Did you hear? Spock offended a fortune teller.
Huh? I thought it was a medium?
Oh, whatever, same thing. And it’s an Eastern fortune teller! Chinese!
You know, their bloodline is more powerful, more mysterious. Tsk tsk tsk, Spock is done for this time. He’s not going to have bad luck forever, is he?
…That’s hard to say.
Whispers, whispers.
Zhao Zhenzhen hugged her backpack and stared blankly into the void. She wasn’t spacing out because she actually wanted to—she had no choice but to pretend.
But the whispers were way too loud! She could hear everything!
…How awkward.
Zhao Zhenzhen lowered her head and looked at her shoes.
Great. At least no one could tell her feet were secretly doing construction work.
Please, let a customer come… to ease her embarrassment a little.
Pretty please.
A ten-dollar bill appeared in front of Zhao Zhenzhen.
It was Ava.
“Can you do a reading for me?” Ava’s eyes sparkled.
Zhao Zhenzhen was touched.
What a good person!
She thought for a moment and said, “How about I test your age first? If I get it right, then you can decide whether you want a reading?”
But Ava laughed with a sly look on her face, wagging her index finger left and right. “No, no, no. Straight to the reading. Little witch, don’t try to squeeze an extra dollar out of me.”
Ah, well.
Zhao Zhenzhen honestly hadn’t even thought of that. She was just trying to save Ava some money, but…
Then again, who said Americans couldn’t do math? She was calculating pretty clearly, wasn’t she?
Zhao Zhenzhen felt embarrassed. “I was thinking, in case I’m not accurate, you wouldn’t waste your money. How about this—for your first reading, I’ll give you half off.”
“Awesome! Thanks!” Ava immediately tucked the ten-dollar bill away.
While the two were talking, the people around them looked like they were minding their own business, but in reality, they were all eavesdropping with their ears perked.
Passersby found it strange—usually when they walked past this area, they’d hear vendors hawking from both sides, but why was it so quiet today?
And everyone seemed distracted, sneaking glances in one direction every now and then.
Curious, a passerby looked around and quickly noticed that everyone was glancing in the same direction. “It’s her?!”
The passerby recognized Zhao Zhenzhen as the server from the fast-food restaurant she frequented.
Since she still had time before her shift, she walked over and stopped at a short distance to see what was going on.
“What do you want to look into?” Zhao Zhenzhen asked.
Ava cupped her cheeks, all sweet and giddy. “Love. I want to know when my honey and I will get married.”
Zhao Zhenzhen made an OK gesture, opened her panel, scrolled to [Life Outlook], and selected [Simulation].
A virtual scene immediately appeared before Zhao Zhenzhen.
There was Ava, sitting in her living room, sobbing hysterically. Her hair was a mess, and her eyeliner had smeared into dark circles around her eyes.
All the furniture in the room was gone. Ava sat on the floor, clutching her hair, stomping her feet and screaming, cursing wildly, [Blake! Why would you do this to me! Why! My money, all my money!]
Zhao Zhenzhen furrowed her brow. Ava noticed and nervously pressed, “What? Is something wrong between us?”
“…Hold on a second.” Zhao Zhenzhen stared at the virtual scene.
Could this thing… fast-forward or rewind?
As she thought about it, she swiped her hand left and right across the image and discovered she actually could!
She immediately rewound!
The scene changed. Ava, who had been sitting on the floor, stood up, stepped backward, and finally exited the room. It rewound until all the furniture was back in place, and a man was at the doorway.
Zhao Zhenzhen paused the video and rubbed her brow.
She felt a bit uneasy, her eyes swollen and heavy.
She took a moment to compose herself before pressing play.
This person should be Ava’s boyfriend, Blake. He opened the door, calling out “Honey?” while looking around.
After confirming that Ava really wasn’t home, Blake quickly began searching through things.
Finally, behind a decorative painting on the wall, he found the cash Ava had hidden there.
Blake smirked with satisfaction, pocketed all the money, and continued rummaging around. Once he was sure he’d grabbed everything of value, he stood in the living room and made a phone call.
[Come over quick—while she’s not here, let’s move everything out… Don’t worry, we’ll go far away, leave New York. I promise, the moment we reach Alavegas, we’ll register our marriage! Trust me!… Yeah, bring your little pickup truck. I love you, Nana.]
Blake blew a kiss into the phone with a “mwah!” and after hanging up, immediately started moving the furniture around the room.
Before long, a young girl arrived. She was stunned watching Blake work, [Move everything out?!]
[Of course, we can use all of this.] Blake said as he moved the sofa, [Come on, help out!]
Nana hesitated a bit, [If we take everything, what about Ava?]
[Oh honey.] Blake immediately put down what he was holding, went over to hug Nana, and kissed her ear while swaying side to side, [This is exactly why I love how kind you are. But we need all of this. Think about it—after we go to Las Vegas, we’ll have to buy everything from scratch. That’ll cost a fortune.]
[But…]
[I paid for some of this stuff too.] Blake cut Nana off, [And you know Ava’s job—she makes money easily. She just needs to paint a few more people’s nails and she’ll earn it back in no time. So don’t worry, okay?]
Blake kissed Nana’s ear and shoved a pile of Ava’s clothes into her arms, [Alright, leave this to me. You take the clothes downstairs. Didn’t you say before that you liked a few of Ava’s outfits? Well, they’re all yours now. Go on, go on.]
With that, he patted Nana’s butt and gently pushed her out the door.
But the moment the door closed, Blake’s expression changed. He let out a cold snort and muttered under his breath, [Once we’re on the road, I’ll get rid of you.]
Whoa… damn.
Zhao Zhenzhen leaned back, shocked.
“So? So?” Ava pressed eagerly. “What did you see?”
“Your boyfriend’s name is Blake? He said he’s a freelance artist?”
“Yes!” Ava nodded vigorously, squealing with excitement. “You can even divine that?! Amazing!”
“Do you know a girl named Nana?”
“Of course!” Ava said without hesitation. “She’s my best friend—we met when we were working part-time jobs. And we’ve promised each other that when we get married, we’ll be each other’s maid of honor.”
Ava’s smile faded a little. “Why do you mention her?”
“Did you hide your money behind…” Zhao Zhenzhen leaned in and whispered the location into her ear.
Ava took a deep breath, eyes wide as she stared at Zhao Zhenzhen, and nodded emphatically. “Did Nana steal the money? And then Blake and I got into a fight over it?… Blake did tell me not to spend so much time with Nana, and we argued about that plenty. Could it be… his instincts were right?”
“No.” Zhao Zhenzhen told her directly, not letting Ava guess wildly. “Blake and Nana are having an affair. While you were away, he cleaned out everything you own—furniture, TV, even your clothes, which Nana took away.”
Gasps and murmurs rippled through the crowd, but quickly died down as everyone held their breath to hear what Zhao Zhenzhen would say next.
“Nana didn’t want to move the furniture, but Blake said you make money fast, and he’d paid for those things too…”
“He’s full of crap!!” Ava shrieked, jumping to her feet. “His—his so-called contribution was tipping the movers 5 bucks!”
“Whoa—” Zhao Zhenzhen and the surrounding onlookers exclaimed together.
What a stingy, shameless man.
“What else?” Ava’s face twisted into a grim smile.
“Also, Blake plans to sweet-talk Nana into leaving, then dispose of her halfway down the road. And you’d be left with nothing. So.” Zhao Zhenzhen spread her hands. “You and your honey won’t be getting married.”
Emma slammed the table hard and stood up. “Married? Married my ass! Those two bitches were trying to steal my money!”
“And steal your home,” Zhao Zhenzhen added.
“Right! And steal my home!” Emma suddenly turned to Zhao Zhenzhen. “When did this happen?”
That, she actually didn’t know.
Zhao Zhenzhen was about to speak when a figure darted in front of her, pressing for an answer. “Yeah! When did it happen?!”
It was Nana. No telling when she’d arrived or how much she’d overheard.
“You bitch!” Ava screamed, lunging at Nana. The two grabbed each other’s hair and brawled, cursing as they fought. “And here I thought you were my best friend! We even promised to be each other’s bridesmaids! Bitch! You homewrecker!”
Nana fought back just as fiercely, yanking Ava’s hair. “Pah! Homewrecker? I knew Blake first! We were sleeping together long before you two even started! You’re the one who stole him from me!”
“I’m the one who gave Blake up to you!”
A crowd had gathered around, and at this they all leaned back in unison, chorusing, “Whoa—”
This was juicier than they’d imagined!
“Stop fighting for a second.” Zhao Zhenzhen had already grabbed her cardboard sign and hopped aside the moment Ava lunged at Nana.
She looked at the virtual number rapidly counting down above Nana’s head and said to the two women locked in battle, “Didn’t you ask about the timing?”
Ava and Nana let go of each other, panting, and turned in unison to look at Zhao Zhenzhen. “When?!”
“She’s doing a reading for me! Did you even pay before asking?!” Ava shouted at Nana.
Nana didn’t bother arguing with Ava. She’d already heard Zhao Zhenzhen say Blake planned to dispose of her.
Ava was just getting her home and money stolen—she was losing her life!
She strode toward Zhao Zhenzhen, pressed a $10 bill into her hand, and clasped both hands around it, staring at Zhao Zhenzhen. “When? Please.”
“I don’t know when he stole from her house. But I do know—” Zhao Zhenzhen glanced up again at the time steadily draining above Nana’s head.
“Thirty-six hours and fifty-seven minutes from now, you’ll be dead.”