1.
[The owner of this livestream found Bạch Lê inside the ancient tomb. The doctors said that if they’d been another hour later, they wouldn’t have been able to save her.]
[Wasn’t Bạch Lê filming on the mountain? How could she have gone missing? And they found her in an ancient tomb, of all places?]
[I think she just got lucky and made a wild guess that happened to be right. It’s the twenty-first century. Who believes in fortune-telling?]
As tens of thousands of people suddenly flooded into my livestream and started commenting nonstop, it took me a moment to figure out what was going on.
I still remembered that night. I’d been telling ghost stories to my viewers on my livestream.
A director named Ethan Brooks had entered my livestream and, looking helpless, asked me to find someone for him.
Cold wind, icy rain, and a dark night.
He was soaked through, his eyes bloodshot, his voice full of despair. “I want to find someone. Her birth pillars are the year of the Earth Tiger, the month of the Metal Monkey, and the day of the Wood Goat.”
Seeing how miserable he looked, I felt sorry for him. I didn’t ask a single question before helping him pinpoint her exact location.
That guy sure was lucky. He took off before paying me.
So this sudden explosion of popularity was the reward I deserved for a lifetime of doing good deeds and building up good karma.
2.
My name is Alex Johnson. I’m a furnace demon adopted by a Taoist master.
I’m hopeless at cultivation, but I’m great at fortune-telling and reading people’s fates.
After that old man ascended, he left me behind in the human world, saying I still had one more trial to overcome.
But I figured he just thought my magic was too weak and was afraid I’d embarrass him if he took me along.
It’s fine. I can comfort myself.
Life in the human world was so lonely it was practically killing me, so I started livestreaming fortune-telling online to pass the time.
About $0.002 per reading.
3.
Now that I’m famous, business has picked up too.
Even though I had to raise my rate to five thousand a reading, plenty of people still came to have their fortunes told.
Out of the many requests to connect, I randomly picked a viewer with the ID “Bỏ Lỡ.”
The next moment, a handsome man in a suit appeared on screen.
“Master, I want to find someone too. She was born in the year of the Fire Rat, the month of the Metal Rabbit, and the day of the Water Pig.”
At that, my eyebrows shot up.
What was this, some kind of set formula? Why did everyone like putting it that way?
After grumbling to myself, I began counting on my fingers.
In an instant, my heart sank.
I thought for a moment, then said, “The person you’re looking for is already dead.”
“That’s bullshit.”
He sneered. “You’ve got a filthy mouth. She’s still alive and well.”
It comes with the job that people will doubt you, so I’d gotten used to it.
I picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip to soothe my throat.
“The person you’re looking for is a woman from Myanmar. You met two years ago, and she saved your life, didn’t she?”
Bỏ Lỡ’s expression shifted slightly. “...Yeah. How did you know?”
I raised an eyebrow. “If you don’t believe my reading, why not tell me more about the person you knew? I’ll do another reading for you. Maybe things will turn out better.”
Bỏ Lỡ thought for a moment, then slowly began, “Two years ago, I was tricked into going to Myanmar. My family paid over a hundred thousand to get me out, but they couldn’t buy my release. So I got together with some friends to look for a chance to escape.”
"They were all shot while trying to escape. In the end, I was the only one who got away, but I was badly injured."
As he spoke about that tragic experience, his eyes turned red and his face was filled with sorrow.
Then he took a deep breath, his expression gradually relaxing. "I met her while I was on the run. Her name is Olivia Morgan, and she lives in a nearby village."
"After she learned what I’d been through, she bandaged my wounds and hid me in an abandoned house in her village so I could recover."
"During that time, she brought me food every day, changed my bandages, and helped me ask around about how to get back to China. Once I was healed, I found a way to secretly return home."
"Before I left, we promised each other that I would definitely come back for her. I told her to wait for me."
As he spoke about this, the man seemed lost in his memories and didn’t say anything for a long while.
The viewers in the livestream were so anxious they couldn’t sit still, and the comments were flying by.
[What happened next? Did you go back to find her? Hurry up and tell us, don’t leave us hanging!]
[Isn’t it obvious? He definitely didn’t go back for her, otherwise he wouldn’t be here in this livestream looking for someone.]
[Based on my years of watching melodramatic TV dramas, people who say they’ll come back almost never do.]
I glanced at the comments and asked the question everyone was wondering: "If you wanted to find her, why didn’t you go yourself? Why come to a livestream?"
Bỏ Lỡ let out a sigh and said regretfully, "I did go back to look for her, but the neighbors said she’d gotten married and her family had moved away. No one knew where she’d gone, and I couldn’t get in touch with her."
I looked at the divination sticks in my hand and frowned. "The second reading still shows that she’s no longer alive."
"Because she saved you, someone reported her to the scam ring. A family of five was shot dead the night you made it home."
[Oh my god, is that real or fake? How could something so brutal happen?]
[I think it’s true. My cousin who escaped from Myanmar told me those scam syndicates are ruthless and vengeful. They’re capable of things like that.]
[I came here for a fortune reading, why did I suddenly get stabbed in the heart like this?]
[I’m dying laughing, you guys actually believe this? It’s obviously scripted—otherwise how could there be such a melodramatic plot?]
When Bỏ Lỡ heard this, he suddenly froze. He shook his head violently. "No way, her neighbors said she just moved away."
"Maybe that was just a white lie."
I sighed. "She’s buried in the woods behind the village. If you have time, you should go see her."
The truth was, he already had a suspicion in his heart, but he just didn’t want to accept the worst outcome.
After that, I ended the livestream.
4.
After what just happened, the mood in the livestream was a bit down.
It wasn’t until the gift effects started popping up one after another that things livened up again.
[Bạch Lê sent you 30 Carnivals.]
[Bạch Lê sent you 30 Helicopters.]
[Bạch Lê sent you 30 Pirate Ships.]
What a grand gesture!
This was the first time I’d ever received so many gifts since I started livestreaming.
I eagerly opened the livestream app, and on the screen appeared a stunningly beautiful woman, her eyes shimmering like autumn water and her brows arched gracefully like distant mountains.
[Ahhh, that's the goddess Bạch Lê! I'm so lucky to see her in real life. She's even more beautiful than in her photos.]
[Bạch Lê must have come here to thank the streamer. She's beautiful inside and out—I'm crying my eyes out.]
Bạch Lê's rosy lips parted slightly as she expressed her gratitude to me: "Master Alex Hill, thank you so much. Thanks to you calculating my location, I was rescued in time."
I nodded gently. "It's nothing. Have you run into any trouble lately?"
She spoke with a worried look: "Master, can you tell? Ever since I was rescued from the ancient tomb, my spirits have been low, and I can't stop crying. I always feel like I've forgotten something."
[Don't tell me she's possessed! Damn ghost, let go of my goddess!]
[My family lives in a village next to that ancient tomb. The elders say the tomb is very evil. Sometimes you can see shadows moving around at night.]
[I know that tomb too. I heard it's from the Qing dynasty. There was even a paranormal website that did a special investigation on it before.]
[Hey, it's late, don't scare me! Please, gods and buddhas, protect us—evil spirits, begone! Evil spirits, begone!]
The symptoms Bạch Lê described didn't sound like possession, but more like soul loss.
I looked closely at Bạch Lê's face—the rosy glow between her brows showed her romantic luck was at its peak.
Strangely, she'd already met her destined match, but there was a shadowy, illicit relationship as well, one that even seemed to be overtaking her true fate.
I couldn't help but ask, "Do you remember how you ended up at the ancient tomb?"
She closed her eyes, thought for a moment, then softly said, "After the film crew wrapped up that day, I originally wanted to take a walk in the nearby mountains, but somehow I got lost."
"While I was walking, I saw an old building ahead. There was a wedding going on, decorated with lanterns and vibrant colors everywhere."
"I felt uneasy and wanted to leave, but suddenly everyone inside turned into skeletons and stared at me."
"Terrified, I ran and bumped into a man on the road. He was wearing a performance costume, but his face wasn't painted."
"He asked if I wanted to learn opera singing. I meant to refuse, but somehow I nodded. After that, I don't remember anything else."
I tapped my index finger on the table, sorting through my thoughts.
From Bạch Lê's description, the man who led her to the tomb was definitely the male ghost—he and Bạch Lê must have had a connection in a past life.
But what I couldn't understand was, how could a fate from a previous life carry over into this one?
I voiced my guess: "That man definitely had a bond with you in a past life. He originally wanted to imprison you in the ancient tomb until you died."
"But for some reason, he kept one fragment of your soul. Maybe he wanted you to seek him out again."
Bạch Lê was stunned for a moment, her face turning pale. "Then what should I do? Do I really have to go back and find him?"
I calculated the timing. "If you go to the ancient tomb at the Hour of the Goat the day after tomorrow, you can reclaim that missing soul fragment."
Bạch Lê frowned and pleaded with me, "Master Alex Hill, could I ask you to come with me? I'd feel much safer if you were there."
I had just calculated the timing—if she entered the ancient tomb at the right hour, she could retrieve that soul fragment without any trouble at all.
There was no need for me to go with her.
Besides, while I'm good at fortune-telling, I'm not exactly an expert at catching ghosts!
I was about to refuse, but then the wheel of fate stirred up a strange intuition inside me.
It told me that I absolutely had to go this time.
A Taoist's intuition never comes without reason, so I changed my mind and said, "I'll go with you the day after tomorrow."
Bạch Lê let out a sigh of relief, the fear on her face easing a little. "Master, thank you for helping me again. I'll send you a reward—just let me know how much you want."
I shook my head gently to show that I didn't need anything.
I'm a ghost demon—what would I do with money when I have nowhere to spend it?