Qi Jia paced in a tight circle, frantic. “How can my mom be so unreasonable?!”
Pei Xiuyan said, “Your aunt only said it was feudal superstition. You were the one who called Miss Xiao a fraud who was pretending to have supernatural powers and swindling people…”
Qi Jia choked, then hurriedly cut Pei Xiuyan off and turned to Xiao Ciyou with a ingratiating smile.
“Master Xiao, I know I was wrong. Please help me.”
Xiao Ciyou said, “My Master taught me that everyone has their own destiny. Your mother doesn’t want my help, so there’s nothing I can do.
“But you don’t need to worry too much. This won’t be fatal. At worst, you’ll just keep having bad luck.”
Qi Jia’s face fell. Constant bad luck was already serious, wasn’t it?! He didn’t want to step in dog shit again tomorrow!
He snatched up his phone and ran out, deciding to work on his mother’s attitude overnight.
…
The next day.
Pei Xiuyan was woken by a call from Qi Jia.
“President, what are you doing still asleep at a time like this?! I drove back to my hometown overnight. Something terrible has happened to my family! Hurry and wake Master Xiao!”
Pei Xiuyan resignedly climbed out of bed and pulled open the curtains. Sure enough, Xiao Ciyou was meditating in the garden.
He brought the phone over. “Qi Jia wants to talk to you.”
Xiao Ciyou took the phone. “Go ahead.”
Qi Jia immediately gave her his parents’ birth details, then said, “Master Xiao, on my way back last night, I lost my luggage, and my wallet went missing too. And I stepped in dog shit again!
“Early this morning, a pipe burst in our house. If we don’t get this sorted out, our place is going to turn into a fish tank!”
Under his threats and persuasion, his parents had finally given him their full birth details.
Xiao Ciyou made a quick calculation on her fingers and asked, “Have your parents recently been somewhere high up to the northeast? Somewhere with a lot of trees and earth—like a forest on a mountain?”
Qi Jia’s mother’s surprised voice came through the phone. “How did you know?”
Qi Jia urged her anxiously, “Mom! Master Xiao must have figured it out! Just tell her where you went!”
His mother said, “A few days ago, after the rain stopped, your father and I went up the mountain to pick mushrooms. Come to think of it, things started going wrong after we came back from mushroom picking…”
Xiao Ciyou asked, “Did anything unusual happen on the mountain? For example, a broken tree, a young sapling that hadn’t fully grown, or a branch washed away by the rain?”
Qi Jia’s mother had already snatched the phone from him, and her voice grew louder.
“Yes, yes! Old Qi, we saw a fallen sapling back then, didn’t we?”
“That’s right, I remember. It was a little tree about as thick as my arm. The rain must have knocked it over, and it was blocking our way up to pick mushrooms, so I pulled it out and tossed it to the side… Surely it can’t be because of one sapling?”
Xiao Ciyou said, “That’s exactly it. The two of you should go back up the mountain, replant the sapling, and preferably give it some fertilizer. Apologize to the mountain spirit, then light a stick of incense facing northeast when you get home.”
Qi Jia’s mother sounded troubled. “What? Apologize to the mountain spirit?”
Xiao Ciyou said, “All things have a spirit, especially mountains that haven’t been developed. Their spiritual energy is even stronger.
“You pulled an immature tree out by its roots and angered the mountain spirit, which is why you’ve had bad luck. But spiritual forces in the mountains don’t usually take people’s lives. You just need to apologize.”
Qi Jia hurriedly said, “I understand! Master Xiao, I’ll take my parents up the mountain right now. Thank you!”
Xiao Ciyou smiled. “You’re welcome. Three hundred yuan.”
“No problem!” Qi Jia said at once. “I’ll transfer it now! Wait, Master Xiao, do you have a phone?”
Xiao Ciyou: “…”
When the Song Family had thrown her out, Zheng Meilan hadn’t let her take anything with her. Even her phone and bank card had been taken back.
Pei Xiuyan looked at the bewildered expression in Xiao Ciyou’s eyes and felt inexplicably displeased.
He took the phone and said, “I’ll take her to get a phone today and open a bank account. Take two days off. Get your family settled, then come back.”
“Thank you, President Pei!”
…
At breakfast, Xiao Ciyou once again started with ten steamed buns. It took her a full hour to finish, after which she went back to her room to change.
Pei Xiuyan watched her thin figure and thought about how the Song Family had mistreated her. His displeasure deepened.
As Xiao Ciyou was changing, Xiaomao floated out and lay by the bed, licking its paws. “There’s not only Pei Xiuyan’s violet qi here, but delicious buns too. Can you stay here forever?”
Xiao Ciyou put on a white T-shirt and jeans, then tied her hair into a ponytail in front of the mirror.
“Of course not. When I was born, the Song Family switched me and Song Yingshi. They spent eighteen years stealing the Phoenix Fate from me, while the Xiao Family raised Song Yingshi, that jinx, for eighteen years. Who knows what kind of mess she’s made of the family by now?
“Once I collect Qi Jia’s three hundred yuan, I’m going back. Besides, you’re the soul of a fierce beast, not the soul of someone starving to death. How can you eat so much?”
Xiaomao meowed smugly. “You had the surname Xiao four hundred years ago. Now you’ve been reborn here, and your birth family happens to have the surname Xiao too. Don’t you think that’s fate?”
At last, Xiao Ciyou tied a ponytail she was happy with and smiled brightly at her reflection.
“Exactly. That’s why I could be reborn. Since I’ve borrowed this body, I have to protect her family.
“Come on, let’s go! I haven’t had a proper look around this world since I was reborn!”
Xiaomao darted into Xiao Ciyou’s body, as if their conversation had been nothing but an illusion.
Xiao Ciyou ran downstairs and waved to Pei Xiuyan. “Let’s go!”
Looking at her youthful, vibrant face, Pei Xiuyan couldn’t help smiling. “The car’s waiting outside.”
Uncle Li drove them to Jiang City’s largest shopping mall. Xiao Ciyou stood on the escalator, looking down at the crowds passing below and up at the reflective glass and the dazzling rows of shops.
Even though she had already absorbed the original owner’s memories, her soul, which came from four hundred years ago, was still astonished.
“Wow! Wow! Wow!”
A child ran past her. Xiao Ciyou stared fixedly at the ice cream in the child’s hand, practically drooling.
Pei Xiuyan asked, “Want some?”
Xiao Ciyou nodded vigorously.
At the freezer, Xiao Ciyou bent over with her hands on her knees, nearly pressing herself against the glass. “Are all these colorful ones ice cream?”
The shop assistant smiled and explained, “Yes. This one is strawberry milk, this one pistachio, this one raspberry, and this one chocolate…”
Xiao Ciyou looked at Pei Xiuyan, torn.
Amused, Pei Xiuyan took out his phone. “One of each, please.”
When a sweet-and-sour raspberry ice cream went into her mouth, Xiao Ciyou’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Pei Xiuyan, saving your life was the right thing to do!”
Pei Xiuyan: “…Did you think it was the wrong thing to do until you tasted ice cream?”
Xiao Ciyou took another bite. “Do you even understand how lucky you are to have formed a contract with me? According to the old rules, every time you saw me, you’d have to kneel and kowtow three times before you’d be worthy of serving me hand and foot.”
It was only because this was the twenty-first century, and everyone was considered equal, that she had let him off those rules.
Looking at her serious expression, Pei Xiuyan once again thought that the Song Family really hadn’t taught her anything worthwhile. Had they never even bought her ice cream?!
Xiao Ciyou had already wandered farther ahead. Pei Xiuyan was held up by a work call, so he called after her, “Don’t go too far!”
Xiao Ciyou wandered into a jewelry store. After passing over the sparkling diamonds and gemstones, her gaze settled on a jade bracelet.
She was in need of a handy piece of jade to “store qi.”
“Hello, I’d like to see this bracelet.”
The sales assistant had just taken it out when a hand reached over and snatched it away.
It was Song Yingshi.
“This bracelet is so pretty. Oh, I didn’t even recognize you at first. Older Sister, what are you doing here?”
Xiao Ciyou gave Zhang Mingzhu a lazy glance. “Is this your family’s store? And I’m surnamed Xiao while you’re surnamed Song. What makes me your Older Sister?”
Song Yingshi was at a loss for words.
Why had this girl seemed like a completely different person ever since the homecoming banquet? She had become so forceful.
But then she thought it over. Xiao Ciyou had probably gotten carried away after basking in the limelight with Pei Xiuyan once. However strong she was, could she really be stronger than Song Yingshi’s Phoenix Noble Fate?
Song Yingshi set the bracelet on the table and said haughtily, “Fine, Miss Xiao. This store isn’t mine, but Mom and Dad just gave me a card with two million on it. That’s more than enough to buy this bracelet. What about you? Do you even have five hundred yuan on you?”
She turned to the sales assistant. “I’m just warning you out of kindness: my parents accidentally took her in as a baby. Her birth family is so poor they can barely scrape two coins together. If the bracelet breaks, her whole family couldn’t afford to pay for it. You’d better keep your eyes open before you serve a customer like her!”