Chapter 55: Loyal Dog (Part 8)

Shao Quan thought he really didn’t like dogs, so when he saw a little beagle appear at his doorstep, he was somewhat stunned.

This beagle seemed to have just learned to walk. He didn’t know whether it was deliberately abandoned here, or brought over by a stray dog mother. When a pair of human feet appeared in its vision, it very happily lunged over and began tearing at the tip of Shao Quan’s shoe.

“…” Shao Quan quickly extended two fingers to pinch the skin at the back of its neck, lifting it away a bit. He looked around left and right, but there really was no other person in sight.

Either let it fend for itself, or help it find a good owner, or… take it in?

Before witnessing Zheng Siyuan’s soul possessing Chen Jiu with his own eyes, he completely didn’t believe in fate or destiny. But now he had to waver.

Was heaven taking pity on him for not being able to take Bingbing, and compensating him with a beagle? But where was the compensation in a big-eared weird howler? This little thing was only cute when it was young. When it grew up, who knew whether this new home would be enough for it to demolish.

After silently staring at the beagle for a long time, Shao Quan sighed, tucked it into his arms, opened the door with one hand, and formally decided to adopt this demon pill.

Wan Shi Zhai.

Chen Jiu circled around the hexagrams calculating once. She could confirm she hadn’t calculated wrong.

Su Xiaoyu leaned on the table’s edge watching. Now she could only understand a little bit, reading intermittently: “Continued… reincarnation… before… what?”

“Creating karma.” Chen Jiu didn’t answer directly, only shook her head and said this, then put away the copper coins.

When the time came, Bingbing went over to fetch its own leash, walked to Su Xiaoyu and fawningly wagged its tail.

“Oh? It’s walking time, right? Bingbing is so good!” Su Xiaoyu vigorously rubbed Bingbing’s head a few times, and led it out for a walk.

After Bingbing’s grand arrival, Chen Xiaoxuan also became very fond of going out for walks. Sometimes curled up in Su Xiaoyu’s hood, sometimes lying on Bingbing’s back, in short not tiring itself out at all.

All three little ones went out together. Chen Jiu instructed them to be careful on the road, then sat at the counter to start this month’s accounts.

Starting from this year Wan Shi Zhai had been continuously profitable, wealth rolling in. Not to mention dogs bring fortune and cats bring wealth. Now there was no fear of deficits.

In the midst of busyness, a name that rarely surfaced in the sect group chat popped up a private message dialog for her.

Chen Ba: Junior Sister, what have you been busy with lately? Your senior brother here has a business deal to introduce to you. I wonder if you have time?

Chen Jiu: What kind of business, speak in detail.

Eighth Senior Brother was the most forgetful-of-roots person in the sect. After descending the mountain, relying on his not bad looks, he directly struck it big and became the male lead in short dramas. Several short dramas in a row were all horror livestream elements, and the dividends came very fast.

Because he slightly understood feng shui, his acting was still passable in the short drama circle. After the drama exploded in popularity, he was quickly spotted by a horror film director and invited to play the second male lead in a movie. Very smoothly, this first horror film he participated in also exploded. So horror film offers came like snowflakes fluttering down.

Actually the domestic horror film audience was quite stable in size, so his income also relatively stabilized. Among the sect brothers and sisters doing ordinary work, he was definitely the one earning the most. But while earning more he also quickly forgot his roots. He wasn’t seen returning to honor Master during festivals or holidays.

Instead, in the first few months after descending the mountain he returned once, asking Master to change his name for him. Saying he was going to mix in the entertainment industry, being called Chen Ba was too ugly, he had to change to something presentable.

Yun Shan calculated back and forth, and gave him a literary, romantic name that also satisfied his fate’s five elements lacking earth: Chen Xingye.

One listen and it was an artist’s name. Chen Ba was very satisfied.

Chen Jiu deeply felt that Eighth Senior Brother’s forgetfulness of roots was instinctive, indicating this was his nature. Suddenly coming to find her, there was a high probability he had dug a pit waiting for her to jump into. Asking clearly was very necessary.

Chen Ba: Junior Sister, don’t be so distant. Come here, senior brother treats you to a meal. We’ll talk in detail at the dinner table.

Saying this he sent a location, and also sent a transfer, five digits, noted as deposit.

This location was right beside Qiu City, Lü City. This place had many snacks too, and several scenic spots nearby, very suitable for playing a few days on the side.

Chen Jiu’s heart moved fiercely. The deposit was already five digits. If this deal went through, wouldn’t she be able to eat for a year with the door closed?

She swiftly accepted this deposit, replying: Let’s say this first. If the difficulty of your commission is truly too high, I have the right to refuse this order. But the deposit can only be half refunded to you, the rest must serve as my travel expenses.

Chen Ba: No problem.

Right in the summer vacation, in the evening Su Xiaoyu heard her senior sister was taking her to travel to neighboring Lü City, and was so happy she couldn’t sleep. In the middle of the night she got up and swept the entire shop once, then mopped it once.

During summer vacation she basically lived at the shop for five days, and at home for two days. Chen Jiu had bought her a simple iron-frame small bed. When she had more money in hand, she planned to take over the third floor too. After all now there were cats, dogs, and people at home, there had to be places to settle them.

Early the next morning, the two packed their things, dragging two suitcases total, one big one small. Two backpacks contained Bingbing and Chen Xiaoxuan’s luggage. Ready to go.

This trip was abundantly funded. Chen Jiu directly rented a Ford, personally driving the children out.

After departing, she specially detoured to Su Xiaoyu’s doorstep. Su Xiaoyu’s grandmother insisted on stuffing a large bag of peach crisps through the car window. Chen Jiu had no way, and could only accept it, repeatedly saying: “Rest assured, rest assured, Grandma. I will definitely take good care of Xiaoyu. You rest assured.”

“Grandma! I’ll show you photos when I come back!” Su Xiaoyu waved her hand, happily saying goodbye to Grandma.

Then the road was smooth all the way. That evening, Chen Jiu appeared as promised in the private room Chen Ba had reserved.

Chen Ba was somewhat speechless. His gaze swept from Chen Xiaoxuan to Bingbing, then from Bingbing to Su Xiaoyu, and finally made eye contact with Chen Jiu, incredulously saying: “Did you really have to bring the whole family?”

“Then I couldn’t just leave them at home, right? Who would take care of them?” Chen Jiu’s expression was very open and aboveboard.

Su Xiaoyu had been secretly observing Chen Ba’s appearance, wondering in her heart, why did this senior brother’s face look so familiar?

Chen Ba noticed this, and gave her a formulaic smile: “Little Junior Sister, first time meeting. Senior brother has nothing to give you. After the meal senior brother will give you a red envelope.”

“Hello Eighth Senior Brother…” Su Xiaoyu replied timidly.

“Alright, senior sister and senior brother have business to discuss. You eat obediently.” Chen Jiu put several pieces of braised pork into her bowl.

This table’s food was good, much higher than their usual meal standard. Xiaoyu, work hard eating these two days, somehow you have to gain a few ounces of flesh coming back.

Su Xiaoyu nodded, shoveling rice into her mouth while also taking care of Bingbing and Chen Xiaoxuan. If they had their eyes on any dish, she would quietly scatter a bit on the floor, careful and cautious, afraid of being caught and lectured by this senior brother who didn’t look easy to get along with.

“It’s that my crew’s location encountered a bit of trouble this time. The sets are already built, inconvenient to move. Found two or three gentlemen to look at it, none saw improvement, so this is why I came to ask you. Recently your Wan Shi Zhai has quite a reputation in the industry.” Chen Ba said, pouring a bit of wine into his own cup.

Chen Jiu was suspicious: “Can’t you handle it yourself?”

“Me?” Chen Ba pointed at his own nose: “That bit of three-legged cat kung fu is enough to fool little ghosts. This one… I can’t say for sure. Anyway with my skills, I definitely can’t invite it to move. If I handle it poorly I might even injure my own foundation. I don’t dare go.”

Chen Jiu said: “So it turns out the moment you descended the mountain you forgot your fundamental training skills completely clean, wasting all these years of Master’s teachings.”

“I just wasn’t cut out for this material.” Chen Ba said: “Junior Sister, do you think I didn’t set up a stall to tell fortunes for people when I descended the mountain? It was heaven destined that I couldn’t eat from this bowl, that’s why I walked the acting route. Who knew… one shot to fame. A person’s lifetime of fortune, truly can’t be said for certain.”

Chen Jiu treated it as him bragging, shook her head, and gestured for him to continue.

Chen Ba took a small sip of wine, contentedly saying: “This time the investors are spending big. Just building this scene cost this much.”

He made a seven with his hand.

Chen Jiu: “…”

It seemed Chen Ba had truly gotten rich these years. Every day dealing with the God of Wealth, how could he not earn?

“So the compensation given to you definitely won’t be a small amount. Senior brother would scam anyone but not you, right?” Chen Ba laughed: “I won’t hide it from you either. If I introduce you over, and the matter is handled, I also get benefits. But in this circle doing things requires signing a confidentiality agreement. You can understand that, right?”

Chen Jiu: “Of course.”

After the meal, Chen Ba had already arranged everything properly. The hotel booked was also five-star, with dedicated personnel taking care of cats and dogs, everything configured to the max.

After settling the luggage, and instructing the hotel manager to look after this room’s child and fur children, it wasn’t long before the sun tilted westward. Chen Jiu was then led by her senior brother, visiting the film set at night.

This crew was indeed wildly extravagant. The scene was an entire aristocratic clan estate of a wealthy family from ancient times. From the main gate to the front courtyard, main hall, covered corridors, inner courtyard, study, and back garden, all were built as actual sets.

Chen Jiu hadn’t expected Chen Ba’s face to be quite big. All along the way people were bowing and scraping to greet him, calling him Teacher Xingye, Teacher Chen. Most people didn’t dare ask much when they saw Chen Jiu, until a middle-aged man with a full beard appeared.

This man saw Chen Jiu, initially somewhat blank, repeatedly looking at Chen Ba’s expression. Until Chen Ba nodded, he then walked to Chen Jiu in disbelief, enthusiastically saying: “You are the Master Chen Jiu from Wan Shi Zhai, right? I have long admired, long admired.”

Chen Jiu nodded, and simply shook hands with him.

Chen Ba introduced left and right: “Chen Jiu, Master Chen. Director Ren, Director Ren.”

Ren Zhu had originally thought Chen Jiu was a new actress brought to audition for some small role. Knowing she was really the Wan Shi Zhai boss, he let out a heavy breath of relief, and fired off like a string of pearls: “Master Chen, these past half month, our crew has really been haunted…”