Xie Ji looked up at the man in the blue headscarf and said mysteriously, "Actually, I'd suggest asking something else-like, is your kid really yours?"
The man in the blue headscarf froze and blurted out, "What do you mean by that? How did you know..."
Seeing how quickly Xie Ji had led the man astray, Director He's voice soon came through the hidden earpiece. "He's leading you on. Maybe this is exactly what he wants you to ask. Don't follow his train of thought."
The man quickly caught on, pressed his lips together, and said, "Whose kid would mine be if not mine? I think you're just spouting nonsense here to mislead people..."
Xie Ji nodded and patted the dairy cow's back.
The little black snake shared a connection with Xie Ji through Divine Sense, so naturally, he knew what Xie Ji was thinking.
The next moment, that familiar voice rang out again. "Check your left pants pocket."
The man in the blue headscarf laughed loudly. "That's impossible. I've checked my pants pockets countless times today. Wouldn't I know if there were five yuan in there..."
His smug voice grew quieter and quieter, until he pulled a five-yuan note from his pants pocket.
The crowd erupted. The man in the blue headscarf was visibly flustered.
The director sitting in front of the monitor was also too shocked to speak.
Having achieved his goal, Xie Ji stood up and led the cow away. He had only gone a few steps when the man in the blue headscarf hurried over and stopped him.
"This cow can really tell fortunes?" He looked at Xie Ji and asked with knitted brows, "Then what did you mean just now? Is my child not biologically mine?"
Xie Ji raised a finger. "The celestial cow tells only one fortune a day. Today's reading is finished. Business is closed."
The man hurriedly said, "I'll pay!"
With that, he pulled several hundred-yuan notes from his pocket and slapped them into Xie Ji's hand. "Can it tell my fortune now?"
Xie Ji looked solemn. "You've got me wrong. I'm not that kind of person."
The man took out every bit of money he had on him. "This is all I've got. There's no more."
Xie Ji calmly pocketed the 863 yuan and twenty cents, then said mysteriously, "Go to the cowshed's owner tomorrow, buy the celestial cow, and bring it over. The celestial cow will repay your kindness."
The man nodded firmly. "I'll remember that, Master."
Xie Ji pushed his luck. "And a young heifer, and a calf."
"Well..." The man began to hesitate.
Buying the divine cow was one thing, but why did he have to take the other two as well?
Xie Ji patted his shoulder, glanced up at the top of his head, and turned to leave, leisurely leading the cow along as he hummed a tune.
"I hear the rain falling on the green, green grass..."
The man in the blue headscarf: "..."
The day drew late, and night closed in.
Xie Ji led the cows back to the cowshed and returned them to their owner. Using the excuse that his lecture had left his mouth and throat far too dry, he also snagged a carton of fresh milk from the owner before returning to the Chinese-style courtyard residence in high spirits.
Little Black silently snarked, "You really never leave empty-handed on a heist. If you don't pick something up when you're out, you count it as a loss. A little moneybag with no bottom line..."
Xie Ji wound Little Black around his wrist. Unless someone looked closely, he looked like a pitch-black, rather lifelike piece of jewelry. No one would suspect he was an actual snake.
"Don't learn from Lu Xunji." Xie Ji flicked Little Black's head. "Little moneybag sounds awful. It sounds poor. I'm a big moneybag. A big, big, big, big moneybag."
Little Black: "..."
Did you die of poverty in your last life? You're completely obsessed with money.
By the time Xie Ji returned to camp, Mu Yao and the others were back too. The pampered young masters clearly couldn't adjust to such spartan conditions right away and sat off to one side with dark expressions, resting with their eyes closed.
Shang Yan sat on a stone in the courtyard, head lowered while writing something. When Xie Ji came in, Shang Yan merely glanced up briefly before looking away.
Lu Xunji, on the other hand, had his eyes glued to Xie Ji from the moment he entered.
Xie Ji walked over, lowered his head, and whispered in Lu Xunji's ear, "What are they doing?"
Lu Xunji raised an eyebrow. "Thinking about how to sort out dinner tonight."
"Don't we have starting funds?" Xie Ji asked. "Doesn't the mall next door open at nine?"
At that, Lu Xunji tilted his head slightly, instantly bringing them so close that their breaths nearly mingled.
Xie Ji instinctively leaned his head back, but Lu Xunji pressed his palm against his neck, cutting off his retreat with an irresistible, controlling gesture.
"In that case, our little moneybag must have earned quite a bit of starting capital, right?"
The usually slow-on-the-uptake Xie Ji was terrifyingly sharp at that moment. He immediately clutched his money pouch. "Not a cent."
Lu Xunji lowered his eyes. "Not even for me? Didn't you say you'd protect me? If I starve to death, won't you have to keep... keep watch over my grave?"
Xie Ji closed his eyes. "You can swindle my feelings, but you can't swindle my money. After all, I can protect plenty of people in this lifetime, but how much fucking money can I earn?"
Lu Xunji leaned down, his breath sweet as orchids against Xie Ji's ear.
Coiled around Xie Ji's wrist, Little Black could feel his heartbeat suddenly racing, as if it were about to leap out of his chest.
Because what Lu Xunji said was, "Don't you want to know the PIN for that black card?"
A young man's blush couldn't move Xie Ji, but the blush on a hundred-yuan note could.
With a painful gritting of his teeth, Xie Ji held up five fingers.
Lu Xunji seized the chance to take Xie Ji's hand. His well-defined fingers wound around Xie Ji's pale little finger, holding it in his palm and toying with it as he asked casually, "What does that mean?"
Xie Ji's hand was long and slender, his skin a cool, almost sickly white.
The winding blue veins on the back of his hand were visible through that white-jade skin.
Holding it almost gave Lu Xunji the illusion of fine jade giving off mist, as though the crystal-clear person before him would turn into a wisp of smoke and vanish in the next instant.
It made him involuntarily want to seize him tightly and imprison him within the tiny confines of his palm.
"Five yuan." Xie Ji's voice shattered Lu Xunji's romantic imaginings. "Don't invite me to anything that costs more than five yuan, teacher. I'm no longer the Xie family's young master who could spend five hundred thousand without blinking. Now I have to think long and hard about spending five yuan."
Lu Xunji raised an eyebrow and clasped Xie Ji's palm. "There's five million on that black card, little moneybag. You're playing awfully dirty in this deal."
The little moneybag blinked, completely forgetting to pull his hand away. "Gege, you're the one asking me for something now. You can't use that black card here anyway. Fifty, or you'll have to go hungry, gege. How pitiful."
Lu Xunji chuckled. "Fine. Fifty, and I'll give you the answer."
Just as Xie Ji was about to speak, Ji Shi's voice came from beside them, filled with the resentment of someone catching a couple in bed. "What are you two doing here holding hands?"
Lu Xunji, who had been raising his eyebrows and chuckling a moment earlier, instantly returned to his icy, dead-family face and narrowed his eyes at him. "What else can we do holding hands?"
Xie Ji was terrified that Ji Shi would find out about their deal and come asking him for money too. That would be bad.
So he obligingly laced his fingers through Lu Xunji's. "It's too cold, so we're just warming up. What could good bros do holding hands? It's not like we're going to hold hands and piss and shit wherever we like together."
At the mention of that, Ji Shi instantly flushed red. He grabbed Xie Ji's other hand and snapped, "What's wrong with pissing and shitting wherever? If you didn't have a toilet, wouldn't you have to do it too? Warming up, huh? I'm cold too. Why don't you warm my hand up as well?"