“You… what are you thinking about?”
Watching Chang Fei’s expression, Lu Li suddenly grabbed the boy and lifted him up.
This instantly jolted Chang Fei out of his earlier daydreams.
He stared in shock at this slender-looking woman who had just picked him up so easily, and for a moment, he was completely dumbfounded.
“You… I…”
Lu Li looked at him like this, frowned, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then tossed him to the ground, not even planning to say a single word to him.
Just like that, she turned around, leaving Chang Fei with a dashing view of her back.
But really… this back was less for Chang Fei and more like it was meant for her girlfriends to admire.
At this moment, Lu Li quietly took out a piece of tissue and wiped away the nosebleed she’d gotten from the collision.
That was close… she almost made a fool of herself in public, but thankfully she managed to sniff the blood back in just in time!
Chang Fei had fallen pretty hard, but he had a level of respect for women that no one else could match.
Just now, he felt he’d really bumped into her too hard, and couldn’t help but chase after her, wanting to apologize properly.
Meanwhile, a few matchmakers still in the café had naturally noticed the commotion outside.
Xian Ye’s expression grew odd.
“That boy just now…”
“What?”
The other matchmakers turned to Xian Ye, not understanding what had surprised her so much.
But Xian Ye quickly pulled out her peach-heart phone, tapped away at it, and her face became even more bizarre.
“That boy and Lu Li have a karmic bond from their previous lives.”
“A destined bond?”
The little matchmakers’ eyes lit up, crowding around Xian Ye’s neck, wanting to peek at her phone.
Xian Ye gave a wry smile.
“Not a destined bond, a karmic bond.”
“Is there a difference?”
Clearly, the dog-eared girl didn’t understand what Xian Ye meant by the difference between a destined bond and a karmic bond.
Xian Ye’s expression was truly strange.
“So, in their past lives, they might have been lovers, siblings, mother and son, brother and sister, enemies, or in-laws, but without exception, there’s a debt to be repaid between them.”
“A debt? What kind of debt?”
“An emotional debt.”
“An emotional debt?”
“Mm…” Xian Ye pondered, “It can mean a lot of things.
They might have to die for each other, or make some sort of sacrifice, to repay the emotional debt owed from a previous life.
You’d have to ask Big Sis for the details, but for now… all I know is that there’s a karmic bond between them.
But their file in the Matchmaker’s Register is SSS-class, so I can’t look it up.
So… how about we just stay out of this and watch from the sidelines?”
After she said that, the little matchmakers couldn’t help but roll their eyes at Xian Ye in silence.
On the other side, Chang Fei, still somewhat captivated by Lu Li, quickly caught up with her.
“Hey, miss, I…”
Before he could finish, the hand he reached out to place on her shoulder was grabbed and twisted with a snap—his joint was dislocated just like that!
Chang Fei was stunned. Before he could react, his stomach took a hard kick.
He flew uncontrollably backward, crashing into a pillar, drawing a crowd of onlookers.
Being stared at by so many people made Chang Fei feel uncomfortable all over.
He used his still-working hand to grab his dislocated arm and pop it back in place.
Thanks to his immortal physique, he didn’t have to spend a few days in the hospital.
Still, being attacked so suddenly left Chang Fei feeling a little wounded.
Rubbing his sore arm, he chased after the mysterious girl Lu Li, who had vanished from his sight in the blink of an eye.
Lu Li turned left and right, eventually walking into a small alley.
The alley looked old, with no one else in sight. Yet Lu Li came here and knocked on a red-painted door.
Much of the paint had peeled away, leaving the door looking a bit moldy.
Chang Fei wondered if anyone actually lived here, when he suddenly heard a faint wailing in his ears.
The sound resembled crying, but even more it sounded like shrieking and cursing.
Chang Fei couldn’t help but cover his ears.
“Detected [Shadow Fate], new God of Matchmaking, please expel it immediately.”
The voice from the Matchmaker’s Mini Register rang out urgently.
Normally slow and unhurried, this time the Mini Register’s voice was fast and anxious, as chilling as the current situation itself.
Haunting, ghostly music drifted through the alley, blending with those sounds of curses and cries… Chang Fei shivered involuntarily.
Suddenly, a dark shadow appeared out of nowhere.
Chang Fei immediately jumped back, fists clenched, ready to teach it a lesson—even though he still didn’t know what a Shadow Fate was.
But the shadow grabbed his injured wrist, making him cry out in pain.
“Ah…”
“Stop yelling. Your phone’s ringtone is creepy enough without you adding to it,”
Lu Li’s cold, slightly annoyed voice drifted into Chang Fei’s ears, as refreshing as spring water and mountain breeze, making him feel inexplicably at ease.
Only then did Chang Fei notice—the ghostly wails and terrifying music were actually coming from his own divine tablet.
Chang Fei, who had just been about to ask how Lu Li found him, obediently shut his mouth.
He quickly turned off the sound from his divine tablet, coughed, and looked awkwardly at the cold-faced girl before him.
“Um… Miss? What are you doing here?”
“What business is it of yours?”
Lu Li glanced at Chang Fei, quickly withdrew her gaze, and pushed open the door.
Chang Fei immediately poked his head in curiously for a look.
He almost wished he hadn’t. Inside, there were countless red threads, with red liquid continuously dripping from them, pooling on the floor until the entire ground was covered in bright red blood.
Lu Li glanced back at Chang Fei, but didn’t get angry at his sudden intrusion.
Instead, she asked, “Have you ever heard the story of Bluebeard?”
“You mean the Bluebeard from the Grimm’s Fairy Tales?” Chang Fei couldn’t help but ask.
He only knew one version: a nobleman marries a beautiful wife and gives her all his keys.
One day, he has to go on a trip and hands her a special key, asking her not to open a certain door.
But of course, his wife opens the door anyway.
And the key turns blood red.
No matter how the nobleman’s wife tries to clean it, she can’t wash off the stain.
When the nobleman returns and sees the red key, he realizes his wife opened the forbidden door and decides to kill her.
But in the end, the nobleman is killed by his wife’s three brothers.
When he first read the story, Chang Fei never understood why the nobleman would give his wife the key to a forbidden door, or why the key would be stained blood red and never come clean.
Now, hearing Lu Li bring it up, Chang Fei was still confused, but Lu Li spoke.
“The blood-red room in Bluebeard’s story is a [Shadow Fate].”
***
Shang Zhi’s Note:
Writing filler chapters isn’t really my style, so… after a few chapters of filler, I just couldn’t help but jump into the main story. Maybe it doesn’t feel as funny, but I’ll do my best to keep the plot rich even while making it as funny as I can!