Wandering Spirit Tavern - Chapter 7 - The Haircut

Zhou Man decided to shave her head because she didn’t want to wake up early. As a junior, she had morning self-study at 7:30 AM, which meant leaving home at 7:15 to avoid being late. This required getting up at 7:05 to wash up and grab a quick bite. Adding hair combing to the routine would mean waking up three minutes earlier. If her hair was too messy or greasy, she’d need to wash her bangs, adding another five minutes. Altogether, she’d need to wake up ten minutes earlier just for her hair.

Not worth it.

So Zhou Man decided to cut her long hair. Initially, she thought of getting a typical boy’s haircut, but soon realized that the in-between length was even harder to manage than long hair. Every morning, it looked like a bird’s nest, impossible to comb, and wetting it made it look and feel worse.

In the end, Zhou Man decided to go for a cool buzz cut.

“Like a female assassin in the movies,” she told the barber.

But the clumsy barber couldn’t even manage a buzz cut, leaving her hair uneven and patchy. Instead of looking like a movie assassin, she resembled a bullied inmate.

The barber defended himself, saying, “A buzz cut is the hardest to do.”

With no turning back, Zhou Man sighed, “Fine, just shave it all off.”

And so, Zhou Man arrived at school with a shiny bald head, shocking her classmates and becoming a legend overnight.

But Zhou Man didn’t care about being a legend. During those days leading up to the college entrance examination, her focus was solely on eating, sleeping, and solving problems-at least on the surface.

Zhou Man loved solving problems, especially math problems-simple conditions, fixed rules, finding the path the problem designer intended, and ultimately arriving at the answer.

Like a puzzle game, like many things in life.

Zhou Man believed that many things were like math problems. Find the right path, follow it step by step, and you would reach the end. The college entrance examination was the big problem at hand, and cutting her hair was a small step in solving it. After this step, many more would follow, leading to the end-college, a free life, and beautiful love.

All of this was part of her problem-solving strategy.

Following this predetermined path, Zhou Man made it to the end of the college entrance examination.

Everything went smoothly, and she was satisfied with the exam questions. Then came the next step: freedom and love.

On the afternoon of the exam’s end, she turned down all party invitations and sought out the boy she liked. She wanted to invite him for a drink, to celebrate solving a major life problem, and perhaps have a romantic date, maybe even a romantic kiss.

But the boy’s celebration plans clearly didn’t include her. He had already arranged to party with other classmates and merely invited Zhou Man to join them when he saw her.

Zhou Man didn’t want to share her celebration plans with others, so she declined.

Of course, she felt a bit resentful, but she had to accept it. She consoled herself: it’s okay, there’s still two months to solve the problem of love.

While others celebrated, she found herself alone, so she sought her own way to celebrate-she chose the arcade.

Zhou Man loved games, just as she loved math problems. Fixed rules, finding methods within those rules, winning the game, all the same.

Because of this love, Zhou Man used to frequent this arcade, having beaten nearly every game that could be beaten. But for the college entrance examination, she had been away from games for a long time. Now that the exam was over, it was time to rekindle this hobby.

She played wildly all night, breaking the record in a racing game.

Just as she was about to leave, she saw a woman frantically trying to win a claw machine, failing every time.

She couldn’t understand why someone could be so clueless, failing so many times without finding the solution. And then blaming it on bad luck? What did luck have to do with it? It was just pure stupidity.

The guy next to her was making wild analyses, blaming everything from human luck to machine luck. What did a machine know about luck? Machines operated on programs.

Unable to stand it any longer, Zhou Man decided to help them out.

She walked over, grabbed a coin, inserted it, maneuvered the joystick, and snagged the toy-all in one smooth motion.

Then she handed the toy to the woman, feeling a sense of satisfaction as she watched the woman’s stunned expression, as if it offset the disappointment of her failed date.

She decided to leave with a cool line: “Want to learn? I can teach you!”

Of course, she had no intention of actually teaching them. They were strangers; who knew if they’d even recognize each other next time?

She forgot she was bald, making her quite recognizable. She also didn’t expect that soon she would become friends with that stranger woman.

Lin You was late on her first day at the tavern. She was supposed to meet her aunt at 8 AM for a handover, but the night before, she was too nervous to sleep until 4 AM. When daylight came, she finally felt sleepy, and when she opened her eyes again, it was already 10 AM.

Rushing to the tavern, she found only the Taoist priest there.

“They didn’t want to miss the auspicious time, so they went to hell first,” the Taoist priest said.

Lin You didn’t feel much regret; without a handover, she wasn’t sure how to start her new job.

“What should I do next?”

“Your aunt wrote everything about the tavern in here.” The Taoist priest handed Lin You a book as thick as a dictionary and added, “If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask them.”

Lin You looked around but didn’t see “them.”

“How do I ask?” Lin You realized there were already guests, but she couldn’t see them yet.

“Oh, I forgot. Here, take this.” The Taoist priest handed Lin You a glass of wine.

After drinking it, Lin You heard various voices in the tavern: “This girl’s not too bright.”… “Exactly!”… “Stop it”…

Suddenly, Lin You saw the tavern filled with “people,” all looking at her.

Nervously, Lin You waved and greeted everyone, then quietly asked the Taoist priest, “Is there a private place here?”

Before the Taoist priest could answer, a voice came from behind Lin You: “Boss, when are we opening?”

“What do you think?” She was suddenly irritated by the little ghost’s disdainful tone and turned to glare at it.

“You… you’re the boss, you decide.” The little ghost cowered.

“Fine, then let’s wait a bit longer.”

The little ghost nodded reluctantly.

At this point, Feng Bei answered Lin You’s earlier question: “There’s a room in the back, it’s your office.”

Lin You put on her boss demeanor and sat behind the counter: “Okay, got it.”

But instead of going to the office, she looked around, trying to figure out the workflow. She saw a large barrel of wine under the counter, along with various loose bottles, and behind her were shelves filled with different colored bottles. But there were so many things, she didn’t know where to start.

After scanning the room, she looked at the ghosts again: “Can any of you come over and help?”

The little ghost who had spoken earlier jumped out: “I’ll do it, I used to help the boss with work.”

“Alright, you then, no tricks. Once I figure this out, if I find out you’re fooling me…”

“Don’t worry, I’m the most honest one here. Ask them, they all call me Honest Chen.”

“Alright, Honest Chen, I’ll leave it to you today.”

Then Lin You remembered another important matter: “Can anyone help me find a bald girl, really good at games?”

The Taoist priest was shocked: “You’re really interested in her?”

Lin You: “Of course, if you won’t help, I’ll find someone else, okay?”

The Taoist priest: “But you can’t go after the living! It’s illegal.”

Lin You: “Do ghosts break the law too? Can the police catch us?… Relax, I’m just interested in that girl, want to learn how to win at claw machines.”

As they chatted, the ghosts chimed in again: “That’s too little information, hard to find.”

Lin You: “She’s in this town, sixteen or seventeen years old. Find her and get a free drink for a day. Oh, by the way, do you guys pay for drinks? I won’t have to charge ghost money, right?”

The ghosts burst into laughter.

The Taoist priest pointed to the book in Lin You’s hand: “You should study your aunt’s remains.”