Raising the Evil Spirit

Raising the Evil Spirit

Chapter 38 - Collecting the Key

Hearing Gu Yan's words, Su Kun was completely stunned. He stared with wide eyes, his mouth opening and closing several times like a fish out of water, but not a single sound came out.

After a long while, he finally managed to squeeze out two words: "Holy - shit!"

Gu Yan frowned slightly and glanced at him. In the time he had been interacting with Su Kun, he had gradually come to understand the meaning of many modern terms.

Sometimes a person's ability to absorb language is quite formidable, just like throwing someone who can't understand English at all into an all-English environment. After staying there for a year, they will definitely make leaps and bounds of progress.

Moreover, his and Su Kun's languages were fundamentally connected, it was just that some nouns and modal particles were a bit unfamiliar to him, but after hearing them often, he came to understand them.

Just like the two words Su Kun had blurted out now, although he couldn't understand the literal meaning, he knew it was a kind of profanity. As someone who came from a family and environment with good upbringing and many rules, he really couldn't stand Su Kun spouting things like this at the drop of a hat.

So, the instinct of being in a superior position for a long time made him say with a straight face: "Speak properly."

Su Kun, who hadn't been scolded by anyone for many years: "..." Why did he suddenly have the illusion of being lectured by his dad?!

However, compared to Papa Su, Gu Yan's tone was relatively gentle, so Su Kun's rebellious heart wasn't provoked. Instead, his masochistic nature was brought out. He lowered his head obediently and let out an "oh", actually feeling quite pleased inside.

With Gu Yan's interruption, Su Kun's shock at the fact that "the landlord can see ghosts" was diluted. Calming down a bit, he thought for a moment and said hesitantly: "Could it be that he's not actually seeing you, but the coffin you're sitting on? After all, normal people shouldn't put something like this on their bedside table and sleep facing it every night."

Gu Yan looked at him with a somewhat complex gaze: "..." You also know you're not normal?

Before Gu Yan could say anything, Su Kun negated his previous thought: "No, that's not right. If a normal person saw a coffin in the room and felt surprised or found it strange, if they didn't say anything, they would definitely ask about it if they did open their mouth. But the landlord just happened to ask why my room was so dark, which should be a trivial matter compared to the coffin, right?"

"Mm." Gu Yan nodded and said: "Besides, his gaze met mine just now, so he must have been looking at me and not this coffin."

"So that means he can indeed see you..." Su Kun felt this was quite a magical thing.

After all, in all his life, he had never met anyone who could see ghosts like him. But now there was someone right beside him, and they could even be considered an acquaintance. "It's just, why didn't he say anything?"

Gu Yan once again looked at him like he was an idiot: "Your previous actions were a bit obvious, he probably realized that you can see me and accept me staying in your room."

Su Kun was baffled: "I just winked at you a bit?"

Gu Yan: "With those exaggerated movements, do you think he's blind?"

Su Kun argued: "The movements were very small!"

Gu Yan: "Only you would think that."

Su Kun: "..." Why are the people around me so sharp-tongued!

The matter about the landlord got Su Kun a bit excited for a while, as if after living for over twenty years, he had finally found a little companion in this regard.

One can only imagine how unbearable it is to be the only one who can see those scary things. Your fear, your cowering, your panic, no one can understand. If you talk about it too much, you might even be seen as a weirdo. Whether they believe you or not, they will subconsciously keep their distance from you.

When Su Kun was young and didn't know better, he would say whatever he saw. Although the people around him were generally kind-hearted, aside from scolding him a few times with some panic and urgency, they didn't treat Su Kun as a freak and still doted on him unusually.

But Su Kun himself could more or less feel that they didn't like those topics, so he gradually kept them in his heart. The older he got, the less he liked to talk about it with others. Now that there was someone who could understand his feelings, even though the other party showed no intention of expressing it, he still felt quite happy.

As for why it was "finding another one"... That was because before the landlord, Su Kun had already met a little companion who could intimately understand him, it's just that this little companion was a ghost.

And an ancient ferocious ghost who could switch to mini-mode and had a perpetual poker face.

This kind of absurd life experience wasn't something normal people could have. Su Kun couldn't help wanting to light a candle for himself and say a word of praise - painfully yet joyfully living.

But after a few minutes, he put this matter aside, remembering that he hadn't done what he came for.

Su Kun glanced at the alarm clock, it was almost three o'clock. Half the afternoon had already passed. He called out to Gu Yan and hurriedly grabbed his keys and bus pass to take the bus to S University.

Although the infant spirit following Zhang Fuquan had been easily dealt with by Gu Yan, the area around the school was still filled with yin energy after all. Su Kun didn't dare to dally too late, so taking advantage of the good sunshine, making a round trip was most suitable.

When Su Kun arrived at the commercial street in front of S University's gate, Zhang Fuquan and his wife were sitting in the red bean paste shop. Perhaps due to the influence of renting out the place, or because of the worry and low mood clearly shrouding the couple, business was obviously not as good as before.

The previous few times he had come, he could almost always see many people standing in front of this shop, especially at noon or in the evening, close to mealtimes. Students would come out of the school gates in droves to find food, and there would often be a long queue of a dozen or so people in front of the red bean paste shop, forming a stark contrast with the desolate bone soup and spicy noodle shop next door.

But this time, at least in the time it took Su Kun to cross the road from the bus stop and walk to the red bean paste shop, he only saw one girl carrying a cup of red bean paste leave the store, and no one else came after that.

No wonder Zhang Fuquan had said on the phone that there wasn't much difference between opening for one more day or one less day... Su Kun muttered inwardly.

Zhang Fuquan, who had been sitting on a stool spacing out, only came back to his senses when Su Kun stood at the door.

He wiped his hands on his apron and stood up, smiling at Su Kun: "Little Su, you're here! Ah - sorry for making you come all this way. Come, let my wife watch the shop, you come upstairs with me to get the key."

The entire commercial street was like this, with shops on the first floor and normal residential units above. For convenience, many shop owners here not only rented the storefront downstairs, but also rented or bought an apartment upstairs for normal living.

Zhang Fuquan was no exception. He and his wife rented a two-bedroom apartment right across from the red bean paste shop, on the second floor.

Su Kun followed him through a doorway between the red bean paste shop and the store to its right. They climbed the somewhat dark staircase up one floor, turned a corner, and stood at the entrance of Zhang Fuquan's home.

For some reason, looking at the "Bringing in Wealth and Treasure" sign pasted on his door, Su Kun felt a vague sense of unease. Perhaps it was because the red color of the characters had faded a bit and was covered in dust. Coupled with the poor lighting in the stairwell, the color looked like dried, slightly brownish bloodstains.

As Zhang Fuquan unlocked the door, he greeted Su Kun, "The apartment hasn't been tidied up much and is a bit messy. Don't mind it, Little Su."

The moment the door opened, an old musty smell wafted out from inside, echoing what Zhang Fuquan had just said.

There was indeed a lot of clutter piled up inside. Two large suitcases and a bulging nylon bag were propped up by the door. Not far away were two bedrooms. One was likely unused for a long time, with its door closed. The other door was half closed. Although the balcony was not small, perhaps due to the design of the living room, the lighting was poor, making the whole place look gloomy.

Su Kun took a rough look around and habitually lowered his head to change shoes, but Zhang Fuquan stopped him, saying, "It's fine, it's fine. We're moving anyway. These few days we've been going in and out directly without bothering with these things." With that, he pulled Su Kun into the house.

After sitting down on the sofa, Zhang Fuquan originally wanted to make tea, but was stopped by Su Kun.

Zhang Fuquan didn't insist. He went into the half-closed bedroom and came out a moment later with a set of keys. He also took off the key on his own keychain and handed them all to Su Kun.

"Then you lock the door at night—" Before Su Kun could finish, Zhang Fuquan interrupted him.

"No worries, the door can be locked without a key, it just can't be opened. We changed our train tickets to tomorrow and are leaving now!"

Su Kun chatted with him for a few more sentences, wishing him an early resolution to the matters back in his hometown and such. While talking, Su Kun noticed that Zhang Fuquan seemed to intentionally or unintentionally glance at the locked bedroom several times. It made Su Kun feel uneasy.

This somewhat gloomy environment made him uncomfortable all over, not wanting to stay a second longer. So he used the excuse of having things to do at home, hurriedly said goodbye to Zhang Fuquan, and took the keys downstairs.

Zhang Fuquan himself also seemed unwilling to stay alone in that apartment. His expression was not really one of fear, but more like being a bit superstitious due to past experiences. He had originally planned to go downstairs with Su Kun, but just before leaving, the landline phone in the house rang, startling them both with its sudden sound.

So Zhang Fuquan had to apologetically let Su Kun go down first, while he answered the phone before going down.

After greeting Zhang Fuquan's wife in front of the red bean paste shop, Su Kun took the bus at the station and returned home.

Upon arriving home, Su Kun looked at the alarm clock. Excluding the time spent on the bus, he had only stayed at Zhang Fuquan's place for about ten minutes or so. It was as if his butt was on fire.

Su Kun had originally thought that his interaction with Zhang Fuquan had basically come to an end. In the future, apart from regularly depositing the rent into his card, there would basically be no more contact.

However, a series of knocks on the door after 8 pm shattered his thoughts.

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Night
Night

Hi, I'm Nightowl. I thrive in the quiet hours of the night, where my translations come to life. You’ll often find me with a cup of tea, surrounded by my collection of vinyl records, sharing stories that keep us all up a little too late.

Give me feedback at moc.ebircssutol@lwothgin.


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