Chapter 48 – Zhao Hu with the Short-Lived Face

The man surnamed Zhou rolled on the ground, trying to avoid Brother Li’s attacks, but he had clearly already lost the upper hand.

The people in the tea shed quickly stepped back, making room for Zhou to move around.

The most excited ones were Xiaojiu  and her companions. They clapped and cheered from the sidelines, even shouting suggestions on where to hit, fanning the flames of chaos.

“Husband, please let me explain! It’s not what you think!” The wife, seeing things turning bad, hurried forward to grab her husband’s sleeve, her eyes full of pleading.

However, the man could no longer hear any explanation. In his heart, there was only the anger and disappointment of being betrayed.

“Enough!”

He flung away his wife’s hand and glared at her. “What’s left to explain? You and this adulterer plotted against me—how could I ever forgive you?”

With that, he asked the tea shed owner for two ropes, tied up his wife and the Zhou fellow lying on the ground, and dragged them into his carriage.

After finishing all this, the man took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

Then he looked gratefully at the young Daoist. “Daoist, I offended you earlier. Thank you for your warning today—otherwise, I, Li, might truly have lost my family and fortune. I will never forget this kindness. If there’s ever a chance, I will repay you handsomely.”

He then took his leave, driving the carriage away in haste to deal with what came next at home.

Mission complete. Reward: 100 points + one spin of the lottery.

The system’s voice pulled Xiaojiu  back from the melon-eating spectacle.

She immediately clicked to spin the lottery.

The result: one “Fart Pill.”

“What the heck?” Xiaojiu  asked the system in her heart.

“This pill allows for smooth and easy flatulence,” the system explained seriously.

Yue…

Gross!

The system’s rewards were getting weirder and weirder.

After those three left, the tea shed returned to peace again, but now everyone looked at the young Daoist with more respect—this one clearly had real skill.

Zhao Hu stared intently at the young Daoist. “Are you really a Daoist? Then can you tell me when I’ll become a general?”

The young Daoist glanced at Zhao Hu, eyes full of regret.

This man was born under the General Star, with the talent to command armies, yet his fate held an unavoidable calamity. Though he could ride into battle and earn the rank of general, he would die young.

Remembering how this group had just helped him, the young Daoist softened his words. “Your fate is extraordinary, with clear signs of a general’s fortune. You will attain the rank of general, but your life holds a great calamity—you cannot escape the misfortune of a short life.”

Not only did Zhao Hu understand this, but everyone else did too.

Zhao Hu was furious—he had just been called short-lived!

“You! We just helped you, and now you repay kindness with a curse?” A’Dou, who often quarreled with Zhao Hu, suddenly wanted to punch the Daoist for insulting him.

“He was the one who asked for a reading. If he doesn’t like what he hears, how is that my fault?” The young Daoist was annoyed—he had kindly read Zhao Hu’s face and hadn’t even charged a fee.

“What calamity? Is there a way to avoid it?” Xiaojiu  asked.

“Village chief, you actually believe this?” Zhao Hu was shocked. Wait—did this mean he really was short-lived?

A chill ran down Zhao Hu’s spine.

The young Daoist leaned in and studied Zhao Hu’s face again, carefully. “Strange… it clearly shows an early death, yet it also seems as if some mysterious force is pulling at your fate, making your destiny unpredictable. There’s still a thread of hope. Truly a rare face to see.”

Two strange faces in one day made the young Daoist start to doubt his own abilities.

“Next time you meet my master, you can ask him to take a look.”

Hearing that Zhao Hu still had a glimmer of hope, everyone finally relaxed.

“Taoist, were you chasing someone?” Xiaojiu asked him, since when he came into the tea shed just now, he really looked like he had been chasing someone all the way.

“Just call me Jingxin,” the young man said.

“As for who I was chasing…” Jingxin got angry just thinking about it.

He immediately sat cross-legged on the spot, silently reciting the Calm Heart Mantra in his mind until his inner fire subsided and his heart returned to temporary peace. Only then did he slowly get up.

Xiaojiu suddenly understood why his master had given him the name Jingxin (“Calm Heart”).

It was to make him curb his impatience and temper.

“Half a month ago, my master and I went down the mountain to buy supplies. We met a merchant and bought ten jin of rice, but he shorted us by one jin. I—uh, this poor Taoist—argued with him. He was using a rigged scale. Not only did this merchant refuse to admit fault, he even called my master and me paupers, and instead accused us of being frauds who scam food and drink.”

“And you didn’t keep arguing, didn’t curse him back?” Xiaojiu asked.

“This man isn’t just short of weight, he’s short of morals!” Zhao Hu cursed.

“Of course I argued! I just… didn’t perform well at the time and lost the quarrel.” At this, Jingxin quickly recited the Calm Heart Mantra to himself several more times.

“If it weren’t for my master saying, ‘Suffering a loss is a blessing, take a step back and the sea is wide and the sky is vast…’”

“But now I—uh, this poor Taoist—feel that the more I think about it, the angrier I get; the more I step back, the more of a loss it feels.”

“So you came down the mountain just to find that merchant from last time?” Xiaojiu asked.

“Of course! All that ‘turn big matters into small ones, small ones into nothing’—I don’t buy it. I have to curse him back, or my heart will never be at peace for the rest of my life.”

“I support you,” Xiaojiu said—she loved this kind of fiery temper.

“We’re all living our first lives—why should we give way to others?”

“Exactly, we’ll go with you,” Zhao Hu and the others chimed in.

Hearing this, the young Taoist felt as if he had just found long-lost siblings.

He looked at them with unusual warmth in his eyes.

“You really think so?”

“Of course!”

Xiaojiu’s group were exactly the type who, when in the wrong, still wanted to grab three more points, and when in the right, never spared anyone.

“Then let’s go, right now!” The young man immediately packed his things. He had to settle the score immediately; he couldn’t wait another moment.

Xiaojiu and the others eagerly got up to go with him.

You think they were going to help?

No—they just wanted to watch the drama.

Shi Xian and Qin Xu watched as two groups of strangers who had just met now seemed like old friends—almost ready to cut their palms and swear brotherhood on the spot.

Shi Xian couldn’t help interrupting: “It’s already late. Grain merchants usually pack up by now. We should go into town and find an inn for the night.”

But staying the night? Impossible. They wouldn’t be able to sleep without venting this anger.

“Do you know where he lives?” Xiaojiu asked.

Jingxin shook his head.

“Do you know his name?”

Jingxin shook his head again.

“Then what do you know?” Xiaojiu was speechless.

So basically, he’d just swallowed this grievance for half a month, then came straight down to the spot where he’d suffered the loss—without the faintest clue the guy would be there waiting for him!

Xiaojiu held her forehead.

“Don’t you know how to divine? Can’t you calculate where this person is?”

“Oh, right!” The youth was just about to try when he suddenly realized—

“I can’t. If I use divination to take personal revenge, it will harm my merit.” He waved his hand.

“Merchants usually don’t change stalls at random. Tomorrow, if we go to the same place, we’re sure to find him.”

And so, the group set off in high spirits toward Yangping County ahead.