Transmigrated Into The Boss's Marriage Partner - Chapter 10

After chatting nonsense for a while, Su Youqi pulled Guan Hongyu aside to have a private conversation.

Su Youqi asked, “Second Brother, let’s discuss something. Can you lend me some money?”

Don’t think that because Su Youqi extorted so many items from Su Weiguang he was actually well off. Since the wedding hadn’t happened yet, he couldn’t touch a single penny, leaving him still completely broke.

With no other choice, Su Youqi had no option but to cast his gaze toward the resident tycoon of the dorm.

Fortunately, Guan Hongyu was a straightforward guy. Treating Su Youqi as one of his own, he didn’t even ask what Su Youqi needed the money for and simply asked straight to the point, “How much do you need?”

Su Youqi extended his hand and made a V sign.

Guan Hongyu guessed, “Two thousand?”

Su Youqi retracted one finger, shook the remaining finger left and right, and said, “No, twenty thousand.”

Guan Hongyu was slightly surprised. It wasn’t that he thought twenty thousand yuan was a lot, but rather that twenty thousand yuan should be a significant sum for a student from an ordinary family like Su Youqi.

Normally, most people would casually ask what the money was for in such a situation. Su Youqi had already prepared N different upward, scientific-sounding excuses, but to his surprise, after just a brief moment of astonishment, Guan Hongyu pulled out his phone and asked, “Alipay or WeChat?”

He didn’t ask a single follow-up question.

As expected of a reliable rich second-generation heir, he hadn’t chosen the wrong person!

Su Youqi pulled up his Alipay QR code and extended it in front of Guan Hongyu: “Alipay works.” This way, he could conveniently pay off his overdue Huabei balance.

Brother Guan had plenty of money and few words; without further ado, he transferred twenty thousand yuan right over.

Su Youqi gave Guan Hongyu a loving hug: “Thanks, Second Brother. I’ll pay you back next week.”

“No rush, no rush, I’m not short on cash.” Seeming to have figured out the reason why Su Youqi had looked so exhausted over the past few days, Guan Hongyu earnestly advised him, “Third Brother, just tell your Second Brother if you’re short on cash. Your Second Brother has nothing else, but pocket money is one thing I have plenty of. Borrowing some from me to tide yourself over is more than enough. If worst comes to worst, Second Brother can introduce you to a few more crew gigs to play extras or do stunt work. Just make sure you don’t do anything rash and go work an illegal underground job outside!”

Su Youqi was speechless. I sure thank you so much, Second Brother!

Enduring Guan Hongyu’s caring gaze, Su Youqi stated sincerely, “I am not working an illegal job, nor am I short on cash.”

He was a man about to possess immense wealth; how could he possibly be short on cash?

Holding his phone, Guan Hongyu coughed twice and quipped, “One cough, ten thousand words.”

Having his heart pierced by the remark, Su Youqi was speechless.

Fine, to correct himself: before possessing that immense wealth, he was indeed still short on cash.

TAT

“Don’t worry, Second Brother, I really am not working an illegal job.” Su Youqi was practically ready to swear an oath to Guan Hongyu.

Guan Hongyu was about to say something else when Zhu Wenyu trotted over to rescue Su Youqi: “What are you two whispering about over here? Eldest Brother just sliced up a pineapple and some peaches, and they’re super sweet. Come eat.”

Figuring that Su Youqi had pulled him aside to borrow money in secret precisely because he didn’t want Eldest Brother and Fourth Brother to know, Guan Hongyu considerately swallowed the words he was about to say and decided to help Su Youqi keep his financial distress a complete secret.

Su Youqi didn’t think much of it either. He figured that once he got his money, he could clear up Guan Hongyu’s misunderstanding. At this moment, he had no idea what kind of wild misunderstanding Guan Hongyu was going to cook up for him in the future.

With no classes the next morning and no schedule arranged by the Nan family, Su Youqi, now a man of wealth, woke up exceptionally early and headed to a peculiar shop.

Su Youqi tapped his fingers on the table in a rhythm of one short and two long knocks: “Boss, I’d like a stick of soul-summoning incense.”

The boss looked up at Su Youqi and asked in puzzlement, “Little friend, what is soul-summoning incense? My humble shop doesn’t carry such things. We do have regular incense, candles, and joss paper, though. Do you need any of those?”

That shouldn’t be right. Su Youqi stepped back out the door to double-check the shop name: Zhou Family Funeral Shop.

Su Youqi stepped back inside: “Boss, let’s stop playing games. I just want soul-summoning incense. You can’t refuse to sell it to me just because I look young. I brought money!”

“Little friend, have you been watching too much television or reading too many novels? My shop is a legitimate business selling only funeral supplies. I don’t have any soul-summoning incense like you’re talking about.” The boss earnestly advised Su Youqi, “Judging by your appearance, you’ve been to school. Didn’t your teachers teach you not to engage in feudal superstitions?”

This wasn’t scientific!

Weren’t the rumors saying the boss of the Zhou Family Funeral Shop was a money-grubber?

Speaking of which, the Zhou Family Funeral Shop was something Su Youqi had read about in a novel.

The origins of this shop were mysterious, and Su Youqi, who hadn’t finished reading the novel, didn’t know all the details. He only knew that it carried everything from high-grade magical artifacts down to ordinary incense, candles, and joss paper used by ordinary people.

It did have one distinct feature, however: everything was expensive.

Take this soul-summoning incense, for instance. It wasn’t anything particularly special, and regular celestial masters would sell it for at most five thousand yuan, tops. Yet the Zhou Family Funeral Shop charged twenty thousand yuan for it.

However, based on the author’s description of its usage in the novel, its effects were supposedly much better than ordinary soul-summoning incense, which justified its hefty price tag. Therefore, Su Youqi wanted to take the opportunity today to test what made the Zhou Family Funeral Shop’s soul-summoning incense so special.

The Zhou Family Funeral Shop had another quirk: if you wanted to buy magical goods from them, you had to knock the correct secret code; otherwise, no matter how much money you offered, the boss wouldn’t pay you any mind.

Su Youqi had found the shop’s setting quite interesting when he read it, so he memorized it, and now it came in handy.

Knowing the shop carried what he needed this time around, he checked his memory, looked up the directions, and tracked it down.

Yet he never expected this money-grubbing boss to remain completely unmoved by money even when given the correct secret code, which was a serious case of out-of-character behavior.

Ah, wait! Su Youqi remembered now: the secret code he knocked just now seemed to be wrong!

Su Youqi switched to a rhythm of two short and one long, knocked again, and spoke anew: “Boss, I want a stick of soul-summoning incense, and I have money!”

“Alright, just a moment.” This time, the boss swiftly pulled a stick of incense out from under the counter. “Exactly twenty thousand yuan, thank you.”

Su Youqi remarked, “Boss, teachers taught us not to engage in feudal superstitions.”

Acting as if he hadn’t heard a thing, the boss pointed at the QR code scanner and card reader. “Pay by cash, mobile, or card?”

Su Youqi was speechless. Boss, is it really okay for you to act like this?

“Mobile payment.” Helplessly, Su Youqi scanned the code and transferred the twenty thousand yuan that had barely warmed his hands straight to the boss.

Having sold a twenty-thousand-yuan stick of incense, the boss seemed rather pleased. He grabbed a plastic bag to pack the incense for Su Youqi and even tossed in a complimentary bundle of joss paper.

“You’re welcome to come back again.” The boss’s face didn’t flush and his heart didn’t beat fast, as if he wasn’t the exact same person who had just claimed it was a legitimate business shop moments ago.

Su Youqi replied, “I will be back.”

He’d see whether he was coming back for a repurchase or a refund.

Having secured the soul-summoning incense, Su Youqi found a desolate, uninhabited spot, pulled out a lighter, and set the incense ablaze with a snap.

The moment the incense caught fire, Su Youqi’s gaze transformed.

He muttered a spell under his breath, folded down three fingers, used the smoke from the soul-summoning incense to trace a soul-summoning talisman, and pushed it forward into the distance.

Then, without a shred of hesitation, he snuffed out the soul-summoning incense.

Sigh, such expensive incense had to be used sparingly.

If anyone who used to know Su Youqi were present, they would surely sigh and exclaim that poverty truly makes people thrifty!

With the reinforcement of the soul-summoning incense, the ghost that had been snatched away was easily retrieved this time.

However, it looked a bit miserable.

Clearly, this ghost had suffered some non-ghostly torture. The entity as a whole looked rough, its spiritual body unstable, and its soul covered in scars. Even the heavy hostility it had shown when they last met had been worn down into mere terror.

Su Youqi clearly didn’t appreciate the methods of whoever had snatched his ghost away. Frowning, he asked, “Who hurt you like this?”

Celestial masters had their own rules: save benevolent ghosts, destroy evil ghosts. For a ghost like this one, which had caused harm yet hadn’t gone too far, either purification or eradication could be justified, but it shouldn’t have been subjected to such torture.

To a celestial master, ghosts were real entities. In the celestial realm, torturing a ghost carried the same moral weight as torturing a human and would draw condemnation from peers.

The ghost acted as if it had only just realized Su Youqi could see it. It looked somewhat surprised, yet somewhat relieved, but what came out of its mouth was: “You must be careful. They are going to harm you.”

“Harm me? The people who captured you?” Su Youqi was somewhat surprised.

That seemed a bit far-fetched. This ghost wasn’t anything special; even if it had been snatched from him, it didn’t warrant plotting to harm him for revenge.

After all, when that person snatched the ghost from his hands earlier, he had only thought about getting it back without harboring thoughts of revenge.

The ghost shook its head, then nodded, and said with a sense of urgency: “The person who ordered the Taoist priest to capture me wants to harm you!”