Chapter 1 Wang Ke

Wang Ke woke up; his injuries were severe. When Zhou Ze went downstairs, he could only lie on the sofa, his face pale, partly from fear 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'll be off."

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

Wang Ke: "..."

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

Actually, as far as Zhou Ze was concerned, things here were already settled. Xiao Luoli would handle the rest. Judging from Xiao Luoli's actions of risking exposure to save Wang Ke, she still cared about this father of hers.

This couldn't help but stir some feelings in Zhou Ze, though not for the touching father-daughter scenario.

Rather, it was that the ghost servant who possessed his little aunt seemed to be influenced by the host, adopting her mindset and even killing to fulfill the host's sister's unrequited love.

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

So,

Did that mean that ghost servants or high-level ghosts could reside in a person's body but inevitably be affected by them?

Then, had he been affected too?

It seemed that way for a while.

Like that obsession that had bothered him for so long:

Anyway, she's not sleeping with me?

Yes, it must have been Xu Le's influence.

The normal him wouldn't have such lewd thoughts in his head all the time.

But it seemed the influence he experienced wasn't as strong as that of the two ghost servants in Xiao Luoli and his little aunt. There should be some connection and difference there.

For example, they might have kept the human host's soul partly present to make it easier to enter and leave hell. That way, when their souls left, the body could continue to live and be used again. But after a long time of two souls in one body, they would inevitably be influenced.

But with Zhou Ze himself 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.

There were pros and cons to each,

For example, Zhou Ze couldn't learn Xiao Luoli's:

"biubiubiu."

He took a taxi back to the bookstore. Zhou Ze yawned; he was a bit tired. But to his surprise, there was still a customer 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 underworld money, Zhou Ze wouldn't be surprised. But this was a living person.

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

She looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six, with regular features. Her reading habits were a bit different from most people; she moved her lips as she read, as if she were mumbling. That was a habit only seen in elementary school students learning to read.

Bai Yingying went to take a shower. After fighting that disgusting old man, she wasn't injured, but she was dirty. Having followed 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 Madam Bai would take her corpse out every now and then for a bath and spa treatment.

The old Taoist had gone out to buy midnight snacks. With Xu Qinglang not in the store, everyone's eating situation was a bit worrisome. Xu Qinglang usually took care of all the meals.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ze felt a bit melancholic.

If Xu Qinglang didn't come back soon,

He would run out of that juice.

Not rushing upstairs, Zhou Ze poured two glasses of water and walked over to the girl, placing a glass in front of her and sitting down on the sofa opposite her.

Though it was a bit of a pity that she wasn't a ghost, a customer was a customer, and he should treat her well.

"Thank you."

The girl looked up at Zhou Ze, then continued looking down at the article in her hand, slowly mumbling.

Zhou Ze originally thought this was just her reading habit, but he slowly realized that wasn't the case. She wasn't just mumbling; she was reciting with emotion and feeling.

As if noticing 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 glass, and took a sip.

Restraint, he needed to be restrained.

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

Zhou Ze frowned. He hated when people asked this question, because those who asked 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 alright."

"Oh, I think your store is pretty good. Coming here at night to read and have a drink has a great atmosphere," the girl said.

"Mm."

Having just subdued Xiao Luoli, Zhou Ze was in a good mood and was willing to chat with the customer, so he asked, "Are you a radio host?"

The girl shook her head.

"Then are you an audio broadcaster?"

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

There was nothing smart or not smart about it; these days, there were only a few professions related to sound.

"What do you broadcast?"

"Novels." The girl took out her phone and asked, "Boss, do you usually listen to audio novels?"

Zhou Ze remembered that there seemed to be quite a few audio novels stored on Xu Le's computer, like the audio version of the "*** Story" series.

"Occasionally," Zhou Ze said evasively.

"This is my stage name, 'Hua Ye.' I'm a contracted broadcaster on Lazy Listening. Boss, you can try listening to my recorded books," the girl introduced to Zhou Ze.

"What kind of novels do you usually record?"

"I like recording horror novels. In the audio market, horror, romance, and another big genre used to be popular."

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

"They don't let us record it anymore. It's those slightly explicit novels. We used to be able to record them, and a lot of people were willing to listen, but now management is strict, and it's not allowed.

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

"There were even specialized classes?"

"Yeah, the teacher would give a class, and a bunch of us contracted broadcasters would go together. Dozens of men and women would sit together, following the teacher's rhythm and 'ahhhh' together, calling out with emotion and expression.

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

Zhou Ze opened his mouth slightly; this was truly eye-opening.

Imagine that atmosphere; it was really a bit mesmerizing, a high-class version of a pool of wine and a forest of meat.

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, everyone wasn't born from their mother bathing in sunlight and becoming pregnant.

"When we were in class, there was a girl who was told by the teacher that she wasn't relaxed enough. That girl said aggrievedly: 'Teacher, I'm already relaxed. How can I relax any further?'"

After speaking, the girl laughed herself. Clearly, 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, ever since I first started as a newbie six years ago. He comments and leaves messages for me every day, supporting and encouraging me for a long time. But I didn't expect that he and I both lived in Tong City. But he said he was going back to his hometown, which is very far from Tong City.

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

"He gave you a lot of rewards, right?" Zhou Ze asked.

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

"Asking you to come to this bookstore and saying he's going to a very far place."

A bold guess arose in Zhou Ze's heart.

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 extraordinary meaning.

"Tell me, are the people who listen to your books all alive?"

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

Clearly, the girl misunderstood Zhou Ze's meaning.

Zhou Ze shook his head. That was a non sequitur.

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

"Boss, the audio market is indeed not big, but there are more than a billion people in the country. Even if the proportion of people who like to listen to audiobooks is low, put it on such a large population base, and it's still a considerable number.

You need to know,

Vision can limit people's imagination,

Hearing can infinitely stimulate people's imagination."

"That's a pretty insightful saying."

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

Just then, Zhou Ze saw a man in a white shirt walk in from the bookstore door. He scanned his surroundings, first saw Zhou Ze, and smiled a little shyly and fearfully.

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 also really like your voice. I'm leaving, I'm going away. Please keep up the good work.

You're not the little newbie broadcaster you used to be. You're already very popular. Even if you don't have my company and support in the future, you'll become more and more popular!

Keep going!"

The boy made an encouraging gesture to the girl,

However,

The girl didn't hear anything.

Instead, she looked at the time, grumbling 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 by the side for a while, casually picking up a book from the bookshelf.

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

Across the screen,

Not only can you not tell whether the person acting cute and coquettish with you is a man or a woman.

In forums, in posts, in book review sections,

The ones replying and leaving messages,

The ones giving you likes,

The ones cursing you,

The ones encouraging and supporting you,

Might not only be living people,

But also...