Chapter 147: Where Do We Go From Here

Staring into the abyss of having neither a life left nor a job to keep, Cui Yue felt his heart turn to complete ash under this double blow. He packed up his work uniform, turned around, and walked right out of the workshop gates.

Over on the other side, Zhang Hao was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. Hearing the news, he rushed straight to the workshop, only to find not even a shadow of Cui Yue.

"Where on earth could this kid have gone?"

Before Zhang Hao could even step out of the doorway, he bumped into a similarly frantic Yang Liu.

"Well? You haven't seen him either?"

Zhang Hao shook his head.

Yang Liu was spinning around in anxiety, utterly helpless.

"What are we going to do now? Knowing his personality, he would never run straight back home."

"This incident has blown up so much that the entire factory is talking about it now. The fallout is just too massive."

Checking to make sure no one was around, Zhang Hao lowered his voice and said, "I heard from Zhang Hu that the higher-ups intend to throw the book at Cui Yue this time. Not only will he have to compensate the factory for the damages, but the director is going to fire him as well!"

"What?!"

Upon hearing this news, Yang Liu instantly drained of all color, a trace of blood appearing at the corner of her lips.

While the complete set of imported equipment didn't need to be entirely replaced, that specific circuit board was one of a kind. There were simply no domestic parts available to substitute it. That single circuit board alone was already an astronomical sum, and if the management were to fire Cui Yue as well, it would be equivalent to cutting off his last remaining lifeline.

"That seems to be the general consensus right now. They might still hold a leadership meeting to discuss it, but to put it bluntly, it's still up to Feng涛's father to make the final call. How could things possibly turn out well now?"

Hearing the name Feng Tao made Yang Liu's heart sink even further, feeling as though a basin of icy water had been poured over her from head to toe.

"No matter what, we have to find him first!" Yang Liu bit her lower lip.

"Alright, Dazhuang and I will go look outside. We'll stay in touch if we find anything." Zhang Hao darted off in a flash.

At dusk, at a Sichuan restaurant in Sanxing Lane.

The entrance of the restaurant bustled with a constant stream of passing carriages and horses, customers coming and going.

The proprietress looked at the table before her and shook her head.

"Could this kid have been dumped? How come that pretty little girl from last time isn't here with him today?"

Slumped across the table was none other than Cui Yue, supporting his head with one hand. With a lift of his arm, he poured another two ounces of liquor into his cup, the potent smell of alcohol filling the air.

"Young man, you need to look on the bright side no matter what happens. Don't torture yourself," the proprietress kindly advised.

With his heart feeling as dead as ash, Cui Yue gave a feeble wave of his hand, tilted his head back, and downed another two ounces.

"Sigh..." The proprietress shook her head and went back to tending to her business.

A cup of wine transforms deep emotions, slashes away lovesickness, cuts off mortal desires, and lets a single person cover the sky with one hand.

Watching the clouds roll in and out, he drifted into a carefree and leisurely stroll.

Right now, the only thing in Cui Yue's mind was the cup of wine before him. All the vexation and unhappiness in his heart dissolved at this very moment.

With another lift of his arm, another two ounces filled the cup, the splashing aroma of the wine scattering across the floor.

Before he could even swallow it, he heard a voice by his ear.

"Ah, what a fragrance, what a fragrant wine."

Cui Yue raised his head through a hazy veil to find a tattered figure standing before him.

"Young lad, might you invite this old man to share a few small cups?"

Cui Yue waved his hand. To meet is to be a guest. Come, come, let's drink!

Hearing this, the old man was overjoyed, his nose twitching continuously from side to side in the air as he smacked his lips.

Oddly enough, the two ounces of wine originally poured into the cup slowly began to vanish, leaving behind nothing more than an empty wine glass.

At first, Cui Yue paid it no mind, but upon closer inspection, he rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

"What's going on? When did I drink that?"

Cui Yue patted his head and tried to think for a moment, simply assuming he had misremembered.

He poured another full cup and placed it on the table.

The strange phenomenon occurred once more; the wine in the cup vanished into thin air yet again.

This time, Cui Yue saw it clearly and hurriedly grabbed the empty wine glass, inspecting it carefully both inside and out. Not a single drop of wine remained.

What kind of trickery was this?

"Young lad, I haven't tasted wine this fragrant in several decades." With that, the old man pulled up a chair and sat down.

Through his drunken, hazy vision, Cui Yue couldn't quite see clearly. Why did the old man before him look so bizarre? Half of his face was completely devoid of flesh, exposing stark white jawbones clearly to the eye.

"You—are you a ghost?!"

Cui Yue instantly sobered up by more than half.

The old man extended an arm made of white bone, grabbed the wine glass before him, and tilted his head back to gulp it down.

"Ah, now this truly is fine wine, truly fragrant."

"What do you want?" Cui Yue's face darkened.

"What a strange question from you, young lad. I'm just here to beg a cup of wine from you—who told you to be someone who can see me in the first place?"

Cui Yue felt his scalp tingle. He looked around his surroundings; indeed, only he could see this old man, while everyone else treated the space as if it were nothing more than empty air.

"Oh, oh, you must be frightened by my true appearance, aren't you? Just wait!"

The old man raised a hand and gently stroked his face. The flesh and blood on his face gradually stirred and grew back, restoring his appearance from when he was alive in a short moment.

The previously skeletal arm also returned to normal at that moment, indistinguishable from that of a living human.

"Young lad, shall we continue drinking this wine?"

Cui Yue nodded. "Drink, why wouldn't I drink? Man or ghost alike, today we speak not of the netherworld, we speak only of wine!"

The old man seemed amused by Cui Yue's words and waved his hand. "Right, right! Even though we are separated by the boundaries of yin and yang, wine can still be shared."

And just like that, this man and ghost sat before the table, exchanging cup after cup.

The proprietress behind the counter stared with wide eyes, looking at Cui Yue's back and sighing inwardly.

"Such a fine young man, how did he turn into a lunatic over a broken heart, sitting all by himself and babbling away?"

The proprietress originally wanted to try persuading him once more, but upon second thought, the boy was suffering from an obsession of the heart. The bell must be untied by the person who tied it; if he couldn't get over it himself, anything anyone else said would be useless. She decided to just let him be.

"You can just call me Old Yang. Don't be so constrained—us gathering here across the divide of yin and yang is already breaking the rules," the old man said with a wide grin.

"Old Yang? They always say the netherworld has its own orderly system; why didn't you enter the underworld instead of wandering about in the realm of the living?" Cui Yue asked in wonder.

"That may be true, but there's an exception to every rule, isn't there?"

"Did you die an unjust death?"

"No, no, not at all. In my early years, I was all alone with no family or children, and I finally died of illness in a thatched cottage. Just a few days after I passed away, a mudslide struck, burying both the house and my corpse completely clean. Perhaps the spiritual energy of the earth was strong there; I broke free from my physical flesh and became immortal and indestructible."

"Put that way, I suppose it makes sense. I see you don't harbor a shred of resentment, which is quite different from the ones I've encountered before."

Old Yang rubbed his head and chuckled heartily.

"Actually, I'm just a lonely wandering ghost with no particular attachments. I just like wandering around everywhere. I never had the chance when I was alive, but being dead is actually quite nice—I can go anywhere."

Cui Yue couldn't help but chuckle as well. This old man certainly had a liberated mindset; nobody else could be this cheerful after dying.

"To be able to achieve such enlightenment as a ghost, I am truly instructed."

Old Yang hurriedly waved his hand, inhaling the fragrant aroma of the wine. "It's not nearly as easy as you think! Anyway, I have no desire to enter the underworld or go through reincarnation; staying like this is pretty good. But if you ever run into a nether guard, you're done for. They're bound to escort you back into the Yellow Springs, and the most perilous thing of all is..."

Old Yang trailed off, a look of terror creeping across his face.