Chapter 34: Public Execution Question: When can Xu Sirui be with his parents...
Almost the moment she finished speaking, the fortune teller hurried towards him, opened his drunken eyes, and said in shock: "Oh my, oh my, oh my, this is terrible! My dear, I see that your forehead is black, and your fate is full of bad luck. You will have a great disaster within three months. It's terrible..."
“…”
Although Zhu Yingning had warned him in advance, Xu Sirui was still shocked to the point of being speechless when he heard this familiar set of deceptive rhetoric that seemed to have been copied and pasted directly from a TV drama.
Xu Zhengkang always adheres to the superstitions of traditional businessmen and always seeks out fortune tellers for advice, no matter what. Xu Sirui has seen many talented people with different personalities and special skills since he was a child, but this kind of roadside fortune telling method that says someone is destined to have bad luck is the first time he has seen it.
The curiosity that had just risen in his heart disappeared in an instant. He turned sideways wordlessly and said to Zhu Yingning, "Let's go."
"Hey, don't go." The fortune teller—no, it should be called a charlatan—saw them leaving and hurriedly chased after them. He stopped in front of Xu Sirui and almost pulled his sleeve. "Do you think I'm a liar? Little brother, I, Li, guarantee with my thirty years of Taoist career that I haven't seen a face like yours in a long time! Within three months... No, not three months, within a month, within a month, you will definitely have a great disaster! This disaster is closely related to your family. If you don't break it, you will suffer for the rest of your life..."
Xu Sirui didn't take it seriously at first, thinking it went in one ear and out the other, thinking he was just talking nonsense. Until he heard him mention his family and even cursed them, he became a little annoyed. Just as he was about to curse, he heard Zhu Yingning's crisp voice interrupt.
"Do you look at my face?"
The charlatan turned his gaze to her face, examining it closely. After five seconds, he exclaimed in surprise, as if he had seen a ghost. "That's not right... Why is your forehead dark too? Little sister, I see your face is filled with bad luck. You might face a catastrophe within the next three months!"
"?"
The rhetoric didn't even change at all. Xu Sirui was stunned listening to it, and even the two photographers couldn't help laughing.
"You said that before." Zhu Yingning exposed him mercilessly.
"Before?" The charlatan rolled his eyes. "I've calculated for you before? You must have remembered it wrongly, little sister."
"Yes, you did it for me two years ago."
"real?"
"real."
The liar didn't expect her to reply "really" so sincerely, and was speechless for a moment.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhu Yingning winked at Xu Sirui, signaling him to leave. Even after they had walked a long way out, the con man still stood there, stroking his chin in deep thought.
"He has some mental issues and hangs around here all the time." She tapped her temples and explained, "He uses the same rhetoric no matter who he meets. Don't take it personally."
Xu Sirui chuckled. He didn't take it too seriously, but he thought it was quite magical.
"You guys really have hidden dragons and crouching tigers here," he said.
**
The hair salon is still the same hair salon. They arrived a little later today and the hair salon was already open.
Zhu Yingning was going to call Zhu Jixiang, so Xu Sirui decided to get a haircut first.
A yellow-haired young man who had met him at the door last time came to serve him and asked him what kind of project he wanted to do. He asked around and found that the prices here were basically within his affordability, so he said, "Let's wash my hair first."
The yellow-haired boy took him to the recliner for washing his hair.
The recliner was made of leather. When Xu Sirui lay down on it, he noticed several holes near his fingers, revealing the yellow sponge inside. It was obvious that it had been scratched by the hands of a previous customer who had their hair washed. He had become immune to the shabby equipment in this area and simply closed his eyes and ignored it.
After washing and drying his hair, the yellow-haired guy handed him a hairstyle reference book that was also tattered and had curled edges, asking him to choose one. He flipped it open, glanced at it casually, and was stunned for a moment. He closed the magazine, paused for a moment, and then opened it again, staring at the hairstyles inside in disbelief.
If I have to find a word to describe it, it would be earthy.
It's so earthy.
It's so weird and unfashionable that it's offensive to both humans and gods.
He raised his head and looked at the hairstyle of the yellow-haired guy behind him through the mirror. Later he realized that the guy's hairstyle was also very rustic.
Although yellow hair is a standard feature of hair salon guys, there are different grades of yellow hair. Some yellow hair is uniquely yellow, while some looks like a bunch of dead grass, picked from the roadside and directly stuck on the head.
There is no doubt that the yellow-haired man behind him belongs to the category of dead grass.
Xu Sirui suddenly felt a strong sense of worry.
The yellow-haired guy blew his hair until it was about 70% dry, put down the hair dryer, and asked, "What hairstyle do you want?"
"I..." Xu Sirui paused, remaining silent for a long time before finally offering the safest and least technically demanding request: "Cut my hair shorter to match my original hairstyle."
"Okay." The yellow-haired boy shook out his shawl and put it around him.
Just as I was putting on my clothes, a new customer, looking dusty, rushed into the store, cigarette in hand, and said nonchalantly, "Wow, you have customers so early today?"
The yellow-haired boy looked back at him and said, "Ajin hasn't come yet. I'm the only one in the store right now. Just find a chair and sit down and wait."
"No problem." The man, who looked like a regular customer, pulled out a stool and sat down. "I'll just watch some TV first."
After he said that, Xu Sirui discovered that there was a small TV hanging on the ceiling above the cash register of this hair salon.
The regular customer easily found the remote control, turned on the TV and started choosing channels.
Xu Sirui sat sideways to the screen, so to watch TV he had to turn his head 90 degrees, which was cumbersome and affected his barber's performance. He didn't turn his head, just pricked up his ears and listened to the sound, as if he were listening to the radio.
A regular customer turned on the news broadcast and observed the world situation for a while. Then, perhaps feeling bored, he switched to CCTV5 Sports Channel and watched a badminton match. Then, the background music switched to "Animal World," "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf," and "The Temptation of Going Home." After switching through several channels, the regular customer finally stopped what he was doing and exclaimed in surprise.
Through the mirror, Xu Sirui saw a regular customer glance at him stealthily.
At first, he thought the man was simply curious about his appearance and attire, and that he'd probably calm down after seeing him, so he didn't take it seriously. However, the regular customer seemed to have no idea how to be polite. Not satisfied with just one glance, he stole a few more glances at him, his eyes increasingly curious.
Xu Sirui was very annoyed by his stare. Just as he was about to ask him what he was looking at, he heard a strange yet familiar question coming from the TV above the cash register:
"Hey! What's wrong with you, brother? You're a grown man, but you still want Ningning to carry you!"
…
The whole place was dead silent.
The regular customer's mouth opened into an O shape, his eyes darting left and right, his expression aroused by the spectacle. The yellow-haired young man paused, unsure of what was happening. Zhu Yingning, whose name was called, placed the phone down in confusion, stepped back, and looked up at the TV screen.
As for Xu Sirui, he froze in place as if struck by lightning, his ears ringing and his head dizzy.
The next second, he heard his own arrogant voice coming from the screen—
"I sprained my ankle. What's wrong with asking him to carry me?"
The following conversation was like a kaleidoscope of events before a person's death, playing in 3D stereoscopic surround in Xu Sirui's ears through the TV's sound holes, as if afraid that he would not remember this dark history.
"You...you can't do this even if you sprained your ankle!"
"I carried him because he couldn't walk. Can anyone lend a hand and help him get up?"
…
The first to react was the yellow-haired boy. He looked at the TV screen, then at Xu Sirui in front of him. His eyes widened as if they were about to fall out of their sockets. He uttered "Oh my god" four or five times before regaining his ability to speak. He asked in shock, "Is that you on TV?"
Then there was the regular customer, a melon-eating geek. He excitedly waved the TV remote and slapped his thigh. "I was wondering why this guy looks so much like the guy on TV! And there are two photographers following him! And this girl... Oh my god, awesome! Awesome! I heard there was a TV crew filming a show here, like some kind of variety show. Is that him? Is it him? Girls, is that you?"
Zhu Yingning stood close to him, and being rocked back and forth by him, she had no choice but to nod. Yang Ji hadn't mentioned that today was the premiere of the variety show, nor that it would be filmed and broadcast simultaneously. Suddenly seeing her own face on TV, she was so surprised she was speechless.
The yellow-haired guy and the older brother who was a regular customer were not much better than her. They spoke with the momentum of two hundred people, talking incoherently and confusingly. One moment they said, "I thought this was just a small local program, but I didn't expect it to be broadcast on the provincial TV station. Our crappy place is really damn lucky to be on TV." The next moment they said, "In that case, does that mean I'm also on TV? Damn, then I'm going to be famous."
After they had finally calmed down after expressing their excitement, the TV showed the scene before bedtime. Xu Sirui pointed at Zhu Yingning and said majestically, "I want him to sleep next to me."
"Don't even think about it, I'll just accept him sleeping next to me!"
“…”
“…”
The yellow-haired boy and the older brother, a regular customer, only then slowly noticed the content of the variety show itself. They all looked sideways at Xu Sirui with an indescribable expression on their faces.
Tortured by their gazes, Xu Sirui finally broke free from his petrified state. Like a tomato split in half, his cheeks instantly turned from white to red, then from red to blue, switching quickly like a slide show, and finally freezing into a colorful pattern.
Before they could say things like "I didn't expect you to be such a beast" and "Are you still a man?", he gritted his teeth and, to everyone's surprise, turned around and left without saying a word.
Familiar expansion, familiar flavor.
The two photographers, fearing he would stage another life-or-death escape, cursed and chased after him. Zhu Yingning was stunned for a moment, then quickly followed.
However, this time Xu Sirui was not as rebellious as last time. He just turned into the post office, communicated with the staff, took out the package sent by Zhou Tianlan, and then got on the ox cart with the package without looking back.
"that……"
Zhu Yingning wanted to say something, but she didn't know how to start, fearing that she would irritate his shattered self-esteem. If self-esteem had a physical form, Xu Sirui's self-esteem would be a pile of broken glass, not only reflecting light but also pricking his feet.
He sat on the ox cart, his face still hot and red as if he had a fever - the bad thing about having fair skin was that it left no trace of shame and embarrassment. If there was any change in his emotions, everyone would be able to see it at a glance, and there was no room for concealment.
There was a pause before he spoke.
"What did you say?" Zhu Yingning didn't hear clearly.
"...I'll let you get on and catch the bus."
"Drive?" she asked in surprise. "You want to go back? Back to the village?"
He nodded.
"But we just arrived in town. Don't you want to contact your parents? My brother just said they have something to tell you. Xu Sirui, actually... you really don't need to pay too much attention to what was just shown on TV. You're a very good person. I believe that everyone who insists on watching the variety show will eventually feel your kindness and..."
"Say it again?" He interrupted her, raised his eyelids and stared at her.
I have to say, he is quite scary when he is really angry. His pupils are pitch black, so dark that no highlights can be seen at all, like two pitch-black wells.
She immediately fell silent, frightened to the point of not daring to breathe. As she was still hesitating, she heard him say, "If you say that again, I'll commit suicide."
“…”
Well, she overestimated him.
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