Chapter 56

Chapter 56: A Knife Above the Word Lust

What Du An Rao said was not nonsense. According to what other people in the book said about Qiu Ji Chen, he had always been excellent in every way since he was young.

President Qiu was very strict with him. But because she was too strict and did not care much about his love life, he was almost thirty now and his feelings were still a blank page.

His father was absent, his mother was overbearing, and Qiu Ji Chen had no time to date anyone. He did not even know what kind of partner he really wanted.

As he slowly got older, the pressure he had been under for many years started to bounce back. For some reason, he grew a bit rebellious, and tried to be trendy by finding a gentle, caring girlfriend online.

[He thought his girlfriend was shy, charming, and weak as a little flower in the wind. But in truth, on the other side of the internet sat a giant man weighing two or three hundred pounds, built like a tower, whose build was twice as strong as his.]

Du Yu Xi was silent for a moment, then said: “…It’s… really hard to comment.”

When Ms. Qiu heard this, her face finally changed. Thinking of her son’s personality, she actually felt this somehow fit him.

“What are Baleful Stars?”

“Generally speaking, Baleful Stars refer to six stars: the Blade Star, the Tuo Luo Star, the Fire Star, the Bell Star, the Earth Calamity Star, and the Sky Void Star. The Fire Star and the Bell Star carry fire. If you clash with them, your mood will become unstable, you will be easily angered, and it is easy to get into fights and arguments with others.

“The Blade Star and the Tuo Luo Star mean there are petty, harmful people around you, and these people are very likely people you knew early on and trust. If you clash with them, it may hurt your health. As for the Earth Calamity Star and the Sky Void Star…”

Here, Du An Rao paused on purpose and said: “They stand for accidents and danger.”

Since it had to do with her son, Ms. Qiu could not help feeling panicked.

“Then how can I stop my son from running into these Baleful Stars?”

Du An Rao looked at Ms. Qiu’s face again and chose her words: “Ms. Qiu, the Palace of Offspring on your face looks dark and dull, and I can faintly see a vertical line there. Forgive me for being blunt, but this is the physiognomy that shows a child is about to run into trouble.”

As for what kind of trouble, and how serious it might be, that depended on how Ms. Qiu filled in the blanks in her mind.

Sometimes this kind of half-true, half-vague statement was even more frightening. Ms. Qiu could only think of the “accidents and danger” Du An Rao had just mentioned. Cold sweat kept sliding down her back.

“Because of this, I guess your young master has already been hit by Baleful Stars earlier. But I have not seen him in person. If I only read your physiognomy, the information I can get is very limited.”

Ms. Qiu clenched her hands into fists and said at once: “I will call him and tell him to come back right now.”

She only had this one son. No matter how important business was, it could not compare with his life and safety. Right now she urgently wanted to see her son and make sure he was safe.

“I’m afraid it is already too late.”

“What?” Ms. Qiu’s legs went weak and she almost fell. Madam Xi quickly stepped up to hold her.

Staring at the Palace of Offspring on Ms. Qiu’s face, which suddenly seemed to light up red, Du An Rao’s eyes grew sharp: “Your son is about to step into danger, but there is still a slim chance of survival. Let’s do this. Write a single character for me. As you write it, silently say your son’s name in your heart.”

“You share the same blood. Everything in his life comes from you. The bond between you and him is the deepest in this world. A character written by you may let me see more of the cause and effect, so you can save him.”

Right now Ms. Qiu’s mind was a mess. She had no idea what character she should write.

She turned her head and saw the bright sign of the women’s clothing shop next door: Kaleidoscope.

Watching Ms. Qiu’s trembling fingertip slowly write a crooked character in her palm, Du An Rao’s mind stalled for a second.

[Uh… does this count as the World Consciousness secretly opening a back door for me?]

Du Yu Xi blinked, and soon understood.

What Ms. Qiu wrote in Du An Rao’s palm was the character “?”. Thinking of how Qiu Ji Chen died in the original plot, did this character’s meaning even need to be guessed?

Inside, Du An Rao was a little excited, but she did not show any of it. On the surface, her face grew even more serious.

“Using this character to read his current situation is not a good sign.”

Madam Li glanced at Ms. Qiu’s pale face and also realized the situation might be quite tricky.

Because of her natural filter toward Du Yu Xi, she almost instinctively trusted Du An Rao. She asked without thinking: “What do you mean it’s not good?”

“The character ‘se’ is made from the parts ‘person’ and ‘knife’. I think everyone has heard the saying, ‘Above the character for lust is a knife.’ It talks about conflicts between people that arise because of looks and feelings. In the end, the knife is drawn and the one who gets hurt is yourself.”

Madam Li did not follow all of that, but she understood that old saying.

“You mean Ji Chen might get hurt because of a love dispute? He is in love? He likes someone?”

The last few questions were directed at Ms. Qiu. Ms. Qiu was confused.

“I… I don’t know. He never told me.”

Then she remembered how Du An Rao had just said he “has strong opinions of his own and might do some out-of-line things that make his parents worry,” and her face turned even uglier.

“Besides, the character ‘se’ has another reading, ‘shai’. Dice are also called ‘se zi’, and I think you understand what dice stand for, Ms. Qiu.”

Ms. Qiu’s eyes widened again: “You are saying my son has gotten into gambling? Impossible! I know my son. He would never pick up such a bad habit.”

The corner of Du An Rao’s mouth twitched as she quietly complained in her heart.

[Do you want to listen to what you just said? You don’t even know when your son started dating, so how can you be so sure you know him so well?]

But complaining was one thing. When she brought this up, she really did not mean it that way, so she did not argue with Ms. Qiu.

“Gambling is not only about money. It can also be about love. But I think you all know what gambling is like. You lose nine times out of ten. Many games have people cheating behind the scenes, playing tricks. That so-called ‘getting rich overnight’ is often just a huge scam.”

Only now did Ms. Qiu finally react: “You mean someone tricked my son’s feelings? That girlfriend of his is a con artist!”

After listening for so long, Madam Xi also understood: “These days, scams keep popping up. It is really hard to guard against them. Wait a second, didn’t you say just now that Ji Chen went west to work on raw stones…”

The two women turned and stared at each other with wide eyes.

If this were any other place, it would be one thing. But if you get scammed in that place, you might lose half your life even if you do not die.

“Call Ji Chen right now. Ask him about his girlfriend. Tell him not to go meet that so-called girlfriend. He must come back to the country at once.”

Ms. Qiu came back to herself like waking from a dream: “Yes, yes, I’ll call him. It won’t connect. Why won’t it connect?”

In fact, ever since Du An Rao said that something might happen to Qiu Ji Chen, Ms. Qiu had been trying to call her son.

But up till now, she still had not gotten through to him.

Seeing that Ms. Qiu was already completely flustered, Du An Rao made a quick decision: “Hurry and call the colleague who went abroad with him.”

So, a few minutes later, Young Proprietor Qiu, who was happily on his way to finally meet his girlfriend in person, suddenly felt the back of his car get hit hard.

He thought it was just a rear-end accident. Before he could even sit steady, the car was hit again, and then the car completely… broke down.

Qiu Ji Chen: “???”