Chapter 19: The Profound Mysteries of Feng Shui

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Chapter 19: The Profound Mysteries of Feng Shui

This was a typical intersection in a busy downtown area. Several high-rise buildings stood beside a plaza, their exterior walls covered in eye-catching advertisements.

They had parked in a designated parking area beside the plaza. After getting out of the car, Yu Shenliu and Chen Yuan continued on together.

“Speaking of which, why did you read my right hand? Isn’t it ‘men left, women right’? Shouldn’t you read a man’s left hand instead?” As he thought about the money Chen Yuan had on hand, Yu Shenliu was also considering which phone brands would suit him. Although he didn’t mind buying Chen Yuan a phone, sometimes that wasn’t the way to show closeness. After several days together, Yu Shenliu had learned enough about Chen Yuan’s principles to know that he didn’t accept monetary gifts from others. He preferred to earn money through his own abilities and believed in an exchange of favors. Now that Yu Shenliu was giving him a place to stay, Chen Yuan was repaying him in his own way.

Since that was the case, trying to give Chen Yuan something anyway would instead be an insult.

“There are many different schools of metaphysics.” Chen Yuan’s eyes wandered over the various goods displayed in the shop windows around them, and his tone was somewhat casual. “As for palmistry, some say it’s ‘left for men, right for women.’ There’s also the view that the left hand represents what you’re born with, while the right represents what comes later. In other words, if you want to look at the changes in your recent fortune, or changes brought about by your own decisions, you should look at the right hand.”

Yu Shenliu didn’t respond to Chen Yuan’s words. He spotted a telecommunications store and reached out to take Chen Yuan by the wrist, leading him inside. “Let’s take a look here.”

Chen Yuan looked up and quickly glanced over the row of stores. The merchandise seemed more or less the same. Why had Yu Shenliu picked this one?

Looking more carefully, he noticed that the glass outside this particular shop had been wiped spotless, giving the place a bright, energetic feel. Even the employees inside looked lively and spirited, making the whole place pleasant to look at.

Hm?

Above the storefront hung a small mirror that caught the sunlight and seemed almost dazzling.

Before Chen Yuan could think any further, Yu Shenliu had already pulled him into the store, and a middle-aged man with a trace of anger on his face brushed past them as they entered.

Various phones were displayed inside the cabinets. Compared with the types of phones Chen Yuan had been used to seeing before he crossed over, the phones in this world seemed to be more creatively designed. A casual glance revealed all sorts of interesting shapes: hearts, flowers, flying saucers, and Chen Yuan even spotted one shaped like a compass. Compared with these, and thinking about the phones Yu Shenliu, Huo Jian, and Huo Shu used, Chen Yuan suddenly felt that perhaps all the people he had met so far were actually on the conservative side.

“What kind of shape do you want?” Yu Shenliu casually looked over the various phones in the store before turning to ask Chen Yuan.

Although Chen Yuan thought the unusual phone designs were quite interesting, he considered himself a conservative person too, so he answered, “Something like yours is fine.”

The moment Chen Yuan said this, a uniformed salesperson seemed to materialize out of nowhere beside them and immediately asked, “Would the two of you like to customize a couple’s phone?”

Chen Yuan was momentarily stunned, partly by how the salesperson seemed to materialize out of nowhere, and partly by what she had said. A couple’s phone? Wait a second, had he heard that correctly? She had said a couple’s phone?

His eyes instinctively turned toward Yu Shenliu, only to find him looking perfectly calm, as though he didn’t care in the slightest. He casually replied, “Let’s take a look first.”

Yu Shenliu looked completely composed, as if the salesperson’s words had not elicited any particular reaction from him. Only he knew that being mistaken for a couple right off the bat had instantly put him in a good mood. He simply put on an expression that suggested he couldn’t be bothered to explain and said nothing.

Seeing Yu Shenliu act like this, even Chen Yuan began to wonder whether he had misheard just now. After all, in the eighteen years he had grown up, although he knew that love had nothing to do with gender, society as a whole was not particularly accepting of same-sex couples. So how could this salesperson casually assume they were a couple?

The two of them were focused on completely different things, which led to the misunderstanding.

Looking ahead, Yu Shenliu found the section displaying rectangle-shaped phones. He turned and pointed toward it, indicating to Chen Yuan. “Over there.”

“Let’s go take a look.” Chen Yuan stopped dwelling on whether he had misheard earlier or whether the salesperson really had asked if they wanted a couple’s phone. He could think about that later. For now, he should take care of what he had come here to do.

He had just taken a step when a crisp sound of shattering glass rang out, accompanied by a woman’s hysterical shouting.

Everyone in the store instinctively turned toward the entrance.

The entrance was not far away, so when Chen Yuan turned around, he immediately saw what had happened. Shards of gleaming glass were scattered across the floor. It was clearly the mirror he had noticed earlier. With his back to Chen Yuan stood the middle-aged man who had brushed past them just moments ago. Facing him were several other people, led by a woman holding a bamboo pole. Her face was flushed, and she glared at the middle-aged man through clenched teeth.

What was going on?

Human curiosity was like that. The moment something happened, a crowd quickly gathered around it. Inside the store, however, the employees took a couple of glances before lowering their eyes and pointedly looking away.

Chen Yuan wasn’t particularly curious by nature, but even he couldn’t help looking a few more times when he suddenly came across something like this. Seeing the employees standing there with their eyes lowered, he couldn’t help asking, “This is happening right in front of your store. Aren’t you going to do anything?”

“The boss is here. He’s always hated us getting involved in these things.” The employee answered in a low voice, then gestured with her eyes toward the middle-aged man. “It’s happened a few times before. Whenever we try to intervene, the boss docks our pay.”

Chen Yuan glanced at the tense scene and frowned. “It’s gotten this bad before?” They were practically on the verge of fighting. And with the boss handling it himself, the employees were too scared to even speak up?

“More or less. They usually just argue. But today is the first time they’ve actually knocked down and smashed that feng shui mirror. The boss is definitely going to be furious. His temper isn’t very good to begin with.” After badmouthing her boss, the employee couldn’t help sticking out her tongue despite speaking in a low voice. “Don’t tell him I said that.” Clearly a bit of a gossip, she was perfectly willing to chat about it even with a stranger.

Hearing this, Chen Yuan had yet to react when Yu Shenliu murmured, “A feng shui mirror?”

As he said those three words, he looked toward Chen Yuan. The person standing beside him was a master of metaphysics, after all. When it came to feng shui, shouldn’t Chen Yuan know more about it?

Chen Yuan did not explain it to Yu Shenliu directly as he usually would. Instead, he continued questioning the employee. “A feng shui mirror? One meant to alter the feng shui?”

“Yeah. Our store’s business wasn’t this good before. We were barely getting by. Then, I don’t know where the boss got the information from, but he put up a mirror there. After that, business at our store gradually picked up. Then the owners of the other stores insisted that we had stolen their feng shui, which was why their businesses were doing so badly, and demanded that our boss take the mirror down. They should take a look at themselves. Their businesses had been the same for years. Why would we need to steal their feng shui?”

This really was Chen Yuan’s field. Yu Shenliu looked at him and raised an eyebrow slightly. Chen Yuan rarely got involved even when things like this came up, so why was he asking so many questions about this today? Could there be more to it?

“Shall we go take a look?” Chen Yuan looked up at Yu Shenliu.

So there really was something wrong. Yu Shenliu confirmed his suspicion and nodded. “Sure.”

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