The Master and His Wealthy Fiancée

First, Chen Dong called one of Li Huiran's bodyguards and had him take the medicinal herbs back to the Li Manor. He himself prepared to wander through the Antique Street to see if he could find a suitable Pill Furnace.

Thus, Chen Dong, carrying Li Wang in his arms, arrived at Jiangzhou's Antique Street.

The buildings on both sides of the street were quaint and old-fashioned, the tallest being no more than a three-story house with a glazed-tile roof. The street was a surging sea of people, and countless street vendors filled the gaps between the shops. People were busy sightseeing and haggling, making the entire street incredibly lively.

Li Wang seemed to love all the excitement, constantly yelling for Chen Dong to go look at this or that.

After busying himself halfway down the street, Chen Dong felt deeply disappointed. It seemed that eighty to ninety percent of the goods, whether at the stalls or in the shops, were just arts and crafts; genuine antiques were extremely rare. Besides, neither the crafts nor the antiques were of any use to Chen Dong.

What made him feel like it was all a waste of time was that the prices were absurdly high, making it extremely difficult to find a bargain. The fakes were priced almost as high as the genuine articles, to say nothing of the real things.

Just as Chen Dong was examining an ancient bronze cauldron, a woman approached him and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Chen Dong didn't even need to look. He could tell by her aura that it was Li Huiran's best friend, Wang Mengyu. That unintentional glance last time in the morning still made him feel a little awkward. He replied casually, "Nothing much. Just looking around."

Seeing Li Wang, Wang Mengyu asked curiously, "Who is this child?"

"I'm his daughter!" Xiaoli Wang had already learned to blurt out answers.

Wang Mengyu was stunned. Pretending to be nonchalant, she slipped a hand into her bag and furiously texted Li Huiran.

"AHHHH! I ran into your fake husband on the Antique Street, and he even has his daughter with him!"

Outwardly, Wang Mengyu smiled warmly at Li Wang and said, "He's so cute. Doesn't look like you at all."

Chen Dong's expression darkened. 'Does this woman have any tact at all?'

Wang Mengyu then asked, "You're here looking at antiques. You must know a lot about them, right?"

Chen Dong replied nonchalantly, "A little."

"Then do you know anything about items that can change a person's luck?"

At these words, Chen Dong finally turned to look at Wang Mengyu.

'Hm, a little disappointing. She wasn't wearing that refreshingly unique zombie costume, or any other alternative cosplay outfit. Just a simple white hoodie, a pair of jeans, and white sneakers.'

But to Chen Dong, the murky shadow between Wang Mengyu's brows was clearly visible—a sure sign of terrible luck. However, it seemed fate had also blessed her with some good luck. Even if she hit a major streak of misfortune, the worst that could happen was bankruptcy and disgrace; her life wasn't in danger.

Chen Dong nodded. "You really do need an item to change your luck. But from where I'm standing, it looks more like you've run into something... unclean."

Wang Mengyu's expression faltered. "Don't just say things like that! You're such a jinx."

At the same time, she received a reply from Li Huiran. "Are there any other women with him?"

Wang Mengyu pulled out her phone, glanced at it, and quickly replied, "Based on my observations, aside from this Fairy, there are no other women with him."

Chen Dong shook his head slightly. He wasn't in the habit of prying into people's private matters, so he had no idea what the two friends were chatting about. He was shaking his head because Wang Mengyu had indeed been tainted by an Evil Spirit.

'It takes incredibly harsh conditions for an ordinary soul to become a ghost. Time, place, and fortune are all indispensable, to say nothing of an extremely powerful obsession. Without an obsession strong enough to defy life and death, a soul would either scatter to the winds or enter the cycle of reincarnation; it could never linger in the mortal world as a ghost. The odds of a normal person encountering a ghost are as pitifully low as winning the lottery, and the odds of meeting an Evil Spirit among them are even lower. And yet, Wang Mengyu had obviously done just that. She still carried the aura of an Evil Spirit.'

Wang Mengyu received another directive from Li Huiran: "Keep observing him. Report any unusual activity to HQ, ASAP."

After sending back an "OK," Wang Mengyu put her phone away and said to Chen Dong, "Since you know a thing or two, you should come with me! I'm a total amateur when it comes to this stuff. The shopkeepers all sound so convincing, but who knows if any of it is real."

Since Chen Dong was planning to continue browsing anyway, he didn't refuse.

The three of them stopped at a stall selling beaded bracelets. For every string Wang Mengyu picked up to ask about, Chen Dong just shook his head. She went through every pretty bracelet on the stall, but his response was always the same.

Wang Mengyu pouted. "Do you actually know what you're doing or not?"

Chen Dong was speechless. 'She wants to change her luck, so what's the point of looking at pretty bracelets? It's not like being good-looking will do the trick.'

The three of them continued on until they came to a stall selling wood carvings. Chen Dong gestured to Wang Mengyu, indicating that a dark, faceless Buddha statue on the stall would be useful for her.

Wang Mengyu looked at it with disdain. "That statue is so ugly. Can it really work?"

Chen Dong nodded again in confirmation. The statue had the thick scent of long-burning incense, a clear sign it had been worshipped for a long time. 'Although I don't know why it's being sold, it's the perfect remedy for the Evil Spirit she's encountered. Buying it is definitely the right move.'

Seeing Chen Dong's confident nod, Wang Mengyu, though still skeptical, asked the stall owner, "Excuse me, how much is this Buddha statue?"

The stall owner was an elderly woman. She held up five fingers, her voice hoarse. "Five million!"