Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I didn’t understand what he meant.

The Old Taoist asked, “Do you often have people read your fortune? Specifically, do you usually ask about your wealth?”

I quickly told him about how Wanting read my fortune every single day.

“And what did she say about your prospects?”

“She said my Eight Characters showed the weakest possible luck for wealth. She said my ‘wealth treasury’ had a hole in the bottom-that my primary income was weak and my windfall luck was nonexistent. She called it the poorest set of Eight Characters she’d ever seen.”

The Old Taoist stroked his beard. “That explains it. She stole your Eight Characters.”

I was even more confused now.

“Why would she want to steal such a penniless fate?”

The Old Taoist sighed. “Every single part of your Eight Characters is imbued with a wealth treasury. It is a magnificent destiny, the kind seen only once in a century.

“Furthermore, starting this September, you were meant to enter a thirty-year cycle of Great Luck. Both primary and windfall wealth would have flowed to you relentlessly. It means that in the future, even if you just lay around doing nothing, money would find its way into your accounts.

“Now, those who practice divination are often subject to the ‘Five Bereavements and Three Deficiencies.’ The Three Deficiencies refer to a lack of life, money, or love. I suspect your roommate suffers from a deficiency of money.

“Any diviner who saw the wealth luck in your Eight Characters would be green with envy. So, she began casting Yin Divinations for you. As long as she did it for exactly one hundred days, she could steal your Eight Characters.”

My head felt like it was about to explode.

I quickly calculated the days since the semester started. Today was exactly the hundredth day.

My legs went weak, and I collapsed onto the ground.

I truly never expected that the roommate I lived with day and night would be this kind of person.

“But what about those two Water Ghosts?” I asked.

The old man sighed again. “Sigh! Yang Divination is for the living; Yin Divination is for ghosts.

“Since you aren’t dead, she had to enlist the help of ghosts to perform Yin Divinations. It just so happens there are two Water Ghosts in your school’s lake, and they’ve reached the three-year mark where they need to find a Substitute.

“If they took a normal person as a Substitute, the best they could hope for is to be reincarnated as livestock. But if they find someone with a great destiny but no luck-someone whose luck has been stripped-they can be reincarnated as humans. So, they teamed up to set a trap for you.”

“But I don’t understand,” I said. “Why did Wanting keep stopping the Water Ghosts from luring me away?”

The Old Taoist replied, “All things must happen in threes to be finalized. For example, you must kowtow three times when worshipping a deity.”

“But today was the third time,” I countered. “Why did Wanting warn me not to drink the Cadaver Belly Water?”

“A play requires a back-and-forth performance,” the Old Taoist said. “Otherwise, how could she have convinced you to drink it?”

It clicked. I finally understood.

I immediately dropped to my knees and begged the Old Taoist to save me.

The Old Taoist pulled out a talisman. He used a silver needle to prick the ring finger of my right hand and let a single drop of blood fall onto the paper. With a wave of his hand, the talisman burst into flames.

He mixed the talisman ashes into a small bamboo tube filled with water. He capped it and handed it to me.

He instructed me to walk back the way I came while silently chanting my own name in my head. No matter what sound I heard, I was not to look back.

I was to keep going until I saw a Little Turtle. Once I poured this Talisman Water onto the Turtle Shell, I would be able to reclaim my Eight Characters.

He told me he would handle the rest.

I etched his instructions into my heart.