Chapter 119

Ding Tao's heartbeat was like a drum. In broad daylight, his forehead was sweating.

He raised his hand to wipe it, and said in an uneasy tone: "Dead? No... Isn't it just a ghost?"

Chu Yue nodded and said: "Yes, people eat with their mouths, and ghosts eat with their smells. The food that ghosts have eaten will be colorless and tasteless when eaten by people, just like chewing wax. In fact, if you were not so careless, you should have discovered the strangeness a long time ago."

Ding Tao was speechless.

Because of fear, his brain quickly recalled the strange things that he had encountered with the old man this week.

"Yes... the first time, grandpa didn't eat the fried noodles, and I took a bite because I was worried about wasting it. It really had no taste, and I later fed the food to stray cats and dogs."

"And... another time, the old man insisted on giving me money. I knew he had no money, so I asked where he got it from. He said he picked up the money, and I didn't want it. But I couldn't win the argument, so I took the money in the end."

Ding Tao was about to give an injection to a patient, and he casually put the money in his trouser pocket.

"As a result, when I got home from work and changed clothes the next day, I found that the money in my trouser pocket was paper money. At that time, I thought the old man was dazed and took the paper money as real money."

Many patients die in the hospital every day. Sometimes superstitious patients secretly burn paper money in the toilet, thinking that paper money can make the deceased relatives take care of the black and white impermanence and suffer less on the way to the underworld.

Therefore, Ding Tao did not think that there was anything strange about the old man picking up paper money.

However, he carefully recalled the old man's face and felt that he had not changed much from what he saw two weeks ago, so he wanted to confirm it again.

He asked cautiously: "Master, when did that old man die? Could he have been alive before?"

Chu Yueqing counted on his fingers, "The exact time should be last week. What you saw then was already a ghost."

Ding Tao still couldn't believe it.

Why did he see a ghost out of the blue? There are so many nurses in the hospital.

Putting the sugar water on the table, he looked up and saw Zhang's Tea Restaurant with a distressed expression: "Master, I'll go into the tea restaurant to make a phone call."

Chu Yueqing knew that ordinary people would find it difficult to accept seeing a ghost for a while, unless they could confirm it in person.

"Okay, go ahead."

When Ding Tao entered the tea restaurant.

The neighbors were very curious. In the past, they only knew about the existence of ghosts from movies. How come they really exist in reality?

So, they started asking questions one after another.

"Do ghosts really exist in the world?"

"Yes, Master, what do ghosts look like?"

Chu Yueqing picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea. He glanced at the emerald green leaves swirling in the teacup due to the rapid waves, looked up and said, "Yes."

Seeing that the master was willing to speak, the neighbors all quieted down and listened attentively.

Chu Yueqing put down the teacup, "When a person dies, he or she will have a soul. The soul is what you often call a ghost. After the soul leaves the body, it should queue up in the underworld to report. If it has unfulfilled wishes, it will stay in the human world."

A neighbor asked, "Does the ghost that the nurse encountered also stay in the human world because it has unfulfilled wishes?"

"I think so. He goes to Brother's house every night to ask for food."

"Strange, if the old man's ghost really wants to eat, why doesn't he leave after eating? It's like punching in at work, reporting to Brother every night."

"If you ask me, they frequently show up to scare people just for food. Being a ghost is so evil, it's better to disappear into thin air."

Chu Yueqing listened to the opinions of the neighbors and smiled, "There are good people and bad people, and the same is true for ghosts. There are bad ghosts and good ghosts. Not every ghost wants to harm people."

"Master, what about the fierce ghosts?" A younger man stood up. He was holding the dried fruits he bought in both hands. It was obvious that he went out to buy groceries and turned back to read gossip. His face was full of curiosity, "Are fierce ghosts divided into good and bad?"

Chu Yueqing thought about it and explained in a way that everyone could understand: "The reason for the formation of fierce ghosts is usually because of great resentment and obsession. When they die, this resentment cannot be calmed down, and it will make them turn into fierce ghosts."

"If a ghost becomes a fierce ghost, it is generally neither good nor bad. It will lose its mind and will even hurt other people in the process just to achieve its goal. No matter which master finds a fierce ghost, he will choose to kill it."

A ghost that becomes a fierce ghost has only one end.

That is, its soul will be destroyed and there will be no possibility of reincarnation.

The neighbors at the scene sighed and suddenly, someone pointed at Zhang's Tea Restaurant.

"Look, the young man is coming out!"

Everyone looked over.

If Ding Tao, who went in to make a phone call before, was just a little scared, Ding Tao, who came out, was obviously scared out of his wits and couldn't walk steadily.

He had a pale face and weakly held the glass door. As he walked to the dessert stall, his legs were shaking as he walked, and the more he walked, the more like a crab he looked.

Ding Tao finally sat down with the help of the table, and said in a trembling voice, "Master...Master, that grandpa is really...really dead."

God knows how shocked he was when his colleagues confirmed the old man's death.

For a week in a row, the old man came to see him at 11:30.

He kindly paid for the food out of his own pocket, but the other party turned out to be a ghost?

How could he face the night shift in the future?

"Master, is my recent lack of energy related to the grandpa?"

"Yes, a little bit." Chu Yue explained in a calm voice, "Ghosts are products of yin energy, and the human spirit is always connected with yang energy. The old man came to see you many times, so you inevitably got contaminated with yin energy. Working the night shift consumes yang energy, and yin is strong and yang is weak. This is manifested as mental depression." When

Ding Tao heard that it was really related to the other party, his expression changed on the spot and he was angry.

"I have no grudges against Grandpa. One time, he was lying in bed and couldn't get up. He wanted to eat some fruit, and I bought it for him during my lunch break. How...how come he ended up hurting me?"

Ding Tao got angrier and angrier as he thought about it.

Didn't Hong Kong dramas and horror movies say that? Ghosts always bring bad luck to living people. They might want to use him as a scapegoat.

"You're wrong."

A soft voice came.

Ding Tao, who was angry, came back to his senses and looked over in surprise, "Master?"

Chu Yue shook his head, "Actually, the old man came to you out of necessity. His body is still in the morgue of the Yanghe Hospital. Without any relatives to take him to the grave, he can only wander around the hospital."

"It just so happened that he couldn't eat before he died. The doctor had no choice but to give him nutrient solution to keep him alive. But nutrient solution alone can only be used to maintain the body's functions and cannot eliminate hunger."

At this point, the neighbors suddenly realized.

"So that's how it is. The old man died of hunger."

"In today's peaceful times, there are still people who die of hunger. It's so pitiful to hear that."

Chu Yueqing said, "Being able to eat became the old man's obsession before he took his last breath."

Ding Tao was panicked and shocked.

Hearing that the old man died of hunger, he inevitably felt a little sympathy.

"Then... why didn't he look for the child? Why only me?"

Chu Yueqing said, "In fact, he also knows that it's not good to look for you all the time. You should know what disease he has, right?"

"I know." Ding Tao looked at the old man's medical record and sighed when he recalled the series of medical history in the medical record: "Primary bronchial lung cancer, it has been delayed for a long time and is already in the late stage, and it cannot be cured. The doctors all said that this disease was delayed for so long because he could endure it."

In fact, Ding Tao also heard a lot of gossip when he was in the old man's ward.

What they said was that the old man's son and daughter-in-law disliked him for being seriously ill and didn't come to the hospital to visit him on weekdays. I just called a colleague, and the colleague even said that the old man waited for his family in the hospital every day, and never came until he died.

"Master, why don't his family take the old man's body home?"

"Take it home?"

Chu Yueqing counted on her fingers, smiled and shook her head, "His son knew that his father owed a lot of medical bills in the hospital, and he had to pay to take the body home, so how dare he come to take it home?" As

soon as these words came out, the neighbors' eyes widened, and they were so angry that they cursed and talked at once. The originally quiet Temple Street immediately became noisy like a market.

"You're so crazy! The Yan family shovel! You're giving birth to a son without an asshole!"

"My own father didn't care when he was sick. What a thunderbolt!"

"It's better to have raw barbecued pork than to give birth to him. At least the barbecued pork can be eaten."

"It's really shameful. People say that fallen leaves return to their roots, and people return to their graves after death. As a result, the old man can't even get rid of the soil."

"Oh, come to think of it, it's really a bad thing. The freezer in the morgue is very cold. The old man is cold, hungry and has no money. Maybe he has no choice but to find the little brother."

"Oh, when you are old, you really can't hear these things."

Ding Tao's face was full of distress.

When he was at work, he had heard the old man talk about a lot of things in his youth. He came to Hong Kong from the mainland to work hard and had suffered a lot. Later, he married and had children. In order to take root in Hong Kong, he saved money for most of his life and bought a house in Sham Shui Po.

It is not easy to buy a house, and it is not easy to raise a child.

Who can think that this will be the end of old age?

Ding Tao sighed deeply: "Master, it is not a good idea for the old man to come to me every night. Is there any way to stop him from coming?"

In the end, Ding Tao was still afraid. When he didn't know that the old man was a ghost, he might still insist on buying things. Now that he knows that the old man is a ghost, even if the other party is not a bad person, he is afraid.

Chu Yueqing picked up the teacup and drank the water.

He thought about it.

"People and ghosts are different. When people are hungry, they just eat. But when ghosts are hungry, the food in the human world can no longer satisfy their hunger. Even if they eat a meal, they will always be hungry at other times."

Ding Tao asked hurriedly, "What do ghosts eat?"

"Ghosts eat incense and offerings." Chu Yueqing explained, "Tonight, go buy white candles and incense that can be burned. Remember, buy big bundles of incense and 99 white candles, and burn them all at once for him. His soul will be completely full, and he will not come to you again in the future."

Ding Tao immediately took note, and then hesitated, "Will Grandpa still wander around the hospital in the future?"

"Yes." Chu Yueqing did not avoid it, "But he still wants to go home."

He worked hard all his life and died in the hospital, and in the end he still had no place to rest.

Ding Tao was touched, his eyes turned red and he asked, "If Grandpa's son takes him back, will he be able to rest in peace?"

Chu Yueqing sighed, "That's right."

"Thank you, Master, I will do these things tonight." Ding Tao took the sugar water, paid for the fortune-telling and the sugar water, and left.

The neighbors at the scene sighed and were quite emotional.

"It's not enough for a person to die in a hospital in his old age. It's also tragic that he has to sleep in the morgue and can't be buried."

"Master, what do you think is wrong with the old man's son? His father gave birth to him and raised him, but how could he be so cruel?"

Chu Yueqing picked up the teacup, "It's hard to say who is right or wrong in their matter."

"The old man's son actually resented his father and thought that his father didn't love him. Later, he married a powerful daughter-in-law. The old man lived with them on weekdays and was often scolded by his daughter-in-law. It's also the old man who can endure it. In fact, he has been ill for a long time and has endured it for more than ten years. It was not until his physical condition deteriorated in his later years that his abdomen was swollen and painful. He couldn't stand it anymore and came to the hospital for a check-up."

"At first, the son was willing to receive treatment. When the daughter-in-law saw that the old man was ill, she tricked the old man into transferring the house to her son's name. Later, when the treatment costs became more and more, the two of them stopped coming to the hospital."

She spun the teacup and shook her head: "After all, there is still a gap between father and son. Now that they are separated forever, there is no room for maneuver in some things."

The neighbors were talking about it.

"It is said that fathers and sons cannot have a grudge overnight, alas."

"What a pity, you said that when people are alive, there are misunderstandings that cannot be resolved?"

"We, the bystanders, can only think more positively. Fortunately, with the guidance of the master, the old man at least does not have to go hungry anymore."

"In fact, Mr. Ding is so scared but still willing to burn incense, his personality is really good."

"Yes."

A hungry sound came.

Next to the small table stood an old man who was invisible to the public.

The old man looked haggard and was wearing a hospital gown. His eyeballs were bulging out of their sockets, and his whites were exposed. His pupils were very small. His face was full of wrinkles, and it seemed as if only a layer of skin was left on his bones. A string of ice hung from the hem of his hospital gown. He stood barefoot on the ground, emitting cold air.

The old man shivered constantly when the wind blew.

Ding Tao had been in a bad mood recently, and the old man was worried that something might happen to Ding Tao, so he followed him. On weekdays, he would hide in Ding Tao's bag when he had nothing to do. There were several times when Ding Tao bumped into things in a trance, and he could feel someone pulling at the hem of his gown, thus avoiding misfortune.

The old man had just become a ghost, and he didn't understand many things, and naturally he didn't understand that he couldn't get too close to living people.

Now that he knew, he blamed himself for the trouble he had brought to Ding Tao.

The problem of hunger was solved.

The old man was full of gratitude and bowed deeply to Chu Yueqing.

Chu Yueqing put down the teacup and smiled slightly.

This was considered a return of the old man's bow.

The next moment, the old man turned into a puff of green smoke and dissipated.

The sugar water stall was not far away.

Ding Tao, with panda eyes, found a corner death care shop and bought some candles. Before leaving, he hesitated again and looked back at the old lady in the death care shop.

"Grandma, tell me, should I care about other people's business?"

The old lady wore a headband, her hands behind her back, and wore a spirited buttoned cotton robe. When she heard that the young man wanted to care about other people's business, she bared her lips and revealed a golden front tooth.

"I'm hurrying! Mind other people's business, are you still full?"

Ding Tao smiled while holding the sugar water. He put the bag of candles on his elbow, opened the lid of the sugar water with one hand and drank it all.

Then, he stepped over the threshold and stopped a taxi on the street without hesitation.