Chapter 15: Customers? Merchandise!
“It looks somewhat like those eerie doctors and nurses, are they puppets too?” Zhang Qian wiped his hands in disgust. Although this thing might also contain supernatural power, he didn’t want to eat such a thing.
Feng Quan saw his confusion and explained, “A fierce ghost’s supernatural erosion turns humans into ghost slaves. These paintings were probably just ordinary people before. Although they look like fierce ghosts, they don’t have the fierce ghost’s characteristic of being unkillable.”
Zhang Qian nodded and looked at Feng Quan with some surprise. “I see, you know quite a lot.”
Feng Quan didn’t feel proud and instead shook his head. “I’m just a ghost controller before you, and after all, I’m one of the first-generation ghost controllers.”
Although he wasn’t considered strong among the first generation.
“Alright, let’s go.” Zhang Qian looked around and in the end only took the painter’s paintbrush.
Xu Shaowen also nodded. “There’s no danger outside the door for now.”
Zhang Qian pushed the door and went out. After leaving the studio, they arrived at a corridor. The door behind them had unknowingly disappeared, turning into a wall.
Portraits hung on both sides of the corridor, looking much older than the paintings in the studio, with twisted and terrifying auras like real fierce ghosts.
A few waiters brushed past them but ignored their calls.
“Big Brother Zhang Qian…” Zhang Han cautiously approached Zhang Qian and whispered, “I think I was captured here before.”
“At that time, I entered the tattoo parlor with a friend. The waiters guided us here to appreciate tattoos. I accidentally complimented one, and the waiter took me into the tattoo room.”
Zhang Qian glared at the fierce ghost in the painting, withdrew his gaze, and looked at Zhang Han. “Forced buying and selling, sure enough it’s a shady restaurant. Do you still remember the way to the tattoo room?”
Zhang Han tried hard to think, feeling his memory in chaos. “No impression. My head was groggy at the time, and I don’t know what exactly happened.”
“There’s movement over there.” Feng Quan suddenly pointed to the corridor on the right.
An ordinary youth walked over led by a waiter, and the fierce ghosts in the paintings all turned their eyeballs following his movement.
Suddenly, a fierce ghost covered in edema made eye contact with the youth.
“What a unique tattoo, I like this one.” The youth blurted out.
“Alright, tattoo costs eighteen yuan, are you sure you want this one?” the waiter asked enthusiastically.
The fierce ghost in the painting nodded stiffly.
“Waiter!” Seeing the waiter about to lead the customer away, Zhang Qian quickly spoke to stop him.
But the waiter turned a deaf ear, and instead many fierce ghosts cast gazes toward Zhang Qian and the others.
Zhang Qian tentatively pulled out a handful of paper currency. “I have ghost money here…”
“Honored guest, how may I help you?” As soon as Zhang Qian took out the money, the waiter rushed up at an astonishing speed.
All the waiters in the corridor stopped in their tracks, greedily staring at the colorful paper money, as if gazing at some peerless delicacy.
Zhang Qian got straight to the point. “I want to see your boss.”
“…” The hope in the waiter’s eyes faded slightly, but he suddenly thought of something and said enthusiastically, “I don’t know where the boss is, but the tattoo master might know.”
“Good.” Zhang Qian wasn’t greedy and decisively agreed. “Take me to see the tattoo master.”
At these words, the fierce ghost in the portrait banged on the picture frame clang clang clang, but restrained by the painting paper, it couldn’t make any waves.
“Kid… don’t ruin my good thing…” A sticky voice came from nowhere. “You don’t know what this place is at all…”
“It can talk, is it a ghost controller?” Zhang Qian looked at the portrait with its mouth opening and closing in surprise. He thought these paintings were all fierce ghosts, but apparently not entirely.
“Guest, no need to mind him, let’s go. About this fee…” The waiter blocked in front of the portrait, choosing to serve Zhang Qian and abandoning the ghost controller.
After all, it wasn’t certain if these guys could pay, but the bills in Zhang Qian’s hand were real.
The ignored ghost controller’s expression grew increasingly ferocious, its swollen features squeezed together like a mad rabid dog.
Decades of solitude had driven it insane, and the waiter’s behavior was a provocation in its eyes.
Bluish-black water droplets overflowed the painting paper, flowing down the walls toward the carpet, pooling into a small puddle on the ground.
The waiter was startled by the cold sensation underfoot and blustered, “Do you want to break the rules here?”
“You dare to cut off my path to survival…” The ghost controller in the painting slowly came back to life, its voice filled with madness. “You all go die too!”
“Bang!”
As the sound fell, the waiter in front of Zhang Qian suddenly exploded, and the ceiling lamp above plunged into brief darkness. The supernatural from the ghost controller surged like tidal waves, carrying a damp rotten stench as if to crush everything.
Zhang Qian reached out to protect himself, feeling that this unknown ghost controller’s sense of oppression far exceeded Li Yan’s.
The supernatural moved very fast, forming a giant wave in the blink of an eye crashing toward Zhang Qian.
However, in the darkness, something like a giant object suddenly blocked in front of Zhang Qian. It bathed in the tidal water yet stood unmoving, its body forming a high wall that blocked the ghost controller’s attack.
The two unknown supernaturals clashed, the eerie fluctuations they emitted easily suppressing the flow of true qi.
“Impossible! You should have died long ago…” The ghost controller’s voice suddenly became terrified, as if seeing something that shouldn’t exist.
Then the tidal wave was suppressed back, leaving only crunching chewing sounds echoing in the darkness.
“Sizzle sizzle sizzle—”
The lighting restored, and everything before them returned to normal. Only the ghost controller in the portrait had disappeared, turning into a blank space.
The waiters in the corridor seemed unaffected by this scene, and immediately someone came up to Zhang Qian. “Sorry for the embarrassment. These things have stayed here too long and even forgot the rules. I hope it doesn’t affect your mood.”
Zhang Qian came back to his senses. “Lead the way, eighteen yuan. Plus I’ll pay you five yuan separately, please tell me about the situation here.”
“Thank you very much.” The waiter wiped his hands and solemnly folded the five-yuan paper currency and put it in his pocket. “Please follow me.”
The waiter led Zhang Qian and the others walking on the soft carpet. He said somewhat nostalgically, “My name is Wu Zizhou. Sixty years ago, I was also an ordinary person until I entered the tattoo parlor and accidentally became a waiter here.”
“No need to be surprised. In terms of waiter seniority, I’m still young. Some waiters are over a hundred years old.”
“Supernatural maintains our youth but also confines our freedom. We must play the role of waiters well, or we’ll be devoured by the darkness like that ghost controller just now.”
“I’ve hardly ever left this corridor, so I don’t know much, but I can definitely tell you that here, money is master. If you’re willing to pay, you’re the ancestor!”
