You're Awake?

After three days of practice, Boss Lu had improved by leaps and bounds.

He had already managed to graze the paper slip with the first move of the Basic Umbrella Technique.

Of course, "graze" was all he could do.

It was nine o'clock at night. The Answer Bar had only been open for a short while, but a small number of customers were already seated on the first floor.

At first, many customers had come because of the gimmick of a bar filled with mechanisms. Gradually, everyone began to feel that this bar, with its old locust tree planted by the entrance, had quite a bit of style.

The waitress was also very beautiful, with an explosive figure and a pleasant voice.

Most importantly... she could make those whimpering sounds, of course!

With only Ye Yiyi as a waitress, the bar was actually a little too much for her to handle at times.

But as a demon—even the lowest-level Night Demon—her stamina was still better than an ordinary person's. She did not feel overly tired. Instead, she found it quite fulfilling.

It would have been even better if those greasy middle-aged men who felt so good about themselves would stop sneaking glances at me while the bar was open.

Thus, the Answer Bar's daily earnings were actually pretty decent.

Of course, this was also related to Lu Yibai's skill at running a business.

He had spent a long time studying how to operate a bar.

After all, opening a bar had once been his father's dream.

As his son, Lu Yibai hoped he could help his father. After all, his father was no longer young.

His father loved traveling. Back when he had been a folk singer performing in bars, he had often wandered all over the country.

He had left his footprints in practically every province in all of China.

But this world had more than just China.

So back then, Lu Yibai had really wanted to run their future family bar well, make lots of money, and let his father enjoy a better life with him.

"The world is so big. My father should go see it."

Unfortunately, his father had never enjoyed the relocation compensation, nor had he fulfilled his dream of opening a bar.

What a pity.

After glancing at the bustling first floor, Lu Yibai returned to the second floor and continued practicing the Basic Umbrella Technique.

When a person died, everything was extinguished like a snuffed lamp. He thought his father would probably want him to live a more wonderful life too!

Even after stepping into a different world, he still had no great ambitions. He only hoped to live a little better and for the people around him to live a little better too.

Such a small wish was actually very difficult to achieve.

He could not slack off!

Boss Lu held the Lion Umbrella and swung it forward.

He had lost count of how many times he had done so that day.

It struck the center of the paper slip!

With a sharp snap, the paper slip was blasted apart by the tremendous force.

This was only the beginning.

Lu Yibai had more or less mastered the first move of the Basic Umbrella Technique.

He could now hit his target accurately about once every three attempts.

He was still far from good enough, but the feeling of improving a little every day was truly exhilarating.

It was two in the afternoon. Under normal circumstances, he should still have been cultivating or sleeping.

He was living a life turned upside down, with a rather eventful nightlife.

The reason he had gotten up so early was that he needed to "restock."

Running a bar naturally required a sufficient supply of alcohol.

Alcohol had a very large profit margin. If one did not have the right channels, it was easy to get cheated out of quite a bit of money.

Boss Lu was a man with a conscience. At the very least, he would not sell fake liquor.

If he sold fake liquor, the profit would be even greater.

After purchasing a batch of liquor, Lu Yibai had them deliver it over. Once he had tidied up the bar, he prepared to go out for a stroll.

"It's been a long time since I've seen Crow City during the day." Lu Yibai muttered to himself, feeling an odd sense of unfamiliarity toward this familiar city.

To be honest, the city really did look completely different during the day and at night.

He had heard that for people with no sense of direction, daytime roads and nighttime roads were basically two different roads.

Before he knew it, he had walked back to the rental apartment where he and his father had once lived.

They had lived on the third floor.

There was no rental advertisement posted, so it seemed the place had already been rented out.

Crow City could not be considered a major city, but it had quite a large population and heavy foot traffic.

As he walked, he reached an overpass.

Many years ago, the overpasses in every city had been bustling places. Now, thanks to the city inspectors' efforts, there were fewer miscellaneous people on the overpass. There were only two professional beggars and a fortune-teller hiding in a corner.

This fortune-teller had spoken with Lu Yibai before. At the time, Lu Yibai had nothing better to do, while the uncle, whose business was poor, was clearly even more bored. As they chatted, they found that they got along quite well.

Then the uncle had forcibly pulled Lu Yibai over and said he would tell his fortune for free.

The result was that something might happen to his family soon, and that he would encounter a great opportunity in life.

After that, his father had gotten into a traffic accident, while Lu Yibai had joined the Night Watchmen.

Damn, that had been accurate!

"Uncle, long time no see." Lu Yibai stepped forward to greet him.

"Uh, Yibai... well... my condolences," the uncle said.

The uncle had always told fortunes on the overpass, though he had not come by for a while recently. He had probably been avoiding a crackdown by the city inspectors.

The people coming and going here were all Lu Yibai's former neighbors, so it was not strange that the uncle had heard about his father's death. He had even smoked with his father before.

Lu Yibai gave a bitter smile. "Uncle, your fortune-telling was really accurate."

"Was it?" The uncle scratched his hair.

He was an honest man. The reason he had not made much money was that he was different from those swindling charlatans who were good at fooling people.

Seeing Lu Yibai's expression, the uncle could not bear it and said, "Yibai, don't take it too hard. You know, your uncle just downloaded a paid fortune-telling app. You only need to enter your birth information. It can't really be trusted."

The corner of Lu Yibai's mouth twitched. Right, he had actually forgotten about that!

The uncle had merely downloaded an app called "Divination God." It cost eighty-eight yuan to download.

More precisely, there were actually quite a few paid fortune-telling apps like this.

Quite a few fortune-telling enthusiasts would download them just to play around.

Since he had nothing better to do, Lu Yibai said, "Uncle, why don't you use the app to tell my fortune again?"

"Sure. I still won't charge you—just give me a cigarette." The uncle grinned.

Lu Yibai knew that the Divination God app was a rip-off. It cost eighty-eight yuan to download, and every fortune-telling session required another fifteen yuan.

The uncle charged thirty yuan each time, yet still had to pay fifteen yuan to the software.

Since they were familiar with each other and Lu Yibai knew the uncle would not accept payment, he bought him a pack of cigarettes—Liqun cigarettes costing more than thirty yuan.

After the uncle took out his secondhand iPhone 6S and fiddled with it, he said awkwardly, "Yibai, it says you'll run into something tonight, but judging from the hexagram, there's no telling whether it'll be good or bad. Anyway, don't take it to heart. Just treat it as a bit of fun."

Lu Yibai nodded.

After returning to the bar, everything continued as usual. The bar opened as usual, and he cultivated as usual. Nothing happened.

"Looks like this Divination God app is a scam too."

After practicing the umbrella technique like mad for a while longer, Lu Yibai prepared to wash up and go to sleep.

Before entering the bathroom to shower, he casually placed the Lion Umbrella on the bedside table.

After falling asleep, he had no idea that the lion-head carving on the Lion Umbrella atop the bedside table flickered faintly.

In his dream, he seemed to vaguely see a man. The man looked at him and spoke:

"You're awake."

(P.S. First update.)