“Feng Shui, bone-reading, fortune telling—free if it doesn’t work!”

“Miss, your fate line's gone dark. That’s a bad omen. Let me take a look and help you turn your luck around!”

In front of the train station, a young man about eighteen, dressed in patched-up clothes, stood yelling while holding a bamboo stick. Hanging from it was a worn-out piece of white cloth, stained yellow in places, with the words "Heaven's Will Master" scrawled across it in messy calligraphy.

His odd look drew plenty of confused stares from the crowd, but no one actually walked up to him.

“Cheap old man,” Ethan Woods muttered under his breath, glancing down at his creased one-way ticket. “Only covered travel expenses and not even round trip? If I don't find a new client soon, I might actually starve to death.” With a sigh, he packed up his bamboo stick and headed into the station.

“Attention passengers, the K666 to Haizhou is about to depart. Please board immediately.”

Because of Huaxia’s massive population, train stations were always chaotic. Every compartment was stuffed to the brim, noisy and crowded.

Yet, amidst the mess, Ethan moved like he didn’t even notice the chaos, casually strolling to his assigned seat like he owned the place.

After settling in, he caught a whiff of strong perfume, the kind only mature women wore. Curious, he followed the scent—and then froze.

Seated across from him was a tall, curvy woman. No, not just any woman—a proper bombshell of a lady. Definitely experienced, definitely confident, and absolutely jaw-dropping. Her features were sultry, with eyes that seemed to flirt on their own, the kind that could pull any man in without trying.

But what really stole the spotlight was that body—confident, sleek, wrapped in an office outfit that clung perfectly where it mattered.

Ethan stared, eyes unblinking.

Grace Thompson noticed him the second he sat down. His eyes had been locked on her from the beginning, and she was getting annoyed. Shooting him a fierce glare, she hoped he’d get the message and back off.

Instead, the guy had the nerve to hop onto the seat right next to hers and grin like a creep.

“Hey gorgeous, how about a discount fortune reading? I’m feeling generous.”

Grace had heard it all before—men ogling, flirting, trying too hard—but none had ever come at her this directly. That greasy grin only made it worse.

“Get lost,” she snapped, face stone cold.

“Whoa, bad temper,” Ethan chuckled, totally unfazed. “Look, anger's no good for you. Women past a certain age—sorry, don’t get mad—should really keep calm. Lotta frown lines pop up otherwise. See? You just got a new one by your eye…”

He trailed off as the temperature seemed to plummet.

Grace’s gaze could’ve frozen steel. “Who did you just call old?” she asked through clenched teeth, clearly restraining the urge to commit murder.

Did this punk not know? Talking about a woman’s age was asking for trouble! She was only twenty-six—not even close to old, thank you very much.

Caught off guard, Ethan blinked, suddenly at a loss for words.“Fine, I’ll let it go,” Grace said, seeing how young Ethan looked. His torn clothes, the way he shrank into the corner with that pitiful expression—most of her anger faded away.

But then Ethan said something that made her instantly see red.

“Ma’am, really, you shouldn’t stay mad so often. Just now you got three more crow’s feet by your eyes…”

“Are you freaking kidding me?!” Grace snapped. All pretense of gracefulness gone, she swung her fist right at his face.

But just as her punch came forward, it was caught mid-air by a strong hand.

Startled, Grace realized it was Ethan who stopped her. The grip was iron-like—her hand felt completely trapped, unable to move an inch no matter how hard she tried.

At that moment, Ethan’s eyes lit up. “You know, your pulse is really light and weak. Looks like you’ve been feeling dizzy out of nowhere lately, maybe even blacked out a few times?”

Grace froze. She eased up slightly, her face changing. “How… How do you know that?”

What he said hit the nail on the head. For the past few months, Grace had been suffering sudden dizzy spells while at work. At first, a short nap would fix it, but the episodes grew more frequent and more severe. Sometimes she’d sleep the whole day.

The scariest time was driving home from work—her breath suddenly grew short, and then everything went black. She passed out behind the wheel. Luckily, the area was deserted. If it hadn’t been, she didn’t dare imagine what could’ve happened.

That incident had shaken her so much that she dropped everything to hunt for doctors all over. But all the hospital checkups came back clean. “You just need rest,” they said.

But she could feel it in her bones—this wasn’t something that rest could fix.

Seeing her uncertainty, Ethan lightly pressed his fingers on her wrist and added, “Your glow between the brows is dim, and your pulse feels so weak. That’s not a good sign. Want me to give you a quick reading?”

Grace hesitated. If it had been five minutes ago, she would’ve brushed him off without thinking. But after what he just said about her health, she figured maybe it was worth hearing him out.

“…Alright then, go ahead.”

Ethan’s face lit up. Finally, a client.

He glanced at her face, cleared his throat, and said, “You've got a sunken spot in your Partner Palace, and those crow’s feet at the corners of your eyes? They're growing. Your strange illness is probably rooted in all this.”

The so-called “Partner Palace” is the area near the outer corner of the eye. In face-reading, if it’s sunken or has too many lines, it usually means marital issues or a troubled relationship. Combined with Grace’s darkened forehead and weak pulse, Ethan had a pretty good idea—her body’s yin was too heavy and badly lacked yang energy.

To him, diagnosing her wasn’t hard at all.

The more Grace listened, the more shocked she looked. By the end, all she could do was gasp. Everything he said was spot on.

“Then tell me—what do I need to do to get rid of this?!” Grace grabbed Ethan’s arm, desperation in her voice. This strange sickness had tormented her long enough. She was at the end of her rope.

Ethan coughed and scratched his chin. “I can tell you, sure… but I’ll need to press your life gate point first.”