Chapter 40: Seeds of Doubt

The news of Bai Shi’s sudden death in the bed of a third-tier actress made a racket for a few days before fading into silence. Su Jin had probed Yang Rui several times, both overtly and covertly, but found no concrete evidence. Moreover, the mess left behind by the Hengtai Foundation required her full attention, so the matter was temporarily shelved.

Life seemed to have returned to normal, but Yang Rui found himself scraping by. Although he had an assistant minding the shop, his absence for over a month had cost him many orders. It was already a small-scale business, and with the off-season setting in, trade was pitifully slow—he could barely scrape together next month’s rent.

Helpless, Yang Rui had to be more diligent with his side hustle in feng shui. On this day, he arrived at a client’s home right on time. No sooner had he laid out his compass and other instruments on the table than the doorbell rang urgently. When he opened the door, several police officers stood outside, led by an exceptionally beautiful female officer.

Beautiful as she was, her words were like blades:

"Do you know what this is called? Promoting feudal superstitions!" She came at him head-on, labeling him with "disrupting social order" and "suspicion of fraud" without giving him a chance to speak. Yang Rui knew clearly that true feng shui and superstition were two different things; the police couldn't touch him without solid evidence.

But why did the police arrive so conveniently? At the exact moment he had laid out his tools?

Damn it, he’d been set up again!

This kind of thing was nine times out of ten a report from a competitor.

The remaining ten percent? Pure, bored busybodies.

However, when Yang Rui looked again at the cold, frost-like yet striking face of the lead officer, he instantly overturned his previous thought—this wasn't the first time! In the last six months, similar scenes had played out five or six times. Each time he brought out his tools, this Officer He would descend like a divine soldier. It was cursed! The timing was so precise it made his scalp tingle.

After being "invited" to the station to go through the motions, Yang Rui was met at the door by the female officer. Her gaze was as sharp as if she wanted to carve a piece of meat off him. She warned him word for word: "Yang Rui! If you fall into my hands one more time, if I don't lock you up for three months, I'll write my name, He Yuting, backward!"

Yang Rui believed her. His ability to read faces wasn't fake; the stubbornness and the ruthless determination to keep her word were hidden nowhere in her features.

Upon inquiring through connections afterward, Yang Rui finally understood. It turned out that Officer He’s parents had blindly trusted a "master's" feng shui layout six months ago and were swindled out of their entire million-yuan retirement savings. Since then, Officer He had held a deadly grudge against the feng shui industry. Whenever she caught a whiff of "superstitious activities," she would hunt them down relentlessly. Although some whispered behind her back that she was abusing her power for personal vendettas, due to her strong background and explosive temper, no one dared to say anything to her face. It wasn't just him; several other colleagues in the area trying to make a living in this trade had hit rock bottom recently, tormented by her.

If he couldn't afford to provoke her, he could only hide. Forced by circumstances, Yang Rui shifted his "business hours" to the night.

Unexpectedly, this adjustment worked out in his favor. His night business not only remained unaffected but actually thrived more than during the day! Clients seemed more relaxed and were more generous with their money. Looking at his increasingly full wallet, Yang Rui almost forgot about the shadow of Bai Shi and the threats of Officer He, counting his bills every day with a satisfied heart. For someone who worried about rent and utilities every day, was there anything more comforting?

When a person becomes complacent, they tend to lose their guard. That night, just after seeing off a wealthy client, Yang Rui was squinting, licking his thumb, and happily counting a thick stack of banknotes. He was busy calculating how much he could save this month, completely forgetting the rule of "hit and run."

"Bang!"

The door to his makeshift studio was kicked open!

Yang Rui shivered, and the money scattered all over the floor. Looking up, standing in the doorway was that beautiful face that haunted his nightmares—He Yuting! Her beautiful eyes were spitting fire, looking as if they would burn him to ashes!

Yang Rui’s heart sank to the bottom of an ice pit! It was over! Everything was over! He suddenly remembered He Yuting's "three-month" threat, and cold sweat broke out instantly! He didn't care about the money on the floor or the tools on the table; the instinct for survival made him scramble like a startled rabbit. He shoved past a stunned auxiliary police officer and scrambled out through the back window, as pathetic as a stray dog.

Running breathlessly back to his cramped rental, Yang Rui collapsed onto his hard bed and stared at the ceiling, wanting to cry but having no tears. The money! That thick stack of money! It was his rent for the month, his food money, and the deposit for the new compass he had just picked out! It was all gone, damn it! Along with his ancestral compass—which he treated as a treasure—and several hand-copied ancient books, all of which had fallen into He Yuting's hands!

A surge of wicked fury rushed to his head.

"He Yuting! You stinking bitch!" Yang Rui suddenly sat up, gritting his teeth and growling at the air. "You made me lose everything today! If I don't get even, I'll write my name backward! One day, I’ll make you pay it back with interest!"

Having cursed this much, he felt it wasn't enough to vent his hatred, so he viciously added: "You deserve to be over thirty and unable to get married! With your shrewish nature, what man would dare want you? Whoever marries you will have eight lifetimes of bad luck!"

After a fierce round of cursing, the tightness in his chest seemed to ease slightly. Yang Rui lay back down, gasping for breath, staring at the mottled ceiling, but a strange sense of awkwardness rose in his heart. In all his life, he had never cursed a woman so viciously, especially one who was a police officer. Those words just now... were they a bit too much?

But then he thought, this life was truly unlivable! Recently, it felt like he had been cursed! First, he was chased and bitten by that mad dog Bai Shi, and just as things finally quieted down, he ran into He Yuting, this bane of his existence! It was as if he were haunted by a vengeful spirit, impossible to shake off! He couldn't do business, couldn't earn money, and even his tools were confiscated! Was this even letting a person live?!

The night was heavy, and the only sound in the rental was Yang Rui’s heavy breathing. After the brief catharsis of cursing, there was a deeper sense of exhaustion and confusion. No money, no tools—what was he going to do tomorrow? Was he really going to starve?

He irritably ran his hands through his hair, his gaze sweeping unconsciously across the empty table—where his compass should have been. A sharp, stinging pain pierced his heart. That wasn't just his way of making a living; it was a memento passed down by his grandfather! In the hands of He Yuting, that "feng shui bane," who knew how it would be ruined!

No! He had to find a way to get it back!

But how? Forcibly break into the police station? That would be suicide. Use connections? He was just a commoner; what high-level connections could he have that would reach He Yuting? Ask a colleague to put in a word? Most of those colleagues who had been dealt with by He Yuting were likely trying their best to avoid her.

"Damn it!" Yang Rui cursed under his breath, a sense of powerlessness sweeping over him. He felt like an insect caught in a spider's web; the more he struggled, the tighter he was bound. Bai Shi was dead, and he thought he could finally breathe, only for an even more difficult He Yuting to appear! Was he, Yang Rui, destined to be at odds with "bad luck" his whole life?

He lay on the bed, tossing and turning, his mind in chaos. One moment he saw the gray, twisted face of Bai Shi at the moment of his sudden death, the next he saw He Yuting's fiery, beautiful eyes, and then his own ancestral compass, lying lonely in an evidence bag...