Fortune tellers are said to inherently carry the fate of the “Five Miseries and Three Lacks.” The Five Miseries are: widowhood, orphanhood, solitude, disability, and poverty. The Three Lacks are: wealth, power, and life.

No fortune teller can avoid these.

The natural order of the heavens operates under strict laws. Anyone who attempts to peer into the secrets of fate and interfere with cause and effect is inevitably punished by the heavens.

Her grandfather, a seasoned fortune teller, had experienced this firsthand. As a mere novice, who knows what kind of punishment would await her? She reminded herself to stay quiet and avoid meddling again.

At the moment, she was already a loner. The Five Miseries and Three Lacks were starting to take hold—she was already facing solitude and isolation.

Actually, that wasn’t quite right. She had been reborn and had already been married in her previous life. In both her past and present, she stood alone. It seemed she had already fulfilled all the conditions of the Five Miseries and Three Lacks.

Given her fate, what kind of karmic repercussions awaited her in the future? Even she couldn’t say.

But her grandfather had once told her, if she could guide someone down the right path and earn their genuine gratitude, it would accumulate merit. With merit on one’s side, the heavens might offer some protection.

Bang!

A man collapsed about three meters away from her, his face bruised and bloodied, with blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Before he could get up, two more men caught up to him. The leader, rolling up his sleeves as he approached, had a cold, hardened expression, and his eyes were filled with malice.

As soon as he noticed Dai Qing standing a few steps away, his footsteps halted, and he frowned.

This girl really had a knack for showing up everywhere. No matter where the action was, she seemed to be there.

The man on the ground, clearly terrified, waved his hands frantically. “Stop, stop, no more! I already told you, last time had nothing to do with me. It was those idiots trying to play hero. They got themselves into this mess!”

“They’re your men. If they caused trouble, I’ll hold you responsible,” said Cheng Hao, his cold gaze shifting from Dai Qing back to Yan Biao, who was sprawled on the ground. His eyes narrowed.

“They’re not my men. Those punks are just scared of me, so they call me ‘Brother Biao’ when they see me. I don’t pay them any attention,” Yan Biao pleaded, on the verge of tears. He had gotten caught up in something he hadn’t even started.

He was definitely going to teach those punks a lesson later. Seriously, this market was big enough for everyone. Why did they have to mess with the security team of a state-owned factory? They were looking for trouble.

Didn’t they realize that these guards were all retired soldiers? Each of them could take on ten men. Street thugs like him were no match for them.

“No use shifting the blame. We’ve known about you for a while. In the entire textile market, who doesn’t show you respect? But you crossed the line when you messed with our security team and even caused Brother Hao to get hurt. There’s a price to pay for that.”

Ge Bing, standing tall with his chest puffed out, looked down at the disheveled Yan Biao with disdain.

“Our security team could easily hand you over to the police. With your record, you’d be stitching clothes in prison for seven or eight years.”

Yan Biao gritted his teeth and forced a smile. “Alright, you win. What do you want? Name your price.”

Suppressing the rage in his eyes, Yan Biao grinned at Cheng Hao. After all these years in the market, this was the first time he’d been humiliated like this. Even though it wasn’t entirely his fault, his reputation had been tarnished.

How was he supposed to hold his head up after this?

Cheng Hao flexed his wrist, his gaze mocking. This group had been wreaking havoc on the individual merchants in the market for a while—bullying, scaring, and extorting people. The merchants, who were just trying to run their businesses, preferred to pay them off rather than deal with the trouble.

These thugs had gotten used to it, feeding off the fear of the merchants. Instead of being ashamed, they grew fatter and lazier, thriving on extortion.

But their biggest mistake had been crossing the factory’s security team. Disrupting the factory’s operations meant the security team had failed at their job.