Ava’s main job was as a nail technician, and her side job was as a makeup artist.
As for selling lucky stones, that was just a sideline. She knew exactly where her professional priorities lay.
She even enthusiastically suggested to Zhao Zhenzhen that, if she had the time, she could make simple bracelets to sell.
She was a fortune teller, so peddling these things was completely normal. Most importantly, because of her reputation as a fortune teller, Zhao Zhenzhen could sell them at higher, better prices.
As for Ava,
she was well aware that these items could only sell when her stall was set up alongside Zhao Zhenzhen’s.
If Zhao Zhenzhen weren’t there anymore, then these lucky stones would just be ordinary crystal rocks.
That was why Ava didn’t keep this money-making avenue a secret. Instead, she very generously shared it with Zhao Zhenzhen.
Not only was it harmless to her, but it also earned her a favor.
These were all things Zhao Zhenzhen figured out while walking down the street.
Who said foreigners didn’t understand social graces?
They understood them all too well, honestly.
Zhao Zhenzhen sighed.
Still, Ava’s suggestion had genuinely given her quite a bit of inspiration.
How should she put it? It was like, without her realizing it, some strange knowledge had quietly appeared in her mind.
Just lying there, silent.
Waiting for the right moment to come—when someone brought up the topic—this knowledge would automatically surface.
For example, when Ava mentioned lucky stones, relevant knowledge suddenly popped into Zhao Zhenzhen’s head.
Which different crystals could be used for which situations, what they did, how to add extra attributes to these lucky stones, and so on and so forth.
This really was a game interface. See, she even knew how to enchant items to boost their stats.
Zhao Zhenzhen joked to herself when a person suddenly stepped in front of her, blocking her path.
“Hey! Aren’t you a fortune teller? Come on, do a reading for me.”
“Oh… it’s you.” Zhao Zhenzhen suddenly realized. “The one who got misheard when someone said Country H was part of China?”
Thanks to his accent, Zhao Zhenzhen could tell who it was just by his voice, even without seeing his face.
The Country H man instantly flew into a rage, even throwing in a curse in his native language. “Ah—shi—bal! What the hell are you talking about?!”
Zhao Zhenzhen quickly stepped back two paces to put distance between them. “Stay away from me, or I won’t be nice about it.”
This guy wasn’t tall—probably just under five foot nine.
But Zhao Zhenzhen was short too! And because of malnutrition, she was skinny and small, having only been out of the hospital for a few days.
Anyway, in her eyes, the person in front of her was still a big, tall figure.
She didn’t want to get herself hurt because of someone else’s rage.
She still had a $5,000 debt to pay off!
“You just got here, didn’t you? I’m warning you—if you start a fight here, you’ll end up in legal trouble.” Zhao Zhenzhen stared at him, keeping a close eye on the color of the Virtual Lightbulb above his head.
She clicked her tongue inwardly.
Did he eat too much kimchi or something to be this irritable? The lightbulb’s color was frantically flickering between yellow and red.
Besides, it was some other passerby who misspoke. If he wanted to cause trouble, why not go after the person who actually said it? Why come after her instead? Wasn’t it just because she looked easy to bully?
He’d even followed her, waiting until she was alone before jumping out.
What trash.
Zhao Zhenzhen was utterly disgusted.
“You’d better watch out—you might get deported!” Whether or not it would actually happen, she’d issue the warning first.
The moment the words left her mouth, the Virtual Lightbulb instantly settled on yellow.
Zhao Zhenzhen breathed a quiet sigh of relief, glad she’d guessed right.
But even with his reservations, the man refused to step aside, sneering as he stared at Zhao Zhenzhen. “You must be misunderstanding. I just want you to do a fortune reading for me. Nothing else.”
“Business is done for today. Come back next week.” Zhao Zhenzhen moved to walk around him.
He immediately reached out to block her, staring at her with a forceful, arrogant look. “It has to be today! I want to see just how accurate you really are!”
Zhao Zhenzhen stared back at him and let out a derisive snort.
She had been clutching her backpack, but now she suddenly relaxed her entire body.
Seeing her like this, Jin Junnan inexplicably felt the urge to take two steps back.
…It wasn’t that he was a coward, but this Chinese woman had suddenly… developed a certain aura.
How to put it? It instantly dredged up unpleasant memories for Jin Junnan.
—He recalled the Chinese guy at school who had beaten him to a pulp.
…Pah! It must be his imagination!
This woman was so tiny, she probably couldn’t even withstand a single punch from him.
Jin Junnan mentally pumped himself up.
If Zhao Zhenzhen knew what Jin Junnan was thinking, she would have told him that this aura was simply “suddenly seeing life and death as trivial, ready to throw hands.”
If you can’t kill them, just beat them within an inch of their life.
So Zhao Zhenzhen became calm and fearless. It was that simple.
“What do you want? Guess a name, tell your age, do a fortune reading, or check your luck and health?” Zhao Zhenzhen said lazily, almost shoving her hands in her pockets.
But even without her hands in her pockets, her face radiated arrogance. “Pay first, then I’ll read.”
Jin Junnan retorted, “Who knows if you’re even accurate! Read first!”
It had nothing to do with accuracy. He was here to provoke her, so why would he pay?
“Go fuck yourself. Get lost!” Zhao Zhenzhen cursed in Chinese and walked past Jin Junnan.
Her home environment had been peaceful and she rarely encountered lunatics and scumbags, but that didn’t mean she didn’t understand them.
Jin Junnan couldn’t understand Chinese, but it sounded vaguely familiar, like he’d heard it before somewhere.
Either way, it definitely wasn’t anything nice!
Jin Junnan had originally thought Zhao Zhenzhen would be easy to push around, so her direct insult caught him off guard.
By the time he snapped out of it, she had already walked past him.
Jin Junnan flew into a rage.
He could tolerate it from others, but a little girl dared to raise her voice at him?!
This was outrageous!
Without a second thought, Jin Junnan chased after her. “Hey! Who said you could leave?! Stop right there!”
His anger clouded his awareness of his surroundings.
Earlier, when he had been following Zhao Zhenzhen, he’d been careful to jump out and block her when there were no passersby, afraid others might see and intervene.
But now his brain was flooded with rage, and he couldn’t remember any of that.
Immediately, passersby stopped in their tracks and stared at him.
Jin Junnan quickly put on a fawning smile. “My little sister ran away from home.”
The passersby were skeptical, but to foreign eyes, Zhao Zhenzhen and he were both East Asians who looked fairly similar.
…At most, the brother was uglier with smaller eyes.
Some passersby shrugged and continued on their way, while others lingered to keep watching.
Jin Junnan felt a twinge of panic. He was actually starting to regret chasing after her.
But his emotions were still overriding his brain.
—Whatever. He’d just cover her mouth so she couldn’t scream, drag her off, and teach her a lesson!
That was Jin Junnan’s thought, and he saw nothing wrong with it.
Back in his home country, this kind of thing was commonplace.
As long as she didn’t make a sound, he could just explain to the people around that he was her brother.
The more Jin Junnan thought about it, the more justified he felt.
Zhao Zhenzhen walked to the roadside, ready to cross the street, when Kim Junnan caught up from behind. He let out an “Ah, shit!” and glared at her as he reached out to grab her shoulder.
He squeezed hard, viciously. “Who said you could leave?!”
As he said this, his other hand reached out to cover Zhao Zhenzhen’s mouth, to keep her from having any chance to call for help.
But the moment his hand extended, Zhao Zhenzhen dropped her shoulder and twisted, breaking free from Kim Junnan’s grip.
She turned to face Kim Junnan, clenched both fists, and with quick, agile movements, punched him right in the face!
Left cheek! Right cheek! Chin!
She drove Kim Junnan back step after step, then jumped up and added a kick for good measure!
Kim Junnan was sent flying, landing on his rear and rolling half a turn backward.
“Whoa!!!” A passerby widened their eyes in excitement, clenching their fists and shouting with fervor, “It’s Bruce Lee!”
…No, forget Bruce Lee for a second. Look at the guy getting beaten!
Kim Junnan lay on the ground, dazed for a few seconds, then scrambled frantically to get up.
But halfway up, he caught a kick to the rear, and his chin nearly slammed into the ground in a face-plant.
Zhao Zhenzhen kicked at his skin while cursing word by word, “How dare you! Chase! After! Me!”
Kim Junnan took several kicks without managing to get up, so he hurriedly crawled forward on all fours. Only after putting some distance between them did he finally turn around, sitting on the ground and scooting backward, pointing at Zhao Zhenzhen with a voice that was fierce on the surface but weak underneath. “Wait! If you come any closer, I’m calling the police!”
“You don’t want to get deported, do you!”
Zhao Zhenzhen took off her backpack and swung it at him. “How dare you! Copy! What! I! Say!!”
Kim Junnan hadn’t expected Zhao Zhenzhen to still be willing to fight. She should have stopped at the word “deported” just like he did.
Why was she hitting even harder now?!
Kim Junnan had no choice. He raised both hands in front of him, blocking left and right, and as he blocked, he shouted for help to the people around, saying Zhao Zhenzhen was a lunatic who was attacking him for no reason!
His pitiful act actually did stir sympathy in some passersby who didn’t know the truth.
Or they thought Zhao Zhenzhen was being too relentless, looking at her with reproach.
The earlier passerby hadn’t left yet. Hearing this, he loudly challenged Kim Junnan, “Didn’t you say she was your sister who ran away from home, and you were taking her back? How come you don’t know her now?!”
Oh ho.
The crowd suddenly understood, immediately realizing they’d been fooled by Kim Junnan. They glared at him with fury.
Some were already whistling wildly at Zhao Zhenzhen, clapping and laughing, cheering her on. “That’s it, girl! That’s it!”
Kim Junnan hadn’t expected things to turn out like this. All he could do was cover his head and take the beating.
Zhao Zhenzhen swung a few times, then stopped, panting heavily. She glared at him with a smile. “A coward like you wants to be my brother? Look at yourself—do you even deserve it?”
“Didn’t you want to test how accurate I am?” Zhao Zhenzhen slung her backpack on, then jabbed her finger hard at Kim Junnan’s lightbulb, pulling up his virtual panel.
The passersby saw the sign Zhao Zhenzhen had tossed aside and gasped. “She’s a fortune teller!”
The crowd let out a “Whoa…” in awe. Then their gazes all landed on Kim Junnan.
As if to say, “How dare you mess with a fortune teller?!”
…No. Don’t just stare at me. Speak up for me! Speak up for me!!
Two virtual panels floated side by side in front of Zhao Zhenzhen.
She tapped [Change Fortune], and in an instant, a virtual card spun into view.
On the card was an empty hourglass, representing both fortune-boosting and fortune-draining.
Just as Zhao Zhenzhen had thought, since it was about altering fortune, it could be changed for the better or for the worse!
Zhao Zhenzhen tapped “Decrease Fortune” and heavily typed 100 into the pop-up virtual box.
“Kim Joon-nam,”
she said, “I declare that from this moment on, you are cursed with bad luck.”