Taboo Mage - Chapter 30 - The Powerful Woman's Visit

“Xu-Jie gave you this. It seems you’re busy, so I’ll be leaving now.”

Without waiting for a response from the two people behind, she turned around and left.

I had been idle at home for several days and took this opportunity to learn how to manage a store. For this purpose, I specifically hired a newly graduated University student majoring in financial management, in hopes of expanding my career.

The new employee’s name is Lin Huan. He is a cheerful young man who lives in a guest room downstairs, right next to the living room.

Early this morning, Lin Huan got up, opened the door, and came upstairs yawning to wake me up.

We had a casual breakfast together, and Lin Huan curiously asked me questions about various things, to which I responded briefly.

“Excuse me, is Mr. Gu here?”

Suddenly, a gentle voice came from the doorway. Lin Huan and I looked up simultaneously to see a woman standing there.

She was dressed in a form-fitting business outfit, her long hair flowed down her back, and her face wore light makeup. Although she wasn’t strikingly beautiful, she emanated an aura of warmth and calm.

Lin Huan stood up before I did and greeted her with a smile, offering tea, serving water, and setting up a chair with a practiced ease that outshined mine.

The woman smiled politely and explained her purpose for coming.

It turns out she is a secretary to the chairman of a large company. Since graduating from university, she joined the company and climbed her way up to the position of secretary to the chairman, essentially a managerial role, through her capabilities.

However, she recently discovered that her supposedly appreciative superior harbored inappropriate intentions towards her. He made unwelcome advances in public on multiple occasions and even threatened her career for compliance.

She felt that her career and personal dignity were profoundly insulted, especially since she had always believed in advancing through her own abilities.

After hearing her story, I roughly understood what she wanted. The woman hoped I could create a life amulet, so her superior would be punished.

Lin Huan, who had been sitting silently beside us until she finished speaking, finally frowned and asked, “You…”

“My name is Yang Shuo.”

Alright, even her name sounds like a powerful woman’s. I lightly coughed into my hand to hide my reaction, signaling Lin Huan to continue the questioning.

Picking up on my cue, Lin Huan smiled and asked, “Miss Yang, you mentioned wanting a misfortune amulet. What exactly are your requirements for the misfortune? What level of misfortune are you aiming for?”

I internally applauded Lin Huan’s concise and direct questioning.

Yang Shuo nodded in understanding and continued, “Honestly… I have no specific requirements. Even if it leads to a fatality, as long as it doesn’t involve me, that’s fine.”

I indicated that there would be no problem as long as the price was right; I could meet her demands.

Yang Shuo was straightforward. She took a check out of her bag, signed a number on it, and placed it in front of me.

Lin Huan picked up the check, glanced at it, and discreetly showed me a number by gesturing beneath the coffee table. After a brief moment of consideration, I nodded in agreement.

After seeing Yang Shuo off, Lin Huan, holding the check as if it were a priceless treasure, exclaimed to me, “Just look at how much we got just for a deposit!”

“Don’t worry, stick with me, and you’ll eat well,” I said with a confident smile.

In the afternoon, I tasked Lin Huan with finding out more about the company where Yang Shuo worked. Lin Huan moved quickly and soon placed a large stack of printed materials in front of me.

I skimmed through the documents. Yang Shuo’s company was a foreign enterprise based in this city. The Boss was an overweight Chinese-American man with very little hair on his head, easily countable with two hands.

“He definitely doesn’t look like a good guy!” Lin Huan said, pointing to the photo on the printed paper.

I nodded in agreement and started pondering how to create the misfortune amulet.

This was my first time dealing with this type of amulet. I looked through ancient books that night but found no suitable methods. As a yin-yang life amulet master, my trade was all about bringing fortune to people. Creating misfortune was not something that would be recorded in these texts.

Tossing and turning in bed, I finally remembered something.

As a child, I was small and often bullied by other kids. This bullying became even worse in middle school when a group of school thugs frequently blocked my way.

To address this issue, Father specifically made a life amulet for me to wear around my neck. Back then, I was too young, and Mother forbade me from getting close to these amulets, so I always thought it was merely a talisman for safety.

Reflecting on it now, ever since I started wearing that life amulet, those who bullied me faced misfortunes-some got hit by cars on their way home, some fell into the river while catching fish. None had a good outcome.

What Father made for me back then must have been a misfortune amulet!

I sat up abruptly in bed and crawled under it to retrieve a slightly moldy wooden box.

That was my treasure chest from childhood. I’ve never had the heart to throw it away, carrying it with me through several moves as if it were a precious relic.

The box creaked noisily as it hadn’t been opened in ages. Once opened, a musty odor rushed into my nose.

I covered my nose, pushed the box aside, and waited for the smell to dissipate before rummaging through it. After some time, I finally found the misfortune amulet Father had made in a small pouch.

I carefully examined the amulet in my hand-it was made from Chinese scholar tree wood, which easily attracts evil spirits. The wooden amulet had an eerie semicircular shape carved into it. The spiritual energy within it had long dissipated due to lack of nourishment from human spiritual energy.

However, traces of energy could still be faintly seen. I placed the misfortune amulet in glutinous rice water, intending to see if any usable clues would emerge by the next day.

The following morning, thinking about the misfortune amulet, I got up early and ran to the kitchen to check. I saw faint dark energy swirling around the misfortune amulet soaked in glutinous rice water.

“Ah! What is that? It stinks!” Lin Huan, wearing slippers, was heading to the kitchen to make breakfast. As soon as he stepped in, he covered his nose and backed away.

“Does it smell?” I pinched my nose. How come I couldn’t smell anything?

Lin Huan looked at me in bewilderment. “Is your nose broken?”

Perplexed, I frowned deeply. This was odd. Why couldn’t I smell the odor from the misfortune amulet?

Taking advantage of my momentary daze, Lin Huan stepped in, picked up the bowl of glutinous rice water, and was about to throw it away. Fortunately, I quickly snatched it back. I was still counting on it to make some money.

Lin Huan, clearly repulsed, threw the glutinous rice water into the bathroom and warned me not to bring it back, lest it pollute the air.