Chapter 52: Touching one’s nose to dust
[TL Note: This means to be given the cold shoulder.]
Chen Ning just continued to smile. She was not anxious or nervous.
They kept waiting until it was getting late. The people in the market slowly left and many clerks of the store were also packing up to leave.
She finally slowly gave a lazy stretch and turned to look at Xiao Ru, “Little girl, what is with that crying face?”
Xiao Ru pouted her lips together. She felt her empty purse as she said, “Young miss, you told this servant that we were going to make money, but this servant hasn’t seen a single bronze coin yet. In the end, all that happened was that we spent ten copper coins. Now we don’t even have any money to buy buns.”
Chen Ning gave a laugh and gently scratched Xiao Ru’s nose as she said, “Are you saying that your family’s young miss has no ability to make money? Are you thinking that it’s hard to make money? Alright, I’ll show you a trick then.”
She turned around and her eyes fell onto a old man walking quickly. She then smiled at Xiao Ru and said, “Little girl, us making money today will all depend on this one person.”
Xiao Ru followed Chen Ning’s gaze and saw the unfamiliar old man. She couldn’t help shaking her head and feeling disbelief in her heart.
Chen Ning stood up and walked in front of the old man. She was smiling as she cupped her hands together, “Old uncle, having a child at your age, your fortune is not bad. Congratulations, congratulations!”
The old man’s hair was greying and he was wearing a sike robe. He seemed to be around fifty-sixty years old and he had a basket in his hand. He was running across the street, but after being suddenly stopped by Chen Ning, he couldn’t help being shocked.
When he saw that Chen Ning was an unfamiliar girl that was less than twenty years old, the old man revealed a face of impatience. He stiffly nodded at Chen Ning and said, “Congratulations to you too.”
He bypassed Chen Ning and continued moving forward, he didn’t even spare a glance back.
Once Xiao Ru saw that Chen Ning had been given the cold shoulder, she was afraid that she would be sad. Xiao Ru prepared to go forward and comfort Chen Ning.
The old man walked forward a few steps and then suddenly turned around. He looked at Chen Ning with a puzzled expression, “Little girl, we have never met before. How did you know that I’m finally having a child at my age?”
Chen Ning smiled and pointed at the words on the sign. Then she said, “My family has a divination technique, there has never been anyone who wasn’t enlightened by it. Once I saw this old uncle from far away, I saw that your glabella was shining and your face was completely red. From that I could calculate you were blessed with a big fat child this year. Isn’t this a large blessing?”
[TL Note: Glabella is the area between your eyebrows.]
The old man’s eyes suddenly became wide and he had a face of disbelief, “You’re saying, you calculated all of that just by looking at me?”
“Of course.” Chen Ning smiled and nodded.
The old man was incredibly skeptical. He scanned Chen Ning and no matter how he looked, he could not see her as an expert fortune teller.
The fortune tellers that he imagined was someone who had a long beard, wearing a long robe, and an unreadable face. How could they look like this young girl who was smiling in front of him?
“Old uncle, if you’re willing to listen, why not sit down and let me read your fortune? How about I help you calculate the near future of your big fat son?”
With Chen Ning’s body language reading abilities, she had long picked up the old man’s suspicions.
But she did not explain anything since the more she said, the more suspicious a person would be. So she asked the old man about the thing he was most concerned about. Was there a father in this world that did not want to know what would happen to their son in the future?
The old man didn’t even think about it before nodding and replying, “Alright! How about you help this old man calculate this then.”
He had decided. If this girl in front of him was a Jianghu swindler, he would not give her anything. Then he would publicly announce that she was a cheat and make it very ugly for her.