Chapter 10: Chapter Nine: [The Art of Diverting Fate]

Chen Yan was willing to pay for medical expenses, which originally amounted to about five hundred yuan.

Chen Yan voluntarily increased the medical compensation to two thousand yuan, with the extra amount serving as a symbolic payment for emotional distress.

He also apologized in person to the victim.

Chen Yan clearly understood that the cute girl was completely innocent.

She had no idea she was cursed, nor did she know she would drag down an entire plane full of people.

She was just a young girl sitting peacefully on the plane, asleep, when a man came over and punched her out of nowhere.

It really was unjust, wasn’t it?

Regardless of whether the matter could be resolved, Chen Yan had already shown his attitude.

Of course, it still depended on the victim’s wishes.

If the victim refused to forgive him… the scale of this incident could become unpredictable.

If someone tried to exploit the situation, refused to reconcile or mediate, and insisted on a full medical evaluation and procedural process…

You might end up detained, and the compensation would certainly not be reduced.

However, after a moment, the police delivered an unexpected result to Chen Yan.

The girl he had punched… actually… expressed willingness to forgive him.

Hmm, she’s a kind, soft-hearted girl?

·

Under the police’s supervision, both parties met in the mediation room.

The other party signed the letter of forgiveness on the spot, and Chen Yan immediately transferred two thousand yuan for medical expenses and compensation.

“Ms. Lu Sisi… because I… I deeply apologize to you… I am willing to pay… compensation…”

After Chen Yan offered a sincere apology, the girl named Lu Sisi looked at him with some fear, then finally nodded softly: “I… I accept your apology.”

The girl was still very cute, clearly the type of gentle, soft-spoken cutie.

Hmm, she was definitely the type who’d cry for a long time after getting punched.

And… Chen Yan only learned at the police station:

The girl…

Had just turned eighteen this year.

What a tragedy!

·

After the matter was settled, the girl left first.

Chen Yan still had to undergo a lecture from a young police officer.

In fact, the officer’s approach had a specific purpose: to protect the young victim— they couldn’t let her leave alone with him, in case further danger arose.

So they kept Chen Yan there longer under the guise of reprimand and education.

Chen Yan’s attitude was excellent. From the surface, this was clearly his fault; only a fool would argue with the police.

After receiving the lecture, Chen Yan was about to leave.

The young officer suddenly remembered something and asked: “Wait, you said earlier your ex-girlfriend swindled away your rent money…

Then how come you had money to fly first class? I checked the flight records—you were in first class, right?”

Chen Yan kept his expression calm: “After we broke up, I got a new girlfriend. She’s a wealthy woman.”

The young officer gave Chen Yan a disapproving look.

He glanced at the signed letter of forgiveness and the case report…

Suppressing his irritation, he curtly told Chen Yan to get out.

·

After leaving, Chen Yan actually searched the airport terminal for the cute girl, but couldn’t find her—she’d probably already left.

It wasn’t that Chen Yan had any improper intentions.

It was just… he’d used his Heavenly Eye and seen the girl named Lu Sisi—her dark aura of misfortune was unusually heavy.

And his own [Destiny-Averting] method might not fully dispel her bad luck.

The girl was kind; he’d hoped to find her and examine her more closely.

Too bad.

·

After graduating, Chen Yan had a residence in Jin Ling. He’d rented it after graduation and lived there throughout his internship.

Near the university district in Chengdong, it was a cheap urban village apartment.

Rent was eight hundred yuan per month, a single room, with one month’s deposit and three months’ payment upfront.

The landlord was a stingy, petty man—he’d divided a standard three-bedroom apartment into four tiny rooms, then added another bed in the living room for rent.

Five people crammed into a single forty-square-meter apartment.

And to top it off, no air conditioning!

But recently, only Chen Yan and the neighbor in the adjacent room were home; the other three tenants were either working overtime or on business trips.

Back at his place, exhausted, Chen Yan threw himself onto the bed—but didn’t immediately fall asleep.

He forced himself to sit upright, cross-legged, and circulate Qi.

After a moment, Chen Yan confirmed his suspicion.

His surrounding Qi had increased slightly since before boarding the plane.

The increase wasn’t huge, but it was clearly greater than his normal daily cultivation gain.

According to Chen Yan’s estimate, this single boost equaled three days’ worth of regular practice!

This was a genuine surprise.

Chen Yan immediately pulled out his secret manual, flipping through it repeatedly—but found no description of this unusual phenomenon.

Frowning, he sat on the bed, pondered for a while, then reluctantly gave up trying to figure it out.

Since he couldn’t understand it and the manual offered no explanation, he’d just set it aside for now.

After all, increased strength was never a bad thing, was it?

With that thought, he flipped again to the section on strange arts.

He skimmed through the techniques listed.

Previously, with his low Qi, he could only use the simplest technique: [Opening the Heavenly Eye].

Now…

Chen Yan decided to try something slightly more advanced.

Recalling the girl’s overwhelming misfortune on the plane, he felt a spark of inspiration.

“Luck? That sounds interesting.”

Hmm, this technique might be worth trying… Chen Yan stared at a particular passage in the manual…

·

At around three in the morning, angry shouting came from the neighboring room.

The noise jolted Chen Yan awake from his meditation.

Frowning, he glanced toward the wall. At this hour, shouting so loudly? Probably some gamer yelling at his opponent.

Chen Yan didn’t bother confronting him—first, he’d already slept enough and wasn’t truly angry.

Second, he’d tried this before; talking to such people was useless.

Reasoning with them didn’t work—anyone with real manners wouldn’t be making noise at this hour.

Beating him up? He’d seriously considered it before, but back then, he’d just graduated and found a job—he didn’t want trouble reaching his grandmother back home.

And with people like this, either don’t act at all, or act decisively enough to scare them permanently—or eliminate the threat entirely.

If you can’t do that, don’t waste time on them—just lie low for now.

Chen Yan called this approach: Either don’t do it, or do it right!

His university classmates had a different name for him: A dog that doesn’t bark bites.

Hmm, so at school he had a nickname: Chen Xiao…

·

Chen Yan, in slippers, stepped out and went into the kitchen, lit the stove, and made himself a bowl of instant noodles, thinking about the million yuan sitting in his bank account…

He immediately splurged on two eggs!

After eating his fill, he began planning his first move.

Looking at this cramped, shabby rental room, he thought: He needed to move out.

First, he had money now—he didn’t need to suffer like this anymore.

The eight-square-meter single room had barely enough space for a bed and a desk; no air conditioning, and the water heater was broken half the time—it was nearly winter.

Chen Yan had no interest in taking cold showers in freezing weather.

Second, he planned to seriously practice the manual left by the Old Grandma, and he needed privacy.

·

He dismissed the option of returning to his hometown.

Rural life was inconvenient, and Chen Yan had lived in the city for years.

He suffered from the urban youth syndrome: [Wi-Fi + Food Delivery].

There was no food delivery in the countryside, and setting up Wi-Fi was a hassle.

And most importantly: in the countryside, there is no privacy.

In the city, people are coldly distant; they shut their doors and may never speak to their neighbors again.

But in the countryside, that won’t work.

Though the countryside seems sparsely populated, in any given village, more than half the people are related by blood or marriage.

During the day, no one locks their doors; anyone can walk straight into another’s main room for a visit.

If someone in your house keeps their door tightly shut all day, it draws attention.

·

“I’ve had enough! If you have money, you should treat yourself well.”

Chen Yan decided: today, he would find a new place to live!

Thinking of this, Chen Yan carried his bowl back to the kitchen. Even standing in the kitchen, he could hear the neighbor’s curses growing louder.

Chen Yan thought… since he was moving out anyway, couldn’t he stop enduring this?

Should he give the guy a little something today?

Just as he was thinking, the neighbor’s door slammed open. A male tenant, around thirty, stormed out cursing, poured himself a glass of water in the kitchen, then glared at Chen Yan as if still furious.

“What are you staring at?”

The man stood there, gulping down the water.

Chen Yan smiled, showing not a trace of anger.

Using the “Fate Cycle” and the Heavenly Eye, he examined the man.

Hmm, this guy’s fortune has been decent lately.

Chen Yan walked over with a smile: “Brother Wang.”

As he spoke, he extended his hand, concealing a faint thread of primordial Qi in his fingertip, forming a peculiar finger seal, and lightly tapped the man’s shoulder three times.

“What are you doing?” The man raised an eyebrow.

“Nothing. There’s ash on your shoulder,” Chen Yan replied with a smile.

The man glanced suspiciously at Chen Yan, saw nothing unusual, and turned back to his room.

Slam. The door shut.

·

“Fate Severance Technique!”

Chen Yan had spent two hours tonight successfully mastering this novel technique.

By forming a specific finger seal and channeling primordial Qi into the fingertip, one can brush away a thread of another’s fortune, turning good luck into misfortune.

The advantage: it strikes unseen.

The drawback: its power is weak, and it only works when the target’s fortune is favorable—meaning it can only turn good luck into bad.

If the target’s fortune were like that girl on the plane, cloaked in dark clouds,

it would be useless.

The cost: it consumes about three times the primordial Qi needed to activate the Heavenly Eye once.

·

Chen Yan returned to his room satisfied.

That neighbor of his should suffer some misfortune in the next few days.

Nothing major, but losing a bit of money or getting a minor injury was inevitable.

·

【Two chapters today—completed! Please follow!】

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