Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“What’s the rush, young lady?” The Driver kept his eyes fixed on the road, his fingers tapping a rhythm against the steering wheel. “I haven’t even told you my birth dates yet.”

He looked at me and grinned, his thick lips parting to reveal a row of teeth stained yellow by tobacco.

“Go ahead then.”

I gave up, my body going limp as I slumped against the back of the seat.

“What?”

“Your birth dates.”

He blinked, clearly not expecting me to have the presence of mind to offer him a fortune reading at a time like this. He casually rattled off a string of numbers.

I mapped out the natal chart in my mind, pinching my fingers as I calculated the alignment.

“Your early years were full of hardship. You lost your father at three and your mother at five. Your fate dictated you should have one son, but he met an untimely death.”

“The first half was more or less right, but the rest is pure nonsense.”

His face was full of dismissive skepticism.

Ignoring him, I continued, “At twenty-five, you went inside for two years. As soon as you got out…”

“You killed two people.”

The Driver shot me a sudden, sharp look, his eyes narrowing with scrutiny.

“You’ve been investigating me?”

I kept my head down, my expression grim as I meticulously recalculated with my fingers. I went through the motions three full times.

“That’s not right. That’s not right at all.”

Curiosity got the better of him, and he leaned in. “What’s not right?”

“Wealth is also a calamity. Although you are in a partnership, you never intended to share the spoils with him.”

“Most importantly,” I said honestly, “the hexagram says that seven days ago, you already died.”

“Hahahaha!”

An explosion of laughter erupted from the driver’s seat. The Driver laughed so hard he had to wipe tears from his eyes. “To tell you the truth, those birth dates I just gave you belong to my partner.”

“That little act of yours might fool girls your own age, but your reading is completely off!”

“If my partner were dead, then who was the one sleeping in the same room as me last night?”

“Besides, if he’d been dead for seven days, wouldn’t he be stinking enough to attract flies by now?”

I threw up my hands helplessly. “Believe it or not. I haven’t been wrong once since I finished my apprenticeship, but I suppose there’s a first time for everything.”

His eyes shifted, a flicker of doubt finally creeping in.

During the stalemate, the phone sitting between the seats began to buzz and vibrate.

The screen lit up, displaying the contact name: Ah Chen.

The Driver visibly relaxed. “This Little Charlatan almost had me fooled. How could a dead man make a phone call?”

He triumphantly answered the call, muttering that he’d be there soon before casually asking, “Hey, Ah Chen, did you ever have a kid?”

“Yeah… he drowned when he was a little over a year old.”

“Oh.” The Driver froze for a moment. He hung up and turned to look at me. “This Little Charlatan actually has some skill.”

“But you heard him.” He pointed at the phone. “My partner is alive and kicking, and his voice is clear as a bell. What dead man sounds that energetic?”

I shook my head, my brow furrowed.

“Does being able to speak necessarily mean someone is alive?”

“Didn’t you notice? When he speaks, the sound of his teeth clicking together is much more frequent than a normal person’s. It’s as if he doesn’t have full control over them.”

“Personally, I think the probability of him being dead is quite high.”