Following the direction of her finger, Qin Lie looked over and froze. There sat a figurine, dusty and gray, with only a single thumb made of solid gold. It looked thoroughly bizarre.
A wooden carving could steal money?
He didn't believe it.
Instantly reading his thoughts, Zhouzhou panicked and opened her mouth to explain, but catching sight of Liao Jiang out of the corner of her eye, she swallowed her words back down.
Master said matters concerning the Patriarch must never be casually revealed to outsiders, unless they were very close.
Daddy was someone she could tell.
Without a word of explanation, she grabbed Qin Lie's hand, pulled him back to the hotel room, and spilled everything.
"A Destiny of Poverty?" Qin Lie asked, raising an eyebrow as he repeated the phrase after hearing the whole story.
Inside the room, Zhouzhou sat obediently in her chair, her back straight, hugging the Patriarch to her chest as she nodded.
The Patriarch had one gleaming golden thumb, alongside a tiny gold speck on the index finger that was completely invisible without a magnifying glass.
Qin Lie looked thoughtfully at the Patriarch and asked, "Is your Patriarch surnamed Zhou?"
"Huh?" Zhouzhou blinked, completely bewildered. "No way, the Patriarch's surname is Guo."
"Oh. I thought his surname was Zhou, and his given name was Skinflint," Qin Lie said expressionlessly.
His black gold card worth hundreds of millions had been drained down to two measly dollars, and the ten million given by Liao Jiang was now reduced to fifty cents. The little girl had to scrape and scavenge just to buy a single lollipop.
Bullying a little child—truly impressive.
With that thought, he glanced sideways at the Patriarch again, his eyes filled with accusation and disdain.
As if sensing the gaze, the Patriarch's beard twitched slightly, only to droop back down a second later.
Lacking in confidence.
Guilty of conscience.
Zhouzhou blinked, looking at them in utter confusion, having no idea what had just happened. Then, stealing another cautious look at him, she whispered, "Daddy, Master said that as long as I diligently accumulate good karma and earn more money, I can improve my Destiny of Poverty and won't drag you down with me."
Hearing this, Qin Lie gave her a sideways look. The little girl usually looked sharp enough, and she had even dared to slap a Truth Talisman on him, yet she seemed awfully nervous right now.
With an unreadable expression, he withdrew his gaze and asked with a sinking face, "Are you going to dare slap talismans on me again in the future?"
"Never again, never again." Zhouzhou shook her little head like a rattling drum.
Only then did Qin Lie's expression soften slightly.
Zhouzhou had been closely monitoring his facial expressions and caught the change immediately. Her ears practically perked up; she hopped down from her chair, trotted right up to him, and hugged his leg. "Daddy, are you not mad anymore?"
The little girl looked up at him with her tender, fair face, brimming with anticipation and eager to please. Her round eyes were dark, clear, and so transparent that anyone's heart would melt—how could anyone stay angry at that?
Yet Qin Lie was certainly not going to admit to that. He glanced down at her and said coolly, "We'll see how you behave."
"Mm-hm!" Zhouzhou clenched her little fists. "I'll definitely be on my best behavior!"
As soon as she said this, she remembered something, and hurriedly fished the lollipop out of her pocket, thrusting it into his hand. "Here, Daddy, eat!"
With that, she stole a quick peek at it and couldn't help swallowing hard.
Taking in every bit of her expression, Qin Lie closed his palm around it and hummed, "Mm."
Now that it was out of sight, Zhouzhou's expression dimmed for a second, but she forced herself to look away, thinking to herself that giving gifts really did work. So Daddy liked eating candy after all! From now on she was going to make lots and lots of money and buy Daddy a whole candy house!
The mere thought of it felt blissful, making her mouth water even more.
Gulping, she fixed her gaze back on his face and asked, "Oh right, Daddy, can you buy things like jade pendants?"
Qin Rui's matter hadn't been resolved yet, and until he was dealt with, she wouldn't feel at ease.
"Yes, they'll be delivered shortly." Just as he finished speaking, the doorbell rang. He walked over to answer it, and before long, returned holding several boxes. "Take a look and see which one you need."
Zhouzhou turned her head to look and let out an involuntary gasp of "Whoa." There was so much jade, and the spiritual energy radiating from it was extraordinarily rich!
She took a deep breath, instantly feeling invigorated throughout her entire body, but then remembered something and quickly clamped a hand over her nose.
No, no, this spiritual energy was meant for Daddy; she couldn't absorb it.
Holding her breath, she walked closer, picked the one with the densest spiritual energy, thought better of it, and swapped it for the lowest-quality one instead.
"Using this one will do. Once I add a Spirit-Gathering Formation, it'll be more than enough."
She was only drawing out that Evil God; using the best stuff would be a terrible waste.
"Mm." Qin Lie nodded, looked down at the little girl, and suddenly reached up to hang the very first jade pendant she had picked around her neck.
Feeling a cool touch against her neck, Zhouzhou instinctively reached up to brush it, then looked up at Qin Lie in surprise. "Daddy?"
"Consider that your payment for helping me sort this out."
So that was it.
Zhouzhou stroked the jade pendant and shook her head. "No way, it's too precious. I can't accept it."
She made to take it off, but Qin Lie stopped her. "I don't want things other people have worn."
Zhouzhou paused her hands. "Alright then."
She looked up at him. "Then I'll buy Daddy a gift once I earn some money in the future!"
"Mm." Qin Lie gave a casual, perfunctory response, not giving it a second thought and certainly not expecting a child to ever buy him anything.
"What's next, then? What do we do?"
"Just wait."
"Wait?"
Zhouzhou nodded. "It's easy to invite a god in, but hard to send them away. An Evil God generally won't go out unless it stops receiving offerings in that household; only then might it come out."
Now that Qin Rui couldn't steal Qin Lie's Aura of Fortune, their offerings were cut off, and the Evil God naturally wouldn't be happy. To secure offerings, it wouldn't have any scruples and would be capable of anything.
***
At the Qin Corporation branch office.
The manager stared at the documents in his hands, his brow deeply furrowed. "What is the meaning of this? The price you reported to the company for this red wine was 18,888, but the bottles I randomly sampled aren't Mendoza wine at all. A customer even filed a complaint accusing us of selling counterfeits. Vice Manager Qin, please give me an explanation."
Qin Rui glanced at the papers in the manager's hand, his fingers clenching tightly beneath his sleeves. He forced a calm facade and said, "Manager, there must have been some mishap on the procurement end. I'll go check right now to see who pulled a fast one and dared to pull such stunts under the Qin Corporation's nose. If my eldest brother finds out, he certainly won't let them off."
Hearing him bring up Old Master Qin, the manager hesitated.
Today's matter was actually quite simple: pocketing kickbacks. That was why everyone always said the procurement department was the most lucrative post.
Since Qin Rui had been introduced by the old chairman and was a relative besides, even if he really had done something, the old chairman probably wouldn't do much to him.
With this thought, the manager waved a hand. "I suppose that must be the case. Then I'll have to trouble Vice Manager Qin to look into what went wrong."
"Right." Qin Rui smiled and nodded, putting on a docile and obedient act.
Once he walked out the door, the smile on his face vanished in an instant. He drove home at top speed, bolted straight upstairs to his room, stared at the Evil God enshrined in the niche, and demanded, "Didn't you say there wouldn't be any problem? How did someone manage to find out?"
In three years, nobody had ever discovered his kickbacks and forged accounts; what on earth was going on now?
Furthermore, his expected promotion had suddenly gone completely silent.
What was happening here?
With one issue after another erupting, for some reason, an ominous premonition hung heavy in his chest, along with a gut feeling that this was only the beginning.
The thought made him even more panicked, and he hurriedly lit a stick of incense for the Evil God.
Yet the moment he left, that stick of incense snapped straight down the middle. The curtains in the room billowed without any wind, and the Evil God's blood-red eyes grew deeper and more sinister.
Aura of Fortune! It wanted the Aura of Fortune!
The two-day interruption of fortune had made the Evil God somewhat impatient. The residual fragrance drifted out through the crack in the door and floated into Qin Rui's room.
His Aura of Fortune naturally couldn't compare to Qin Lie's, the Son of Heaven, but a portion of the stolen fortune had trickled down to him. Though less pure than Qin Lie's, it was still better than nothing.
The Evil God drew a deep breath. *Fine, this will have to do for now.*
Slowly, it drifted toward Qin Rui.
In his sleep, Qin Rui seemed to sense something, his brow furrowing fiercely. Yet no matter how he struggled, it was all in vain. The Aura of Fortune between his eyebrows instantly dissipated, replaced by a shroud of dark, Ominous Qi.
At the same time, Zhouzhou bolted upright in her hotel bed, pinched her little chubby fingers to calculate, and broke into a sly grin.
The big bad villain is about to get his comeuppance.