Chapter 258

All right, all right, the rites are done now; let's go back and wait for news, three days… Seeing Han Duo's face gradually darken, I hurried to get ahead of her, holding up three fingers: "Believe me, within three days Zhou Zhenzhen will definitely repay you on time."

Han Duo's complexion then gradually cleared from gloom to bright. Still, she remained her usual smug self; after giving me a slightly better look, she immediately reverted to her former aloofness, snatched my peach‑wood sword, tidied up the altar's items, and prepared to leave—without even saying goodbye.

"Hey, little millet, you're really just going to leave like that?" I chased after her; she seemed angered by the nickname "little millet," turned around, puffed her cheeks, and glared at me: "Who are you calling? I'm telling you, don't call me that…"

With a clatter, a tile fell from the roof, Han Duo's voice cut off abruptly as she stared at me in shock. The tile smashed my forehead, and blood trickled weakly down my head.

"Are you okay?" Han Duo exclaimed, rushing over anxiously. The tile left me dazed, almost making me collapse, but Han Duo caught me just in time.

"You… you didn't cast a divination before the ancestral altar just now?" Han Duo supported me, asking incredulously.

I felt half‑laughing, half‑crying; given the situation, who had time to ask the ancestral master? I'd wasted those few minutes, and you were already about to storm off. If I'd asked the ancestral master then, I probably couldn't have kept you.

Of course, I never imagined I'd be this unlucky—I hadn't used a debt‑collecting spell in N years, and the one time I did, I got hit. As a Daoist, I feel this is utterly disgraceful, not to mention terribly unfortunate.

People in our line usually have extremely keen spiritual sense. When we sense danger, we immediately recite the Soul‑Hiding Spell—so‑called "hiding the soul," also known as "hiding the body," concealing our souls at the ends of the earth to avoid calamity.

But when that tile fell just now, I felt nothing at all—this is highly abnormal for me. The only explanation is that my debt‑collecting spell lacked the Ancestral Master's permission, and now he's punishing me afterward.

Otherwise… how could a mere tile knock me so senseless, my chest feeling stifled as if something wanted to burst out? It's worse than a pregnant woman's discomfort.

A buzzing sound rang in my head, growing louder; my consciousness turned hazy, I could barely hear what Han Duo was saying, and my body and heart were filled with an indescribable weakness and nausea.

After a long, long while, this feeling gradually eased considerably; when I finally came to and felt less awful, I discovered I was actually sitting on a park bench…

Beside me, an old woman seated under a tree, holding a pair of barber's scissors, squinted at me curiously, her little eyes constantly darting to my head while she kept covering her mouth and laughing.

"Old lady, what are you doing? Do I have a flower on my face?"

I instinctively touched my cheek—and indeed there was a little red flower plastered on my bald head. Bald head with a red flower… how utterly delightful that must be!

After removing that little red flower, several minutes passed, yet the people around still kept covering their mouths and laughing, especially when I saw the snotty‑nosed kid nearby, licking a lollipop and grinning at me. I felt my life was bleak and my future dim, wishing I could find a hole to crawl into, or grab a towel to hang myself and end this miserable life.

This place where I sat seemed to be a park; behind me was a large lake, and in that pavilion there were many old men either playing chess or playing cards, while under the big trees here were various barber stalls. Moreover, along both sides of the road, almost everything consisted of stalls offering fortune‑telling.

Not long after I came to, an old man with a goatee, looking like an immortal with Daoist bearing, came running toward me, half‑eyed, pinching his fingers as he chanted: "Daily dreams abound, souls foretell fortune and misfortune, Zhuang Zhou becomes a butterfly, Lü Zhaowang soars like a bear." After finishing the recitation, he suddenly grabbed my shoulder, his little eyes widening in amazement as if Columbus had discovered a new continent.

"Oh dear, oh dear, this is serious, this is serious, brother, I see you have a heaven‑reaching bone on your forehead and spiritual light in your eyes… you will surely achieve great things. Why not give me your eight characters so I can calculate your fortune, read your physiognomy, and advise you?"

I sweated… nowadays, are all those who wander the jianghu this unprofessional? Reciting the mnemonic of Zhou Gong's dream interpretation, I immediately jumped into physiognomy. Then, going with the flow, I started swindling people into getting their eight characters and fortune read.

Swindling aside, he's still this unprofessional—I don't have any "heaven‑reaching bone" on my forehead! If Pangzi were here, his words might find believers, since his forehead really does have a protruding bone. But my forehead? No bone at all, just a smooth surface, not even a bump. Moreover… my left eye is clearly swollen with an eye‑bag, yet you claim to see spiritual light in a one‑eyed blind man—this is even more absurd than Xiang Yu being abandoned by Yu Ji, then hooking up with Diaochan in a lesbian fling!

Bean‑sized sweat droplets rolled down my forehead—not from heat, but from nausea at the old man's praises; I almost began to doubt I was still myself. Am I really Chen Hai Sheng? If I looked in a mirror, I'd probably see the handsome figure of "Brother Dawn" staring back.

Just as I could barely restrain myself from lashing out, a pretty figure suddenly appeared behind the old man and slapped his shoulder.

"Old Man Zeng, you've come to my turf to mooch off meals and swindle my friends—this is going a bit too far…" Han Duo still held two bottles of glucose drink in her hand, but her words were still spiteful. The old man, upon seeing Han Duo, shuddered, shrank back to his own spot, and sat on a small stool three meters away. His flying dash, his walking speed—so swift it was unbelievable.

Han Duo seemed quite pleased, tilting her head back and smiling smugly a few times, then turned and handed me a bottle of the glucose drink.

"Here, take it—I just bought it; drinking it will make you feel more energetic."

Coincidentally, my throat was also feeling quite dry, so I didn't hesitate to take the drink Han Duo handed me. After gulping down a small sip, Han Duo then said.

"Right, Chen Hai Sheng, the money from the debt collection will take another month to settle and be returned to me; once I have it, where should I send it to you?"

I shook my head and said there's no rush—first take it and give it to Xiao Binbin.

After saying that, both of us fell into silence, since we really had nothing to talk about; just moments ago we were sworn enemies, and after a single breath we had suddenly become friends—this shift in attitude is really hard to get used to.

"I… I'm heading off now; if I have free time next time, I'll come find you to play," I said, scratching my head, only managing to blurt that out after a moment.

"Mm, take care," Han Duo replied, still as terse as ever.

"By the way, remember, during this period you absolutely must not use any more spellcraft—your soul has been injured and hasn't recovered; continuing to use spells would be draining your own life…" After taking two steps, I came to again and added a reminder to Han Duo: "Remember, you must remember."

Han Duo lightly replied that she knew, but her gaze told me she hadn't taken it to heart at all.

Is it that she can't take it to heart, or is reality forcing her to continue this way? Perhaps beneath her seemingly carefree, overconfident, big‑man exterior lies an unimaginable pressure that weighs on her so heavily she can barely catch her breath.

Actually, we're just a bunch of people forced by fate to lower our heads… I sighed silently in my heart, lifted my head, and glanced at the sky above—it was a deep azure, but that blue lasted less than a minute before being blotted out by dark clouds, turning the sky grim.

"Kid, have you had enough?" I was still sighing when a deep voice boomed from above… I then realized it wasn't the clouds blocking the blue sky, but a bear‑like man shielding me.

This man really looked like a bear—his nose was wholly a bear's snout, his stature at least over 1.8 meters; as I gazed at the sky, his whole person leaned toward me, his round big head directly blocking my view.

"I haven't had enough, who the hell are you, interfering with people's sky‑gazing…" I trailed off mid‑sentence.

It seemed… something was off.

Besides this burly, tall "Bear Brother," suddenly a crowd of people appeared around me, forming a semicircle that enclosed both Han Duo and me.

What the hell is this about… I'm not Pangzi, I haven't harassed any young lady…