The drinking that night couldn’t end perfectly. Because he needed to hurry back to prevent the overly excited workers from causing further adverse effects, Li Mao left hastily with his foremen, cursing loudly on the phone as he left.

“Make them stay put!! No singing! No suicide!! Order them some dishes to appease them first! Yes! I’m coming right away to pay them for the New Year!! Damn it!! They’re all trying to kill me!!”

Shouting into the phone in desperation, Li Mao looked extremely harassed, but before leaving, he didn’t forget to run back and ask Xiao Nanzhu for his phone number. This was exactly the effect Xiao Nanzhu wanted, so he naturally gave it. Perhaps because this incident was too bizarre and sudden, or perhaps because he had some inexplicable guilt in his heart, when Li Mao left, the remaining two men also began taking the opportunity to talk to Xiao Nanzhu. Two out of three sentences were inquiring whether Xiao Nanzhu could really read fortunes, and after a few words, they shamelessly asked him to demonstrate again.

“We can’t fully believe what just happened! How about another round? You know my name now! Born in August ’66! Let’s not predict today, but yesterday! Little Xiao, read mine too! How was my luck yesterday?!”

Zhao Tiansheng shouted enthusiastically, his expression showing keen interest. He didn’t really believe in these things anyway, but was purely taking an attitude of wanting to try again. Hearing this, Xiao Nanzhu slightly raised his eyebrows, rubbed his index finger against his thumb, paused for a few seconds, then calmly placed his slender finger on the table and tapped it lightly a few times.

“Brother Zhao made money yesterday, encountered romance, and would have won at least a four-digit sum in the lottery, but I’m afraid all that money was given to some beautiful woman?”

As soon as Xiao Nanzhu said this, Zhao Tiansheng almost spat out the wine in his mouth. He had indeed won a sports lottery ticket yesterday, three or four thousand yuan, a small fortune, but before nightfall, this money—five thousand yuan—had been taken by a hair salon girl who claimed her mother had epilepsy and urgently needed hospitalization fees. Now being exposed in front of others, Zhao Tiansheng, who was currently married with a family, laughed awkwardly, twitched his face, and said to Cao Chong and Si Tu Zhang:

“I’m convinced, truly… accurate, too accurate!”

Hearing this, Cao Chong also became interested. Si Tu Zhang, who had been puzzled internally, frowned with confusion. But he clearly remembered that on the night of Little New Year, he had mentioned to Xiao Nanzhu about inheriting their family business, and at that time, Xiao Nanzhu didn’t seem as composed as he was now… Instead, now he appeared to understand a lot about this matter, which somehow made Si Tu Zhang, who had known him for almost twenty years, feel bewildered.

“Yes, it’s not a proper industry, just occasionally serving acquaintances. Well, it’s accurate or not, depending…”

After that, no matter how much Cao Chong and Zhao Tiansheng inquired, Xiao Nanzhu maintained an unwillingness to reveal too much, only slightly mentioning some things he had recently learned from Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth, embellishing to fool these two men. However, this little bit was enough for the current situation. After these big men finished dinner, paid the bill, and left, Xiao Nanzhu, who had kept them in suspense all night, finally symbolically left his phone number with these two men.

“If you need me in the future, you can contact me anytime. Checking dates, changing fortunes, and such are no problem. The sky has unexpected storms, people have unforeseen disasters and blessings, one must always be careful…”

Xiao Nanzhu’s words weren’t particularly auspicious, but they made Cao Chong and Zhao Tiansheng nod repeatedly. After all, having just been brainwashed by Master Deceiver Xiao, they now regarded him as a good brother. Since these two had drunk a bit too much tonight, Si Tu Zhang, who had barely touched alcohol, had to drive his little Xiali to take them back one by one. This meant leaving Xiao Nanzhu alone, and Si Tu Zhang, accustomed to being motherly, was a bit worried. But when he turned around to ask if Xiao Nanzhu had money for a taxi, Xiao Nanzhu, who had been standing not far away holding two takeout boxes, had already disappeared.

“Hey, why did this guy leave without saying goodbye…”

Cursing under his breath, Si Tu Zhang was a bit angry and was about to call Xiao Nanzhu to scold him, but as soon as he opened his phone, he saw that Xiao Nanzhu had sent him a text message a few seconds ago.

“Hey, I’m going home first. You should take a taxi back too. Today you shouldn’t drive, be good and walk home, obey >3<“

Si Tu Zhang: “…………”

…

“You performed quite well just now. I brought you spicy crawfish and hairy crab. Want to have a drink together before you get off work?”

Opening the door with his key while carrying two takeout boxes, Xiao Nanzhu had been stuffed in the restaurant’s private room all night and could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Although he had just appeared like a possessed mystic, if it weren’t for the crash course Twenty-fifth had given him at home this morning on this subject, he might have embarrassed himself. Fortunately, he had made a good start now, establishing so-called relationships with these three men, which would help him in the future. Today’s companion in pretending to be supernatural, Twenty-fifth, had now revealed himself, looking rather introverted with his stern face and silence. But upon hearing there was late-night food, the boy quickly glanced at Xiao Nanzhu, then looked elsewhere and said:

“It’s all my credit today. The crawfish are… are they all mine?!”

There was an indescribable tension in his tone. Twenty-fifth’s eager, greedy appearance made Xiao Nanzhu laugh involuntarily. But Twenty-fifth had indeed helped him a lot today, and he obviously couldn’t treat him poorly. After all, in this almanac master job, he was still a beginner, with no work experience or theoretical knowledge. Fortunately, these little day spirits had good hearts, allowing him to take on this role so smoothly. Thinking this way, Xiao Nanzhu pushed the door open and slowly walked in, taking off his coat while turning back to speak to Twenty-fifth:

“Of course, they’re all yours. Who else’s would they be? You’ve helped me a lot, so I must reward you, right?”

Smiling casually, Twenty-fifth’s mood improved upon hearing this, and he followed Xiao Nanzhu to the kitchen. He had actually been hungry for a while, but because Xiao Nanzhu had instructed him not to appear, he could only endure by hiding in his wallet, pretending to still live in two dimensions. Unfortunately, even transforming back into an almanac page couldn’t change the fact that he was starving. Only after helping Xiao Nanzhu calculate the fortune trends for those ordinary people did he finally gain relief.

“Hmm… today… did you see the things on those people?”

Sitting on the sofa peeling peanuts and eating with relish, Twenty-fifth didn’t forget to ask about Xiao Nanzhu’s situation while filling his stomach. However, as a not particularly high-ranking calendar spirit, he was actually quite satisfied with Xiao Nanzhu’s performance today. After all, not every normal person could adapt so quickly to this absurd work environment. It was obvious that although Xiao Nanzhu wasn’t very serious, he was quite upright. Thinking this way, Twenty-fifth, who was usually unwilling to take the initiative to be friendly with others, cleared his throat. Hearing this, Xiao Nanzhu, who was originally preparing to heat up the late-night snack, poked his head out from the kitchen and looked at him. Seeing this, Twenty-fifth spoke timely:

“I don’t know if Twenty-fourth told you, but in the world, there are lingering blessings and misfortunes that cannot be dispersed. Once one’s behavior is improper, it’s easy to be caught by some dirty things. Calendar spirits exist because they need to protect that day to pass safely. But evil thoughts surge; initially, they are just attracted by the evil thoughts in people’s hearts, gradually affecting people’s own minds. The first responsibility of us calendar spirits is to dispel evil and inauspicious influences. So if in the future you encounter things that are no longer human, you must…”

“Kill.”