When they reached the braised pork shop, a long line had already formed at the entrance.
Li Daonian saw a woman wearing a work smock and warmly greeting customers. She must have been Sister Yue.
On the way over, Xu Shuangning had told him that the place she worked at was called "Xiaoyue Braised Pork".
The owner was a woman who needed to take care of her child, so she hired Xu Shuangning for a part-time shift at night, from six to nine—three hours for a hundred yuan.
Li Daonian thought it was a great deal. Just three hours at night for a hundred yuan was way better than working in an electronics factory or something.
Xu Shuangning said, neither sad nor happy, "But it's very tiring. This place does a really good job."
"Being busy is a good thing. It's better than having no customers, and you'll feel less guilty taking the pay," Li Daonian said.
"True. If there were no customers, wouldn't my job be gone?" Xu Shuangning felt he made sense.
After getting off the scooter, Xu Shuangning headed straight for the shop.
"Sister Yue, sorry, I'm two minutes late." As she spoke, she put on her smock and gloves.
"It's fine, then I'll head out," Sister Yue said with a gentle smile to comfort her.
"Yeah!" Xu Shuangning nodded and got to work.
Li Daonian squatted under the poplar tree nearby to smoke, watching her work with keen interest.
Weighing, chopping, greeting customers, seasoning—all in one fluid, brisk motion.
He had no idea how long she had been doing this.
Watching her busy at work, Li Daonian thought she looked rather nice, even better than when she danced on stage.
She wasn't so high and aloof; instead, she gave off a warm, down-to-earth vibe.
Was this what Cao Cao had in mind back then?
Li Daonian stubbed out his cigarette butt, letting his mind wander wildly.
Seeing the queue getting shorter and shorter, Li Daonian stood up and walked forward.
When the customers had dispersed, beads of sweat dotted Xu Shuangning's forehead. Leaning against the doorframe, Li Daonian asked:
"I suddenly remembered, that crying sound... it might be because of the place you're renting."
"Huh?" She brushed the cumin off the cutting board, looking somewhat puzzled.
"Maybe the ghost isn't haunting you on purpose, but was already in that room to begin with."
"Yeah."
"Haven't you asked the landlord anything, or thought about moving out?"
"No." Xu Shuangning shook her head. "The place is a great fit."
"A kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, plus a bedroom, and it's only four hundred yuan a month."
"Holy crap, no wonder," Li Daonian laughed. "Didn't you find it suspicious? Usually, a place like that goes for around a thousand, yet you're getting it for four hundred, and you live alone."
Xu Shuangning seemed to understand what he meant: "Are you trying to say... there's something fishy about this place?"
Li Daonian nodded and said earnestly, "Or... someone installed hidden cameras to spy on you and sell the footage or something."
"Ah?" Xu Shuangning panicked, "I'd rather it be a ghost."
"Hahaha," he chuckled to brush it off.
"I was just scaring you, it's definitely a ghost. You're something else, though—you'd rather deal with supernatural occurrences than man-made disasters."
"You actually reminded me. I'll check when I get back tonight," Xu Shuangning pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked:
"How are you so familiar with voyeurism and selling secret footage?"
"Well..." Li Daonian coughed twice. "I'm going to wander outside for a bit. I'll come find you at nine, okay?"
Xu Shuangning sneered twice. "You're no good either."
"Crap!" Li Daonian turned back and said, "I just heard about that on the news, okay?"
"Besides, if you asked me to come exorcise ghosts, you have to trust me. By industry standards, you should still be calling me Master!"
"Hahahaha." Xu Shuangning giggled out loud.
Ignoring her, Li Daonian turned and walked away, only to bump right into a young man.
He looked a bit familiar.
Wasn't this the guy who had asked Xu Shuangning for her WeChat yesterday?
How did he track her down here? This was dedication on a whole new level.
He stepped aside and saw Xu Shuangning's frowning expression and incoherent anger.
The troubles of a little beauty!
"Sister Xu, get me some pork head meat." The guy spoke up.
Since he was there as a customer, she couldn't very well refuse him.
Hahahaha, Li Daonian chuckled as he walked away.
He didn't care what kind of sparks the two of them might ignite; he wasn't going to play out any cheesy hero-saves-the-beauty tropes.
Let Xu Shuangning handle it herself. She wasn't some romance-novel heroine to be conquered—she was a smart girl.
Walking out of the street, Li Daonian followed the navigation app straight to a cinema.
He spent 38 yuan to rent a private mini-room and another 5 yuan for a bottle of cola (damn it, it was two yuan more expensive than outside).
Then he started watching the animated movie WALL-E.
He watched this movie a few times every year, for no damn reason other than that he thought it was good—along with another one, The Shawshank Redemption.
So after experiencing WALL-E and Eve's romance for nearly two hours, he walked out of the cinema feeling a lingering sense of melancholy.
So good, truly so good!
This film always gave him a surge of strength: look up at the sky, then keep your feet firmly on the ground. He felt even more motivated for tonight's exorcism!
There was about half an hour left until nine o'clock.
He bought a starch sausage on the roadside, smoked a cigarette, played a game of Hearthstone, and then walked back toward the braised pork shop.
20:57.
Xu Shuangning was already packing up her stall and washing the iron trays.
"Where did you go?" she asked, buried behind the sink.
"Went to see a movie."
"What did you watch?"
"WALL-E."
"Never seen it."
"You can check it out later."
"Okay."
Then silence.
9:05.
Everything was packed up properly.
Xu Shuangning carried a bag of unsold pig ears and closed the shop door.
She flopped onto the back seat with a relaxed look on her face, thinking to herself:
Woohoo, finally off work!
Then, she saw Li Daonian's big, smiling face:
"Still want me to give you a ride?"
Xu Shuangning's good mood was instantly shattered. She reluctantly sat on the front seat, mentally cursing this guy for having zero emotional intelligence.
Li Daonian happily hoisted the pig ears and climbed onto the back seat.
Actually, he didn't want to bully her; he just wanted to tease her. Teasing girls was quite fun.
Damn, I'm such a jerk!
braving the night breeze, the two of them wobbled off.
When they reached a bridge, he called out:
"Hey! Xu Shuangning, why did you move out to rent a place?"
"Huh?"
"Why did you go rent a place?"
"Because I had conflicts with my roommates."
"What kind of conflicts?"
"Last time, doing laundry, they..."
"Oh, whatever, forget it!" Li Daonian quickly interrupted, knowing another long rant was coming.
The unique grievances of young girls took at least half an hour to finish, and he'd have to comfort them afterwards—he was completely unsuited for that job.
Interrupted, Xu Shuangning delivered a direct elbow strike to his shoulder and scolded:
"You jerk!"
Knowing he was in the wrong, Li Daonian didn't dare make a sound.
Speaking of girls' dormitories, from middle school to college, he had asked countless girls this question and arrived at a conclusion:
"Not a single girls' dormitory is free of conflict. Not one!"
The electric scooter sped all the way to the downstairs of an old residential complex.
Li Daonian got off the scooter and looked up: "Sunshine City."
Judging by its appearance, the complex was probably twenty years old, looking gray and dreary, with some building exteriors covered in ivy.
On the Sunshine City sign, the "City" character was missing its radical.
The sparse lights weren't very bright, and the security guard was fast asleep—truly a prime location for a haunted house.
Classic!
Seeing him break into a satisfied smile, Xu Shuangning asked curiously:
"What is it?"
"This is basically a breeding ground for ghost stories."
"Huh?"
"Have you heard of the typical locations for ghost stories?"
"I don't know."
"Nothing more than a few usual suspects: old residential complexes, hospital morgues, highway tunnels, midnight bedrooms, late-night classrooms, broken-light bathrooms..."
Hearing this whole lineup left Xu Shuangning blinking in bewilderment, feeling like he was dead serious.
"Also, moving into a remote villa, insisting on splitting up alone, and stuff like that."
Li Daonian stretched and said.
"I've never read any horror novels or movies." She replied.
"That's for the best. With this kind of stuff, if you don't believe in it, it doesn't exist." Li Daonian offered his usual comforting script.
The two of them walked into Building 1, Unit 402.
"Tap, tap, tap!"
Xu Shuangning turned on the light, changed into slippers, and led Li Daonian inside.