บท 1: Three ghosts!
" Ah! That really hit the spot!" Liu Hui Ying chugged down a big gulp of beer and let out a contented sigh before picking up her chopstick and taking a bite of the webfoot octopus. " Hmmm! This is what I call life! A picnic under shimmering moonlight, what more do we need!"
" Humph, that's one way to put it," said a young girl in her twenties as she took a sip of her beer and rolled her eyes. " You promised us a picnic in a field with roses, not having me drive to this abandoned cliff." She pointed to the edge of the cliff with a big boulder sitting next to it. A big signboard with safety precautions about not getting close to the edge of the cliff was hanging on top of the big boulder—— maybe this was the reason why no human was visible in plain sight.
" She is right, you know," said an elderly woman as she sipped on her green tea and looked at Liu Hui Ying, her white hair twinkling under the moonlight. " We worked so hard so that you can get the promotion, a field with roses was the least we deserved."
Liu Hui Ying stared at the two of them chiming after one another and raised her beer can in the air. " Jia Li, Grandma Lan Fen, what are you guys complaining about?" She pointed her hand at the man who was chugging his beer down while munching on fried chicken and said, " Look at Li Gang, see how he is enjoying himself quietly, do you really have to be so harsh on me? I looked long and hard to find a spot where we can have our picnic without any disturbance, yet you guys are blaming me."
" He is enjoying himself because he has long given up having hopes from you, Boss Hui Ying," said Jia Li with a snort, her big almond eyes sharply looking at the gloomy-looking man with a buzz cut. " And he can even enjoy himself next to a trash can, what are you comparing us gentle ladies with him."
Li Gang stopped his munching and raised his head and looked at Jia Li with his fox eyes that glinted sharper than any blade. " I have long learned my lesson to not expect anything from this miser," he tipped his chin at Liu Hui Ying and snorted. "It is not my fault that you guys keep having high hopes whenever she says that she is going to reward us. Last time she promised that she will get me my favourite French wine and look what she got me." He raised his beer can and scoffed, " A ten-dollar beer." As he finished speaking, he gulped the rest of the beer down in one go.
" Li Gang is right, you could have given us better offerings even if you didn't bring us to a rose garden," said Jia Li licking her chopsticks as she ate the webfoot octopus. "I wanted to eat, Peking roasted duck you know?"
" And I wished to eat some tiramisu, my sweet cravings have been getting to me these days." sighed Grandma Lan Fen
" Oi, Oi, Oi!" slamming her hand on the ground, Liu Hui Ying stared at the three people who were munching on the food without stopping yet they were still complaining about one thing after another. She tipped her head at the three of them and snapped, " You all think that earning money is an easy peasy job, don't you? Do you have any idea how hard it is to raise the three of you?" She pointed at Grandma Lan Fen and said, " Your granddaughter needed to go on a study trip, who gave her ten thousand yuan secretly? I did." Then turning her head to look at Jia Li, she smiled and added, " You are the one who is the most high maintenance, you want clothes with the softest fabrics and if that's not enough, you are also addicted to watching detective dramas, who pays for your subscription?" She pointed to herself and said, " That's right, I do."
Finally, she turned to look at Li Gang who lowered his head before he started munching on his fried chicken. Seeing him avoid her gaze, Liu Hui Ying snorted. " And this one is simply a hopeless case, from all the women he can go for, he chases the ones who are nothing but gold diggers, last time he bullied me into buying a diamond ring because apparently, the girl he found was true love and what happened? That girl vanished into thin air after she took the ring from him. And this guy is still single."
Sweeping a glance at the three employees of hers, she clicked her tongue. " That's right, you might think that being promoted is something good but the money that you guys spend on yourself is simply astronomical. I can't even start on the expenses that you all have… especially food, you all order food without letting me know and when I come home, you want my hard-earned money to be offered," she snapped her fingers. " Like this, you see?"
Neither of the three spoke and only then did Liu Hui Ying suck in a breath and said, " And as for the rose garden that you all wanted to visit so much—— let me ask you one thing? What would we have done lest someone saw three pairs of chopsticks and three beer cans flying in the air? Maybe you have forgotten but you all are dead. DEAD. Right now except me, no one can see you all, so better be grateful and say thank you boss——" she was cut off when something or someone stepped on a leaf behind them.
Eyes widening, she looked at the three ghosts in front of her and said, " What are you all doing? Put those things down."
The three ghosts obliged at once, as Li Gang snorted. " So much for a peaceful spot."
Liu Hui Ying simply glared at him.
The four of them waited with abated breath for the person to step out in the moonlight and they did —— Dressed in a vibrant red wedding dress that might have been fashionable in the era of an old dynasty, a woman stepped out of the forest and headed towards the cliff.
" Is she trying to commit suicide?" whispered Jia Li with a stunned look on her face. " That's not good, is it? If she dies before her time, then her soul will be eradicated."
" And what's worse is that I will be suspended!" snapped Liu Hui Ying as she climbed to her feet, as the newly appointed head of the detective unit, she couldn't allow the woman to commit suicide lest the matter was chased back to her. " Jeez, these people. They never let police department rest."
With a haughty snort, she strode towards the woman in red and called out, " Hey miss, I don't know what's wrong with you but let's not be hasty, we can talk it out …what do you say? Come with me, have some alcohol and dried squid or something …we can make it better."
" Ev...Everything is lost, I can't do this anymore…" the woman in red muttered as she continued to walk towards the cliff. " Lost …Lost …."
" Hey lady!" The last thing Liu Hui Ying remembered was clasping onto the wrist of the woman in red who jumped and the screams of her three ghost employees.
As she plunged into the darkness together with the woman.
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