Chapter 21 Bad Luck "I've stumbled upon a living 'ruthless path'..."
After saying this, Jiu Su suddenly let out a sharp, cold laugh—it turned out that no matter how many times he had told himself "we are even" over the years, and how he had claimed to the outside world that they "had no relationship anymore," he still loved her in his heart.
She had clearly killed him.
Clearly, she had trampled on him before.
Clearly, she had even forgotten their past...
However, when he met her bright, smiling eyes, the scabs that had formed over the years were suddenly torn off, as if a blood-soaked mask had been removed, forcing him to re-examine his true feelings.
But what right does she have to pressure him like this?
“I can’t forget you…” Jiu Su stood up, leaned down to stare intently at her face, and asked again, “So what?”
His long, silvery hair enveloped her in shadow, and his eyes were fierce and cold, like a sharp, shattering blade, trying to tear her apart from her eyes to her heart, even at the cost of mutual destruction, just to see for himself her heart and soul.
Shu Qing was stunned by his intense, head-down gaze. She almost doubted whether Jiu Su's phrase "cannot forget love" was using the same modern Chinese language as hers—normal exchanges of feelings don't always turn out so tensely. Did he consider admitting his feelings for her as humiliating as surrendering?
Neither of them spoke, but across the table, they engaged in a fierce battle of wits, exchanging glances for hundreds of rounds.
People passing by the public rest area couldn't help but cast curious glances at them.
"Not so great." Shu Qing met his gaze, then suddenly broke into a bright smile. "According to the normal pre-dating confession process, the next step should be for me to choose whether to accept or not. I've already said, I'm single anyway—"
Jiu Su cut off the conversation, saying, "I advise you not to."
Shu Qing: "..."
Okay, this is definitely not the normal confession process.
Jiu Su stepped back and looked down at Shu Qing. He already had a distant and unapproachable appearance, and with his gaze looking down from above, he appeared even colder and more aloof.
"I'm just a stranger," he said indifferently. "Just treat me as someone passing through."
Shu Qing was completely baffled. She also stood up. Although she was not as tall as Jiu Su due to her physical limitations, she at least did not look inferior. The two were evenly matched.
She asked, "Why? I've never heard of such a thing. We like each other, but we're two strangers. We can't even be friends?" She pressed on, "Is there something troubling you? Can't you talk about it and we can solve it together?"
“No,” Jiu Su replied coldly. “You don’t need to know why. Just consider it something I owed you in the past.”
Shu Qing: "..."
This time, she was truly speechless—he tutored her, answered all her questions, took care of her when she was sick, helped her solve problems, and gave her a valuable amulet that she could tell at a glance. All of this added up, and he still hadn't repaid her debt. How much of a debt did he owe her?
She's someone who never lets herself suffer a loss easily, and she even dared to confront a level 9.2 monster head-on. When has she ever been owed a debt like this and not even knew why?
After waiting a few seconds, Jiu Su took her silence as "no doubt", then turned and left without looking back.
Shu Qing was left standing there, bewildered, her logic and worldview severely challenged.
"No, what is this person thinking?" She stood in the hallway for five minutes in the wind, and when she returned to her room, she was still preoccupied with her worries. She could only hug the little snake and mutter to herself, "Did I say something wrong that angered him? Or does he have some special background, or some kind of prohibition against dating?"
After pondering this for a long time with her mind racing, she finally came to the conclusion: "Did I stumble upon a living 'ruthless path'?"
Little snake: "..."
The little snake demon wished she could just bite her to death.
It held back, rolled its eyes, and poked at the white jade pendant in her pocket, indicating that she shouldn't be so confused about priorities and should put on the amulet first.
Shu Qing knew what was important, so she took off a necklace she didn't usually wear, put it on properly, and wore it close to her body.
The pendant felt cool against her heart. The thought that it was a gift from that person made her feel even more intimate. In a way, it was far more intimate than rings or bracelets…
Shu Qing tapped the little snake demon's head and asked, "Where did he come from? Why don't you want to see him?"
The little snake demon couldn't answer, and her eyes would betray her secret, so she turned her head away to avoid her gaze.
"Oh, right." Shu Qing suddenly remembered, slumped on the bed and sighed, "I was so busy talking about this that I forgot to ask him about the auspicious bird, and I didn't even have time to mention the studio to him..."
It's said that heroes are often short-sighted because of their love for their children. Her "love for her children" hasn't even started yet, and it's already starting to interfere with her important business. This shows that men really do affect the speed at which she can draw her sword.
She rolled around in bed in agony for a couple of minutes before finally getting up, realizing that running away was useless and she had to face the problem.
She opened her chat window with Jiu Su. Regardless of Jiu Su's reasons for rejecting her, his attitude was very clear. Even if he truly was a cultivator of the ruthless path, he wouldn't be with her, and of course, he had no intention of "using love to prove his path." In short, he was harmless to her.
Relationships are a matter between two people. Since he is unwilling, his decision should be respected, and she doesn't need to pry.
"I'm sorry, I was a bit abrupt today." Shu Qing typed a line solemnly. "I won't bring this up again. Let's continue as friends. If you ever need my help, just let me know."
She clicked "send," and although she still felt a slight sense of loss, she put the matter aside and went online to search for information about the auspicious bird.
The little snake coiled on the back of the computer chair to keep her company, silently gazing at her profile, thinking, "If only she had always been like this."
She let go so easily, leaving without a second thought, leaving him alone, trapped in a cycle of love and hate, unable to escape...
If only my past life had been like this.
"What should I do? I have absolutely no inspiration." Half an hour later, Shu Qing slumped back in her chair, rubbing her face against the little snake coiled on the back of the computer chair, and said in distress, "I've thought about it and it still doesn't seem interesting. Maybe I should just make a cute slice-of-life story? Anyway, a little bird being cute is acceptable..."
The little snake avoided her face with a hint of disgust, resting its head in the crook of her shoulder and flicking its tongue.
She thinks everything is fine. No matter what she films, many people pay attention, which shows that her professional ability is in no way inferior to others, and it's not up to others to give her pointers.
“…No,” Shu Qing rejected her own idea again. “Our first video after making a fortune, our first appearance, can’t be so casual. Besides, it might be the debut video after the studio is set up…we still need to design it carefully.”
She sighed, ruffled the little snake haphazardly, and buried herself in deep thought.
For some reason, she felt particularly lacking in inspiration today. After racking her brains all morning and discussing with Qi Yun for a long time, she finally came up with a passable idea. She chose the theme of "behind-the-scenes of the studio's establishment" and planned to have Fa Cai cosplay as an angel, filming how people and monsters made wishes to Fa Cai before the studio was established, and how those wishes were fulfilled.
After this video is released, use daily short videos to countdown, and finally release the official announcement video of the studio's establishment. These three steps will build momentum in sequence, which is a pretty good start.
The direction was chosen, but the storyboard design didn't go smoothly either; after half a day, only a small part of it was drawn.
Shu Qing checked the time, put down her pen, and decided to clear her head by making herself something to eat.
"Let's just make some simple home-style dishes," Shu Qing said quickly as she prepared the ingredients. "It's just the two of us anyway. Stir-fried shrimp, sliced meat, bok choy... and a tomato and egg soup, what do you think?"
The little snake perched on her shoulder without complaint; after all, her cooking was always the same—as long as it was edible, it was fine.
But... she never expected that her cooking today would turn into such a bizarre and unexpected disaster.
First, while chopping vegetables, she was thinking about the storyboard she hadn't finished drawing and was swinging the knife around when she almost cut her own hand. Luckily, the little snake reacted quickly and, just as she saw the knife heading towards her finger, swung its tail and knocked the knife away, narrowly avoiding a bloody incident.
Although Shu Qing escaped physical harm, she was greatly frightened. She held the snake's tail and looked at it repeatedly, fearing that her knife had injured the tip of its tail.
The little snake retracted its tail, refusing to let her touch it, and nimbly wiggled its tail at her to show that it was perfectly fine and there was nothing to worry about.
Seeing that it was alright, Shu Qing was relieved. This time, she didn't dare to be distracted again and focused on the dishes at hand. After cleaning them up safely, she put them in the wok to stir-fry. However, an accident still happened while stir-frying. Even though she was using an induction cooker, the oil in the wok still caught fire, and the flames shot up a meter high.
The little snake had no choice but to exhale another breath of frost to extinguish the fire, thus taking on the function of a banana leaf fan, and thankfully, it didn't trigger the fire alarm.
Shu Qing hurriedly turned off the induction cooker, and looked closely. The shrimp in the pot had all been burned to a crisp, so they were obviously not going to be eaten.
"What the hell?" she exclaimed, her face contorted in disbelief at the mess in the kitchen. "Am I having a particularly unlucky day?"
Lack of inspiration, cutting your hand while chopping vegetables, and cooking mishaps are all normal and not impossible. But for them to happen all at once on the same day is outrageous. She's never been that bad at cooking before!
Shu Qing thought for a moment, then opened the mobile game she usually played and accessed its built-in divination system. She spent some game coins and drew lots ten times in a row. A string of lots lay out before her, all black from beginning to end, with "bad" and "very bad" alternating, without even a neutral "neutral" result.
According to the official probability announcement, the probability of her winning the lottery is less than one in ten thousand.
Even if it's true that you're in bad luck or facing the Grand Duke Jupiter, it shouldn't be this bad, right?
Shu Qing's expression was not good. She picked up her phone again and asked Jiu Su, "Does the auspicious bird really only bring good luck? Or is there any way to make someone particularly unlucky for a period of time?"
After such a close call cooking, Shu Qing didn't dare to continue. She ordered takeout, left a message asking her to leave it at the door, and went to take a shower to wash away the cold sweat she had just broken out in.
The warm water flowed over her body, calming her mind. Shu Qing calmed down from her tense thoughts, changed into her pajamas, and walked out of the bathroom, her steps faltering.
As for the restaurant serving the wrong food... well, that's not a big deal at all.
She picked out the offal she didn't like and threw it away, then ate the rest while reading Jiu Su's reply: "The auspicious bird lives up to its name; it won't bring bad luck. As for methods of cursing, of course they exist, and there are quite a few."
So-called fortune is nothing more than the possibility of good or bad things happening. Just as there are yokai like the lucky bird that increase the probability of good things, there are naturally corresponding yokai that can make bad things happen frequently.
If you encounter a similar curse, don't worry too much; with Little Red around, nothing serious will happen. As for other things…
“Have your friend deliver a lucky bird to your home,” Jiu Su told her. “I will visit you tonight and I will have a way to resolve this.”
After reading these words, Shu Qing felt relieved and decided to take immediate action as Jiu Su suggested.
The only discrepancy was that it wasn't Qi Yun who came to her rescue with the auspicious bird, but rather she who declined Qi Yun's offer to send a driver to pick her up. After experiencing a series of chaotic events, including almost being hit by a bicycle, a temporary subway shutdown, and encountering a large stray dog on the way, she finally arrived at Qi Feng Photography Studio with great difficulty.
The little snake demon was furious with her and was so angry that it kept biting her.
Shu Qing knew she was in the wrong, so she was willing to let it bite her little finger—but she had her reasons.
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