Chapter 3 The Innkeeper

  "Brother, brother, wake up." It was unclear how long it had been before Hong Jun finally managed to open his eyes with great effort. He found himself lying in bed, Xu Ming standing beside him holding his pants, and Fat Chen repeatedly slapping his face. His face turned red as he hadn't expected that he would also have a time when he fainted from fear. "Stop hitting me, you're going to make it swell," he said weakly but with some annoyance.

  "How did you suddenly faint? It even ruined my chance to take a satisfying crap in the outhouse." Xu Ming muttered.

  "What are you still squatting in the toilet for? We're moving tonight." Hong Jun said to Fat Chen, "You go find a hotel immediately, we'll stay in a hotel tonight."

  Upon hearing Hong Jun's words, Xu Ming's face immediately changed. He glanced around the room and trembled as he asked: "What? Has that thing arrived?"

  "What's that? What riddle are you guys trying to solve?" Fat Chen looked confused, and was about to ask again when Xu Ming kicked him, "Hurry up, or I'll castrate you."

  Fat Chen returned in less than ten minutes, his style of doing things was not at all matched with the fat on his body. In the end, he didn't dare to choose a higher-end hotel, but instead brought the two to a small place called "Fuyuan" Inn, which was only 400-500 meters away from the dormitory. The inn was extremely simple, but thinking of the two words "Fuyuan", Xu Ming still restrained himself from kicking Fat Chen in the foot. Fat Chen said that the boss of Fuyuan Inn believed in Buddhism and the Buddha was now the person he respected the most.

  "Two brothers, this inn is very cheap, just the two of us living in one room for only 50 yuan a day. And the boss said that if we stay for a long time, we can even get an 8% discount. How about it?" Fat Chen was quite pleased with himself for finding such a cheap place to stay. "But, you two, why don't you want to live in the dormitory? Can you tell me? Have you offended someone and they're coming after you? Don't worry, I'm here, these 200+ pounds will crush anyone who tries." Fat Chen said, shaking his body, his belly jiggling under his sweatshirt, his cheeks wobbling.

  "Ah, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. You might even get scared, so it's better not to say anything." Hong Jun sighed and stopped talking. He wasn't one to joke around with people, and his words carried some weight with Fat Chen. Fat Chen wasn't a fool, and the fact that these two fearless guys were too afraid to stay in their dormitory meant that something was seriously wrong. So he decided not to ask any more questions.

  "Knock, knock." The knocking sound from outside the door made Hong Jun jump in fright. Xu Ming immediately went to find something to block himself with and hastily grabbed a pillow from the bed.

  Pang Chen didn't notice anything unusual, and happened to be standing by the door, so he reached out to open it. Hong Jun wanted to stop him, but that chubby hand had already turned the handle, and the door slowly opened.

  Hong Jun took a step back, trying to get as far away from the door as possible, but ended up stepping on Xu Ming's foot, who had been hiding behind him. Seeing Fat Chen standing frozen in the doorway, Hong Jun's first reaction was that this guy must have been scared stupid by the female ghost. He stopped retreating and instead took a half-step forward towards the door, his left foot dragging behind him, ready to retract at any moment. His right hand stretched out as far as possible to grab Fat Chen, who was standing at the edge of the door. At the same time, he mustered up the courage to take a quick glance outside the door.

  There was no female ghost, but a middle-aged man in his fifties standing outside the door. His slightly bald forehead had two small eyes that were smiling at Hong Jun, looking like a child who had just lit a firework and immediately retreated after it was lit.

  With just one glance, Hong Jun recognized the middle-aged man as the owner of the inn, who had checked him in earlier. Seeing that there was no danger, Hong Jun's hand withdrew and he forced a smile. Xu Ming also awkwardly put down the pillow, feeling ashamed for having found such a defensive weapon.

  "Anything going on, boss?" Fat Chen let the man in, and after entering, he looked around outside the door, then quickly withdrew his head and quietly closed the door, just like a secret underground party contact in a movie.

  "This is Liu boss, an old acquaintance." Fat Chen introduced with a smile, suddenly realizing that he had misspoken and quickly shut his mouth. If it were in the past, Hong Jun and Xu Ming would have caught on to this sentence and asked further questions. Being familiar with the hotel owner could only mean that Fat Chen often stayed here, and as a single man staying at a hotel just a few hundred meters away from the dormitory, it was absolutely not because he had nowhere to live. So, there was only one reasonable explanation - he brought women here to open rooms. Since they were old acquaintances, it meant he came frequently.

  But today, neither of them had any interest in this gossip.

  "My surname is Liu, I'm Liu Ping, the boss here." The hotel owner introduced himself while offering cigarettes. Hong Jun waved his hand to decline, but Fat Chen and Xu Ming took them without hesitation and started smoking, soon filling the small room of only 10 square meters with thick nicotine fumes.

  "They are all my colleagues, his name is Xu Ming, and that one is called Hong Jun." Fat Chen puffed out a round smoke ring, stretched out his right hand middle finger, inserted it into the center of the smoke ring, rotated clockwise for a circle, and the smoke ring dispersed into a thin white mist.

  Mr. Liu seemed to have not heard Chen's words, but instead stared at Hong Jun intensely, making him feel very uncomfortable, his heart racing with anxiety, he tentatively asked: "Mr. Liu, is there something wrong? Didn't we already pay the deposit just now?"

  "This..." Liu Ping glanced at Xu Ming and Fat Chen, wanting to speak but stopping himself. Xu Ming nodded towards Hong Jun, indicating that they would wait outside and call if anything happened, and he and Fat Chen tactfully exited the room. From the gap in the door came back Fat Chen's stifled laughter: "It was just now at the hotel front desk that chick stuck to me like glue, no matter how hard I tried to shake her off. Later Xu Ge will introduce you guys."

  The room was left with only Hong Jun and Liu Ping, Liu Ping looked out into the corridor again, then locked the door, making Hong Jun even more tense. He thought about how his computer self had turned against him, now he was especially sensitive to anyone, especially when alone with a stranger who had just locked the door. This made him feel uneasy, in his mind, he began to imagine that the slightly chubby man in front of him would suddenly strangle him like his computer self did. He felt himself on the verge of collapse, despite the air conditioner being set to its lowest temperature, sweat was still dripping down his face. "It's a bit hot." He had already fixed his eyes on the small glass tea table, thinking about how to grab it and smash the man into pulp as soon as he turned into a demon.

  However, two minutes later, the man in front of him did not undergo a terrible change. He felt that he had been thinking too much and nervously opened his mouth: "Boss Liu, you, looking for me with something?"

  "Call me Liu Ge, don't look at my old appearance, I'm only 35 years old." Liu Ping said casually, but his eyes never left Hong Jun's face. Hong Jun felt uncomfortable all over, as if a huge stone was pressing on his heart, and he started to breathe rapidly, then couldn't catch his breath. He lightly cleared his throat, reached out to take the teacup on the table, wanting to drink some water to cover up the awkwardness, but found that the cup was empty. He forced a smile on his face, which looked unnatural.

  "Ah, it's like that." Liu Ping discovered Hong Jun's abnormality and finally shifted his gaze away, giving Hong Jun a feeling of suddenly hiding from the neon lights to a dark place. The stone on his heart disappeared, and he felt extremely relaxed all over his body. He took a deep breath.

  "You've stirred up something unclean, and a great calamity is likely to befall you," said Liu Ping.

  If it were in the past, hearing someone curse him like that, according to Hong Jun's temper "I may not be hot-tempered but when I do get angry, I can destroy half a city", he would have rushed up and punched Liu Ping, then urinated on his body to vent his anger. But today, Hong Jun endured this humiliation for the first time because what happened today was too strange, so strange that he had to believe what this man said would come true.

  "What does it mean?"

  "I am a lay disciple of Xishan Temple, my master is Master Kong." Liu Ping introduced himself, originally a Buddhist disciple. Hong Jun put his heart at ease, saying that Buddhism saves all living beings, it seems that today's luck has not been completely ruined, although he encountered a ghost, but also met their arch-nemesis. The Buddha's law is boundless, with a Buddhist disciple present, even if it's just a lay disciple, ghosts and monsters would likely retreat in fear.

  Liu Ping didn't notice the sudden joy on Hong Jun's face: "From the moment you walked in, I noticed that there was a very evil and fierce black aura surrounding your body. This black aura was so strong that it emitted a faint humming noise, which was even audible to me when you were in the hall. I know the Buddha behind the counter and Fat Chen quite well, and he's mentioned you before, saying that you're a very righteous person. So, I came over to remind you of something." Hong Jun thanked Liu Ping sincerely, as if a drowning man had grabbed onto a lifeline. He then recounted his strange encounters from that day to Liu Ping in great detail.