The Consequence of Judging Others by Appearance

“Old man, I’m offering you your favourite duck tongue. You have to bless me from the heavens. Don’t let me have bad luck.” Qi Yan put a plate of braised duck tongue in front of the master’s photo. After praying three times at the photo, he turned his head and looked at the blazing sun outside. He faintly felt that something related to him was about to happen. He calculated his own fortune, and only figured out that it wouldn’t be a disaster and nothing else.

　　He had developed a nonchalant attitude since he was little. So even though he couldn’t predict what would happen, he didn’t think much about it and went out to get groceries.

There was a big farmer’s market near where he lived. Everytime he went to the market to get groceries, he always received more than others. When he bought a bundle of green vegetables, the vegetable seller would give him two stalks of green onion. With his friendly face, he became familiar with everyone in the market.

But when he went to the market today, he saw black mists lingering in the market. Some people were infected with the black mist, and some people’s clothes were also stained with traces of the black mist. He frowned and looked around the market, trying to find the source. It’s a pity that there were too many people buying vegetables in the morning, even if he stood on tiptoe, he couldn’t see everything.

　　”Xiao Yan, are you shopping for vegetables?” The stall owner next to him was an aunt in her fifties. After seeing Qi Yan, she waved to him cheerfully, “I know you like to eat tomatoes. This is what I bought from the countryside. I left a good one especially for you, if you were any later, I would have sold it.”

“Thank you, Aunty.” Qi Yan watched as she took out a plastic bag from under the table filled with a few big, red and fresh tomatoes in it. He immediately smiled and took out money from his wallet to pay. At this moment, he saw the black mist drifting to the stall owner, and then wrapped around her wrist.

Qi Yan’s face dropped. Seeing that the stall owner still didn’t know anything about it and was still talking to him about how to cook the tomatoes such that they taste better and more nutritious. He smiled and handed the money to her. He took a plastic bag and found that there were two stalks of green onions and two cloves of garlic inside.
　　
He thanked the stall owner and continued to walk to the spot with the most black mists. In the innermost corner, where the stall owners parked their trucks, was the source.

Seeing the pattern on the corner of the wall that looked like a child scribbling, his face changed slightly, it turned out to be scribblings from a sorcerer!
　　
Hundreds of years ago, there were people who invited a sorcerer to change their bad luck. When ordinary sorcerers did such a thing, they would do it in the middle of the night because then it would not attract the attention of others, and it would not taint innocent people. One should know that once an ordinary person was tainted, they would get sick at best and lose their life at worse.

Later, because this kind of technique violated the laws of nature and caused great harm to the person performing the technique, there were not many people who practiced this anymore. Even Qi Yan had only seen the charm that was associated with this from his master but he never learned the technique.

　　His master said that to seek luck for oneself by hurting others was evil, and it was very difficult for the sorcerer to accumulate blessings.

Qi Yan never imagined that he would actually see this kind of thing in crowded places, because the denser the crowd, the easier it was for accidents. If the luck of the people in this place was borrowed, there might be accidents and even casualties. Generally, sorcerers with even a little humanity would not do such things.

More coincidentally, there were several red electric tricycles parked in this spot that were in a formation which accelerated the loss of luck in this place.
　　
　　 When he came here to buy food three days ago, he hadn’t noticed anything wrong here, which meant that this formation was only made three days ago. As he expected, the tricycle did not budge when he pushed one that was nearest to him.

The old man who was watching a car in the corner stared at Qi Yan scorchingly, as if watching a thief stealing a tricycle.

This look made Qi Yan feel pressured. He coughed twice, held his wrist, and hit the tricycles three times. Then, holding his breath, he pulled the front of the tricycle and pushed it aside. The tricycle made a creaking sound and moved tens of centimeters abruptly.

The old man in the corner was stunned when he saw that, he single-handedly moved the tricycle?!
　　
Qi Yan looked at the old man and smiled. Then, he turned around to leave.

After the incident, he brushed his clothes and left without revealing his skills, leaving the shocked old man in a daze.
　　
“Master?!”

Two young men heard the sound of something breaking and opened the door anxiously to find their master lying on the floor. The bell in his hand fell to the ground and broke in half.
　　
“Master, what happened?!”

The man on the ground vomited blood and said weakly as he saw the bell that was broken into two pieces, “Someone moved my formation.”

The two disciples were horrified. Their master had told them that this luck-borrowing technique had almost disappeared. They picked the farmer’s market because there were a lot of people there and it was not suspicious to have the tricycles parked strangely. So no one would notice it.

But there was always a coincidence. They had just finished the formation the day before but someone had already broken it in a day and ruined their luck. Even their master had suffered a serious repercussion.
　　
“The Capital City is really a place of crouching tiger, hidden dragon, and there are many experts.” The master wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. After narrowing his slender eyes, he became a little bit more treacherous and vicious. “We should be more careful when we act in the future.”

“Master, I will help you to rest first.” The second disciple was a very beautiful woman. She helped the old man on the ground to lie down on the bed and looked very considerate.

The older disciple sighed. In order to please the master, this woman was good at pretending!
　　
Qi Yan broke the formation and looked at the people in the market. The black mist surrounding their body had decreased and it was becoming fainter. So he relaxed and prepared to go home with his groceries.

Before he stepped out of the farmer’s market, he heard people arguing. They were raising their voices and it seemed like they might start fighting.

He walked towards the people and saw that both of them had a layer of black mist on their body.
Besides, their emotions were very unstable.

He didn’t know what one of them had said, but the other had lost all rationality from anger. He picked up a child who was behind the other person and was prepared to throw the child.

The child did not realize what was going on before he felt himself being lifted and thrown off.
　　
“Ah!”

The child heard people screaming from all around and raised his head dumbfounded. Only then he realized that he was in the hands of a big brother.

“Little handsome, are you okay?”

The child sniffed and uncurled his lips without crying.
　　
Qi Yan let go of the child and rubbed his sore shoulder that was bumped. When he bent down to pick up his groceries, he realized that the tomatoes had rolled out of the bag and the plastic bag was nowhere to be seen.

Only then did the surrounding people react. The child’s parents kept thanking Qi Yan and said that they would send him to the hospital to have his shoulder checked. Not only did they pick up his bag, they also stuffed a chicken leg in it.

A few strong men held down the child-throwing man and waited for the police to arrive. Although the scene was noisy and chaotic, it could be seen that most of them had a kind heart.
　　
Qi Yan carried the plastic strap with an extra chicken leg in it, and was questioned with concern by several aunts. He assured them that there was nothing wrong with him, so everyone was relieved. The child’s father took out all the money from the wallet in his trouser pocket. He even pulled out the coins and stuffed them into Qi Yan’s hands.

“Brother, thank you so much this time, thank you so much!” The child’s father was still trembling in his voice, holding Qi Yan’s hand tightly and bowing to him. He almost knelt down as well. The child’s mother was holding the child in her arms and her eyes were red.

The child was the only one who looked at his parents in confusion, unaware that he almost got into a serious accident.
　　
“I just happened to pass by. It’s good that everything is fine” Qi Yan smiled at the child and returned the money in his hand to the couple, but the couple insisted on not taking it back. Qi Yan had no choice but to stuff the money into the pocket of the child’s coat.

The child hugged his mother’s neck and softly thanked Qi Yan with a red face.

Qi Yan laughed lightly and petted his head, “Good boy, be safe next time.”

After that, Qi Yan left hurriedly before the boy’s parents noticed. He had to run because the aunts and uncles were too friendly.
　　
“Mr. Cen, this is your meal for today.” The nurse brought in dinner, and when she saw him nodding slightly, she put the tray on the bed table and exited the ward softly.

Cen Baihe glanced at the unappetizing food on the table, picked up the remote control next to him, and turned on the TV.
　　
Boring TV series, not much new entertainment news, and messy commercials. Cen Baihe kept changing the channels, and finally stopped at a local channel.

This station will broadcast the evening news on time at 8:30 every night. The content was mundane, but it was very popular among the local people. The ratings were pretty good.

When Cen Baihe was eating porridge, the station was broadcasting a surveillance video of a young man astutely saving a young child.

In the chaotic crowd, the young man wearing a white t-shirt rushing to catch the child was particularly noticeable.

The video of a little more than ten seconds soon ended, followed by the reporter interviewing the vendors and the parents of the child.