Chapter 72
“So Jason, did you learn your martial arts from a dojo or directly from a Shifu?” on the lunch table specifically laid on the side just for Josephine Wong, Jason received a question from the cameo star herself.
“Um… yeah I wouldn’t call it either, I work for this owner of an inn, and he is a really good Kung Fu practitioner.” Jason hesitated and said: “So I just learned from him and trained with him… and so far feels really good.”
“Inn owner… is his name Jianmen Yu?” Josephine Wong asked after a big bit of a piece of barbeque rib.
This question almost made Jason spit out his food: “What? You do know him?”
“I’ll take it as a yes.” Josephine chuckled and continued with her rib: “And consider yourself lucky, he’s the best Shifu I know. And he’s not known to take students.”
“Wait, is this the super secret martial arts instructor you practice with? The secret for your sick sick moves?” Bethany nervously asked in an abnormally quick speed: “OMG, that’s him isn’t it.”
“Bethany?” Robert stared at Bethany to warn her off her fangirl reaction.
“To keep everyone out of trouble, I would prefer not to answer that.” Josephine looked at Bethany with a sweet smile and then turned to Jason: “So? Can you tell me what your training is like? And is he going to take in more students?”
“Uhhh… I don’t think he will. But if you asked him I think he would have no reason to refuse.” Jason chuckled nervously: “And his training is kinda tough - but quite effective, I was able to defend myself pretty well...”
“Ah! That’s what I’d expect.” Josephine laughed widely: “He’s got some sick moves.”
“Umm, should we invite this mysterious Kung Fu master on set? Sounds like we could use someone to fill the action and martial arts coach position, at least temporarily.” the Reaper, whose name is Matthew, and who happened to the set supervisor asked.
“Huh, what happened? I liked working with Moreece.” Josephine asked.
“He quit. ” Robert answered with an uneasy look on his face: “But let’s not worry about him. Hey Jason, how do you feel about asking you Shifu to help us with this position? At least temporarily? The budget is pretty generous, we just need someone with at least some experience with designing and directing action and fight scenes right away.”
“Uhh… I need to ask him first… But I don’t think the budget will sway him.”
“That’s true.” Josephine laughed and joked: “He’s more of the ‘give me something interesting and maybe I’ll show up to your party’ kind of guy. He’s like a special devil, you want his help, you’d better give him something that’s dear to your heart. And even your soul probably won’t do because it is too boring.”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t I know it.” Jason smiled and drank his sparkling water with his head down.
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“Demon Suppression Sigils… Spirit Calming Incense, Illusion Breaking Incense, wood figure, mirror, and… weapon.” back at the inn in his own personnel room, Jason was organizing his backpack, he gathered all he could from the cupboard in the diner and the basement, with Jianmen’s permission of course, and he was also running the tips and caution from Jianmen in his head, for the 40th or 50th time: “Stay away from small rooms, stay away from places of anguish and pain, stay away from giant and broken mirrors, stay away from dripping water and still water pools… basically stay away from anything reflective or broken doorways.”
“Hey boss, how’s that card thing going?” when he was done with the backpack, Jason came downstairs and asked Jianmen, who was drinking tea behind the reception’s desk.
“Here it is.” Jianmen slapped a thick piece of wooden card on the reception’s desk, which had a very lively relief sculpture of a fat and ugly toad on it.
“A toad? ” Jason did not know how to react: “And so… ”
“Ugly, I know.” Jianmen did not ever raise his head from his phone: “But believe me, the uglier the better.”
“But why toad? Why not something more fierce and awesome… like a tiger, or a phoenix or a dragon?”
“Kid, you wanna die?” Jianmen looked at Jason with a kind of mocking look: “Haven’t you heard of the saying: ‘if you’ve got weak ass wrists and arms, don’t shoot a Desert Eagle. Or you might kill your dad’? ”
“Um… no?”
“Well you’ve heard it now. So just be happy with what you have. You’ll need to learn before you can ride an actual dragon. I gave Caroline one with the hornet for the same reason.”
“Looks like a hornet could be better … so is it just used like the Demon Suppression Sigil?”
“Yes. But just keeping it at your side is sufficient for most of the cases. ”
“Understood. Thanks Boss.”
“Happy ghost hunting, don’t let your channel buddies do anything stupid. I’ll be watching your stream, so behave!” as Jason stepped outside the inn and onto a rideshare car, Jianmen told him loudly: “And be careful!”
“Yes! Of course!” Jason raised his hand with a thumb up as he waved Jianmen goodbye.