She... she had actually obtained the Gathering Luck Talisman!!!
Once used, the Gathering Luck Talisman could gather wealth and fortune. According to the tropes of web novels, she might just strike it rich!
Lei Yating couldn't help but slap herself. Feeling the sharp sting of pain and seeing that the Gathering Luck Talisman in her hand hadn't vanished, she finally believed this was real!
"Since I've already been reborn, it's not impossible for me to get a red envelope chat group as a Golden Finger..." she murmured.
Although she didn't know what kind of Immortal the Upper Yuan First Grade Blessing Heavenly Official was, such a long title sounded incredibly badass. A Blessing Celestial Official—maybe they were an Immortal like the God of Wealth or the Blessing God?
She turned the talisman paper over and over in her hands, occasionally bringing it to her nose for a sniff. She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but smelling the sandalwood scent on the talisman paper made her feel refreshed, completely sweeping away her previous exhaustion and lethargy. Her initial skepticism faded, and Lei Yating began to believe in it even more.
She decided not to leave the chat group just yet. She would test the power of the Gathering Luck Talisman first. If this Golden Finger was real, staying in this group meant she might be able to snatch even more good stuff. When that time came... her life would truly change!
Lei Yating took a deep breath and finally stood up. Only then did she realize that her two legs were so numb she couldn't feel them at all.
"Oh my god, my legs are killing me..."
It took a long time for her to recover. She shoved her phone and the Gathering Luck Talisman back into her pocket, lowering her head to pretend nothing had happened.
"Yating, is your stomach upset?"
Hearing someone call her, Lei Yating jerked her head up. It took her a moment to recognize that this was her roommate. She gave a vague reply, "Yeah... my stomach hurts a little..."
Her memories of this time were a bit distant, but Lei Yating vaguely remembered that this roommate's name was Xiao Hong. In her past life, Lei Yating had been coaxed into pregnancy and dropping out of school by a scumbag, so her relationship with Xiao Hong had been quite distant. She only knew that Xiao Hong had returned to her hometown to work as a nurse in a village clinic and later married a man with a tendency for domestic violence. That man despised Xiao Hong's experiences during college, frequently beating and verbally abusing her. Before she even turned thirty, she looked as haggard as a fifty-year-old woman.
Thinking of this, Lei Yating couldn't help but sigh, feeling a bit of sympathy and pity for Xiao Hong. But pity aside, if Xiao Hong hadn't smoked, drank, fought, gotten tattoos, mixed with the wrong crowds, and engaged in compensated dating, her husband probably would have treated her better, right? In the end, it was because she didn't respect herself; she brought it upon herself. With this thought, Lei Yating's gaze towards her filled with a hint of disdain.
Pei Ye was speechless. She didn't miss Lei Yating's look of pity and subsequent disdain, which only made her even more speechless.
If Lei Yating had truly been reborn, she should have been shocked that "Xiao Hong," who was supposed to have died last night, was still alive, instead of letting her imagination run wild with all these irrelevant thoughts. Xiao Hong's body had already died in the hospital, but Pei Ye's arrival had breathed new life into it. The details of this "rebirth" were far too sloppy.
"Drink more hot water," Pei Ye offered a stereotypically blunt piece of advice.
Lei Yating offered a weak smile, though she felt incredibly annoyed inside. She was desperate to test if the Gathering Luck Talisman was real, but Pei Ye was standing right there, making it awkward to kick her out.
After finally shooing Pei Ye away, Lei Yating hurriedly left the dorm and headed to the nearest lottery ticket stand. She didn't know the Gathering Luck Talisman's true capabilities. To verify the authenticity of her Golden Finger, she simply bought a few tickets for a quick-draw lottery that announced winning numbers every ten minutes.
"You've got some great luck, young lady," the vendor said.
A few minutes later, when the winning numbers were drawn, Lei Yating's fingers trembled. She, who had always been horribly cursed by bad luck—the type to pull two hundred and fifty times in a gacha game without getting a single limited SSR—had actually won! Although it wasn't the jackpot, she had bought several tickets with the same numbers. The total prize money amounted to forty thousand!
Lei Yating's family background wasn't bad. Her parents were locals; they owned an apartment and a car, had no debts, and the couple earned over three hundred thousand a year together. However, they weren't exactly wealthy, either. This was a Tier 1 city with a very high cost of living, which couldn't support Lei Yating living extravagantly while at school.
This unexpected windfall of forty thousand was the most money Lei Yating had ever held in her entire life. Yes, including her past life.
She thought about how she had given her heart and soul to that social climber, only for him to treat her so terribly. In her past life, he had guarded against her like she was a thief, constantly finding new ways to trick her out of her money to give to her mother-in-law. In all their years of marriage, he had never let her hold on to more than forty thousand in savings. Feeling utterly disillusioned, she took out her phone and sent a breakup text to the social climber.
Goodbye, scumbag!
Lei Yating wanted revenge, but she didn't have the means to do anything to that scumbag and his mistress just yet. There would be plenty of opportunities in the future.
The moment she left, Pei Ye stepped out from her hiding spot, her brows slightly furrowed. Although Pei Ye's Spiritual Domain had collapsed and shrunk drastically due to her illness, even a shadow of her former self was more than enough. Probing an ordinary person was no problem for her.
"That so-called Gathering Luck Talisman is pretty bizarre..."
When Lei Yating used the Gathering Luck Talisman, Pei Ye's Spiritual Domain captured a subtle change in the aura around her.
"Tsk, young girls these days are really bold. They dare to use items of unknown origin on themselves."
Opening the game interface, Pei Ye tapped on the System Record on the left side. A new entry had clearly appeared.
[12:33 PM: The female lead, Lei Yating, used a Gathering Luck Talisman. Qi Fortune -23.]
"A Gathering Luck Talisman that doesn't gather luck, but instead deducts twenty-three points of Qi Fortune." There was definitely something fishy going on.
However, Pei Ye had never been a good Samaritan, and she certainly wasn't going to go out of her way to look for trouble. If Lei Yating was only harming herself, Pei Ye couldn't be bothered to intervene. She just needed to shadow her and complete the main quest. After all, if someone was dead set on courting disaster, there was no stopping them.
Pei Ye was just about to go looking for the red shadow at the crossroads since she had nothing better to do. Right at that moment, a throat-tearing BGM blasted from her pocket.
"I'LL LOVE YOU EVEN IN DEATH!!!"
"IT'S NOT SATISFYING UNLESS IT'S TO THE FULLEST—"
An old man walking by was so startled he nearly jumped into the air.
"Playing your music that loud—have you no decency?!" Seeing that Pei Ye didn't reply, the old man muttered under his breath and walked away.
Feeling innocent, Pei Ye reached into her pocket and found that it was Xiao Hong's secondhand smartphone ringing. The caller ID read: "Boss Lady, Sister Bai."
Pei Ye's brows knitted together. She recalled that this was the very same female gangster who had sold Xiao Hong out and pimped her.
"Hello?"
The low-quality smartphone's speaker was incredibly loud, and Sister Bai on the other end was bursting with rage. Even from a meter or two away, one could hear Sister Bai roaring through the phone.
"Hello my ass! Think you're a big shot now, huh? I was kind enough to introduce you to a rich heir for a boyfriend, and not only are you ungrateful, you actually stood him up? Look at what you are, and look at his status! Are you trying to piss me off to death? If you hadn't said you wanted to climb the social ladder and marry a good man, do you think I'd introduce such a high-quality resource to you? Xiao Hong, you fucking ingrate, don't push your luck! Why don't you think about who gave you this good life you have now? How can anyone be as ungrateful and backstabbing as you?"
"So, what do you want?" Pei Ye asked.
If it were the real Xiao Hong, Sister Bai's tirade would have made her feel guilty and reflect on whether she was the one at fault. But Pei Ye knew very well that Sister Bai on the other end of the line, along with the rich heir from yesterday, were the people who had directly and indirectly caused Xiao Hong's death. She didn't have the free time to meddle in other people's business, but if they delivered themselves right into her hands, none of them were getting away.