Page 83

—It was just too hard.

Pei Ling had never been through anything like this, but that was all right. He learned quickly.

What surprised him most was Qiao Ranran's Fortune. Every stall she chose sold genuine junk, and she steered clear of every stall hiding an unassuming treasure. Yan Qingsui, who had tagged along for the fun, missed those stalls too, to say nothing of Jiang Miaomiao, whom the two of them led around by the nose. Even Xiang Rongxi's attention was drawn away, and he failed to notice a few little things.

In high spirits, Pei Ling picked up several finds. Then—

"Fellow Daoist Pei!" He ran into Wen Ziheng in front of a stall.

Pei Ling's good mood vanished, especially when he saw that Wen Ziheng was with Feng Changdong. His gaze cooled. "Wen Ziheng. Feng Changdong." What a coincidence.

Wen Ziheng's pupils trembled. Pei Ling's tone was hardly friendly, a far cry from their "harmonious" time together in Vast Sea City. He had the unsettling sense that Pei Ling might tear away the last shred of civility at any moment.

Wen Ziheng nearly lost his smile. "Fellow Daoist Pei, you know Changdong? What a stroke of fate!"

Pei Ling laughed. "Quite a stroke of fate." I hardly ever go out, yet here they are. After seeing Qiao Ranran's Fortune at the stalls, he had begun to suspect that her strange Fortune had brought this about.

For Qiao Ranran, running into these people was never a good thing.

Pei Ling's eyes darkened. That seemed to include him.

Feng Changdong's smile did not change. He cupped his hands, graceful and effortlessly charming. People came and went around him, but wherever Feng Changdong stood, he seemed to have a radiance of his own. "Fellow Daoist Pei, a pleasure."

In truth,