Chapter 203: Reject Feudal Superstition

“Fate is an eternal pendulum. Yesterday, at one end, it solidified into hope; tomorrow, at the other, it foretells farewell.”

Ten minutes later, as Lu Wei left the Red Rose Inn, the tip of his nose was still burning.

Although he was pissed off, he knew, of course, that Mirana hadn’t been intentionally “humiliating” him.

After all, they had been the only two people in the room; there was no audience.

Therefore, that last poem must have been her own spontaneous lament.

Lu Wei couldn’t fully grasp its specific meaning.

But it sounded like Mirana was just blaming “fate” for her actions—

‘I did betray you all, but it was the will of fate. I had no choice.’

‘Yeah, that’s probably what she meant.’

“Pah! So shameless!”

Muttering to himself, Lu Wei tightened his collar and silently quickened his pace, planning to get home quickly for dinner, take a hot bath, and completely forget about the night’s events.

But he had barely gone any distance when the kerosene lamp in his hand sputtered out with a FIZZ.

He lifted it and gave it a shake. It was out of oil.

“Sigh…”

Lu Wei sighed again, then used [Magic Tricks] to create a “virtual flame” inside the lampshade.

It had no heat, but at least it provided light.

It was basically a weaker version of [Light Magic].

‘What an unlucky day.’

‘Hm? Don’t tell me some malevolent spirit has latched onto me?’

As he walked, Lu Wei suddenly froze, then glanced around neurotically.

He found nothing.

Only then did he start walking again, muttering under his breath as he continued toward his small wooden cabin.

His footsteps echoed on the empty street, where there happened to be no passersby.

After he had walked some distance away, a dark figure emerged from the corner of an alley about ten meters back.

Judging by his build, it was a man. He wore black clothes and a low-drawn hood, his face completely hidden in the shadows.

Silently watching the faint glow of the kerosene lamp in the distance, the man seemed to frown slightly, his low muttering carried away by the wind.

“Isn’t he a Priest?”

“How does he know Magic Tricks?”

…

…

「The next morning.」

In the thin morning mist, the rising sun was just a hazy outline, its light as soft as if filtered through a pane of frosted glass.

Bai Ya was up bright and early as usual. The sky had barely lightened when she left with her basket to catch the earliest market.

Although the market in Heitai Town was open almost all day, this was actually a rare exception in the entire Northern River Valley.

For example, in Bai Ya’s hometown, Shixi Town, there was only a morning market each day.

It would disperse after sunrise, and if you went too late, you couldn’t buy anything.

That was why she had always kept the habit of waking up before dawn to go to the market and purchase food for the day.

That’s right. Unlike in his previous life, people in this era rarely stockpiled food at home.

To put it nicely, this was due to a lack of storage methods, which easily led to waste, especially in the summer.

To put it bluntly, it was because they were poor.

After all, for most country folk who lived off farming, “savings” were a nonexistent concept, except for a month or two after the autumn harvest.

For the even less fortunate, it was a matter of working one day just to eat for one day.

One day without work meant one day without food.

Three days without work could mean starving to death.

It was a perfect illustration of the phrase, “We are all just trying our best to live.”

‘This roll is crucial…’

The morning mist was gradually dispersed by the rising sun, and the bedroom grew brighter.

While Bai Ya was at the market picking out fresh vegetables, Lu Wei had already gotten up. He was now sitting cross-legged on his bed, a wooden twenty-sided die in his hand and a very serious expression on his face.

After returning last night, he had tossed and turned, spending most of the night in deep reflection before finally reaching a conclusion—

The reason he had made such a fool of himself was entirely a matter of bad luck.

Therefore, he decided that starting today, he would add a “luck check” to his morning routine.

It was a bit like a daily divination to gauge his “luck value” for the day, which would then serve as an important reference for his decisions.

People always turn to the supernatural when they feel helpless… which just goes to show how deeply last night’s events had wounded him.

“Come on! A nat 20 for a critical success!”

After a silent prayer, Lu Wei threw the die forcefully, his eyes fixed on it as it rolled from one end of the bedsheet to the other…

…and then, with a CLATTER, it rolled off the edge of the bed and fell to the floor.

“…”

As if checking his college entrance exam scores, Lu Wei held his breath and slowly peeked his head over the edge.

Immediately after, a horrifying number came into view!

[3]!

“…”

“Obviously, that one doesn’t count. It fell off the bed, after all.”

After a moment of dead silence, Lu Wei forced a smile, picked up the die with feigned composure.

Muttering to himself, he rolled it again, this time with intentionally less force.

This time, the die didn’t fall off, stopping quickly on the bedsheet.

And the result was indeed a little better than before.

[4]!

“…”

“Heh, this one doesn’t count either. Even lotteries have test draws. The next one will be the Official one.”

[3]!

“You motherf…”

[5]!

“Okay, stop messing around. This time for real.”

[2]!

“Last time…”

[3]!

“…”

“What is this stupid piece of crap!”

Three minutes later, a flustered and exasperated roar suddenly echoed in the bedroom.

Lu Wei leaped off the bed, gritting his teeth. He snatched the die, threw open the window, and hurled it outside in a fit of rage.

“This is pure feudal superstition! Who the hell believes in this stuff?!”

…

…

Half an hour later, Bai Ya returned, humming a little tune.

She then deftly started a fire and began to cook.

Only when the aroma of frying bacon wafted into the small cabin did Lu Wei emerge from the bedroom, his face grim.

“Captain, what are your plans for today?”

Bai Ya turned her head and asked in a cheerful tone, “Want to go see the hanging together?”

?

Lu Wei froze. “What hanging?”

“Watson’s hanging, of course. The execution is at noon.”

Bai Ya answered matter-of-factly, “I heard people talking about it while I was shopping for groceries. They said the Town Hall has already put up a notice.”

‘Watson?’

‘Jeez, the guy was arrested yesterday afternoon, and he’s already on his way to the gallows today?’

‘Is the legal process really this simple?’

“…I’m not going.”

A moment later, Lu Wei snapped out of his shock and pursed his lips. “I’m staying home today. Not going anywhere.”

Bai Ya was puzzled. “Huh, why?”

Lu Wei grumbled impatiently, “There’s no why. Can’t I just take a day off?”

“Oh, okay.”

Bai Ya nodded and placed the bread and sizzling bacon on the table.

“That works out, then. The boxes we ordered the day before yesterday are ready. I’ll go to the carpenter’s shop in a bit and tell them to deliver them.”

“It’s perfect since you’ll be home. You can pay them when they arrive.”

“Huh? That was fast.”

“Well, it was only twenty of them. That’s not a lot.”

“Fine… How much was the deposit you paid?”

“One Silver Coin.”

“Oh, here you go.”

Lu Wei took a Silver Coin from his coin pouch, placed it on the table, and added an instruction:

“Oh, right. After you’re done at the carpenter’s, swing by and find Marcus. Tell him I’m treating them to drinks tonight.”

“Okay, but why are you treating?”

Bai Ya sat down across from him, muttering softly, a little pained by the expense. “But we agreed that Marcus was supposed to treat us to drinks.”

‘Look at how stingy you are!’

‘You’ll never accomplish anything great like that!’

‘We asked the guy to be an actor for us. Shouldn’t we pay him for his performance?’

“Why do you have so many questions? How much can a few drinks cost?”

Lu Wei took a large, vicious bite of his bread, his mind already starting to scheme about the “Equipment blind box” idea.

He was full of anticipation for this new project that was about to launch.

However, he first needed to get his hands on a few “grand prizes” that were tempting enough to act as bait.

In Heitai Town, Ordinary High Level Equipment was already quite good, but he felt it was still missing a certain something.

Besides, you had to personally inspect an item’s stats to know if the Equipment was good or bad, which wasn’t intuitive enough.

Therefore, it would be best to get some prizes that everyone would recognize on sight and that had a strong visual impact.

Or, he could take a page from the gacha systems of his previous life’s games and use colors to represent the prize’s Rarity.

Imagine a customer opening a box and a brilliant golden light suddenly bursting forth, complete with sound effects…

Who could possibly resist a scene like that?

‘Hm, that’s worth a try.’

‘Blind boxes are all about selling emotional Value, after all.’