Chapter 753: No. 122: Double the Misfortune

NO. 122: Double the Misfortune

The road is also forged by stepping.

——On a typhoon day, Chao Cang Lu went out, seeing that part of the street not covered by the protective shield still had many pedestrians moving, a similar feeling rose in his heart.

A very profound feeling.

Those people walked with steps as steady as if their weight were astonishing, casually passing through the projected characters that floated there reading 【No Shelter Zone, Please Caution】, entering the area where the air screamed incessantly and objects were easily blown away, and there they put down the bags in their hands.

Then complex machinery extended, deformed, and combined from that small bag into an instrument that looked just as heavy, and within seconds it unfolded into a halo of light similar to the existing protected zones—only the color was lighter.

Although the color was light, it was clearly evident that the wind force within its coverage had suddenly weakened; even plastic bags blowing by began to drift down slowly.

"They are all heavy-duty androids from the City Construction Management Department, their satchels contain simple models… ah…" Before he finished speaking, the black-haired man slipped his foot, nearly falling, leaving Chao Cang Lu at a loss.

Instinctively moving to help, he then saw the man stand up on his own.

"Are you alright…?" he asked with concern.

"Uh… watt… watt…"

After getting a clear look at the face, which, though black-haired, shared Western features with Mr. Lindon, he suddenly realized he should switch to English.

But he actually didn't understand English; even the pronunciation of common greetings gave him trouble.

"It's fine, I understand Jidong too," the man said, patting the water stain with some sand on his pant leg, his face showing a hint of numbness as he sighed, "Are you a transmigrator?"

"Ah? Uh… um…" Chao Cang Lu didn't know how to answer for a moment.

Although Showa Aodu has a rule that anyone discovered by humans must be repatriated, the Heisei and new generations do not insist on this; they merely try to keep it hidden if possible to avoid trouble.

But being a transmigrator and being Ultraman are two different matters.

Having loved tokusatsu since childhood, Chao Cang Lu momentarily found it hard to judge, thinking that tokusatsu heroes always hide their identities, but here transmigrators seem quite common……

In this back-and-forth, he couldn't help missing Pei Jia, who always offered ideas by his side in daily life.

The base spaceship named Nebula Manor is still stuck in paperwork at the Terra Federation Earth Spaceport to this day.

His Pegasa alien companion named Pei Jia, who stays aboard the ship, cannot conduct long-range communication with teammates due to interference from all kinds of Earth radio waves.

Thus that longing can only be a longing; he still has to face the present.

The present is his indifferent remark:

"Only transmigrators would keep staring at those City Construction Department robots; there's no need to hide it—this city isn't short of transmigrators, and many of my coworkers are transmigrators too."

The man said, pulling a U-shaped badge from his pocket.

It was an unfamiliar metal badge, but Chao Cang Lu still remembered seeing it in a photo from yesterday.

"Are you a friend of Mr. Lindon?"

"Trainer Lindon? I'd call him a friend; he even came to visit me……"

Being straightforward, he didn't hesitate to ask, and saw the man fall into thought, as if Xiao Lu had posed him a profound riddle.

"But it seems just a casual acquaintance, though he did indeed help me look after my subordinates' children… that should count as a friend……"

"…but we still only address each other by surname plus an honorific……"

Clearly a big man, yet he began to mutter anxiously, letting Chao Cang Lu, who had just relaxed after the topic shift, feel uneasy and break out in sweat on his forehead, as if he'd met some strange person.

Mr. Lindon's coworkers are also quite distinctive……

Just as he was thinking that, a sudden whistle sounded, prompting him to instinctively raise his hand and shove the umbrella surface to the side——

——blocking the entire surge of water kicked up by the truck screaming past.

Yet it also let the rain easily cover his head.

"Ah, sorry," the man quickly responded, holding his umbrella over the other's head, "My luck has always been bad; I might have dragged you down—I shouldn't have spoken to you, sorry."

"?"

His face bore a genuine apology; after signaling Xiao Lu to raise his umbrella, he stepped back two steps, bowed, turned, walked five or six steps away, then suddenly, in Xiao Lu's dazed stare where he hadn't reacted yet, he sprinted back.

He grabbed Xiao Lu's hand.

"Run!"

He shouted, pulling the other forward a few steps, and the latter also heard that grating, teeth‑grating sound at that moment.

That was a car with an intact front but a crumpled, twisted body, flying straight toward them——!

Ah this……

Judging from some experience that this speed couldn't be outrun, Chao Cang Lu grabbed the other's hand, leapt up, and in the other's startled cry vaulted over four meters high, avoiding the car crash's collateral debris.

At the same time, his phone screen, which he hadn't noticed, lit up with a message from Aomo.

【Yuehuanshe: Pay attention to any contact related to Uma Musume】

——

The Huangli, also known as the Imperial Calendar and Tongsheng, is a calendar book that simultaneously displays the Gregorian, lunar, and stem‑branch calendars, among others, and adds a large number of rules and content related to auspicious and inauspicious outcomes.

The Imperial Calendar was its original name, originating from ancient emperors.

Back then, the emperor, in order to promulgate a universal code of conduct, personally issued a set of calendars; this set circulated in the East for thousands of years, until the dynasty fell, the Imperial Calendar became the Huangli, and in folk usage it is also called the 'Tongshu'.

But due to homophonic avoidance in some regions, it is also called the 'Tongsheng'.

To this day, although the people's leader is no longer the emperor, it does not hinder its continued circulation.

Rather, precisely because there is no longer an emperor's unilateral decree, the Huangli's writing on auspicious and inauspicious matters is, in fact, more accurate and efficacious than before.

Even foreigners living within the East Asian cultural sphere often take it into consideration to some extent.

It's merely a consideration; ultimately, the Huangli only offers a rough direction—and even then, only if you meet the right person.

After all, as a calendar meant for most people to read, the Huangli itself conflicts with the criteria for judging auspiciousness and inauspiciousness—each person's fate, zodiac, numerology, birth date and eight characters, etc., are all different.

'To give the world a standard'—this very premise means that, for everyone, the Huangli may have reference value, but certainly not much.

Because most of its content is simply filled in with 'results,' only a small portion consists of formulas that apply to the vast majority of situations.

And even that small portion of 'formulas' can be understood only by those who have studied this field.

However, as long as one can understand it, one can thereby confirm which position one holds in the almanac; then the almanac's reference value will jump up, instantly shifting from the ordinary person's stance of 'believing, but only a little' to 'believing, believing eighty percent.'

Unfortunately, Aomo cannot interpret it.

Although he had been reading all sorts of miscellaneous books over the past half month, one of his main gains from reading them was realizing he had no notable talent for Eastern-style fortune-telling.

He had honestly intended to hand it over to Xiao Lin Li Qi; at first he thought so, but after Jie De left, while he continued watching TV and chatting with Sai Luo, New Universe, and Xiao Lin Li Qi, he casually pulled up the almanac page.

In this day and age, although the almanac sounds like something ancient and hard to find, it is still a common item that yields results with a quick search engine query.

It's merely shifted from yellowed paper pages to electronic data, and even the table UI remains just as classic.

The Five Elements, clashes, and the value deity at the top are immediately visible; these three categories are precisely the 'formula' of the almanac, prompting Aomo to glance at it casually, then frown and look again.

【Clash: Horse clash, South】

To be honest, Aomo doesn't quite grasp this, but he still remembers Xiao Lin's earlier comment.

He mentioned the Five Elements and the value deity, but omitted the clash—this clearly belongs to the realm of feng shui.

"Xiao Lin Li Qi, classmate."

"What's wrong? Trainer."

"What does 'Horse clash, South' mean?"

"... um, it means that people born in the Year of the Horse clash with the southern direction, and one should also be wary of those born in the Year of the Horse." She hesitated, then explained.

"Does Horse Girl count as well?"

"... Yes, and it's even more effective than ordinary zodiac signs," Xiao Lin Li Qi said, his speech speed noticeably increasing a bit, as if hastily speaking out of fear, "but everyone doesn't need to pay too much attention to that information about their Five Elements zodiac."

This might be why she deliberately avoided it earlier; her somewhat tense gaze shows she's afraid of Aomo's reaction.

Contrary to her worries, Aomo merely fell silent for two seconds, then calmly asked: "... What about Mr. Chaocang's situation?"

"It's likely the result of the Five Elements balancing out."

"... I see... I'll still give a reminder."