Volume 2: The Demonic World Chapter 349: Taking Office [Dao Tong]
He got the copper coins, but the Taoist secret inside them did not belong to Lin Qianxing yet, so he could not take up the position of Taoist Child yet.
"Hey, what are you doing! That's my money!" the gambler looked at Lin Qianxing and said.
"I have a connection with you, so I want to buy your copper coin." Lin Qianxing said.
At the same time, Lin Qianxing also took out a gold coin.
The gambler looked at the gold coin, greed flashed in his eyes, but he said uncharacteristically: "I won't sell it, no matter how much money you offer, just leave now."
Lin Qianxing could see that he was not trying to raise the price, but he truly believed that this copper coin meant a lot to him, more than just this little money.
At this moment, the gambler snatched the copper coin from Lin Qianxing's hand, and then carefully placed it in the inner pocket of his arms.
During the whole process, Lin Qianxing did not stop.
The acquisition of Tao opportunity requires chance.
He must make the gambler voluntarily give up the ownership of the copper coins and end the cause and effect before he can truly obtain the Tao.
This process is the ceremony of his taking office as a "Dao Tong".
Of course, Lin Qianxing has many ways to get it, such as forcing him to buy it or simply beating him up, forcing him to give it up and then snatching it away.
Either way, it is fate.
However, Lin Qianxing knew very well that a forced melon is not sweet, and an opportunity seized by force is definitely not a good opportunity.
So he decided to spend more time to resolve the above cause and effect.
"What's your name, sir?" Lin Qianxing asked the gambler.
"My last name is Zhu, and I'm the third child in my family. You can just call me Zhu San. Judging from the way you're dressed, are you a student in the academy?" Zhu San looked at Lin Qianxing, rolled his eyes and said, "Well, I'm doing pretty well recently. Lend me some money, and when I make a profit, we'll split it 50-50."
Lin Qianxing said nothing, just looked at Zhu San with a smile.
"Forty-six? Thirty-seven? Twenty-eight is already the limit!!" Zhu San kept testing Lin Qianxing's bottom line.
"That copper coin is of some value to me. If Mr. Zhu San is willing to give it up, money is not a problem." Lin Qianxing said.
When Zhu San heard the voice, he was stunned for a moment.
He didn't know why Lin Qianxing wanted his copper coin, but he really didn't want to sell it.
Even though he had lost everything several times, he still kept it and never used it as gambling money. This was his last bottom line.
"Sorry, I can't sell it." Zhu San shook his head.
"Aren't you going to ask me how much I want?" Lin Qianxing said, "How about one hundred gold?"
Zhu San's heartbeat stopped, his cheeks turned three shades redder, and he unconsciously covered his chest with his hands.
"What about the one thousand gold?" Lin Qianxing asked again.
Zhu San swallowed his saliva. How could he gamble to earn the thousand gold?
With this thousand gold, what else can he not get?
He slowly stretched out his hand and took out the copper coin in his arms. The moment his fingertips touched it, his expression returned to clarity.
"No, no way!" Zhu San shook his head violently and said to Lin Qianxing, "I can't sell it, no matter how much money you offer."
Lin Qianxing laughed. What is this?
The anchor of his humanity?
Even though he is such a gambler, he still has things that he is obsessed with.
Then the key to this Taoist event will become clear.
"Mr. Zhu San, would you like to eat something?" Lin Qianxing asked, "It's my treat."
"It's your treat!" Zhu San repeated.
"I'll treat you!" Lin Qianxing said affirmatively, "Any restaurant in the city will do."
Hearing this, Zhu San didn't think much about it and directly took Lin Qianxing to the most luxurious restaurant in the city.
He had nothing left and didn't care what Lin Qianxing was thinking.
As for that copper coin?
Judging from Lin Qianxing's temperament, he might be able to do it even if he just robbed it.
Since he didn't try to snatch it at the beginning, it proves that he is more or less a reasonable person.
If that's the case, then he has nothing to fear.
Inside the restaurant, Zhu San was chatting with Lin Qianxing while enjoying the food in the restaurant with ease.
When he was eating, his eyes were full of nostalgia, a familiarity mixed with a bit of strangeness. He must have been a frequent visitor here in the past, but came less and less often because of the decline of the place.
"Judging from the way Mr. Zhu San talks, he was once a scholar, right? Why did he fall to his current situation?" Lin Qianxing asked.
"He got addicted to gambling and couldn't quit. His wife and children left him. I thought I could make money from the gambling house to change their minds, but I ended up losing everything." At this point, Zhu San smiled indifferently and said, "If you take a walk around the gambling house, you will find at least 80 such stories. They are not new. In recent years, the court has gradually banned gambling, and such things have become less common. But who can be blamed for this? It's all our own fault! If we hadn't been involved in gambling, who would have ended up like this?"
"That copper coin was given to Mr. Zhu San by someone important to him, right?" Lin Qianxing asked.
Hearing Lin Qianxing mention the copper coin again, Zhu San seemed a little wary, but since he was eating someone else's food, he couldn't just ignore it. He briefly explained, "My daughter gave it to me."
"Is this lucky money? I heard that the red rope on it is woven from three thousand fine red silk threads entangled together. It is a very complicated process. Your daughter must respect Mr. Zhu San very much." Lin Qianxing said.
Hearing this, Zhu San fell silent.
His hands, which were eating, stopped.
Tears couldn't stop flowing from the corners of my eyes.
"I am such a piece of shit. I even gambled away her elementary school tuition..."
As he said that , Zhu San couldn't help but slap himself twice.
His face was visibly red and swollen, which showed that the two slaps were indeed very hard.
Perhaps this kind of pain will make his conscience feel better.
"Mr. Zhu San, since you know it's wrong, why don't you turn back?" Lin Qianxing said, "It's not too late to mend the fence after the sheep have been lost!"
Zhu San shook his head and said, "It's useless. Once you touch that thing, you can never quit. I tried not to think about it, but every time I dreamed, I couldn't control myself when I thought about the wins and losses at the gambling table. I lost my wife's dowry, and I also spent the money that Lao Taishan gave me to buy property. I'm hopeless. I'm hopeless. Fortunately, they left me in time, otherwise nothing would be left."
"How about this, Mr. Zhu San, I will help you quit your gambling addiction and find your wife and daughter again, and Mr. Zhu San, how about you give me the lucky money ?" Lin Qianxing said.
Zhu San raised his head, with a hint of hope in his eyes, but then he shook his head and said, "They won't forgive me."
"Mr. Zhu San hasn't tried it, so how can he know the result?" Lin Qianxing said.
"I have done so many excessive things..." Zhu San said ashamedly.
"But you have also done many things that are worthy of your family's expectations, right?" Lin Qianxing smiled and said, "Isn't this lucky coin proof of that?"
Zhu San hesitated for a moment, then looked at Lin Qianxing and asked, "How can you help me?"
"It's very simple, just have a dream." Lin Qianxing said.
Immediately, Lin Qianxing reached out and touched Zhu San's forehead, transmitting a piece of dream information into Zhu San's mind.
Zhu San closed his eyes and fell into a dream.
…
In a dream.
Zhu San was still addicted to gambling, the only difference was that this time his wife and daughter did not leave .
He became more and more aggressive, and in the end he even lost his humanity and wanted to put his wife and daughter on the gambling table.
"What do you think? As long as you sign this contract, you will have money to gamble with." The manager of the gambling house said with a smile.
Zhu San breathed rapidly, his mind racing as he looked at his wife and daughter who were being held hostage. His thumb gradually placed above the indenture.
"Daddy, come back!"
Suddenly, a call came, causing Zhu San to stop moving.
He turned his head and looked at his nine-year-old daughter.
Tears welled up in his eyes.
"Hey, you're not thinking of changing your mind now, are you? You can't quit!" The gambling house manager said, "Just put your handprints down honestly and gamble again. This is what you should do."
Hearing the sound, Zhu San's body trembled.
No one knew better than him how difficult it was to resist such temptation.
He wants to gamble!
He really wants to gamble!!
I really want to!!!
suddenly!
Zhu Sanyi stretched out his hand, picked up the short knife beside him that he had used to cut off thousands of people's fingers, and slashed it hard on his right wrist.
“Ah~!!”
Zhu San woke up from his dream, his whole body soaked with sweat.
He looked at his right hand. The unforgettable pain was still fresh in his memory, but his right hand was still there.
A trace of joy welled up in my heart.
As he breathed a sigh of relief, Lin Qianxing also said, "Mr. Zhu San, do you still want to gamble?"
Zhu San came back to his senses and looked at Lin Qianxing. The complex expression on his face was difficult to describe in words. At this moment, he seemed to have aged ten or twenty years.
Finally, he seemed to see through everything and said three words calmly: "No more gambling."
After saying these three words, his temperament changed drastically and he was no longer as decadent as before.
"Mr. Zhu San, do you need me to help you find your wife and daughter?" Lin Qianxing asked.
"No need. What you have done is enough. I will do the rest myself." Zhu San let out a long breath and said, "According to the agreement, this lucky coin is yours."
Zhu San carefully took out the lucky money from his arms and handed it to Lin Qianxing.
Lin Qianxing smiled, stretched out his hands and took it.
The Taoist machine above has now changed hands and belongs to Lin Qianxing himself.
"Thank you for your enlightenment, sir." Zhu San said.
"Mr. Zhu San, instead of thanking me, you should thank yourself." Lin Qianxing stood up and said, "I hope Mr. Zhu San will remember the decision you made today."
"I will remember it and never forget it for the rest of my life." Zhu San said unconsciously, holding his right wrist.
Compared to the pain of having his wrists cut off, the pain in his heart when his daughter called him was what made him suffer the most.
Just when Zhu San was about to ask Lin Qianxing's name, Lin Qianxing disappeared from his sight.
On the other side, Lin Qianxing was walking on the street, the copper coins in his hand scattered into ashes, all the Taoist energy was absorbed by him, and a scene appeared before his eyes.
It was a picture of a young girl working hard to weave red silk and praying for her father to return.
It is this sincere longing that prevents Zhu San from making the same mistake again and again, leaving him with a chance of turning back.
It was because Zhu San always responded to this longing sincerely that he made the right choice at the critical moment and broke free from the shackles with great perseverance.
Throughout the whole process, Lin Qianxing's role was merely to witness and guide certain things to happen.
"Is this fate?" Lin Qianxing said suddenly.
[Hint: You have successfully assumed the first-level Taoist position [Tao Tong].]
[Hint: Your soul attributes have been improved...]
[Hint: Your physical attributes...]
[Hint: Your luck attribute has been improved, and the current luck attribute is 5.6.]
[Hint: You have obtained a first-level lower-level Taoist skill [Fortune Divination].]
[Fortune-telling [Level 1 Lower]: Before you do something, you can use a fortune-telling device to ask the heaven and earth for fortune-telling.]
