Lin Fei had made up his mind: he could infuse the Heaven-Reaching Spiritual Qi into water and use that to spray the grapes. This would be a convenient explanation, as pouring the spiritual qi directly into the fruit might frighten Liu Yushuang. Moreover, the inherited techniques stated that the Heaven-Reaching Spiritual Qi had a powerful stimulating effect; a tiny amount of qi could ripen a large quantity of grapes, making it much easier to handle if diluted with water.
After weeding, Lin Fei fetched a sprayer full of water from Longquan Ravine and extracted a sliver of Heaven-Reaching Spiritual Qi from his dantian to mix into it.
"Lin Fei, is that the potion you developed inside the sprayer?" Liu Yushuang asked curiously.
"Yeah, I’ve already mixed the potion into the water. Sister Yushuang, let me spray a few vines to test it out. If nothing goes wrong, the grapes should be ripe by tomorrow morning."
Lin Fei strapped on the sprayer and began spraying the grapevines.
"Ripe by tomorrow morning? That fast?" Liu Yushuang was skeptical.
"Of course. This is high technology," Lin Fei said with confidence.
*Pfft!*
Lin Fei suddenly slipped, and the nozzle accidentally aimed right at Liu Yushuang, giving her a direct shower.
"Oh! Where are you aiming? Ha-ha!"
Liu Yushuang felt a refreshing chill. Far from being annoyed, she burst into laughter. She was soaked, and Lin Fei’s eyes went wide as he stared.
"Hey, you... where are you looking?"
Noticing Lin Fei’s dazed expression, Liu Yushuang slanted her almond eyes and scolded him softly, though the corners of her mouth were turned up; she wasn't actually angry.
"Cough, cough... well, sorry about that. I stepped on a rock and slipped..." Lin Fei’s face turned red, and he gave a few dry coughs in explanation.
"Hehehe, do you like what you see?" Liu Yushuang suddenly asked with a giggle.
"Uh... it's getting dark. I’d better finish spraying the grapes so I can go home for dinner." Lin Fei was starting to sweat; he felt that the woman standing before him was a bit more than he could handle.
By the time he finished helping Liu Yushuang, it was nearly dark, so Lin Fei headed home with the sprayer on his back. As he approached his front door, he saw Dunzi running toward him, looking terrified.
"Brother Fei, I..."
"Shh! Come on, let's talk over there."
Lin Fei knew what Dunzi was going to say. Fearing someone might overhear, he quickly pulled him behind a large banyan tree.
"Brother Fei, d-do you know what I saw?" Dunzi’s face had gone pale.
"What did you see?"
"I saw them kill someone! Tietou and the others! They beat Liu Er to death! Damn it, it scared me to death! What are they trying to do? Have they gone mad?" Dunzi hissed, his eyes filled with horror.
Hearing this, Lin Fei narrowed his eyes. It was exactly as his divination had predicted.
"Did you do as I told you?"
"Yeah, I did. Brother Fei, I thought they were just going to fight, but who would have thought..."
"Dunzi, you weren't discovered by them, were you?" Lin Fei cut him off.
"No, no. I was hiding in a concrete pipe beforehand; they didn't see me at all." Dunzi shook his head firmly.
"That's good. Dunzi, don't tell anyone about this—not even if it kills you," Lin Fei said with great seriousness.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it, Brother Fei." Dunzi nodded.
Lin Fei didn't elaborate. He didn't want his good brother dragged into the feud between him and Liu Jinshan. Liu Jinshan was ruthless, and Dunzi was honest and simple-minded; if things went south, he might get caught in the crossfire.
Dunzi had a cigarette with Lin Fei before heading home.
When Lin Fei entered his house, he saw Aunt Cuiyun from next door sitting in the courtyard with two middle-aged women from the village, chatting and waving their palm-leaf fans. His sister-in-law, Mo Xinlan, was cooking in the kitchen, and Bao'er was sitting in the living room watching cartoons alone.
"Xiao Fei is back?" Zhang Cuiyun and the others asked with smiles when they saw him.
"Why is it so lively today? Do you need something, Auntie?" Lin Fei set down the sprayer and asked with a smile.
"Xiao Fei, we heard you know how to divine. You found that cow for the Cuiyun family with your fortune-telling. So, we came over to ask you to do one for us," a woman with short hair said.
"That’s right, Xiao Fei, help us out," another short, plump woman added.
Zhang Cuiyun was the village gossip; once she knew something, the whole village would know it soon enough.
"Heh heh, fortune-telling is no problem, but my skills are limited. I can only predict things happening within three days, and I’m not right about everything," Lin Fei said with a grin.
"Within three days? That’s perfect! My Xiaoqian is bringing her boyfriend home the day after tomorrow. Her father and I have never met the lad. Xiao Fei, could you divine what he's like? Can he be our son-in-law?" the short-haired woman asked eagerly.
"You got it." Lin Fei agreed readily. He called out to Bao'er, who was watching TV: "Bao'er, go to your mom's drawer and get me three coins!"
Since they had come to him, it wouldn't be right to refuse. Besides, Lin Fei wanted to further verify whether his divination skills were truly infallible.
"Oh, what kind of coins?" Bao'er asked obediently.
"The one-jiao ones will do."
Lin Fei didn't actually need to toss coins to perform a reading, but he knew the women in the village well. If a weasel entered their house, they could weave a whole epic out of it. Divination was already mysterious enough, and to avoid unnecessary trouble, Lin Fei felt it was better to present it as a technical skill. Tossing coins in front of them served as a performance, making the process look less supernatural.
Soon, Bao'er brought him three identical coins. Lin Fei tossed them twice. Heads represented a yang line, and tails represented a yin line. The first toss yielded the Dui trigram, and the second yielded the Kun trigram. Dui is the Lake, Kun is the Earth, resulting in the Cui (Gathering) hexagram—an omen of the virtuous coming together.
Traditionally, one should toss the coins six times, but for Lin Fei, it was just a formality. He channeled his spiritual qi and felt the Gen trigram pattern in his dantian flash with red light, indicating the reading was valid and would surely come to pass. He tossed the coins one last time to determine the sixth line of the second hexagram: *Noble and sincere, jade-faced youth, seven feet tall, wealthy and honest; left hand carries clothes, right hand carries wine, a visit brings great fortune, to be fulfilled within three days.*
"How is it? What did you find out?" the short-haired woman asked impatiently.
"Well, according to the hexagram, that young man is tall and handsome, comes from a wealthy family, and is sincere in his intentions toward your Xiaoqian. The day after tomorrow, he will arrive with clothes he bought for you two elders in his left hand and fine wine in his right. It’s a sign of great fortune and prosperity!" Lin Fei explained the results clearly.
"Oh my! Really? Hehehe! If that’s true, then that would be wonderful!"
Hearing this, whether the woman believed him or not, she couldn't stop smiling; she was absolutely delighted.
The other woman had a question that wasn't within the three-day window, so Lin Fei couldn't help her. In the kitchen, Mo Xinlan heard her brother-in-law pretending to be a master fortune-teller and found it both amusing and funny. Even now, she didn't quite believe he was actually capable of divination.
...
In the dead of night, a slim figure nimbly climbed over the wall into Lin Fei's courtyard under the moonlight, then, moving like a cat, slowly pushed open the window to his bedroom and crawled inside.
Hearing the movement, Lin Fei knew exactly who it was, and couldn't help but feel a pang of bitterness in his heart.