Chapter 17: The Master’s Ruler

July 22nd, 2023

The security guard who came to check the situation was understanding after Xie Xingyu explained a few words, so he didn’t give them any trouble and let them go.

“I’ll go get the car,” Xie Xingyu told the others to wait by the roadside as he went to the nearby parking lot to bring the car.

Chen Chu was bowing his head, sending a message to inform the law enforcement team to pick up the witch specter at headquarters. While typing, he suddenly felt a hand gently tugging at his clothes.

Turning around, Chen Chu saw the girl looking at him with her big round eyes and pointing to a nearby milk tea shop. “Can I go buy a cup of milk tea?”

Chen Chu was a bit puzzled why the girl had to ask him first if she wanted to drink milk tea, but he nodded and said, “Of course.”

“Thank you,” Lin Xuan smiled brightly. She lifted her slightly long priestess skirt and hopped her way toward the milk tea shop. Halfway there, she seemed to remember something and turned back, shouting loudly, “Do you want one too?”

Chen Chu smiled and shook his head. Only then did Lin Xuan continue turning around and heading to the milk tea shop.

When Xie Xingyu brought the car over, he noticed that someone was missing and curiously asked, “Where’s Sadako?”

“She went to buy milk tea.” Today, the mall was hosting an event, and it was also the weekend, so there was a huge crowd. The milk tea shop was bustling, and Lin Xuan was still in line.

“If I remember correctly, she was almost sucked dry of her life force by the witch specter just now. How can she think of drinking milk tea so soon?” Xie Xingyu clicked his tongue.

Chen Chu recalled the girl’s earlier statement about not dying and couldn’t help but chuckle. “She has a good mindset.”

By this time, Lin Xuan had already obtained her milk tea. Seeing that Xie Xingyu had brought the car, she hurriedly ran back with the milk tea in hand. “Alright, we can go now.”

The group got into the car, with Xie Xingyu in the driver’s seat, Lin Xuan in the passenger seat, and Chen Chu guarding the witch specter in the back seat. On the way, instead of immediately drinking her milk tea, Lin Xuan took out her phone, took a photo of the milk tea, and posted it on her social media.

“Now you even have to post a milk tea on your social media?” Xie Xingyu asked. It was just a regular pearl milk tea, nothing special.

“This cup of milk tea is different,” Lin Xuan replied as she edited her social media post.

“What’s different about it?”

“I bought it with my first divination gold.” Anything, as long as it’s the first time, is worth commemorating.

“Divination gold?” Xie Xingyu didn’t understand. He was about to ask again when suddenly, there was a loud “bang” sound from the back seat, causing Xie Xingyu to curse under his breath.

“Oh no.”

Lin Xuan was also startled and nearly dropped her milk tea, but surprisingly, it was Chen Chu, who was closest to the source of the sound, who remained the calmest, as if he had known it was coming.

“How… how did you become like this?” Lin Xuan pointed at the witch specter in the back seat, who had suddenly transformed from a cute little girl into a 300-pound obese figure. Even her speech became stuttered.

If it weren’t for knowing that there were only a few of them in the car, she wouldn’t have dared to admit it was her.

“Ah, ah, ah…” The witch specter seemed to just realize what had happened. She covered her face in terror and kept screaming, “Don’t look at me, don’t look at me.”

“Why are you covering up? Can you hide such a big figure?” Xie Xingyu mocked. The sudden transformation from a loli to a dinosaur caught him off guard, and he was quite injured.

“What’s going on?” Lin Xuan looked at Chen Chu, instinctively feeling that he should know.

“The witch specter’s ability is to steal the life force of others and convert it into some kind of power to fulfill her wishes. She used the power to change her appearance, but these changes are only temporary and false. Once the power disappears, her true form is revealed,” Chen Chu explained.

“No wonder, I couldn’t move her at all in the corridor earlier.” At that time, Lin Xuan thought it was because she had lost too much life force and was too weak, so she became weaker. Now she realized that she really couldn’t move her.

“Is devouring others’ life force just to become more attractive?” Lin Xuan murmured.

“What do you know? People like you who were born good-looking wouldn’t understand,” Lin Xuan’s words once again struck a nerve with the witch specter. “Do you know what I went through since childhood? It’s because I wasn’t good-looking. My classmates isolated me, mocked me, and called me a pig behind my back. But ever since I gained my supernatural power and became attractive, they all wanted to hang out with me. Girls envied me, boys admired me. Wherever I go, I’m the center of attention.”

“So, you can steal others’ life force to achieve your own goals,” Chen Chu questioned coldly.

“So what? I didn’t intend to kill them. I just wanted them to catch a cold. Resting for a few days would be enough. After all, people catch colds every day in this world. What’s the big deal?” the witch specter shouted.

“Following that logic, if I had your ability, can I make everyone in the world spend money on me?” Lin Xuan suddenly had a bold idea. “Since people spend money every day, why can’t they spend it on me? Just one dollar per person per day, I’m not greedy.”

The confident witch specter instantly became speechless, her face turning red, unable to come up with a rebuttal.

Watching Lin Xuan’s serious expression, Chen Chu suddenly felt that she was sincere, that she truly yearned for it, and it wasn’t just to challenge the witch specter.

“By the way, how did you discover that the witch specter was devouring life force?” Chen Chu suddenly remembered this question.

“Yeah, how did you find out? It’s difficult to detect the witch specter’s life force devouring. Even if there were energy fluctuations, as an F-level, you probably wouldn’t be able to sense them,” Xie Xingyu was also curious. If it were him and Chen Chu present, with their perceptiveness, they might have noticed the witch specter using her ability. But for Lin Xuan, a newly awakened F-level esper, it should have been impossible to notice.

“I divined it,” Lin Xuan said.

“Divination?” Both of them looked at Lin Xuan with surprise.

“Yeah, I can do divination,” Lin Xuan admitted openly for the first time in front of others. After all, crawling on TV wasn’t strange anymore, so it wasn’t a big deal to be able to tell fortunes. “I was doing fortune-telling for people at the comic convention, and I happened to divine about the witch specter. She was the only one in the whole venue who didn’t have bad luck. It was clear she wasn’t a good person.”

“Wait… Even if you can tell fortunes in addition to crawling on TV, what do you mean by saying that only the witch specter didn’t have bad luck in the whole venue?” Jie Xingyu felt that the logic seemed a bit off.

Chen Chu also looked puzzled as he gazed at Lin Xuan.

“Because I can only divine misfortune,” Lin Xuan said.

“Only divine misfortune? Can you explain it more clearly? I’m having trouble understanding,” Jie Xingyu felt that his comprehension skills were lacking in this moment.

“It’s exactly as it sounds. I can tell fortunes, but only for unlucky people. Simply put, if you’re currently experiencing or about to experience misfortune, I can divine it for you. But if you have good luck or haven’t had misfortune recently, I won’t be able to divine anything,” Lin Xuan explained. “At that time, the witch specter was absorbing the life force of everyone in the venue, so everyone was having bad luck except for her.”

“So you couldn’t divine the witch specter’s misfortune, and that’s how you determined she was the witch specter?” Chen Chu clarified the logic.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Lin Xuan said, taking a sip of her milk tea and closing her eyes in contentment. It was sweet and delicious.

“Does that even work?” Jie Xingyu couldn’t decide whether to consider the people in the venue unlucky or if the witch specter was the one with the misfortune. She was caught just because she didn’t have any misfortune, which made no sense to him.

The witch specter also looked constipated, wishing she had absorbed her own life force as well.

“So the fortune-telling you mentioned earlier was about…” Chen Chu looked at the milk tea in the girl’s hand.

“It’s the first time I earned money through fortune-telling, ten yuan. It’s just enough to buy milk tea,” Lin Xuan exclaimed with excitement. The mere mention of earning money made her radiant, emitting a bright light.

Just ten yuan, and she could be this happy?

Twenty minutes later, the car arrived at 106 Chunfeng Road. Lin Xuan looked at the door number at the entrance and felt a sense of familiarity. “Why does this address seem familiar?”

“We’ve arrived,” Jie Xingyu parked the car, and immediately two people in black uniforms approached the car. They nodded at Jie Xingyu and went straight to the back seat, pulling out the witch specter, handcuffing her, and placing her in another car. Then they drove away.

“They’re gone?” Lin Xuan stood in place, looking confused as she watched the departing car. “Don’t I need to give a statement?”

“I already explained the situation over the phone, and the law enforcement team will verify it themselves. You don’t need to repeat the details,” Chen Chu said.

“So why did I come here?” Lin Xuan asked. “Couldn’t I have just left when I was at the mall?”

Lin Xuan had always thought she had to come here with Chen Chu to give a statement.

“…,” Chen Chu was stunned by the question.

Indeed, why did he bring Lin Xuan here when her involvement was already over?

“Since we’re here, we might as well apologize,” Jie Xingyu came up with a reason for Lin Xuan.

“Apologize? Apologize to whom?” Lin Xuan was puzzled. Why did she need to apologize?

“Tan Zhu has been waiting for you all morning. If you didn’t want to attend the interview, that’s one thing, but not even making a phone call, is it inappropriate?” Jie Xingyu said.

“Interview? 106 Chunfeng Road?” Lin Xuan looked in the direction of the gate and then at Jie Xingyu. Memories slowly started to awaken. An interview at a familiar address? Wasn’t that the address of the fraudulent company?

“A monthly salary of 20,000 yuan, weekends off, social insurance, housing fund, supplementary medical insurance, no clock-in or attendance, transportation allowance, housing allowance, meal allowance, and a 16-month bonus at the end of the year…” Lin Xuan listed all the benefits from the interview notice in one breath.

Although she was convinced that the interview notice was a scam, it didn’t mean that she wasn’t attracted by the benefits mentioned. Such excellent and outstanding benefits were truly unforgettable.

With each benefit she mentioned, Lin Xuan’s face became more excited. She grabbed Chen Chu’s arm tightly and held on. “Senior, are these benefits real?!”

Chen Chu’s body stiffened for a moment. He subtly took a step back and withdrew his hand. “What benefits?”

“I’m talking about the ones I just mentioned,” Lin Xuan feared that she couldn’t explain it clearly, so she immediately took out her phone, retrieved the email that she had deleted and reported, and opened it to show Chen Chu. “Senior, this company is located here, right? It’s your company, isn’t it?”

Lin Xuan wasn’t foolish. If this company truly existed, and Chen Chu and Jie Xingyu had directly brought the car here, even mentioning the interview, there was only one explanation for everything—they were also a part of this company. Moreover, it was related to Chen Chu if this company could send her an interview notice.

Chen Chu glanced at the contents of the email and, after reading it, he suddenly understood why Lin Xuan hadn’t come for the interview. Tan Zhu had overlooked an important factor—Lin Xuan had just awakened her special ability and hadn’t even started to explore the world of special agencies. From the perspective of an ordinary person, this email could only be from a fraudulent company.

“It’s true,” Chen Chu nodded.

“I want to attend the interview. I want to join your company.” Upon hearing the affirmative answer, Lin Xuan jumped up directly. Chen Chu’s hand, which he had just taken back, was once again tightly held by Lin Xuan, and this time, she held it with both hands. Chen Chu couldn’t pull his hand back, no matter how hard he tried. “Senior, I was wrong. I was blind to such an outstanding company that gives employees a sense of belonging. Please forgive my youthful ignorance and shallow understanding. Give me another chance.”

“…,” Chen Chu.

Ten minutes later, in the assistant’s office, Tan Assistant, who was not wearing a new suit, welcomed Lin Xuan, who was a week late for the interview. Because Chen Chu had explained beforehand, Tan Assistant did not make things difficult for Lin Xuan. After asking a few simple questions, Tan Assistant handed Lin Xuan an entry form.

Lin Xuan quickly filled it out and respectfully handed it back. Tan Assistant glanced at it and put it into a file bag.

“Assistant Tan, when can I start working?” Lin Xuan was full of enthusiasm for this job.

“No need to come if there’s nothing to do. I’ll call you when there’s work.” Tan Assistant replied coldly.

“Then… when does the salary start counting from?” Lin Xuan asked cautiously.

Chen Chu was speechless in the background. This girl had revealed all her thoughts on her face.

Tan Assistant glanced at her slantingly, with a cold expression but a generous tone, “It starts counting from today.”

Starting from today means I’ll have a salary today. It’s 20,000 yuan per month. If we calculate based on an average of 22.5 working days in a month, it’s 888.88 yuan per day. If we calculate based on 30 days in a month, it’s 666.66 yuan. Both numbers are wonderful and auspicious.

I’m going to make a fortune, make a fortune.

“Assistant Tan!” Lin Xuan suddenly rushed to the desk, expressing her determination loudly, “I will definitely give my all for our company, even if it means sacrificing my life and putting in all my efforts.”

“No need to be so serious, just do your job well.” Tan Assistant couldn’t handle the new employee’s enthusiasm.

After leaving the office, Lin Xuan felt like she was floating as she walked. Her luck wasn’t bad after all. She found a good job, and it even had a position. It must be the result of her accumulated good deeds.

Hehehe…

“How long do you think she’ll keep smiling?” Jie Xingyu whispered to Chen Chu while driving, “It’s just a salary of 20,000 yuan per month, which is the basic salary in our department.”

“She still thinks like an ordinary person.” Chen Chu could understand Lin Xuan’s feelings to some extent.

“True, her ability is only at the F level. If she doesn’t go on missions, she’s just an ordinary administrative staff. This salary is not bad for her.”

The car stopped at the entrance of Green Leaf University amidst Lin Xuan’s silly laughter and occasional conversations between the two.

“Hey, stop laughing and go to your school.” Jie Xingyu shouted impatiently.

Lin Xuan snapped back to reality, looked outside the car, and indeed realized they had arrived at her school’s entrance. “We’re here so fast. Thank you for driving me back.”

“Go on, go on.” Jie Xingyu waved his hand impatiently.

Lin Xuan opened the door, took a few steps, and then turned back, knocking on the window of the passenger seat. Chen Chu pressed the car window in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

“I forgot to thank Senior again. Thank you, Senior, for saving me once again.” If it weren’t for Chen Chu this time, she wouldn’t have been able to drag the witch out of the passage. “If there’s anything I can help with in the future, please be sure to let me know.”

Chen Chu hadn’t responded yet, but Jie Xingyu beside him burst into laughter, “Little girl, it’s nice to have a kind heart, but your abilities are far too weak. Take care of yourself, not causing any trouble for Chen Chu is the greatest help you can provide.”

Lin Xuan instantly felt a bit embarrassed, even though what the other person said was true.

“Alright, I will.” Chen Chu smiled and responded, resolving the girl’s embarrassment.

Lin Xuan waved her hand with a smile and turned around, running into the campus with a cheerful figure, like a carefree bird.

Jie Xingyu started the car and asked, “Where are we going now?”

“Take me home.” Chen Chu leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes to rest.

“Didn’t we agree to go buy household appliances together? In the end, I ended up paying for the TV myself. Wait a minute…” Jie Xingyu paused. “Where’s the TV?”

Chen Chu opened his eyes and pondered for a moment. “On the rooftop?”

Upon returning to the dormitory, Lin Xuan’s first action was to open her system panel. She wanted to take advantage of her good luck today and quickly draw her rewards.

In the shopping interface, there were still a bunch of mosaics. Lin Xuan deeply despised the system’s behavior of requiring merits to see the prices, but she was helpless.

“I want to draw a reward,” Lin Xuan said.

“Are you sure you want to draw a reward? Don’t you want to see the prices of the items without spending any merits? Maybe you can afford them?” the system said.

“The more you say that, the less I want to look. Besides, drawing a reward only costs 99 merits. With my current amount of merits, I can draw forty times,” Lin Xuan replied. She made a fortune today, and combined with the merits she had accumulated before, she now had 4,004 merits.

This number was a bit unlucky and had to be spent quickly.

Seeing Lin Xuan’s insistence, the system didn’t persuade her anymore and opened the draw page, where all the items were spinning rapidly.

Without hesitation, Lin Xuan raised her hand and made a selection.

“Congratulations, host. You have won a ‘Thank you for participating’ prize.”

“…” Thank you for participating is not something to be congratulated for. I’m thanking you.

It’s alright, it’s just a draw. It’s not possible to win every time. Let’s try again.

Lin Xuan made another selection.

“Congratulations, host. You have won a ‘Thank you for participating’ prize.”

“I don’t believe in this rigged system. Again!” Lin Xuan and the system had a disagreement and entered a frenzy of continuous drawing.

“Thank you for participating!”

“Thank you for participating!”

“Thank you for participating!”

…

One has to admit that gambling is truly addictive. Even someone as thrifty as Lin Xuan wasted a total of 990 merits in no time, receiving ten consecutive “Thank you for participating” prizes.

“I want to see the prices of the items.” Lin Xuan’s eyes were red from all the drawing. “My luck must be used up in job hunting, so it’s not advisable to draw rewards today.”

“Please select the item whose price you want to view and pay one merit.” the system said.

Lin Xuan randomly clicked on one amidst the mosaic-filled screen, and the price immediately appeared: 3009 merits.

But only the price was revealed; the rest of the item remained covered in mosaics, and Lin Xuan didn’t even know what the item looked like.

It costs 3009 merits? I only have 3013 merits left. If I spend them all, I’ll only have 4 merits left.

It’s a bit expensive.

“Do you want to view the item’s attributes for only 10 merits?” the system asked.

“Will I still be able to afford it after viewing the attributes?” Lin Xuan asked.

“You can buy it next time. Once the item’s attributes are viewed, they can be retained for three days.” the system replied.

“What does that mean? It will only be retained for three days? Are you saying that even if I spend merits to view the attributes, I can only see them for three days, and after that, the attributes will be hidden again?” Lin Xuan sneered. “Whether you hide them or not, once I’ve seen the attributes, I’ll remember them.”

“Hehe,” the system chuckled.

From the two irritating words, Lin Xuan sensed a strong malicious intent. “Could it be that after three days, the positions of the items in the system shop will change?”

All the items in the system were uniformly covered in mosaics, and Lin Xuan could only remember them based on their positions. But if the positions were disrupted, the corresponding items would be incorrect. If she didn’t want to make a mistake, she would have to spend ten merits to view the attributes again.

“Don’t worry, host. If there are no new items, the shop will not randomly change the positions of the items.” the system reassured.

“How do I know if you’ve added new items, how many new items have been added, and how often new items are added?” Lin Xuan asked.

“Do you want to have real-time access to shop information? Please subscribe to the shop newsletter, which only costs one merit per day.” the system suggested.

“If you had a physical form, I would definitely hit you.” Lin Xuan was already a person with a good temper, but at this moment, she really wanted to throw something.

Taking a deep breath, Lin Xuan forced herself to calm down. She realized one thing: when it came to spending merits, she would never outsmart the system. Even though her major was accounting, she couldn’t outsmart a computer. The feeling of being defeated in her own field of expertise was truly terrible.

“I want to see the price of this item.” Lin Xuan thought for a moment and selected another item to view its price.

The price showed 4590 merits, far exceeding the total number of merits she currently had.

She couldn’t look anymore; if she did, the system wouldn’t even be able to run tomorrow.

“Do you want to buy the item?” the system asked.

This purchase naturally referred to the item worth over three thousand merits.

Lin Xuan hesitated. Spending 3009 merits to buy an item was quite expensive, and if she did, she would only have 3 merits left. However, if she were to draw a reward, based on the system’s behavior, it would surely consume all her merits.

After much consideration, Lin Xuan finally made up her mind. “Buy it.”

She clicked on the purchase button, and the number representing merits in the lower right corner rapidly decreased, leaving only a single-digit 3 in the blink of an eye.

“The item has been placed in your inventory. Please check the attributes yourself, host.” the system announced.

Lin Xuan quickly opened her inventory and examined the item’s attributes.

【Name: Confucius’ Ruler】

【Usage Guide: Point the ruler at the other person and ask a question. If they answer incorrectly or cannot answer, you may spank their palm ten times. The ruler represents the authority of Confucius, teaching without discrimination until the lesson is learned.】

【Tip: As Mencius said, the virtuous man makes others virtuous.】