Chapter 249 - Rejected (1/2)
Lu Shengnan stared at me with the paper held between her fingers for seconds until she finally uttered, “You said you are neighbors?!” “Urm… Heh heh heh,” I giggled sheepishly and said, “I’m staying in Unit 105.” Lu Shengnan gaped with disbelief at me for another few seconds. “Oh, my God! You’re hiding a huge fortune, are you!? The villas there cost millions each!”
Never to miss out any chance to brag, Lin Feng placed a hand on my shoulder, quipping triumphantly, “Heh, as if that amount would matter to Shiyan! He can easily win that amount of money in a single bet! I’m sure you’ve heard of the children abductions that happened before around Wu Zhong? The case that involved some evil cultists? That was solved by us! One million yuan, piece of cake!”
The hoiden Lu Shengnan watched as Lin Feng carried on with his histrionics with awe, rubbing her hands, her eyes dreamy and mystified. At this, I hurriedly waved my hands and said, “All right, enough there! Don’t take his word for it! He just likes to brag! The house is bought by my mother for my wedding. It’s my parents who bought it, not me.”
“Wait a minute. You told me before that your father is the head person of a National Studies Institute and your mother’s a housewife. How…” “They’re like those invisible billionaires or hidden tycoons. They just prefer to remain out of sight.” Lu Shengnan nodded pensively, taking my word completely without a shred of doubt.
But what’s a couple of million for a villa house, I mused. After seeing Father whisking away the mound of treasures and jewels in the ancient crypt during my time travels, I have now a lucent idea of how much money Father has hoarded and I can swear that any one of the little trinkets from that large heap of treasure was worth even more than that large villa house.
Lin Feng was continuing with his gloating and he had reached the part where we were fighting against the Creed of the Eight Trigrams, albeit his version of the events was rampant with exaggerations and melodramatics. He even made it a point to specifically mention about the one million yuan bet between me and Zheng Shuang’s uncle. As if it was not bad enough, Chongxi even joined in the double act! Finally, when the tale came to a pause, the tomboy Lu Shengnan threw me a coquettish look. “You must need an agent or a manager to handle things for you, Shiyan?”
“Gimme a break!” I grimaced.
Our light conversation in Lu Shengnan’s place lingered on until the sky grew dark outside. She led us to a restaurant where I was subjected to her relentless pestering during the entire meal until I finally relented and paid the bill. By then it was already eight but Chongxi and Lin Feng never stopped enthralling her with more tales about our adventures that she began to develop an interest in joining our band.
With the admiration and pride as if she was speaking to a childhood hero she grew up with, she beamed, “Count me in, Shiyan! Let me join you! Operating a tuition center is nowhere near as fun and thrilling as you! Come on, I’ll join in so we’re now a quartet!” “Nope, you can’t,” Chongxi bluntly rejected her and said, “Each of us is skilled in something. I’m skilled in the magic of divination, astrology, and fortune-telling. Lin Feng is skilled in different styles of wushu techniques, like Southern Fists and Northern Kicks. And Shiyan? He’s even greater; the man’s the son of a demigod who has greater magical powers! But what expertise do you have to offer?”
Lu Shengnan puffed her chest and declared proudly, “I’m a trouble-maker! Look at all movies and stories, they always have a character who is a trouble-maker that lands everyone in new adventures! I’ll be the trouble-maker and I have no fear of getting into trouble! Heh heh heh!” “Nope,” I scoffed jokingly and said, “We don’t need trouble-making talents! If you still haven’t grasp the entirety of Chongxi’s ability, he can divine out almost anything; humans, demons, ghosts, almost anything! He’s the reason we don’t need trouble-doers like you.”
Lu Shengnan sighed at the rejection, looking positively crestfallen. “Come now,” I said to her consolingly with a hand patting her shoulder, “Our job has its risks. One wrong move and we might lose our lives. You would be nothing but fresh meat since you have no ways to defend yourself.”
But that did not discourage Lu Shengnan from badgering us and hounding us until we finally gave in: we would include her into our affair tonight at Huang Li’s place just this one time. I was convinced that the thing Huang Li could concoct would not be difficult for us and the experience of truly experiencing the paranormal, which could be several times more challenging and gripping than continually riding roller-coaster ten times, could well be daunting enough to dissuade her from joining us.