Chapter 47: 46 Business Expansion

46 Business Expansion

Entering his dream tonight, Li Jiahong found himself in the familiar forest, surrounded by mist. Not far ahead was a cold pool of white fog, with Gui Liu growing along the water's edge, and an ancient wooden house embraced by a Locust Tree stood quietly within this Miwu Senlin.

With a sense of intuition, Li Jiahong approached the wooden house again. He bowed gently before the door to the crimson ghost mask on the door panel, and only then did he push the door open to enter the shop.

Here, he saw Wei Jiang again, dressed in red, who was busy sweeping the wooden house.

Wei Jiang smiled as soon as he saw a guest arrive, but the guest knelt down the moment he saw him.

Wei Jiang was completely stunned and hurriedly helped the person up, "Mr. Li, look at you, what are you doing?"

"I don't know how else to thank you; this is the only way I could think of," Li Jiahong said with a sincere face. "For every good person I've met on my lonely journey, I could think of a way to repay their kindness, but for you, I truly don't know."

"You don't need to thank me; this is part of my duty now anyway," Wei Jiang shook his head and said. "Besides, you won't be thinking about thanking me for long."

Li Jiahong was puzzled. Just then, he suddenly heard the sound of the door being pushed open. He couldn't help but look back, wanting to know what other guests might come besides himself, only to see a familiar figure.

"Miss Yu?" Li Jiahong was taken aback.

"We meet again." Yu Lianyun nodded. She was not surprised that Li Jiahong would appear here. "We are all guests who have been here before."

Hearing this, Li Jiahong suddenly realized that everyone visiting the Forest Cabin from their dreams now were guests who had been to the shop.

Before the two could catch up, an elegant gentleman with a feminine appearance and a cane walked into the shop. He took off his hat and looked at everything around him with fanatical and devout eyes, as if he deeply believed in every single thing in this shop.

"Haimofen!?" Li Jiahong's eyes widened in shock. He never expected that a world-class music master would also be a guest of the Forest Cabin. Recalling the rumors in the streets about Haimofen's "depression and silence" over the past few years, he couldn't help but form guesses about the true story behind this gentleman.

"Nice to meet you, sir." Hearing someone recognize him, Haimofen's eyes lit up when he saw it was a new guest, and he walked over with a smile, reaching out his hand.

Li Jiahong had been feeling a bit of fan-like excitement, but when he noticed that Haimofen's outstretched hand was wearing a glove equipped with sharp blades, his expression instantly stiffened on his face.

This Haimofen, why is he so abnormal?

Seeing Li Jiahong's stiffened expression, Haimofen finally noticed the impropriety of his actions. He apologetically took off the glove and reached out to the other party again in a gesture of goodwill.

But as Haimofen took off the glove, the even more hideous and terrifying reality stung the human eye. When Li Jiahong saw that hand full of flesh-holes and scars, he immediately felt his face stiffen even more severely.

What kind of horrific, inhumane reality had this genius musician experienced during his years of silence?

If the violin was Haimofen's weapon, then his hands were his soul, and now Haimofen's soul was bizarrely twisted, incomparably ugly, and riddled with holes.

Li Jiahong had no choice but to bite the bullet and shake hands with Haimofen. Touching every inch of the roughness, he could feel the terror that pained his very soul, and he couldn't help but ask: "Your hand is...?"

To this, Haimofen smiled dismissively and said: "Ah, this? To put it simply, there was a bad-tempered Butler who wanted to lure me to play for his master. I didn't want to go, so they suppressed me and tortured me. When I refused to agree, they wanted to destroy my hands. I had no choice, and it was only after finding Lin Laoban for help that I managed to drive them away."

"I see." Li Jiahong nodded, though in his heart, he wouldn't believe even a punctuation mark of what Haimofen said. The other party spoke in abstract and simple terms, but in reality, as long as one thought about what kind of existences Lin Laoban dealt with, one could quickly imagine what kind of monsters every image mentioned in Haimofen's words actually referred to.

"Hahaha, you've all come." Just then, Lin Ling's voice sounded from upstairs. Everyone looked up to see Lin Ling, his hair damp, wearing pajamas with a Q-version monk pattern, slowly walking down from upstairs with a welcoming smile.

When everyone saw the youthful-looking and gentle-spoken Lin Ling, they all felt a wave of tension. Especially the three guests, who bowed to him with almost twelve-fold respect: "Good evening, Lin Laoban."

"I'm very sorry to have suddenly asked you all to come over at such a late hour," Lin Ling said apologetically. "However, there is an important matter I wish to announce."

"Recently, in order to promote the business, I've decided that besides the physical shop operations, I will also expand the business into the virtual world, and dreams are just perfect for that." Lin Ling said with a smile, "In the future, there will be other new guests visiting at any time, and everyone can communicate freely in their dreams."

After finishing, Lin Ling beckoned to Li Jiahong, "Mr. Li, come over here for a moment. There is one more thing to announce, and it concerns you."

Li Jiahong was stunned and obediently stepped forward. The other two stood frozen in place, pricking up their ears in curiosity, wanting to know what Lin Ling was going to announce.

Lin Ling said: "Considering that you, Mr. Li, are already unable to return the rented items in time, according to the rental contract signed at the time, you must either pay compensation or fulfill your obligations by working for the shop until the debt is cleared."

Hearing this, Li Jiahong already knew his fate. He secretly swallowed a mouthful of saliva, "Uh, if I have to pay, how can I pay?"

"Life is priceless," Lin Ling said with a smile, "So you had better fulfill your compensation obligation and do more things for the shop."

Hearing this, Li Jiahong fell silent. He knew he couldn't escape Lin Ling's clutches, so he could only laugh dryly: "Then what do you need me to do?"

"Oh, it's actually quite simple. Just work the night shift, pull an all-nighter, that's all." Lin Ling sighed, "Mainly because I haven't been out for a walk in a long time, and I want to go outside for some fresh air."

Hearing Lin Ling say "some fresh air," Li Jiahong and the other two guests felt a tremor in their hearts, as if they were seeing an ancient god capable of easily destroying the galaxy about to be unleashed.

Yu Lianyun asked stutteringly: "You are still able to go out for a walk?"

Haimofen, however, said with a face full of excitement: "As expected of Lin Laoban!"

Li Jiahong's mind was in chaos, his eyes looking at Lin Ling in a daze, not knowing what to say.

Lin Ling patted Li Jiahong on the shoulder, and immediately, Li Jiahong felt a stream of unfamiliar information flood into his mind. Most of it was about the rules of the shop, such as what could be touched, what couldn't be touched, and what measures to take if something was accidentally touched... It was as if he had lived through the entire life of a 007 corporate slave in an instant.

"Then you shall start your shift from today." Lin Ling sent Li Jiahong to sit in his own seat and then gave him a brief introduction to their shop's way of treating guests.

Li Jiahong, whether honored or unfortunate, began his life as the shop's front desk clerk from that moment on.