Counting on your fingers, the fifth marriage is coming

Chapter 234 Extra - Found You

A remote town somewhere in Jingguo
When the leaves of the sycamore trees fell all over the long street, a frail and lazy woman straightened the collar of her gray Taoist robe, but sat upright in a rare posture.

Her eyes were half closed, as if in a trance, while the parrot on her shoulder flapped its wings in boredom.

“No one cares, no one cares.”

A vein on the woman's forehead jumped, and she flicked the parrot's crest with her fingertips, glancing at the passers-by.

"Stop yelling, do you want to make us look even more miserable?"

“Poor, hungry, miserable.”

The Kingdom of Jing is a martial country, and the people only trust the swords in their hands. How could they believe in the mystery of fate?
She brushed away the fallen leaves on the table, turned around and put the cloth banner with the words "Iron Mouth and Straight Forward" back in place.

This cloth banner was neither bought nor made by her, but picked up on the roadside. The edges and corners have been worn white and the stains cannot be wiped clean.

"I know, I know."

She coaxed, "Today, we will definitely be able to open."

The green-feathered parrot jumped onto her head and squatted down like it was a nest.

One man and one bird, they neither despise nor leave each other.

"girl……"

An old voice mixed with the aroma of chopped green onions floated over.

The woman turned around and saw an old man behind the wonton stall three steps away.

His apron was stained with flour, and the wrinkles were embedded with the warmth of years of stove fire.

"My last name is Li, and I've been selling wontons on Zhuque Street for twenty years." The old man stirred the boiling bone soup in the pot and said, "I see that the girl has been sitting here all day, so she must be hungry."

Hungry……

But I have no money.

The woman was about to refuse when she heard a slight rumbling sound in her stomach.

Maomao's eyes lit up and he immediately pounced on the wooden shelf in front of the stall, tilting his head to stare at the steaming hot air.

"Hungry~"

Poor.

Old man Li looked at the parrot, then turned to look at the silent woman and laughed: "Okay, I'll cook you a bowl of wontons."

"I can't accept this favor for nothing." The woman took off the faded purse from her waist and said, "How about I tell you your fortune to pay for the meal?"

Old man Li waved his hand: "We Jing people don't believe this now."

The woman's eyes were as cool as water, and she sat upright like a pine tree: "Karma is a cycle, and those who receive kindness but do not repay it will suffer the consequences. Ask me anything and I will answer your questions."

"Well." Seeing her insistence, Old Man Li scooped up the wontons that were boiling in the water, and an idea came to him: "Then I'll ask you, how many bowls of wontons can I sell today?"

In the shadow of the phoenix tree, the woman's eyelashes cast two crescent moons under her eyes.

She pinched her left hand.

Maomao suddenly became quiet, his black bean-sized eyes reflecting the halo flowing from his master's fingertips.

"Forty-five bowls," she said with certainty.

When Old Man Li heard this number, he couldn't help laughing again.

"I've sold forty-three bowls this morning, and with this bowl from the girl, that's forty-four." He didn't believe it at all: "Could it be that I can only sell one bowl in the afternoon?"

The woman took the blue and white bowl.

The thin-skinned wontons float in the clear soup like whitebait.

She blew away the cool air without making any excuses.

"Old Li's cooking skills mean that he sells at least 180 bowls a day." A woman selling pancakes nearby interrupted, "I'm afraid your divination is not effective."

Maomao suddenly pecked the woman's earlobe.

She scooped up half a wonton wrapper to feed it, but the parrot buried its head in its wings and made a gurgling sound that sounded like a sigh.

The drizzle came silently.

The woman's cloth banner soon developed dark water marks, and Old Man Li was busy setting up the oilcloth tent.

The raindrops knocked out tiny silver dots on the bluestone slabs. Pedestrians were in a hurry and no one stopped in front of the fortune-telling stall.

"Boss, give me a bowl of wontons!" The porter in shorts paid the copper coin.

Old man Li picked up the wontons neatly, brought them to his table, and made the gesture of four and five to the woman.

"Forty-five bowls."

The woman just smiled and didn't respond.

"Old Li, give me a bowl."

After a while, another person came.

"okay."

Old Li was about to add new water to the pot when he thought, wouldn’t that make forty-six bowls?
As expected, since Jingguo cleaned up the Xuanmen three years ago, the only ones left are charlatans who want to make money in shady ways but have no real skills.

At this moment, a woman wearing a red belt suddenly ran over from the end of the street.

"Old Li! Hurry up and pack up!" The woman waved a wet handkerchief and said happily: "Your eldest daughter-in-law gave birth! It's a big fat grandson!"

The soup spoon fell into the pot with a clang.

Old man Li hurriedly took off his apron, then turned to the waiting customers as if remembering something: "I'm sorry, this bowl..."

"Hurry back!" The porter smiled and waved his hands: "This is a big happy event, we can have double portions another day!"

It's no wonder that Old Man Li was so excited and happy, because his eldest daughter-in-law had given birth to three girls in a row. She finally got pregnant at an advanced age and gave birth to a grandson, which was a huge surprise.

Everyone around who knew Old Man Li congratulated him.

He quickly packed up, picked up the shoulder pole and rushed into the rain, but when his eyes caught sight of the calm and composed woman, he suddenly froze.

Forty-five bowls...Damn, it really was forty-five bowls.

In the rain, he looked back at the fortune-telling stall with a look of surprise and doubt.

Can that girl really see through the secrets?
The shoulder pole on Old Man Li's shoulder creaked.

He had no time to waste, so he just bowed deeply, turned around and disappeared in the rain and fog.

The woman stared at his staggering back, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the tortoise shell in her sleeve - on it was the "Kan" hexagram that had been divined this morning, representing the north, water, and destined meeting.

Cui Yu pecked open the brocade bag at her waist, took out three copper coins and threw them on the bluestone slab.

The coins spun in the rain, eventually forming two upright and one reversed Xun hexagrams.

The woman let out a soft "eh". This was the Wind hexagram, which indicated a long journey and changes.

Is she traveling far away?

She was penniless and frail, and even breathing was a struggle for her...

"Don't move. I'll stay here quietly and not go anywhere." She whispered to the parrot.

The rain is getting heavier.

The cloth banner of the fortune-telling stall was completely soaked, and the four words "iron-mouthed and accurate prediction" were blurred.

"I don't think you can get what you want." Maomao chuckled. As the rain got heavier, the sound of staggered footsteps could be heard on the bluestone slabs.

She looked up and saw five oil-paper umbrellas breaking through the rain like lotus leaves.

The leader was a man in black.

When the umbrella edge was raised, a face carved with a knife and an axe was revealed, with eyebrows flying into the temples, and as domineering as a lion.

The young man in green on his left held a green bamboo umbrella and walked like a bamboo swaying in the wind, elegant yet aloof.

The young man in purple on the right is very handsome, with upturned eyes. He turns the handle of the ink-red umbrella in his hand with a half-smile.

Following behind was a young man in a suit, with a beaming face, like a newly sprouted pine tree, and a short knife hanging from his waist.

At the very end was a man in white. His umbrella was pure white without any decoration. When he walked, his sleeves were not stained with dust. He looked so ethereal that he didn't seem like a mortal.

The woman grabbed the fur and covered her face with it, then leaned her head against the trunk of the paulownia tree and pretended to be dead.

“Can’t you find the Phoenix City?” the purple-clothed young man sighed, his voice tickling people’s hearts like a fox.

The man in black rubbed his finger ring and said, "I asked the Pavilion Master of Tianji to predict that the man is on the way south. We have already looked for him in several cities along the way. If we can't find him... there is no need to be obsessed."

"My family is busy with affairs, so I have to go back." The young man in green shirt lowered his eyes, and his slightly frowned brows were reflected on the water surface: "The deadline set by the court is approaching."

The young man in tight clothes suddenly pointed at the woman's cloth banner and said, "There's a fortune teller over there!"

Five gazes shot towards him like sharp arrows.

The woman held her breath, and Furry's paw trembled on the bridge of her nose.

The man in white said, "When fate ends, it disperses; when fate comes together, it results; it's all determined by one's own will."

"Okay, this trip to this place is the last stop. Whether fate brings us together or ends, it all depends on our destiny."

Although they said that it all depended on fate, the five of them finally stopped in front of the fortune-telling stall.

Through the gaps between the parrot's feathers, the woman saw five pairs of different boot tips - black boots were stained with mud, blue satin shoes were spotless, purple deerskin boots were inlaid with pearls, brown short boots were tied with red ropes, and plain white cloth shoes were like new snow.

"Can you tell fortunes?" When the black-clothed man asked, the surrounding stalls subconsciously moved their positions, as if they were afraid of being implicated by this charlatan girl.

It seems there is no way to avoid it.

The woman moved the fur away from her face and said, "It's okay."

"Then help me calculate the position of one person." The man in black took out a gold ingot and smashed it on the table.

The woman slowly sat up, and the parrot jumped onto her shoulder.

She deliberately kept her voice hoarse: "Birth date and eight characters."

"do not know."

"If not..." As soon as her fingertips touched the gold ingot, the man threw another one to her: "Can it be counted?"

Thinking of having warm bedding and delicious meals tonight, the woman squeezed out a word with difficulty: "Yes."

"where is she?"

When the woman counted on her fingers, she saw five lines of cause and effect tangled like a tangled mess.

"In this city." She quickly retracted her finger: "The clues you provided are too few. Any more will not count."

The black-robed man narrowed his eyes. He suddenly leaned forward and approached with a sense of oppression: "You'd better..." Before he finished speaking, the young man in green shirt separated him with a bamboo umbrella: "Okay, don't scare the master."

After the man in black retreated behind the paulownia tree, the young man in green took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and carefully wiped the rain water that had splashed on the divination table.

When he put down a gold cake, even the sound was restrained to be just right.

"Master, are you accurate?"

The woman opened her mouth: "No..."

Ding! There was another gold horse hoof next to the gold cake, and she immediately changed her tone: "You are not allowed to refuse the money."

"Then help me count one person." The young man in green shirt said in a voice as clear as a spring hitting a stone: "The birth date is..."

"Okay." The woman said first, "The person is in this city."

The young man in green tapped the divination table with his slender fingers.

"more specific."

The woman noticed that his nails were neatly trimmed and rounded, and there were calluses on his knuckles from years of holding pens.

The woman suddenly looked up.

The green-shirted young man's eyes were like two clear lakes, reflecting her sallow face.

"It's right here on Suzaku Street." She said that and immediately started coughing.

When the third piece of gold fell, it brought with it a strange fragrance. The young man in purple clothes stood on the divination table without him knowing when, with his clothes hanging down like wisteria flowers.

"If you also want to calculate the fortune of a person, please refer to the hexagrams of the two previous people." The woman has already grabbed the gold ingot.

The purple-clothed young man was stunned for a moment, then suddenly laughed softly: "I do want to count people, but I don't want to count where they are. I want to count whether she is a man or a woman now."

The woman also answered mysteriously: "Sometimes it's a woman, sometimes it's a man."

The young man's fingertips touched her palm and then left, taking back half a piece of gold: "Since you answered so reluctantly, I will deduct half of your reward."

woman:"……"

At this time, the young man in tight clothes squeezed over, knocking the copper coins in the divination tube into clinking.

He untied the bulging purse from his waist and dumped all the money on the table - it was all silver and copper coins, but no gold.

"How much does it cost for a fortune telling?" he asked.

The woman looked at the pile of copper coins with body temperature and did not refuse at all: "It depends on what you want to count."

The young man scratched his head: "I only have these one hundred copper coins and two pieces of silver..." He suddenly lowered his voice: "I want to calculate whether I have the fate to meet that person?"

"can."

The woman whispered, "We will definitely meet in this lifetime."

The boy was dumbfounded. When in his lifetime would that be? Before he died?
Finally, the man in white came forward. He didn't hold an umbrella, but the rain turned into mist and avoided him by three inches.

What he put down was not money, but a crystal snow lotus petal.

No, look carefully, it is a piece of white jade carved into the shape of snow lotus petals.

"I'm not asking for divination." His voice seemed to come from far away: "I just want to know whether the makeup cream on your face can cover up the secret line?"

A strange light suddenly appeared on the woman's wrist, and Maomao screamed and flew up, knocking over the divination tube.

Five people looked at her at the same time, and ten gazes covered her like a net.

The veins on the black-robed man's clenched hands bulged, the green-robed young man's bamboo umbrella tilted slightly, the smile on the purple-robed young man's face disappeared, the short knife on the waist of the tight-fitting young man hummed, and the accumulated water under the feet of the white-robed man froze into ice flowers.

The woman blocked the snow lotus petal that was piercing into her forehead with one hand.

But in an instant, all the causal lines appeared clearly in front of her eyes - five red lines stretched out from the hearts of five men, and the other ends were all tied to her wrists.

"Found it." The man in white, Tang Jiashan, who had returned to secular life, smiled and said, "Xu Shanshan, you lose this game of hide-and-seek."

Xu Shanshan reached out and wiped off the makeup on her face, but the real face underneath was already a new one. But no matter how she changed, those eyes seemed to always belong to her alone.

"Now that you have found me, tell me, why did you go to so much trouble to find a short-lived person like me who has already experienced three declines and five calamities?"

The five men seemed to have made up their minds long ago.

"We will renew our marriage contract with you and help you prolong your life and improve your fortune."