Chapter 3: Task Completed, One More Year to Live

Upon hearing that voice, Zhao Lingling immediately turned her head toward the person she knew so well.

“Grandma!”

With that, Zhao Lingling rushed into the elderly woman’s arms.

Tears of worry were already welling up in the old lady’s eyes. She looked Zhao Lingling over from head to toe, her voice trembling with anxiety.

“My precious granddaughter, are you alright? I heard there were kidnappers!”

Zhao Lingling nodded. “Yes, Grandma. It was Elder Sister who saved me!”

She held her grandmother’s hand and pointed toward Shi Yi, who stood a short distance away, looking rather disheveled.

The old woman was taken aback when she saw Shi Yi.

“Isn’t that the master who saved me?”

Shi Yi was just as surprised.

What were the odds? The gray-haired lady before her was the very woman she’d saved from a falling object just recently. She was also the mother of Zhao Yong, who had been weeping like a child under the overpass a short while ago.

Shi Yi felt a bit thrown—so the little girl before her was Zhao Yong’s daughter?

Gratitude filled the old woman’s eyes as she hastily wiped her tears away and hurried forward, dropping to her knees with a thud.

The crowd gasped in shock as the old lady, sobbing uncontrollably, began to speak.

“Master! Thank you so much! Not only did you save this old life of mine, but you also saved Lingling! She’s my only granddaughter—if anything had happened to her, how could I go on living?”

She made as though to bow her head to the ground in thanks.

Shi Yi was startled and immediately reached out to help the old lady up.

People from the neighborhood pressed closer, surrounding Shi Yi with thunderous applause.

“This young woman is truly brave—she shouted ‘Fire!’ and drew us all here!”

“Yes, imagine! So young, yet she dared to confront three kidnappers alone. How courageous! Let’s all give her a round of applause!”

Shi Yi’s face betrayed a hint of discomfort at the chorus of praise.

At that moment, a man pushed through the crowd. Well-dressed and clearly well-off, his eyes were red and swollen from recent tears.

Zhao Yong, having made his way through the throng, caught sight of Zhao Lingling and the disheveled Shi Yi—then heard the neighbors praising her.

In an instant, his tears began to flow like a surging tide.

“Master... Master…”

Shi Yi, having anticipated this, kept her composure and quickly stopped Zhao Yong from kneeling to the ground.

The old lady, meanwhile, clung to Zhao Lingling and wept.

Zhao Yong, blocked from kneeling by Shi Yi, simply stood there, embracing his mother and daughter as he broke down completely.

Once the police had handcuffed the kidnappers and loaded them into the patrol car, one of the officers approached Shi Yi with genuine admiration in his eyes.

“Young lady, you’ve done us a great service! These three have been notorious in the capital for some time—our department has been after them for ages. We never expected you’d be the one to catch them! We really owe you our thanks!”

He held out his hand to shake hers.

Shi Yi hesitated for a moment, then shook his hand, bracing herself for some grisly vision.

But to her surprise, nothing happened. No violent scene unfolded before her eyes. It seemed this officer’s future was safe.

Relieved, she let go of his hand.

The policeman thanked her once more before getting into the car and driving away with the kidnappers.

A cordon was set up at the entrance to the residential complex.

As the excitement faded, the crowd slowly dispersed.

Zhao Lingling’s grandmother and Zhao Yong, however, wept uncontrollably.

“Master, you’ve not only saved my mother and me, but also my daughter. I’m away on business most of the year, and I’ve neglected Lingling and my mother for so long. If not for you, I…”

He choked up again, vowing to give Shi Yi all his worldly possessions.

His enthusiasm startled Shi Yi.

After much effort, she managed to decline, explaining that her path of cultivation required hardship and she could not accept his offer.

Shi Yi had never been fond of crowds or socializing. After repeated refusals, Zhao Yong finally understood.

Yet as he left, the look in his eyes—regarding her as a savior—made Shi Yi suspect he wouldn’t give up so easily.

She hurried away, dashing back to her cramped, shabby rental room.

Shutting the door and blocking out the noise outside, Shi Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In the corner of her tiny, plainly furnished living room stood a black-and-white photograph.

The old man in the photo beamed mischievously, his smile tinged with roguish charm.

As was her habit, Shi Yi approached the photo, picked up three sticks of incense, lit them, and placed them in the censer.

“Master, yesterday I did a good deed—I saved an old lady from being hit by something falling from above. I even got hurt doing it! Just look at my hands and face, they sting. If you were still here, you’d scold me for being foolish as you dressed my wounds.”

Gazing at the bright smile on the old man’s face, Shi Yi’s eyes grew dim.

“Today I did two more good deeds. I stopped a man from being hit by a car, and prevented his daughter from being abducted. I never imagined the girl would turn out to be his daughter... Maybe this is the ‘will of Heaven’ you always talked about?”

“And Master, something odd happened today. I somehow got a system—it said that as long as I complete its tasks, I’ll earn another year of life. If that’s true, I’ll never have to worry about money again. I could live like an ordinary person.”

Her gaze grew hollow, darkened with sorrow.

“Master, I miss you…”

She took out a can of coconut juice she’d bought near her fortune-telling stall and placed it before the memorial tablet.

She was an orphan, never having met her parents or knowing who they were. She’d been picked up as a child by an old fortune-teller.

Worse yet, at ten she’d suffered a high fever, and upon awakening, all her previous memories were gone.

And so she’d grown up with the old man, who had passed away two years earlier from illness.

He’d left her nothing but the most meager means to survive.

Just a year ago, Shi Yi had been diagnosed with ALS.

Her livelihood consisted of fortune-telling under the overpass, scraping by on the bit of knowledge she’d learned from her master.

She sighed, returned to her room, and collapsed on the bed, drifting into a groggy sleep.

She was woken later by a persistent knocking at the door.

Confused, she opened her bleary eyes and glanced at the entrance.

She’d never been close to her neighbors, nor had anyone ever come to her door.

The knocking continued. Shi Yi hurriedly climbed out of bed.

“Alright, alright, stop knocking! This door is ancient—if you keep banging, I’ll have to pay to have it fixed.”

Her tone was a bit irritable as she swung the door open.

The person outside started in surprise.

“Officer?”

Shi Yi was surprised as well; she hadn’t expected the officer who’d taken the kidnappers away to return.

“Officer, is there something you need?”

The middle-aged man chuckled, withdrawing his hand.

“There’s something I’d like to discuss. May I come in?”

Shi Yi quickly stepped aside. “Of course. Please, come in.”