chapter 2

I climbed into the stretch Lincoln. The driver looked me up and down with open disdain, then loudly warned Qin Xuan, “Mr. Qin, there are all kinds of frauds in this line of work. You mustn’t let yourself be cheated!”

Qin Xuan gave me an apologetic smile.

I smiled back, entirely unconcerned.

Two hundred thousand just for making the trip. What more could a woman ask for?

Qin Xuan told me that, under the pretense of consulting feng shui before renovating, he had brought several groups of practitioners to the mansion. None had found anything.

They believed that either Qin Xuan remembered incorrectly, or the house had once been altered and contained a hidden room, or two members of the household were secretly sharing a bedroom.

As Qin Xuan recounted their theories, a melancholy shadow passed over his features.

It was almost as if he hoped the explanation was not human at all.

Something else would suit him better.

I had imagined that any mansion with seven bedrooms on its second floor must be large. Seeing it in person still startled me.

The mansion stood halfway up a mountain on the outskirts of the city. A quiet road led directly to its iron gates. Beyond them, gardens and reflecting pools encircled an elegant white house.

Inside, I saw that the building drew its design from an Italian rotunda. Rooms radiated in a circle around a central spiral staircase.

“Is the second floor arranged the same way?” I asked.

Qin Xuan nodded and checked his watch. “I have a meeting shortly. Please wait a moment, Miss Zhu. I’ll have the butler take you upstairs.”

He plainly doubted me.

Still, Qin Xuan was a prudent man with impeccable manners. Perhaps he thought Boss Zhu had sent me to make an initial assessment before deciding whether the case deserved his personal attention. Whatever his private misgivings, he did not display them.

“Fine by me,” I said.

At that moment, a door to our right suddenly opened. Four people emerged, discussing the outcome of their mahjong game.

Qin Xuan smiled and greeted them one by one.

“Dad, Mom, Dad, Mom. Finished playing?”

I looked over.

Two elderly couples. One pair on the plump side, the other leaner.

To my surprise, obvious displeasure appeared on all four faces when they saw Qin Xuan.

“Why have you brought another disreputable stranger into the house?” one of the thinner women demanded coldly. “How could a house chosen by Yiru have bad feng shui?”

Qin Xuan answered respectfully, “I thought it would put everyone at ease to have someone examine it before the renovation.”

The other woman, who wore a Buddhist pendant, surveyed me with distaste.

“Examine it? If she only wanted a free tour of the mansion, that would be one thing. But if you mean to pay someone this young to assess our feng shui, I would sooner have the butler escort her out!”

The other three elders regarded me with equal impatience and scorn. One of the men was already shouting, “Butler! Butler!”

Now I was annoyed.

I was poor enough already. At last, a chance to make money had appeared, and these four were about to snatch it away.

I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I met the gaze of the woman with the Buddhist pendant. A flash of light crossed her brown irises.

My lips curved into a smile.

“So it was you. Don’t you remember me?”

She frowned impatiently. “What do you mean? I’ve never…”

Her voice abruptly stopped. She seemed to recall something. After studying me for two seconds, she slowly forced a radiant smile onto her face.

“Oh! So it is you!”

“The last time I visited the temple, I saw so many devotees kneeling to ask for your blessing. I stood in line forever and never reached you. I never dreamed you would honor us with your presence! M-Master, would you grant me the privilege of paying my respects today?”

She gazed at me with such delighted devotion that tears of excitement welled in her eyes.

The other three stared. One of the men, apparently her husband, asked blankly, “When did you go to a temple? Why didn’t I know about it?”

I merely smiled, assuming an air of unfathomable wisdom as I observed their astonishment.

The human sea of consciousness is a fortress, defended by the firewall of the conscious mind and the Great Wall of the subconscious. With the Zhu bloodline so diminished and the Founding Matriarch’s command suppressing our gifts, invading the subconscious was extraordinarily difficult. Only a handful of our ancestors had ever managed it.

Adding a few false fragments to the conscious memory, however, was child’s play.

Because externally implanted memories lacked native neural connections, they came quickly and vanished just as fast. At most, they lasted a day or two.

And every use of mirage power cost me money in some form.

I made a quick estimate.

Even after counting the additional eight hundred thousand Qin Xuan had promised, I would still turn a profit.

Under the others’ stunned gazes, I graciously accepted the pendant-wearing woman’s first bow on both knees.

Then her second.

And her third.

Qin Xuan stood to one side, disbelief written across his face.