Life's greatest fear is resignation.

Because resignation means ceasing to struggle, and your life will follow its existing, predetermined path, without too many waves or surprises, proceeding smoothly.

You can see what you'll be like in five years; you can guess what you'll be doing in ten.

But, what life needs most, in reality, is also resignation.

Being down-to-earth, safe and sound, without any distracting thoughts, living your own life, with ordinariness from beginning to end.

Whether to resign yourself or not is purely a matter of personal choice.

Zhou Ze sat on the bookstore's sofa, spacing out for an entire afternoon, as if he were thinking about a lot, yet as if he were thinking about nothing at all.

The glass reflected his blurred image; without realizing it, he no longer felt awkward when looking in the mirror.

Human adaptability is indeed strong; even your appearance, even the trajectory of your life, once you get used to it, you no longer feel anything about it.

This is his bookstore; this is his future life.

He reached out and touched the short buzz cut that Bai Yingying had just trimmed for him.

Very neat, very sharp.

Zhou Ze saw Tang Shi standing at the door; she had been standing there for three hours, from noon until the afternoon, barely moving.

Zhou Ze didn't ask her what she was doing there; everyone needs moments of solitude to empty their mind, and at such times, they don't need anyone's comfort.

He took out his phone and logged into WeChat; there were no messages and no replies.

Clinging to his past life, clinging to Xu Le in this life,

Zhou Ze really felt a bit weary.

In fact, it would be better to live this life, his new self, steadily and solidly.

Whether to see things clearly or not didn't have much of an impact.

After all, the past cannot be revisited,

And the future has yet to arrive.

He took out his small booklet, flipping through it, feeling its texture,

Zhou Ze felt that the rest of his life would be intertwined with it, at least, for a very, very long time.

It seemed that the female ghost messenger also had a booklet, but when Zhou Ze asked, Bai Yingying said they couldn't find it. Perhaps that booklet had already faded into oblivion, because at that time, the booklet was already showing signs of collapse; with the demise of the female ghost messenger, its last meaning of existence would also disappear.

Tang Shi finally moved; she slowly squatted down, her hands supporting her knees, probably because she had been standing for too long, so her legs were numb or cramping.

Zhou Ze smiled,

Then Tang Shi turned her head, looking at Zhou Ze, who was gloating through the glass; a hint of a smile also appeared on her lips, but this smile seemed a bit reserved.

As if at this moment, she had become a different person.

The previous her wasn't so serious.

The little monkey jumped in front of Zhou Ze, waving a toy hammer in its hand; Zhou Ze reached out and patted it on the head.

All along, Zhou Ze didn't understand what the mud the little monkey had gotten was all about, but it seemed to work quite well, thinking that if opening the bookstore didn't make money and he couldn't survive, he could still open a pharmacy.

"Ancestral Five Finger Mountain Black Jade Bone-Setting Paste"?

Not a bad idea.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..."

The little monkey held a cell phone in its hand, waving it at Zhou Ze.

The monkey's phone was bought by the old Taoist, which was enough to show the old Taoist's indulgence towards the monkey.

"What are you doing?" Zhou Ze asked.

The monkey pointed to the speakers on the wall of the bookstore, then pointed to the phone.

"Connecting to the Bluetooth speaker?" Zhou Ze asked.

The monkey looked blank,

But felt that it should be, and nodded.

Taking the monkey's phone, Zhou Ze helped it connect to the Bluetooth. The monkey tried it out, playing "Hero is Back," and the speaker immediately made a sound.

The monkey was very happy.

Immediately afterward, the background music in the bookstore was constantly changed in the monkey's hand. Fortunately, there were no customers in the bookstore at this time, and Zhou Ze let the monkey play around.

In fact, the background music in many large shopping malls is carefully chosen.

For example, if Li Yugang's "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is played at the beginning, if a security guard or an internal staff member sees a familiar habitual thief entering the mall, they will immediately notify the transmission room, and then the people there will immediately change the background music.

Next, they might play Michael Jackson's "Beat It," or "Hello, Poison," and then the merchants will remind the customers around them that a thief is coming, so be careful.

Shopping malls everywhere basically have this kind of tacit understanding, and sometimes on buses, if the driver sees a habitual thief that he is familiar with getting on the bus, he will press a button to issue a reminder.

So, sometimes when you hear "Please take care of your belongings..." on the bus, don't take it as a perfunctory and useless recorded message.

And these thieves,

Have basically become a BGM of their own,

When they walk in,

The unique BGM rings out.

There is a hanging TV above the bookstore counter, which is playing *Shaolin Soccer*.

At this moment, Zhou Ze realized that he hadn't seen the old Taoist all afternoon, but soon, three "tick-tock" sounds came from inside.

The little monkey understood and changed the music. Soon, the Bluetooth speaker played:

"Waves surge... waves flow... the mighty river never rests..."

Accompanied by the theme song of *Shanghai Bund*, the old Taoist, wearing a brand-new Taoist robe and changing his previous decadent and sloppy image, slowly walked out of the stairwell.

There should be an electric fan placed behind the stairwell, blowing his robe, not to mention, it really has an air of otherworldly grace.

Holding a peach wood sword,

Waving a sword flower,

The old Taoist stepped on the Big Dipper, majestic and awe-inspiring!

Zhou Ze reached out and rubbed his chin. It was fortunate that it was the old Taoist. If other Taoists or monks dared to show off like this in a bookstore opened by a ghost, they would have died countless times already.

The little monkey held up its phone, the camera aimed at the old Taoist, finding the angle. Zhou Ze glanced over and found that the little monkey was doing a live broadcast for the old Taoist.

Okay,

This monkey is really smart,

Smart to a fault.

On the live broadcast screen, a bunch of comments scrolled up:

"First floor is mine, no one will see me eat sh*t, right?"

"Holy sh*t, Old Taoist, good afternoon to you!"

"Old Taoist, it's been half a year, you're finally back!"

"Taoist priest, I miss you so much, you've been gone for so long, I really miss you!"

"Taoist priest is naughty, hiding for so long and not coming out, sob sob sob, jerking off your little tube, sob sob sob."

"Are you still selling ghost money? It's out of stock!"

"Did you see, there's a tuft of yellow hair on the left side of the screen, what is that thing, could it be a monkey?"

"Hahahaha, do you want to say that a monkey is filming for him? The person upstairs must be an idiot, right?"

"Agreed, the person upstairs is an idiot."

"The first floor is right!"

"The first floor is damn right!"

"The first floor is so, so, so, so right!"

"Damn it, the people upstairs are flooding the first floor, isn't that torturing obsessive-compulsives to death!"

With the old Taoist's return to broadcasting, the popularity in the live broadcast room began to soar.

The old Taoist is also a big or small internet celebrity, and is considered a small celebrity in the outdoor live broadcast field, and has a group of fixed die-hard fans who never leave.

After all, those who are willing to spend money to buy ghost money from the old Taoist at a higher price than the RMB,

Are absolutely die-hard fans!

The old Taoist performed a series of sword dances and fist and foot kung fu,

Warming up the scene,

He, who hadn't practiced for a long time, seemed a little breathless, but in the next moment, he still threw a handful of paper money into the air:

"Immeasurable Heavenly Lord!"

The peach wood sword was raised upward,

"Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, heed my command!"

Those paper money began to automatically rotate around the old Taoist one by one, neatly, and constantly flying out in various forms, cooperating with the old Taoist's instructions, complementing each other.

"Damn, this special effect is awesome, definitely not the cheap kind!"

"The first floor is right!"

"The first floor is really right this time."

"The first floor didn't eat sh*t this time."

"Is this a live broadcast or a video being played, hey!"

"Yeah, someone with a big d*ck confirm, is this a post-processed video?"

"This is a live broadcast, it doesn't look like a video!"

"Old Taoist, I want to change my view of you, I originally thought you were just a clown, now I find that you are actually a clown who can do magic tricks!"

"Sob sob sob, tease the clown upstairs, sob sob sob."

"Damn, the person upstairs is a pervert!"

"One punch to kill a sob sob monster!"

Zhou Ze looked towards the door,

Tang Shi was standing there,

Obviously, the old Taoist's flying ghost money was the result of Tang Shi's manipulation.

Zhou Ze was very curious, with Tang Shi's temperament, what made her willing to cooperate with the old Taoist in playing this kind of live broadcast trick.

The ghost money fell neatly, stacked in the old Taoist's hands. The old Taoist took the phone from the monkey's hand and looked at the system notification. A wrinkled face immediately smiled and curled up, like an old chrysanthemum.

"Thank you, Typhoon Restaurant, for the super rocket!

Thank you, Old Qiu, for the super rocket!

Thank you, Miss Lan Xue, for the airdrop supply box!

Thank you, book friend 160107110901124's...s...s... big plane!

Old Taoist, I, today, I'm back on the air,

Friends,

Are you still there!

Dear viewers,

I miss you all to death!"

The *Shaolin Soccer* movie being played on the TV in the bar happened to enter the middle of the scene. In the picture, Stephen Chow shouted to his fellow disciples:

"I feel it,

It's back,

They're all back,

Everyone,

Is back..."