Chapter 86 — King's Village

Seeing Zhou Yixuan still calling out with undiminished vigor, Xiao Wan grew impatient and rose to her feet. She was just about to call her grandfather to stop when suddenly her vision blurred—someone had appeared before the wooden table without her noticing. A young man in pale blue robes, with fine, clear features, though his face was somehow rather pale.

"Miss, I'd like my fortune told," the young man said quietly, a faint smile at the corners of his mouth.

Xiao Wan frowned and sized him up. By then Zhou Yixuan had noticed what was happening and hurried back, his face wreathed in smiles. "Honored customer, what would you like to know—wealth or marriage? And by what method: physiognomy, palmistry, or character divination?"

The young man pondered briefly. "I mean to enter the Death Marsh as well. So tell me how my fortune stands."

Zhou Yixuan chuckled. "No problem, no problem at all. Come, honored customer, please sit. Ah, but first, a word: we carry the true transmission of the Patriarch, and our art of physiognomy is peerless, so a reading costs ten taels of silver..."

The young man was taken aback. "So expensive?"

Zhou Yixuan smiled and said nothing.

The young man's eyes shifted; he glanced at Xiao Wan and smiled. "Very well, then—ten taels it is. But here: first divine a character for me."

Xiao Wan looked at him, fetched a sheet of white paper from the side, and held out a slender brush. "Then please, honored customer, write a character first on..."

Unexpectedly, the young man took the brush and laughed. "No need. I'll just write down my name—and you divine for me what fortune my name holds."

So saying, he wrote three characters on the white paper and handed it to Xiao Wan.

Xiao Wan started, took it, and looked down at the page as the young man's soft laugh reached her ear: "My name is Qin Wujiu!"