The nearby workers were green with envy. A 500-yuan productivity award might be just one hot pot meal for city folk, but in their hands it could stretch for two months.
Lian Xia was different—she could make it last three. All her wages went straight into her payroll card, earmarked as future graduate school tuition.
When her shift ended, Lian Xia went to wait for the bus alone, but this time someone was already waiting at the stop.
"Who's that handsome guy following Lian Xia?"
"The new guy on the line, Xiao Chen."
"Wow, has he made his move?"
"Yeah, but she's a college grad—different from us!"
The chubby girl—Ding Xiaoyan—strode up and linked arms with Lian Xia. "Xia, you just got your bonus, aren't you going to treat us to a proper meal?"
Another older woman's eyes lit up at the suggestion. "That's right, you got 500 more than us!"
Private factories operated on a contract basis—either quota- or time-based. You couldn't just work more to earn more, so naturally everyone was jealous.
The two women flanked Lian Xia on either side. Spotting the trouble, Chen Xi tactfully backed off.
"Ah, treat you to what?"
It wasn't that Lian Xia didn't want to treat—she was simply too broke. But occasionally treating coworkers wasn't out of the question.
Ding Xiaoyan: "Let's eat out! Hot pot, steak, BBQ—anything!"
This was Shanghai! If they really went all out, 500 wouldn't be enough, would it?
She hesitated. "I can treat, but let's do it at my place. Hot pot, okay?"
The two coworkers badgered her a while longer, but when they realized she wouldn't budge, they grudgingly agreed.
...
...
Since she'd promised the coworkers a weekend dinner, Lian Xia started preparing a day in advance.
She woke early to go to the morning market and bought a whole piece of fresh beef, slicing it paper-thin and marinating it in egg white. In the afternoon, still feeling it wasn't enough, she gritted her teeth and bought two pounds of shrimp from the supermarket, then spent hours by the window carefully picking out veins with narrowed eyes.
Each fingernail-sized piece of shrimp meat was hammered into a shrimp ball with a rice spoon—several hours of work yielded just six or seven.
Gu Xichen watched as she labored in the kitchen the entire morning, so busy she even forgot to light his incense. He felt a little put out.
For him, just three incense sticks and not a single one more, but for others—lavish feasts prepared with wholehearted devotion. What kind of double standard was this?
Could it be a lover?!
*Knock knock.*
The room temperature plummeted. Lian Xia shivered and threw on a jacket before opening the door.
Ding Xiaoyan and Sister Huang stood outside, each carrying a large bottle of soda—at least they hadn't come empty-handed.
The rising steam drove away the apartment's chill. The three sat around the table with a small induction-cooker hot pot before them, the crimson beef slices, the fresh shrimp balls, plus an array of clean vegetables and mushrooms, all beautifully and carefully arranged.
That care naturally came through. Sister Huang was the first to praise it: "Wow, Xia, you're so generous!"
Lian Xia smiled shyly. "Not at all... circumstances are limited, hope you'll bear with me!"
The two didn't stand on ceremony and dug in enthusiastically.
Halfway through, Lian Xia's phone rang.
The secondhand mattress she'd ordered online had arrived, but the seller would only deliver to the neighborhood. She excused herself and went downstairs to haul it up.
The moment she left, the two began critiquing the food.
"This beef is so red—bet it's pork dyed to look like beef."
That was Ding Xiaoyan.
"And these shrimp balls—what kind of shrimp is this? I wouldn't even dare eat them!"
That was Sister Huang.
"A real college grad, knows how to pinch pennies!"
"Yep, when it comes to scheming against people, we can't match her brains."
In a corner they couldn't see, Gu Xichen hovered on the ceiling, his face dark as a thundercloud.
He'd watched the entire time. Lian Xia had only picked at vegetables, leaving all the meat for these two women. Not only did they disparage the food, but they'd also slandered her behind her back!
Under the vengeful ghost's emotional turmoil, the bowls and chopsticks on the table began to tremble. Those that couldn't hold on clattered together, producing a tinkling, jarring sound.
"What the—earthquake?"
The two women were baffled. At first they managed to keep calmly cooking shrimp balls, until the furniture and chairs began shaking violently, and some bowls and chopsticks even lifted off the table, floating impossibly in midair.
Before their horrified eyes, the airborne chopsticks plunged downward and speared into the hot pot.
Four-square, perfectly horizontal, vertically straight.
Chopsticks planted upright in rice—in many traditions, this was either an offering to the dead or a way of telling guests to leave.
The message was unmistakably delivered. The two women scrambled up as if their tails were on fire, tumbling and scrambling for the door. But Gu Xichen was in no mood to let them off so easily.
Inside, chaos reigned. Outside, all was calm.
Lian Xia lugged the mattress back to the apartment, only to find the door locked tight. No matter how she knocked, no one answered.
Fortunately, she had her key.
"Huh? It won't open?"
The key turned stiffly in the lock. Just as she was about to call the landlord, the door was opened from inside. Her two coworkers, faces streaming with tears and snot, stumbled and collapsed against her.
Ding Xiaoyan's face was a mask of tears, her legs too shaky to support her. "There's something in there—"
Sister Huang quickly clamped a hand over her mouth and forced a smile. "Nothing! We're leaving now!"
Lian Xia: ???
She stared at their retreating backs in bewilderment, then stepped into the living room and gasped—looks like a hurricane had torn through!
She'd treated them to good food and drink, and they'd left this mess behind. The least they could do was help clean up!
Those two had just wolfed everything down and bolted?
Dumbfounded, she gazed at the wreckage on the table and sighed.
"Sigh. That's life for you."
Gu Xichen: ...
He stood behind her with his arms crossed, his mood complicated.
He absolutely could not admit that, in a moment of reckless satisfaction, he'd created an even bigger mess for her...
After all, vengeful ghosts have no conscience.
Fortunately, there was still some leftover broth. Lian Xia dumped in the remaining shrimp and beef, eating solo and enjoying it.
Gu Xichen sat at the table watching her eat.
He felt rather satisfied, like a father watching his little girl finally eat properly.
That was more like it!
She'd finally bought some meat—and rather than feed it to ungrateful backstabbers, she should keep it to nourish herself... Look at those skinny arms and legs, skinnier than a refugee.
To fly over dark, turbulent seas, you need strong wings.
Gu Xichen: *eyes glowing red.jpg*
"Xia, you really should get a boyfriend."
Lian Xia looked up from a pile of cardboard boxes, blinking in confusion. "Huh?"
Sister Huang's words were on the tip of her tongue, but she hesitated. "You're a girl with heavy yin energy—you need a man with strong yang to balance you out!"
Her mouth might be sharp, but she couldn't just stand by and watch a young woman live in a haunted apartment. Matters involving the supernatural were serious business, and anyone with a conscience would take heed.
At lunch, she deliberately called Chen Xi over and insisted he sit next to Lian Xia.
"Xiao Chen, Xia's a good girl. I think you two make a great pair—real fate."
Lian Xia: "..."
She shoveled down her rice in a few bites, grabbed her bowl, and left.
Behind her, the young man followed. "Do you hate me that much?"
"I don't."
"Then why do you run every time you see me?"
"I'm sorry. I don't have time for you."
With that, Lian Xia turned away without even glancing at his darkening expression and hurried off.
...
...
Within days, rumors about her were spreading through the factory, each uglier than the last.
Some said she'd been living with a boyfriend for years. Others claimed she was involved with the foreman. Still others insisted she was stringing Chen Xi along at the factory while keeping multiple sugar daddies outside, picked up by luxury cars every night.
The stories were so detailed they even described the ages and looks of these imaginary men. If Lian Xia hadn't been the actual protagonist of these tabloid tales, she might have believed them herself.
But one advantage of factory work was that with so many people doing late shifts and none of them particularly respectable, they had too much on their plates to obsess over others' business—at most, they'd gossip for the thrill of it, nothing that did real harm.
Lian Xia, however, took it to heart.
She went around trying to trace the source of these rumors, but no one would tell her anything, and only mockery came back her way.
Sister Huang even believed she was stringing Chen Xi along and must have a secret man on the side—one she couldn't bring out in the open.
Otherwise, why would she refuse such a good catch?
People sitting in a well naturally assume the sky is only as wide as the opening.
That evening, Lian Xia came home visibly distracted.
How distracted?
Several times while slurping noodles, she missed her mouth entirely with her chopsticks. Gu Xichen wanted to materialize right then and there and adjust her aim for her.
He used to treat her delicious noodle-slurping sessions like a food show to watch. Today, the incense tasted utterly flavorless.
Could it be... she'd really fallen in love?