"Are you sure anyone will come tonight? You look so fierce—do you really think the little kids will come to you?" Bernice asked Jiang Hai with some surprise as she hung the newly made pumpkin lantern on the door. A few days ago, Jiang Hai had said that some kids would come by for candy tonight, but Bernice had always been skeptical.
After all, Jiang Hai's reputation in town wasn't great—and more importantly, his place was really far from the town center.
By car, it was at least a half-hour drive if you went slow. On foot, it would take over an hour. Would kids really walk more than an hour just to ask for candy? Even if they wanted to, their parents probably wouldn't allow it.
"Should be… maybe… probably… almost definitely, someone will come," Jiang Hai said, touching his nose awkwardly. To be honest, it was just a whim, and he wasn't sure if anyone actually would.
"You're the only one who believes what a kid says. Well, let's finish hanging it up. I hope someone shows up—but I'm taking a picture for my friends first." Bernice smirked at Jiang Hai's embarrassed words, then finished hanging the last pumpkin lantern. She jumped down, snapped a photo of it, and laughed happily.
"Well, if no one comes, we'll just celebrate ourselves," Jiang Hai said with a smile, still touching his nose.
At his words, Darlene, Marianne, and Xiaoya all laughed. Once everything was set, Jiang Hai and the group of five returned to the villa. They'd been busy lately, and Aphra and the others hadn't come by for a while. The six of them settled on the sofa and casually watched TV.
Unlike the 15th day of the seventh lunar month in China—which is the Ghost Festival, though nobody really celebrates it with parties but rather visits cemeteries or crossroads to burn paper—Halloween in the U.S. was a major holiday. People celebrated it widely, and the TV stations were packed with ghost movies and horror series.
Pretty much every channel tonight was showing something spooky.
It felt fitting, much like how Chinese TV airs New Year movies during Lunar New Year.
Jiang Hai didn't know much about American horror films. He'd only seen a few, like Alien, Resident Evil, Nightmare on Elm Street—especially Nightmare on Elm Street, which became familiar to him because of a popular novel-writing trend in China called Infinite Flow. Many writers followed that style, and Jiang Hai first encountered the movie through that trend. After watching, he found it genuinely creepy.
Though Jiang Hai claimed not to be scared of anything, ghost movies still made him a bit uneasy. He curled up on the sofa and flipped channels, hoping to find something less frightening. No one knew that Jiang Hai's favorite genre was actually comedy.
But tonight, apparently, the TV stations weren't on his side. Mostly horror movies showed up. After a while, he stumbled upon an old movie on a pay channel that caught his attention.
"Is this a Chinese movie? Looks kind of old," Bernice said with some doubt while eating chocolate. Hearing this, Jiang Hai looked at her with a bit of disdain.
"Don't tell me you haven't seen this one. It's quite popular," he said seriously, pointing at the screen.
Bernice blinked, clearly unfamiliar.
"I know, I know! This is A Chinese Ghost Story. That's Wang Zuxian, right? He may not be young anymore, but he still looks good," Xiaoya said with a smile from beside him.
"You weren't born in America; how could you not know this movie?" Jiang Hai said, turning to Xiaoya as a fellow traveler, then back to Bernice. "It was very popular in China back then."
Jiang Hai didn't know the exact box office numbers, but the movie was replayed on TV frequently.
There were three parts in total. Honestly, the first was not great, the second was too bloody, but the third was the best. The male lead switched from Leslie Cheung to Tony Leung, while the female lead was still the stunning Wang Zuxian. It also featured Li Lianjie's current wife, Li Zhi, who showed off impressive cleavage and equally long legs. The third film was always well-received and frequently replayed on TV.
The chemistry between Tony Leung and Zhang Xueyou was hilarious. You could say it was more funny than scary.
"When I was a kid, I didn't want to watch movies," Bernice said, rolling her eyes at Jiang Hai as she sat down to watch.
Jiang Hai didn't respond. The movie had just started, and he was genuinely happy watching it. The version was dubbed in Mandarin—the one he was most familiar with. Although English subtitles were on screen, Darlene and Marianne probably didn't follow along that eagerly.
Just as Shifang turned into a golden Buddha and defeated the Black Mountain Old Demon, the movie was reaching its climax.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang, startling the five people on the sofa.
"Who's at this hour?" Jiang Hai glanced at the clock—almost nine o'clock. Shouldn't the kids be in bed by now? Why would anyone ring his doorbell?
He quickly composed himself, walked over, and turned on the video intercom.
"Trick or treat! If you don't give me candy, we'll play a trick on you!" The screen showed a group of kids dressed in all sorts of costumes, shouting loudly.
"Look, they're finally here," Jiang Hai said with a grin.
He had doubted whether any children would come tonight, but these kids didn't disappoint. He grabbed the bowl of candy Bernice was holding, opened the door, and stepped outside.
"Really, but Darlene, your dad seems to like kids a lot," Bernice whispered, nudging Darlene with her elbow as Jiang Hai left.
"He should," Darlene replied thoughtfully. "Jiang's been very good to us."
In her eyes, Jiang Hai was the best person in the world—the one who pulled them out of hell.
Judging by his usual attitude, Jiang Hai often scolded naughty kids but seemed to genuinely like children.
"You gotta work on it. Since Jiang likes kids so much, the lady of the house might just be the mother of his first child. If you don't try, it might be too late," Marian leaned in and whispered to Bernice.
"Who's going to have his child? Don't talk nonsense—you don't know anything," Bernice blushed fiercely, flustered as she reached for a snack only to find the plate missing—Jiang Hai had taken it. Xiaoya looked on worriedly.
Meanwhile, Jiang Hai had already stepped outside. Facing the kids dressed as skeletons, wizards, ghosts, vampires, witches, and more, he took two quick steps to the door.
"Candy's here! Come and get it!" he said, holding out the plate. The kids cheered and scrambled for the treats.
"Hey, Jiang Hai, didn't expect you to be so childish," a voice said.
Jiang Hai looked up and saw, besides the kids, two adults standing there—Mayor Wallis and a black man driving a pickup truck. The man nodded shyly when Jiang Hai noticed him.
"Why are you here? Hello..." Jiang Hai greeted, first addressing Mayor Wallis, then the man.
"Hello, Mr. Jiang Hai," the man said, extending his hand. Jiang Hai shook it, then glanced at Mayor Wallis with surprise.
"Do you really think parents in town would let their kids walk over an hour at night just to get candy from you?" Mayor Wallis asked with a blank expression.
Jiang Hai scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. That had been his exact thought too.
"It's really too far." He looked around the manor grounds, pitch dark and not very safe.
"Distance is one thing..." Mayor Wallis nodded and shook his head, continuing, "But you're not really integrated into Winthrop yet."
Jiang Hai looked puzzled.
"You've done a lot for Winthrop, no doubt, but I bet you know fewer than 20 people here. Remember, our town has thousands of residents." Mayor Wallis's tone was serious.
Jiang Hai did the math in his head and realized it was probably true. Besides his employees, how many people did he really know? About 20?