Mrs. Mei's Survival Diary - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Half-body Ghost

As shopkeeper Yan said, Butler Wu brought the land deeds and official documents of the Puxian Teahouse to the Taoist temple. 

After congratulating her, he took Rong Yinshuang to the teahouse to hand over the gift to her. 

The teahouse was bustling with people. It was a three-storey building. The first floor was for casual gatherings, the second floor was for poetry and books, and the third floor was for private rooms. There was also a small courtyard behind the teahouse, and it was not large and seemed uninhabited.

Manager Wu led Rong Yinshuang to a private room on the third floor and introduced her to Manager Li from the teahouse. 

Manager Li had dedicated half his life to working there and was known for his honesty and sincerity. To him, it didn’t really matter who was the owner.

Rong Yinshuang was down to earth and spoke humbly, which instantly put Manager Li at ease, making him feel more comfortable around her.

“Manager Rong, do you have anything you want to say to everyone in the store? I can go gather them now.”

“Manager Li, no need to worry. It’s not crucial for me to meet everyone. I don’t know much about business anyway. You’ll still need to look after the shop as you always have.” 

Upon hearing that, Manager Li smiled and responded, “It’s up to you, Manager Rong. I’ve spent half my life in teahouses. Thanks to the various bosses, I’ve moved up from a small worker to a manager. Even though this tea house has many guests, each table only brings in a few cents from tea, so it doesn’t generate much profit. I feel quite embarrassed about that. Manager Rong, you must have to be patient with us in the future.” 

Rong Yinshuang smiled back at him, and after exchanging a few words, she said she would come tomorrow to meet others.

Once back at the Taoist temple, her eldest and youngest sons ran up to her. 

Rong Yinshuang embraced them and gave them kisses, then asked if they were hungry.

The boys nodded eagerly. 

She rushed to the kitchen to prepare a meal, with the boys trailing behind her. While she was picking vegetables, she said to them, “Eldest son, youngest son, I’ll have some things to take care of starting tomorrow. You both have to stick with me and don’t cause any trouble, okay?”

The two boys were sprawled out next to the stove. Their large eyes fixed on a jar, while they licked their lips.

Rong Yinshuang couldn’t help but chuckle when she noticed this. She wiped her hands on her apron, opened the cupboard, and grabbed a white porcelain jar from the top shelf. After taking out two sweet cakes from it, she gave one to each.

The boys looked at Rong Yinshuang in astonishment, happily accepted the sweet cakes, and sat on a small stool nearby to enjoy them.

After taking a bite, the elder son recalled what his mother had just told them. He looked up at Rong Yinshuang and asked, “Mom, what are you planning to do tomorrow?”

Rong Yinshuang placed some vegetables into a basket, glanced at her elder son, and replied with a smile, “A kind lady gave your mother a teahouse. I’ll be going there tomorrow.”

The younger son licked his lips and softly asked, “Mom, what’s a teahouse? I don’t know.”

Upon hearing his younger brother, the elder son quickly took on his role as the big brother and explained, “A teahouse is a place where you drink tea. Dad took me there once.”

The younger son still looked puzzled, but the elder son’s words triggered a memory for Rong Yinshuang. She recalled a time when the younger was under two years old, and her husband wanted to visit a teahouse for business discussions, but the elder son wouldn’t let him leave. So, the husband had to take the little boy along. Surprisingly, he still remembered that.

Watching her two children, she felt they had matured a bit. Overcome with emotion, she couldn’t help but ask them, “Elder son, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

The elder son stuffed the whole cake into his mouth and mumbled, “I, I want to be… a rich man!”

Rong Yinshuang looked at her elder son in surprise and couldn’t resist asking again, “Why do you want to be a rich man?”

“Because…only when I have money, I can take back Daddy’s house and drive out the bad guys.” The little boy replied seriously.

“…”

Hearing that, Rong Yinshuang felt a pang of pain in her heart. ‘Kids can really say things that touch the heart.’

The younger son chimed in with his big brother. “Bring it back and kick them out!”

The two kids nodded earnestly. 

The big brother reached out to the youngest and said boldly, “Come on, brother, let’s do this together, alright?”

The youngest son puffed out his cheeks and stared with his big round eyes. As she nodded vigorously, the two brothers clasped hands.

Rong Yinshuang watched their sweet faces and innocent words, feeling amused as she picked vegetables.

****

The next morning, both sons woke up early without much trouble.

 Rong Yinshuang took them to the teahouse.

But by 1:00 pm, there weren’t many customers around. 

Manager Li introduced her to other workers in the tea house.

There were twelve waiters in the teahouse, four on each floor to prepare tea and serve fruits and snacks. The kitchen also had two snack chefs. Including Manager Li and Rong Yinshuang, there were sixteen people working in the teahouse.

The waiters greeted Rong Yinshuang one by one. After they went back to their work, Manager Li showed Rong Yinshuang around and explained things.

Rong Yinshuang wasn’t very familiar with the business, so she felt a bit lost. As they passed the backyard, she pointed and asked, “Is this yard connected to the teahouse? Is it part of the building too?”

Manager Li felt a bit awkward hearing that. After a moment of hesitation, he pulled Rong Yinshuang aside and said, “The backyard belongs to the teahouse. A couple who made dim sum lived there. But the husband was murdered. I saw his body myself. It was a tragic scene. Ever since then, the backyard has turned into…” Manager Li glanced around and whispered to Rong Yinshuang, “A haunted house.” 

Rong Yinshuang looked at him, surprised. Thinking she hadn’t heard him right, Manager Li continued, 

“Later on, I let a few guys from out of town who needed a place to stay move in, but they all refused to stay because they claimed it was dirty. They packed their bags and left the very next day, even quitting their jobs. I was worried about rumours spreading, so I stopped letting anyone live there after that.” 

After hearing Manager Li’s story, Rong Yinshuang intentionally peered through the crack in the door. She had been in a private room on the third floor earlier and had a view of the backyard from above. The crack in the door didn’t reveal anything unusual. Everything looked relatively new since it hadn’t been used much. She shifted her gaze to the other side, wanting to see what was happening over there. Suddenly a pair of eyes appeared in front of her eyes, nearly making her scream. 

Rong Yinshuang jumped back, and Manager Li noticed the change in her expression. “Boss, what’s the matter?” 

Rong Yinshuang swallowed hard and tried to regain her composure. She couldn’t tell him she had seen a pair of bloody eyes through the crack. After calming herself, she shook her head and replied, “It’s nothing; I just bent over too long and hurt my back.” 

Manager Li smiled and told her to head back to the front to rest.

As there were not many people at the moment, Rong Yinshuang went to the private room she went to yesterday and asked Manager Li to bring some tea. 

The elder son walked around in the private room, touching and looking around, very curious, and the younger son followed his eldest brother’s steps.

Rong Yinshuang stood at the window and looked down at the yard below. She came in a hurry yesterday and didn’t have time to take a closer look. 

‘Now it seems that there is indeed a ghost figure with only half of its body wandering in the yard below, looming.’

Manager Li personally brought in tea and some of the teahouse’s signature snacks. After placing them, he called the two children to eat.

Rong Yinshuang asked the younger one to sit next to her, but he insisted on sitting with her elder brother. 

After taking a sip of tea, she felt that the tea was clear and the tea leaves were sweet and refreshing. She picked up a piece of snack and took a bite. But the taste was not satisfactory.

Although the two boys had not eaten anything good recently, they had been spoilt since childhood. The younger one threw the snack on the table after taking a bite, while the elder one looked at Rong Yinshuang while eating with difficulty. His expression showed that he did not like the snack.

Manager Li saw them like this and understood. “Teahouses are for drinking tea. The tea is good, but the profit is not high. So we can’t afford to hire a skilled pastry chef.”

Rong Yinshuang ate a piece of pastry as usual, then took a sip of tea and said to Manager Li, “It’s okay; I know.”

Manager Li touched the back of his head and smiled and suddenly seemed to remember something, pointing to the backyard that Rong Yinshuang had just watched and said, “Speaking of dim sum, the best dim sum I’ve ever had in my life was made by the couple who used to live in the backyard. The taste melted in your mouth and was so delicious that you wanted to eat more. There used to be a dim sum shop opened by a retired imperial chef. I went there, and it was not as delicious as this couple’s. If they were still there, our teahouse’s business would definitely be better.”

Rong Yinshuang glanced down towards Manager Li and noticed that the thing appearing and disappearing in the yard seemed to have caught wind of the conversation. It abruptly lifted its head and fixed its gaze on the window where Manager Li stood.

The ghost’s complexion was pale, and his right eye was bloodshot, giving him a strange and menacing look.

However, Rong Yinshuang detected a hint of determination in his eyes and suddenly inquired, “What about his wife?”

Manager Li was taken aback, clearly not anticipating Rong Yinshuang’s abrupt shift in topic. After a moment of contemplation, a slightly awkward expression crossed his face.

Noticing this, Rong Yinshuang pressed, “What? Is it difficult to share?”

Manager Li wet his lips, glanced at the two children beside him, and leaned in to speak to Rong Yinshuang, covering his mouth with his hands. “I also heard that after her husband passed away, she went to Zui Xiang Lou, but I’m not sure if she went there to sell her body or her talent.”

“Zui Xiang Lou…”

‘A well-known brothel in the capital…’

She peered down from the window at the pitiful figure, feeling a swirl of emotions.

End of chapter 24

Have a nice day!