Chapter 21: Return of the Soul 01

  After entering December, the temperature dropped again, and the cold air officially arrived in the city. Even Xie Zhe, who was not afraid of the cold, wore winter clothes, while Qin Fei, who was extremely afraid of the cold due to physical reasons, had wrapped himself up into a bloated ball. Even after taking off his coat when he entered the book bar, Qin Fei still looked like he had gained a whole circle around his waist compared to usual.

  But even if Qin Fei had gained weight, in Shen Wei's eyes he was still a perfect male god, especially one that she wanted to package and take out on Christmas.

  "I don't know if the boss has time for Christmas." Shen Wei said, resting her chin on her hands, looking at Qin Fei sitting in his exclusive seat, and casually saying to Xie Zhe beside her.

  "It's still early for Christmas on the 12th today!" Xie Zhe said while wiping a cup.

  "In order to prevent the boss from being poached by others, I must take action early!" Shen Wei clenched her fist and put on a high-spirited look.

  "Go for it..."

  Regarding Shen Wei's ambition, Xie Zhe did not comment. He only suspected that there might be someone else who would ask Qin Fei out on Christmas, but after going through his boss's not-so-wide social circle, it seemed that no one except Shen Wei would be interested in spending Christmas with Qin Fei. Those who were closer to Qin Fei were all a group of older men, and normally, they wouldn't suggest going on a date with Qin Fei on Christmas. It seemed that Qin Fei didn't have any particularly close female friends, at least not that he had seen or heard of in a long time... Was it possible that Qin Fei was hiding it too well? Had he always been unaware?

  As for the women who chased Qin Fei... it seemed like there weren't any. Wait! There was one woman who seemed to be chasing Qin Fei, she would come to the bookstore every Saturday and chat with him for a bit. Although she looked older than Qin Fei, in today's society, an age gap between siblings isn't a big deal. But recently, it seems like she hasn't been coming to the bookstore, did she give up?

  Xie Zhe delivered the drinks ordered by the guests and then went to Qin Fei's side, asking with a curious expression: "Boss, why hasn't your red beauty been coming to our bookstore lately?"

  "Huh? Red makeup know? Who is that?" Qin Fei looked at Xie Zhe with confusion.

  "It's that beautiful sister who comes every Saturday and must chat with you for a few sentences." Xie Zhe leaned in closer to Qin Fei, lowering his voice, "Is it because she confessed to you and you rejected her, so she was heartbroken and decided not to come to our bookstore anymore? You quietly tell brother, I absolutely won't say it out loud."

  What's going on? Qin Fei was speechless. However, after listening to Xie Zhe's description, he understood who Xie Zhe was talking about. It was a young woman named Xiao Rong, a regular customer of the bookstore, who would always come to report every Saturday. Recently, however, she hadn't been seen for some time. Qin Fei remembered that the last time he saw Xiao Rong was on the day before the beginning of winter, also a Saturday. On that day, she had shown great interest in "Strange Spirit Miscellaneous Talks" which Qin Fei was reading, so Qin Fei lent her the book. Since she couldn't finish it, Qin Fei let her take the book home, and he hadn't seen Xiao Rong since then.

  However, as for Xiao Rong, Qin Fei is very familiar with her, but there is no ambiguity between them, nor are they considered bosom friends.

  "That beautiful sister didn't confess to me, you're overthinking." Qin Fei pushed away Xie Zhe and stood up, putting on the coat that was hanging on the back of the chair, and also took the scarf. While speaking, he walked out, "That mature sister got married two years ago, and she and her husband have a very good relationship."

  Xie Zhe was slightly surprised, and he recalled Xiao Rong's appearance, thinking that she didn't look like a married woman at all. However, Xie Zhe didn't dwell on this point, and looking at Qin Fei who was wearing a scarf and seemed ready to go out, he asked: "Boss, where are you going?"

  It's one o'clock in the afternoon, at this time, Qin Fei would not normally go out. Just after lunchtime, Qin Fei usually likes to curl up in his own exclusive seat and take a nap.

  "I have an appointment with someone and I should be back before closing time, so please take care of the bookshop for me." Qin Fei waved his hand and headed towards the door.

  "Boss, don't worry, leave the book to us!" He Shidong, who happened to be on part-time duty today, ran over and waved his hand in guarantee to Qin Fei, who had already walked into the aisle.

  "You go play."

  Xie Zhe pushed away He Yidong, who was pretending to be a puppy, and saw Qin Fei push the door open and run out. He quickly followed suit, crouching down and running towards the door. Unbeknownst to them, Shen Wei had also slipped out from behind the bar and was following closely behind Xie Zhe, also crouched down low. The two of them sneaked up to the entrance of the study room, where Xie Zhe squatted down and Shen Wei placed her hands on his shoulders. They peeked through the transparent glass door, looking outside.

  "What are you looking at?" Curious He Yidong couldn't help but run over as well, sticking his head to the glass door.

  "Shh, keep your voice down!" Xie Zhe said as he quickly grabbed He Shidong and pulled him into a crouch, holding his head down. "Don't stick your head up to the glass door, everyone outside can see!"

  "So what are you looking at?" He Xiedong asked, but didn't lean in on the glass door again, just followed Xie Zhe and Shen Wei's line of sight to look outside, "Are you looking at the boss? What is the boss doing?"

  "Didn't you hear the boss say he had an appointment with someone?" Shen Wei said quietly to He Jiedong while staring at Qin Fei standing outside, looking around on the side of the road.

  "Does the boss have an appointment with someone? What happened then?" Hei Yidong was perplexed.

  Shen Wei: "Aren't you curious who the boss has a date with?"

  Hei Xi Dong: "What's there to be curious about?"

  Xie Zhe: "A little kid with no gossip cells at all, go stand over there!"

  "Here!"

  Xie Zhe immediately stopped paying attention to He Shi Dong after Shen Wei reminded him, and instead looked at a black car that had stopped in front of Qin Fei. A man with a sharp gaze got out from the passenger seat, opened the rear door for Qin Fei, and then followed him into the car. The vehicle slowly drove away and disappeared from everyone's sight.

  "Who is that man? Does the boss still know people like this?" Xie Zhe said with a tone of either nostalgia or melancholy after being stunned for a moment.

  "One day a guest came to our bookstore..." Shen Wei said faintly.

  Compared to Xie Zhe, her mood was even more chaotic. The man who opened the car door for Qin Fei wasn't someone she had seen for the first time, and her impression of him from their first meeting was absolutely profound - wasn't he that cheap guy who said her boss was worthless? How could her elegant and refined male god boss be friends with this cheap guy? They weren't even on the same level!

  Looking outside, Qin Fei's figure had already disappeared, but Xie Zhe and Shen Wei were still staring outside. He Yisheng stroked his chin and commented, "Hmmm, that guy is even more handsome than our school's campus heartthrob."

  Xie Zhe: "......"

  Shen Wei: “......”

  Qin Fei's appointment today was with Gu Yin. Previously, due to the influence of evil spirits on his body, it wasn't suitable to use the Soul-Viewing Technique on him, so it had been delayed until now. Originally, it was supposed to be Manager Shao who would come to take him away, but unexpectedly, Gu Yin came along too.

  They arrived at Gu Yin's residence, and Shao Guan went to park the car in the garage. Gu Yin took Qin Fei into the house. This time, Gu Yin directly brought Qin Fei to a room located in the northwest position. In the center of the room was an antique shelf, filled with various items that looked like they were from another era, seemingly all antiques.

  The Bogu frame divided the room into two parts, inside and outside. Gu Yin led Qin Fei into the inner part. In the inner part, on the left side, there was a screen. After passing by the screen, only a wooden armchair of this era, which is rarely seen, was placed against the Bogu frame. Behind the armchair stood a low cabinet, and on top of it, a small incense burner was placed.

  "Go sit on that chair." Gu Yin pointed at the armchair and said to Qin Fei.

  Qin Fei tilted his head slightly, looking into Gu Yin's eyes. Gu Yin's pupils were dark and sunken, but Qin Fei could vaguely see a hint of expectation in them, though he couldn't understand what Gu Yin was expecting. After a brief moment of confusion, Qin Fei sat down on the circular chair as Gu Yin had instructed.

  After sitting down, Qin Fei's gaze inadvertently fell on the right-hand side of the bookshelf closest to him, where a bronze oil lamp was placed. The lamp base had intricate text that spiralled upwards from bottom to top, and the lamp holder was shaped like a lotus flower with two layers overlapping each other. However, inside the lamp holder, there was no oil or wick, but instead, an irregularly-shaped black stone was placed.

  Qin Fei was taken aback for a moment when he saw the black stone, but quickly returned to normal, without even realizing his own brief abnormality.

  Gu Yin glanced at Qin Fei, and finally his gaze fell heavily on the black stone in the oil lamp holder. He then turned around and walked to the low cabinet behind Qin Fei, lit a three-inch-long incense stick.

  The white smoke of the incense slowly rose and dispersed in the air, the scent of the incense spreading throughout the room. Before long, Qin Fei fell into a state of drowsiness under its influence.

  It wasn't until much later that Qin Fei finally came to from his dazed state, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Gu Yin standing in front of him, arms crossed and looking down at him with a superior attitude.

  Qin Fei looked up at Gu Yin, who still looked like the same old Gu Yin, but somehow different from before. The warmth that had mysteriously appeared that night was gone, and he seemed to have reverted back to his original appearance, and moreover, he looked particularly terrible.

  "Gu Yin?" Qin Fei looked at Gu Yin with confusion.

  Gu Yin ignored Qin Fei's confusion, his face gloomy as he spoke: "The reason your soul is unstable is because you were cursed. Someone wants you dead, but the curse isn't complete, it's just entwining your soul, so until now, you've only had an unstable soul. However, that curse will absorb ghost energy, like last time when those small ghosts, like the fierce ghost, entwined you a few more times, and you'll be able to rest in peace."

  "The reason for your unstable soul, I've found out for you, this is the first favor you owe me. On the eve of Lidong, I helped you drive away that little ghost, which is the second favor you owe me; afterwards, I gave you a protective charm, which is the third favor you owe me; the day I took you out of the yin corpse array, it's the fourth favor you owe me; and then I made another protective charm for you, which is the fifth favor. So far, you owe me five favors in total."

  Qin Fei: "......"

  "Do you have anything to say?" asked Gu Yin.

  Qin Fei pursed his lips and didn't go to argue with Gu Yin about those various human relationships, but instead went straight to the point: "This curse you mentioned... how do we break it?"

  Gu Yin: "After gathering all the materials, I will naturally be able to break that curse. At that time, this will be the sixth favor you owe me."

  Qin Fei: "......"

  Gu Yin looked at Qin Fei's calm expression, narrowed his eyes, and suddenly leaned in close to Qin Fei, with one hand resting on the edge of the chair, saying in a low voice: "Actually, there is a way to break the curse, which can avoid you owing me the sixth favor, do you want to know?"

  Looking at Gu Yin's appearance, Qin Fei had a premonition that it would definitely not be a good idea, but as he looked at the approaching face, he still unconsciously asked, "What method?"

  Gu Yin hooked up the corner of his mouth: "Become a monk and avoid evil spirits in the pure land of Buddhism."

  Qin Fei: "......"