After speaking, Arnold raised his glass and took another long swig. Before he could swallow, he heard the stranger across from him say slowly,
"Then I'll give you a chance."
A chance?
What kind of chance?
Before Arnold could work out what that meant, everything went black, and he passed out.
When he woke again, he stared around the tavern in confusion.
"I..."
"This is a tavern? Old Toby's tavern?"
He sat dazed for a few seconds, then jolted upright. "I've gone back to the past? I... I've been reborn?"
"Right, that stranger..."
Arnold looked around, but there wasn't a soul in the tavern now, let alone any sign of the stranger.
After searching in vain, Arnold sighed. But he soon pulled himself together and hurried out of the tavern. He remembered a business opportunity that could make him a fortune.
"Since the God of Fate has sent me back, this time I'll become the richest merchant on the continent."
Inside the tavern, after Arnold left, Jiang Hao leisurely sipped his ale, picked up his suitcase, and walked out.
Of course, he couldn't actually send Arnold back in time. That involved Space-Time, and only a god who held its Authority could do it.
He had merely divined the next twenty years of Arnold's life and stuffed all those visions into his mind at once, creating the illusion of rebirth.
Having created a "reborn man," Jiang Hao carried his suitcase to the Wishing Well in the city square.
A flock of white, pigeon-like creatures perched beside the Wishing Well took flight at his approach. Clear water surged from its center, then fell back in a weary cascade, striking the surface and sending ripples across it.
Silver coins lay on the blue-tinted bottom of the Wishing Well, shimmering beneath the rippling water.