Chapter 82: Cough Cough Cough
Under the careful nurturing of my three good brothers, after another three years, I had grown to resemble a human of fourteen or fifteen years old.
I was also entering my rebellious phase, or rather, I was beginning to develop my own unique thoughts.
I wanted even less to be controlled by anyone, even though I knew they taught me things for my own good, I just didn’t like it and was unwilling.
I started to indulge myself, skipping school to go online, smoking, fighting, and so on.
This gave my three good brothers a terrible headache. Because I was the eldest brother, they couldn’t hit me, nor could they persuade me. There was nothing they could do but let me grow up unrestrained.
I caused a lot of trouble during that time, and every time I was captured by the Underworld Management Bureau, my three good brothers would worry.
They spent a lot of money to compensate me and cover for me. Sometimes, they even had to ask Godfather to use his power to offer biased blessings.
And just like that, this eldest brother of yours caused trouble again. Today, I kicked over the large pot of soup that Meng Po was cooking on the Bridge of Helplessness.
Upon hearing this, my three good brothers felt like the sky was falling. The value of that pot of soup was enough to crush their will to live.
However, since I had caused this consequence, as responsible good brothers, and having nurtured this eldest brother from infancy, they could only use all their connections to cover for me again.
“Elder Sister, it’s Jin Buque. Something happened at home. Are you doing well financially? Could you lend me some money first…?”
“Auntie, it’s Gouzi. Could you lend me ten thousand yuan? I’ll pay you back when I earn money later.”
“Seventh Aunt, Sixth Uncle, Eighth Grandmother, I, Xue Pan, died early and never asked you for anything. I’m sending you a dream communication today for no other reason than to see if you can help me by burning some yuanzi for me. Once I’ve recovered from this, I’ll compensate you in other ways.”
My three brothers spent their days trying to find solutions everywhere.
Seeing this made me, the eldest brother, feel very uncomfortable. Thinking about these three people who took care of me, I had never seen them grovel and beg for help from others for any reason since I met them.
This feeling was sour, bitter, and self-reproaching. It was not a good feeling at all.
On the other side, Godfather also used many connections to negotiate with Meng Po, and finally managed to reduce the compensation amount to the lowest possible. However, that was still not something these ordinary people could easily afford. Furthermore, Godfather was a just person and never took bribes; all his salary was used for household expenses. Occasionally, any spare money he had, he wouldn’t spend on smoking or drinking, but rather on me.
After this incident, I began to reflect on myself. Did I want to cause trouble?
I did not.
But why did I always get into trouble?
I didn’t know either. Perhaps I was just looking for a reason to prove myself different.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, I had grown to look about twenty years old.
At this point, my brothers began to feel gradually more at ease with me, but they were still very worried about whether I could awaken my past memories.
However, they were not overly anxious.
There is a saying that one day in heaven is one year on Earth.
And the time in the Underworld also has a discrepancy with the mortal world.
It seemed that after a few years in the Underworld, I had grown to be twenty years old.
In reality, only a little over a month had passed in the mortal world.
However, due to the extreme sparsity of spiritual energy in the Underworld, it was difficult for people to improve their spiritual power.
Therefore, Godfather sent me to live in the mortal world again.
Upon my initial arrival in the mortal world, many things were not unfamiliar to me, as I had learned about them in the Underworld. However, the Underworld was still the Underworld, and the mortal world was the mortal world; they were like two different worlds.
In the Underworld, someone took care of my food and clothing, and someone protected me.
Upon arriving in the mortal world, I began to integrate into life and experience everything in the world.
Working, holding a job, eating, sleeping, reading books, writing, and contemplating the patterns of all things, as well as the origin and abode of all things.
Without others to care for me, I gradually learned to take care of myself.
Earning money and spending it alone, and seeing a doctor alone when sick.
I originally thought about saving some money to repay Godfather and my other brothers.
However, it seems that the mortal world has some kind of restriction; to acquire high profits, one must first cross class boundaries.
And for someone like me, who doesn’t understand the mortal world well, there are only a few ways to change class.
Entrepreneurship, learning, and gambling.
I had no foundation for entrepreneurship, no capital, and most importantly, no direction.
Without failing dozens of times, success would be difficult.
Even if I were to succeed by chance once, it would not be smooth sailing all the time, because luck is something that changes.
Gambling is even less advisable, because out of ten bets, eleven are scams. Not only will you not win big, but others will also siphon away your existing luck. This path was clearly not feasible.
After much thought, only one path remained.
That was to continuously learn, improve my cognition, and accumulate capital.
First, I needed to let myself settle down.
There is a saying that money is compensation for cognition.
In this state, one day I found the answer. I saw a bracelet on a street stall priced at fifty, and later saw the exact same one in a shop priced at five hundred, a tenfold difference in value.
Why was this?
Later, I saw a craft Buddha statue on a street stall selling for only eighty.
However, when taken to a temple, given a consecration card, and after a few gestures, it was said to have divine power, and its value directly increased dozens of times. Moreover, it couldn’t be said to be bought, but rather “invited.”
From these two incidents, I concluded that to truly succeed, one must first change their identity and packaging, and second, learn to deceive.
The more you can deceive, the more magical your words sound, and the more people will believe you. Conversely, few people pay attention to the truth.
It’s not for any other reason than that humans are foolish and innocent creatures, even after living for decades.
For example, now that the eldest brother has changed clothes and is telling fortunes, the person who comes to see me looks like someone who is ignorant and dissolute.
What should I say?
I told him that he was destined to be extraordinary and different, that he couldn’t work a regular job, and that he wouldn’t get ahead by working for others.
If he did something on his own, or served in the military for a few years first, and then came back to develop some new venture, then in the future, he would definitely be extraordinary, not necessarily eating in fancy restaurants every meal, but close to it.
With these flattering words, I easily deceived him, and he paid the money very readily.
There is another type of person who, despite lacking nothing in terms of food or clothing, has a face full of worry. If you say she doesn’t have money, alas, she lacks nothing, but if you say she has money, she really doesn’t have much.
For this type of person, first flatter, then frighten. Tell her her identity is unusual, that she was someone from heaven before, or that she was not an ordinary person in her past life.
After she is feeling very pleased with herself, tell her that her current suffering is a test for her, to make her become powerful again.
If she cannot change back, then her life will be miserable. Nothing will go smoothly, she will feel uncomfortable all over, and whatever she does will be in vain, and so on.
Then tell her a ritual is needed.
Once she spends this money, then bring it on.
In the future, it won’t be like waiting at home for money to come to her, but it will be close.
Cough cough cough.
