Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 341 Ordinary
A former roommate of Zhou You once asked him, "What is the most depraved thing in the world?"
At the time, Zhou Yousheng was munching on a cucumber and answered without hesitation.

"Eat, sleep, sleep, eat!"

But now, he has unknowingly become the kind of person he describes himself as.

"Amuro, I'm doing something incredibly greedy."

The little ghost girl next to him glanced at him with the look of someone looking at an idiot, then pointed to the controller and told him that he should go to the next level.

Zhou You reluctantly pressed the start button.

They're currently playing Super Mario Bros. on a Famicom—this antique was something Zhou You found at a small stall a few days ago when he went grocery shopping. Who would have thought that when the little ghost saw it, she felt an instant connection with it and fell in love with it. Every day, besides watching TV and cooking, her favorite thing to do is drag Zhou You to find two-player games to play.

So Zhou You's daily routine consisted of eating, eating, eating, and sleeping.

It turned into eating, playing games, eating, playing games, eating, playing games, and sleeping.

What utter depravity!

Looking at his somewhat plump body, he was about to sigh about the return of his thigh fat, but then he suddenly remembered that he had no intention of restoring the Han Dynasty, so he sat back down with a clear conscience.

However, at this moment, the little ghost girl looked up and glanced at her watch.

Then she pressed the pause button, picked up an apron from the side, tied it on, and made a gesture to Zhou You.

After spending time together day and night, Zhou You also understood what this meant.

This is asking yourself what you want to eat.

He put down the controller, pondered for a long time, and then uttered a few terms.

"Boiled cabbage in clear broth with Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, topped with candied ginkgo nuts and snow-white red bean paste?"

"Dang!"

That's the sound of the iron pot hitting Zhou You's head.

So he could only sigh, cover his head, and continue speaking.

"If this won't work, how about lowering the standard? Potato stew with beef?"

This time, the little ghost girl simply spread her hands and shook her head.

"What? Beef was too expensive, so you didn't buy any? There must still be some pork in the fridge, right?"

Continue to shake your head.

"No pork left? Then surely there should be some eggs."

This time, he finally nodded.

Watching the little ghost girl drift into the kitchen, Zhou You sighed.

This is another problem he is facing now.

—He's going to run out of food.

Originally, he didn't have many personal expenses, and the 80,000 yuan he got from the construction company boss wasn't a small amount. It would have been more than enough to live on for two or three years. Unfortunately, most of the money went to paying off his debts, and after paying rent, there was very little left. Plus, he recently had another mouth to feed.
Of course, it must be said that with his skill level, it would indeed be easy for him to make money if he really wanted to. However, the problem is that he is still carrying the curse of Duanxie.

While this sword does indeed have a flexible moral bottom line, it doesn't mean that Zhou You can use his skills to commit evil at will. Usually, it's enough to see him stealing money from those unscrupulous merchants and thugs. If he really wanted to use this skill to become a thief or something similar...
It's okay to starve to death, but it's not okay to just survive.

Zhou You tapped the sword on the table and complained.

"Hey, can't we be a little more accommodating? I'm not going to steal from ordinary people, I'm just borrowing a little from those who deserved to be stuck with lampposts."

However, Duanxie did not answer.

Now the sword lies quietly on the table, motionless and unresponsive, as if it were a truly inanimate object.

Zhou You let out a soft sigh.

Perhaps due to the suppression of too much potential in the final battle against evil, Duanxie, though not broken on the outside, has actually become extremely bad inside. Now it is only being nurtured little by little by the accumulated blood evil.

When they parted, he did learn about the method to repair the magic sword from Sect Leader He—unfortunately, he had never even heard of many of the materials, and since they were in reality, there was nowhere to find them.

"Zhonglin Iron, Whirlwind Thorn, and this Black Jade Bead... how come each name is stranger than the last?"

Just when he was at his wit's end, the little ghost girl had already prepared the food.

The dishes were quite simple: a plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, a plate of thick omelet she learned to make on TV, and some leftover steamed buns from last night, which she lightly fried in oil until golden and crispy.

Under the little ghost's guidance, Zhou You temporarily put aside his evil-slaying, sighed, and washed his hands. But as soon as he sat back down and took his first bite, all his worries vanished without a trace.

After some time apart, the little ghost's cooking skills have improved a lot.

This isn't to say that it's the best in the world—for example, the birthday banquet of the Hidden King that he once attended was cooked by proper imperial chefs, and the ingredients used were all kinds of delicacies, definitely a thousand times better than these plain eggs.

But how should I put it...
Although this saying is a bit cliché, it truly captures the feeling of home.

After a simple lunch, the little ghost girl prepared to catch up on her afternoon animated film, while Zhou You started browsing his old computer, hoping to find some work to do.

Since the black book has temporarily stopped working, and he doesn't know when he will be pulled back in, he can only choose part-time jobs with more flexible hours.

Unfortunately.

I don't know why, maybe the job market is just too bad right now, or maybe their city is just too small. After searching for ages, they couldn't find any short-term part-time jobs, or even a single crowdsourced food delivery or courier job.

"This is really outrageous!"

Looking at the few scattered job postings, Zhou You refreshed the page several more times, finally confirming that what he was seeing was reality.

But just as he was scratching his head, a cold hand suddenly nudged him.

Turning my head, I saw a cup of clear tea.

The little ghost's concerned face also came into view.

Zhou You almost called out "Mom." Luckily he didn't, otherwise he probably wouldn't have been hit with the bottom of a pot—but this interruption relaxed him, and he simply shut down the computer and left.

Forget it, although the standard for breaking evil is to starve to death, I have a child to raise. No matter how heartless this broken sword is, it can't just watch such a beautiful girl starve to death, right?
What's that saying again? Emergency avoidance isn't a crime, stealing isn't stealing, even if I lose 1 yuan, Buddha would forgive me.

So after his thoughts were cleared, Zhou You felt much more relaxed. He thought about it and realized that he hadn't left the house for several days. So he patted his bottom and called out to the little ghost girl.

"Hey Xiaobai... oh wait, I mean Xiaoying, I'm thinking of going for a walk, wanna come along?"

The little ghost girl glanced at the TV, then at Zhou You, seemingly hesitant, but ultimately chose to float over, taking a piece of table corner with her and handing it to Zhou You.

Outside, the sun was shining brightly, and the weather was perfect.

That's life. Compared to the thrilling, life-or-death situations in dramas, it's just the mundane details of daily life.

After a few days, in addition to continuing his job search, Zhou You started going to the library again—this time not to find a case, but to brush up on his history and see if he could find any connection to the script.

Unfortunately, even after thoroughly studying the general history and consulting with several friends who had studied history, he still couldn't find any useful clues.

The dynasties and history he experienced seemed like fictions; perhaps some parts were ambiguous, but most of them were never even mentioned.

Days passed by little by little. On this day, Zhou You was curled up in his room, eating cheap snacks made by the little ghost girl while flipping through a book of unofficial histories. He had searched through all the official histories, and if he wanted to find clues, he could only look for them in these unofficial histories.

—But you know what, this stuff is way more interesting than official history.

For example, the chapter he's reading now is about Li Shimin seducing Li Yuanba, which aroused Li Yuan's jealousy and rivalry.
only.

Just as Zhou You was engrossed in watching, the phone suddenly rang.

With difficulty, Zhou You got out of bed and reached down to grab his phone. Unable to reach it for a moment, he rolled over and didn't intend to pay any more attention to it.

After all, with his pitiful social circle, the only people who would call him on weekdays, besides salespeople, are basically those big hospitals advertising their services.

The unusual thing is that these harassing calls usually stop on their own after a while, but today, for some reason, they're going on and on, making a racket that never seems to end.

Finally, the little ghost girl sighed helplessly, floated over, picked up the phone and put it to Zhou You's ear, not forgetting to press the answer button before leaving.

Immediately, a loud voice rang out.

"Little Zhou, I'm your second uncle. Do you remember me?"

Are scammers still using these decades-old tricks? They haven't made any progress at all!
Zhou You sighed, and was about to reply, "I am your long-lost father," when for some reason, he suddenly felt that the voice was indeed somewhat familiar.

After racking his brains for a long time, he finally found a picture.

That was a guest who was just contributing money at his grandfather's funeral.
Holy crap, it really is my second uncle?

—But why did he call? Normally, when relatives come to our door without a reason, it's either to ask for help or to borrow money. They wouldn't ask an unemployed college graduate like me for help, and as for borrowing money…
We're dirt poor, yet people still want to borrow money from us?

After thinking about it, Zhou You was still completely confused. He scratched his head and could only go along with what the other person was saying.

"It's me, sir. May I ask what brings you here?"

Unexpectedly, the other party became unhappy after hearing this.

"Look at what you're saying. Can't your second uncle talk to you if there's nothing wrong?"

Then came a barrage of complaints, such as, "I used to hold you when you were little, and you haven't come back to visit our hometown in all these years," and so on.
Zhou You held the phone, unsure whether to listen or hang up. Meanwhile, the little ghost girl put down the TV program, floated over, looked at his embarrassed face, and laughed heartily.

"Anyway, you'll have to come back for the ancestral worship ceremony. Also, I heard you've gotten better recently? That's great news! But you're not getting any younger, and you're the only son in your family, so it's time you found a girlfriend. Your second aunt's classmate has a nice girl who just started junior high this year."

No, junior high? That's illegal.

Seeing that the other party was going on and on with increasingly outrageous talk, Zhou You had no choice but to interrupt.

"Well, Second Uncle, I'm a little busy here. If it's nothing serious, I'll hang up now."

Upon hearing this, the other party finally got to the point.

"Hey Zhou, I remember your grandpa used to do a lot of exorcisms and exorcisms, right?"

"It's a folk custom, okay? Just understand it that way, what's wrong?"

"I heard you must have learned quite a bit too, right?"

Zhou You was taken aback.

"Excuse me, who told you this?"

The voice on the other end of the phone was still as loud and carefree as ever.

"Didn't a classmate come to your grandpa's funeral? I think his surname was Chen or Li, anyway, the one who was round and chubby? I ran into him when I came to the city on business a while ago, so we chatted for a bit. He raved about you for ages, practically calling you a god. Little Zhou, you really are something, keeping this from me."

Li Sanli, can't you shut your big, lousy mouth a little better?
Zhou You felt an urge to punch someone, but he suppressed the impulse and patiently continued.

"Second Uncle, you're joking. My skills are just amateurish; they're nothing special."

When relatives ask for your help, the best way to deal with it is to firmly refuse, since this basically means "lots of work", "little money", and "huge trouble".

Whether the person opposite him didn't understand Zhou You's meaning or was deliberately pretending not to understand, he continued to laugh.

"Little Zhou, don't refuse. Listen to me first—your second uncle has found you a good job. I know a friend who has a daughter who, being a child, likes to run around aimlessly. A while ago, she went to a small village to do some kind of local customs survey, and somehow something happened to her. A wise man said it might be related to spirits and ghosts. You know, your grandfather was quite famous in this area when he was alive. Since you've followed in his footsteps, your second uncle is introducing you to them, and earning a little referral fee along the way."

Zhou You sighed.

Although I am indeed very free right now, I really don't want to take on this kind of job that came out of nowhere—and at this moment the other party seemed to have thought of something and stammered out another sentence.

"Of course, things are different now than before. My second uncle knows the market rates in this area, but this family isn't exactly wealthy, so they might be offering a lower price."

—Well, it seems they're not planning to give much money at all.

Zhou You was about to say a few polite words to decline when the other party had already quoted a price.

"It's probably only around 100,000."

You son of a bitch Peng Jiayan, you're a real swindler!
(End of this chapter)