Chapter 45 has been revised a bit. Everyone can go back and reread it. What gets exchanged is no longer just one red and three white ghost candles, but also ghost money.
Thanks to book friend 20240108123001926, as well as the suggestions from other book friends.
When I wrote that exchange at the time, the main purpose was actually to let Wang Xiaoming and the protagonist establish a connection and become aware of each other’s existence. It wasn’t meant as sucking up. A lot of the satisfaction in the book actually comes from how these important original characters view the protagonist; it can’t all just be a solo game.
As for the old lady ghost… uh, although she’s very strong, her most special ability is actually transporting people to supernatural lands. On that point, the protagonist already has the ghost brazier, and the most valuable supernatural ashes and their method of production are in the protagonist’s hands. So the old lady ghost’s value to the protagonist isn’t that great, and she doesn’t really fit well with the film-and-television ghost either. Something of that level also isn’t easy to hand over for a subordinate to control.
But since there was some reaction—though more people were probably just continuing to read, maybe feeling it didn’t matter, or maybe silently dropping it, haha—I still went back and changed some things, adding in some ghost money. That’s still very useful, especially on Ghost Street.
For now, keeping the old lady ghost basically has no meaning, and the chance to exchange her back has also been preserved. That should be enough.