Chapter 1 Wang Ke Wakes Up

Wang Ke was awake, but he was badly injured. When Zhou Ze came downstairs, he could only lie on the sofa, his face pale, partly from fright and partly from his injuries.

"Need any help?" Zhou Ze asked.

Wang Ke shook his head, then said, "As long as you help me..."

"Oh, then I'm leaving."

Seeing Wang Ke shake his head, Zhou Ze turned and headed for the entrance, as if he hadn't heard Wang Ke's "subtle" request at all.

Wang Ke: "..."

Walking out the door, Bai Yingying and the old Taoist followed.

In fact, as far as Zhou Ze was concerned, things here were already taken care of. The rest would be handled by the little loli. Judging from the little loli's willingness to risk exposing herself to save Wang Ke, she still cared a lot about her father.

This couldn't help but move Zhou Ze a little, though not for the touching father-daughter scene.

Rather, it was that the ghost messenger who had possessed his sister-in-law last time seemed to have been influenced by the host, adopting the host's thinking and even killing to fulfill the host's sister's unrequited love.

And the little loli seemed to be the same, risking danger to save her father. Zhou Ze didn't think Wang Ke's personal charm was so great.

So,

Could it also mean that ghost messengers or high-level ghosts could reside in a person's body, but at the same time, they would inevitably be affected by it?

Then, had he also been affected?

It seemed like there was a time when that was the case.

For example, the obsession that had troubled him for a long time:

Anyway, she doesn't sleep with me?

Right, that must be because he was influenced by Xu Le.

The normal him wouldn't have such lewd thoughts running through his head.

But it seemed that the influence he received wasn't as strong as the two ghost messengers on the little loli and his sister-in-law. There should be some connection and difference here.

For example, they might have been keeping the host's soul in the body so they could easily enter and leave Hell. This was also to make it easier for the body to continue living for future use when their souls left. But over time, being two souls in one body would inevitably lead to some influence.

As for Zhou Ze and Tang Shi, the owner of the body was dead, and there was no original soul inside to get in the way, so the influence was naturally smaller.

Each had its advantages and disadvantages,

For example, Zhou Ze couldn't learn the little loli's:

"biubiubiu"

He took a taxi back to the bookstore. Zhou Ze yawned, feeling a little tired, but to his surprise, there were still customers in the bookstore.

He looked at the time; it was already past two in the morning.

If it were the kind of customer who could give him hell money, Zhou Ze wouldn't be surprised, but this was a living person.

A girl in a white dress was sitting there, reading a book and playing with her phone.

She looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with a decent appearance. Her reading habits were a little different from ordinary people; she moved her lips as she read, as if murmuring, a habit only seen in elementary school students when they first learn to read.

Bai Yingying went to take a shower. After fighting that disgusting old man, she wasn't injured, but she was dirty. Having been with Zhou Ze for so long, she had naturally picked up some habits.

After all, she was a zombie who had been lying underground for two hundred years. Zhou Ze didn't believe Mrs. Bai would take her corpse out every now and then for a bath and spa treatment.

The old Taoist went out to buy late-night snacks. During Xu Qinglang's absence from the store, everyone's meals were a bit of a concern. Xu Qinglang usually took care of all three meals.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ze felt a little sad.

If Xu Qinglang didn't come back soon,

He was going to run out of juice.

Without rushing upstairs, Zhou Ze poured two glasses of water and walked over to the girl, placing a glass in front of her. He sat down on the sofa opposite her.

Although it was a bit of a pity that she wasn't a ghost, a customer was a customer, and he should entertain her.

"Thank you."

The girl looked up at Zhou Ze, then continued to look down at the article in her hand, slowly murmuring.

Zhou Ze originally thought it was just her reading habit, but he slowly realized that it wasn't just murmuring; she was reciting with emotion and feeling.

Seeming to notice Zhou Ze's gaze, the girl looked up and smiled at Zhou Ze again.

"Are you the owner of this store?" the girl asked.

Zhou Ze nodded, picked up his water glass, and took a sip.

Dignity, he needed to maintain his dignity.

"How's the bookstore business?" the girl asked again.

Zhou Ze frowned. He hated it when people asked this question because the people who asked it had already seen that the bookstore's business with the living wasn't good.

But he couldn't explain to them that he was doing business with the dead, so he could only silently endure being seen as a fool who was burning money.

"It's okay."

"Oh, I think your store is pretty good. It has a nice atmosphere to come here at night to read books and drink drinks," the girl said.

"Yeah."

Having just subdued the little loli, Zhou Ze was in a good mood and willing to chat with the customer, so he asked,

"Are you a radio host?"

The girl shook her head.

"Then you're an audiobook narrator?"

The girl smiled and nodded. "Boss, you're very clever."

There was nothing clever about it. In this day and age, there were only a few professions related to voice.

"What do you narrate?"

The girl took out her phone and asked, "Boss, do you usually listen to audiobooks?"

Zhou Ze remembered that there seemed to be a lot of audiobooks saved on Xu Le's computer, such as the audio version of the "*** Story" series.

"Occasionally," Zhou Ze said perfunctorily.

"This is my stage name, called 'Hua Ye.' I'm a signed narrator for Lazy Listening Books. Boss, you can try listening to the books I've recorded," the girl introduced herself to Zhou Ze.

"What kind of novels do you usually record?"

"I like to record horror novels. In the audiobook market, horror, romance, and another genre used to be the three most popular."

"Another genre?" Zhou Ze caught the key point.

"They don't let you record them anymore. It's those novels that are a little bit explicit. You could record them before, and a lot of people were willing to listen, but now the regulations are stricter, and it's not allowed.

In fact, when we took professional training classes, we used to specifically learn the techniques for recording this kind of book."

"There were even specialized courses?"

"Yeah, the teacher would give a class, and a group of us signed narrators would go to class together, dozens of men and women sitting together, following the teacher's rhythm, shouting 'ahhhhh' with emotion and expressiveness.

Then the teacher would keep yelling at us from the podium: 'More emotion! More intensity! More relaxation!'"

Zhou Ze opened his mouth slightly. This was really eye-opening.

Imagine the atmosphere. It was really a bit fascinating, a high-class version of wine pool and meat forest.

Of course, this was art. After all, that kind of thing and matters related to that kind of thing weren't really that dirty. After all, none of us were conceived by our mothers bathing in sunlight and then born.

"There was a girl in our class who was told by the teacher that she wasn't relaxed enough. The girl said with a grievance: 'Teacher, I'm already relaxed. How can you ask me to relax any further?'"

After saying that, the girl laughed herself. Obviously, she was someone who liked to chat and talk. Of course, talking was also her profession.

"What made you interested in coming here?" Zhou Ze asked.

Especially so late at night.

"A fan asked me to come," the girl replied. "He's been following my work for a long time, since I first started six years ago when I was just a newcomer. He's been commenting and leaving messages for me every day, supporting and encouraging me for a long time. I didn't expect that he and I actually both lived in Tongcheng, but he said he was going back to his hometown, which is very far away from Tongcheng.

So he wanted to ask me out to meet him, to see me. I agreed."

"He gives you a lot of tips, right?" Zhou Ze asked.

The girl shook her head. "Not much, but the people who are willing to be with you when you're most unknown are the ones who are most worth cherishing and protecting."

"He asked you to come to this bookstore and said he was going to a very far place."

A bold guess rose in Zhou Ze's mind.

His bookstore was just a deserted storefront in the eyes of the living, but in the eyes of another kind of people, it had an unusual meaning.

"Do you think the people who listen to your books are all living people?"

"Of course. I never刷 (shua: inflate) clicks or recommendation tickets. These hits and data are all real. There are no zombie fans or Taobao package operations."

Obviously, the girl misunderstood Zhou Ze's meaning.

Zhou Ze shook his head. Her answer didn't address the question.

The girl continued to think that Zhou Ze didn't believe her and continued,

"Boss, the audiobook market isn't really that big, but there are more than a billion people in China. Even if the proportion of people who like to listen to audiobooks is low, it's still an amazing number when placed on such a large population base.

You have to know,

Sight limits people's imagination,

Hearing infinitely stimulates people's imagination."

"That's a pretty profound statement."

Zhou Ze stood up. Bai Yingying had finished her shower and come out, and he was also preparing to take a shower.

Just then, Zhou Ze saw a man in a white shirt walk in from the bookstore entrance. He scanned his surroundings, first saw Zhou Ze, and smiled at him shyly and timidly.

Then he saw the girl next to Zhou Ze and walked over to her.

The girl didn't seem to see him, completely unaware that someone was approaching.

"I really like your work, and I really like your voice. I'm leaving, I have to go. Please keep up the good work.

You're not the little newbie narrator you used to be anymore. You're already very popular. Even if I'm not there to accompany and support you in the future, you'll still become more and more popular!

Good luck!"

The boy made an encouraging gesture to the girl,

However,

The girl didn't hear anything.

Instead, she looked at the time and muttered that the enthusiastic fan who had asked her out seemed to have stood her up.

Zhou Ze didn't rush to send the boy to Hell but stayed there for a while and casually picked up a book from the bookshelf.

In fact, the appearance of the Internet was indeed a very magical platform.

Across the screen,

You can't even tell if the person flirting with you and acting cute is a man or a woman.

In forums, in posts, in book review sections,

The people who reply and leave messages,

The people who like your posts,

The people who scold you,

The people who encourage and support you,

Might not just be living people,

But also…