Running out of the abandoned factory and onto the main road, once he estimated that the man wouldn’t be chasing them any further, Ruan Qiuping finally put the child down.
“Why were you here? What’s your parents’ phone number? Where do you live?” Ruan Qiuping asked.
The child looked down at his own toes and mumbled, “I don’t know.”
Ruan Qiuping glanced around, taking in the child’s appearance, and let out a deep sigh.
Even a great God of Fortune, descending to the mortal realm, ended up in such a state.
Ah, well, it was due to his overwhelming power, his slightly dispersed luck had overshadowed the good luck of the God of Fortune, leading to this unfortunate appearance.
Ruan Qiuping thought with a bit of pride.
“Who is this guy?”
“Could he be a human trafficker? How else could he have made the child look like this…”
“Should we call the police?”
Various remarks from passersby reached Ruan Qiuping’s ears.
Seeing the child’s state, Ruan Qiuping realized that the situation was a bit inappropriate. He looked around and noticed a small supermarket not far away. Leading the child towards the supermarket, Ruan Qiuping asked again, “If you don’t know your parents’ phone number or your home address, you should at least know your own name, right?”
The child shook his head and replied, “I don’t know.”
Ruan Qiuping questioned, “But you seem to be around four or five years old. How can you not even know your own name?”
Even three-year-old Ruan Dongdong knew his name.
After a moment of silence, the child said, “Because I’m dumb.”
The so-called rare genius, the renowned God of Fortune, was lost because he considered himself too dumb to remember his address or even his own name…
Ruan Qiuping had to suppress a laugh just thinking about it.
The child glanced at Ruan Qiuping and questioned, “My mind is slow, so why do you look so happy?”
Ruan Qiuping cleared his throat and tried to straighten his expression. He said seriously, “You’ve misunderstood. Why would I be happy? I’m actually quite worried… We’ve reached the restroom. You should go and clean up.”
The child turned on the tap and began washing the dirt off himself.
Ten minutes later, the dirt on the child’s skin had been thoroughly washed away, revealing a fair and lovely face.
“Not bad, not bad,” Ruan Qiuping nodded appreciatively, unable to resist. “Remember to clean up well when you go out next time. You need to be clean and tidy to find a good wife.”
The child looked up at Ruan Qiuping and asked, “Why do I need to find a wife?”
Ruan Qiuping ：“……”.
How should he answer this? He couldn’t possibly explain that he needed to fall in love on Earth to dissolve his arranged marriage with his sister…
After a brief contemplation, Ruan Qiuping casually said, taking into account the child’s limited intellectual abilities, “Men need to find wives. It’s a natural law and a human mission.”
The child pulled out a tissue from a nearby box, wiped his hands, and threw the tissue into the trash bin. He said, “If getting married and having children, to continue life, is the human mission, then why do humans need to carry a pregnancy for ten months? Moreover, why does most childbirth only result in one child? Humans should have evolved to be like Mola mola, releasing 300 million eggs at once, or at least like the lemming, giving birth to more than 80 children in a year.”
… What fish? What rats?
Ruan Qiuping frowned and was about to continue persuading him, “Well, you see, falling in love is actually a very wonderful thing…”
“Have you fallen in love?” the child interrupted.
“… No.”
“It seems that it’s only a beautiful concept in your imagination.”
“…”
Ruan Qiuping was at a loss, “Well, you’ll understand when you grow up.”
The child muttered softly, “That’s not necessarily true. You look quite old already, but you still don’t understand anything.”
“…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Don’t change the subject. You actually know where your home is, don’t you?”
“It’s chilly, a bit cold. Am I getting a fever?” the child pretended to mumble to himself.
Ruan Qiuping was left helpless by the child’s tactics and had no choice but to take him to buy some inexpensive clothes.
When the boy emerged from the changing room, he seemed like a completely different person. The RMB35 white shirt and the RMB 25 black trousers transformed on him, exuding an indescribable air of elegance.
Suddenly, Ruan Qiuping felt a sense of familiarity about this boy, but no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t recall where he might have seen him before.
After buying the clothes, Ruan Qiuping also grabbed a bag of salt.
Exiting the supermarket, he was left with only RMB38 from the money given by the teaching assistant.
“Why did you buy salt?” the boy asked.
“Why so many questions? I’m asking you, what’s your name? Where do you live?”
The boy lowered his head, remaining quiet and serene, not uttering a single word.
Ruan Qiuping slowly crouched down, let out a sigh, and softened his tone. “Tell me, what’s your name?”
“…Yu Huan.” the boy finally spoke.
Ruan Qiuping was a bit surprised, the name remained unchanged.
“Where do you live then?”
Little Yu Huan remained silent for a moment, and as he looked up again, his eyes, dark as obsidian, glistened with tears, shimmering like shattered glass under the light. “I don’t have a home. I escaped from an orphanage,” he said.
Tears welled up in his eyes and his body trembled slightly, “They wouldn’t let me… wouldn’t let me eat, and they even hit me. I have no family left, no one wants me, and I have nowhere to go… Can you… could you take me away… Please take me away, big brother—”
The word “big brother” struck a chord deep within Ruan Qiuping’s heart, leaving him somewhat flustered. He even instinctively reached out to wipe the tears from the child’s face, but then abruptly withdrew his hand.
This child had already suffered enough, if he touched him again, who knew what unfortunate fate he might trigger.
Little Yu Huan tilted his head back, seemingly attempting a smile to win favor, but his tears continued to stream down uncontrollably. “I don’t eat much, and I can help you with chores. I don’t need much money. Please, I’m begging you, take me with you – -” His voice grew hoarse, and his face turned a deep shade of red. He reached out, his fingers clutching at Ruan Qiuping’s wrist like he was grabbing onto a lifeline – – But was avoided by Ruan Qiuping.
Little Yu Huan froze. He stared at Ruan Qiuping, and his expression gradually regained a sense of calm.
In truth, for that brief moment, Ruan Qiuping had actually considered taking the child with him… if he were a human, that is.
But he was a deity, and Yu Huan was undergoing a tribulation. No matter what, he couldn’t possibly take Yu Huan back to the heavens.
Ruan Qiuping scratched his head, unsure of what to say. In the end, he stammered, “I’m sorry, I… I can’t take you with me… It’s not that I don’t want to bring you along, but I have a special situation… My home isn’t here; it’s very far away. But I can’t take you there…”
After wiping his tears, little Yu Huan quickly regained his composure, bowing slightly to Ruan Qiuping. He said goodbye and then continued on his way.
“Where are you going?” Ruan Qiuping asked him.
“To find someone who will keep me,” came little Yu Huan’s cold and clear voice, with a kind of desperate loneliness.
Ruan Qiuping felt a headache coming on. He hurried a few steps and stood in front of little Yu Huan. “Where do you think you’re going? You’re just a five-year-old child… You don’t even know if you’ve been kidnapped.”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“How is it not my concern? I’m an adult, and it’s my duty to protect the safety of a minor.”
Little Yu Huan fell silent for a moment, then spoke up again. “When I reached out to hold your hand just now, you avoided me. When I begged you to take me away, you turned me down. Since you’re so afraid of me becoming a burden to you, what are you trying to prove now, pretending to be a good person?”
Ruan Qiuping’s headache intensified. “I… damn it.”
Ah… stay composed.
Can’t use foul language with a child.
Ruan Qiuping took a deep breath.
“I already told you, my situation is special, and I can’t take you with me. In fact, I…” Ruan Qiuping lowered his head and glanced at the countdown on his wristband. “In 28 hours and 17 minutes, I have to leave. So, you can’t follow me. And about me avoiding your hand… It’s because I have really bad luck, and whoever touches me is bound to have misfortune.”
“You’re lying. That’s not a thing.”
“Didn’t you just ask me why I bought salt? I bought it for this! You know, we humans always say that salt can ward off evil and bad luck. I was thinking of having you sprinkle some salt on yourself when we leave to get rid of any bad luck.”
“Superstition.” little Yu Huan’s voice had softened a bit.
“Although it might be superstition, there’s a chance it actually works, right? If we don’t try, how can we know?”
While this salt-sprinkling method was completely useless in the heavenly realm, who knew, maybe it would work on Earth.
Though little Yu Huan didn’t say anything, his expression seemed to have eased quite a bit.
Ruan Qiuping scratched his head, ultimately coming up with an unavoidable solution. “Don’t wander around randomly. I won’t send you back to that rubbish welfare institution. I’ll make sure to find a good family for you. Don’t worry, you’re handsome and smart, there’ll be plenty of people wanting to adopt you.”
“How do you know they’re good families?”
Seems he would have to make an exception and use his remaining ten percent of magic. He could use magic to find out where there were kind-hearted families looking to adopt a boy, to see if he could find a good place for Yu Huan.
With his right hand adorned with a wristband, he wasn’t sure if the wristband would still monitor if he used his left hand to cast the spell.
As Ruan Qiuping contemplated which spell to use, he replied to Yu Huan, “Don’t worry, I’m very good at reading people.”
“But what if you’re wrong? What if the family bullies me?”
Ruan Qiuping said, “I’ll be back next year. If you’re being mistreated, I’ll immediately take you away.”
“Okay… you have to keep your word.”
“I always keep my word.”
Ruan Qiuping’s magic was originally feeble, especially now that nine-tenths of it was sealed. At this moment, he couldn’t sense which household urgently wanted to adopt a child on his own.
But the temple could assist him in this matter.
If there were immortals stationed in the temple, that would be ideal. Even without immortals, Ruan Qiuping could touch the temple’s incense ashes and naturally hear the urgent wishes of those who came here to make their prayers.
When the time came, he could find a family for little Yu Huan with good financial conditions and character.
After inquiring with passersby, Ruan Qiuping learned that the nearest temple was about ten kilometers away.
Despite his string of bad luck and the fact that he had lost the remaining RMB 38 in his pocket somewhere, it didn’t stop them from moving forward.
Ruan Qiuping took out the fake “God of Fortune’s jade pendant” he had on him. Although the pendant wasn’t really from the God of Fortune, it was still genuine jade. He sold it to the owner of a nearby jewelry store and only got a little over RMB 200 for it.
Before setting off, Ruan Qiuping and Yu Huan had a decent meal together.
After leaving the restaurant, to dispel any bad luck and ensure a smooth journey, Ruan Qiuping opened the bag of salt and sprinkled a little on both Yu Huan and himself. He gestured forward with determination, saying, “Let’s go!”
Little Yu Huan imitated his gesture, smiling with enthusiasm and shouting, “Let’s go!”
Looking at Yu Huan’s appearance, Ruan Qiuping’s lips curved into a smile. This child looked rather adorable when he smiled.
However, it seemed that misfortune hadn’t abandoned them. Shortly after Ruan Qiuping and Yu Huan got into a taxi, it broke down in the middle of the road.
The driver refunded their fare and waited inside the car for a tow truck to arrive.
On the desolate highway, Ruan Qiuping and little Yu Huan had no choice but to walk toward their destination.
“It turns out that you didn’t lie to me, you are really quite unlucky.” Yu Huan remarked.
He lowered his head and counted one thing after another: “The taxi broke down on the way to the temple, the waiter served the wrong dish during the meal, don’t want coriander to be heard as putting more coriander, went to the jewelry store to sell jade pendant was cheated by the boss, the money was lost once, and fell down a total of three times on the road…”
Yu Huan looked up at Ruan Qiuping, his eyes forming crescents as he laughed, “How are you so unlucky?”
“You see, I told you I’m unlucky, but you didn’t believe me.” Ruan Qiuping took out the bag of salt from his pocket and sprinkled a bit on Yu Huan.
He believed this salt trick might actually work on humans. After all, despite all the time they spent together, Yu Huan hadn’t experienced any misfortune. Maybe it was the salt he had sprinkled before they set off…
“Now that you know I’m jinxed, why are you still standing so close? Be careful not to catch my bad luck!” Ruan Qiuping took a step to the left.
However, Yu Huan quickly scampered four steps to the left, sticking close to Ruan Qiuping. “Go ahead and pass it on to me! Let me catch your bad luck!”
“Aren’t you afraid?” Ruan Qiuping chuckled and took two steps to the left.
“Not afraid! If I get infected, won’t you stop having bad luck?” little Yu Huan grabbed Ruan Qiuping’s hand and ran alongside him.
Perhaps it was the connection of their fingers that made Ruan Qiuping feel a warm current flowing through his hand, tracing his bloodstream and reaching his heart. The warmth spread so much that even the tip of his heart felt cozy and warm.
This time, he didn’t dodge. Instead, he enveloped the child’s entire small hand in his palm. Perhaps it was due to the fact that they were holding hands and talking as they walked, but not long after, the two of them walked out of the highway and arrived at a small town with sparse population.
Ruan Qiuping estimated that there was still quite a distance from here to the temple, so he stood by the roadside, ready to hail a taxi.
Suddenly, little Yu Huan saw something, and his face turned pale. He tugged at Ruan Qiuping’s clothes and whispered, “The people from the welfare institution are coming to get me… Quickly, take me and run…”
Welfare institution?!
Ruan Qiuping didn’t have time to think, but he caught sight of several men in black suits walking towards them.
Were these the people from the welfare institution? What kind of welfare institution was this? They looked more like a gang…
Ruan Qiuping looked down at little Yu Huan’s urgent expression, gritted his teeth, and lifted him up in his arms. He swiftly ran in the opposite direction of the group of men in black. To run faster, he even secretly used some acceleration spells.
Ten minutes later, Ruan Qiuping found himself surrounded by five black cars. As it turned out… human cars were much faster than his half-baked spells. Gasping for breath, Ruan Qiuping stopped and placed little Yu Huan on the ground, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
At the same time, two police cars arrived on the scene. Ruan Qiuping sighed in relief, prepared to expose the true nature of this evil welfare institution in front of human police officers.
Two righteous-looking police officers stepped out of the police cars. Ruan Qiuping walked towards them with hopeful anticipation.
The next second, cold handcuffs were placed around Ruan Qiuping’s wrists. The half-bag of salt in his hand scattered all over the ground.
Ruan Qiuping: “???”
“We finally got you, you damn human trafficker! You have the right to remain silent! But you…”
“I’m not! I’m not a human trafficker!” Ruan Qiuping shouted.
“Then why were you running with the child? Running when discovered, and running so fast. You’ve got guts, huh? Running pretty fast.” the officer who handcuffed him said fiercely.
“That’s because those heartless welfare people were abusing the child. They wanted to take him back. I was trying to save him…”
“What welfare institution? What nonsense are you spouting? President Yu personally put in so much effort to find his missing son. How did it turn into an evil welfare institution in your story?”
President Yu? His son?
“Officer, you’ve got it wrong. I left home on my own,” little Yu Huan took a few steps forward and grabbed the police officer’s hand, saying, “This person isn’t a bad guy.”
Ruan Qiuping: ???
Ruan Qiuping was bewildered. Wait, what? You left home willingly? Weren’t you escaping from the cruel welfare institute where they weren’t feeding you properly? How did it turn into leaving home?
Little Yu Huan lowered his head, murmuring in a soft voice, “I’m sorry.”
In Ruan Qiuping’s mind, scenes of the boy crying and begging him to take him away flashed by. He couldn’t believe it, “You lied to me… why?”
“I thought if I said that, you would be willing to take me with you,” little Yu Huan’s face remained expressionless. He lowered his eyes, his dark, thick eyelashes trembling slightly. He didn’t look into Ruan Qiuping’s eyes anymore, he just asked softly, “Will you come next year? You promised me.”
A man in a black suit opened the door of a car.
He urged little Yu Huan to get in quickly.
Under his urging, little Yu Huan took hesitant steps towards the car. When he placed one foot inside, he paused and turned back.
He looked at Ruan Qiuping and said,
“I’ll be waiting for you.”
The car door closed, and it sped away.
Watching the direction the car disappeared, Ruan Qiuping’s mind remained completely baffled.
Suddenly, he had a sense that this Yu Huan might not be as innocent and harmless as he appeared on the surface.
Oh Yu Huan you mischievous little thing you~ there seem to be a few times in the middle of the chapter where Yu Huan became Yuhan though. Thanks for the chapter! Can’t wait for them to meet up year by year until our lucky god finally become an adult ☺
Thank you for bringing that to my attention and for your kind words! I’ve made the necessary corrections. Your support and feedback mean a lot to me!
probably found one of my new favourites novel 😂😂
thank you for the chapter!