Chapter 4: Fortune

“Ding-ling-ling...” The alarm went off on time, jolting Yang Tao out of a deep sleep.

Yang Tao immediately opened his eyes and looked at the time on his phone.

The panel said the girl would get into trouble at 3:36 a.m. tomorrow. When Yang Tao had gone to the brothel, it had only been around nine o’clock, so once midnight passed it would be tomorrow, and the actual event was still more than six hours away.

Yang Tao stared at the time and waited. Around four o’clock, he dialed the girl’s number.

The clock turned back to nine o’clock last night at Fenglinwan Club.

The girl saw Yang Tao off with a faint sense of loss. After resting alone in the room for a while and taking a shower, she went out to the front desk to clock out.

As for Yang Tao, there had been a brief moment when she’d felt her heart skip. He looked good, his height was just right, and most importantly, his cock was big enough. In just a few minutes, he had pushed her to an unprecedented peak.

If that man had agreed just now, she really would have been willing to keep him.

Among the women working here, and in the circles they moved in, who didn’t keep a man on the side, or go to a KTV during their time off to find a male model and enjoy being served?

“Keeping a man” was a relationship in name, but to put it bluntly, it was no different from keeping a pretty boy.

They stayed home all day like dead fish, held out their hands whenever they were short on money, and still expected a round at night. The reason these women were willing to keep them wasn’t because they were cheap; it was because they wanted to fill the emptiness in their hearts, have some emotional support, and prove that besides selling their bodies, there were still men willing to date them for real.

Who wouldn’t want to be a good girl?

It was just a pity that Yang Tao looked down on her.

He looked down on her, but she wasn’t angry. Even if she was a prostitute, once she dressed up and went out during the day, the men who came up to chat with her could line up in a row. It was just hard to find one who truly moved her.

At first he had seemed a little interested. Later, though, he refused to add her on WeChat, told her to be careful on the way home, and even asked for her phone number.

He was seriously weird.

When the Sichuan woman came back from clocking out, she returned to the lounge, where more than a dozen women in their twenties and thirties were dressed provocatively, chests exposed, legs spread wide open, their panties visible right there.

“Lili, did you just run into some huge dick? I passed by when I went to the bathroom just now and heard you moaning so sluttily. I thought he was about to fuck you to death.”

The Sichuan woman, Lili, sat beside another girl, and the girl next to her blurted it out immediately. Her mouth was full of dirty, filthy words. If not for the fact that she had a woman’s body, who would believe a woman could speak so crudely?

“It was at least this long, this thick.” The Sichuan woman held up her hands to show the size. “Fuck, I really almost got fucked to death just now, but it was seriously amazing.” She looked completely lost in the memory.

“Look at your slutty face,” another girl sneered. “It’s not like you’ve never seen a big cock before. Getting this wild over it.”

“Damn it, try it yourself and you’ll know. What’s the point of me telling you?” The Sichuan woman looked disdainful.

“A big dick isn’t enough. It has to be hard enough, and it has to last long enough too. Otherwise, once it’s shoved in, it’s like a lump of slime. It can’t even ease an itch. Yesterday I ran into one that was even bigger than what you just described, and he came in less than a minute. Total bad luck,” said a woman in her thirties.

Everyone burst out laughing, then started swapping stories about clients they had met, one woman saying this client was full of tricks, another saying that one was a minute man...

These things were secrets in a man’s mind, but in the mouths of these women who had had such intimate contact, they were nothing more than casual chatter.

Especially the ones who had been drinking and tried to talk prostitutes into going straight, the ones who poured out their hearts, the ones who played the victim for sympathy. Those were the kinds of stories that became a never-ending topic for them.

And at the end of it all, there was always a perfect finishing line: idiot!

So never, ever pour your heart out to a whore and fall in love with her, unless... there was no unless!

After work, with Yang Tao included, she had taken four sessions tonight. Yang Tao had made her feel good and stretched her open, so by the end she couldn’t feel anything at all. Even the customers felt like they were jabbing a piece of rotten cloth.

Exhausted, the Sichuan woman got off work early at three. After changing clothes and grabbing her bag, she slowly walked toward the apartment she rented.

There was an alley by the apartment. The streetlights in that narrow path had been broken for the past few days, and no one knew when they would be fixed.

In the past she had always felt uneasy when passing through there, but after walking it so many times, she had gotten used to it and no longer felt much.

But today, just before she was about to enter the alley, she suddenly remembered what Yang Tao had said after he left.

“Be careful when you go home tonight. Pay attention to safety!” She hadn’t cared about it before, and had almost forgotten it entirely, but now that she was standing here, the words seemed to ring right in her ear, making her feel a surge of unease.

She looked around. It was already 3:30. Nearby, a few late-night snack shops were still brightly lit, while the other stores had long since closed and gone dark.

After thinking for a moment, the Sichuan woman turned on her phone’s flashlight and pretended to be on a call while walking inside. Her voice was loud, and her eyes kept scanning nervously in every direction.

She was walking much faster than usual.

In the middle of the alley there was a recessed spot where the trash cans were supposed to go. The trash cans had disappeared these past few days, and when she passed that indentation, the Sichuan woman saw a man slumped against the wall on the ground, asleep.

Her heart gave a sudden jolt. She forced down the cry that almost escaped her throat and quickened her pace again, hurrying away.

After she left, the man sitting on the ground opened his eyes and watched her figure disappearing as she kept talking on the phone and walked off quickly. A flash of unwillingness crossed his gaze.

He tossed the brick in his hand aside.

He had been lying in wait here for two days already, and he had even figured out exactly what time she got off work every day. He had planned to make his move today, but when he heard her on the phone, he backed off.

He wasn’t sure whether she was really talking to someone, but if he robbed her, he would need time to run and hide. If she really was on the phone, then the person on the other end would definitely react when he made his move, and by the time the police were called, they might catch him immediately.

He was short on money, but not so short that he wanted room and board from the state right away. He still wanted to grab the money and enjoy himself for a while first.

Just like that, the Sichuan woman narrowly avoided disaster.

Back home, the frightened woman hurriedly locked the door, then sat on the bed for a long while before finally recovering her senses. She didn’t know the man had been planning to rob her, but suddenly seeing someone like that had truly scared her to death.

Yang Tao hung up the phone, and a trace of relief flashed in his eyes.

He had just spoken with the Sichuan woman and confirmed that she had indeed escaped disaster. He didn’t feel any physical discomfort.

There was no backlash. That let him breathe a little easier; at least he didn’t have to worry about saving someone only to get himself killed.

After thinking things over for a while, Yang Tao went back to sleep.

The next day, when the alarm rang, Yang Tao got up and tidied himself before heading to work.

Although he was no longer the original Yang Tao, after a whole night of thought he still decided to temporarily return to his old rhythm of life.

If he changed too quickly, he was afraid some of the people around him would notice the cracks, and that would not be good if he got taken away by the state and dissected.

In today’s society, information spread too fast.

Besides, even though this society was the same as the one he knew, and the memories of the former owner of the body had been fully absorbed, he still needed to re-understand the people around him from his own perspective. He couldn’t rely only on memory to judge them.

And if he wanted to complete the system’s tasks, he also needed someone to act as a go-between. Right now Yang Tao only had a few thousand yuan in savings and nothing else to his name. A few thousand yuan wasn’t enough to buy a villa.

Even if he had the ability to tell fortunes, he couldn’t just walk up to someone and say, “You’re going to have trouble tomorrow. Believe me, or you’ll be in for a miserable time.”

There were only two possible outcomes if he did that: he’d get beaten up, then use his ability to extort some money from them, or he’d be sent straight to a mental hospital.

He went out and took the bus. Fortunately, he didn’t need to ride the subway; the bus went straight there.

During the morning rush, the bus was packed shoulder to shoulder, and everyone looked drowsy and sluggish. Yang Tao couldn’t even find a seat. He was squeezed between a man and a woman.

He couldn’t even reach a handrail. He could only rely on his legs and the pressure of the crowd around him to keep his balance.

The bus stopped and started. Yang Tao looked at the woman in front of him. Because it was summer, she was wearing a pair of super-short denim shorts and a white T-shirt. He couldn’t see her face straight on, but from the side she looked average.

Just then, the woman’s little ass happened to be pressed against Yang Tao’s groin. His body, after being altered by the system, was very sensitive, and his needs had become much stronger.

With people packed this tightly together, and the bus jerking forward and back, the woman’s butt kept brushing against Yang Tao’s groin.

“Stop rubbing. Keep rubbing and I’m going to get hard!” Yang Tao forced himself to control his body. He didn’t want to get hard like this. If he were mistaken for some pervert on the bus, his whole life would be ruined.

He shoved a hand into his pocket and pressed hard on the cock that was starting to stir, keeping it from embarrassing him.

At the same time, to distract himself, Yang Tao had a thought and looked at the woman’s fortune.

A panel appeared above the woman’s head out of nowhere, and lines of tiny text surfaced.

Wealth luck: medium-low.

Blessing luck: medium.

Longevity luck: medium-high.

Official luck: none.

Peach blossom luck: medium-low.

Yesterday Yang Tao had studied his fortune-teller ability and discovered that there were still many details he could develop further.

When his attention was concentrated on one specific fortune, the system would the things that would affect it within the next three months, and then summarize a person’s entire life fortune.

Whether that life was smooth or rough, it only gave a summary, not specifics.

For example, the Sichuan woman he had seen yesterday. Her wealth luck and blessing luck were both about to take a hit. Her wealth fortune would suffer an immediate loss, while her blessing fortune would run into a sudden disaster. Because these things would happen very soon, the system gave a prompt.

If there was nothing within three months that would affect a fortune, then no prompt would appear.

After that, Yang Tao also studied the classification of fortune levels.

If wealth luck was low, the total amount of money a person earned in their entire life would not exceed 1 million yuan. Medium-low meant between 1 million and 5 million yuan. Medium meant between 5 million and 10 million yuan. Medium-high meant between 10 million and 100 million yuan. High meant between 100 million and 1 billion yuan. Higher meant between 1 billion and 10 billion yuan. Extreme meant anything above 10 billion yuan.

Blessing luck was mostly equivalent to longevity luck. If blessing luck was low, disasters would keep happening throughout life, and it would be very hard to live to old age.

Medium-low meant a life full of hardship, dying old with no one to rely on, with unfilial children and the like.

Medium meant reaching the natural end of life, but with a fate full of dramatic ups and downs.

Medium-high blessing luck meant a smooth destiny, a home full of children and grandchildren, and filial sons and daughters, a life that could be called comfortable and fulfilling.

High blessing luck meant everything went as one wished, with noble helpers appearing at the key moments. It was the kind of fortune where whatever you did went smoothly.

Higher blessing luck was like what television called overwhelming heavenly blessing. Once you crossed paths with someone like that, you basically never came to a good end.

Extreme blessing luck meant a child of destiny, someone who could eventually become a mighty big shot.

Longevity luck was simpler: the longer you lived, the better your longevity luck. Low meant under 40 years old, medium-low 50 to 60, medium 60 to 70, medium-high 70 to 80, high 80 to 90, higher 90 to 100, and extreme over 100.

Official luck low meant stopping below the level of even the most basic administrative posts. Medium-low stopped at the section level, medium at the department level, medium-high at the bureau level, high at the ministerial level, higher at the national level, and extreme needed no explanation at all; it was the sort of person who looked like destiny’s own chosen child.

Peach blossom luck was divided according to how many meaningful sexual relationships a person had in their life. Low meant one partner, medium-low meant one to five, medium meant five to ten, medium-high meant ten to fifty, high meant fifty to two hundred, higher meant two hundred to one thousand, and extreme was the legendary Yellow Emperor with three thousand beauties.

And a person’s fortune in life was by no means fixed. Everyone went through different things every moment. If anything was handled well, there was a chance to increase one’s fortune and change fate against the heavens.

But if one simply followed the original path step by step, then naturally nothing would change.

Moreover, although this was fortune-telling, besides being able to foresee things in advance, he could also use his own abilities to influence someone’s recent luck.

For example, if Yang Tao wanted to deal with someone, he could use his ability to make that person run into bad luck, lose money, and so on.

Of course, forcibly changing someone’s recent fortune also had prerequisites. It wasn’t something that could be done casually.

Using the Sichuan woman as an example again, Yang Tao’s one reminder had already helped her avoid a disaster. If he helped her a few more times, it might raise both her blessing luck and her wealth luck.

In the end, it might even affect her longevity luck.

These were all the conclusions Yang Tao had reached after studying it yesterday. Now that he had a more detailed breakdown, he would have even more confidence when telling fortunes in the future.

Yang Tao looked at the woman’s fortune again. It was plain and ordinary, with only her blessing luck and longevity luck being relatively good. It was the sort of fortune most ordinary people had.

But one thing was worth noting: peach blossom luck was not better just because it was higher. Take the woman in front of him, for example. Her peach blossom luck was only medium-low, which meant she was still fairly self-respecting.

Having fewer than five meaningful sexual partners in a lifetime was already very good in this society.

Of course, that was only talking about actual relationships.

Flirtation, emotional affairs, and the like didn’t count. But if Yang Tao focused his attention, he could still get some clues about those flirtations within the next three months.

This was practically a god-tier tool for checking whether a wife or husband was cheating.