Chapter 174 Lantern Festival

Zhou Ze pushed open the door and entered, just in time to hear the old Daoist's words. The old fellow had had a bit of wine, and his voice was especially loud when he was feeling sentimental.

"Today is the Lantern Festival," Zhou Ze said.

"Happy Lantern Festival, Boss!" the old Daoist immediately waved his hand and shouted.

"Yeah, I just remembered, no wonder there are so many firecrackers going off outside today." Zhou Ze took off his coat and handed it to Yingying to hang up, then continued, "How about this, Old Daoist, why don't you go outside and sweep up the firecracker debris and ash now, so the sanitation workers won't be too busy to clean it up in time tomorrow, which would affect the city's appearance."

"............" The old Daoist.

The wine, immediately wore off!

Soon,

The old Daoist, carrying a broom and dustpan and with a small monkey on his shoulder, went out to contribute to maintaining the city's appearance. His back looked particularly desolate.

It wasn't that Zhou Ze was heartless, but because the old Daoist sometimes liked to tempt danger a little too much.

If he didn't knock him down a peg every now and then, he'd be getting into all sorts of mischief. People usually mellow with age, but the old Daoist was the opposite; the older he got, the more playful he became.

Boss Zhou glanced around, clapped his hands, and said, "Gather 'round, I want to discuss something."

............

A large round table, surrounded by a group of people.

Besides the one person and one monkey who went to sweep the streets, from left to right were Zheng Qiang, Liu Chuyu, Yue Ya, Lao Zhang, the little loli, the little boy, the white fox, Lawyer An, Xu Qinglang, Hei Xiaoniu, Deadpool, and Yingying.

Boss Zhou sat in the main seat.

Xu Qinglang brought out the tangyuan (sweet glutinous rice balls) from the kitchen, all made by himself. Just looking at the tangyuan, they were as exquisite as their creator!

"What flavors are they?" Yue Ya asked.

Xu Qinglang smiled and said, "There are several kinds of fillings, but they're all sweet. I didn't make any savory ones."

Everyone took a bowl and sat at the table, eating slowly.

"Do you want some?"

Lawyer An handed a bowl to the baby, along with a small bottle of *bianhua* (other shore flower) oral solution.

"You're actually growing *bianhua* in the Yang realm? What are you doing..."

"Forget it, don't eat it then. Look at you, always meddling."

Lawyer An irritably took the bowl back and started eating himself.

Yingying sat next to Zhou Ze. She first helped the boss fill a bowl, then filled a bowl for herself and sat down, sipping it slowly.

Xu Qinglang was visibly surprised by this scene, but he didn't ask anything.

After everyone had eaten,

Lawyer An stood up from his chair, knocked on the table, first looked at Zhou Ze, and upon seeing Zhou Ze nod, immediately said, "This time, the reason I called you all here wasn't to ask you to do anything, but to provide you with a haven.

"Recently, a group of government runners who were originally guarding the far west of Hell rebelled against the Yin Court, broke out of the Yellow Springs Road, and returned to the Yang realm.

"To avoid the Yin Court's investigation during this period, they will definitely choose to hunt down ghost runners in the Yang realm to plunder their ghost runner permits.

"The boss gathered you all here for everyone's safety, to prevent you from being affected and becoming targets."

Yue Ya, Zheng Qiang, and the other ghost runners immediately stood up and bowed to Zhou Ze to express their gratitude.

Zhou Ze held up his hand, signaling them to continue listening to Lawyer An.

People are already dead, so no need to stand on ceremony. The living find it annoying enough, and now the dead have to suffer this too? How uncomfortable.

"But now, things have changed.

"We originally just wanted to sweep the snow from our own doorstep in the aftermath of this defection incident, as long as we ourselves were safe. This was my initial advice to the boss.

"But the boss just called me over and lectured me, saying that now that Hell is turbulent and the Yin Court is swaying, since we are Yin Court officials, we should devote ourselves to the eternal stability of the Yin Court and the harmony of Yin and Yang, until our dying breath!

"We can't only care about our own personal interests and safety, and disregard the overall situation!

"Without the Yin Court, where would we be!

"The boss's words are still in my ears, and the boss's teachings still echo in my heart!

"I have therefore deeply realized the error of my previous thinking, and con…..."

Lawyer An immediately inhaled, swallowing the word back down.

At the round table,

Yue Ya, Zheng Qiang, Liu Chuyu, Hei Xiaoniu, and Deadpool were all listening intently, as if they were receiving the baptism of golden words, lighting up the light in the depths of their hearts!

If they had paper and pens in their hands at this time, they would probably write it all down in a serious manner, and go back to review it repeatedly.

One person was pretending to be very serious in flattering, and a group of people below were pretending to be very serious in listening to the flattery. This scene was like playing monkeys, very comical.

And the person being played was sitting in the main seat.

Zhou Ze yawned and said directly, "Old An."

"Boss?" Lawyer An turned to look at Zhou Ze. "Boss, do you need to add anything?"

"I just feel like the old Daoist might be a little overwhelmed sweeping the streets alone."

"Ahem... back to the topic!"

Lawyer An's expression changed, and he continued, "Now, there's been a new development. Let me introduce you to this person."

Lawyer An pointed to the baby beside him.

"His name is Geng Chen. He used to be a patrol inspector, but he was demoted to the far west sealed land for a crime. This person has good character, which I have personally certified!

"And the far west sealed land is where the first generation of Mount Tai Monarch suppressed the giants and demon gods who wreaked havoc in Hell before integrating the Yin Court.

"The beings suppressed there, any one of them could conjure wind and rain; terrifying existences.

"I don't know how many have been erased by the years, how many have only half a breath left.

"But this time,

"The cause of the matter is that a team of ghost runners who were guarding the sealed land reached an agreement with one of the suppressed giants.

"Don't ask me what that giant is, I only know that the thing has a lot of body hair.

"That giant separated a part of his origin, but even so, they were not enough to bear it, so they had to cut that part of the origin again, and each sealed a part in their body.

"Then, they broke out of the Yellow Springs Road and returned to the Yang realm.

"To put it this way, it's like a group of terrorists, each carrying a biological weapon, has run out.

"What we have to do next is to rely on the guidance of the person next to me to find those guys one by one. We can capture them alive, or kill them directly.

"As for the biological weapon, it will be handed over to our boss to solve.

"This operation can't rely on the boss alone. The boss will get tired and exhausted, and there are many targets this time. Besides one group that is gathered together, there are several others who separated after returning to the Yang realm, but the general location is still in the Yangtze River Delta region.

"That's about it. As for the specific battle plan, we'll talk about it in detail after we've identified the first target."

After saying these words,

Lawyer An was parched, and he picked up his super-sized cup of coffee and gulped it down.

In fact, there were still many details that weren't specifically mentioned. This involved the existence of Yinggou. Even though many people in the bookstore knew this secret, there were still some peripheral people who didn't know.

Those who knew were our own people and wouldn't talk nonsense, and there was no need for those who didn't know to know.

Most importantly, there was this Geng Chen.

Lawyer An trusted his character, and he also showed his sincerity, but because he was too conscientious, Lawyer An was really afraid that after he knew about Yinggou's existence, he would report it directly to the Yin Court for the sake of Hell's peace!

"Deal with... patrol inspectors?" Zheng Qiang narrowed his eyes and continued, "And a group of them?"

The other ghost runners showed similar expressions.

You know, usually if they had the chance to see a patrol inspector, these ghost runners would have to kneel down and kowtow to pay their respects.

Now,

They were asked to draw their swords against this group of patrol inspectors,

Tsk tsk,

The impact was really too great.

Lawyer An curled his lips. He didn't think it was anything. The bookstore's current strength, not to mention the boss himself sitting in town.

Two big zombies, facing any patrol inspector who had just come up from Hell and whose body definitely hadn't fully adapted, could hold their own.

Not to mention that Yingying still had the legacy of the drought demon in her body, and the little zombie still had that Garfield hanging around his neck.

Plus Lao Zhang's *xie zhi* (mythical unicorn-like creature) in his body, and the five-tailed demon fox, the Deadpool who had integrated part of the runes, the old Daoist's demon monkey,

Heh,

Enough for a team battle.

At this thought, Lawyer An himself felt a little surprised. Unconsciously, did our independent regiment actually have so many people?

"Everyone has different tasks, but we have to believe in our own strength. Most importantly, we have to believe that we are doing something very great. Behind us stand countless creatures who yearn to continue living peacefully.

"And, to be honest, it's just a patrol inspector, right?"

Lawyer An was mocking himself.

"Time is of the essence. The Yin Court will definitely send out forces to search for them, so we have to race against the Yin Court's people while hunting down our own targets.

"So, everyone move quickly. We'll set off tonight to track down our first target."

Zhou Ze set a tone, accelerating the process. There was no way around it, he could feel the iron idiot's eagerness when facing takeout.

The most important thing was that feeding the iron idiot and accelerating his recovery was also the most important thing to ensure that Boss Zhou himself could continue to live a leisurely salted fish life!

For this, Boss Zhou really had enough reason to stimulate his own subjective initiative.

Lawyer An reached out and poked the baby's head, and asked, "Which one is closest and still alone?"

"You talk too much nonsense. I didn't think you, An Buqi, were someone who liked to talk nonsense before," the baby said directly.

"What you're saying now isn't nonsense?"

"I wanted to speak before, but you kept talking and didn't give me a chance to speak."

"Okay, okay, I'm giving you a chance to speak now. Which one is closest and still alone, tell me!"

The baby tilted his head and then stretched out his finger, pointing forward.

"West?" Lawyer An asked, "Damn it, can you be more specific?"

"I can."

"Then hurry up and say it, what are you wasting time for? Time is tight!"

"Next door."