Chapter 7: Happiness Falls from Heaven

  "But," the girl suddenly smiled and changed the subject, the boulder turned into a hydrogen balloon, instantly lifting her mood by several hundred meters, "I'm off tonight, I'll be on duty tomorrow night."

  Heavens above, earth below, thank the blinking red and green lights, thank all the trees, thank everything around me... I... uh... if I still can't understand what the girl means by her words, Hong Jun will surely think he's a complete idiot.

  "What do you want to eat? Choose whatever you like." Hong Jun patted his chest, had his peach blossom luck finally arrived? He couldn't miss this opportunity. At this moment, he faced the rarely seen beauty and completely forgot about the extremely strange things he had just experienced, forgot that the female ghost might appear again, forgot all the dangers.

  "Really? So generous? Alright then, why don't we go over there and have a good meal?" The girl blinked her big eyes and pointed to the Harbour View VIP building tens of meters away. Hong Jun almost vomited blood - that was the most expensive restaurant in this small town, four-starred, with a minimum consumption of 999 yuan. Having been in Binhai for over a year now, although he had also entered high-end restaurants several times with the factory's boss, his closest contact with this place was when he walked past the entrance from two meters away on the road."

  However, since he had already patted his chest, as a man, especially in front of the beautiful girl he had just met, Hong Jun could only pretend to be confident. He subconsciously touched the poor wallet in his pocket, although he also had a little doubt "isn't this a scam?", Hong Jun still walked towards the restaurant with big strides, with a stunningly beautiful girl following beside him.

  "It was worth it, ten days' wages for a meal with the beauty. Perhaps, after this meal...". Hong Jun thought of the heroic sacrifices of his predecessors on the battlefield, "The wind is bleak and the water is cold, the brave warrior goes and never returns." He suddenly had the same mindset as Jing Ke when he assassinated Qin.

  The harbor VIP building is just ahead, and walking shoulder to shoulder with the girl feels great. The night breeze has dissipated the heat, and a sweet feeling gently soothes him. If he doesn't think about money, tonight would be perfect. Hong Jun thought. He had already forgotten the strange events that had been happening one after another in a despicable way. However, this forgetfulness didn't last long, as ten seconds later, he felt the chill of holding the small coffin again during the day, and a voice whispered in his ear: "Hong Jun, our business isn't over yet."

  His heart suddenly accelerated, and Hong Jun seemed to have stepped on dog shit, jumping a few steps forward before turning back. In front of him was only the beautiful girl, no one else. He scratched his head, feeling embarrassed, and returned to the girl's side. The girl didn't seem to notice anything unusual, and this sound probably hadn't reached her ears. Hong Jun thought, carefully asking: "Did you hear someone talking?"

  "What? Didn't say anything." The girl saw Hong Jun ask her and was stunned for a moment.

  Hong Jun shook his head, not daring to confirm whether he had just experienced auditory hallucinations due to the many things that happened today. He didn't want to investigate further, as it would only bring harm and no benefits to himself, and might even scare off the beautiful woman beside him. Weighing the pros and cons, he decided to ignore it and let the female ghost do whatever she wanted with him. For now, his priority was to accompany the girl for dinner, as long as they could finish eating peacefully.

  "Hey, stop right there." As they approached the entrance of the Harbour View Hotel, the doorman, who had been looking tired, suddenly broke into a smile when he saw guests arriving. However, before he could even react, the girl suddenly called out to Hong Jun, and the doorman's face immediately fell.

  "What? Weren't we going to eat?" Hong Jun's heart skipped a beat as he was stopped at the entrance of the restaurant. There were only two possibilities: either the girl had changed her mind and wanted to go somewhere else, or she didn't want to have dinner with him anymore. The second possibility was absolutely tragic. As for the first possibility, if the girl thought of a more upscale place, it would be even more tragic. However, in this small town, there didn't seem to be any better restaurants. KTVs and other entertainment venues usually didn't have such high consumption standards. Could she want to go to a private club? That would be disastrous! If so, he would rather slip away. Private clubs were known for their exorbitant prices, and besides, if the girl was innocent, she wouldn't normally go to such places. Hong Jun mechanically wiped the sweat from his face.

  Perhaps seeing the beads of sweat on Hong Jun's face, the girl burst out laughing: "I was just teasing you, this hotel is too expensive, besides, it's already midnight, they definitely won't serve us now. Let's go eat barbecue instead."

  The restaurant's meal was at least 999, the barbecue was stuffed to death for only 200, saving 700 yuan in one go. Oh my god, from hell to heaven, Hong Jun felt particularly uncomfortable.

  Barbecue is very popular in this northern city, and although it's already midnight, the roadside barbecue stalls are still bustling with people. The small town is not big, with only three streets crisscrossing each other, but there are more than a dozen barbecue stalls set up along the road. Speaking of eating barbecue, within a few minutes, Hong Jun led the girl to his familiar barbecue stall.

  The stall owner and Hong Jun were fellow villagers, and when he saw him, he smiled and nodded. When he saw the girl next to Hong Jun, his chin almost fell onto the stove, and his somewhat lewd-looking face estimated that it was the first time he had seen such a beautiful beauty. Even though the meat on the grill emitted a burnt smell, he still stared straight at her. "Hurry up with the grilling." Hong Jun kicked him in the foot, reminding him not to be too out of line, and also reminding him not to be a toad. The little boss finally returned to reality, nodding and bowing: "Right away, right away."

  "Do you like barbecue?" Ten minutes later, the two were savoring the skewers of meat roasted by the boss. Hong Jun looked at the skewer in his hand, which was at least twice as big as usual, and silently cursed himself for being a country bumpkin. He opened a bottle of beer with one hand, and when the girl declined, he poured himself a large cup and downed it in one gulp.

  The girl smiled brightly, like a beautiful rainbow in the summer: "Hey, I haven't even asked you what your name is or what you do."

  He patted his head, and Hong Jun smiled awkwardly: "Haha, look at me, I'm such a careless guy, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Hong Jun," he said with a piece of meat in his mouth, eating while speaking, but suddenly remembered the strange things that happened today, and looked around nervously, the barbecue stall was bustling with people, nothing out of the ordinary, humans, no matter how big or small the thing, as long as there are many people around, will feel a sense of security, in fact, what people fear most in their hearts is not ghosts or monsters, but loneliness.

  "My name is Hong Jun, with 'Hong' from flood and 'Jun' from a sudden attack. Originally, it was meant to be 'Hong Jun', using the character for army, because my surname is Hong. My grandfather, who had experienced war, gave me this name that carries the mark of the times. I've been using the name Hong Jun all along, but after graduating from high school, when I turned 18 and needed to get an ID card, trouble arose."

  "Really?" The girl was good at listening to others and inserted a sentence appropriately.

  "Yes, because I used the name Hong Jun to read books, I wanted to change my name back to Hong Jun. But when I asked, the civil police said it was very troublesome, what with going here to open a certificate, and there to open an introduction letter, and finally having to go to the county town to do the formalities, estimated to need three months and so on. In short, one sentence, not easy to handle. I almost didn't die from anger, you made a mistake but don't actively admit it and say changing names is troublesome, what kind of attitude? From now on, I can only use this name."

  Then, I went back to the village and opened a letter of introduction with my former name 'Hong Jun', got a government seal from the civil affairs department in the countryside, and then got a police station seal. Finally, I got the certificate of name change that I couldn't leave behind for the rest of my life. Because the name on my high school graduation certificate can't be changed back, this "former name" has caused me a lot of trouble in my future life journey." Hong Jun said, and the girl listened with a serious face.

  "And you?" Hong Jun asked the girl. "Me? Guess." The girl said with a sly face.

  "Guess what? Is it Rui Xin?" Hong Jun suddenly remembered the antivirus software installed on his computer, which was coincidentally helped by a small network administrator named Sun Xin from the factory. He took one character from each and randomly came up with a name, pretending to be serious.

  "Yes, I'm Rui Xin." The girl put down the cup in her hand and stared at Hong Jun's face.

  "Hmm, cough... " A mouthful of beer choked into his throat, Hong Jun looked at the girl in puzzlement while coughing, it couldn't be that coincidental, could he really guess her name with a random try?

  Seeing Hong Jun's disbelieving face, the girl slowly took out an ID card from her bag and handed it to him. "Rui Xin, born on April 1st, 1985..."

  Wait, Hong Jun looked at the beer, had just drunk a bottle, still far from being drunk, rubbed his eyes again, and was sure he hadn't misseen it. "Give me three minutes." Hong Jun muttered.

  The photo on the ID card is indeed the girl herself, no mistake, the name is indeed Rui Xin, no mistake, the birthday is indeed April 1st, no mistake, born in 1985, no mistake, nothing is wrong. So what's wrong? No, nothing is wrong, this is true.

  "You're really Rui Xin!" Hong Jun swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

  "Who would have thought it was so coincidental? Doesn't that mean we're quite fated?" The girl's face was full of smiles.

  "Hmm, it's fate. Not only did I randomly guess your name correctly, but also, our birthdays are on the same day, we're born in the same year, month and day." Hong Jun swallowed his saliva again.

  "Really?" The girl's smile grew even brighter, "And is there any other coincidence? For example, I'm single..."

  In the vast sky, the Old Man of the Moon was busy matchmaking for lovers in the world. Suddenly, he noticed that two clay figures in the corner were slowly approaching each other, making a soft tinkling sound. The Old Man of the Moon thought for a moment and then tied the two clay figures together with his red thread, but sighed: "Alas, why bother? Why suffer?"

  At the same time, in a certain place in the underworld, a sigh was heard: "What's destined to come will eventually come." At this moment, Hong Junxin, who was drinking beer, suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart, and a tear fell inexplicably onto the barbecue grill in front of him, turning into a wisp of smoke.