stock for others, I quickly headed towards the City College in D city, wanting to get out of everyone's sight as soon as possible.

  I want to go to D City University because in the past few days, I tried every means and finally found out that the Left Guanyun mentioned in Old Man's letter is actually a gatekeeper at this university. This is also strange of Old Man, if he had clearly stated the location of Left Guanyun in his letter earlier, I wouldn't have spent so many days finding his whereabouts.

  The City University of D city is a third-rate university. Although the school is third-rate, its scale looks quite large. Not to mention anything else, this university has four gates: east, south, west and north. I guess I was unlucky, I walked through the east, south and west gates but didn't find what I was looking for until I came to the last gate, the north gate, where I finally found Zuo Guanyun.

  Zuo Guanyun is a man approaching fifty years old. Logically, at this age, although he has aged, he should still be relatively robust. However, Zuo Guanyun looks even older and hunchbacked, the phrase "old and frail" suits him perfectly. If he hadn't personally said that he was nearly fifty years old, I would have thought he was a seventy or eighty-year-old decrepit old man!

  Zuo Guan Yun heard that I was introduced by Tu Bu Fan, his face didn't change at all, he coldly said to me

  "Young man, wait with me in the security room until it's time to get off work, and I'll naturally take you where you need to go."

  Looking at Guan Yun's expressionless face, looking at his calm and collected demeanor, I felt that this person was mysterious and unpredictable, as if he couldn't be seen through at all.

  "What's the relationship between this old man and my grandfather?" I was secretly wondering, but in order not to bother others, I didn't ask more questions.

  At five o'clock in the evening, Zuo Guanyun and a middle-aged man handed over their work to each other, and then I followed him home.

  All the way, I urged Left Guan Yun to walk a little faster, but this old fellow was walking slowly and didn't put my words in his heart at all. He can do whatever he wants, but I'm not allowed to, looking at the surrounding classmates with a strange gaze, especially those beautiful female classmates, I feel like my face is burning. It's not that I'm embarrassed to look at them, it's just that this outfit is too embarrassing for me!

  Although I hung my head in shame, not daring to look around, my ears could still hear the murmurs of the crowd. How annoying! I was puzzled! What's wrong with me wearing non-mainstream clothes? This is individuality, this is fashion. But actually, I knew that growing up on the mountain, I had never worn the kind of clothes that city people wear. They thought I was strange, but I think they're even stranger! Especially some girls, wearing so little, it's indecent and doesn't even fear freezing to death!

  At this time, the conversation between several schoolmates from the academy who were relatively close to me came clearly into my ears.

  "Huh? Who's that young man dressed like a savage following behind Old Ghost?" a stout boy with well-developed limbs asked his classmate.

  "Who knows? But, fatty, I advise you not to know, that old ghost is very sinister! It's said that the building he lives in has had people die before, whoever moves in will be unlucky, either becoming disabled or falling ill, but this old man moved in as if nothing happened!" A thin young man next to fatty said.

  "That's right! Our school counselor said that the old man lives in a haunted house, and I also heard that he has another job at night. He is said to be watching the dead in the mortuary!" Another classmate chimed in.

  "Alright, alright! Listening to you two talk about these things is making me anxious. Forget it, let's not gossip about others anymore. Brothers, what do you say? Shall we go to the internet cafe and play some games?" Fatso said, changing the subject.

  "Let's go! Go surf the internet for a while!" The two of them echoed in agreement. And so, the three of them headed towards an internet cafe nearby.

  "He's called a ghost old man? And he lives in a ghost house? Damn it! The friends that Godfather made are really not good birds!"

  One after another, I heard others greeting Zuo Guan Yun. However, they didn't address him by his name, but instead affectionately called him Gui Lao, as if that was his real name.

  After leaving the campus, I came to the old residential area where Zuo Guanyun lived and stood at the bottom of the building. I quickly caught up with him and asked, "Old Man Zuo, they say that the building you live in is haunted, it's a ghost house, it can't be true, right?"

  After hearing what I said, Zuo Guanyun stopped in his tracks and turned around to say coldly: "What? Even the grandson of Tu Bufan is afraid of ghosts?"

  "Not true! Not true!" I waved my hand hastily: "I just wanted to ask about the authenticity of this matter."

  "That's right, the building I live in is said to have had a woman die there. They say she was very beautiful and died for love. Later, the house changed hands several times, and each owner had some kind of accident, big or small. So no one dared to live here, but I bought it cheaply, so it's a bargain for me."

  "Left Grandfather, you didn't really encounter this female ghost, did you?" I asked Left Guan Yun tentatively.

  Upon hearing me ask this, Zuo Guan Yun's face showed impatience: "What's the point of asking this? If you're scared, then get out! Don't live with me! If you have money, go stay in a hotel yourself! I really don't understand how Tu Bu Fan could have a cowardly good-for-nothing like you!"

  "Am I useless?"

  "Damn it! I've seen the ferocious and disgusting ghost with my own eyes!" Hearing Zuo Guanyun say this, my heart didn't feel good.

  So I put on a brave face and said to him, "Are you kidding me? Am I afraid of ghosts? Not that I'm bragging or anything, but I've actually encountered extremely disgusting and ugly evil spirits before! And what's more, those evil spirits were turned into ashes by my talismans. Me, afraid of ghosts? Ha! You're the one who's funny!"

  "That's good!" Upon hearing my response, Zuo Guanyun only coldly replied with this one sentence before hunching his back and heading upstairs.

  Look at Guan Yun, walking upstairs without any courtesy! I'm so angry! I'm a guest after all! Didn't expect this old man to be so unfriendly and cold towards me. But I, Tu Kuan, am a magnanimous person, so I won't bother arguing with the old fellow.

  After comforting myself, I followed Left Guardian Yun upstairs.

  Zuo Guanyun lived on the second floor, and the house was not small, with an area of over 100 square meters. The interior decoration was also very good, although it couldn't be called luxurious, but for an old man's home, it was already quite elegant.

  He led me into the room, first asking me to sit down inside, then went to the bathroom to wash his hands. Afterwards, he took out three incense sticks from somewhere and inserted them into an incense holder in a corner of his bedroom. He then bowed three times in front of an old photograph.

  Out of curiosity, I walked over to take a look. On the photo that Guan Yun was worshiping, there was actually an absolutely beautiful woman. The beauty in the red dress, with long hair flowing, looked incredibly charming.

  "Old Master, isn't this woman our deceased grandmother? She's really beautiful!" I said with a smile.

  Zuo Guanyun heard this and suddenly glared at me with a huff: "Don't spout nonsense, this woman is the original owner of this house."

  "What? The original owner?"

  ……

  "She... she wouldn't be a female ghost, would she..." The words reached the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them back.

  "Don't ask what shouldn't be asked, and you can rest assured here for now. Tonight, no matter what noise there is in the room or what happens, just pretend you didn't hear or see anything, got it? As long as you keep your eyes tightly closed, everything will be fine." Zuo Guanyun said to me while wiping the dust off the case with her hand.

  "What do you mean? Don't you old folks stay here at night?" I felt a bit guilty.

  Zuo Guanyun replied: "I rarely come back here to live, only when there's nothing going on over there will I return to live."

  "Over there? Over there refers to..." I hesitated and stopped short of saying what I wanted to say.

  Zuo Guanyun understood what I wanted to ask and replied without hesitation: "I go to work at the morgue at night, and usually sleep there!"

  "What?! You slept with a dead person?!" My jaw dropped in shock, and I felt my eyes widening into circles bigger than ping-pong balls.

  Zuo Guanyun didn't answer me, but instead wiped the photo of the beautiful woman again. Only then did he turn around and say: "You're on your own for dinner, there are some ingredients in the fridge, you can make something yourself!" After finishing speaking, Zuo Guanyun put down the photo and left the bedroom with an air of confidence, leaving the building altogether.

  "Bang!"

  The door was closed...

  "What does it mean? Am I really going to spend the night in this room with a female ghost by myself?! Damn it!"

  At this time, I can only blame my own honest grandfather for being too clean! If he had asked for more money when helping people in the past, he would have had some savings and could have stayed in a hotel instead of having to spend the night with a female ghost here...