I was approached by a cat-eared girl.

Upon hearing this, Chen Shuo followed her gaze and saw several small stalls set up by the roadside, selling mobile phone screen protectors and snacks.

But he knew that what his little cat was talking about was not those things, but the old man sitting by the roadside with his small stool.

He was quite eye-catching, dressed in a black Zhongshan suit, with a goatee on his chin, and a few strands of long, gray hair on his head dancing in the night breeze, exuding a somewhat unrestrained and unconventional air.

It was late at night, and he was wearing round sunglasses. There was a large yellow cloth at his feet, with what looked like a pattern drawn on it in red pen.

It's a bit far away, so I can't see very clearly.

But judging from this outfit, you can deduce that it's either the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams or Yin and Yang and the Five Elements, or whatever mysterious stuff.

"It must be a fortune teller."

"A fortune teller?" Bai Xiaoqi was stunned. She had seen fortune tellers in TV dramas, and they all seemed very powerful. She never expected to see a real one today.

With an eager look on her face, she turned to Chen Shuo and asked, "Should we go and have it done?"

"What do you want to know? Your love life or your fortune? If it's your love life, you don't need to find him, I can do it for you."

"You can do calculations too?"

"Of course, you wait, I'll calculate it for you right now."

As he spoke, Chen Shuo closed his eyes, rubbed his fingers together, and began to move his lips incessantly, muttering in a pretentious manner, as if chanting a spell.

Bai Xiaoqi saw that he seemed quite convincing, so she believed him to some extent. However, even after listening carefully for a long time, she still couldn't understand what incantation he was chanting.

After a long while, Chen Shuo opened his eyes and let out a long sigh, "It's all settled."

"What is it?"

"You will marry me and have a bunch of kittens."

"..."

Chapter 107 Fortune Telling

"Old man, can you tell fortunes here?"

Chen Shuo pulled Bai Xiaoqi over, her gait a little unnatural, her legs slightly sore from being kicked again. She felt her calculations were inaccurate.

She was right about marrying herself, but she didn't get the part about having children right. They didn't have kittens, they had human babies.

"Yes, of course! We can use character analysis, bone reading, Plum Blossom Divination, Yin and Yang analysis, Feng Shui analysis, marriage prediction, fortune telling, divination, and even resolve Tai Sui clashes and water retrogrades..."

The old man was probably a chatterbox. Seeing that a customer had come in, he launched into a long explanation of his services in his accent, before finally asking, "What kind of services do you want to have calculated?"

"Calculate..."

Just as Chen Shuo was about to speak, the old man interrupted him, "Young man, there's no need to say anything. Let this old man do the calculations."

As he spoke, he pushed up his sunglasses, made a hand gesture, looked up at the sky, and asked, "You want to have your marriage fortune told, don't you?"

Upon hearing this, Bai Xiaoqi suddenly opened her eyes wide and looked the old man up and down. Is he really that amazing?

Chen Shuo didn't think there was anything divine about it. A couple came to have their fortunes told late at night. If it wasn't about their marriage, was it about a karmic entanglement?

The old man took out two copper bells from his small satchel at his waist, one in each hand, and shook them, making a clattering sound. While shaking the bells, he also shook his head and muttered some incantations.

After watching for a long time, Chen Shuo still couldn't figure out what kind of method he was using; it looked a bit like a corpse-driving ritual.

After a long pause, the old man put the copper bell back into his small satchel, reached up and tidied the few unruly strands of long hair on his head to cover the bald patch on top, before slowly speaking.

"You two have the Red Phoenix and Heavenly Joy stars in your destiny, and they are in the same palace. You are in a favorable position and are not subject to punishment, clash, or harm. You are mutually supportive and harmonious, and you can be entrusted with the care of an orphan or a life that spans a hundred miles."

Chen Shuo understood the gist of it; it was basically saying that the two were quite compatible. Fortune telling isn't always accurate, but it usually involves saying what people want to hear.

If he were a fortune teller, he would definitely say the same thing, otherwise it would be so upsetting to have his business ruined.

As for Bai Xiaoqi, she looked completely bewildered and didn't understand at all. She took half a step forward and asked, "Grandpa, I don't understand what you're saying. Can you explain what it means?"

"May you have a happy marriage, a loving relationship, a harmonious family, and joy in your lives."

Upon hearing this, her eyes immediately curved into crescent moons. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, Erbei."

The old man held up two fingers, and a night breeze blew by, causing his long hair to dance wildly once again, making him look somewhat like the Fire Cloud Evil God.

"..."

After scanning the QR code and transferring the money, the old man watched the two leave with a smile. Suddenly, his phone rang. Seeing the caller ID, he pressed the answer button, "Hello, Director, what's up?"

"Another scam on the street?"

"No, I just set up a small stall by the roadside to earn some money for my retirement."

.......

As she walked quite a distance, Bai Xiaoqi would occasionally look back, her face full of heartache. She was now extremely regretful; the money had vanished too quickly. She had only heard the old man say a few words, and suddenly two hundred yuan was gone.

She had originally wanted to calculate the fortune of her online store, but she didn't dare to anymore; it was too terrifying, like being robbed.

It's like robbery. My online store has only earned a few hundred yuan since it opened before the Lunar New Year. If you exclude the five orders Chen Shuo bought, I've only earned about a hundred yuan.

So, the hundred hasn't arrived yet; it will only be credited to my account after the buyer confirms receipt.

Chen Shuo also thought it was too expensive. Roadside fortune tellers usually charge ten or twenty yuan, and fifty yuan is considered a high-end expense. How can this be two hundred yuan? It's outrageous.

"Can I learn fortune telling?" Bai Xiaoqi suddenly asked.

"Fortune-telling?"

Chen Shuo was taken aback for a moment, and then he understood why she had this idea.

"This... can be learned, but it's quite difficult because there's a lot to learn. For example, you have to learn how to understand other people's psychology, you also have to learn professional knowledge like the I Ching and Bagua, and you also have to learn the art of speaking and know how to fool people."

"..."

Bai Xiaoqi's heart skipped a beat, and she asked nervously, "Are you saying that the old man is fooling us, and that we won't have a happy marriage and loving relationship like he said?"

"?"

Chen Shuo was stunned.

"Oh, no, what I mean is that fortune telling is actually just talking in accordance with what other people want to hear."

For example, if we hope for a happy and fulfilling marriage in the future, he will state what we hope for, making it easy for us to believe him and then willingly hand over money—well, not really willingly.

I'm really not willing to do it. Two hundred is a bit outrageous. I feel like a bitter person.

"So that old man probably didn't calculate, no, it's more accurate to say that the future can't be calculated, the future is something we create ourselves."

How we live our lives from now on depends entirely on what we do, not on what that old man says.

He says we're happy, so we're happy; he says we're unhappy, so we're unhappy? There's no such logic in the world.

So what we need to do is strive to make our future happy, understand?

"So that old man cheated us out of two hundred yuan?"

Bai Xiaoqi then became concerned about this matter again.

Her mind always jumped around very quickly, and Chen Shuo was still a little unaccustomed to it. He choked for a moment before saying, "Uh, more or less, but it can't be called cheating. It's more like we're spending two hundred to buy peace of mind."

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Shuo saw her suddenly stop and then turn around and walk back.

"No, where are you going?"

"I'm going to find that old man and get my money back."

Bai Xiaoqi was filled with indignation. This world was too chaotic, there were so many bad people, and some even cheated people out of their money. What she found even more unacceptable was that they were cheating her out of her own money.

Although Chen Shuo paid the bill, she clearly had her own interpretation of it.

He belongs entirely to himself, so naturally his money does too.

Similarly, since one's entire being also belongs to him, it's equivalent to the old man cheating out of the joint property of the two people.

Thinking about it like this makes me feel really sad.

Chen Shuo felt that this was completely unnecessary, since it was a case of mutual consent, and it didn't constitute fraud.

But he couldn't dissuade Xiao A Miao, so he was dragged back to the previous spot by her. But when they got back, they found that the place was deserted.

No, even the stall is gone. Only two bricks lying motionless on the curb in the night wind seem to be telling the story of how they just ran over the big yellow cloth.

Bai Xiaoqi looked around and, not finding the old man, bent down and picked up a brick.

Upon seeing this, Chen Shuo was shocked. "What are you trying to do with that brick? Are you going to hit someone?"

"If I can't find that old man, I'll take his bricks home."

As she spoke, Bai Xiaoqi spotted a small stall selling grilled squid next to her, picked up a brick, and walked over.

Seeing someone approaching, the shop owner looked up and greeted, "Beautiful lady, how many would you like to buy..."

As he spoke, he noticed the brick in her hand and instinctively took two steps back, quickly saying, "Miss, let's talk this out. If you're not satisfied with the squid you bought..."

Bai Xiaoqi pointed to the curb over there and asked, "Boss, I'd like to ask where the fortune teller sitting over there went?"

"Oh, that's what you wanted to ask..."

The boss wiped the sweat from his forehead. Damn it, he thought they were here to smash up his stall.

"I'm so sorry, I was busy with business here and didn't pay much attention, but it seems like he answered a phone call. Maybe he went home."

"Go home? Where does he live?"

"I really don't know. I set up my stall here every day, and this is the first time I've seen him. I don't know him at all."

"......"

Unable to get the answer she wanted, she turned to Chen Shuo beside her and asked, "What if that old man goes home?"

"What else can we do? Let's go home."

"But I feel uncomfortable."

"You'll feel better if you don't think about it."

Chen Shuo thanked the squid stall owner, then reached out and pulled her away; this girl just had too much of a temper.

She hadn't gone far when Bai Xiaoqi came running back, bent down to pick up the brick, and was about to leave when she returned to the squid stall.

The shopkeeper, seeing that she was carrying two bricks this time, was stunned. "Miss, I really didn't know..."