Chapter 5021 — A Cheap House
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Well? Didn't I tell you I wasn't lying?" Wei Zhao asked, sounding very much at his ease. By now he had grown thoroughly adept at controlling this primordial-spirit body; he could make it solid here and mist there at will, and unless he wished it otherwise, Hongmao and his crew could beat their fists bloody and still never lay a finger on a single hair of his.
"Boss, are you a man or a ghost?" Hongmao swallowed hard and asked timidly.
"Guess," Wei Zhao said with an ominous grin.
"This... in broad daylight... Boss, you're not really a ghost, are you?" Hongmao was on the verge of crying from fright. What had started out as a perfectly good shakedown had somehow ended with them shaking down a ghost — was that not just asking for death?
"Brother Hongmao, I've heard people say a few folk died in this alley before. The yin energy here is supposed to be really heavy..." the Golden Python Heavenly King said in a small voice.
Hongmao and the others had already been standing with every hair on end, but it was, after all, broad daylight, and they had at least been able to hold out a while longer. At these words, though, they promptly wet themselves; with a collective shriek of "Mama!" they scrambled and stumbled and bolted.
Yet before any of them could reach the mouth of the alley, a shadow flickered in front of them, and there was Wei Zhao, arms folded, watching them with a smiling face.
Hongmao and the others were caught in a bind. This dead-end lane had been their trap for Wei Zhao, and now the tables were turned — they were the ones cornered inside. It was a reversal no one could stomach.
Hongmao took the lead and dropped to his knees with a thud, his voice cracking into a sob: "Boss, every grievance has its debtor, every debt its debtor — we were only trying to borrow a little money from you, we're not the ones who killed you! If you're after revenge, whatever you do, don't come looking for us..."
"You want me to let you go?" Wei Zhao glanced at the five of them.
"Yes, yes, yes! Boss, you go your way and we'll go ours — your bridge to the underworld, my sunny avenue. Well water and river water don't mix."
"That'll do — just do one thing for me, and I'll let you go." Wei Zhao smiled with no good intent and pointed at Hongmao. "I absolutely detest anything with red hair. You Four Heavenly Kings — pull every last hair out of his head, and I'll be merciful and spare the lot of you."
"Huh?" Hongmao was dumbstruck. But the four underlings in their Heavenly King getups were already throwing themselves at him, eager to oblige — compared with the tyranny of Hongmao, their ringleader, it was this "vengeful ghost" Wei Zhao who commanded the greater fear.
Hongmao let out a shriek like a stuck pig. The Four Heavenly Kings grabbed handful after handful, and in the end they plucked his head of red hair completely clean; Hongmao was left bald as an egg, so wracked with pain that he passed out on the spot and knew nothing more.
"Ghost... Ghost Boss, is this good enough?" one of the Heavenly Kings asked gingerly.
"Mm, that looks much easier on the eyes." Wei Zhao nodded, then asked, "Do any of you know where the nearest rental agency is?"
"Yes, yes! Straight up this street, east two intersections, and there it is," the Golden Python Heavenly King said hastily.
"Good. You know how to behave yourselves. I'll spare you this time — from now on, remember what you've learned." With that, Wei Zhao simply vanished.
The Four Heavenly Kings looked at one another, then dropped flat on their backsides. Seeing a ghost in broad daylight — any one of them had wet himself just now, and even at this moment their crotches were still damp.
"What do you figure a ghost wants with a rental agency?" they asked each other, exchanging glances.