I open a bookstore in the human world

"Speaking of which, I still don't know when your birthday is," Xie Daonian asked seemingly casually after eating the cake. After thinking about it, he added, "And Linse's."

"Why do you want to celebrate our birthday?" Song Lan smirked, shook her head and said, "No need, we don't pay much attention to birthdays in the underworld."

After a pause, Song Lan added: "However, some people will celebrate on the day of their death."

Xie Daonian: "..."

It is obviously a very warm topic, but it suddenly develops in a weird direction. This plot seems wrong.

Seeing Xie Daonian's indescribable expression, Song Lan reacted and laughed loudly: "Scared you? I'm sorry, I shouldn't bring up such a topic at this time."

Xie Daonian was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked: "What does it feel like to become a ghost?"

Song Lan raised her eyebrows: "Why do you suddenly ask this? But it's true, mortals are the most curious race, they want to know everything, and they hold back their energy all day thinking about how to kill themselves."

Hearing Song Lan's evaluation of mortals, Xie Daonian was speechless: To some extent, his evaluation was really okay.

Song Lan continued: "Being a ghost is actually not as evil as it is said in horror novels. The underworld is actually similar to the human world. It also has a government and a leader in the government, which is the folk legend Yama. In charge of different affairs, some manage reincarnation, some manage trade—mostly exchanges with the heavens, and some manage criminal law, which is a bit like the judicial department of the human world.”

"As for the staff in the government department, just like the civil servants in the human world, they have to take an exam to get on the job. Every year, many ghosts take the civil service exam, and the admission rate is not much lower than the national exam in the human world. It is very difficult. "When it comes to the civil service exam, Song Lan looks sad. "I have to take the exam when I go back. After all, it's an iron job. How many ghosts dream of it."

"Then what about poverty alleviation activities?" Xie Daonian vaguely remembered that Song Lan said the reason for coming to the human world when they met for the first time, as if to participate in some hell-human world one-on-one poverty alleviation activities.However, he was living in a muddle at that time, and he was indifferent to other things except planting flowers and drinking tea, and he didn't ask much, so he signed the contract in a daze.

"It's a project prepared by the underworld for ghosts. You can get extra points in the civil service exam," Song Lan explained. "The better you perform in the activity, the higher the activity score. For example, my poverty alleviation target is you, The more successful your career is, the higher the score I can get, which is more beneficial to the exam. The so-called 'improving a point to kill a thousand people' is also applicable in the underworld."

Xie Daonian was thoughtful: "That is to say, the bigger my business in the human world, the higher your test score will be, right?"

"Bingo!" Song Lan snapped her fingers, raised her wine glass, and looked at Xie Daonian with a smile, "So, let's work hard, it's for my future."

Xie Daonian was startled, raised his glass and touched him lightly, with a slight smile on the corner of his mouth: "Okay, let's work hard together."

"By the way," Song Lan put down his wine glass, thinking of something again, "I was in the store just now, and I heard from the clerk that you plan to open another branch in Shanghai. Are you looking for a location recently?"

This is the reason why Xie Daonian was not in the store earlier.

Xie Daonian nodded and said, "The current store is a test of the water, and everything seems to be normal now, it's time to open up stores."

"That's very good," Song Lan said with a smile, "according to the current development trend, Shadow Tea will become a famous brand in the beverage industry in Shanghai in just a few years. Cover me."

Saying that, Song Lan imitated the way of the ancients, and bowed to Xie Daonian Xuxu.

Xie Daonian was taken aback, nodded and smiled: "That's natural." There was a smile in his eyes, and a certain kind of exciting emotion that he had never had before.

After spending more than two hours in the restaurant, it was almost time to say goodbye.

"I have to keep an eye on Jincheng. I've already bought the ticket. It's more than two hours away. I have to go now." Song Lan said goodbye to Xie Daonian.

Xie Daonian nodded slightly, his lips parted, as if he had something to say, and finally he only uttered: "Be careful on the road."

"It's quite unusual for a ghost to be careful on the road," Song Lan smiled, "Okay, don't worry, as long as I don't meet high-level ghosts and ghost exorcists with real skills, I will be fine. I Let's go, I will contact you when I arrive."

Saying that, Song Lan waved her hand, turned around gracefully, and her figure quickly disappeared into the vast crowd.

Xie Daonian stayed where he was, without moving for a while, but unconsciously pinched the golden pendant that was already hanging around his neck, the original coldness had been penetrated by his body temperature, and his palm was warm.

"Then see you next time."

***

It was nearly ten o'clock in the evening when Song Lan returned to Jincheng, which was the closing time of Shadow Bookstore.

"Sorry, we are closing the door, guest, please come back tomorrow... Hey, Brother Song, are you back?"

Song Lan nodded to the clerk with a smile, walked into the store, and asked, "How's the sales going today? Are there many customers?"

"The flow of customers is about the same as the previous two days, and the turnover is also increasing steadily. By the way, a few people came today and bought several records." A man's voice answered the call, just as Song Lan's voice came from Zhang Fan, the store manager, came out of the lounge.

Although there is an album section in the shadow bookstore, there are not many people who actually buy albums.After all, most people come to Shadow Bookstore mainly to buy books, or to buy original cultural and creative products in the store. As for records, they really have no interest.

In the eyes of young people, records are already antiques belonging to the last century.Who would listen to music on records if they weren't collectors or enthusiasts?Compared with mobile music apps that can listen to and change songs at any time, records are really inconvenient.

Song Lan didn't think there was anything strange when she heard it, she nodded and said, "No one cared about the record section before, because the relevant customer base didn't know that our bookstore also sells records. After the news spreads, there should be more people. Come buy records."

However, Song Lan also knew very well that even if potential customers were indeed attracted, the number of them should not be too many - after all, there are very few people who like to listen to records.At the beginning, he opened up this area more just for his feelings, and he didn't expect to make much money.

Zhang Fan followed behind him and reported the situation in the store today: "Everything else is normal, except that a Taoist priest has come."

"Taoist?" Song Lan stopped suddenly and raised his voice.

Zhang Fan didn't seem surprised by Song Lan's reaction at all, and his tone was calm: "Manager Cao accompanied him, saying that he was going to do a ritual to exorcise ghosts in the whole mall, not only our store, but also other stores."

"Didn't you do Buddhist rituals in the past, why did you suddenly say you want to do it?" Song Lan frowned, feeling that there must be something hidden in it.

Zhang Fan didn't seem to understand either: "That's not clear."

The doubts were not solved until I saw Manager Cao the next morning.

"Boss Song," Manager Cao, who was patrolling the second floor of the shopping mall, greeted Song Lan from a distance, "I didn't seem to see you yesterday?"

"I went to Shanghai yesterday," Song Lan replied with a smile, pretending to casually cast a glance at the middle-aged man behind Manager Cao who was clearly dressed differently from ordinary people, "This is..."

"Oh, Boss Song, you don't know yet. This is Daoist Yu, a ghost exorcist specially invited by the mall. He will hold a ceremony in the mall in a few days. I hope Boss Song can cooperate." Cao The manager enthusiastically introduced the two of them, "Master Yu, this is Boss Song of Shadow Bookstore."

Really a priest.Song Lan frowned, but soon returned to normal.He looked at the middle-aged man in front of him wearing a dark gray Taoist robe, with a Taoist bun on his head, and his usual facial features were a pair of sharp eyes. He didn't seem to have anything special about him, and he didn't know what his abilities were.

——Is it a charlatan who is bluffing and deceiving, or someone with real skills?It's hard to judge for now, but Song Lan didn't dare to be careless.

As a ghost, even if it is a ghost envoy with official documents from the underworld, Song Lan has a natural estrangement between monks and Taoists. , This is a natural enemy.

In fact, in essence, ghost envoys like Song Lan have the same goal as the masters of ghost hunting: they are all to deal with the ghosts left in the human world.But the methods used by the two sides are completely different: the ghost messengers want to bring the ghosts under their command, control their actions, and prevent them from wandering in the human world, while the monks and priests directly kill the ghosts, causing them to fly out of their wits.

When these people deal with ghosts, no matter whether the opponent is a ghost or a harmless citizen of the underworld, in their view, ghosts are harmful, and only when they are completely eliminated can the problem be solved.

Therefore, Song Lan would not approach or even provoke them unless he had to.Even if there are fewer and fewer ghost-hunting masters with real skills nowadays, if they really meet and get entangled by each other, how can there be any reason for this?They don't get to the bottom of whether they are good ghosts or bad ghosts!

It's not that Song Lan is too cautious, but that the situation is stronger than others, and she has to behave with her tail between her legs.In the past, a ghost envoy who came to the human world to perform official duties accidentally ran into a monk who specialized in ghost hunting. Although he escaped in the end, he was seriously injured and had to recuperate in the underworld for several months before he could get out of bed.

Therefore, Song Lan must be careful before finding out the origin of the Taoist priest in front of him.

"Song Shan has extraordinary eyebrows, and I think he is a great big shot." Song Lan was still in a daze, but the Taoist priest beside Manager Cao had already spoken.His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper on a tabletop.

Song Lan was taken aback by his ugly broken voice, and then forced out a smile: "Daoist Yu is absurd, I'm just a small businessman, my whole body is full of copper smell, how can I be a big man?" 'Three words."

Taoist Yu took a deep look at Song Lan, until he looked at Song Lan with horror, then looked away, and said: "Song Shan is humble."

Song Lan chuckled, obviously not planning to discuss this topic.

"Manager Cao," Song Lan turned to Manager Cao, "Are you busy now? I have something to tell you in private."

Manager Cao looked at Yishan and looked at the Taoist priest. Seeing that his face was calm and he did not express anything, he nodded and followed Song Lan to a corner.

"Manager Cao, didn't you say that Li Jin has done a lot of rituals before? How come this time—" Song Lan frowned slightly.

"Well..." Manager Cao sneaked a glance behind Taoist priest Yu, lowered his voice, "You don't know, this Taoist priest came here by himself!"

"What do you mean?" Song Lan's brows were furrowed deeper, feeling that things were not that simple.

"The day before yesterday, this priest came to me suddenly, saying that there was a lot of ghosts in Lijin, and he wanted to catch ghosts here. At that time, I thought it was a liar—you know, I have found so many monks and priests in the past to catch ghosts, but none of them were useful. , I spent a lot of money. But Daoist Yu said that he doesn’t want money. He is a wandering Taoist, and his purpose is to deal with ghosts in the human world. He is different from those charlatans who pretend to be Taoists. I heard him like this Having said that, and our place itself is a bit weird, I thought that the mall has not done rituals in the past two years, so I agreed." Manager Cao said, "To be honest, I was so scared when I accompanied you to see the storefront before. Qing, after going back, I had nightmares for several nights, and I was thinking about when I would go to the temple to ask for a peace talisman. Isn’t it a good thing that the priest suddenly came to the door?”

Song Lan was speechless: There is also a reason for the appearance of the Taoist priest of emotion.

Knowing what happened, Song Lan felt even more strange: the Taoist priest who came to the door on his own initiative acted as if money was like dirt. It seems that this is indeed a bit strange for Taoist priests.

What is he talking about?Do you know Song Lan's true identity?

Thinking of this, Song Lan felt a chill in his heart, and his brain began to panic.

No, there is another ghost upstairs who is higher than himself, maybe the Taoist priest is not targeting him.Song Lan suddenly thought of the strange Xia Meiren in the lazy gold shop, and calmed down a little.

No matter what the purpose of this Taoist priest is, he must not mess himself up first.