"Just a friend, lives right across from me. He said he got this Five Ghosts for Wealth tattoo, and now he's making more money than me. How could I swallow this?"
Alon gave a cold snort, pulling out a wad of cash from his pocket and slammed it on the table.
"Give me the same one. I can't let him show me up!"
The wad of cash was more than four thousand yuan.
The boss looked at the money, then at Alon, narrowing his eyes.
"The Wealth-bringing tattoo isn't for everyone; it depends on whether you have the fate for it."
"It's just a tattoo, how complicated can it be? Isn't having the money enough!" Alon frowned in displeasure, "I've seen your kind of boss before. Give me a straight answer, how much do you want to do it?"
"Since you're so eager to get it, then tell me your birth date and hour," the boss relented.
"What does a tattoo have to do with my birth date and hour?"
"Young man, there are many rules to getting a tattoo. If it goes wrong, at best you'll have bad luck and fall ill, at worst your family will be ruined. I'm doing this for your own good. If you happen to clash with the Five Ghosts for Wealth tattoo, wouldn't that be harming you?"
The boss tapped the table with his finger.
A Long thought for a moment and then recited a string of numbers.
The boss squinted, pondered for a bit, and then sneered, tossing the money on the table back to A Long.
"Your heart is not sincere. You can't get the Five Ghosts for Wealth tattoo. Take your money and go find someone else."
With that, he turned up the volume of the opera and leaned back in his recliner.
"Boss, you don't do business like this, do you? Turning down money that's offered to you!" A Long insisted deliberately.
The boss turned his head and shot him an impatient glare.
A Long immediately felt a chill down his spine.
It was as if countless eyes were watching him, but there was clearly only the boss in the shop.
A Long took the money and left the tattoo shop.
Only after the feeling of being watched had dissipated did he turn a corner and find Lu Fei.
"Boss Lu."
"How was it?"
"That boss is very strange. I offered him more money, but he refused to give me the Five Ghosts Fortune tattoo and even asked for my birth date and time."
A Long recounted his experience with the boss in detail.
"If he refused even when you offered more money, it means his purpose wasn't money, but rather the person. It's good that you didn't give him your real birth date and time; otherwise, who knows what he might have done with it."
Lu Fei seemed to be in deep thought.
"Do you know the birth date and time of the monkey?"
"I don't know the exact time, but I remember he was born on the 15th of July." A Long replied.
"Could it be a yin year and a yin month?!" Lu Fei was startled. After a moment's thought, his expression darkened: "It seems he is looking for someone with a completely yin eight-character fate! The monkey must have a yin destiny!"
Long frowned: "Is he looking for this kind of person to raise a ghost?"
"There is a form of black magic called 'planting a ghost,'" Lu Fei said pensively.
"Through some means, a ghost fetus is planted into a person with a completely yin eight-character fate, using the person as nourishment to incubate the ghost fetus."
"The monkey, being of pure yin birth and destined to be a pauper, is perfectly suited to be the nourishment for the ghost fetus."
"When the luck is completely spent, that is when the ghost fetus will be born."
"Scraping off the tattoos and cutting the five little ghosts merely accelerates this process."
"A ghost raised in this manner is even more malevolent! When the ghost fetus is born, it will drain the person's essence and blood in one breath, at which point the monkey will surely die."
After hearing Lu Fei's analysis, Long's face turned grim, and he clenched his fists tightly, making them crackle.
"How can this black magic be countered? Should we call over the tattoo artist boss?"
"Don't be impulsive. That tattoo shop owner must be an experienced ghost raiser! When you went into the store, I was secretly observing outside. The place was gloomy and must be hiding something unclean."
A Long couldn't help but recall the feeling of being watched by multiple pairs of eyes and knew that brute force alone wouldn't work against such a person. He loosened his fists to calm himself down.
"Mr. Lu, what should we do?"
"We need to think of a way to get it done without alarming him, otherwise, Monkey's life is still in danger," Lu Fei said cautiously.
"Monkey must be one of his carefully selected targets. Usually, people with miserable lives are more selfish and indifferent to family. If such a person dies, who would care?"
"From this, we can see how cautious he is."
A Long sighed with a complex expression: "Actually, Monkey isn't that bad. He was very well-behaved when he was young. It's just that his parents passed away early, and no one was there to guide him, so he picked up bad habits from the wrong crowd."
"Mr. Lu, please save him! As for the money, I'll figure it out."
Lu Fei smiled and said, "This ghost fetus is also a type of evil object. You can consider it as a payment to me."
"Mr. Lu..." A Long was taken aback, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"You should know, this is the rule of Sinisterium Pawnshop. Malevolent objects are much more interesting than money." Lu Fei waved his hand. "The ghost can be dealt with, but the monkey will have to suffer a bit. We also need to prepare some things. There's no time to waste, let's go back and get ready as soon as possible."
"Okay!"
The two of them took one last look at the tattoo shop from a distance and then turned to leave.
The taxi drove off into the distance.
A crow emerged from a nearby tree and flew into the tattoo shop.
The bedroom was dimly lit.
The monkey lay on the bed, weak and lethargic, his heavy belly pressing down on him, making it difficult to breathe and causing immense discomfort.
"Why haven't Brother Long and the others come back yet..."
His stomach growled.
He was hungry.
Ever since he got this thing in his belly, he's been getting hungry really fast, and if he doesn't eat on time, the thing inside his belly starts causing a commotion.
The pain makes it hard for him to straighten his back.
But there was nothing left to eat at home.
Struggling with his large belly, the monkey wobbled over to find his phone and started looking through food delivery options.
But no matter what he looked at, nothing seemed appetizing.
"What's that smell?"
His nose caught a whiff of something enticing, and the monkey dragged his body to stand up, cautiously walking to the window and stretching his nose to sniff around.
In the corner below, lay a dead rat.
A faint trickle of blood seeped from the rat's body.
"Smells so good!"
The monkey gulped, its stomach shaking anxiously.
"Okay, okay, food will be here soon!"
Holding his stomach, he hurried downstairs.
Shortly after.
Lu Fei and A Long walked into the hallway.
"Hmm, why is the door open?"
Seeing the open door, they exchanged a glance, both feeling a sense of unease.
"Monkey!"
A Long ran in first, heading straight for the bedroom.
The bed was empty, and there was no sign of the monkey anywhere in the house.
"At a time like this, why is he still running around?" Along frowned and dialed Houzi's phone, but Houzi never picked up. He clenched his fists in anger.
Lu Fei touched the bed.
"It's still warm; he must have just left. Let's go out and find him quickly."
"Okay!" Along gritted his teeth.
Lu Fei let the small black dog sniff the scent on the quilt. After they left the building, he put it down on the ground.
"Xiao Hei, it's your time to shine!"
The small black dog barked once, lowered its head, and started sniffing around, quickly determining the direction.
Lu Fei and Along followed it, and they soon arrived at the base of the wall.
There was a fresh trail of blood on the ground, dripping and leading out of the residential area.