Zuo Xiaoduo frowned. "Benefactor, just one thousand yuan can spare you a bloody calamity. Are you really unwilling to part with a little charitable money?"
"You're the one facing a fucking bloody calamity! Are you fucking sick in the head?!"
The young man grew furious. He had just pulled off a theft and was secretly savoring it. Little girls holding phones like that were the easiest to steal from. As long as they were staring at their phones and chatting, taking anything was a breeze.
Unexpectedly, while he was enjoying his success, he had run into this reckless idiot, whose mouth ran like a runaway train.
Was this guy a lunatic?
"What exactly do you want?"
"Chance brought us together, so I read your face. Boundless Heavenly Venerable."
With compassion for all living things and mercy in his eyes, Zuo Xiaoduo said, "You face a bloody calamity. A baleful menace looms over you and urgently needs to be averted."
The young man laughed in sheer fury. "I think you're the one facing a bloody calamity!"
"Alas, one thought leads to the sacred mountain, another to the underworld. Fortune and misfortune have no gates; people summon them themselves."
Zuo Xiaoduo slowly released his grip. "Since fate brought us together but will not let us stay, take care of yourself, benefactor! You may go..."
Then he chanted in a long, lilting voice, "Life has many branching roads; do not betray the fate that brings us close. Such is the will of heaven; the sea of suffering cannot be crossed... What a pity, what a pity... Boundless Heavenly Venerable."
The young man snorted angrily. Unwilling to get entangled with him after all, he strode away.
After turning a corner, the young man reached a secluded lane. Just as he was about to take stock of his haul, his vision darkened: someone had stepped in front of him.
He looked up. It was that lunatic boy from earlier.
The young man was instantly alarmed. "You... what exactly do you want?!"
Zuo Xiaoduo said earnestly, "My face readings are never wrong. You really do face a bloody calamity, and it is about to come true without fail."
The young man said, "You fucking..."
Before he could finish cursing, bam! A fist the size of a bowl slammed into his face like an iron hammer!
The young man's vision went black, followed by a burst of excruciating pain. With a sharp crack, the bridge of his nose broke. Stars danced before his eyes as he staggered backward.
As he retreated, he felt a great hammer pounding his head again and again. Before he could struggle, the other boy seized his hair. His body lurched forward against his will, his face tilted up, and it smashed hard into the wall.
Thud, thud, thud, thud...
What a flurry of blows it was, like the bridal chamber on a wedding night, making the wall boom with impacts that went on and on.
A moment later.
Covered in blood, the young man was tossed onto the ground like a torn sack, twitching and barely breathing.
Through eyes so swollen he could barely see anything, he dimly made out someone crouching before him, saying sorrowfully, "I told you that you faced a bloody calamity and a baleful menace loomed over you. Why wouldn't you believe me? Well, how about now... You believe me now, don't you?"
The young man felt as though his courage had flown clean out of him.
This guy was clearly a madman!
That barrage of blows had practically been meant to beat him to death. How was that merely a bloody calamity?
At that mild voice, he could not help trembling all over.
"Do you believe me or not?" Zuo Xiaoduo was growing impatient. "Are you questioning my face-reading abilities? Let me tell you, I'm a direct-line inheritor of Mayi Divine Calculation!"
"I beweeve you, I beweeve you..." The young man struggled to pronounce his words clearly, enduring the dizziness and pain as he nodded repeatedly.
"Good, as long as you believe me."
With a kind, benevolent expression, Zuo Xiaoduo said, "When fate brings us together, how could we let the chance slip through our arms? I gave you a beating just now, but my main purpose was to ward off that bloody calamity for you. Pay up. One thousand yuan. Unless you part with charitable money, the bloody calamity cannot end."
"..."
The young man desperately wanted to curse him out, but did not dare. Trembling, he pulled out the pink wallet he had just acquired and started to unzip it.
Zuo Xiaoduo snatched it from his hands and said earnestly, "Benefactor, the charitable money used to avert calamity only counts if it's your own. If you encounter something like this again, remember, you must never use someone else's money. That's evil karma!"
The young man froze for a moment. "But... I don't have any money."
Zuo Xiaoduo's compassionate smile gradually turned vicious. "Without charitable money to avert it, a bloody calamity... cannot be avoided. You must understand, a person's fate is decreed by heaven."
"I..."
"Do you have any or not?"
"Yes, yes, yes..."
By now, the young man regretted it so bitterly that his guts had turned green.
He shouldn't have done any business today. He had run into a lunatic, and one whose combat strength was off the charts at that...
Trembling, he reached into his pocket, took out a wallet, counted out one thousand yuan, and handed it over with great difficulty. "Master... this, this is your divination fee..."
Zuo Xiaoduo reached out to accept it. His eyes swept over the wallet, and he noticed a thick stack still inside.
Holy shit, there was still that much!
"Boundless Heavenly Venerable. This humble Daoist went to great lengths to ward off a calamity for you, and you won't even thank me?" Zuo Xiaoduo asked with considerable displeasure.
"Th-thank you..." The young man was on the verge of tears.
He had been beaten up and spent a thousand yuan, and in the end he even had to say thank you!
"Our fated connection has brought us this far. This, too, is cause and effect ordained by destiny. Saying thank you is a little too formal..."
Despite those polite words, Zuo Xiaoduo frowned again. "But after something this serious, you think a simple thank-you settles it?"
"Well..."
The young man blinked his swollen eyes, caught on at once, and hastily took another thousand out of his wallet. "Thank you for lending a helping hand, Master... This is a small token, hardly enough to express my respect."
Zuo Xiaoduo accepted the money and said earnestly, "I hadn't intended to reveal any more of heaven's secrets, but seeing that we truly do share quite a fated connection, I have no choice but to offer you one more warning... Your luck today is really quite poor... I've resolved your bloody calamity, but you've accumulated too much evil karma in the past. I'm afraid your life may be in danger..."
This time, the young man was utterly dumbfounded.
That bloody calamity had already cost me two thousand!
And now there was a threat to my life.
A threat to my life... How much would that cost?
Was this brat going to kill me?