Seven

Su Fuling had made up her mind: she could not rely on her little uncle's side to earn Merit Points. She would have to go out and earn them herself. Her little uncle did not even trust her grandfather's judgment, let alone her medical skills. Sticking close to him, she would never get a chance to practice.

After lunch, Su Fuling gave her aunt-in-law Zhou Huijuan a massage.

She pressed so well that Zhou Huijuan nearly fell asleep.

But Su Fuling heard no chime from the Merit System announcing new Merit Points.

She sighed. She still had no idea what standard the System used to award them.

Still, she did not let it trouble her too much. If she could ease the pain of the people around her, that was already something.

Zhou Huijuan felt a rare looseness in her shoulders. 'I had no idea you had this kind of skill. Your uncle keeps medicinal wine too, but the smell is so strong I never use it.'

'This is essential oil — I blended it myself. Auntie, if you like it, I can do this for you regularly. Your body will feel much lighter for it.'

'How could I ask that of you? I already feel so much better.' Zhou Huijuan could hardly let her niece massage her every single day. What would people say if word got out?

'Tonight I'll talk to your uncle and have him ask around among his contacts to find you a job. Don't bother going back to the job fair. Stay home and wait in peace.'

Su Fuling heard this and thought: that will not do at all. Her little uncle had no way of finding her the kind of work she needed — something like a clinic assistant. And a person with secrets was better off keeping her distance from her little uncle's circle, or she would have nowhere left to hide them.

'Auntie, I'd like to go out and look up someone I know.'

'Can you trust them?' Zhou Huijuan asked.

'She came over from the Mainland. My little uncle and I actually ran into her this morning — he knows where she lives. We all went together to sort out the residency paperwork today.'

Zhou Huijuan did not press further when she heard that. 'Then come back early. Don't wander too far — you're still not familiar with this place. There are all sorts of unsavoury people out there. If you run into any gang members, keep well away. Those people are no good.'

Su Fuling nodded. 'I know, I know.' She tidied herself up a little, undid her two braided plaits, and, following the local fashion, pulled her hair into a high ponytail.

Seeing her ready to head out, Zhou Huijuan pressed a hundred Hong City dollars into her hand. 'Always carry a little money when you go out. If you spot something suitable to wear, buy yourself an outfit. The clothes you have on don't quite fit in here.'

Su Fuling was still wearing the plaid shirt she had brought from the Mainland, her hair in two braids.

Walking down the street, she did stand out rather.

'Auntie, I have my own money.' Su Fuling felt awkward taking it. A hundred Hong City dollars was no small sum. She had seen the wages posted at the job fair that morning — most positions paid somewhere between a hundred and a thousand a month.

'Take it,' Zhou Huijuan said, tucking the note into Su Fuling's pocket with a firm look. 'A girl should dress nicely. It'll help you find a good boyfriend down the road.' She felt her niece was grown now and needed to understand these things. She ought to be clear-headed about her goals, like Tang Jing from Tang Bo's family — not naive and easy to deceive.

There were girls in the building who had been taken in by gang members from outside, giving everything to those men without a second thought.

Su Fuling: '...'

Nineteen years old. That wasn't so old, was it? Why was everyone already thinking about her marriage prospects?

'Thank you, Auntie.' Su Fuling offered her thanks quickly and slipped out the door. She had no desire to hear any more talk of finding a husband.

She did understand, though, what her uncle and aunt were thinking. To them, she was someone who had just arrived, and they had no faith that she could support herself. So they pinned their hopes on some unknown 'boyfriend' who might one day shoulder the rest of her life for her.

But Su Fuling herself had no such intention.

To place your life in someone else's hands — that was a frightening thing.

Besides, her father had always said: women comrades ought to have their own careers. Women comrades ought to have their own brilliant lives.

Her own parents had lived exactly that way. Her mother shone in her own work, and every time her mother stood at the podium to speak, her father's eyes would fill with a quiet light. Even after so many years, Su Fuling still remembered it.

So when her former partner had asked her to move to the city and let him take care of her, she had known at once that they were not the same kind of people. She had broken things off then and there.

'Honestly, if I'd known how it would all turn out, I never should have gotten involved with him in the first place.'

Who could have guessed that the man she was seeing would turn out to be the male lead of some novel?

All this trouble trailing behind her because of it.

These past two days she had been doing some soul-searching, wondering whether she had brought it on herself by acting against her conscience. When she had first agreed to be with him, part of her reason had genuinely been worry — worry that her grandfather would not rest easy if she remained alone, and that having a partner might let him go in peace.

And in the end, her grandfather had gone in peace. It was she who could no longer find any.

'Host, this System offers a friendly reminder: it is time to get to work. Otherwise you will be unable to complete today's Merit Points task.'

Su Fuling had been sighing to herself when those words reached her, and she straightened up at once.

Treating at least one person each day was the System's fixed task.

Apparently it had been set up to prevent her from deliberately stalling — a daily minimum quota, a floor she could not fall through.

A mess left behind by the System's previous host, no doubt.

'Am I not already trying to figure something out? You saw the situation with my little uncle yourself. And as for going out into the street and announcing that I can cure people — do you honestly think anyone would believe me?'

Back home, it had only worked because her grandfather stood beside her as a guarantor. Only then had the villagers been willing to let a teenager try her hand. Without that, who would agree to be someone's practice case?

She had been through enough to know better than to be naive about it.

But the System was not something she could bluff, either. 'What happens if I fail to complete the task today?'

Merit System: 'If today's task goes uncompleted, one Merit Point will be deducted.'

'And after they're all deducted?' Su Fuling said. 'I only have one Merit Point left as it is.'

Merit System: 'This System would have no choice but to seek a new host. To ensure no gaps appear in the task record, the previous host's memories of the System would be erased.'

Su Fuling: '...'

If her memories were erased, wouldn't she simply walk straight back down the path she had been on before?

She said at once: 'Don't rush me — I have a plan!'

...

Fortune Street was lively at this hour. It must have been precisely because the street drew such crowds that the fortune-tellers had chosen to cluster here.

The people of Hong City put a great deal of stock in this sort of thing. And not everyone on the street was a fraud — some had a genuine knack for it, their words landing close enough to the truth often enough that they earned the title of master, and regulars would bring friends along to have their fortunes read.

Su Fuling followed the address Hong Xia had given her.

Hong Xia's address led to a fortune-telling shop on this very street.

The shop was tiny — it was hard to imagine how the space had been partitioned off at all. Inside sat a single table and two chairs.

The walls were hung with diagrams of the Eight Trigrams and the like.

A sign reading 'Zhao's Divine Reckoning' hung beside the door. It had a certain air of authenticity to it.

'Fated visitor — are you here to have your fortune told?'

The master inside looked up from his book and adjusted his dark glasses as he spoke.

Then he caught sight of Su Fuling and paused. 'Are you a friend of Hong Xia's?'

Su Fuling recognized him too — this was the man who had accompanied Hong Xia to sort out her identity papers that morning.

She smiled at once. 'Yes, Hong Xia and I are friends. We met this morning. Master Zhao, I'm here looking for Hong Xia.'

So it wasn't business after all.

Master Zhao's eager heart cooled in an instant.

'Hong Xia is at home today — she's not here. Why don't you come back tomorrow?' Master Zhao put on his most inscrutable expression, every inch the lofty sage.

That little pencil moustache of his did have a certain imposing quality.

Su Fuling smiled and sat down. 'Master, now that I've come all this way, couldn't we sit and talk for a moment?'

Master Zhao thought it over. Having someone seated in his stall would certainly look more appealing than an empty one.

He gave a nod. 'Since you're a friend of Hong Xia's, please, sit.' Then he cleared his throat. 'I can offer you a discount on a reading.'

Su Fuling smiled. 'Master, I'm too young for all that — never mind the reading. Actually, what I wanted to ask is: does Plaster sell well around here?'

Master Zhao asked, 'You want to buy Plaster?'

He warmed to the subject immediately. 'Then you've come to exactly the right place. This is our Zhao family's ancestral secret formula. My founding master was a direct disciple of a true adept from Wudang Mountain. This formula is a sacred recipe for warding off evil — not shared lightly. I can guarantee you: from the Mainland to Hong City, there is no other like it anywhere.'

Master Zhao spun this tale without so much as a flicker of embarrassment.

Su Fuling, for her part, was genuinely impressed.

No wonder he could make a living from a stall like this. The man had real talent.

Her little uncle had none of this gift for bold, straight-faced storytelling.

Su Fuling smiled. 'Your formula must be excellent, of course. But isn't it a bit limiting to sell only the one thing?'

Master Zhao said, 'One art conquers all. This Plaster can treat any ailment under the sun.'

Su Fuling: 'Is snake-oil Plaster really that useful in Hong City?' She drew a slow breath. 'Let me guess the ingredients — green tangerine peel, chaulmoogra seed, phellodendron bark... This Plaster is actually quite genuine. Effective for pain relief, relaxing the sinews, and promoting circulation.'

She knew the formula all too well — her grandfather had made this very kind of Plaster regularly. So Master Zhao was not entirely a fraud; at the very least, the Plaster was the real thing.

Master Zhao: '...'

So she had come to challenge him!

Master Zhao's composure cracked. Had this not been his sister's friend — someone who had done his sister a kindness — he would have thrown her out on the spot.

As it was, any warmth was gone. He fixed her with a cold stare. 'Young people should leave a little room when they're out in the world. Out of respect for the fact that you're Ah Xia's friend, I won't hold this against you.'

Su Fuling was not about to be driven off by a cold look. Over the years, in her efforts to practice medicine on real patients, she had weathered far worse — cold words, cutting remarks, the works.

And today, she genuinely needed to see this through.

If she didn't, the task would go uncompleted... and when it came to changing her fate, everything else could be set aside.

Su Fuling smiled. 'Master, please don't misunderstand. I didn't come here to cause trouble — only to demonstrate my professional credentials. My family has practiced Chinese medicine for generations. I began studying at three years old. Young as I look, I have now studied medicine for sixteen years. I was already working as a Doctor back on the Mainland.'

'My little uncle runs a Medical Hall here. But because I'm young, people don't trust me, and I've had no opportunity to show what I can do. So I'd like to ask for your help, Master — and I won't ask for nothing in return.'

She produced twenty Hong City dollars. 'The skill I've honed best since childhood is the four examinations — observation, listening, inquiry, and palpation. One look at a patient is enough for me to identify the condition. If you can arrange for me to try this in a moment, and I get it wrong, these twenty Hong City dollars are yours.'

Then she shifted tack. 'And if I get it right... I won't ask anything of you, Master. The money stays mine. We could make this a regular arrangement going forward — what do you think?'

Now it was Master Zhao's turn to stare.

Here was someone out-boasting the boaster, right to his face.

Master Zhao looked at the twenty Hong City dollars on the table.

He thought to himself: this must be some idle young person with nothing better to do, wanting a taste of real life, someone who had never known hardship. Dressed plainly enough, but apparently not short of money.

Still, he had his doubts about Su Fuling's abilities. The Plaster was an ordinary enough formula — someone from a medical family might well have encountered it before. But as for this young girl actually having any real skill, he did not believe it.

Then again, who turns down money?

And he had nothing else to do... So he hesitated. 'Well... twenty dollars seems a bit low. If you get it wrong and it damages my reputation...'

Su Fuling pulled out another ten Hong City dollars and set it on the table, smiling broadly. 'Master Zhao, it's not as if you have anything better to do. If the arrangement works out, we could keep this up long-term. You'd be making easy money. And Hong Xia and I are friends, after all. Surely you're not afraid you won't be able to win that money from me?'

Master Zhao slapped the table. 'Fine — thirty it is. But let's be clear: if your reading is off, you can't wriggle out of paying. Don't think that knowing Ah Xia gives you the right to back out.'

Su Fuling feigned indignation. 'Master, do I look like that sort of person? I have my pride!'

Master Zhao stroked his moustache. 'Just making it clear.'

Su Fuling smiled and tucked the money back into her pocket. 'The money's out on the table — now it's up to you, Master, to find someone. It has to be someone with a genuine physical ailment.'

Master Zhao gave a short huff, then stood, found a piece of cardboard, and with a brush wrote out several large characters: 'Today only — by fate's grace, one free reading for those with illness. One complimentary Plaster included.' He set the sign out at the door.

Watching this, Su Fuling found her estimation of the man rising once again.

No wonder he could make a living in this trade...

Free things might not always be good, but they are always attractive.

The moment the sign went up, people came over.

Several at once, all asking Master Zhao whether the free offer was genuine.

Master Zhao stroked his moustache with an air of great mystery. 'Of course it's free.' Someone else is footing the bill, after all.

The small crowd immediately jostled to claim the spot.

Master Zhao, with his own fixed stall, cut a far more convincing figure than those who set up on the pavement with nothing but a little folding stool.

A man like him could not afford to swindle people too badly — he had nowhere to run.

So his stall already had a certain pull. The only reason people had not been coming was that a fixed stall like his tended to charge more.

Some people, unsure of the going rate and afraid of being looked down upon, had stayed away. But free? That was worth trying.

Master Zhao stroked his moustache and glanced at Su Fuling — the look said: hurry up and choose.

Su Fuling had already used her own skill to identify two among the crowd who genuinely had something wrong with them, and from those two she selected the one whose condition was less serious.

She knew her own limits well enough. For anything more severe, it was better to send the person to a proper hospital.

Here at a roadside stall, she would focus on cases that were not urgent — ideally ones where she could offer immediate relief.

That was the most likely path to earning Merit Points.

To be safe, she also had the System run a scan on the woman in her fifties she had selected — partly to test how well the System's daily single-use diagnostic function actually worked.