A Valiant Life

Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations

Yang Yong Kang had never been this nervous.

“Special number, 15.”

“The lottery numbers are: 02, 04 12, 14, 17, 24 & 15.”

…

Yang Yong Kang’s mind was blank as if something had smashed his head. But at that moment, Yang Yong Kang suddenly remembered what little boss had told him.

“Mr. Yang, you must buy the lottery ticket when you reach the school. Your luck is off the charts.”

“How would he know? Unless little boss really knew how to read people’s fortunes?”

Yang Yong Kang was stunned. Even if he didn’t believe it, he still had to.

Luck?

Although Yang Yong Kang sort of believed in it, the person who told him that was Little Boss. If it wasn’t Little Boss who told him that, he wouldn’t even stop at the lottery centre.

He would also never have bought lottery tickets in the first place.

Yang Yong Kang rubbed his eyes as he analyzed the numbers on the TV screen. He then looked at his own lottery ticket.

The numbers matched.

*Grunting noises*

Yang Yong Kang gulped. He wasn’t going to be able to sleep tonight.

…

“Mr. Yang, you should listen to yourself and continue to buy lottery tickets, right?” Lin Fan had initially wanted to use Mr. Yang as an experiment to test his fortune telling skills but now he didn’t have to anymore.

Lin Fan could safely say that his fortune-telling abilities were nothing that he imagined- it was capable of defying the laws of nature.

He was going to reach greater heights from now on.

“Right, I’ll just read your fortune. Nothing too complicated.” Lin Fan suddenly realized that something was amiss when he read Mr. Yang’s fortune.

“What is going on? I thought I read that Mr. Yang had unparalleled luck? How did it turn into a smooth sailing life? This wasn’t logical at all.”

Lin Fan couldn’t make sense of it, so he brushed it off. Maybe he’ll understand it in the future.”

Lin Fan took out his phone and accessed Weibo to catch up on the happenings around him.

“Damn. My fan base only increased by 6 followers? That’s way too little.” Lin Fan was disappointed. The name that he had was not too bad. Why didn’t the number of viewers match up?”

Lin Fan saw two comments on his post.

Username: Autumn Sword Fish Killer: HAHA! The fortune tellers of today have finally caught up with technology and have started using Weibo as a site to do business. How retarded!

Lin Fan wasn’t too happy to see that comment. That user was just out to humiliate him.

Lin Fan laughed as he read the second comment. There were still people who believed in him.

Weibo user, ‘Joy in Chaos’: Wang Ming Yang, Male, born on 4th October 1991, born between 3-5 pm. Please read my fortune.”

Lin Fan’s post had been there for just an afternoon, and there was already one person who wanted their fortune read. It wasn’t a bad start after all

Lin Fan started calculating and reading his fortune following the data that the person provided.

The encyclopedia was awesome. Fortune telling was so easy with it.

“Oh? This person’s fortune reading looks good. Looks like everything is fated.”

Now wasn’t the time to be in awe. Lin Fan immediately got on with sending a reply.

“Your desire to gamble will take control over you, and will make you bankrupt.”

This wasn’t too direct, but any sensible person could directly tell what it meant.

After Lin Fan made a few corrections, he sent out another Weibo post.

“Free online fortune readings, last two days!”

Lin Fan immediately closed his Weibo after he did that as he prepared to sleep. His fortune telling journey would officially begin tomorrow.

Lin Fan was so contented with the encyclopedia. It was almost a dream come true.

Lin Fan was like any other young person who wanted to get rich. However, he had to put in a lot of hard work to achieve that.

If he wanted to make a fortune, all he had to do was to take Mr. Yang’s lottery ticket. After all, it was as simple as conning Mr. Yang of his lottery ticket after he had bought it. It wasn’t difficult to pull off for Lin Fan, but it would be a major dick move if he did that.

The next day!

Ding Dong!

“Who’s that knocking on my door this early?” Lin Fan asked groggily.

“It’s me, Old Man Tian!” Fraud Tian shouted from outside.

“I’m coming, I’m coming. Why this early though?” Fraud Tian walked in with a bag of things as Lin Fan opened the door.

“What is this?” Lin Fan rubbed his eyes as he asked.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to team up with me to read people’s fortunes? I brought over all my little gimmicks and gadgets.” Fraud Tian opened his bag and dumped out everything.

“What are all these things? There’s even a compass in here!” Lin Fan was stunned as he saw all the fortune reading tools in front of him.

“You’ll sometimes need to read people’s Feng Shui. You can’t do without all these fortune-telling gear.”

…

Lin Fan stared helplessly. All these gimmicks were useless to Lin Fan. He was more interested in having his own shop. The biggest concern was the expensive shop rental prices in Shanghai.

Fraud Tian and Lin Fan were both broke. They had no capital, to begin with.

Fraud Tian and Lin Fan were busy for the whole day until around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. They had finally finished what they needed to do.

They set up shop at their original counter. The only difference was the signboard which read ‘Divine Master Lin’.

…

Red Star Primary School.

Lin Fan’s stall got a lot of attention from the people walking by.

At that moment, Fraud Tian stood on a chair and hollered at the top of his voice.

“The iron-mouthed Master Lin, ladies and gentlemen. With one word he’ll tell life and death, wealth and poverty!”

Lin Fan wondered what Fraud Tian was going to say. As he started talking, Lin Fan immediately stopped him. Fraud Tian was so unreliable.

“Little boss has opened his stall.”

Lin Fan’s scallion pancakes were legendary in that area. Everyone would remember how delicious his pancakes were. As soon as they saw him open his shop, they all rushed over.

“Little boss, I’ve been waiting for you to open your shop since morning. But now that you’re here, we can finally buy some scallion pancakes…” one of his regular customers said before taking a look at the new signboard which stunned him.

“Eh? Little boss, what happened?”

Lin Fan gave a sly smile and said, “I’ve changed my profession. I now specialize in fortune reading.”

“Ah! Why did you ever do that? There’s no future in fortune reading. Your scallion pancakes are way better!” Lin Fan’s scallion pancakes were the life of all the regular customers.

More and more people gathered around Lin Fan’s stall as they rushed over to buy scallion pancakes.

All the regular customers got the shock of their lives when they found out that Lin Fan had wanted to change profession.

Lin Fan’s stall started becoming more crowded. All the people around him were trying to convince Lin Fan to sell scallion pancakes instead.

If Lin Fan had followed their advice and continued selling scallion pancakes instead of doing fortune reading, he would definitely be struck by lightning.

“Little boss, you can read my fortune. But you must make me a scallion pancake once you’re done.”

“Yes, that’s right. I’ll pay for the fortune reading and the pancakes but I have to get the pancakes.”

…

Lin Fan felt like giving up after hearing all that. His scallion pancakes couldn’t possibly be that good, could it?

“Guys, I’m really not going to make any more scallion pancakes. I’m just a fortune-teller now. If anyone is interested, please do try.” Lin Fan said.

“Little boss, please pity us. We need your scallion pancakes. Fortune reading is a scam and it can’t possibly beat your scallion pancakes.”

“Yea! This whole fortune-telling thing is all just a hoax.”

Lin Fan looked at Fraud Tian helplessly. If this were to continue, his fortune telling business would not survive. He might not even be able to fulfill his mission requirements.

A loud sound emanated from far away while the crowd was trying to persuade Lin Fan to continue selling scallion pancakes.

The voice sounded extremely excited.

“Little Boss…”

As Lin Fan turned to see who it was, the corners of his mouth curved upwards.

His savior had finally arrived.