Something Was Wrong

Wen Ning saw Golden Retriever out and watched the big dog disappear around the mouth of the alley, tail swishing.

Only then did he turn back to Gong Kai, who was sitting in the clean chair Wen Ning had specially cleared for him.

He held the hot water Wen Ning had just poured him, but his expression hadn't relaxed at all. He was still thinking about all the strange things about Wen Ning.

Seeing Wen Ning come over, he shook his head hard and decided to stop dwelling on things he couldn't understand.

"Go on."

Wen Ning sat down across from him and picked up a towel to dry his hands. "You were muttering about something being wrong when you came in. What's going on?"

Gong Kai set down his cup, leaned closer to Wen Ning, and said,

"You know how I'm working at that company now, Wen? I think something's happened to one of my coworkers."

"What's wrong with him?"

Wen Ning asked.

"What happened?"

"My coworker's name is Zhou Hu. For the past month, his luck's been absolutely rotten."

Gong Kai took a deep breath and began counting things off on his fingers.

"He always steps in dog crap on the way to work. Every time he passes under a tree, bird crap scores a direct hit. Not once or twice—every single time. Wen, whenever he walks anywhere or passes under a tree, this happens. Does that sound normal to you?"

Before Wen Ning could answer, Gong Kai continued.

"Whenever he takes the elevator, it breaks down. He worked twenty-four days this month, and the elevator broke down twenty-four times. When he took the stairs, the stairwell lights went out. He climbed three flights in the dark, missed a step, and tumbled down. He's still limping."

"When he takes a cab, the driver either goes the wrong way or gets stopped by traffic police for a document check. He tried shared bikes and scanned ten in a row. Every single one was broken—either the chain had come off or the brakes didn't work. He switched to the bus, and it pulled away right in front of him. When he finally managed to squeeze onto one, it always broke down halfway."

Wen Ning leaned back in his chair, his initial dismissiveness giving way to thoughtfulness. This really was an abnormal amount of bad luck.

"When he eats at the cafeteria, the lady serving the food runs out exactly one scoop before his turn. A whole month straight. A whole month of getting taught a lesson."

Gong Kai held up a finger and waved it in front of Wen Ning, his tone practically saying, Think about that. Really think about it.

"His blind dates turn out to be entitled princesses. Even when he manages to get a meal, there's always a fly in it. When he eats instant noodles, either the seasoning packet or the fork is missing."

"At work, everyone else can use his computer all day without any trouble, but the second he touches it, it crashes. IT checked it three times and reinstalled the system twice. In the end, the IT guy said, 'There's nothing wrong with this computer. You're the problem.'"

After rattling off so much in one breath, Gong Kai was getting thirsty. He took a sip of water and gave Wen Ning a look that said, Surely you believe me now.

Wen Ning was silent for a long while. If Gong Kai's previous story about the Snail Maiden cleaning his home had been somewhat heartwarming, then Zhou Hu's experience was the complete opposite.

When someone's luck was this bad, "unlucky" didn't even begin to cover it.

"Has he seen a doctor?"

Wen Ning was getting interested too.

"Or tried a psychologist?"

"He has. His physical came back completely normal. The psychologist said he didn't have anxiety or depression. Other than being a little mentally worn out by all this, everything was within the normal range. The psychologist suggested taking some time off to relax. Then, on the day he requested leave, the company's leave system crashed. Out of the whole company, his was the only request that didn't go through. HR called him and asked why he'd skipped work without permission. Wen, that was his first day off. He was sitting on his sofa at home when HR called to warn him about his unauthorized absence. He was just sitting in his own living room, doing absolutely nothing, and got marked absent without leave."

Wen Ning was utterly speechless. In his two years as a property agent, he'd seen plenty of ridiculous things: landlords climbing over walls in the middle of the night to steal their tenants' washing machines, people getting scammed out of their deposits by fake agents only to lose another deposit to real ones.

But compared with Zhou Hu's past month, those were all setbacks within the normal scope of business.

"Where does he live?"

"That old residential complex on the edge of the urban village. Not far from here."

Gong Kai leaned a little closer.

The curiosity in his eyes had already overtaken the confusion he'd worn when he first came in.

"Be honest with me, Wen. Do you know a little of that stuff? You know, that stuff?"

"What stuff?"

"You know, that stuff."

Gong Kai traced a circle in the air with his finger, apparently trying to draw a talisman.

But he had no idea what a talisman looked like, so he ended up drawing an unrecognizable squiggle.

Wen Ning leaned back in his chair and looked at Gong Kai's round face.

He suddenly felt there was no need to keep everything from Gong Kai anymore. He could reveal a little. The bastard was already getting suspicious of him anyway.

But he definitely couldn't tell him everything yet. After all, the last time Gong Kai had seen a clean room, he'd been too frightened to go home.

If he told Gong Kai that his buddy was now an Earth Immortal in the Heavenly Court's Thunder Department, running the Heavenly Court's office in the mortal realm under the guise of a bathhouse,

Gong Kai would either call an ambulance on the spot or start treating him like his godfather.

"I do know a few people who understand this sort of thing."

Wen Ning tried to sound as casual as possible.

"But we'd have to see what's going on first. Has your coworker moved recently? Touched anything he shouldn't have? Or has anything changed at home lately?"

Gong Kai thought for a moment.

"He hasn't moved, but..."

He paused, his expression turning uncertain.

"His grandfather died last month."

"His grandfather died?"

That gave Wen Ning a lead.

"Did his bad luck start after his grandfather died?"

Gong Kai immediately nodded.

"That's right, that's right. That's exactly when it started."

Then that was probably it. Wen Ning had a tentative theory of his own now, but he'd still have to confirm the details.

Then Wen Ning said to Gong Kai,

"Go back and send me your friend's Eight Characters of Birth. I'll look into it."

Seeing that Wen Ning had agreed to take this on, Gong Kai stood up with a delighted expression.

"Sure, I'll go ask him. Oh, right—how much do you charge for this?"

Wen Ning didn't know the going rate either, so he named a number at random.

"18,888. It's a lucky number."

Gong Kai had no objections to the price.

"My friend's family is pretty well-off. That's not expensive."

With that, Gong Kai picked up his backpack and headed out.

"I'll go back and send you his Eight Characters of Birth. Then you can see what's going on."

After saying that, he left without looking back.

Once Gong Kai was gone, Wen Ning went back to tidying up his bathhouse.

"Boss, get over here and scrub my back! I've brought plenty of money today!"

Well, another customer had arrived. A chicken spirit swaggered in, limbs splayed.

"Coming, coming! What's the rush?"