Suddenly, a man wearing a T-shirt and jeans walked out. He was about twenty years old and somewhat handsome, but his face had a green-tinge, his limbs were stiff, and his eyes were dull and unfocused.

He held a notebook in his left hand and a pen in his other hand. He walked slowly in front of An Rugu and said politely, “Dear guest, which room do you want to stay in?”

An Rugu’s eyes fell on the man and blinked. She didn’t know why he was doing this, so she simply followed along. “Which rooms are empty?”

The man lowered his head and looked at the notebook, as if he was checking it carefully. After thinking for a while, he said, “There is only one room left now. Room 444¹ on the fourth floor is empty.”

“Does this number have any special meaning?”

“Don’t worry about these things.” The man looked frightened and lowered his head, as if he was afraid of something. He lowered his voice and said, “Curiosity killed the cat. Just go and stay in it.”

“Oh.” An Rugu looked at the house in front of her with cold eyes, “Then I’ll go ahead.”

She immediately took a step and walked straight inside.

The man hadn’t expected An Rugu to be so cooperative, and he froze for a bit. He scratched his head, then hurriedly chased after her. 

“When you stay in that room, you must remember four things,” he whispered.

“First, you cannot look in the mirror when you go to the toilet late at night. 

“Second, your slippers must not be placed facing the bed. 

“Third, never look under the bed. 

“Fourth, when sleeping, never extend your feet outside the quilt.

“Remember these four rules well, and you will be safe.”

After the man finished speaking, he thought An Rugu would look scared and fearfully ask about the secret of the room.

But she never responded. After a while, An Rugu realized that the man kept staring at her as if waiting, and she realized that she should respond.

She said ‘Oh’ again, and then, somewhat cooperatively but also perfunctorily, “… then, why must I not do this?”

Man: “…”

This was the first guest he had ever received, and he had to continue being in character no matter what, so he spoke in a mysterious voice.

“First, mirrors are often gateways to another world. 

“Second, when ghosts come after you sleep, they will know the position of the bed through the direction of your slippers. 

“Third, the dark place under the bed is prone to attract strange things. 

“Fourth, things under the bed will reach out and touch your feet.”

An Rugu: “…”

An Rugu opened her yin and yang eyes, and she looked down and to the left, as if to confirm something.

Immediately, she closed her yin and yang eyes and turned to look at the man next to her. A smile flashed in her peach blossom eyes. “Is the ghost you are talking about… yourself?”

The only ghost in this place… was this man in front of her.

Man: “!!!”

The man took two steps back after hearing this. He opened his notebook and flipped through it, his dull eyes wide. It’s over! He didn’t think about how he would act after being exposed.

After thinking hard, he gritted his teeth. The best way out was to turn into a ghost now and scare this guest away.

As he thought this, he did so.

His eyes grew wider and wider until his eyeballs gradually protruded, and his skin gradually became particularly green, with faint corpse spots appearing.

The man put the notebook into his pants pocket and sneered, “Since you have discovered the truth, then I won’t hide anymore.”

He thought that if he showed such a terrifying face, the person in front of him would be frightened and run away—after all, he was a real ghost.

However, this person did not make any move to leave but instead seemed to examine his appearance thoughtfully.

For a moment, he felt like he had become a piece of pork on the market being scrutinized before sale.

Man: “???”

Wasn’t his appearance scary?

Why wasn’t this person scared away?

The man whose self-esteem was now seriously thwarted felt so ashamed that he took a few steps back and, forlorn, walked behind the counter, burying his head in his arms as if he couldn’t accept the reality.

He had worked very hard to design the script for so long, and he rehearsed it countless times alone, but he didn’t get off to a good start at all.

How could he be such a failure?

There were tears in the man’s eyes, and he burst into tears from grief.

An Rugu: “…”

Why was this male ghost acting so weird?

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

An Ru sighed and walked up to the man with his face buried in his arms, crying. She turned up the sleeve of her shirt, revealing the five-emperors coin tied off with a red string, and nudged the male ghost’s arm.

The male ghost was a little impatient when he was disturbed. When he looked up and saw the five-emperors coin, he was startled and said in a horrified tone, “Ah! Ah! Yes, I’m a ghost, I am a real ghost!”

He looked at the five-emperors coin. This was a magical weapon to ward off evil spirits, there was no doubt about it.

The first guest was not an ordinary person at all but a metaphysician.

Thinking about this, he felt even more depressed. Before he could realize his ideal, he was already about to die at their hands. Why was his fate so miserable?

But as before, An Rugu had no intention of exorcising this ghost. She pulled back down the sleeve of her shirt and asked, a little curiously, “What are you doing here?”

She could tell that this male ghost had no blood debt on his body, which meant that he had never harmed anyone.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have given him a break when she first saw him and wouldn’t have patiently acted with him to see what kind of medicine he was selling.

Realizing that this metaphysician had no intention of harming him for the time being, the man seemed to have grabbed onto a life-saving straw and hurriedly explained, “I… I am running a haunted house!”

“You are ghost… running a haunted house?” An Rugu said in a subtle tone.

I Livestream Divination to the World translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: fwiw, I got scared listening to the 4 rules 😂

FOOTNOTE:

1. The number 4 is extremely inauspicious in Chinese beliefs. It is a homonym for the word ‘death’. Businesses avoid it the same way Western hotels skip the 13th floor altogether. Same is true for Japan and S. Korea.
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