Chapter 142: 139 Foresight

Having just gotten out of the car and moved his luggage back into his hotel room, Li Duojin was dragged back into the car by Chen Xiaolin.

Li Duojin looked at Chen Xiaolin with some helplessness and said softly, "It's a good thing I'm a young man now, otherwise I really couldn't keep up with your pace. Can't we rest for a bit first?"

"The situation is urgent, it's a matter of life and death." Chen Xiaolin's pretty face was serious; it was impossible to tell if she was doing this to get back the twenty thousand yuan or if she was truly sincere. She said, "I must take you to verify it immediately."

Li Duojin looked at her quietly, then leaned against the seat back and closed his eyes. "Is it far? If it's not far, I'll rest for a while first."

"It's not very far, but you can rest if you want. I'll call you when we arrive." Chen Xiaolin nodded. She glanced at Li Duojin, who was resting, and suddenly felt unsure whether he truly had any real ability.

Forget it, twenty thousand yuan had already been thrown out; he had better have something to show for it!

Thinking this to herself, Chen Xiaolin suddenly wanted to probe his background. "I already introduced myself at the hotel. What about you?"

Hearing this, Li Duojin slowly opened his eyes. His eyes were full of confusion, and his expression was deathly still. He then spoke: "My name is Li Duojin. I live on Qiaojue Mountain in Qingyang, and I am the Temple Keeper of Anjing Temple."

"Eh, Qiaojue Mountain... I remember that being a place with nice scenery, right?" Chen Xiaolin was somewhat surprised and felt deeply suspicious. How could the Temple Keeper of a temple she had never heard of be worthy of such respect from a wealthy, capable tycoon?

"It is a 5A-rated natural scenic area, after all." Li Duojin smiled slightly. "Are there any other questions?"

"There is one more." Chen Xiaolin felt that the handsome Temple Keeper before her seemed to answer every question asked and did not disdain to hide the things she was interested in, so she simply asked the thing she most wanted to know. "Do you really possess some kind of special ability like magic? Otherwise, why would that Zhang Laoban be willing to go to such great lengths to invite you over, treat you with such utmost respect, put you up in the most expensive hotel in the entire Magic City, and host you with the highest standards?"

On one hand, she was curious; on the other, she wanted to confirm the specific location where Li Duojin was staying. She had followed him to his hotel room and found that it was indeed extraordinary.

Li Duojin smiled and said, "Zhang Laoban is just exaggerating. I only happened to meet him at the temple, interpreted a fortune for him, and unintentionally saved his life."

"What kind of fortune, and what was it about?" Chen Xiaolin was even more curious.

"He accompanied his family to visit Qiaojue Mountain and had the good fortune to come to Anjing Temple to offer a few sticks of incense. He drew a fortune while he was at it, asking if he and his next business partner would be able to make a fortune, but he received a 'Great Misfortune' fortune. He asked me, so I interpreted it for him and told him that it would be best to seek other partners, and that he should avoid using transportation like subways or trains in the future. This was the best way for him to avoid the omen."

"Then he actually believed my words. He didn't go to meet that business partner and avoided his calamity, surviving the Collapse Night in Cuizhu City," Li Duojin explained nonchalantly.

"Collapse Night?" Chen Xiaolin was stunned. She gripped the steering wheel tightly and looked at him in shock and suspicion. "You really foresaw his danger?"

"It wasn't me foreseeing it; I was just interpreting," Li Duojin shook his head.

"You wouldn't happen to have just been a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse, saying something random and happening to get it right, would you?" Chen Xiaolin's tone was blunt; just like her profession, her pen was a sword, and that delicate little mouth of hers was a naval cannon.

Li Duojin chuckled. "Perhaps, but the main reason Zhang Laoban survived was that he believed it."

Chen Xiaolin pursed her lips and nodded, her expression somewhat playful, though she felt frustrated inside. While she understood why Zhang Laoban respected Li Duojin so much, she was even less certain about what Li Duojin's true abilities were.

If Li Duojin really had used some kind of ability to help Zhang Laoban avoid one of the most vicious Abnormal disasters currently known globally, then Li Duojin was indeed an unfathomable and extraordinary person.

But if not, the twenty thousand yuan was money down the drain, and she had wasted her time.

"You still haven't answered my previous question. Do you actually have any special abilities?" Chen Xiaolin asked.

"I do." Li Duojin nodded. His eyes swept over Chen Xiaolin. From his perspective, Chen Xiaolin's body was entangled with several black, fleshy tentacles—which she could not perceive—that had come from nowhere, brushing over her and leaving slimy traces. "I can see some things that others cannot."

"Yin Yang Eyes?" Chen Xiaolin retorted. "Although I haven't kept statistics, most people I've met who claim to have special abilities say the same thing."

"It's not that kind of ability; I can just see where some unclean things have left traces of their activity." Li Duojin did not offer much of a defense, only asking her a question: "Have you personally experienced any Abnormal events recently?"

Upon hearing Li Duojin's words, before Chen Xiaolin could answer, she slammed on the brakes and brought the car to a sudden stop on the side of the road. She widened her eyes and stared straight at Li Duojin: "Did you see something on me?"

"Don't be nervous." Li Duojin had been hurt by the seatbelt during that sudden stop. He wasn't angry, just comforting her. "You are fine; you might have just happened to come into contact with it."

Chen Xiaolin was not reassured and insisted on pressing him: "If you see something, please tell me."

"Hmm, tentacles of an unknown creature are wrapping around you. From the perspective of the Abnormalities I see, the Abnormal event you encountered is related to the sea." Li Duojin was helpless and could only continue to explain. "But it's fine now; the Abnormalities I see are receding, and they weren't going to affect you anyway."

Chen Xiaolin couldn't help but grab her own hair. She remembered drinking at Haoyunlai Bar half a month ago, where she finally heard a creepy, immersive story from a mixed-race bartender—a story that had scared both her and Zheng Yu away.

That story happened to be related to the ocean. Hearing Li Duojin say this now, she suddenly began to believe that she had truly come face-to-face with an Abnormality that night, feeling a heart-pounding sensation as if she had walked through the gates of hell.

Li Duojin's words became a bit more credible, and his claim of having eyes that could see Abnormal factors gained some of her affirmation.

Chen Xiaolin took a deep breath and adjusted her mindset for a moment. The car started again; she decided to resolve the matter at hand first, and deal with her own affairs afterward.

Half an hour later, Chen Xiaolin and Li Duojin arrived at a garden residential complex. Chen Xiaolin brought Li Duojin to the 10th floor of a certain unit.

As the elevator door opened on the 10th floor, what met their eyes was a scene of black cloth and white flowers, extinguished candles, and lingering incense—a full display of a funeral.