RNP Chapter 30 Every cause has its effect; your retribution is me~
Chapter 30 Every cause has its effect; your retribution is me~
As the first rays of sunlight pierce through the thin mist and gently caress the earth, everything seems to awaken from its slumber.
Dewdrops glistened on the tips of the grass, like pearls of nature, adorning this newly awakened world. Birdsong rose and fell, weaving together a cheerful morning melody, announcing the start of a new day.
Martin, upon waking, as usual, touched his face first.
Well, with all my facial features present, I guess I can be considered a normal person today.
As for why I say he's a normal person.
Because he needed to look in the mirror to further confirm whether he was a ghost or a beast in human form like Jiang Si.
Martin stretched and sat up in bed, looking down at the bed.
Wow, it has arms and legs, not bad at all.
Martin walked to the full-length mirror, looked at the person in the mirror, and clicked his tongue.
"Is it a greyhound today?"
He touched his protruding ribs and slender arms.
It's obvious that this body was created by someone who was starving nine meals a day for three days a year.
Okay, forget about becoming the richest person in the world.
Touching his stubble-covered face, Martin couldn't make out his exact appearance, but his expressive eyes were quite intriguing. He pondered, "This is for the best. It saves me from looking like just another passerby and being suspected by everyone."
"Let me see, what do you think of your fashion sense?"
Martin rubbed his hands together like a fly and opened the wardrobe.
"Oh, this..."
Martin never expected that what came into view would be four or five Taoist robes!
"Am I a Taoist priest today? Huh~ what's this?"
He took a bamboo pole out of the wardrobe with a puzzled look on his face.
A rectangular piece of cloth was tied to the bamboo pole, on which were written in a flamboyant style: "Divine Strategist!"
"Am I a fortune teller?"
Martin scratched his face and searched for a long time, only finding a tortoise shell, a few old-fashioned copper coins, a peach wood divination cup, a well-worn compass, and a yellowed book.
These tools used in the crime confirm that the perpetrator was a fortune teller.
Martin opened the book, which looked somewhat old, and was immediately captivated by its contents.
"Change the positions of the Later Heaven Bagua, the Earlier Heaven is the essence, the Later Heaven is the application, and the application of the Later Heaven..."
"Face reading? Feng shui? Fortune telling? The I Ching? Good heavens, this book teaches such a wide variety of things."
Martin was so engrossed in watching that he didn't notice the entire morning had passed by.
Martin stretched his aching neck, glanced at the time which was almost 13:00 PM, and exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, I've been watching for almost six hours already? Time flies!"
goooo~
Well...
Martin rubbed his stomach, which was growling in protest.
I haven't eaten anything all morning, I need to go get some food.
After glancing at the wardrobe, which contained no other clothes, he had no choice but to take out a Taoist robe and put it on.
As soon as Martin opened the door, he heard Chen Meijia's mocking voice: "Tch~ I hope you can face reality!"
"Face reality?"
Lu Ziqiao threw down the cushion, sat up, and said, "If it weren't for the burden you placed on me back then, my reality would be a thousand times, ten thousand times grander than it is now!"
"Hehehe, who do you think you are?" Chen Meijia rolled her eyes so hard they almost reached Ethiopia.
"Who am I? Humph!"
Lu Ziqiao proudly declared, "The fortune teller said I have the destiny of a young master!"
Chen Meijia said in a drawn-out tone, "Oh, Young Master Lü, I bet if you gave that blind fortune teller a little more money, he would definitely say you have the destiny of a master!"
"Who says fortune tellers are always blind?"
Lu Ziqiao glared at Chen Meijia with great displeasure.
Chen Meijia said sarcastically, "Then why did he lie through his teeth?"
"You're the one lying! He's clearly a mute!" Lu Ziqiao accidentally let it slip.
"Pfft, hahaha..."
Chen Meijia laughed so hard she almost fell over.
"The word 'young master' must have been something your fortune-telling mute came up with himself while he was babbling 'ah-ba-ah-ba,' right?"
Lu Ziqiao, his face grim, gestured and said, "What do you know? Fortune telling can be written down!"
"Did he write that your family fell into poverty when you were six years old?" Chen Meijia always hit the nail on the head when she confronted Lu Ziqiao.
"You..." Lu Ziqiao was so angry that he wished he could shut her up.
Chen Meijia scoffed, "I think you have the body of a young master but the life of a waiter!"
"Hahaha! Mika, brilliant!"
After listening for a while, Martin couldn't help but laugh.
"Hmph! I think she's just a big shot!" Lu Ziqiao grinned.
Martin asked deliberately, "What's wrong? Did you two have a fight?"
Worried that she would lose the benefit of half-price rent and free utilities, Chen Meijia quickly explained, "No, no, we were just... just bickering! Ziqiao and I just like to tease each other..."
"Looking for trouble?" Martin interjected.
Chen Meijia almost got dragged into this mess, pinching Lü Ziqiao, "Hmm, hmm? What is it? We just like to bicker all the time, that's what makes it fun!"
Lu Ziqiao winced in pain, then changed the subject, saying, "Martin, are you giving up being a priest for a Taoist priest?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Meijia took a closer look at Martin's attire, and her mouth dropped open in surprise at the sight of Martin's bearded face.
"Wow! Do you guys' beards grow this fast? Yesterday it was just a small mustache, how come it's a big one today?"
Martin stroked his beard and chuckled, "Priests and Taoist priests are all pretty much the same; it's all metaphysics, a family tradition."
Chen Meijia glared at Lu Ziqiao and whispered, "This is the first time I've heard of priests and Taoist priests having ancestral traditions."
Lu Ziqiao shrugged and said, "Hey, priests and Taoist priests are human too. Humans have emotions and desires. They might have a little accident with believers or lay Buddhists, and that's how babies are born. We're all people with feelings, it's normal."
He noticed that Chen Meijia was looking at him with a strange expression.
Martin said speechlessly, "Don't you know that some priests and Taoist priests are allowed to marry?"
"Huh? Can priests and Taoist priests get married? How come I didn't know that?"
Chen Meijia blinked her big, bright eyes.
Lu Ziqiao was also completely bewildered.
"I don't know any chickens either."
Martin went into the kitchen, rolled up his sleeves, opened the refrigerator, took out meat and vegetables, and was about to start cooking.
Seeing this, Chen Meijia couldn't help but ask, "Martin, haven't you eaten?"
Martin said helplessly, "Sigh, don't even mention it. I was so engrossed in reading that I lost track of time and skipped breakfast and lunch. Now I'm starving and my heart is pounding."
Lu Ziqiao perked up and asked curiously, "What book are you reading that you're so engrossed in?"
"A book about metaphysics." Martin washed the ingredients with water.
Lu Ziqiao asked expectantly, "Metaphysics? By the way, Martin, since you're a Taoist priest, can you tell fortunes?"
Business is coming in?
Martin immediately became serious.
"I have some knowledge of face reading, feng shui, divination, and the I Ching."
"Great! Then can you tell me when I'll become rich!"
Lu Ziqiao excitedly approached Martin.
Martin made a motion of rubbing his index and middle fingers together and his thumb back and forth.
"What do you mean?"
Lu Ziqiao was taken aback.
"You know what I mean."
"We're so close, can you do my fortune telling for free?"
Martin sneered when he saw that Lu Ziqiao wanted to get something for nothing.
"Every cause has its effect. Your retribution... I mean, if you want your fortune told, you need to pay a price. If you don't want to lose money, then you might need to pay something else, haha."
……