Chapter 34

     Hearing the ghost’s voice, Shi Xi curved the corner of her eyes, put down the bottle of butter sauce, and very naturally continued: “If pineapples need to be soaked in salt water, then what is the best way to cook with this butter sauce?””

     “Fried rice with hairy crab roe butter sauce is simply delicious.” A cold hand rested on Shixi’s shoulder. She could feel someone standing behind her, who murmured, “Let me teach you how to make it.”

     Shi Xi looked back and saw a cloud of smoke suspended in the air, and there was nothing on her shoulder.

     “Okay,” there was no surprise in her eyes, and she even invited enthusiastically: “Since you are here, sit down and chat slowly.”

     Hearing this “Okay”, the ghost mist suddenly trembled, he remembered the girl who hit him with a paper plane last night, and she also promised him in this relaxed tone before she did it.

     The girl in front of him looked different from that person, but she had the same dangerous aura. His intuition told him that he must not sit down, and he had to run away quickly!

     The Ghost mist didn’t even dare to think about butter sauce fried rice, and “whoosh” floated to the kitchen door, ready to leave this troubled place..

     Shi Xi calmly put down the butter sauce in her hand and clapped her hands: “Where are you going?”

     As soon as the words fell, floating golden spells suddenly appeared around the courtyard, surrounding the kitchen.

     The Ghost mist couldn’t find a way to leave at all. He hurriedly drilled into the ground, but was caught by a spell that suddenly appeared!

     The Ghost mist was beaten into his original form by the talisman light. It turned out to be a man in a chef’s uniform. Half of his body was solid and the other half was virtual. The solid side had a pale and wrinkled complexion, and the virtual side was a ball of smoke that could be blown away at any time.

     Shi Xi had long known that this ghost was good at hiding his breath and had a first-class escape speed, so she used the talisman stone to set up a net after entering the courtyard, and then-enter the trap.

     Most of the ghosts who stayed in the human world had obsessions and desires in their hearts. This was the reason for their existence and their weakness. Shi Xi seized the ghost chef’s weakness and easily led him into the game.

     Shi Xi took out a plate of watermelon from the refrigerator, walked to the ghost chef, and sat down cross-legged: “Since you like sitting here, let’s chat here.”

     Ghost Chef: “…” No, I don’t like it at all.

     Shi Xi peeled off the plastic wrap, took out a piece of watermelon, and asked casually: “You know Director Cen, why are you following him?”

     Ghost Chef stared at the watermelon in her hand and swallowed: “Because I feel unfair.”

     Ghost Chef’s mind has drifted to the watermelon. The watermelon’s rind is paper-thin, its flesh looks really juicy, and there are no seeds at all. It’s obviously a special one, it must be super sweet!

     Shi Xi tilted his head: “Why are you looking at my melon?”

     The ghost chef looked eager: “This melon looks very sweet.”

     Shi Xi: “Do you want to eat it?”

     The ghost chef nodded repeatedly, his eyes shining: “I want to eat it, I want to eat it!”

     “You can eat it if you want to,” Shi Xi took out a stick of incense from her bag: “Tell me about your grievances, and I will ask you to eat melon.”

     The ghost chef said seriously: “As long as you give me melon to eat, you can let me say whatever you want.”

     The foodie ghost is indeed the easiest to deal with.

     Shi Xi lit a stick of incense, inserted it into a piece of watermelon, and placed it in front of the ghost chef. After calling the name and birth character he gave, the ghost chef had a piece of watermelon in his hand.

     He looked at the watermelon in his hand, and tears suddenly appeared in his eyes: “When the program was recorded yesterday, I hid on the side and watched. I could smell the delicious food, but I couldn’t do anything about it, and I couldn’t eat it.” 

     Shi Xi said generously: “Eat it, there’s more.”

     The ghost chef blinked away his tears and finished a bite of the ice watermelon. He put down the clean rind and sighed: “During the preparation of “Evening Canteen”, it was planned to select four resident chefs, and I was originally one of them.”

     Shi Xi nodded: “What happened later?”

     “A week before the recording of the program, I…” The ghost chef drooped his shoulders and lowered his head: “Died of a sudden heart attack. Because it was so sudden, I didn’t even know I was dead. By the time I reacted, When I came here, I had already followed the director to the recording site. I followed them to record the show, and then I found that there was an extra chef. “

     The ghost chef smiled bitterly: “It was not until not long ago that I heard two staff members talking about me, and my self-deceiving illusions were shattered. They all couldn’t see me, and I was the “extra” one. So where should I go?”

     Shi Xi narrowed his eyes in understanding: “So you want everyone to see you.”

     “That’s right,” the ghost chef raised his head: “But the guest named Xiao Shi disrupted my plan. She was followed by several spirits. If she noticed my existence, she might deal with me. I endured it for a day before I found the right opportunity, but before I started cooking…”

     “She drove me away. “The ghost chef wiped away a bitter tear.

     “…” Shi Xi: “You’re making trouble and you’re feeling wronged?”

     The ghost chef didn’t dare to cry anymore. He slid his Adam’s apple nervously: “The more I look at you, the more I think you look a bit like that guest.”

     Shi Xi was afraid that he would expose her identity when he met Director Cen, so she lied: “The guest you mentioned is my junior sister.”

     “No wonder the methods you used are so similar.” The ghost chef had no doubts at all. After explaining what happened, he started staring at the melon again: “Can I have another piece of melon?”

     “Eat.” Shi Xi handed him the whole plate of melon.

     As the ghost chef ate, he felt that the resentment in his heart was getting weaker and weaker. He said strangely: “I don’t know why, I am not very persistent in letting the living see me, and I don’t want to record the show. I’m dead, why should I still worry about these things? I can still eat a bite of sweet watermelon, and my ghost life is enough.” Shi Xi knew why he had let it go, because she drew two talismans on the floor, one was the talisman of drawing the ground as a prison, which could imprison the resentful spirits, and the other was her improved “let it go talisman”, which could transcend the resentful spirits. The effect is better when used in combination. After eating a plate of watermelon, the ghost chef no longer wanted to run away. Shi Xi pulled a plastic bag, put the ghost chef’s soul into it, tied a knot, and drew a talisman on the bulging bag. She clutched the fresh-keeping bag and walked towards the B&B, shouting, “Director Cen, you can come out now.”

     After a while, the door of the B&B opened, and Director Cen’s assistant poked his head out. He couldn’t see the talisman array hanging in the air, but he felt that the air was different from before, and he felt comfortable in it.

     Director Cen’s assistant asked cautiously, “Master, have you caught the ghost? Is it safe outside?”

     “It’s safe.” Shi Xi hooked his fingers and removed the talisman array.

     Director Cen’s assistant felt that the wonderful atmosphere disappeared, and felt awe.

     He opened the door and invited Director Cen and Brother Shu to come out.

     “Master Wuyou, it’s only been a while, and you solved it?” Director Cen looked around, a little worried: “Can you prove it to me?”

     Shi Xi asked him: “Do you still remember Zhou Pin?”

     “This name is very familiar, let me think about it.”

     Director Cen frowned and thought, but the assistant thought of the answer before him: “Chef Zhou! I remember him, he was originally the candidate for the chef of the evening canteen, but he died of illness before the recording of the program. I also went to his funeral on behalf of the program team to offer flowers.”

     Director Cen also remembered, he looked at Shi Xi in surprise: “Master Wuyou, do you mean that the ghost that haunts me is Chef Zhou?”

     “That’s right.”

     Director Cen slapped his thigh, as if remembering something, and said excitedly: “It turned out to be him, no wonder I felt his voice was familiar, but I couldn’t remember who it was! I had very little contact with this Chef Zhou. For me, his death was an accident at work. The planning team quickly found a backup chef to replace him. I have no intersection with Chef Zhou since then. Why did he pester me? His death has nothing to do with me!”

     “That’s why he didn’t try to hurt you. He was so full of regret that he decided to follow you here and keep filming,” Shixi held up a plastic bag. “Chef Zhou’s spirit is trapped inside. I’m going to take him back and send him off properly.”

     Hearing that there was a ghost in the plastic bag, Director Cen and others took a few steps back.

     “Since Director Cen wants me to prove that the matter has been resolved,” Shi Xi paused: “Chef Zhou, do you have anything else to say to Director Cen before you leave?”

     A cloud of black mist appeared in the plastic bag, and it turned into a ghost face stuck to the plastic. The ghost face opened and closed its mouth and said hello: “Director Cen.”

     For Shi Xi and the ghost chef, this was just a friendly greeting.

     But for the three ordinary people present, this eerie and hoarse shout was like a ghost, and they were scared to hug each other.

     Director Cen turned his eyes away, not daring to look at the ghost face in the plastic bag again, and said to Shi Xi tremblingly: “Master Wuyou, it’s okay, I believe you, you don’t need to prove it to me anymore, I will pay the reward to the account given by Master Qingshi!”

     The assistant’s back was wet with cold sweat, and even his teeth were trembling: “This bag is so thin, it won’t break, right?”

     Director Cen and Brother Shu were even more scared when they heard this, and hugged each other tighter.

     “Director Cen, at least let Chef Zhou finish what he said.” Shi Xi smiled.

     Director Cen said with a stiff face: “Chef Zhou, if you have something to say, please say it.”

     The ghost chef sighed regretfully: “Director Cen, I am very disappointed to hear that you don’t take my death to heart at all, and even need someone to remind you to remember me. But I still admire your talent and really hope to have the opportunity to work with you in the next life.”

     The ghost chef said a lot of his inner thoughts, but Director Cen only heard the meaning of “I won’t let you go in the next life”, and was so scared that he immediately said: “No, no, no… Chef Zhou, I have already planned the next food variety show, and I decided to arrange the first episode of the store exploration for your restaurant. You can arrange it. “Go to reincarnation, and don’t think about me in the next life, okay?”

     The ghost chef cried with joy: “Thank you, Director Cen, I will bless you in the underworld!”

     Director Cen’s scalp was numb by the sharp ghost cry: “No, really no, I beg you not to think of me in the underworld… Taoist Wuyou, please take him back to transcend quickly, okay?”

     Shi Xi blinked innocently: “Director Cen, can this result be responsible for my decision back then? Are you satisfied?”

     When they met at the gate of the courtyard, Director Cen did not trust Shi Xi very much, and asked her coldly to be responsible for her decision.

     Director Cen recalled what he said at that time, wiped his sweat, and said politely: “Satisfied, satisfied, Taoist Wuyou, I judged you by your appearance before. I didn’t expect that you are so young, but your cultivation is amazing.”

     “Taoist Qingshi and I guessed that the ghost was someone I knew after a few words, and you suppressed the ghost with one move. Wuyou Temple is indeed a place where hidden dragons and crouching tigers are hidden. If you encounter trouble in the future, you will need to ask the Taoist for help.”

      Director Cen’s assistant was also very guilty and bowed to Shi Xi: “I understand now. It turns out that the Taoist playing with stones and cooking are not unreliable behaviors, but unique strategies for exorcising ghosts. I have a narrow vision and misunderstood the Taoist. I apologize to Taoist Wuyou here. I really admire you now.”

     Brother Shu, who was watching nearby, shook his head and thought: If he had known this would happen, he would not have done it in the first place.

     “As long as you are satisfied with the result,” Shi Xi put the fresh-keeping bag into her bag and zipped it up: “Remind Director Cen that you must fulfill the promise you made to the evil spirit, otherwise you will get into trouble. I’m leaving.”

     Director Cen responded carefully and asked his assistant to send Shi Xi back in person.

     Shi Xi asked Director Cen’s assistant to send her to the entrance of the Farm Subway Station and then waved goodbye.

     Director Cen’s assistant watched her graceful figure disappear walk into the subway station, he couldn’t help but marvel at her ethereal beauty. With a sigh, she thought, how immortal! How could I have mistaken the immortal for an ordinary tourist?

…

     After returning to the crew to film, Shi Xi resumed her Buddhist look.

     Tang Niannian touched her bald head and said, “I’m used to seeing you with hair, but suddenly I feel that Wuchen’s look is a little strange, hahaha.”

     Shi Xi raised her thin eyelids and glanced at her with a smile: “Little fox, you didn’t recognize me after just one day?”

     Tang Niannian put on an arrogant expression and transformed into the fox demon Bai Ying: “Stinky bald donkey, I can recognize you even if you turn into ashes!”

     Actor A who passed by: “Xiao Shi and Niannian’s acting DNA moved again.”

     “These two are famous for getting into the role in a second anytime and anywhere,” actor B pointed at the male and female lead who were working hard on the script: “Influenced by them, the male and female lead have started to work hard on their acting skills. If this continues, it will be hard for this movie not to be popular.”

     Actor A felt the same way: “We have to work hard too, and take advantage of this ride!”

     Shi Xi had no idea that she had inadvertently encouraged her colleagues, but one day she suddenly discovered that her colleagues’ acting skills had improved a lot, so they had fewer NGs and left work earlier.

     Shi Xi was very happy about this.

     But after shooting several night scenes in a row, Shi Xi became a lazy person again. This night, she finished filming and went out for supper with Tang Niannian.

     Both of them were not in good spirits. Shi Xi made a joke out of misery: “We eat slower than sloths.”

     Tang Niannian’s eyelids drooped and she spoke like Flash^[1]character sloths from Movie Zootopia : “Xiao… Shi… your… imitation makeup… is really… popular… ah…”

     After that, she turned the phone screen to her at 0.5 times the speed.

     This is the imitation makeup video interface of a certain website about sunset atmosphere makeup. The number of views of the imitation makeup videos released by several beauty makeup big up masters has exceeded 2 million.

     Tang Niannian took back her phone: “You also made the surrounding products of the evening canteen popular. Now they are all sold out. Is there any smart sponsor who wants you to endorse beauty products?”

     Shi Xi just received a work message from her agent. After reading the content, her half-closed eyes opened wide: “Nian Nian, do you think you have a gift of words?”

     “Did I really guess right? Which beauty brand has such good taste?” Tang Nian Nian raised her glass and gulped down the berry juice.

     Shi Xi held her forehead: “No, it’s a wig brand.”

     “Puff.” Tang Niannian almost sprayed out the juice.