[If you owned a haunted house, what would you want inside?]
Li Miao had just stepped out of the hospital when she received a questionnaire.
Advertising these days is getting ridiculous, she thought. If you want to open a haunted house, just open it. Why use a questionnaire?
Li Miao had no interest in dealing with it. As someone diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer, she wasn’t in the mood.
Unexpectedly, she seemed to have a strange affinity with this piece of paper. It drifted persistently through the air, following her all the way down the street before finally slapping itself directly onto her face.
Li Miao: “…”
Fine, I guess I have to fill it out!
Suppressed anger flared within her. She grabbed the questionnaire and started scribbling nonsense.
Question 1: If you owned a haunted house, what kind of ghosts or NPCs would you want in it?
Li Miao scoffed and deliberately wrote: “Nie Xiaoqian, Lady Meng.”
I’d like to see a tiny haunted house try to hire Nie Xiaoqian and Lady Meng.
Question 2: If you owned a haunted house, how large would you want the property to be?
Li Miao: “Bigger than Earth. Much, much, much bigger.”
Question 3: If you owned a haunted house, besides ghosts, what else would you want?
Li Miao was getting annoyed. Other people’s surveys were multiple-choice—you just had to tick a box. Why was this one full of open-ended questions?
She scribbled randomly: “I want Sun Wukong. If you can get the Monkey King, I’ll go visit!”
Question 4: If you owned a haunted house, how many game scenarios would you want? What would each scenario be like?
Li Miao: “Infinite.”
She wanted an infinite number of scenarios.
As for describing each one, she couldn’t be bothered. Too many words; her hand was getting tired.
She clutched the questionnaire and looked around, trying to spot who had given it to her. But after scanning the area, she saw no one.
Filled it out for nothing.
She decided to toss it in the trash, but a sudden gust of wind snatched the paper from her hand and blew it away.
Watching the questionnaire drift into the distance, Li Miao felt a sudden, strange tug in her heart.
If such a haunted house really existed, that would be nice. Maybe after I die, I could go there and work as an NPC.
Thirty minutes earlier.
“Ms. Li, your test results are in.”
The doctor looked at Li Miao with sympathy, his tone hesitant. “Where is your family? Did no one come with you?”
Li Miao shook her head. “I don’t have any family. My parents passed away when I was seven. Doctor, whatever you have to say, just say it.”
The doctor sighed, thinking the girl before him had a truly tragic life—orphaned young and now facing a terminal illness.
However, after years of practicing medicine, he had seen plenty of tragedy. He was used to it.
With another sigh, he pushed a stack of reports across the desk.
“Late-stage liver cancer. Given your current condition, treatment would be meaningless. Go out and travel, see the world. Eat whatever you want. Don’t restrict yourself.”
Li Miao took the reports calmly, her face showing not a trace of surprise.
She was used to bad news. Late-stage cancer? That wasn’t even the worst of it.
For her, bad luck was as common as a daily meal.
Ever since her parents died when she was seven, and she was adopted by her uncle and aunt, she had been living in deep water and scorching fire.
All sorts of misfortunes followed one after another.
First, a massive black birthmark had suddenly appeared on her fair, clear face, spreading across half of it and turning her into an “ugly monster” everyone avoided like the plague.
Then, her mind had dulled. As a child, she had been bright, with an excellent memory and a talent for writing novels, winning quite a few awards.
Now, she felt slow and stupid. Forget writing novels—even squeezing out an 800-word essay took her over an hour.
Next came her physical health. She would get injured for no reason. She could be lying perfectly still in bed, turn over, and somehow break her arm.
She tripped while walking, choked on cold water, and would get punched by strangers for absolutely no reason while walking down the street.
Her bad luck was unbelievable.
For someone as unlucky as her, maybe death would be a relief.
Li Miao didn’t even take the reports with her. She tossed them directly into the trash can and walked out of the hospital calmly.
Her steps were light, her face beaming—she didn’t look like a terminal cancer patient at all.
Shortly after leaving the hospital gate, she received that questionnaire.
After filling it out, she saw someone begging by the roadside.
Li Miao pulled out a hundred-yuan bill and dropped it into his bowl.
She was going to die soon anyway. Better to spend all her money while she was still alive.
Unexpectedly, the beggar grabbed her wrist. “Young lady, let me tell your fortune. Give me your birth date and time.”
“I don’t need my fortune told. Let go of me.” The beggar’s grip was surprisingly strong; Li Miao couldn’t break free no matter how hard she struggled.
“You paid the divination fee, so I must give you a reading. Young lady, you gave a hundred yuan; I have to do this.”
The beggar was incredibly stubborn.
Li Miao turned to look at him closely and realized he wasn’t a beggar at all, but a roadside fortune teller. He was just dressed so shabbily, wearing a patched hat like the monk Jigong, that he had been mistaken for a beggar.
“No need. Consider the money a gift.” Li Miao wanted to leave.
The man wouldn’t let her. “No can do. My trade has rules. I cannot accept unearned wealth. I only take payment for divination. Young lady, let me read your fortune. I’m very accurate.”
Li Miao didn’t want to make a scene at the hospital entrance, so she squatted down in front of his stall and gave him her birth details. “Fine, go ahead.”
Let’s see if this charlatan can calculate that I’m about to die.
The charlatan in the patched hat pinched his fingers, calculating, and then beamed with joy. “Young lady, you have a destiny of great wealth and nobility! Your parents accumulated hidden merit that has been passed down to you.
“Both your parents are alive, you have a beautiful and spirited appearance, academic success, and a perfect marriage. My, my! I’ve seen many destinies, but yours is the best. You are truly blessed.”
Li Miao shook her head.
This charlatan was a failure. Even his nonsense was completely off the mark. He hadn’t gotten a single thing right.
“You’re wrong!” Li Miao cut him off. “My parents are both dead, I’m ugly, my grades are trash, and I have no love life.”
“Nonsense. You’re teasing me, aren’t you?” The charlatan said, continuing to count on his fingers.
Suddenly, he seemed to calculate something else. The playful smile vanished from his face, replaced by a serious expression.
“No… something is wrong!”
The charlatan shook his head, looking urgent. “Young lady, tell me your parents’ birth dates.”
Infected by his serious demeanor, Li Miao subconsciously recited her parents’ birth information.
The charlatan calculated it several times, his expression turning to one of horror. “Your destiny has been stolen!”
“You really know how to spout nonsense.” Li Miao was an atheist and didn’t believe in such things. “How can a person’s fate be stolen? Keep the money; I don’t need a reading.”
“It’s true! Young lady, don’t disbelieve me. Let me ask you—are you constantly unlucky? Do bizarre things happen around you? Look at your close relatives: is it true that the more miserable you are, the better someone else’s life becomes?
“Stealing a destiny is extremely complex and invites heavenly retribution. Only close blood relatives can deceive the heavens and swap fates.
“Young lady, I can see your features are regular, and your proportions are standard. You are a classic beauty. The black mark on your face isn’t a birthmark at all—it’s a Ghost Sore. Someone has swapped their appearance with yours.
“Think carefully. Is there someone close to your age whose appearance was plain in childhood, but as the Ghost Sore on your face grew, they became more and more beautiful?
“I can see your complexion is poor and your forehead is dark; you don’t have long to live. Your lifespan has also been swapped. You were originally destined for longevity.
“And your talents, your parents, your wealth, your marriage… everything has been swapped.”
Listening to the charlatan, Li Miao’s face grew paler and paler.
She thought of her uncle’s family. They had originally been just comfortably middle-class, but after her parents died and they adopted her, they became incredibly wealthy.
And her cousin, Li Yang. It was exactly as the charlatan said.
As a child, Li Yang looked average. But as the birthmark on Li Miao’s face grew, Li Yang became increasingly beautiful.
Seeing Li Miao lost in thought, the charlatan sighed and pulled out a QR code. “Young lady, the original destiny left on you is merely a tiny remnant. It’s almost hopeless. Once that last bit is stolen, you will die a violent death on the streets.
“Scan this QR code and download the app. Right now, only this app can save you.”
Li Miao: “…”
Is this guy a scammer?
It felt like a setup to trick people into downloading an app.
Li Miao looked at him suspiciously.
The charlatan held up the QR code, his expression sincere. “I know I look like a scammer, but I really am not.”
Li Miao hesitated for a moment, then scanned the code and clicked download.
I’ll gamble on it. If he’s a scammer, so be it. I don’t have any money to be scammed out of anyway.
Before the app could finish downloading, a call came in from her aunt.
Her aunt started shouting the moment she picked up. “Where the hell did you die off to? I asked you, where are you? Don’t you know today is your cousin’s engagement party? Instead of coming back to serve tea, pour water, and clean up, you’re out gallivanting somewhere? Get your ass back here right now!
“Ungrateful white-eyed wolf! We raised you for nothing, you little bastard!”
You’re the bastard!
Insulting her was one thing, but why bring her parents into it? Li Miao’s expression filled with resentment, and she wanted to fight back.
But the words stuck in her throat. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t curse them out.
Li Miao was so anxious that her face turned white.
Seeing this, the charlatan said confidently, “You can’t fight back, can you? You are currently their puppet, completely controlled by them. Only my app can save you.
“My app is very powerful. Even if you die, you can live on in the haunted house. Remember to open it soon!”