Life's greatest fear is resignation.

Because resignation means ceasing to struggle, and your life will follow its existing, predetermined path, moving forward steadily without much turbulence or surprise.

You can see yourself five years from now, you can guess what you'll be doing in ten years.

But what life needs most is also resignation.

Being grounded, stable, without distractions, living your own life, finding constancy in the mundane.

Resignation is purely a matter of personal choice.

Zhou Ze sat on the sofa in the bookstore, lost in thought for an entire afternoon, as if he were thinking about many things, yet thinking about nothing at all.

In the glass, his blurry reflection appeared; unknowingly, he no longer felt awkward when looking in the mirror.

The ability of humans to adapt is indeed strong; even your appearance, even your life trajectory, once you get used to them, you no longer feel anything amiss.

This is his bookstore, this is his life from now on.

He reached out and touched the short, cropped hair that Bai Yingying had just trimmed for him.

Crisp and clean.

Zhou Ze saw Tang Shi standing at the door; she had been standing there for three hours, from noon until the afternoon, barely moving.

Zhou Ze didn't ask her what she was doing there; everyone needs moments of solitude to empty their mind, and at such times, they don't need anyone's comfort.

He took out his phone, logged into WeChat; no messages, no replies.

Clinging to his past self, clinging to Xu Le in this life,

Zhou Ze was truly exhausted.

In fact, it would be better to live this life steadily, as his new self.

Whether he let go or not, it didn't matter much,

After all, the past couldn't be undone,

And the future hadn't yet arrived.

He took out his little booklet, flipping through it, sensing its texture,

Zhou Ze felt that the rest of his life would be bound to it, at least, for a very, very long time.

It seemed that the female ghost messenger also had a booklet, but when Zhou Ze asked, Bai Yingying said they couldn't find it; perhaps the booklet had already faded away with the wind. After all, at that time, the booklet was already showing signs of collapse, and with the demise of the female ghost messenger, its final meaning would also disappear.

Tang Shi finally moved; she slowly squatted down, her hands supporting her knees, probably because she had been standing for too long, her legs were numb or cramping.

Zhou Ze smiled.

Then Tang Shi turned her head and looked at Zhou Ze, who was gloating through the glass; a hint of a smile also appeared on her lips, but this smile seemed somewhat reserved.

As if at this moment, she had become a different person.

The previous her wasn't so serious.

The little monkey jumped in front of Zhou Ze, waving a toy hammer in its hand; Zhou Ze reached out and patted it on the head.

All along, Zhou Ze didn't understand what the mud the little monkey brought was all about, but it seemed to work very well, thinking that if opening a bookstore didn't make money and he couldn't survive, he could still open a pharmacy.

"Ancestral Five Finger Mountain Black Jade Bone Renewal Plaster Set"?

Not a bad idea.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..."

The little monkey was holding a cell phone, waving it at Zhou Ze.

The monkey's cell phone was bought by the old Daoist, which was enough to show the old Daoist's doting on the monkey.

"What are you doing?" Zhou Ze asked.

The monkey pointed to the speakers on the wall of the bookstore, and then pointed to the phone.

"Connecting to the Bluetooth speaker?" Zhou Ze asked.

The monkey looked blank,

But it felt like it should be, so it nodded.

Taking the monkey's phone, Zhou Ze helped it connect to Bluetooth. The monkey tried it, playing a song, "Hero Is Back," and the speaker immediately made a sound.

The monkey was very happy.

Immediately afterwards, the background music in the bookstore kept changing in the monkey's hands. Fortunately, there were no customers in the bookstore at the moment, and Zhou Ze let the monkey play around.

In fact, the background music in many large shopping malls is carefully chosen.

For example, if Li Yugang's "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is played at the beginning, if the mall security guard or any internal personnel sees a familiar repeat offender entering the mall, they will immediately notify the transmission room, and then the people there will immediately change the background music.

The next song might be Michael Jackson's "Beat It," or "Hello, Poison," and then the merchant will remind the customers around them that a thief is coming, so be careful.

In shopping malls everywhere, there are basically these tacitly understood unspoken rules. Sometimes, even on the bus, if the driver sees a familiar repeat offender getting on, they will press a button to issue a reminder.

So, sometimes when you hear "Please take care of your personal belongings..." on the bus, don't treat it as a perfunctory, useless voice message.

And these thieves,

Have basically become walking background music,

When they walk in,

Their unique background music plays.

There is a hanging TV on the bar of the bookstore, playing "Shaolin Soccer."

It was also at this moment that Zhou Ze realized that he hadn't seen the old Daoist all afternoon, but soon, three "tick" sounds came from inside.

The little monkey understood and changed the music. Soon, the Bluetooth speaker played:

"The waves rush... the waves flow... the turbulent river never rests..."

Accompanied by the theme song of "Shanghai Bund," the old Daoist, wearing a brand new Daoist robe and changing his previous decadent and sloppy image, slowly walked out of the stairwell.

There should be an electric fan on the stairs behind him, blowing his robe, creating a truly immortal and spiritual aura.

Holding a peach wood sword,

Swirling a sword flower,

The old Daoist stepped on the Big Dipper, majestic!

Zhou Ze reached out and rubbed his chin. It was a good thing it was the old Daoist; if other Daoists or monks dared to show off like this in a bookstore opened by a ghost, they would have died countless times already.

The little monkey held up his phone, the camera aimed at the old Daoist, finding the angle. Zhou Ze turned his head to look and found that the little monkey was live-streaming the old Daoist.

Okay,

This monkey is indeed smart,

Smart to an excessive degree.

A bunch of comments swiped across the live broadcast screen:

"First floor, mine, no one sees me eating shit, right?"

"Holy crap, Old Daoist, good afternoon to you, motherfucker!"

"Old Daoist, it's been almost half a year, you've finally returned to streaming!"

"Daoist, I miss you so much. You've been gone for so long, I really miss you!"

"Daoist is naughty, hiding for so long and not coming out, sob sob sob, jerk your little tube, sob sob sob."

"Are you still selling ghost money? It's out of stock!"

"Did you see it? There's a tuft of yellow hair on the left side of the screen. What is that thing? Could it be a monkey?"

"Hahaha, do you mean to say that a monkey is filming for him? Upstairs is probably an idiot, right?"

"Agreed, upstairs is an idiot."

"First floor is right!"

"First floor is so goddamn right!"

"First floor is so so so right!"

"Damn, the ones upstairs spamming the first floor are unethical, forcing OCD to death!"

With the old Daoist's return to streaming, the popularity in the live broadcast room began to rise rapidly.

The old Daoist was also a minor celebrity, considered a bit famous in the outdoor live broadcast field, and had a group of loyal fans who didn't abandon him.

After all, those who are willing to spend money to buy ghost money from the old Daoist at a higher price than RMB,

Are absolutely loyal fans!

The old Daoist performed a series of sword dances and martial arts,

To warm up the atmosphere.

Having not practiced for a long time, he seemed a little out of breath, but in the next moment, he still scattered a handful of paper money into the air:

"Immeasurable Heavenly Lord!"

He raised the peach wood sword upwards,

"Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, heed my command!"

Those paper money began to automatically revolve around the old Daoist one by one, neatly and constantly flying out in various shapes, cooperating with the old Daoist's instructions, complementing each other.

"Damn, this special effect is awesome, definitely not the five-cent kind!"

"First floor is right!"

"This time the first floor is really right."

"This time the first floor didn't eat shit."

"Is this a live broadcast or a video being played, hey!"

"Yeah, someone with a big dick confirm, is this a post-processed video?"

"This is a live broadcast, doesn't look like a video!"

"Old Daoist, I need to change my opinion of you. I originally thought you were just a comedian, but now I find that you are actually a comedian who can do magic tricks!"

"Sob sob sob, tease the idiot upstairs, sob sob sob."

"Damn, upstairs is perverted!"

"One punch to kill a sob sob monster!"

Zhou Ze looked towards the door.

Tang Shi was standing there.

Clearly, the old Daoist's flying ghost money was the result of Tang Shi's manipulation.

Zhou Ze was very curious, with Tang Shi's personality, what made her willing to cooperate with the old Daoist in playing this live broadcast trick.

The ghost money fell neatly, piled up in the old Daoist's hands. The old Daoist took the phone from the monkey's hand and looked at the system notification, and a wrinkled face immediately smiled and curled up, like an old chrysanthemum.

"Thank you, Typhoon Hotel, for the super rocket!

Thank you, Brother Lao Qiu, for the super rocket!

Thank you, Miss Lan Xue, for the airdrop supply box!

Thank you, book friend 160107110901124 for the... the... the big plane!

Old Daoist, I'm back to streaming today,

Friends,

Are you still there!

Dear audience,

I missed you all so much!"

The "Shaolin Soccer" movie being played on the TV in the bar happened to be entering the middle of the plot. In the picture, Stephen Chow shouted to his brothers:

"I feel it,

It's back,

It's all back,

Everyone,

Is back..."