Chapter 11 Is She Ill?

"Does she have a problem with her head?" Bai Yingying was a little confused.

Zhou Ze also shook his head. To be honest, he couldn't figure out what was going on either. When he was a doctor, he often encountered people choosing auspicious days for C-sections, but he had never seen anyone who insisted on choosing the hour of their death.

He guessed that the old woman, while lying in bed, had been staring at the clock at home, calculating when she would breathe her last.

Judging from the old woman's wailing, she definitely wasn't faking it. She was already dead, so what was the point of pretending? Who was she trying to fool?

However, her incessant crying was getting on Zhou Ze's nerves. The old Taoist couldn't hear it, but he could. His sleep quality wasn't good to begin with. How was he supposed to rest if he was constantly being disturbed like this?

Zhou Ze didn't have the heart of a Bodhisattva, and he had eaten his conscience not long ago.

The old woman's crying wouldn't elicit any concern from Zhou Ze, only annoyance.

"Scare her a little, make her shut up."

Zhou Ze gestured to Bai Yingying.

Bai Yingying nodded, revealing her fangs. The aura of a jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampire) was instantly revealed, and the old woman stopped crying, completely terrified.

At the same time, the old woman's obsession was slowly dissipating.

Ordinary wandering souls linger in the human world relying on a wisp of obsession. Once that obsession fades, they naturally return to where they belong.

What the ghost enforcers need to capture and send to hell are those souls whose obsessions are difficult to dissipate, or who have simply turned into vengeful ghosts. These are what count as achievements.

In other words, if Zhou Ze had sent the old woman away earlier, it would have counted as an achievement, albeit a small one, like meat from a mosquito's leg.

But now, the old woman could return to hell on her own. Even if Zhou Ze risked his wound bursting open or fainting to open a Gate to Hell for her, it would be a thankless task, simply giving her a free express ride with no benefit to himself.

The old woman's soul was slowly dissipating, gradually sinking into the ground.

"Boss, why are your hands shaking?"

Bai Yingying, who had been supporting Zhou Ze, sensed his abnormality.

"Heartache," Zhou Ze said.

He understood the impact that the little loli had mentioned about keeping Bai Yingying around. These ghosts that were attracted to him would be scared into enlightenment by the jiangshi and obediently go to hell.

What was left for him to do?

Of course, this couldn't be forcibly reversed. Besides, he had already received a surprise today: the key to the Gate to Hell and the news of a possible major accident involving the little loli were far more valuable than the achievement of one wandering soul.

He slept soundly that night.

When Zhou Ze woke up the next day, he found that his strength had recovered somewhat. He wasn't as weak as he had been yesterday. Without waiting for Bai Yingying to help him, Zhou Ze supported himself and stood up.

He was a little unsteady, but he had managed to stand.

"Boss, are you okay?"

Bai Yingying was quite worried, afraid that Zhou Ze would suddenly fall, especially since Zhou Ze had signaled that he didn't want help going down the stairs.

With Zhou Ze's current physical condition, he was like an elderly grandpa or grandma with mobility issues.

Bai Yingying was really worried that if Zhou Ze fell and broke an arm or a leg, or even something more drastic like becoming paralyzed, the old Taoist's idiotic electric "woo-woo-woo" wheelchair might actually come in handy.

Early in the morning, the female corpse's mind was jumping around.

Her brain automatically began to imagine her boss sitting in an electric wheelchair, "woo-woo-woo-ing" along, with a pacifier in his mouth.

It was really…

"Hahahahaha…"

Laughing, Bai Yingying stopped. She saw Zhou Ze turn his head and look at her.

"Zombie transformation?" Zhou Ze asked.

Bai Yingying shook her head.

"Zombie epilepsy?" Zhou Ze asked again.

Bai Yingying shook her head again immediately.

She didn't dare to reveal the scene she had been secretly imagining, or her boss would definitely stab her to death when he recovered.

Yeah, stab her with his nails.

Zhou Ze thought that his maid seemed to be having some kind of mental breakdown early in the morning, and said:

"Say something, let me hear."

"Eee-hee-hee."

Oh, she's back to normal.

Slowly supporting himself down the stairs, Zhou Ze felt a sense of accomplishment he hadn't felt since he was learning to walk as a child. To be honest, Zhou Ze didn't want to experience that feeling of blacking out from drinking again.

The pleasure was temporary, fleeting, followed by a long period of weakness and decadence.

It was like taking too much of that stuff and being all strong and vigorous in bed, seven times a night, only to end up with a sore back and weak legs the next day, or even suffering a stroke.

The old Taoist was already up. No matter how late he went to bed, he always woke up early. He had a fixed routine, and he would do a set of boxing exercises in the morning.

As a warm-hearted old Taoist with a passion for helping fallen women, he understood the importance of protecting his physical fitness.

When Zhou Ze came down, the old Taoist had already finished his boxing exercises and was talking to the little monkey.

The old Taoist was holding some black mud in his hands, and there was a large bag of it on the ground.

Zhou Ze frowned slightly.

It was the stuff that the little monkey used to apply to his wounds when he was injured. It was remarkably effective, no less than the "Black Jade Bone-setting Paste" in martial arts novels.

The only problem was that it smelled a bit unpleasant, and for someone as fastidious as Zhou Ze, having layers of mud applied to his body was nothing short of torture.

But then, an even more shocking scene unfolded before Zhou Ze, making the torture seem even worse.

The old Taoist brought the plastic bag of mud close to the little monkey, or rather, close to the little monkey's crotch, while making "psss psss psss…" sounds.

"Little ancestor, hurry up and pee. We're counting on this stuff to make a fortune now. Be good, pee quickly, be good, psss psss psss…"

Zhou Ze's face darkened.

The mud that was smeared on his body was actually…

Actually…

Actually coming from this!

"Ouch!"

Bai Yingying, with her quick eyes and hands, supported Zhou Ze as he was about to fall.

Hearing the commotion, the old Taoist turned around and gave Zhou Ze a sunny smile as bright as the sun outside, waving the black mud in his hand as he greeted:

"Boss, good morning, hou wa!"

Heaven have mercy, if Zhou Ze hadn't been injured lately, the old Taoist really didn't know how many times he would have died.

…………

From noon to afternoon, the bookstore was usually closed for business. This bookstore, located in the prime real estate district of South Street, was just that capricious, just that upscale!

However, if a customer came in wanting to buy books, read, or have a drink, they wouldn't be turned away.

But Xu Qinglang had put up a sign to reduce his workload: "Minimum spending of 100 yuan."

This was enough to scare away 80 to 90 percent of potential customers.

Zhou Ze let it be. With fewer people around, everyone's workload would be lighter.

Of course, there were still some rich people who didn't care about the money. Zhou Ze had just finished his meal and was fighting the nausea in his body when a middle-aged man with a slicked-back hairstyle and a yellow jacket walked in.

He seemed to be very satisfied with the quietness of the store. After ordering a glass of iced water, he took out his laptop and sat on the sofa to work.

Soon after, his laptop, which seemed to have the sound on, started playing: "The first online casino in Macau is now online! Beautiful dealers are dealing cards online…"

The old Taoist understood the hidden meaning.

His ears perked up, and he immediately went over, as if he had found a like-minded friend.

But when he looked at the screen, the old Taoist was dumbfounded. Where were the high-quality Japanese educational films he had been expecting? What were all these chips on the screen?

"You play online gambling too?"

The man looked at the old Taoist approaching with interest and asked.

Who was the old Taoist? He could become sworn brothers with a monkey.

He could fool the cute fans in the live broadcast room into buying ghost money, and he could trick coal bosses from Liaoning into transporting coal to sell in Shanxi.

He immediately replied: "Yeah, I play a few rounds occasionally, but not much. It's not very interesting, not exciting. I usually like to go to Macau for a bit of fun, just to relax."

As he spoke, the old Taoist even used his little finger to pick his ear, acting all nonchalant!

At the same time, the old Taoist had the little monkey lean forward and reach out to touch it.

See that? The national protected animal golden monkey is my pet. Isn't it as good as those Arab tycoons who keep leopards?

The man was stunned for a moment. He didn't know if what the old Taoist was bragging about was true, but this golden monkey wasn't fake.

Moreover, opening such a bookstore in the city center of South Street meant you were either crazy or had too much money to burn and were just playing a life game.

Immediately, the man became enthusiastic about the old Taoist, warmly inviting him to sit next to him and explaining the gameplay of his website in detail.

Zhou Ze listened from the side and took out his phone, wondering if he should call the police.

Most of the online gambling in the country is a scam, tricking people into depositing money, first letting you earn some money and then fattening you up to kill you like a pig. It's actually the same old tricks that gamblers have been playing for generations, but countless people still fall for it.

Because no matter how the tricks change, it doesn't really matter.

The key is the greed in people's hearts, which is passed down from generation to generation and can't be changed.

But the following conversation stopped Zhou Ze from making the call for the time being.

Because the old Taoist maintained his upscale image, showing a disdain for these common gambling methods like lotteries or other games, the man went all out to win over this crazy rich customer, and finally said:

"There's a really exciting project, I just don't know if you dare to play it?"

"Tch, I dare to bathe ghosts, do you think I'm afraid of your exciting project?"

Someone can testify to this, the old Taoist wasn't bragging.

"Tell me, what are we betting on?" the old Taoist urged.

The man hesitated for a moment, but still said:

"Betting on life!"

At that moment, Zhou Ze, who was drinking coffee and listening to the conversation, trembled slightly.

In his mind, he saw the old woman from last night who stood in the store staring at the clock, not even knowing she was dead, and the sacrificed police officer whom he had personally sent down, who had told him before he left about the gambling group he was investigating.

They didn't gamble on anything else.

They didn't play anything else.

Instead, they were betting on life!