One divination a day, a trainee celestial master

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the food stall, Jiang Shou's chopsticks, which were about to pick up some peanuts, paused.

His eyes narrowed, and he turned his head slightly, listening intently to the sounds coming from the next table.

"Boss Wang from Daqiang Building Materials? Fatty Wang, from Lingxia Town. He's a big boss, everyone knows him." The fat man, his face flushed from drinking, grabbed a handful of peanuts. "What's wrong with him? Didn't I see him driving around town in his Mercedes the other day?"

"Something terrible has happened!" The skinny man took a deep drag on his cigarette, his voice low, but he couldn't hide his excitement. "Just the night before last, Fatty Wang's mother fell down the stairs from the second floor of his villa! I heard she was motionless on the spot. The ambulance took her to the county hospital emergency room, straight to the intensive care unit, and she still hasn't woken up!"

"Hiss~~" The people at the table gasped. "The old lady must be over seventy, right? She fell from the second floor, is there any chance she can be saved?"

"That's not even the weirdest part." The skinny man stubbed out his cigarette on the edge of the plate and tapped the table. "Outside the hospital ward, Fatty Wang went berserk, his eyes bloodshot. He grabbed a stainless steel trash can from the hospital and chased after his beautiful wife, beating her mercilessly. He smashed her head open, and blood was everywhere!"

"Holy crap, domestic violence?" The fat man's eyes widened. "Wang Daqiang usually seems like a very amiable person, how could he be so cruel to his wife?"

"Amicable my foot! They were all insane! It took hospital security and a few passersby to pull him back and call the police. When the police arrived, they handcuffed Mr. Wang and arrested him!"

The skinny man lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "When the police handcuffed Fatty Wang and took him away, he was still yelling hysterically, saying that it was his wife who pushed his own mother down the stairs!"

"Push the old lady downstairs?" The people at the table looked at each other in bewilderment.

Did the police believe it?

"Believe it for nothing!" The skinny man curled his lip. "It was just the family there, and there wasn't even a security camera. His wife was lying on the ground, her face covered in blood, crying, insisting that the old lady had tripped and fallen. Everyone thought Wang Daqiang had lost his mind because his mother had fallen, and he was taking it out on his wife."

"And guess what happened?" The skinny guy deliberately kept everyone in suspense, picked up his glass and took a sip of beer.

Stop keeping me in suspense and tell me!

"This morning, a shocking piece of gossip broke in town!" The skinny man put down his glass, his eyes gleaming with gossip. "His wife cheated on him! The precious son the Wang family had been praying for these past two years, the one they finally had, turns out he wasn't Wang Daqiang's child at all!"

"Pfft—!" Jiang Shou at the next table almost spat out his beer and quickly grabbed a tissue to cover his mouth.

The people at that table were in an uproar. "Really?! That Fatty Wang must be so incredibly frustrated!"

"It's absolutely true! I heard that Wang Daqiang just went for a paternity test a couple of days ago, and this happened when he was on his way back with the report." The skinny man sighed. "Who could bear this? Wang Daqiang insists that his wife was discovered by the old lady, and fearing that the shameful affair would be exposed, he killed her to silence her."

"But the problem is, his wife's head was smashed open, and after she was bandaged up at the hospital, she still insisted that it was because the old lady was old and accidentally fell down the stairs, and that it had nothing to do with her!" The skinny man shrugged.

"What did the police say?"

"Police investigations require evidence," the skinny man shrugged. "Even if the woman cheated on her husband and the child isn't his, legally, you can't presume she pushed her mother-in-law to the ground based on that alone. That's just a motive, not a crime. What kind of crime is that... innocent, oh... presumption of innocence!"

"Now look what's happened. Fatty Wang is still in detention for intentional assault. The old lady is in the ICU, her life hanging in the balance. She left behind a little girl who just started middle school, crying her eyes out in the hospital." The skinny man shook his head. "A perfectly good family, just like that, torn apart."

The people at the next table were filled with sighs and reflections.

Jiang Shou sat in his seat, holding a half-empty glass of draft beer, his eyes slightly somber.

The image of him checking the feng shui of the master bedroom on the second floor of the Wang family's house flashed through his mind. That woman who, under the guise of a child, had almost driven Wang Daqiang to his death in bed with cacti and beams. Jiang Shou had clearly seen the guilty conscience and evasiveness in her eyes at that time.

"I knew it! The feng shui arrangement in that house was far too 'exquisite,' practically a trap at every turn," Jiang Shou thought to himself. "So that's where the root of the problem lies. This woman not only cheated on her husband, but also tried to slowly wear him down and seize his assets. Now that she's been exposed, she's actually going after a man in his seventies?"

Although Wang Daqiang was a nouveau riche, he was truly filial to his mother. When he went to the Taoist temple for medical treatment, he not only readily gave money for incense, but also presented the temple with a solid wood plaque with gold lettering.

These days, there aren't many worshippers who are so particular and generous.

Moreover, the seasonal remembrance chart had just reminded him this morning that "it is advisable to do good deeds in order to transform one's circumstances."

Going to a bathhouse to help the poor is a joke. This is a real opportunity to accumulate good deeds and resolve karmic obstacles!

Jiang Shou put down his chopsticks and stood up.

He carried his mug of draft beer to the next table, a polite and friendly smile on his face.

"Excuse me, gentlemen," Jiang Shou raised his glass and tapped the edge of the table. "I overheard you talking about Boss Wang Daqiang. I used to do odd jobs for him; Boss Wang was a really loyal guy. I heard you said he got arrested. Do you know which station he's in?"

The skinny man, who was just worried about having no one to listen to his ramblings, saw a handsome young man come to offer him a toast. The young man was also quite outgoing, so he picked up his glass, took a sip, and casually replied, "Where else could he be? In a case of intentional assault like this, the person is definitely in the county police station's detention center. He'll probably only be released after the case is solved, or after his wife issues a letter of forgiveness."

"Thanks, brother." Jiang Shou downed the wine in his glass in one gulp and turned back to his table.

"Do you know that Boss Wang?" Jiang Huaiyuan asked, gnawing on a lamb skewer, glancing at him with some suspicion.

"I guess we know each other. I've come to the temple to offer incense before. He's a very devout worshipper, and a nice person," Jiang Shou replied casually while picking at peanuts.

Jiang Huaiyuan nodded, sighed, and his old face was full of regret: "Alas... she's a pitiful person. She works hard outside to earn money, but her home is in turmoil. Not only did she raise someone else's son, but her mother's life is also uncertain. Men, you know, the worst thing is to encounter this kind of mess."

The father and son didn't discuss this heavy topic any further. After eating and drinking their fill, they asked the owner to settle the bill.

The two strolled back to the old house.

Jiang Shou entered the house and picked up his backpack. Then, he went to the kitchen and picked up the white fish bucket that Jiang Huaiyuan had specially packed for him at the market that afternoon. It contained several lively, fresh fish, which he had brought back to the mountain to keep in the pond in the backyard.

"Dad, I'm going back to the mountain."

Jiang Shou said goodbye to his father and went out.

In the dead of night, there were hardly any cars left on the streets of the county town.

Jiang Shou mounted his blue three-wheeled motorcycle and, under the cool moonlight and in the refreshing autumn breeze, headed towards Cuiwei Mountain in the western suburbs.

We arrived at Shouyi Temple, located halfway up the mountain.

Jiang Shou parked his car without turning on the main gate's lights. He carried a backpack on his back and a bucket of fish still thrashing about in one hand, and walked to the vermilion gate of the Taoist temple.

He took out the key and gently inserted it into the lock.

A soft "click" sounded.

Jiang Shou, like a thief, pushed the gate open a crack and peered cautiously into the courtyard.

By the moonlight, he glanced at the high wooden threshold of the main hall.

It was empty. There was no sign of the gluttonous little fat cat.

"Phew~" Jiang Shou let out a long sigh of relief, his tense shoulders slumping. "He probably ate his fill of cat food and fell asleep somewhere."

Jiang Shou tiptoed over the threshold, gently closed the door, and bolted it shut.

He carried the fish bucket, tiptoed, trying not to make a sound, and prepared to pass through the main hall and quietly slip back to the side room in the backyard.

One step, two steps.

I had just walked up to the altar where the Three Pure Ones statues were placed.

"Clatter."

A slight scraping sound of tiles coming from above suddenly came from above.

Jiang Shou's steps froze instantly, and his neck, like a rusted gear, slowly and stiffly lifted up.

On the roof beam of the main hall, an orange-yellow figure leaped into the air.

In the silhouette of the moonlight, the figure traced a light arc, like a weightless leaf, and landed steadily on the bluestone ground directly in front of Jiang Shou, without even disturbing a speck of dust.

A human and a cat stood facing each other, less than two meters apart, in the dimly lit hall.

Meow~

Fat Tiger sat upright on the ground, its thick tail slapping the ground impatiently behind it. It slightly raised its round, chubby face, its cat eyes, which gleamed with an amber light in the darkness, fixedly staring at the fish bucket that Jiang Shou was carrying.

Then, it slowly moved its gaze upwards, landing on Jiang Shou's guilty face.

Its cat face was practically screaming "Displeasure!" Its eyes seemed to be interrogating a scumbag who hadn't come home all night and was trying to get away with it: "You promised to come back and fry me a big, fat fish tonight! What time is it?! I've been waiting for you on the beam for hours, starving!!"

"Cough..." Jiang Shou swallowed hard, forced a fawning smile that looked worse than a grimace, and pushed the fish bucket forward.

"Um... Senior Fat Tiger, the fish... it's still alive. Shall I go and heat the oil for you right now?"