This is an ordinary mother and son, the mother's name is Song Jia, 34 years old this year. The child who has been suffering from a strange illness is named Huang Si Nian, five years old this year. Song Jia's husband, Huang Qiang, was an employee of a well-known company in the city called Yuan Shi Group. He died unexpectedly on a construction site last year, leaving behind a widow and orphan to rely on each other for survival. Originally, the compensation from the company and accidental insurance were enough for the mother and son to live without worries for their entire lives. However, this summer, her five-year-old son suddenly became strangely hungry every day, no matter how much he ate, it seemed like he was never full.

  At first, Song Jia didn't take it to heart. Originally, children at this age are growing and developing, so being able to eat is a good thing. However, after several months, Song Jia started to feel that something was off. Her child ate more every day, but became thinner every day. This was truly a strange phenomenon. Song Jia suspected that her child had contracted some kind of parasitic disease in their stomach, so she hastily took Huang Si Nian to the hospital for an examination. After a full set of tests, it turned out that the child's body was completely normal and there were no major issues. As for why the child could eat so much, the doctors also found it strange.

  Originally, Song Jia should have put her mind at ease knowing that her child wasn't sick, but over the next few months, her child continued to eat more and more every day. By the end of October, this five-year-old could eat 15 steamed buns in one meal, and still complained of being hungry. To put it into perspective, this was five times the normal amount of food an adult would eat.

  It was November when another unexpected thing happened to Song Jia. While bathing her child, she discovered that a strange object had grown on the child's back. At first, it was about the size of a small fingernail, purple-brown in color. Song Jia didn't pay much attention to it at first, thinking it might be a birthmark. But unexpectedly, the thing grew bigger every day. At night, Huang Si Nian couldn't sleep properly due to pain. The most terrifying thing was that as it grew, it began to resemble a human face with closed eyes!

  Song Jia was frightened, she immediately took the child to several hospitals for examination, to see what this thing was. After arriving at the hospital and having an examination, it was said that it was just a normal cyst, and as long as a small operation was performed to cut it out, everything would be fine. However, on the day of the operation, in the operating room, the surgeon almost got scared to death.

  Because the thing on Huang Si Nian's back was like it had life, as soon as the scalpel touched it, its tightly closed eyes actually shed tears, and it even let out a mournful cry!

  This was really too eerie, the doctors in the operating room were all sweating profusely, and even the scalpel was almost unable to be held steady. As a result, the operation had to be forced to stop. The main surgeon had actually encountered more spiritual cases before, he knew that this was not something that medical skills could solve, but under pressure from his identity, he couldn't explain such superstitious things, so he just told Song Jia: "This child's illness is not something a hospital can cure. It might be hysteria. Try asking for another expert."

  Song Jia was stunned at the time, never expecting that less than a year after her husband's death, she would encounter such a thing again. How could this not be a blow to her? Looking at the child lying on his side in bed, her heart was truly in agony, wishing it were she who had contracted the strange illness instead.

  But she knew that she couldn't afford to be knocked down now, because only she could save the child. If she couldn't hold on, her child would definitely be finished. So the next day, she went through the discharge procedures for the child and started inquiring about famous doctors in Harbin. However, due to her urgent need for a cure, she ended up inviting some quack doctors who claimed to have special powers. She spent a lot of money but her child's condition only worsened with each passing day. As a result, Song Jia decided to quit her job and continue searching for a high-ranking doctor to treat her child. When she went to the company to resign, her colleagues found out about her situation and were very sympathetic towards her, urging her to hold on tight.

  It so happened that the head of a department in their company had previously invited Buddha to "Fuzetang" and was fooled by Wen Shu's three-inch tongue, so he kindly introduced Wen Shu to Song Jia. He told Song Jia that Wen Shu was a real high-ranking person.

  So today Song Jia came to his doorstep.

  After listening to what she said, I couldn't help but smile wryly. It seems that you've found the wrong person again. To say that Wen Shu is a master, but he's only good at talking nonsense. He's got a silver tongue, that's all. Looks like you're going to waste your money again this time.

  As expected, Wen Shu listened to her and immediately put on a mysterious look. After giving me a glance, he stretched out his right hand and rubbed his thumb between his index and middle fingers. Seeing him reminding me, I didn't want to be impolite to my boss, so I cooperated with him and said to Song Jia: "Shh, don't make a sound, Master Wen is now divining the cause of your son's illness."

  As I said this, Song Jia saw Wen Shu's demeanor was indeed full of mysterious aura, completely different from those 'great masters' who would glance and then speak nonsense. At this moment, her eyes were filled with expectation.

  But this scene made me cry and laugh at the same time. Actually, I've seen Wen Shu's trick before, it was when I was in high school and drifted to Yincheng, Ninth Uncle had used this trick to figure out why I fell into the water. But to know that his messy stir-fry is really worlds apart from Ninth Uncle's messy stir-fry.

  Later I came to know that the method used by Ninth Uncle was actually a genuine way of calculating one's destiny, and the action of pinching fingers was a way of calculating the heavenly stems and earthly branches.

  The mutual coordination between the ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches generally requires paper and pen, but ancient people did not often have the opportunity to use paper and pen when calculating fate, so they divided their fingers into three sections, which just fixed the twelve heavenly stems. When matching with the earthly branches, they needed to recite the earthly branches according to the finger sections, which can quickly calculate the heavenly stem and earthly branch of a certain year and month. This is where the phrase "counting on one's fingers" comes from.

  Wen Shu's flailing at this time was really just flailing and had no effect.

  Here's the translation:

  Now that we've mentioned fortune-telling, I think it's still necessary to explain it to everyone. Because two years after that incident, I have a good friend whose fortune-telling skills are quite skilled, and through him, I also came into contact with some simple theories. Nowadays, fortune-telling can generally be divided into three types:

  One is to use orthodox numerology (He Luo Wu Xing) to calculate fate.

  Two is to use Jianghu Shu Fa (observing words and colors) to calculate fate.

  Three is calculated by the ghostly evil art (Yang Liu Mu Er).

  The first kind is very difficult to master, as it requires a combination of factors such as a good teacher, innate talent, perseverance, and moral integrity. Without any one of these elements, success is impossible. Only someone like Jiū Shū or Liu the Drunkard can achieve mastery in this area.

  The second kind is something that Wen Shū excels at, but it's not worth taking seriously. It's better to just treat it as a joke.

  The third kind is actually quite accurate when it comes to past events, because both you and the other person already know what happened. As long as you stick to the facts, you'll get 100%. However, when it comes to predicting future events, it's zero percent accurate. This is essentially a form of technical cheating, but if you want to make a living in this line of work, you have to be prepared with some excuses for when things don't go as predicted.

  It wasn't long before Wen Shu let out a deep sigh, and I also sighed inwardly. It seemed that Wen Shu was about to start his usual nonsense. Wen Shu opened his eyes and said to Song Jia: "As the saying goes, 'Daydreams are omens of good or bad fortune.' The butterfly in Zhuangzi's dream is a sign of auspiciousness, while the flying bear in Lü Buwei's divination is a sign of disaster. This illness is a result of your son's past life karma. It is called 'Hidden Snake Enters Dream'. Your son was a farmer in his past life and accidentally killed a black snake that was about to ascend to heaven while working in the fields. The snake died with unfulfilled resentment, so it wandered back to the human world through the Weak Water to seek revenge on your son. The person's face on your son's back is the incarnation of this black snake."

  Song Jia listened to Mr. Wen's nonsense and was actually deceived by his words, she asked in a hurry: "Mr. Wen, is there any way to break the curse? I only have this one son, as long as you can cure him, money is no problem. Thank you so much!!"

  Wen Shu's eyes lit up as soon as he heard "money is no problem", but he didn't show it, instead he sighed and said: "Alas, money is an external thing, I've been helping the world for decades, killing demons and monsters is my duty, you should know that this kind of retribution can't be easily resolved, I don't have a 100% guarantee either. How about this, I'll give you a talisman first, plus three liang of cinnabar, take it back home and try it out, if it doesn't work, then you can ask someone else for help!"

  Song Jia heard Wen Shu say this, and hastily nodded in gratitude. Wen Shu then whispered to me to go to the warehouse to fetch some broken talismans from last time's batch purchase and a small packet of cinnabar. I came to the warehouse, rummaging through things while thinking that Wen Shu's trick actually had people believing it. He was indeed skilled at deceiving gods and ghosts. Although he knew this matter wasn't something he could resolve, he still managed to swindle Song Jia into buying talismans, and even if they were useless, he couldn't ruin his own reputation. Truly impressive speaking skills!

  But I've been thinking in my heart, is the child's illness really a kind of retribution? It doesn't seem likely, because I remember that in the past few years when chatting with Ninth Uncle, he told me stories about this world having a kind of creature called "Night Fox" that harms people by laying eggs on their bodies. These eggs absorb the person's essence and slowly grow, gradually taking on a human face shape. In the end, when the host is exhausted, the Night Fox leaves the host's body and returns to its group.

  Ninth Uncle told me that when he was young, he and his master Jing Xian Dao Ren had helped people get rid of a few night foxes. This kind of demon is a group dweller. When it's time to reproduce, they will approach humans to find hosts. Although this matter is quite unbelievable, it really resembles the symptoms of that little fatty!

  But I couldn't help but sigh, what era is this now? Those monsters and demons, have they all gone extinct in the wild? How can such a creature still appear in today's technologically advanced city?

  But what I'm more worried about is the fate of Song Jia and her mother, you know, being cheated out of money by Wen Shu is a small matter, but in today's society, people who can save them are almost extinct.

  If I don't do anything, it would be too unfair to them. Moreover, I once promised Ninth Uncle that I wouldn't cheat people out of their money, although the money was swindled by Wen Shu, but I did participate in it after all, and if I still don't lend a hand now, then the descendant of this 'White Faction' would really fall into decline.

  So I made up my mind on my way back to the dormitory. It seems like it's going to be another sleepless night tonight!