Chapter 530

All right, all right, the ritual is already done, let's go back and wait for news, three days..." Seeing Han Duo's face gradually darkening, I hurried to get ahead, extending three fingers: "Believe me, within three days Zhou Zhenzhen will definitely repay you a sum of money on time."

Han Duo's complexion only 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 original cold demeanor, snatched my peach-wood sword, tidied up the altar's items, and prepared to leave, not even saying goodbye.

"Hey, I'm talking to you, Little Millet, are you really just going to leave like that?" I chased after her running out; she seemed angered by the nickname "Little Millet," turned around, puffed her cheeks, and glared at me: "Who are you calling? I tell you, you're not allowed to call me that..."

With a clang, a sound rang out; Han Duo's voice cut off abruptly, and she looked at me in astonishment. I saw a tile fall from the roof, instantly smashing my forehead, and blood trickled weakly from my head.

"Oh, are you okay?" Han Duo exclaimed in surprise, rushing over anxiously; the tile left me dazed, I almost couldn't help but collapse, but Han Duo timely supported me.

"You... you didn't cast a divination before the ancestral altar just now?" Han Duo asked me, surprised, while supporting me.

I felt both amused and exasperated; given the situation, who had time to ask the ancestral master? Just delaying those few minutes, you were already about to storm off; if I had cast another divination to ask the ancestral master, I probably couldn't have kept you.

Of course, I never expected to be this unlucky; I hadn't used a debt-collection spell in n years, and the one time I did, I got hit. As a Daoist, I feel this is extremely embarrassing, and also terribly unfortunate.

People like us usually have very keen spiritual awareness; when we sense impending danger, we immediately recite the Soul-Hiding Mantra once. As mentioned before, "hiding the soul" also means hiding the body, concealing one's spirit to the ends of the earth to avoid calamity.

Yet when that tile fell just now, I sensed nothing at all—this is highly abnormal for me. The only explanation is that I performed the debt-collection without the ancestral master's permission, and now he is punishing me afterward.

Otherwise... how could a single tile knock me so dizzy, my chest feeling stifled as if wanting to jump out, simply worse than a pregnant woman.

A buzzing sound gradually rose in my head; my consciousness grew hazy, I could barely hear what Han Duo was saying to me, and my body and heart were filled with an indescribable weakness and nausea.

Only after a long, long time did this feeling gradually ease; when I came to and felt less miserable, I discovered I was actually sitting on a park bench...

The auntie sitting with a chair under the big tree narrowed her eyes, holding a barber's scissors, curiously staring at me; her small eyes kept darting to my head, and while looking, she kept covering her mouth and laughing.

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

I instinctively touched my cheek, and... there really was a small red flower placed on my bald head—bald head with a red flower, how damn embarrassing is that!

After taking off 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 future hopeless, wishing I could find a hole to crawl into, or grab a towel to hang myself and end this miserable life.

This place seems to be a park; behind me is a large lake in the pavilion where many old men play chess or cards, while under the big trees here are various barber stalls, and along both sides of the road are almost exclusively fortune-telling stalls.

Not long after I came to, an old man with a goatee, looking ethereal and daoist, half-squinting his eyes, came running over, pinching his fingers as he chanted: "Daily myriad dreams, spirits foretell fortune and misfortune, Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly, Lü Zhaowang flying like a bear." After finishing the recitation, he suddenly grabbed my shoulder, his small eyes widening in astonishment as if Columbus had discovered a new continent.

"Oh dear, oh dear, this is serious, this is serious, brother, I see you have the 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 Zhou Gong dream-interpretation mantra, I immediately jumped into physiognomy, then went along with it, swindling people into getting their eight characters and fortune read.

Swindling is bad enough, but he's even more unprofessional—I don't have any heaven-reaching bone on my forehead at all. If Pangzi were here, his words might find believers, since his forehead really does have a protruding bone. But my forehead, let alone a bone, is completely smooth, not even a bump. Moreover... my left eye is clearly swollen with an eye bag, and you dare tell a one-eyed blind man that you see spiritual light in his eye? That's even more absurd than Yu Ji abandoning Xiang Yu to go off with Diao Chan and lotus.

Bean-sized sweat droplets slid down my forehead—not from heat, but from disgust at the old man's praises; I almost began to doubt whether I was still myself. Am I really Chen Hai Sheng? I fear that if I looked in a mirror, I'd see the handsome figure of Brother Li Ming instead.

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

"Old Man Zeng, you've come to my turf to freeload, swindling my friend—this is a bit excessive, isn't it?" Han Duo still held two bottles of glucose drink in her hand, but her words were spiteful. The old man, upon seeing Han Duo, shrank his shoulders in fright, hurriedly retreating to his own spot and sitting on a small stool three meters away. His sprinting posture and walking speed were so briskly standard as to be unbelievable.

Han Duo seemed quite pleased, lifting her head and smiling smugly a few times; she 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 also felt quite dry, so I didn't hesitate to take the drink Han Duo handed over. After just gulping a small sip, Han Duo said:

"By the way, Chen Hai Sheng, the money from the debt collection will still take a month to settle and be returned to me; once I have it in hand, where should I send it to you?"

I shook my head and said it's not urgent; you can first take it to give to Xiao Binbin.

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

"I... I'm leaving now; if I have free time next time, I'll come find you to play." I scratched my head, taking a moment before managing to utter that sentence.

"Mm, take care," Han Duo replied, still being terse.

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

Whether she can't take it to heart, or reality's helplessness forces her to continue this way. Perhaps beneath her seemingly carefree, aloof, big-man-like exterior lies an unimaginable pressure that suffocates her, leaving her no room to breathe.

Actually, we're just a bunch of people forced by fate to lower our heads... I silently sighed in my heart, lifted my head, and glanced at the sky above; the sky was very azure, but the azure lasted less than a minute before being covered by dark clouds, turning very gloomy.

"Kid, have you seen enough?" As I was sighing, a robust voice came from above me... I then realized it wasn't the clouds blocking the blue sky, but a bear-like man blocking me.

This man really resembled a bear, his nose wholly like a bear's snout, his stature at least over 1.8 meters; as I gazed at the sky, his whole person happened to lean toward me, his round big head directly obstructing my view.

"I haven't seen enough, who the hell are you, even telling people not to look at the sky..." I trailed off mid-sentence.

It seemed, something was off.

Besides this burly, tall "Brother Bear," suddenly many people appeared around me, forming a semicircle that encircled me and Han Duo.

What is this for... I'm not Pangzi, I haven't harassed any young lady.