Translator: TYZ Editor: Book_Hoarder
Ren Baqian always had this notion that he was a coward.
But, doesn't a coward live longer?
Every day, he heard of people that thought highly of themselves and wanted to court death. And when they really died, they served as a reminder to the living.
There had once been a girl whose clothes were accidentally ripped off by a mechanic. Even after the mechanic had apologized to her, she still refused to forgive him. Eventually, her father got involved. He beat up that mechanic even though the latter kneeled down and begged him for mercy. One had to know that kneeling down was a big deal in China. However, her father was still unwilling to forgive him, and he even destroyed the mechanic's shop. In the end, the mechanic went crazy and killed him.
Every time Ren Baqian saw this kind of news, his vigilance increased. It was far better to live life as a coward.
This afternoon, when he immediately heard that a bichi would bring misfortune to whoever that encountered it, he instantly followed the advice given to him and suppressed his curiosity. Even if it looked as beautiful as a flower, he wouldn't want to see it.
But, what is this small thing in front of me now?
Ren Baqian's head was filled with question marks.
It was scarlet in color, slightly resembled a fox, and its pesized eyes looked crafty.
Most importantly, it had a pair of wings on its back, resembling those of a bat.
Just now, while Ren Baqian was daydreaming in his room, this small creature suddenly jumped through the window into his room. Then, it began to engage in a staring match with him.
"I'm already avoiding you, and there's no enmity between us, why are you doing this?" Ren Baqian painted an innocent look on his face."
Ren Baqian felt that he had to find out what this creature wanted from him. It surely wasn't here just to look at him, right?
Even though the other party was a wild beast, a wild beast had intelligence too.
Even crows had the intelligence of an eight-year-old child.
Animals like weasels and foxes had high intelligence levels. Therefore, this creature surely wasn't an idiot, right?
"You can take whatever you like, treat it as a gift from me," Ren Baqian said trying his luck.
Obviously, Ren Baqian had thought too much. The other party lacked the complete intelligence of a human, so it, therefore, did not understand what Ren Baqian was saying. Its pesized eyes continued to stare at Ren Baqian.
Eh? Ren Baqian suddenly realized that the creature wasn't staring at him. It was staring at his hand, or rather, something beside him.
Because of the huge eyes that this creature had, while it directly faced Ren Baqian, he subconsciously thought that it was staring at him. As time passed, Ren Baqian finally realized that the creature wasn't staring at him.
But rather, it was staring at… the bag of White Rabbit Creamy Candy beside his hand?
Ren Baqian picked up the bag of White Rabbit Creamy Candy and swayed it left and right. The creature's pesized eyes moved left and right as well.
"I will gift this to you, remember to open the bag before eating the candies." Ren Baqian did not know whether or not the creature understood what he said but nevertheless threw the bag of White Rabbit Creamy Candy to one side. Immediately, a shadow darted across his vision. The creature picked up the candy bag with its mouth and transformed into a scarlet shadow that disappeared into the night scene outside the window.
Ren Baqian scratched his head. Just now, he'd eaten two pieces of White Rabbit Creamy Candy while he was daydreaming. Was the creature attracted by White Rabbit Creamy Candy?
Then again, Ren Baqian felt that this was impossible. The two cows had already been brought up the mountain. Furthermore, the mountain was so far away from him. Even a god couldn't pick up the scent of the candies from such a long distance, right?
However, no matter what, the White Rabbit Creamy Candy saved the day again.
Lin Qiaole, the empress, and… the creature was called bichi, right?
The charm of White Rabbit Creamy Candy was unstoppable.
After thinking about it, Ren Baqian closed his window. He did not mind even if it made his room stuffy and hot.
After falling asleep, Ren Baqian had a dream. He dreamt that the mountain was shaking, and the ground was trembling. Then, a thunderous roar of a beast resounded from some distant area. Just as he was about to investigate, he suddenly heard a loud boom from his surroundings. Following which, the wooden house that he was in collapsed.
Teng Ji and Tao Jiyuan felt the ground tremble, and they quickly ran out of their rooms. Just as they were about to pull Ren Baqian out of his room, they heard the loud boom. The wooden house that Ren Baqian was residing in suddenly collapsed.
Both of them felt their hearts turn taut. For this mission, anything could happen to anyone but not to Ren Baqian.
Unfortunately, he was the one in trouble now.
"Save him, quickly save him!" Tao Jiyuan's limbs turned numb as a panicked look appeared on his face.
Without saying anything, Teng Ji rushed to the collapsed house and lifted the roof.
Single-handedly, he lifted a huge piece of the destroyed roof and threw it to aside.
"Save him, quickly save Sir Ren!" Tao Jiyuan yelled at the top of his lungs to the winged cavalry.
"Sir Ren! Are you okay? Sir Ren?" Teng Ji yelled toward the heap of smashed wood pieces.
Everyone else came to help him. They threw the smashed wood pieces to one side and dug towards the position of Ren Baqian's bed.
By this point in time, Ren Baqian's head was in total chaos. The beam supporting the wooden house had broken and collapsed. The other end of the beam was propped up by a collapsed wall of the house, forming a triangle. It just so happened that he was under the triangle and was left unscathed.
Even so, his heart was still beating rapidly. Did he just encounter an earthquake? If he wasn't lucky, he would have died here.
As Ren Baqian thought about it, he curled his body up, remaining stationary in the darkness.
When he heard the yells outside, he instantly started yelling in reply.
After what seemed like an eternity, Ren Baqian was finally dug out of the debris with dust and dirt all over his body. When he saw the starry sky and the torches surrounding him, the feeling of solace gushed into his heart.
"Sir Ren, you're really lucky. I can't believe you're not injured at all." Tao Jiyuan finally felt relieved after giving Ren Baqian's body a thorough check.
Teng Ji and the rest set their minds at ease.
"I also think I'm lucky," Ren Baqian replied as he heaved a sigh of relief.
"Out all these many wooden houses, only mine collapsed. Fortunately, nothing happened to me, it could be worse."
"Previously, when you said that one will have bad luck if he or she encounters a bichi, I didn't believe you. Now, I really believe it," Ren Baqian continued.
"Sir Ren saw a bichi?" Tao Jiyuan said with surprise. Ren Baqian did not come out of his wooden house at all, how could he possibly encounter a bichi?
"It's scarlet in color, it has a pair of wings on its back, and its eyes are very small, right?" Ren Baqian described. "Before I turned out the light just now, it suddenly ran into my room through the window. It stared at me for a while before running away."
Upon hearing Ren Baqian's words, everyone had a queer look on their faces. Following which, they all took a step backward. Then, they cast an utterly disdainful look at him, appearing as though he was a piece of dung that couldn't be disposed of.
With an apprehensive look on his face, Tao Jiyuan began, "Sir, the one you saw is called bichi. An ordinary bichi is grey in color and represents disaster. The one you saw is extremely rare, and it represents misfortune that comes with blessing."
["Wings" and "scarlet" is called "chi" in Chinese. Previously, the "chi" of an ordinary bichi is "wings" while the "chi" of the scarlet bichi is "scarlet".]
"It's indeed a misfortune that comes with blessing," Ren Baqian agreed when he thought of the encounter he had just now.
If he did not encounter that creature, he reckoned that his house wouldn't have collapsed. Out of so many houses, his house was the only one that collapsed.
However, even though his house collapsed, he was left unscathed.
The phrase "misfortune that comes with blessing" was indeed apt in this case.
"However, the people around you will only encounter misfortune," Tao Jiyuan continued.
"..."
"What do you mean?"
"For you, you will encounter misfortunes that come with blessings during this period of time. However, for the people around you, they will only encounter misfortunes and not blessings," Tao Jiyuan had an awkward look on his face.
Ren Baqian looked around him. He finally understood why everyone backed away from him. He also knew why Tao Jiyuan and Teng Ji had apprehensive looks on their faces.
Was he going to lead a hard life in which the people around him would die from today onwards?