"Daddy, could you hang it higher for me? That way everyone can see it, and even more people will come to me for fortune telling and ghost catching!"
Lin Wanyue stood under the tree, directing her father to help her hang the newly made signboard on the tree in front of their shop.
So that people passing by on the street can see it.
Summer wasn't even over yet, and her mother, Xuefu, had already started counting on her fingers the things they would need for the New Year: winter clothes, food to store, charcoal to burn in winter—all sorts of odds and ends, and it really would cost quite a bit.
Lin Wanyue thought about it and realized that she could no longer be lazy like before, content with earning just a few coins every day.
She went to her elder brother, Lin Zhongyuan, to have two grand and imposing banners written, which were perfect for hanging on the tree as signs.
"You little girl have quite a few demands!" Lin Weiming lay on the tree, listening to her requests, and carefully moved the two banners to the positions Lin Wanyue had requested.
Once Lin Wanyue was finally satisfied, he climbed down from the tree and instructed her, "Then stay here and don't run around. I have to go help your grandma, so I won't have time to watch over you."
"Don't worry, Daddy, I never run around!" Lin Wanyue patted her chest and assured him.
Lin Weiming thought about it and agreed, so he stopped paying attention to her.
A long queue had already formed in front of Lin's Restaurant, because the neighbors soon discovered that although Lin Weiming and his group had offended Zhang Xiangyang and his gang, for some reason, Zhang Xiangyang and his gang hadn't come to cause trouble!
After enduring a few days, everyone became too tempted to resist and secretly continued to come and buy, without being targeted by Zhang Xiangyang and his group.
This led people to speculate that perhaps the Lin family had someone backing them up.
Zhang Xiangyang and his group didn't dare to offend the Lin family easily, which is why they spared them.
Regardless, Lin's Restaurant's customer traffic has recovered to more than half, which makes Lin Weiming and Liu Junlan quite happy, as they no longer need to worry about winter.
Lin Wanyue held a bowl of sweet soy milk in her hands. Before her first customer arrived in the early morning, a little pink butterfly hurriedly floated over.
"Wanbao..." she said anxiously, "Something's wrong! I just saw a Taoist priest coming by. He looked pretty powerful. I wonder if he's here to arrest us?"
Perhaps because Little Pink Butterfly is the only female ghost kept by the Lin family, and also because of her cautious nature, she is exceptionally sensitive to certain auras.
Whether it was the Black and White Impermanence I encountered before, or this Taoist priest I'm talking about now.
She was always the first to discover them.
"Hmm..." Lin Wanyue took another sip of soy milk from the bowl, not taking the matter to heart, and calmly said, "Even if it's a Taoist priest, he may not be here to arrest you. If you're really scared, you can come and hide here for a while."
The little pink butterfly said, "But looking at the direction they came from, it seems like they're heading this way. Could they be here to cause you trouble? And they seem to be carrying some magical artifacts. I don't know what they are, but I felt scared even before I got close, so I rushed over to find you..."
"Coming this way?" Lin Wanyue asked curiously, but she still slowly finished her soy milk and obediently put the bowl back to Liu Junlan.
“Yes!” Little Pink Butterfly nodded quickly: “I can already feel it, his presence is getting closer and closer… Okay, I’ll go find Laifu and the others first and tell them to be careful!”
After saying that, the little pink butterfly dashed away.
The little pink butterfly herself had been a human and knew the rules of humans.
Taoist priests can capture ghosts and demons, but they will not easily harm humans.
Although Lin Wanyue was somewhat different from ordinary children, she was still a human child after all. Little Pink Butterfly felt that the Taoist priest would not harm her, but was more worried about the other ghosts in the house.
"Okay." Lin Wanyue didn't stop her, because she also saw people coming from the other side of the street.
After several days of worry for the neighbors and the Lin family, Zhang Xiangyang and his group finally arrived.
A group of constables, dressed in uniform and carrying knives, trotted over in a menacing formation.
"Get out of the way!"
"Official businessmen, don't block the way!"
The constables, with cold faces, swatted away all the people blocking their way.
When the crowd saw their clothes, they were all furious but dared not speak out, and quickly rolled to the side.
These people eventually stopped at the entrance of Lin's Restaurant.
The people who were just queuing to buy breakfast suddenly scattered like birds and beasts, running far away in a flash.
Everyone knows that this must be Zhang Xiangyang and his gang coming to take revenge on the Lin family.
They had waited so many days, and Zhang Xiangyang and his group finally arrived. It wasn't gloating, but rather a sense of 'it finally happened' that they had expected it.
This didn't surprise them, but they were somewhat worried about Lin Weiming.
They peeked out from the side and saw Liang Xin, dressed in casual clothes, walking at the very back, with an old Taoist priest who looked quite otherworldly beside him.
Lin Weiming and Liu Junlan had already stopped what they were doing this time. They had learned from their previous experience and put all the things on the table behind them, covering the stove with a damp cloth so as not to waste the fire.
When Lin Weiming saw Liang Xin, the county magistrate, he knew that this group of people would probably be difficult to deal with.
What's meant to happen can't be avoided, so it's better to deal with it head-on.
"Mother, take Wanwan away. I'll handle them," Lin Weiming said to Liu Junlan.
But Liu Junlan didn't answer; instead, she went to the corner and grabbed a wood-chopping knife.
"Eh? Eh!" Lin Weiming was startled and quickly stopped his mother: "Mom, don't move, I'll handle it. Please don't lay a hand on him. That man is the county magistrate... If we lay a hand on the magistrate, our family probably won't survive!"
"The way they are now, they probably don't intend to let us live! Since we have no way out anyway, we might as well give it a try!" Liu Junlan spat on the ground, her eyes filled with anger.
Unexpectedly, Liang Xin did not come to cause trouble for Lin Weiming, even though his eyes were filled with displeasure the moment he saw Lin Weiming.
However, he simply stood respectfully beside Taoist Li and said gently, "Master Li, look, this is the little child! What kind of demon has she transformed into, and how should we deal with her?"
Lin Wanyue raised her head, her eyes filled with confusion.
His head was covered in little question marks.
What?
What kind of monster is this?
What kind of monster is she?
Isn't she just a smart, cute, and pretty little girl?
Does that mean she's scheming to the point of being demonic?
That would be so embarrassing!
As Lin Wanyue was praising herself, the old Taoist priest narrowed his eyes at her, flicked his whisk, and snorted coldly: "This demon is indeed capable, able to pretend to be so harmless. Who would dare to imagine that? But the more she pretends, the more she can bewitch people's minds!"
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