Volume One, Chapter 3: She Is Not Dead

Xiao Shiyu frowned slightly. At first, seeing Su Tong’s harmless, sweet appearance, he had thought she was just a pitiable young girl, but it turned out she was calculating as well.

Was she interested in him? Or was it his money? Or perhaps both?

So young and already unwilling to walk the straight path, eager to find a shortcut.

His impression of Su Tong plummeted rapidly. He decided he would drop her off as soon as they reached the city.

“My house is too small. There’s no place for you to stay.”

Su Tong was silent.

The Xiao family, one of the most prominent families, and their house was small?

She knew he was politely refusing her.

To invite herself to a stranger’s home at their first meeting was indeed abrupt, even suspicious.

But the merit radiating from him was so tempting. Still, her intentions were not malicious.

She would help him solve his problems; in return, he would repay her with merit. A win-win.

Seeing Xiao Shiyu’s silence and cold expression, Su Tong felt a pang of regret and could only consider another approach.

A moment later, she glanced at Xiao Shiyu. Her delicate brows suddenly knitted together.

In her eyes, a dark mist rapidly coalesced between his brows—a sign of impending disaster.

Su Tong cried out anxiously, “Stop the car! Quick, stop the car!”

Xiao Shiyu thought Su Tong was making a scene and asked with suppressed irritation, “What now?”

“There’s no time to explain, just stop! There’s danger ahead!”

As she spoke, Su Tong reached out, trying to force Xiao Shiyu to stop the car.

He hated being touched more than anything, so he shifted away and slammed on the brakes.

The car screeched to a halt.

Both were thrown forward by inertia, then slammed back into their seats.

Xiao Shiyu opened his mouth, about to scold Su Tong, when an unusual noise echoed outside.

He looked out the window and saw a massive boulder tumbling down the mountain.

If he hadn’t stopped in time, the boulder would have crushed them.

Given the speed of its descent, not only would the car have been flattened, but they might have been reduced to nothing as well.

His heart still racing, Xiao Shiyu felt grateful—he’d been unbelievably lucky!

No, it wasn’t luck. It was the girl beside him.

He turned to Su Tong, his gaze shifting with disbelief. “How did you know a boulder was about to fall?”

Su Tong straightened her back and replied proudly, “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Su Tong, a mystic. I can read faces, interpret feng shui, divine through hexagrams, tell fortunes—even catch ghosts.”

Xiao Shiyu’s handsome eyes widened, and he scoffed, “Ha?”

It was the twenty-first century—who still believed in such things?

Yet she had just predicted the disaster and saved him.

Could it have been a coincidence?

Su Tong seemed to read his thoughts. “It wasn’t a coincidence. There’s still a dark mist between your brows. Though you’ve avoided this calamity, the blackness remains; the disaster isn’t over. And I saw a flicker of fire in your money palace—your next misfortune will involve fire, and it will happen at your home.”

At first, Xiao Shiyu found her words somewhat reasonable, but hearing the last part made him suspicious.

Was this woman trying to find a new way to move into his house?

Fine. Since she’d just saved him, he’d let her come home, just to see if she was telling the truth.

If she was right, he’d admit she was a mystic. If not, he could throw her out.

An hour later, the car entered an even more luxurious villa district: Sea River Cloudview.

Su Tong fell in love with the place at first sight.

Nestled by mountains and water, with birdsong in lush woods, spiritual energy circulated freely, and the feng shui layout hinted at the guidance of a master.

Living here long-term would not only keep illness at bay but even prolong life.

The Xiao family home was a four-story luxury villa in an antique style, with a meticulously manicured garden in front.

As Su Tong followed Xiao Shiyu into the villa, she heard crying from the left side of the garden.

She looked over and saw an elderly man burning joss paper.

He was about sixty, dressed in black leisurewear, a face weathered by time and sorrow, his swollen eyes shedding tears as he mechanically tossed the paper into a brazier.

A strange emotion stirred in Su Tong’s heart, and she stopped in her tracks.

Xiao Shiyu, noticing she hadn’t followed, traced her gaze, his expression darkening.

“That’s my third grand-uncle, mourning the daughter he lost.”

“Why not at the cemetery? Why here at home?” Su Tong asked, puzzled.

Xiao Shiyu sighed. “My little aunt went missing at birth. After searching for years with no result, my grand-uncle consulted a fortune-teller, who said she’d died young.

A newborn, no body found, so she couldn’t be buried. He treats her birthday as her death anniversary and burns joss paper for her at home.”

Su Tong’s eyes grew dim, a wave of sorrow rising within her.

Suddenly, her gaze fell on the joss paper.

She hadn’t noticed before, but now she saw that someone had written a birth date and time on it.

She walked closer for a better look and asked, “Sir, is this your daughter’s birth date and time?”

Xiao Xuan tossed a few more sheets into the fire, then slowly looked up at her and nodded.

“Yes.”

Su Tong sensed something odd. She calculated quickly and said bluntly, “She’s not dead.”

The news stunned Xiao Xuan into silence.

After a moment, he asked, his voice trembling, “What did you say? My daughter isn’t dead?”

Xiao Shiyu was skeptical, his brows furrowing as he stared intently at Su Tong, his tone growing heavy.

“Don’t talk nonsense. My grand-uncle is old and frail—he can’t bear such shocks.”

Su Tong had no evidence and knew they might not believe her, but she insisted, “I’m not wrong. She’s alive.”

Her certainty, paired with her sweet, doll-like face, made it hard not to believe her.

Though eighteen years of searching had yielded nothing, hope that his daughter was alive still burned in Xiao Xuan’s heart.

Su Tong’s words calmed him like a balm. He wanted to believe.

His hollow eyes suddenly sharpened; he stood abruptly, grabbing Su Tong’s arm with a trembling hand, his voice urgent.

“Do you know where my daughter is?”

Su Tong recalled the vague fortune she’d just read. “I can only determine she’s in Haishi. Where exactly, I can’t tell. It seems someone is deliberately obscuring her fate.”

There was another possibility—it could be herself.

In their mystical sect, one’s own fate cannot be divined.

But she didn’t think it was herself.

Although they shared a birthday, she’d seen her own birth certificate; the time and place of birth were different, so the birth data was not the same.

Hearing that his daughter was in Haishi, Xiao Xuan was beside himself with excitement; his once-clouded eyes brightened.

Whether or not the girl before him was deceiving him, he was willing to try anything to find his daughter.

“I’ll send people to search right away.”

With that, he tossed all his remaining joss paper into the fire and hurried away.