Chapter 106: Take Her Home to Sleep Thanks to Ghost351389 for the jade pendant reward.

Luo Feng asked what we would do if the person I had hired refused to come. After thinking it over, I told him that if the man would not come willingly, he should simply be brought to the capital by force. Luo Feng agreed, though he said he would need some time. Even at the earliest, it would probably take three or four days. I considered it, then told him not to hurry. This person would not be useful for some time yet.

After I finished speaking with Luo Feng, z had already risen from the ground. She was talking with one of the temple monks. I walked over, and z asked for a fortune slip, then had the monk interpret it. I listened with interest from the side. It was the best possible omen. I had to admit that z was not so unlucky that she could do nothing right.

The monk asked whether z wanted guidance about love or her career. Wearing sunglasses and a knitted wool cap, z had gone unrecognized despite the steady stream of visitors in the temple. The monk spent most of his time there and paid little attention to worldly affairs, so naturally he did not recognize her either.

Z answered that she wanted neither love nor career. She only wished to know whether her life would bring good fortune or bad.

The monk studied the words on the slip, then went to one side and opened a book of interpretations. After reading it, he pondered for a long while. At last, speaking in a mouthful of Buddhist phrases, he told z that although the slip was an extremely auspicious one, it could not guarantee that her life would be peaceful and blessed in every respect.

Z grew tense as soon as she heard this.

I did not interrupt. I merely watched her expression. It was not difficult to see that z was a true believer. She asked the monk what she should do. He pressed his palms together and bowed to her.

“Every cause bears its fruit. Even the Buddha, in his great compassion, cannot protect every person from all misfortune. If you devote yourself wholeheartedly to goodness, good fruit will naturally follow. But if you carry sinful burdens, even the Buddha cannot help you cast them off.”

After saying this, the monk simply walked away.

Z seized my hand, looking as though she were about to cry.

She said the fortune slip must be referring to the Kuman Thong she had imprisoned, and that even the Buddha had abandoned her because of it. I hesitated. In truth, ordinary people never interpreted fortune slips so definitively, least of all fortune-tellers. Nine out of ten predictions were inaccurate. No one could truly calculate another person’s destiny. Yet so many people still flocked to fortune-tellers for a simple reason: most of them never spoke with absolute certainty.

That monk, for instance, had offered two possibilities. One was that z had always done good deeds; the other was that she carried some karmic wrongdoing. Yet z had to belong to one of those two categories. No matter what happened to her in the future, when she looked back on the monk’s words, she would believe that his interpretation had been uncannily precise.

As for other fortune-tellers, they had countless excuses at their disposal. They might claim that fortune-telling shortened one’s life, invited disaster, or that a patron’s destiny was too mysterious to be seen. Even if their predictions proved wrong, they still had an explanation ready. Those whose fortunes came true would spread word of the fortune-teller’s miraculous abilities, while most of those whose fortunes did not come true would simply keep silent. That was how many fortune-tellers built their reputations.

Strictly speaking, every fortune-teller was a fraud under the law. Yet because of the country’s long feudal history, the police could not round them all up at once. They dealt only with those who charged exorbitant fees for fortune-telling and imposed criminal penalties on them.

Those were the words I had wanted to say to z, but I swallowed them. I merely smiled and told her that it was getting late. As she left the temple, she knelt on the ground and reverently bowed several times. In the end, she even put every large bill she had on her into the donation box as an offering to the temple.

By the time we left the temple, it was already afternoon. I asked z whether she wanted something to eat. She had not eaten properly for several days. Z said she could not eat and wanted to return early to rest. I then asked whether she wanted to sleep at my house. This time, I did not use a frivolous tone.

Z hesitated for a while before asking why I kept asking her to go home with me to sleep. There was a trace of wariness in her voice. She seemed to be on guard against me.

I merely shrugged. “I have things of my own to attend to. If you’re afraid, I can take you back to the hospital, where your bodyguards can protect you. I can’t spend every night there with you.”

Z immediately shook her head. She said that neither the police who had been looking for her nor the bodyguards Charlie had hired made her feel safe. She could relax only when I was there.

I asked why she trusted me so much.

She said I was the first person who had not been afraid of the Kuman Thong doll, and that I had even dealt with it for her without anything happening to me.

Once we were in the car, I stopped asking for z’s opinion and drove straight to Luo Feng’s house. When z realized we were not heading back to the hospital, she opened her mouth as though to say something, but in the end she said nothing. She seemed to have silently agreed.

As soon as I opened the door, the little ghost rushed toward me as usual. Luo Feng, meanwhile, stared blankly at z for a moment.

Z seemed not to have expected so many people to be in my home. She timidly hid behind me while all of Luo Feng’s men stared at her in unison. I coughed, and Luo Feng finally came to his senses. He shot me a knowing look, then shouted at his men, “What are you looking at? Get back to whatever you were doing.”

After Luo Feng spoke, no one dared continue staring at z.

I led her inside and asked Luo Feng to prepare a room for her. He did so at once. As soon as the room was ready, z said she wanted to rest. I escorted her inside, and just as I was about to leave, she grabbed my hand.

“You’re leaving?” z asked nervously, glancing around.

The guest room was spacious, with plenty of cabinets and cupboards. Z scrutinized them suspiciously and said she had the feeling that something was hiding inside.

I opened every cupboard in front of her and told her that the room was perfectly safe. Even so, z continued holding my hand. I lifted her hand toward her face and teased, “Do you want to sleep with me that badly?”

Z began to plead. “Stop joking. I don’t dare stay here alone.”

I gently patted her hand. “Take a shower first. I’ll come back to see you in a little while.”

With that, I walked straight out.

When I reached the floor below, Luo Feng pulled me aside. His expression was suggestive, and he laughed teasingly several times.

“I knew you were bringing z home to sleep with you. Impressive. She’s a major celebrity, after all.”

The little ghost was standing nearby, tugging at my hand and asking whether I would not sleep with her that night. Her pitiful expression made Luo Feng laugh. He waved his hand.

“All right, all right. I’m only joking.”

Then Luo Feng became serious and asked why I had brought z back.

I countered, “What if I told you I felt sorry for her, so I brought her here to protect her? Would you believe me?”

Luo Feng shook his head without the slightest hesitation. “Stop keeping me in suspense. Tell me.”

I sat down. “You’ll find out. Don’t be impatient. For now, think about how we’re going to deal with Wang Jianming. And this time, I have no choice but to let my kindness run wild and save Wang Yazhuo.”

Luo Feng stared at me, puzzled by how quickly I had changed my mind.

It had not been long since I told him that Wang Yazhuo was being held prisoner in Wang Jianming’s home and that it had nothing to do with me. We should not interfere and invite trouble.

I told Luo Feng about the terms of the deal Wang Yazhuo had made with me over the phone. He was so astonished that his mouth fell open.

“Why would she know about that fire? She was only a teenager several years ago. There’s no way she would have gone to a karaoke club or anywhere like that.”

Luo Feng explained that although Wang Yazhuo had grown up in a criminal family, Wang Jianming had been extremely strict with her since childhood. His deep affection for her had never prevented him from disciplining her.

Wang Jianming had always indulged Wang Yazhuo, which was why she had grown into such a spoiled and willful girl. But he had strictly forbidden her from going to places like that. For one thing, it was not appropriate for a girl to visit such establishments. For another, Luo Feng guessed that Wang Jianming considered those places a chaotic mix of all kinds of people and feared that something might happen to her.

As he spoke, Luo Feng suddenly slapped his thigh.

“Could that fire have had something to do with Wang Jianming? Did Wang Yazhuo accidentally hear or see something while she was at home?”

I nodded. Luo Feng’s guess was very likely correct.

But even if Wang Jianming had been connected to that fire, he would never tell us the truth. The only way to learn what had happened was to rescue Wang Yazhuo and hear her tell me herself.

Luo Feng slapped his chest boldly and declared that anything concerning me concerned him as well. He would give me all the help he could. Even if it meant becoming Wang Jianming’s enemy, he would not hesitate.