Protection talisman

Seeing Uncle Huzi eat like a starving wolf, I really didn't want to share a table with him. I even suspected he'd brought a takeaway bag so he could swipe some more food when he was done.

What had the world come to? Master, oh, Master, look at the life Uncle Huzi and I were living after you left.

As we ate, I kept as far away from Uncle Huzi as possible, pretending I didn't know him.

I'd eaten quite a bit myself. Just as I eyed a fish on a plate and prepared to dig in, Uncle Huzi beat me to it. With one sweep of his chopsticks, he popped the fish into his mouth, chuckling as he chewed. "Delicious."

I shot him a look of disgust. Just then, a sudden stir ran through the people eating around us.

Someone whispered, "Someone important is here."

That caught me off guard, and I turned to see who this important person was.

One look was enough to leave both Uncle Huzi and me stunned.

We'd both met the person they were talking about. She was Zhang Yucheng's daughter, the girl who had come to our courtyard house before.

We weren't in the same class, so why was she attending this banquet?

"Isn't that pretty girl the daughter of Zhang Yucheng from that Dragon Gathering Group or whatever?" Uncle Huzi whispered.

As he spoke, the girl entered the banquet hall, surrounded by people who clustered around her like stars around the moon. Countless eyes immediately turned her way.

She had clearly dressed up for the occasion. She wore light makeup, and her beautiful hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall. A girl that lovely stood out from the crowd like a crane among chickens.

Even Wang Chaoyang's father scurried over like a lapdog when she arrived, his face wreathed in smiles. "Yaoyao, you came too! How has your father been?"

"Thank you for asking, Uncle Wang. My dad's doing well," she said with a warm, gracious smile.

Wang Chaoyang came over too, his face flushed with excitement, and enthusiastically struck up a conversation with her.

A crowd surrounded the girl and escorted her to the VIP table, where she sat with Wang Chaoyang's parents.

I looked at her as well and noticed that the cloud of black energy swirling above her head had grown denser. There were already signs of baleful energy entering her body. It hadn't been nearly this strong when she and her father came to see me a while back.

It looked as though something might happen to her soon.

If not for the rules my master had left me, I would definitely have stepped in for the money.

What a shame...

That was what went through my mind.

By then, Uncle Huzi and I were more or less finished eating. He quietly gave me a meaningful look, signaling that we should make a quick getaway.

Uncle Huzi figured I had no money on me and hadn't prepared a gift for Wang Chaoyang. It would be awkward if he came over later. Since we'd already eaten and drunk our fill, our best option was to take to our heels. We were full anyway, and probably wouldn't have another chance to see these people again.

Thinking it over, I decided Uncle Huzi's plan was actually pretty good.

I was just about to slip away with him when Wang Chaoyang suddenly headed toward us.

He had a glass of beer in his hand and was coming over to offer a toast.

Uncle Huzi and I had just stood up, but we hurriedly sat back down.

There was no way we could get away now.

Wang Chaoyang walked straight to our table and said with a smile, "Thank you all for coming to this banquet. I was thinking that everyone in our class will be heading off to university soon. We'll be scattered all over the country, and it'll be hard to get together again, so I thought we should meet up before then. Let me offer you all a toast."

With that, Wang Chaoyang downed his beer, and everyone raised their glasses.

As soon as the glasses were set down, one classmate stood up with a latest-model laptop in his hands. "Wang Chaoyang, I didn't have much else to give you. Since we're heading off to university soon, I bought two laptops specially-one for each of us."

That laptop had to cost at least several thousand yuan, and Wang Chaoyang thanked him profusely.

The classmates around me then took out the gifts they'd prepared and handed them to Wang Chaoyang.

Even the cheapest of their gifts cost several hundred yuan.

Everyone had given him something. I was the only one left.

That made me stand out rather conspicuously.

A classmate who was particularly close to Wang Chaoyang gave me a malicious look and said with a smile, "Wu Jie, everyone prepared a gift for Wang Chaoyang. What did you bring? Take it out and show us."

Looking thoroughly embarrassed, Uncle Huzi turned his head away from me. Now he was the one pretending not to know me.

I didn't mind. I simply took out a Peace-Safety Talisman folded into a triangle and handed it to Wang Chaoyang with a smile. "We've been classmates, and I don't have much to give you. This is a Peace-Safety Talisman I drew myself. Carry it with you, and it can ward off evil and misfortune."

Everyone at the table froze when I took out my gift.

They didn't know I'd trained under my master, nor had they heard of his reputation. They certainly didn't understand the significance of this Peace-Safety Talisman.

Rich people who sought Peace-Safety Talismans from my master couldn't necessarily get one even if they offered a fortune. Although I'd drawn this one myself, its effect was about the same as one of his.

Honestly, this gift was a hundred times better than anything my classmates had given him.

My Peace-Safety Talisman genuinely worked.

Everyone at the table paused. Then the classmate who had spoken earlier suddenly burst out laughing and sneered, "Come on, Wu Jie, are you trying to be funny? Even if you didn't give Wang Chaoyang anything and just said a few nice words, we're all classmates, so no one could really complain. But you can't just draw this thing yourself and bring it here to fob him off! Have you become a Buddhist monk or gone up a mountain to become a Daoist priest?"

His words sent the entire table roaring with laughter.

Hearing those taunts, Uncle Huzi couldn't sit still any longer. He was about to lose his temper again, but I held him back.

"Exactly. You're the only one in our class who didn't get into university. You didn't even take the entrance exam. I bet you were scared you wouldn't get in and didn't dare sit it, right? If this is how you treat your classmates, what future can someone like you have? You're a complete embarrassment." Another classmate who was close to Wang Chaoyang joined in the mockery.

Holding his glass, Wang Chaoyang watched me with a smile and said nothing.

The commotion at our table soon drew a crowd of onlookers.

Just then, the crowd parted, and someone walked over and said firmly, "I'll buy this Peace-Safety Talisman for a hundred thousand yuan."

Everyone turned toward the voice, only to discover that the speaker was the girl called Yaoyao.

"Zhang Yunyao, are you crazy? You're paying a hundred thousand yuan for this scribbled nonsense?" Wang Chaoyang asked incredulously.