Jiangli had just entered when he saw a person bent over with his butt in the air, lying in a certain spot as if fidgeting with something.
"Xiaoxin, someone's looking for you!" The boss brought Jiangli over and called out.
Xia Xin turned his head upon hearing the words and revealed a dust-covered face. He looked at the boss, about to speak, but his gaze then fell on Jiangli, who was beside the boss.
Seeing Jiangli, his expression changed.
This person...
...the ancestral master?
Xia Xin was an orphan adopted by the abbot of Jiaoyang Temple, and the abbot was his master. A few days before his death, the master had shown him a portrait and said that the person in the portrait was his ancestral master. He told him to wait obediently for the ancestral master to return.
And the person in the portrait looked exactly like the person before him now...
"So you're Xia Xin?" As Xia Xin stared at Jiangli, Jiangli was also examining him. She knit her brows and said, "Weak constitution, poor aptitude, dull-witted—what was the old Taoist thinking?"
Xia Xin: "..."
He suddenly snapped back to reality, looking at the person before him with some trepidation in his heart.
Although his master had told him that the ancestral master would return, he also knew from his master that the ancestral master had been in seclusion for eight hundred years. If he were a living person, he would've died eight hundred times over; his bones would have turned to ash by now.
Now suddenly, to have a young girl standing before him like this was just too absurd...
Thinking this, Xia Xin became increasingly irritated, "Well, Uncle Zhang, I'm afraid we can't open for business today, I can't fix it..."
Upon hearing they wouldn't be able to open for the day, the boss became anxious, "Really can't fix it?" He couldn't help but complain, "What in the world is going on? The electrical circuit was just checked the other day, and the computer was inspected too. What happened?"
Jiangli, hearing these words, glanced at a spot not far from the boss's feet.
There, a metal box was placed, and right in front of it, a child was squatting, about four or five years old. A pair of transparent, pale hands were stirring inside the box, playing happily.
Jiangli suddenly asked, "Aren't you all feeling hot?"
Annoyed by Jiangli's question at such a time, the boss said, "What does it matter if it's hot right now?"
On hearing this, Xia Xin was taken aback and looked suspiciously at his long-sleeved shirt.
That's not right.
It was July, the shop had no electricity, and naturally, the air conditioning was off. In this scorching weather, with temperatures nearly forty degrees, how could he not feel hot, let alone actually feel cool?
"There's a child always by your side; of course, you wouldn't feel hot."
Jiangli said to a puzzled Xia Xin. The boss, completely clueless, looked around and said, "What child?" What's the relationship between a child and not feeling hot?
He couldn't help but look towards Xia Xin, asking suspiciously, "Xiaoxin, do you really know this person? Why do I feel like she's acting strange?" When Xia Xin heard Jiangli's words, a jolt struck his heart. Having been by his master's side, he had seen quite a few dirty things. Could what Jiangli said mean what he thought it meant?
"You can't see it?" Jiangli met Xia Xin's gaze. As soon as her words fell, she uttered, "Oh, that makes sense. With your talent, indeed you can't see it."
Xia Xin: "..."
That was rather cutting.
Jiangli glanced at the two of them, a bit speechless that neither of them could see that thing.
It was understandable for the boss, a regular person, but Xia Xin couldn't see it either...
With that physique, that talent...
What was that old coot thinking, taking him as an apprentice?
"To put it simply, there's a little ghost causing trouble in this place, and that's why you can't open for business," Jiangli explained patiently after a moment's silence.
"A ghost?" The boss paused upon hearing this, then burst into laughter, "Are you a girl who's watched too much television? Ghosts in this day and age? What kind of joke is that?"