21st Century Necromancer

Hearing an older customer narrating the story of a murdered female university student, the atmosphere in the small shop became somewhat eerie for a moment. However, everyone seemed to be captivated by the story, gradually stopping their activities to listen attentively. No one interrupted him because of the eerie atmosphere. "The female student was killed in the summer, but her body wasn't found until winter. They say that when she died, she was wearing her favorite pink dress." The older customer's eyes showed a trace of sorrow and nostalgia as he mentioned the girl, as if he had known the victim. He still harbored a bit of unrequited affection for her. Chen Yu noticed the emotion in his words and couldn't help but ask, "Did you know the murdered female university student?" "We were in the same club at university, and I really liked her back then, but I felt like I couldn't compete with older men," the older customer said with a wistful smile. Despite the many years that had passed, the girl was gone, and his feelings remained unresolved: "If spirits really do exist in this world, I'd even settle for seeing her spirit, just to see her one more time!" "See her? To tell her you liked her?" Chen Yu looked at the older customer, his eyes flickering with curiosity as he took the initiative to ask. The older customer, however, chuckled and shook his head, denying that was his intention: "It's not that I want to tell her I liked her. It's just that having once been fond of her, I can't come to terms with such an end." As he spoke, the older customer poured himself another drink and offered one to Chen Yu: "Thank you for listening to this old man ramble about the past, stirring up your meal. I'm sorry." "It's nothing, sometimes listening to old stories like these can be quite the accompaniment to a drink," Chen Yu said with a smile, though his gaze at the older customer remained deep and meaningful. While Chen Yu and the older customer were talking, the two university students who had taken offerings meant for the deceased suddenly panicked, switching on their camcorder to review the footage they'd taken, with terror written all over their faces. Chen Yu's gaze turned towards them, teasingly asking, "What's the matter? Did you two film something unclean?" "It's... it's a pink dress! She really is... is..." The two students looked at what they had captured, their teeth chattering, making a 'clack clack' sound. One of the students, as if scared by something, hurriedly closed the camcorder screen, as if sealing away some terrifying thing inside. After closing the screen and taking a couple of deep breaths to compose himself, he said to his companion, "We really should return the canned food!" "Yeah! She said she offered canned food at her grave... We really shouldn't have taken it!" The other student, trembling like a frightened quail, agreed, and after a quick glance at each other, they left some money on the table without finishing their meal and hurried out of the shop with their belongings. Watching the students scurry away as if fleeing for their lives, a smirk emerged on Chen Yu's face, finding their behavior rather amusing. The regular customer who had greeted Chen Yu earlier noticed Chen Yu's expression and, snapping out of the story narrated by the older customer, curiously asked him, "Doctor Chen, do you think there are no spirits in this world? Is their behavior funny to you?" "No, their behavior is indeed funny, but it has nothing to do with whether spirits exist or not. They just scared themselves... no, they were scared by the living," said Chen Yu, who, as a Necromancer, could certainly tell whether they had encountered a spirit. If they had indeed come across a spirit as they claimed, they wouldn't be free of Negative Energy. "How did you figure that out?" The regular customer looked at Chen Yu, puzzled about how he made the judgment. "It's nothing, I just happen to be quite experienced with matters related to the supernatural. After all, I once lived next to a Cemetery for quite a few years, so you could say I've seen spirits," Chen Yu explained with a smile while taking a sip of his drink. Perhaps the story told by the older customer had piqued everyone's interest, as the remaining customers in the shop curiously looked at Chen Yu. The regular customer eagerly asked him, "Doctor Chen, have you seen a spirit? What does it look like? How did you manage to see one?" "It's nothing special, just that I was quite poor while studying, so I rented a Haunted House to save money," Chen Yu explained, just as the waiter brought his ordered dishes and listened intently to his story: "The Cemetery was right next to the haunted house, so on the first night I moved in, I saw a bloody figure standing in the living room all night, disappearing only in the morning." "Unbelievable!" "Doctor Chen, you actually stayed in the same house as a spirit!" The other customers in the shop couldn't help but express their admiration, while the regular customer asked in astonishment, "Weren't you scared, Doctor Chen? Did you just continue to stay with that spirit in the same room?" "What's there to be scared of? It's just a spirit. If it killed me, wouldn't I also become a spirit? Maybe I might even be stronger than it, right?" Chen Yu said casually, his tone and demeanor more joking: "And because of the spirit, the landlord didn't even take a deposit, and the rent was very cheap, so I actually profited from the situation. I should be thanking him." Chen Yu left out that his way of thanking the spirit involved tormenting it to the point of soul dispersion, resulting in it howling throughout the night and scaring the spirits and gods in the neighboring Cemetery half to death. Hearing Chen Yu say this, the older customer sitting beside him became very interested and asked, "Doctor, have you really seen a spirit? Do you know how I could see a specific spirit? Could you let me see one too? I really want to see her again." "Such matters shouldn't be asked to me, since I'm just a doctor, not a Spirit Medium," Chen Yu shook his head, indicating his inability to help but also spoke with a layer of deeper meaning: "Perhaps she has already appeared, and you just haven't realized it yet?"