Lin Yanxi’s delicate little face showed little reaction, and she ignored the crowd entirely. Instead, she turned to the woman beside her and comforted her gently.
“Madam, please wait a moment. I’ll deal with these people first, then I’ll read your fortune.”
The woman hurriedly waved her hands. “N-no need, right?”
Judging by the intimidating aura of these people, they didn’t seem like ordinary troublemakers.
They looked more like they were here for… revenge?
Can this girl really handle it?
The woman suddenly regretted wandering over here without understanding the situation.
“It’s fine, it won’t take long.” Lin Yanxi revealed two tiny dimples and smiled sweetly. “I’ll just have to trouble you to wait a little while. I’ll be as quick as I can!”
The woman glanced at the group and, as if possessed, actually nodded.
Bang!
Seeing that Lin Yanxi completely ignored him, the burly man swung his club again and smashed the already-destroyed stall.
“In front of all of us, you still dare scam people? Believe me, I’ll beat you to death!”
No one knew where Lin Xixi suddenly pulled out a pure gold abacus from. Looking at the dismantled remains of her stall, she lightly flicked the beads.
Alright then. Today’s loss: twenty taels.
She then took out a notebook and a charcoal pen, recording today’s financial losses.
Lin Yanxi stretched out her hand toward the burly man.
“You smashed my stall. Pay twenty taels.”
The moment the burly man heard he had to compensate her, he exploded with rage.
“What did you say? Me pay you? You caused my wife to miscarry, caused Uncle Shengzi to break his leg, and got Aunt Cuihua’s son thrown into prison—and you still want compensation? Today I’m going to beat you to death so you can stop harming innocent people!”
As soon as the burly man finished speaking, everyone who came with him shouted that Lin Yanxi should be beaten to death.
The woman who had planned to get her fortune told was stunned speechless by his accusations. She looked at Lin Yanxi with shock and thought to herself:
This girl looks so gentle and sweet… and she actually did all that?
But judging by how furious these people were, they didn’t seem to be lying either.
Just as the woman was about to back out, Lin Yanxi spoke.
“You claim I harmed you? Where’s your evidence? Without proof, I can report you to the authorities for slander!”
With her hands on her hips, she spoke confidently.
“I’m telling you now—if you can’t produce evidence today proving I scammed people, then none of you are leaving!”
Hearing her boldly threaten to report them, the burly man paid no attention to her words and spat angrily as he shouted:
“You want evidence, right? A few days ago I asked you to tell my fortune and see whether my wife was carrying a boy. What did you say back then?”
Lin Yanxi crossed her arms and thought for a moment.
“I told you to go home and wait for news. You’d get the answer the next day.”
“That’s right! You said I’d get an answer the next day, but the very next morning my wife miscarried! Isn’t that your doing?!”
By the time he shouted the last word, his spit nearly hit Lin Yanxi’s face.
Lin Yanxi calmly took two steps back, standing atop the wreckage of her stall.
“Didn’t the result already tell you the answer?”
The burly man froze. “What do you mean?”
“You wanted to know whether it was a boy. Since the child miscarried, isn’t the answer obvious?”
Besides, judging from his physiognomy, this man was destined never to have a son in his lifetime.
While the burly man was still trying to process her words, a limping old man stepped forward and pointed at her with a trembling finger.
“And what about me? You said I’d receive a windfall soon, but instead I broke my leg! How do you explain that?”
Lin Yanxi stared directly at him.
“Didn’t you receive money recently?”
The limping old man’s eyes darted away guiltily, and he stopped questioning her.
“What about my case?” a middle-aged woman demanded, holding a ladle with one hand on her hip, looking fierce enough to devour someone alive.
After thinking for a moment, Lin Yanxi vaguely remembered her.
“You came to me looking worried and asked when your son would finally settle down and live properly.”
“That’s right! And the next day my son got thrown into prison! What do you have to say now?” the woman shouted angrily.
Lin Yanxi raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“What? After entering prison, is your son still causing trouble?”
The woman’s eyes flickered nervously.
“T-that’s not the case…”
“Then doesn’t that prove it? Every fortune I told came true one by one. Yet here you are bringing a crowd to smash my stall. Don’t think I’m afraid of you just because there are many of you!”
Lin Yanxi rolled up her sleeves. The aura around her was somehow even stronger than theirs as she straightened her back and shouted:
“Report to the authorities! We absolutely must report this!”
The moment they heard the words “report to the authorities” again, the previously aggressive group instantly lost their momentum.
After exchanging uneasy glances, they finally decided to retreat.
The burly man left behind a harsh warning:
“We’ll let you off this time. But if we find out you’re scamming people again, we’ll smash your stall every time we see you!”
“Hold on. You smashed my stall and think you can just leave without explanation?”
“What else do you want?”
Lin Yanxi stretched out her fair slender hand.
“Twenty taels of silver.”
How could ordinary villagers possibly come up with twenty taels all at once?
Seeing them about to start yelling again, Lin Yanxi interrupted them first.
“Judging by the time, Prince Zhan’s procession probably hasn’t gone far yet. If you refuse to pay, I’ll make a huge scene out of this and see how you explain yourselves.”
One sentence instantly extinguished their arrogance.
The limping old man said awkwardly, “How could we possibly have twenty taels?”
A crafty glint flashed through Lin Yanxi’s eyes.
“That’s not my problem. If you can’t pay, then let’s go discuss it in front of the magistrate.”
Her words frightened the villagers into panic. They looked around helplessly, unsure what to do.
“I’ll pay the silver on their behalf.”
The woman standing nearby suddenly spoke up.
Hearing this, the villagers looked at her as if she were a living Buddha descending to save them, hurriedly bowing in gratitude.
The woman took out an emerald-green purse from her sleeve and handed it to Lin Yanxi. Her gentle voice sounded once more:
“Miss, they aren’t truly bad people. They’ve simply encountered some unfortunate circumstances. For the sake of this money, could you let them go?”
Lin Yanxi weighed the heavy purse in her hand, dimples faintly appearing on her cheeks.
“Easy to discuss. How could a businessperson argue with money?”
There had to be at least a hundred taels inside. Definitely not a loss.
Hearing Lin Yanxi relent, the troublemakers immediately scattered in embarrassment.
Guarding the ruins of her stall, Lin Yanxi took out her ledger and looked at the earlier entry before sighing.
“Another day of negative income.”
The woman’s expression stiffened slightly.
So the hundred taels she just paid didn’t count as income?
As she puzzled over this, a crisp voice suddenly sounded beside her ear.
“Didn’t Madam want her fortune told?”
The woman snapped back to reality. Recalling everything that had just happened, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to believe this young girl—but after witnessing all that, she no longer knew how she was supposed to believe her.
“Can you really tell fortunes accurately?”
“Don’t worry. I never lie when telling fortunes.”
She simply never tells the whole truth.