You said you would tell fortunes, so you can catch ghosts and exterminate zombies easily?

Su Chen had just left the Ghost Path when he heard Xiao Liu'er's singing.

Upon closer inspection, the little girl was swinging her legs and counting money.

The coal stoves and large pots used to warm bamboo tubes are gone, replaced by flat-bottomed iron pots.

But it's empty now.

"Sold out so quickly again today?"

Hearing Su Chen's voice, Xiao Liu looked up happily and nodded emphatically: "Grandpa Du's soy milk is sold out too."

As she spoke, she ran to the next room and quickly handed Su Chen a plate of hot pan-fried buns, then eagerly brought out two cups of soy milk.

"My aunt said this is for you, Master Su."

Su Chen nodded, sat down, picked up a fried bun, and took a bite.

The aroma made Xiao Ayun drool and moan.

"Ayun wants to eat too?"

Su Chen smiled and pinched the little guy's cheek.

"Aah~"

"Here, have a taste."

Su Chen tore off a piece and put it into the little guy's mouth.

Little Willow leaned over to look, and quickly laughed: "Master Su, my little brother has no teeth, so he can't bite it open."

Su Chen hummed in agreement: "It's okay, if you can't bite it open, just leave it in your mouth to grind your teeth."

"How long will it take for my little brother to get his teeth?" Little Liu asked curiously.

"It'll be soon. I estimate that Ayun will be able to grow her little front teeth in about half a month."

Little Liu'er's eyes lit up: "When I grow my front teeth, I can eat lots of delicious food. I want to save some money to buy food for my little brother."

Su Chen chuckled and glanced at the money in her box.

"So generous? Looks like you made a good profit today."

"Mmm." Little Liu said, glancing at the wad of money in her hand, before quickly going back to counting it.

Once the box was empty, she looked at Su Chen excitedly: "Master Su, I made over forty today."

Before Su Chen could respond, she had already started counting on her fingers.

"Forty a day, thirty days a month, then I can earn 1200 a month."

"From now until next year, there are still 11 months, so I can save more than 10,000 yuan before I start school, haha, hehe..."

Su Chen looked at her grinning foolishly and slowly shook his head.

After finishing the fried bun in his hand, Su Chen hesitated for a moment, then carried Xiao Ayun back to Chunming Street.

His stall was still there, but no one was behind it. Instead, a small stall had appeared next to it, where Wang Haitao and Dong Rongjin were frowning as they looked at the yellowed pages of an ancient book, while Zhang Qian was weaving bamboo baskets nearby.

Sensing Su Chen's presence, he raised his head.

"Wow, that's rare."

Su Chen glanced around the hardware store: "They've all left?"

"Yeah, they were chattering away. Ah Biao was still giving them face, but I just went straight for the broom."

"It's just that the child is so pitiful."

Su Chen pulled up a chair and sat down, handing over the fried buns he was holding.

Zhang Qian opened it and smelled it: "Hmm, it smells good."

He took a bite, his eyes widening: "Delicious!"

Then, he hurriedly stuffed the fried bun into his mouth in a few bites.

Wang Haitao and Dong Rongjin put down their books upon smelling the fragrance and turned to him simultaneously.

Zhang Qian was taken aback and quickly covered up the remaining fried buns.

"What are you looking at? Go read your books."

"Didn't you see how many masters have come to Cuicheng? If you don't learn from them, you won't even have the chance to do menial tasks for them."

As he spoke, he looked at Su Chen and sighed.

"If I had known that so many people were coming to Cuicheng, I wouldn't have taken this apprentice. It would be embarrassing to take him out."

"Look, we also have to bring along a burden!"

Su Chen laughed: "Master Zhang, you dared to chase them away with a broom, are you still afraid of losing face?"

"How can they be the same?"

"Sigh, I don't even know if he'll reach the Yellow Rank by the time I'm buried."

Dong Rongjin quickly raised his hand in agreement: "Master, can we lower our expectations a bit? Yellow level is too difficult. I was just thinking of catching some minor ghosts in the future, I didn't expect to have great abilities, right, Haitao?"

Wang Haitao chuckled and scratched his head: "I'm different. I just want to be a tiny bit better than Master Su, though of course, that's wishful thinking!"

These words amused Zhang Qian and Su Chen.

Seeing this, Wang Haitao quickly snatched two fried buns from Zhang Qian's hands, threw one to Dong Rongjin, and shouted, "Run!"

The two were clearly working in perfect harmony; Dong Rongjin had already taken off before he could even utter a sound.

By the time Zhang Qian stood up in a fit of rage, the two of them had already dashed far away and quickly disappeared from sight.

Su Chen was stunned for a moment, and seeing Zhang Qian helplessly sit down again, he patted him on the shoulder with sympathy.

"Master Zhang, you've worked so hard."

Zhang Qian sighed, "Who told me to be so stupid as to take this apprentice as a disciple?"

With Dong Rongjin no longer in front of him, Zhang Qian sighed again.

"But to be honest, although he is a bit old, his talent is really good."

“Look at Haitao, he’s been following Liu Xian for so many years, he’s got a solid foundation. Xiao Dong is now learning on par with him, it’s just a pity…”

Meeting Su Chen's questioning gaze, Zhang Qian smiled and said, "I don't have that much time to teach him."

Su Chen was stunned.

Just as he was about to speak, Zhang Qian said, "I suddenly felt it a while ago, just in the last two or three years."

He picked up his soy milk, took a sip, and sighed: "I used to think that I had a much better life than others. I had money and leisure. I didn't suffer much when I hid in the mountains in the early days. I thought that even if I faced death in the future, I would be able to face it calmly... Now that I think about it, it's still a pity. There are so many delicious and fun things in this world, right?"

Su Chen nodded.

"So, you'd better prepare a paper doll for me later."

Su Chen: “???”

"I can use it whenever I want to eat, drink, or beat someone up."

"Row!"

"So agreeable?" Zhang Qian looked at Su Chen carefully.

Su Chen raised an eyebrow: "It's not a very difficult thing."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Zhang Qian hand him a wooden box.

"remuneration!"

Su Chen took it and opened it; inside lay a small, slightly bent piece of iron.

It feels incredibly heavy and chills you to the bone.

He looked at Zhang Qian: "This is..."

"I found it in the mountains years ago. It should be a fragment of some kind of magical artifact. Many people have asked me about it indirectly, but I have kept quiet. It... should be quite important. Unfortunately, I have been studying it for so many years, but I still have nothing to show for it."

"You can help me research it, and remember to let me know if you have any results."

"Keep it safe, keep it safe."

Su Chen nodded, and with a flick of his hand, the wooden box disappeared.

Zhang Qian looked closely at the back of his hand, his eyes filled with envy, but he quickly concealed it and whispered to Su Chen, "When I heard that Cuicheng was going to establish an exorcism group, I cast a divination, and it didn't look good."

Su Chen frowned.

"Master Zhang, are you saying that none of these team members are good people? Or that there's someone mixed in with them...?"

Zhang Qian shook his head: "I don't know."

"I tried to reach out to them to see if I could get anything out of it."

He frowned and looked at Su Chen: "So you made them go to the dragon boat race, wasn't that because you discovered this?"

Su Chen: "..."

"Not at all, I just find them annoying and want to give them something to do."

“But if someone really is acting strangely…” Su Chen stroked his chin, did some quick calculations, and a smile played on his lips, “We can observe them more closely during the Dragon Boat Festival!”

"Right on my mind!"

Zhang Qian raised his glass to Su Chen as he spoke.

Then I saw Lao Liao from the other side jogging over happily.

"Xiao Su, you've finally arrived! I've been waiting for you for so long."

As soon as Old Liao arrived, he eagerly shoved a yellow steamed bun into Su Chen's hand: "Little Su, try my new one and see if it's good. Oh, and..."

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a plastic bag, and carefully opened it.

Zhang Qian sniffed: "What is this? It smells amazing!"

"Hehe, right? I think it smells really good too. My son made it. He said it's a fragrance and he wants to use it to make perfume. I don't know much about that stuff. They say it can make a lot of money, but I'm not sure about it. I was thinking of asking Xiao Su to do a calculation."