Chapter 178 - 177: What’s the Deal?

Chapter 178: Chapter 177: What’s the Deal?

Gu Qingyin smiled, her eyes crinkling. "Hmm, I’ll need at least five or six pots."

The female ghost’s stiff expression suddenly animated. She sneered, "Privately cultivated Soul-devouring Flowers are incredibly precious. You’d be lucky to see one or two plants make it to the market, let alone five or six pots. Even if I had that many, could you afford them?"

Huh? Gu Qingyin blinked. ’Are Soul-devouring Flowers really that valuable?’ She genuinely hadn’t known, but that didn’t stop her from throwing the taunt right back.

"Oh, if you don’t have any, never mind." Gu Qingyin raised an eyebrow. "We’ll take however many pots you have. We can just go check somewhere else in a bit."

The female ghost frowned. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what was wrong with the remark, but it just rubbed her the wrong way. "I don’t have any, and you definitely won’t find them anywhere else."

Gu Qingyin scoffed. "So sure of yourself."

"You!" The female ghost was speechless. She turned to Huo Yunjing, a wronged look on her face. "You know I’ve never been good at verbal sparring, and I would never lie."

Before Huo Yunjing could speak, Gu Qingyin snorted. "Well, well, an old acquaintance. What do you say? Should I take the hint, grab my sons, and leave you two some space to... catch... up?"

Huo Yunjing instantly panicked and grabbed Gu Qingyin’s hand. "Honey, I don’t know her at all!" Turning to the female ghost, he added, "And you, quit your act. I’ve never seen you before in my life."

The female ghost looked utterly wounded. If ghosts could cry, she’d have been bawling. "I thought you found your way here because you’d recovered your memories from our past life. You went to be reincarnated in a fit of pique, and I’ve been here, watching over the flower shop, waiting for you for more than two hundred years..."

She shook her head, looking as if her ghostly form might shatter at any moment. "In the end, it was all for nothing."

Huo Yunjing froze. ’If I hadn’t already recovered most of my memories, I might have actually fallen for that,’ he thought. ’I was single for millennia, and I have only one wife across both the mortal and nether worlds!’

Gu Qingyin didn’t know their history, and she couldn’t tell if the female ghost was lying. But she only needed to be certain of one thing.

He was her man. And unless she decided she was done with him, no one else could even think of snatching him away.

"That’s right," Gu Qingyin said, nodding blankly. "It was all for nothing. Time to cut your losses and start your new afterlife."

The female ghost was speechless again, looking even more heartbroken.

Huo Yunjing nodded along in agreement. "You’ll find someone better."

Huo Xingye and Huo Xingchen exchanged complicated looks. ’How does Dad recite lines from the scumbag’s playbook so smoothly and naturally?’

Outnumbered, the female ghost’s innocent, flower-like face twisted with anger, revealing a hint of her ghoulish nature. "Do you still want the Soul-devouring Flower Seedlings or not?"

"Of course we do." Gu Qingyin instantly switched back into customer mode. "Seeing as you’re such an old acquaintance, how about a discount?"

The female ghost sneered. "In your dreams! The price is firm: five hundred thousand Yin Department Paper!"

Gu Qingyin’s eyes widened.

Huo Xingchen gasped aloud.

Even the usually composed Huo Xingye was stunned for a second. He frowned, deep in thought. ’That large pot of Soul-devouring Flowers we saw outside... didn’t the owner quote it at two million?’

"I’ll take it!" Gu Qingyin blurted out, as if afraid the ghost would go back on her word. "Do you have any more? I’ll take all of them!"

The female ghost, convinced she was just bluffing, sneered, "I don’t accept credit."

Gu Qingyin nodded seriously. "Payment for goods received."

The female ghost went back inside, pot in hand. When she emerged a moment later, the single pot had become four.

Gu Qingyin’s eyes lit up. She eagerly tapped Huo Xingchen on the arm. "Son, pay the lady!"

Huo Xingchen quickly produced two million Yin Department Paper, reaching for the four seedlings as he handed the money over.

The female ghost never expected them to actually produce two million without batting an eye. She froze. It wasn’t until only the last seedling was left in her hands that she suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Huo Xingchen’s wrist. "Wait!"

A muscle in Gu Qingyin’s brow twitched. She lunged forward, grabbing the ghost’s hand. "Let go!" she snapped.

As luck would have it, the ghost had grabbed the very wrist where Huo Xingchen wore the Curse Rope. Contact with dense ghost energy would cause the rope to corrode faster, reducing its lifespan.

If the ghost didn’t release her grip soon, Huo Xingchen’s status as a living human would be exposed.

At that moment, Huo Yunjing also moved forward. He formed a sword-finger sign and jabbed at the back of the ghost’s hand.

The ghost instinctively dodged, looking at Huo Yunjing with a shocked and heartbroken expression. "You would actually try to hurt me..."

Huo Yunjing had had enough. "Delusion is a disease," he said coldly. "You should get it treated."

He’d meant to tell the ghost to stop being so overly familiar, but she somehow twisted his words into something else entirely. A coy look appeared on her face. "I knew it. You couldn’t be that heartless."

Gu Qingyin let out a sharp laugh. ’So it’s true,’ she thought. ’You really do just laugh when you’re completely speechless.’

’This ghost is crazy. We should stay far, far away from her.’

Gu Qingyin stowed the Soul-devouring Flower Seedlings. "Xingchen, take your brother and wait for us by the door."

Huo Xingchen hurriedly pulled Huo Xingye toward the exit.

Gu Qingyin, meanwhile, kept her eyes fixed on the female ghost, worried she might suddenly lash out at her sons.

But unexpectedly, the ghost only had eyes for Huo Yunjing, gazing at him with deep affection and ignoring everyone else.

Gu Qingyin rolled her eyes and turned to leave.

"Honey!" Huo Yunjing hurried after her.

The female ghost froze for a second, then hurried after them as well. "Lichuan!"

Huo Yunjing didn’t stop, but Gu Qingyin’s steps faltered. She slowly turned her head to look at him. "Lichuan?"

As if afraid she’d bolt, Huo Yunjing grabbed her hand and looked back at her with an innocent expression. "Lichuan, Schlichuan... I have no idea what you’re talking about."

Gu Qingyin: "...You’re trying a little too hard."

Huo Yunjing looked away, pretending not to have heard.

"Lichuan! You remember, don’t you?" The ghost couldn’t actually shed tears, but she forced out a choked sob anyway.

Gu Qingyin shuddered, her expression a mixture of cringe and disbelief.

It was so fake it was jarring.

Huo Yunjing sighed. "If I really did remember, you’d be the one panicking."

The ghost’s heart leaped with joy, and she prepared to press her case.

"But," Huo Yunjing said, turning back to Gu Qingyin, "even if I don’t remember, I know this: I only love my wife, Gu Qingyin."

Gu Qingyin huffed and pouted, putting on an adorably proud and petulant air.

Huo Yunjing smiled and pulled her toward the exit. "Let’s keep shopping. We shouldn’t let some bizarre ghost ruin our good mood."

Behind them, the ghost let out a mournful wail, but she didn’t take a single step to follow.

Gu Qingyin glanced back in confusion, and then understanding dawned.

It wasn’t that the ghost didn’t want to give chase; she was trapped inside the shop by a binding spell and couldn’t leave. ’No wonder she said she’d been waiting for Huo Yunjing for over two hundred years,’ Gu Qingyin thought. ’If I’m not mistaken, he must be the one who placed this binding.’

Gu Qingyin tutted to herself. ’What kind of deep-seated grudge was that? To take away her freedom before leaving.’

’Ah, now I feel completely satisfied.’

No one mentioned the female ghost again. The family went on with their shopping and were even lucky enough to witness the spectacular sight of a hundred ghosts parading at night.

Huo Xingye’s face turned pale with fright, but if you asked, he’d insist he wasn’t scared. That’s how those CEO-types are—their mouth is the toughest part of their entire body.

Huo Xingchen, on the other hand, was beside himself with excitement, jumping around and filming the whole thing.

After a whole night of fun, the sky was already showing the pale light of dawn by the time the family returned home.

After saying good morning to her two sons, Gu Qingyin returned to the bedroom with Huo Yunjing trailing closely behind. He dutifully headed straight for the bathroom.

"Honey, I’ll go run a bath for you. You can have a nice soak and then catch up on your sleep."

Gu Qingyin’s expression was unreadable. "No rush. First, you’re going to tell me what this whole ’Lichuan’ thing is about."