Tricked 101: Suisui

Yu Renwan also made her way to the stall.

“Why is there a fortune-teller at an amusement park?”

Yu Renwan looked the middle-aged man over with some confusion, then glanced at the pile of spirit-communing objects strewn across the ground.

These items were old and messy, and aside from the usual ones, there were blood jade divination sticks, and even everyday items mixed in—like tissues and a fruit knife.

“These things of yours…”

She crouched down for a better look, but just as she reached out to pick one up, there was a crisp “smack”—her hand was slapped away.

The force was not light; a red mark quickly bloomed on the back of Yu Renwan’s hand.

She looked up at the middle-aged man sitting on the folding stool.

“Neither of you are fated.”

The man spoke slowly.

He sat on the stool with a solemn expression, the hem of his Taoist robe trailing on the ground. His eyes were distant, unfocused when he looked at Yu Renwan, as if he were seeing someone through a fog.

Yu Renwan understood what he meant and slowly withdrew her hand. “Oh… You only tell fortunes for those with fate?”

The man smiled without answering.

“Alright then,” she stood up, “Jiang Jiang, shall we go?”

Jiang Yan gave a soft “mm,” turned slightly, and was about to leave.

Seeing how decisively the two were leaving, the man’s expression froze. The focus returned to his eyes, and the composed smile at his lips vanished in an instant.

He hurriedly called after their backs, “Hey—wait, come back!”

“A meeting is fate in itself. One fortune, five game tokens!”

Jiang Yan turned back unhurriedly.

She feigned confusion as she asked, “Then why weren’t we fated just now?”

A trace of embarrassment flashed in the man’s eyes, but he quickly regained his composure and shook his head with the air of a sage: “Fate or not is decided in an instant, just as a person’s joys and sorrows change in a moment.”

Now the livestream viewers caught on:

【LOL, what kind of fortune-teller is this? He’s just a con artist.】

【Exactly, first he pretends to be choosy about his clients to pique their curiosity, then reluctantly agrees to tell their fortune, and finally jacks up the price. This scammer’s routine is well-practiced.】

【Sister Yan and Wanwan won’t fall for it, right?】

【Of course not. I bet those spirit-communing objects don’t have any power at all. Besides, we’re spirit mediums ourselves. This NPC has run into a real expert.】

There was no way they’d pay five tokens.

Jiang Yan looked at the middle-aged man’s swelling desire to deceive and smiled. She pointed at herself. “I’ve been troubled by something lately.”

“I was planning to have you tell my fortune, but you just now really looked like a street scammer. How about this, let’s compromise: you tell my fortune first, just a few hints, and if you’re accurate, I’ll pay you.”

The man was cautious. “What if you trick me?”

Jiang Yan replied, “Do I look like a trickster to you?”

He studied Jiang Yan for a few moments, his expression wavering.

Jiang Yan glanced behind her, just about to ask Yu Renwan to go collect a few more fingers, when Mu Wang suddenly appeared, stuffed seven fingers into her hand, and then slipped away with two children in tow.

Halfway gone, the boy in pink suddenly broke free from Mu Wang’s grasp, ran back, and threw his arms around Jiang Yan’s arm. “Sister, save me! I don’t want to keep living on the run!”

Before Jiang Yan could say anything, Mu Wang swiftly hoisted the little boy and carried him off.

Yu Renwan watched Mu Wang leave warily, her lips moving as if to complain, but finding nothing to complain about, she could only lower her head and stare intently at those fingers.

Jiang Yan smiled.

She lowered her gaze and opened her palm to the man. “If there’s one thing I don’t lack, it’s money.”

The man stared greedily at the fingers, then finally sat up straight.

“Alright, let me see your right palm.”

Jiang Yan complied immediately. The man looked down at her hand for a while, then at her face. Soon, emotion surged in his eyes. Yu Renwan was startled by his gaze for several seconds before she couldn’t help but ask, “What is it?”

The man sighed and released Jiang Yan’s hand.

“Your brow is shrouded in darkness. I’m afraid you’ve been cursed by an enemy—your days are numbered.”

Yu Renwan tensed slightly.

The man shook his head. “You were meant for a life of wealth and longevity, living to ninety. Now, you’ll die at thirty.”

Yu Renwan let out a breath.

Jiang Jiang already lived past ninety—does she need him to say it?

Under the man’s sighing gaze, Jiang Yan pressed her lips together, composed herself, then suddenly stood up in shock and panic:

“I knew it—!!”

The scammer was startled by her outburst.

Jiang Yan clutched her shoulder in distress.

“I knew it! I’ve felt so heavy lately—maybe that baby really is standing on my shoulder! And my husband and stepson, their jumping off the building had nothing to do with me. My eldest and second brothers want to split my inheritance. I didn’t want to, but I agreed. Who knew they’d be so stubborn? I just took out the window glass, and they thought my windows were too clean, insisted on jumping out to play… Ugh, it’s been so stressful lately, suddenly having so much money!”

After her tirade, Jiang Yan sat back down and asked the man, “Why aren’t you saying anything? Do you think any of this is my fault?”

The man’s face was blank.

So Jiang Yan continued on her own, “Right? If they have grievances, they should settle them with the people involved. What does it have to do with me, the one who took out the glass?”

She crossed her legs. “Can you help me drive them away?”

“Hmm? Why aren’t you talking?”

It took half a minute for the man to come back to himself.

He looked at Jiang Yan’s shoulder, then behind her, finally nodding hesitantly. “It’s… it’s nothing, just a small matter. Buy a talisman from me and I’ll change your fate.”

Jiang Yan: “How will you change it?”

The man replied instinctively, “Give me your right hand—”

Halfway through, he caught himself and quickly shut his mouth.

“Changing fate is priced separately.”

Jiang Yan asked, “How much?”

He held up three fingers. “Thirty game tokens.”

Jiang Yan raised her brows. Yu Renwan’s eyes suddenly lit up. She turned to dash off. “Jiang Jiang, I’ll go pick some up for you! Wait for me!!”

【Yu Renwan’s thoughts are so easy to read (？)】

【Finally, my time to shine!】

【Yu Renwan: Jiang Jiang, I’ll collect fingers to support you QvQ】

Jiang Yan hurriedly stopped Yu Renwan.

“First of all, he’s a scammer. Second, I don’t need my fate changed. And most importantly,” Jiang Yan lowered her voice, “thirty tokens—since that number appeared, it means we don’t need to worry about this. The key information is that the scammer claims he can change fate, not that we actually need to do it.”

Yu Renwan slumped back into place. “Alright then.”

Jiang Yan turned and carefully looked over the man’s stall again. After circling it, her gaze lingered on his miscellaneous wares for a moment.

Understanding dawned in her eyes.

“I’m thirty-one this year,” she said.

“You got it wrong, so I won’t pay. I still have glass to remove at home.”

Jiang Yan and Yu Renwan left the fortune-telling stall. The middle-aged man had stood up in anger and shame, but as if remembering something, he sat back down awkwardly and said nothing.

Yu Renwan, not hearing footsteps behind them, looked surprised. “I thought he’d chase after us.”

Jiang Yan: “That’s why a good persona is useful.”

*

The two returned to the giant cleaver game.

A new round had begun, the massive blade slicing through human bodies in midair.

Jiang Yan recalled the shout from that mother earlier.

Her thoughts were clear: the three games in the game zone were explicitly meant to be cleared within an hour, so they wouldn’t be too difficult. And because they weren’t hard, all the information would be presented quite directly.

For example, the gambler father and the pitiful child, the abstract painting of children on the carousel, and the blanket woven from a woman’s hair.

And this time, Ruru and her mother.

When the woman encouraged the little girl from outside the fence, she had shouted something.

—“You’ll be fine, you have good fortune. Trust Mama, don’t you trust Mama the most?”

You have good fortune.

Those three words appeared so abruptly.

How does one know a person has good fortune?

Either it’s been foretold, or it’s been changed.

And right next to the giant cleaver game was a fortune-telling booth, with a sign reading “Defy Heaven, Change Fate—Man Triumphs Over Destiny.”

It was obvious: the prototype for this giant cleaver game was Ruru, and in real life, her mother had changed her fate. As for how that fate was changed…

Jiang Yan already had a clue.

She was about to tell Yu Renwan when, not far away, a child’s voice called out.

Jiang Yan turned to see the two children returning.

Little Yu Renwan excitedly dragged little Jiang Yan forward by the hand, while little Jiang Yan kept her face cold, head down, gnawing on ice cream.

Both children held strawberry ice cream cones, marked at three game tokens each in the amusement park.

Yu Renwan was a bit lost. “Does clearing the 5D cinema give you fingers?”

Little Yu Renwan quickly shook her head, tugging on little Jiang Yan’s sleeve with pride. “The lady selling ice cream gave hers to her! So I got to share too!”

Little Jiang Yan gnawed seriously on her ice cream. Hearing little Yu Renwan, she just gave a casual hum.

Yu Renwan bent down to look at little Jiang Yan a few times, then nodded in understanding. “Makes sense. If I sold ice cream, I’d definitely give it away too.”

Little Jiang Yan’s cheeks puffed out as she ate, and when Yu Renwan licked her lips and slowly raised her hand, little Jiang Yan glared at her and slapped her hand away hard.

“What are you trying to do?”

Yu Renwan dejectedly withdrew her hand.

She changed the subject. “The NPCs here are so considerate—they even give things to kids.”

Little Jiang Yan glanced at her but said nothing.

Jiang Yan also remained silent.

Her abilities as a child were different from now. After being steeped in the dragon veins of the imperial tomb, her powers had evolved. Back then, her ability was more like a natural “affection value maxed out”—once activated, everyone would basically give her whatever she wanted.

A very useful ability, though she’d almost never used it.

Jiang Yan recalled she’d only used it three or four times before, and now, her younger self had actually activated it just to eat ice cream.

Little Jiang Yan glanced at Jiang Yan, guessed her thoughts, and turned her face away in annoyance. “I’m not greedy.”

“I’ve just never had it before.”

Jiang Yan asked, “What else do you want to eat?”

The little girl looked down and began to count. “I just walked around—cream cookies, waffles, sea salt ice cream, rainbow cotton candy, sparkling jelly… To try them all would take forty-two fingers. If you don’t work harder, I’ll have to rely on myself.”

Jiang Yan: “Then let’s clear the game zone as soon as possible. We’ll have ten fingers then, and I’ll take you to eat two first.”

Little Jiang Yan looked up. “And we have to buy a balloon.”

Jiang Yan nodded. “We can.”

The corners of little Jiang Yan’s mouth lifted instantly. There was a faint dimple on her left cheek, only visible when she smiled broadly. Now it showed, and she pulled a stamp card from her satin pouch, handing it to Jiang Yan.

The second slot on the card had a bright red stamp.

“Duck Duck 5D Cinema (Cleared)”

Jiang Yan put the card away. “What did you encounter inside?”

Little Jiang Yan replied casually, “Nothing much. We just sat in a really high chair and watched a mov… movie? Is that what it’s called? At the end, the staff asked us a question about the screen. If we got it right, we got a stamp.”

“What was the movie about?”

Little Jiang Yan said, “It was about a little girl.”

“There was a little girl named Sui Sui. She grew up under the care of her parents. She ate her meals and went to school obediently every day. She was cute and did well in school. Her parents loved to brag about her to the other parents in the village. On her fifth birthday, she wished for a puppy, and her mother agreed.”

“Later, there was a fire at the little girl’s house at night. Her parents were both out playing mahjong, so only the puppy was home with her. The puppy ran out the door, barking from house to house, finally waking up two nearby families. But the fire was too big, and the villagers didn’t dare go in.”

“In the end, the puppy ran back in and dragged the little girl out to the yard. Only then did the villagers outside pick her up. The puppy’s leg was crushed and it couldn’t get out on its own. It was left behind in the fire.”

“It was probably burned to death, or maybe suffocated,” little Jiang Yan covered her nose, “I could smell the choking smoke and the nasty smell of roasting meat.”

“After waking up, Sui Sui was sad for a long time, and her grades plummeted. Her parents felt guilty, so after moving to a new house, they bought her a duckling to distract her.”

“Sui Sui loved the duckling. She gave it the same name as the puppy. Her grades gradually improved, and lots of kids came to her house to see the duckling, because she raised it so beautifully.”

“It was a pale yellow duckling, palm-sized, waddling when it walked. As long as Sui Sui appeared, it would follow her. If she walked too fast, it would run to catch up.”

“But ducks get ugly when they grow up, and they start to smell bad,” little Jiang Yan said. “Sui Sui’s new home was in an apartment building. Her parents quickly regretted it. They thought the duck was an eyesore and said they’d give it away, but Sui Sui always refused.”

“Then on Sui Sui’s seventh birthday, she came home and, as usual, ran to the balcony. She was used to holding the duck for a while before studying, but the duck was gone.”

Jiang Yan lowered her gaze.

Little Jiang Yan went on, “Her mother was in the kitchen cooking.”

“It was stewed meat, very fragrant.”

“Sui Sui asked her mom where the duckling was. Her mom told her to eat first. Sui Sui had to sit down and eat. While eating, she kept asking about the duck, but her mother only smiled and asked if the stew tasted good. Sui Sui said it was.”

“Sui Sui thanked her mom and said it was the best stew she’d ever had.”

Jiang Yan: “And then?”

“Then a bunch of people came in, laughing,” little Jiang Yan replied.

“They brought Sui Sui a birthday cake and had her hold the stew pot for a photo.”

“The uncles and elders were all happy, saying they didn’t know how the meat was this time, but last time’s dog meat was pretty good—though a bit burnt from the fire, but at least it wasn’t wasted.”

That was where the film ended.

The question on the big screen was: What kind of meat did Sui Sui eat?

Little Jiang Yan spread her hands. “That question was way too easy.”

“Everyone who played cleared it. The adults really liked this attraction. Some even asked the staff to make more like it.”

At this point, little Jiang Yan blinked in confusion. “But I thought this attraction would be called Sui Sui Cinema…”

She said, “Turns out it’s called Duck Duck Cinema.”