"When I was a child?"
Zhuang Mingcheng held his nose and thought hard for a long time, but still shook his head in confusion.
"It's been too long; I really can't remember."
"My family has always been good to me. I don't remember encountering any strange people."
"What about your family? Maybe your family offended someone," Lu Fei suggested, looking at him.
"My family?" Zhuang Mingcheng was taken aback.
"The chances of a child offending someone are very small. There must be a reason for deliberately reversing your sense of smell."
"The reason..."
Zhuang Mingcheng fell into deep thought.
"My family is in the incense-making business, could it be related to that?"
"In recent years, our business has plummeted compared to the past. My parents are getting old, and I can't help much, we are just barely holding on...."
Upon hearing this, Lu Fei and Xu Bei exchanged a glance.
"From the looks of it, it's very likely a competitor did it," said Xu Bei as he pushed up his glasses, analyzing the situation.
"The business world is like a battlefield, full of people who will stop at nothing! Your family used to be the leading enterprise in the incense industry, and you have an extraordinary sense of smell. By bringing down your family, they would finally have their chance to rise."
"To attack an innocent child, even going so far as to ruin his whole life, all because of business competition?" Zhuang Mingcheng found it hard to believe for a moment.
"Mr. Zhuang, you should have heard the saying: the two things that cannot be directly looked upon in this world are the sun and human nature." Lu Fei was already too familiar with such incidents.
Zhuang Mingcheng was silent for a while, his face looking very grim: "But how can we confirm that what I've been subjected to is truly the Inversion Curse?"
"As long as we find the cursed object, we'll know for sure," Lu Fei replied without hesitation. "The cursed object must still be at Mr. Zhuang's house, attached to something personal of yours, like nails or hair, and maybe even inscribed with your date of birth. It shouldn't be too hard to find."
"Mingcheng, your sense of smell has been inverted since you were a child. If there really is a cursed object, it should be at your parents' house. Just go back and look for it," Xu Bei said, glancing at him and letting out a slight sigh.
"After considering so many methods, I think Manager Lu's analysis is the most likely. Perhaps this is your last hope."
"Alright, then I will go home!" Zhuang Mingcheng gritted his teeth, gathered his spirits, and stood up.
Although the concept of an inversion curse sounded like a fairy tale, wasn't it equally absurd that his sense of smell was opposite to that of a normal person?
Just as Xu Bei said, this might be his last hope.
He wore three layers of masks and held a bottle of foul-smelling water, spraying a little whenever he felt the odor was unbearable.
"Manager Lu, I need to trouble you to come along. If we find the cursed object, we can lift the curse immediately," Xu Bei said, gesturing to Lu Fei to join them.
"Naturally."
Lu Fei also wanted to know if his speculation was correct.
After leaving the villa, Lu Fei and Hu Zi could finally breathe freely.
Lu Fei noticed that Xu Bei was also secretly taking deep breaths; it was not easy for him to be a friend like this.
Zhuang Mingcheng's parents lived in the neighboring community.
Despite living so close, the family could not see each other often.
Zhuang Mingcheng walked quickly, keeping his nose tightly covered and occasionally spraying some smelly water.
Whenever someone passed by him, they would frown and hurry away, as if they had seen a ghost.
He seemed to be used to it and went straight to his parents' house.
It was an extremely old villa.
"Mingcheng, why did you suddenly come back?"
At the moment, only his elderly mother was at home, while his father was at the company handling business affairs.
"Mom, I'll explain later." Zhuang Mingcheng led Lu Fei and the others, searching everywhere in the villa.
But after searching high and low, they didn't find anything that resembled a cursed object.
"Son, you're rushing around. What are you looking for?" Mother Zhuang asked, her face filled with concern.
"Mom, do we have any hair or nail clippings at home, preferably with my birth date and time written on them?" Zhuang Mingcheng asked anxiously, without time to explain.
"Hair, birth date and time? Son, what exactly are you doing?"
"Mom, don't ask for now. Just tell me if we have anything like that at home?"
Zhuang Mingcheng was sweating profusely from worry.
Seeing this, Mother Zhuang quickly thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "We do have one."
Her response invigorated everyone.
Everyone's eyes widened in unison, looking intently at Mother Zhuang.
"What is it? Where?" Zhuang Mingcheng's heart began to beat even more violently.
"It's in the drawer of your desk. When you were a child, I got a safety charm for you..."
Before his mother could finish speaking, Zhuang Mingcheng had already rushed into his room.
He pulled open the drawer of the desk, scattering things all over the ground. He searched through them anxiously and finally found a triangular yellow charm with a red string running through its center.
"I remember now, I wore this safety charm when I was a kid!"
Zhuang Mingcheng's face turned pale, and he unfolded the yellow charm with trembling hands. Inside, it indeed contained some of his hair, and on the back of the charm was written his birth date and time.
"Manager Lu, is this it?"
Holding these items, Zhuang Mingcheng turned around shakily to seek confirmation from Lu Fei.
Lu Fei hurriedly came up, trying to ignore the stench of foul water emanating from him, and examined the items carefully, but his heart sank.
"No, it's just an ordinary safety charm."
"Isn't it?" Zhuang Mingcheng shuddered.
"Indeed, it's not." Xu Bei frowned.
Both he and Lu Fei were practitioners, and they could tell at a glance whether something was a cursed object or not.
Zhuang Mingcheng was greatly disappointed, looking at his mother unwillingly, "Mom, is there anything in the house with my birth date and time written on it?"
"There shouldn't be... Son, what are you really looking for?" Mother Zhuang looked at her son anxiously.
The light in Zhuang Mingcheng's eyes dimmed instantly, and he was in no mood to answer his mother's question. He leaned against the desk, feeling utterly disheartened.
"Could it not be an inversion curse..."
"Shopkeeper Lu, does the cursed object have any other characteristics?" Xu Bei asked calmly.
Lu Fei was also uncertain. After all, he had only seen records related to the inversion curse in his family's records of malevolent objects and didn't know much about it.
He tried hard to recall and suddenly thought of a way to verify if someone was under the effect of an inversion curse.
However, this method may not be one hundred percent successful.
"Forget it, Lao Xu, there's no hope..."
But it was clear that Zhuang Mingcheng was in no mood to try, he waved his hand listlessly, and prepared for the worst in his heart.
"Mingcheng, don't give up so easily..." Xu Bei still wanted to comfort him.
At that moment.
The sound of hurried footsteps came from outside.
"Old companion, what happened to Mingcheng?"
An elderly man with a head full of white hair walked in, his face filled with anxiety, followed by an equally aged assistant.
"As soon as Mingcheng got home, he started searching everywhere. I got worried and called you," Mother Zhuang explained anxiously.
This weathered elder was none other than Zhuang Mingcheng's father.
"Mingcheng, what are you doing exactly?" Father Zhuang, seeing a room full of strangers, looked suspicious.
"Dad..."
Zhuang Mingcheng, upon seeing his father with white hair, couldn't help but tear up. He wanted to approach his father but in pain, he covered his nose and took several steps back, spraying some stinky water on himself.
Father Zhuang, who had long dealt with various spices, was imbued with their fragrance.