"Thank you, Master Ji!!!"
It was Mei Liang.
After his wife Qian Xinya and daughter Meizi had undergone full physical examinations at Hai City Hospital, with all their results coming back normal, they had been discharged. But Mei Liang was still worried, so he drove them both to Imperial Capital Hospital for another comprehensive examination.
After the examinations at Imperial Capital Hospital confirmed that neither of them had any health problems, Mei Liang and his family cried tears of joy.
And so, as soon as he returned to Hai City and got his wife and daughter settled, Mei Liang called Ji Nanshu.
Ji Nanshu was not surprised at all. "Mm, feeling reassured now?"
"Yes, yes, yes!! They really are fine!! This is wonderful! I... I really don't know how to thank you... If it weren't for you, I'd be... I'd be..." On the other end of the phone, Mei Liang laughed and cried.
Ji Nanshu interrupted him. "Give me your bank account number."
"Ah... huh?!" Wasn't Master Ji supposed to give him his account number?!
"Less talk. Hurry up."
Utterly bewildered, Mei Liang gave Ji Nanshu his bank account number. A few seconds later, he received a text notification that six million had been added to his account.
"For this six million, I want fifteen percent of your company's shares."
Mei Liang froze. He had not expected Ji Nanshu to still believe his company could recover.
"Master Ji... fifteen percent is far too little!!! Just a moment, I'll go draft the contract right now! I'll deliver it to you tomorrow!"
Without giving Ji Nanshu any chance to reply, he abruptly hung up.
Fine, then. It wasn't his company anyway. All he had to do was count the money~
"A-Mo~ Give this little white fluffball a name." Ji Nanshu held the kitten's head down with one hand, keeping him from climbing onto him. The kitten persisted. When this route proved impassable, he started climbing the back of the sofa, trying to reach Ji Nanshu from somewhere else.
"Meooow-" Let him up!
Chu Mo stepped forward, scooped up the little white fluffball, and set him on Ji Nanshu's lap. "Call him Little White."
Ji Nanshu's hand paused in the middle of scratching the little white fluffball's chin. "That sounds awful," he said disdainfully. "Let's call him Chiyu."
And just like that, the little white fluffball's name was decided.
Chiyu declared: This lord likes that name, meow~
Mei Liang moved quickly. The next morning, Ji Nanshu received a call from him asking where he should deliver the contract.
After a moment's thought, Ji Nanshu arranged to meet him at a café near Qingyan Garden.
Mei Liang handed Ji Nanshu the contract with both hands. "Master Ji, here's the contract. Please take a look."
After briefly flipping through it, Ji Nanshu swiftly signed his name.
Seeing Ji Nanshu sign, Mei Liang immediately beamed. "Master Ji, I'm just glad you don't mind receiving so few shares! There's something else I wanted to ask. This Luck Borrowing business of mine, will it ever happen again..."
It would be fine if it only targeted him, but it absolutely could not drag his wife and daughter into it!
"No," Ji Nanshu immediately replied. "As long as you focus on running your company and do more good deeds to accumulate virtue, you won't face any major calamities."
"Yes, yes, yes. I'll make sure to run the company well! I'll earn you even more money!!" Hearing this, Mei Liang finally felt completely at ease.
After Mei Liang left, Ji Nanshu stayed at the café a little longer. Remembering what he had promised his fans, he took another photo of the café and added some text and a location tag-
[Open for business today: this café serves great coffee. You can all come give it a try. Same as last time, if you have any questions related to the mystic arts, send me a private message or @ me in the comments. [Image][Image][Image][Image]]
As soon as the post went up, netizens began commenting-
[Aaaaaah, my darling hubby posted photos today!!! Sob, sob, post some more selfies!]
[Mistress Ji, pushing your mystic arts persona again?! Why hasn't a celestial master done something about a scammer like you?!]
[What nonsense are you spouting?! What proof do you have that our Nanshu is a scammer?!]
[Proof? Has he registered and gotten certified with the Celestial Masters Association? I checked, and there's no certification for Ji Nanshu at all!]
[Hahahahaha, got slapped in the face, didn't you? Take a look at your scammer hubby!]
[Nonsense! Our Nanshu isn't a scammer!]
The comments remained embroiled in a fierce argument. Ji Nanshu did not particularly care. After replying that they should ignore these people, he switched to his private messages and browsed through them.
One person's messages particularly caught Ji Nanshu's attention-
[Nanshu, my name is Tao Ai, and I'm your fan. I don't know any other celestial masters, so I'm messaging you on the off chance you can help. You can just treat this as me venting, too. It's a bit of a long story, but please make sure you read it all. Thank you!!
I recently went back to my hometown, and I noticed that everyone in our village was acting so strangely. They were very... stiff. At first, I thought it was because I hadn't been home in so long, so I didn't pay much attention. While I was eating the next day, I suddenly noticed bugs wriggling in my parents' eyes, so I wanted to take them to the hospital. I never expected them to fly into a rage right then! The way my dad looked at me... it was like... like he wanted to eat me. I was so scared... Over the next two days, I accidentally discovered that everyone in the village seemed to have bugs inside their bodies... That was when I realized something was wrong...]
[Save me!! Save my parents!! Please, come quickly! Come quickly-]
The messages had been sent two days earlier.
After reading them, Ji Nanshu sent a reply-
[Give me the address. Act normal. Don't let them know you've noticed.]
As though waiting beside the phone, the person immediately sent over a location pin and a detailed address. It was a remote village in the southwest.
He vaguely remembered having seen this in a small village in the Qiang Kingdom before. It was a type of Gu called the Brain-Devouring Gu, with roughly the intelligence of a four- or five-year-old child. After entering a human body, it would crawl along the meridians and settle in the brain, then reproduce. Once the Brain-Devouring Gu had multiplied enough to fill the entire brain, they would follow the meridians to other parts of the body, until they had devoured all the flesh and blood, leaving only a skeleton and a sack of skin.
During the first five days after the Brain-Devouring Gu entered the body, the person could still be saved. Beyond five days, it was essentially a matter of doing everything possible and leaving the rest to fate.
This method mostly used humans to raise Gu.
He had to get there as soon as possible.
After a brief moment of thought, Ji Nanshu quickly decided to visit Ange Village.
Once he got home, Ji Nanshu immediately called Chu Mo and explained the situation. Although Chu Mo wanted very much to go along, he knew that at a time like this, he would only be a burden.
But he could have a helicopter take his wifey there ㄟ(≧◇≦)ㄏ!
At home, Ji Nanshu had just finished packing his equipment and was about to leave when the doorbell rang.
Who could it be at this hour?
Hehe, I've gone from reading school romances to absolutely loving novels about folklore, supernatural mysteries, and horror. That's quite a leap. But who wouldn't be curious about something as mysterious as the mystic arts!