Shizun 008 - Bizarre encounter at the part time job

There was a lot of job opportunities around campus.

Lu Yunzhen was experienced in a large variety of part time jobs. From game grinding, fast food, tutoring... he’s done them all. He’s quite good at them too, but thanks to his bad luck he’d often find himself at a sudden loss of employment, such as the time when the family he tutored for suddenly moved away...

He had been taking day jobs recently. Being paid daily in cash was nice and rarely had issues.

Yinmao mall was situated in the central district, which is the most prosperous part of Haiping city. It was a high end mall where trendy men and women often gathered.

The mall just had its ten year anniversary recently and was running a lot of promotions. A lot of part time workers were hired to dress up as pandas. They would be sent to local streets to hand out flyers, dance, and take photos with customers.

The work was 6 hours a shift. 200 yuan a day.

Lu Yunzhen happily put on the panda mascot costume, grabbed a pile of flyers, and started handing them out at the designated street corner. Every hour on the dot he’d do a dance with his coworkers, which attracted the smiles of the passersby.

The mascot costumes might look cute, but they’re actually very uncomfortable. It’s heavy, stuffy, hard to see out of, and exhausting to dance in.

It was the last day of the event, and the supervisor said whoever handed out the most flyers would get a bonus.

Lu Yunzhen was working extra hard.

Recently, he noticed that Mo Changkong not only looked cool, he was also a good guy. The night before, he was half awake when he noticed Mo Changkong standing by his bed. It was as if he was hungry but couldn’t bear to wake Lu Yunzhen up for food. After a lot of hesitation he ended up covering him up with a blanket so not even a little bit of stomach was left...

Lu Yunzhen finally realized why he had been waking up fully covered every morning. It wasn’t that his habit of kicking off his sheets was fixed, but rather that someone was taking care of him in secret.

He hasn’t felt that kind of warmth since his grandpa had passed away.

Lu Yunzhen was moved to absolute pieces.

He was already the type to pay back kindness to begin with, since there was someone who was being kind to him from deep within his heart, he would be sure to pay it back several times over. Even though he’s still not sure if he’s really Mo Changkong’s Shizun, if Mo Changkong trusts him then he’ll work hard to be a good one!

Every day, he would try to make new and interesting foods for Mo Changkong, to patiently teach him to speak, to read simplified writing, currency, arithmetics, home appliances, common sense, etc etc.

Mo Changkong studied very seriously.

Lu Yunzhen also wanted to save up some money for a phone. After he got a replacement screen for his phone, Mo Changkong was very curious and played with the phone for a long time. He especially love the camera option, and looked through all his photos, especially his selfies. They even took a selfie together and he had sighed, saying he wished they had something like this before.

Even a cheap phone costs over a thousand yuan.

Lu Yunzhen had been working for four hours straight without drinking water or taking a break. But a lot of customers didn’t want the flyers and either turned away or threw them into the trash.

Mo Changkong didn’t have an ID and couldn’t work.

He squatted nearby and his lungs were about to explode from anger. Shizun had vanquished demons, protected the innocent, and been respected by tens of thousands. Even kings had to put together a grand welcome for him, he’s never been through such injustice before.

A flyer that Shizun had handed out by his own hands was an unmatched honor. These mortals not only didn’t receive him on their knees, they even dared to turn him down and humiliate him, how despicable!

He wanted to capture the souls of these ungrateful humans and jail them in a dream for a hundred years where they’d have to hand out flyers. Just as a warning.

But, Shizun would get angry....

Shizun loved the mortal realm. Even after he gained immortality he often hid his identity to wander around the mortal realm. Butcher or beggar, king or general, farmer or wood cutter, musician or courtesan... as long as their personalities matched up they could all be Shizun’s friend.

Even if someone was shameless in front of him he’d let things go with a smile.

Shizun often said, sword cultivators have to have an open mind, that if he put everything in his heart his heart wouldn’t be happy anymore.

He has to be obedient, not pick fights, not do bad things.....

Mo Changkong took a deep breath, tried to open his mind, ignore those awful humans, and focus on the more polite humans.

He saw a girl take a flyer and say thank you with a smile.

Shizun seems to be very happy and made a heart gesture on the panda’s head.

Mo Changkong thought about it and found a mengmo corpse in his seed space.

Shizun never liked the beasts, and often said that sword cultivators can’t use dreams to numb themselves lest it damages their cultivation.

A lot of other cultivators loved them and often had mengmo hunts. This resulted in fewer and fewer of the things around. The one in his hand was a prize after killing some demonic cultivators.

Humans seem to love good dreams too...

Mo CHangkong pulled a hair from the mengmo, then used his powers to transform it into a spiritual butterfly and quietly fly it into the girl.

Tonight, she will realize all her wishes in her dreams, and have a happiness that she will never forget...

...

By dusk, Lu Yunzhen finally finished his stack of flyers.

Suddenly, a few drunken young people walked out of the nearby hotpot restaurant. They were all rather good looking and fashionable. Seeing the group of dancing pandas, they jogged over giggling and fell into a laughing pile.

The girls all started taking selfies with the pandas.

One of the guys who was clearly an imbecile wanted to make his girlfriend laugh, and so quietly walked behind Lu Yunzhen, wanting to knock on the mascot head and scare whoever’s inside.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” bellowed one of the other men. He shoved the rude man aside and continued, “That’s awful, I’m going to send you to jail!”

Lu Yunzhen really did get hit in the head.

There was a metal skeleton to the costume which was about two dozen pounds in weight. If it was hit too hard it would cause the wearer pain and maybe even a concussion.

Luckily the hit wasn’t very hard since someone stepped in, and he wasn’t hurt.

Lu Yunzhen swayed for a few steps then found his footing.

He looked up, then saw that the person who helped him was a fuerdai with diamond earrings, bleached blonde hair, and a strong scent of alcohol. He was rather handsome too. Lu Yunzhen nodded in gratitude.

The fuerdai reached out and rubbed at the area where the panda was hit, and almost cried from heartache. “Pandas are so adorable, and they’re national treasures too! How can you bully it like that?!”

This guy is really drunk...

“Don’t be scared, panda. I just LOVE pandas.” The fuerdai hugged Lu Yunzhen and rubbed his face against the costume. He continued with his confession, “I’m going to buy out a bamboo garden and feed you bamboo every day...”

Lu Yunzhen gestured at his friends, hoping that they’ll drag this drunk off of him.

“Don’t rush, don’t rush. Just let him hug you a little more”. The friends hurridly pulled out their phones and started recording from every angle while cackling. “We’re just taking this as a souvenir so we can should young master Long when he sobers up tomorrow.”

This fuerdai was named Long Jingtian, and his family was rather wealthy. He spent his days slacking off, hanging out with friends, and starting nonsense. He also loved drinking and always ended up as the butt of jokes when he got drunk.

Lu Yunzhen felt rather helpless.

After the friends had their share of the joke they got together and dragged Long Jingtian off. As an apology they grabbed the rest of Lu Yunzhen’s flyers and passed them amongst themselves.

Lu Yunzhen was happy to finish off his flyers and wasn’t bothered by the ramblings of a drunk. He was going to clean up and go home, only to realize that there was a few strands of dark mist on the crown of Long Jingtian’s head.

Something’s off about this...

Since he had his eyes opened to all this and had gleaned some supernatural knowledge from Mo Changkong, he’s seen a few ghosts around the neighbourhood. They were mostly the the elderly who recently died who haven’t reported to the underworld yet. Other than being a little pale and having a bit of a floaty walk, they looked nearly the same as when they were alive and it wasn’t scary.

The meanest ghost was in the school dorm near his house, where a young mom seems to have passed away suddenly. Every night when her son with poorgrades did his homework she would have a twisted expression and yell at the top of her lungs, “WHAT IS THE PERIMETER OF A RECTANGLE! DO THAT OVER AGAIN!”

Thanks to that mom, he’s not scared of ghosts anymore.

Lu Yunzhen thought of his xuanxue knowledge. He remembered that Mo Changkong had told him the crown of the head is connected to the soul. If there was dark mist around the crown, that means the person had been targeted by an evil spirit and is about to face a calamity. In the best case scenario they would have their vitality eaten and lose years of their life, and in the worst case scenario they would lose their life and have their soul scattered.

Long Jingtian was staggering away.

Lu Yunzhen hurriedly chased after him, examined the situation, and asked worriedly, “young sir, have you encountered anything strange lately? Like a ghost and such...”

Long Jingtian was shocked. “THE PANDA IS TALKING!”

Mascots aren’t permitted to speak, but since a human life is on the line Lu Yunzhen ignored the rules. He continued, “Something terrible might have happened to you, it’s very dangerous...”

“Oh fuck off. Do you know how to talk or not? If you don’t then shut it! I bet the ghost is after you!” Long Jingtian was sobering up somewhat and didn’t want to listen to all this declaration of bad luck. He shoved him away in a fit of anger and shouted, “You scammers should at least be professional! Make up something that isn’t fucking nonsense! Don’t think I’m an easy mark to screw over!”

As if there was some taoist master going around in a mascot costume.

Anyone would think it was a scammer.

Long Jintian got in a cab and got away while continuing to curse.

Lu Yunzhen didn’t blame him for the misunderstanding. He wanted to take off the costume and explain, but he couldn’t reach his back zipper... After struggling for a bit, he finally waved. Mo Changkong was watching his Shizun hop around adorably, but he finally realized it wasn’t a performance and hurried over to help.

Mo Changkong asked expectantly, “Shizun, those people were ignoble and impertinent. Do you want me to punish them? I promise I won’t kill anyone and will only cut off their hands?”

He was about to explode from his temper, but unfortunately Shizun didn’t say anything so he didn’t dare move.

“Stop joking around.” Lu Yunzhen manoeuvred his bulky body into an empty corner. “Help me take this off, I have something to ask”.

Mo Changkong was a little bit disappointed, but he obediently helped him take off the mascot outfit.

Lu Yunzhen wriggled out then immediately explained what happened, finally asking, “Is something... going to happen to that person?”

Mo Changkong raised a brow, a sincere smile tweaked at the corner of his mouth, and answered comfortingly, “Don’t worry, I saw that earlier. He just met an evil spirit and got tangled with some bad luck.”

He listens to Shizun so he won’t hurt people.... If some other evil spirit did something that’s not his problem.

Lu Yunzhen has only started to learn about xuanxue and didn’t really understand. When Mo Changkong said not to worry he thought he must have gotten things wrong and relaxed. He thought nothing more of it and happily went to return the costume and pick up his day’s pay.

...

Long Jingtian and his buddies went to a karaoke bar and continued to have a drunken time.

He mentioned that his family had recently invested in a streaming movie named “Zombie Princess”, and bragged, “investing in movies is just the best. All these beautiful women will bring themselves to your door, let you follow the unspoken rules, all just to get a bit role.”

No one believed him. “How hot could they be?”

Long Jingtian scrolled through his phone and dialed a number, giggling. “Baby, come to the box at the Starry Night Karaoke bar. I’m going to reconsider what we discussed last time. If you can give me a good time I’ll get my dad to get you the role of that female demon.”

After only a little time, there was knock on the door.

A classic beautify in a long embroidered skirt walked in. With long silky hair that was simply held up by a gold hairpin and clear skin that was flawless like white jade even with no makeup, all the women in the room were envious.

Everyone was stunned.

This beauty had lively. dewy eyes, like a doe, and like a bird. Greetings were given to everyone in the room, then there was a delicate call, “Long gongzi...”

That voice was so filled with seduction, the men almost felt like their souls were being called in.

Long Jingtian could feel his body melting.

The beauty nibbled at his ear and quietly said, “This one is here to follow the unspoken rules with Long Gongzi.”

Long Jingtian almost ascended on the spot.

Upon hearing that, everyone was either jealous, envious, or mad. Taking advantage of the general drunkenness, they started clamouring about how if Long Jingtian was a real man he should go get a room. There was a five star hotel right next door, if he didn’t go then he was a cowardly bastard!

The beautiful didn’t refuse, and only giggled bashfully.

Long Jingtian’s family was actually rather strict in this regard. Even though he was rather lax and prone to cursing, he never really did anything too outrageous. The bark is worse than the bite, after all. But now that someone actually agreed he was feeling rather timid, afraid that he was going to incur some debt that he can’t pay back.

His friends continued on, “Hey young master, you can’t get it up?”

“WHO CAN’T GET IT UP?!” Long Jingtian was weak against taunts. He downed the glass of whisky on the table for some liquid courage. If a beauty comes to his door, can he still call himself a man if he doesn’t go for it?! He hollered, “I’M GOING TO GET A ROOM RIGHT NOW!”

He held out his hand and the two of them walked out together.

After leaving the bar, he felt even drunker. Long Jingtian checked in in a daze, walked into the room in a daze, and was pushed onto the bed in a daze.

The beauty opened his belt and started serving him...

Long Jingtian had drunk a little much and couldn’t quite manage. He vaguely felt that something was wrong and pulled at the other, crying, “let’s stop with the unspoken rules, let’s be good kids...”

The beauty licked at his lobes and smiled, “No, this one must continue. This one has good technique, you will be serviced to your satisfaction...”

Long Jingtian didn’t really remember what happened after. He was very drunk and could only feel like he was being shaken on a small boat. His soul was leaving his body. It was a little painful, a little uncomfortable, and at the end very, very good...

In the middle of the night, he woke up feeling more alert. His body was covered in marks, and... his back size was hurting a bit... it was strange...

Long Jingtian turned his head stiffly, and saw the person sleeping soundly beside him. The blanket wasn’t covering everything and he could see clear skin and a flat figure.

So flat, very flat, flatter than him.

Long Jingtian quietly lifted his blanket, and saw that the beauty had a body like his, only even bigger.

He was completely sober.