"Dad, it's nothing. I just missed you and came back to see you!"
Zhuang Mingcheng inhaled deeply the stinky water, trying hard to endure the torment from the fragrance, and forced a smile at his parents.
"Dad, Mom, because of my nose problem, I can't be by your side and do anything for you. I've been a burden to you..."
Seeing his parents' white hair, he felt heartbroken.
"Mingcheng, why are you saying these things out of the blue?" Father Zhuang frowned, feeling a sense of foreboding.
"Dad, Mom, take good care of yourselves from now on."
Zhuang Mingcheng seemed to be making a final farewell, gritting his teeth and stepping forward to embrace his mother.
But no matter how hard he tried, he could not get close to his father.
Lu Fei couldn't help but feel a bit strange.
It seemed that it was not just because of the scent of spices on Zhuang's father; there was an invisible force interfering with him.
Could it be?
Lu Fei's heart skipped a beat as he scrutinized Zhuang's father carefully.
Zhuang's father, perhaps due to overwork, looked particularly haggard. He gazed intently at his son, deep concern in his aged eyes.
"Mingcheng, you have never been a burden to us! You are our child, and we would willingly support you for the rest of our lives."
"Mingcheng, Manager Lu is still trying to find a solution; don't give up so easily. Uncle and Auntie are getting old, and they need your care in the future," Xu Bei urged forcefully.
Even the assistant next to him, an old man called Lao Jiang, also chimed in with a few words of persuasion.
"Excuse me for interrupting." At this moment, Lu Fei suddenly stepped forward and interjected, "Mr. Zhuang, may I ask what you are wearing around your neck?"
"What I'm wearing?" Mr. Zhuang was taken aback and pulled out a yellow talisman folded into a triangle from his collar, "You mean this?"
"Yes, that's it!" Lu Fei nodded, "This talisman is quite special, may I take a look at it?"
"What's the matter with it?" Mr. Zhuang asked suspiciously.
"Is it inscribed with Mr. Zhuang Mingcheng's date and time of birth?"
"How do you know about that?" Mr. Zhuang was startled.
Lu Fei did not answer, but continued, "If my guess is correct, the date and time of birth are written in reverse order."
Upon hearing this, Mr. Zhuang's eyes widened with even more shock.
Xu Bei, sensing something, asked with delight, "Master Lu, could this be the true object of the inversion spell?"
Lu Fei nodded: "So, Mr. Zhuang, can I have a look at this talisman?"
"Uncle Zhuang, quickly show it to Manager Lu, it might save Mingcheng," Xu Bei urged hastily.
Father Zhuang hesitated for a moment before removing the yellow talisman.
Lu Fei and Xu Bei looked at it together; there was nothing particularly special about its surface, and the talisman paper had faded somewhat.
The most unusual thing was the birth date written in reverse, with a small figure drawn on it. The figure's nose looked particularly strange, as if it were reversed.
"That's right, this is definitely the object of an inversion spell!" Lu Fei said with absolute certainty.
"How could it be on my father?" Zhuang Mingcheng was shocked.
"What kind of spell? This is clearly a father-son life-linking talisman," Mother Zhuang was very confused.
"When you were little, you got seriously ill and couldn't be cured no matter what we tried. Later, we found a master who said that your fate was such, and only by linking your life with your father's could you survive. Your father has aged so quickly these years because..."
"We were afraid you wouldn't accept it, so we never told you. The master specifically instructed that for it to work, your father must always carry this talisman with him."
Hearing this, Lu Fei and Xu Bei exchanged a glance.
Obviously, they had been deceived.
The master who gave them the talisman was the one who harmed their family.
"Auntie, you've been tricked!" Xu Bei sighed, "This talisman cast an inversion spell on Mingcheng, causing his sense of smell to be reversed and subjecting him to years of torment."
"How, how could that be?" Mrs. Zhuang found it hard to believe, "Mingcheng's health improved after he got this talisman... Could you be mistaken? The master said that this talisman should not be moved, or else their lives would be in danger."
"Yes, sister-in-law, we can't take any rash actions," Old Jiang, the assistant, chimed in, "Nowadays, some scammers will do anything for money. Mingcheng and Brother Zhuang have been fine all these years, so why should there be a problem now that they show up?"
"Losing some money is nothing, but we can't risk the lives of Mingcheng and Brother Zhuang."
"Old Jiang is right; we can't take the risk!" This statement hit home with Mrs. Zhuang. She snatched back the yellow talisman, refusing to let Lu Fei try anything.
Lu Fei couldn't help but admire the malicious intent of that 'master'.
He had inverted black and white, turning something bad into something good, and deceived them by saying that the talisman was tied to the lives of her son and husband.
Even if there comes a day when someone discovers something unusual, they wouldn't dare to touch this talisman lightly.
Then, Lu Fei glanced at Old Jiang again.
He was no longer young, and it seemed he had worked for the Zhuang family for many years, earning their deep trust.
He wore an expression that appeared to be considering the interests of the Zhuang family, but it was hard to discern his true intentions.
"Uncle Jiang, Mom, Dad, you all know what kind of person Xu Bei is. He wouldn't deceive us!" Zhuang Mingcheng still believed in Xu Bei, "Maybe we really should give it a try!"
"What if he was also deceived?" Old Jiang then said.
Xu Bei's eyebrows twitched, and even he, who usually had a good temper, now had a cold look in his eyes.
At this moment, Zhuang Mingcheng's father, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke up: "You say that Mingcheng has been affected by some sort of reversal curse. Do you have any evidence?"
"Of course, there is a way to prove it." Lu Fei smiled slightly.
Now that they had found the cursed object, he was 100% confident that the verification method would work.
"Manager Lu, how should we verify it?" Xu Bei, seeing how confident he was, felt a bit relieved.
"Please prepare a bowl of clear water, a feather, and a pebble."
"What use could these things be?" Old Jiang muttered.
The clear water and the stone were easy to find, but the feather was a bit more troublesome.
Fortunately, they lived in a villa area, and Xu Bei found a bird's fallen feather in the garden.
The three items were placed on the table one by one.
Lu Fei sprinkled some incense ash into the bowl of water, then asked Zhuang Mingcheng to put the feather in the water.
The following scene shocked everyone present.
The thin feather, as soon as it was placed on the surface of the water, began to sink, all the way to the bottom of the bowl, as if it were particularly heavy.
"How is that possible?"
Zhuang Mingcheng couldn't believe it, so he scooped up the feather and tried again, with the same result.
Father Zhuang and Mother Zhuang were stunned, and Mother Zhuang even rubbed her eyes hard.
Even a primary school student would know that this defies common sense.
"Mr. Zhuang, try putting a pebble in the water," Lu Fei said with a faint smile.
"Okay!"
Zhuang Mingcheng couldn't wait to throw the small pebble in as well.
To his surprise, the pebble floated on the surface of the water as if it had no weight at all.
It was unbelievable!
In Zhuang Mingcheng's hands, light and heavy were completely reversed.
"Impossible! They must have done something!"
Old Jiang shouted loudly, picked up a small stone and threw it into the bowl, but the stone did not float; instead, it sank straight to the bottom of the bowl.
He was immediately taken aback.