InvincibleConnoisseur

Chapter 35 Being Cheated

Wang Ke had experienced countless surprises in his life, but the one at this moment was incomparable. He was bursting with joy which was like sea waves surging in his heart. And he also was filled with passion rolling in his body.

The release of spirit energy represented a breakthrough in his cultivation realm. Though his cultivation realm had not even reached a grade before, now he was barely getting to the lowest one.

No matter what grade it was, it was a great joy to finally reach a grade!

Wang Ke was sitting cross-legged in bed. With his eyes lighting up exotically, he got up leisurely, got dressed, and came to the window. With an itch to have a try, he put his mind to slowly controlling the spirit energy along his arms and into his palms.

The unbearable itch in his fingers made him feel the swell again. As he saw the fingertips slowly grow thicker and some of them were turning red and purple, he was clear that this was due to the blood congestion caused by too much spirit energy surging into the fingertips. Different from slowly injecting spirit energy into the muscles, which could nourish the muscles, he was now going to release it out of the muscles at an extreme speed.

The spirit energy released could kill people in an invisible way.

Those powerful practitioners could not only release their spirit energy but also beat the enemy through another man and control items from a distance. It was like a magic power.

"Break!"

Wang Ke shouted in a low voice.

At once, ten wisps of faint spirit energy rose from his fingertips and quickly rushed forward. Wang Ke could feel the length of the spirit energy released, which stretched as long as a foot before it quickly dissipated.

He laughed, "I'm now really able to release my spirit energy. But it can only get out from my fingertips and reach a very short distance. When I have stronger spirit energy, I can not only release it from my fingers but also from my whole body. I can use it to hurt the enemy and also to defend myself with spirit energy covering my whole body. Even, when I reach the top of the third stage of cultivation realm, I will also have the same extraordinary power as those masters to beat the enemy through another man and to control items from a distance."

Standing in front of the window with his heart full of joy, Wang Ke had a brilliant smile on his face like blossoms.

Just like a naughty child getting a toy he liked, Wang Ke indulged himself in keeping releasing his spirit energy. In the beginning, releasing the spirit energy could still make his ten fingertips itchy and did not make them purple.

After twenty minutes, the spirit energy in Wang Ke's body was exhausted.

"I have too little spirit energy!"

Wang Ke gave a resigned sigh and withdrew his joyful mood. Getting back to the bed and sitting cross-legged, he began to restore the spirit energy that had been exhausted.

In this growing season, the grass was lush, the nightingales were in the air, and the morning sky was blue and clear.

After half a night of cultivation, Wang Ke came to the villa hall in high spirits.

"Mrs. Song, is Li Ruoxi not up yet?" Looking at Mrs. Song who was in an apron and busy in the kitchen, Wang Ke asked softly.

Mrs. Song turned around. She looked at Wang Ke and smiled, "She hasn't come downstairs yet, but she will soon!"

Wang Ke nodded slightly. Instead of going into the kitchen to help as usual, he turned around and sat down on the sofa in the hall. He grabbed the newspaper on the coffee table and just took a few glances when Li Ruoxi walked down the stairs with a sleepy yawn.

Wang Ke quickly put the newspaper on the coffee table and said, "Boss, I have to take every morning off from now on to study with that senior. You don't need me to do anything in the morning, right?"

Li Ruoxi waved her hand listlessly and said lazily, "Go for your own business! I will call you if I need you."

Wang Ke's eyes flashed with confusion. He secretly wondered, "Did she get a bad night's sleep last night? She used to get up earlier than today and be in high spirits every morning. So what's wrong today? Could it be that she is having her period?"

After giving Li Ruoxi a weird look, Wang Ke turned around and walked into the kitchen to help.

For the whole morning, Wang Ke had been learning from Zhao Menfeng at Self House. The longer he engaged with Zhao Menfeng, the more he admired him. This old man was simply a wealth of knowledge. He not only knew about antiques, magic weapons, and Fengshui, but also had deep study in the ancient history of five thousand years.

Without having lunch at Self House, Wang Ke said his farewells and left.

The antique market was so large that it took at least half an hour to ride a bicycle around it. Since Wang Ke had come to Self House several times, he was getting more familiar with the antique market.

The whole antique market had three entrances, the East Gate, the West Gate, and the North Gate. Entering through the East Gate, one could see sixteen horizontal roads in front of him. While entering through the North Gate, one could see twelve horizontal roads in front of him and a big river nearly twenty to thirty meters wide with clear rapids under a bridge. Standing on the bridge above the river, one could sometimes even see schools of fish swimming in the rapids.

It was noisy on the bridge in front of him. The crying, the yelling, and the chattering, combined with the crowd encircling in inner and outer layers, formed a strange picture.

Wang Ke strolled around many stalls but didn't find anything good. When he was about to return to the villa dejectedly to begin his study and recite the contents, he was attracted by the rushing crowd in front of him.

In the middle of the bridge was an honest-looking man with tear-stained cheeks, who was thirty-four or -five years old. With his hopeless ashen face, he seemed to feel like jumping off the bridge. And at one end of the bridge, a woman of a similar age was holding a boy less than ten years old and begging the man not to do anything stupid.

Wang Ke was standing in the crowd and looking curiously at the scene in front of him. Turning to a middle-aged man beside him who was silently shaking his head, Wang Ke asked, "Sir, do you know what happened? Why does that man want to give up his life and jump into the river? The ones at the end of the bridge are his wife and son, aren't they?"

With even a hint of dignity on his square face, the middle-aged man shook his head with a bitter smile and sighed, "What a tragedy! He is another poor guy dreaming of getting rich but losing all his money. In the business of antiques and magic weapons, it's normal to be cheated. But it can be seen now and then that people fall into despair because of gambling away all they have and don't come around."

After the middle-aged man's explanation, Wang Ke finally understood what had happened.

The man who wanted to jump into the river had originally wanted to find an undervalued antique and make a fortune. But what he didn't expect was that he had been cheated. After the identification, he found that the antique he had spent all his money buying was a fake.

So he went to the owner of the antique store with anger. The owner innocently said that he could not be blamed because he had also been cheated.

In Curio Street, it was normal to be cheated. Anyone who lived on dealing in antiques and magic weapons must have been cheated at least once. So that man could not blame others for the painful price he paid.

"It is always said that a horse is not fat without night grass and a man is not rich without a windfall. But a windfall takes great luck! As the saying goes, don't bite off more than one can chew. He was just so stupid to gamble with all he had." Wang Ke sighed with a bitter smile.

He had some sympathy for the man, but he also had some contempt for him. Buying antiques was never without risks. He thought the man must have known something about this business before buying antiques. But with such knowledge, now he was attempting suicide after losing all his money. What a loser!

Hearing what Wang Ke spoke to himself, the middle-aged man standing beside him nodded his head and said, "Young man, you are right. There is no such good thing as pennies from heaven at no cost these days. People have to be down-to-earth and go forward step by step. This is life. If one wants a shortcut to success, he may be his own victim in the end."

After saying this, he sighed again, "But life will be tough for his family. If the man jumps into the river and dies, I'm afraid that his wife and son will have a hard time. I know the man. Although I'm just a nodding acquaintance with him, I know something about his family. His wife is weak and often ill, so she can't do hard manual work. His son does well in school, but going to school takes a lot of money. This man is the bread earner in the family. If he dies, the mother and son will live a miserable life."

Wang Ke felt sorry for them. After nodding slightly to the middle-aged man beside him, he strode forward and forced his way through the crowd.

In the middle of the bridge, Li Hui was in despair. Looking at his tearful wife and son, he was heartbroken with two lines of tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Xiumei, I'm sorry to you two. But I'm too ashamed of myself to live any longer. That d*mned b*st*rd cheated me out of all the money of our family. I was planning to make a fortune so you can have an operation and completely recover, and also to provide our son with better education. I... I'm so sorry!"

This scene of a big man crying helplessly rendered every onlooker around in a sad mood.

The man's wife, who was a small thin woman, held her son's hand with one hand and wiped her tears with the other, "Darling, I'm begging you. Please don't take it too hard! The money you lost can be earned again. And my illness doesn't matter. We have the ability to work. And if I work harder, we will be able to earn the moneyback very soon! But without you, how do I and our son make a living in this world? He is so young. Do you really want to abandon us and leave us alone? Please, honey! Come home with us!"

"Dad, I'm begging you too. You are the backbone of our family. If you die, how will mom and I survive? I know mom is sick. But I've grown up! I'm not going to school anymore. I can get a job and work for others. I'm not afraid of any hardship and suffering. As long as you are alive, we can work together to earn money for mom's medical treatment. Please! Mom is not well. And what will she do if you jump into the river? Please, dad!"

The boy less than ten years old could not stop crying. He sobbed as he wiped his tears with his sleeve. As the saying went, "The poor man's child shares the household burden early." This boy was less than ten years old, but he was so sensible that he was able to utter such heartfelt words.

Li Hui's eyes were full of despair. He couldn't get over it. He felt too ashamed to face his wife and son. Money was not so easy to earn.

And the most important thing was that he had borrowed another five thousand yuan from a friend to buy the antique, which he did not tell his wife and son. He knew what his friend was like. If he died, he knew his friend would not ask them for the money. But if he were still alive, he would have to return that money to his friend.

And five thousand yuan was not a small sum of money for him and his family.

He would rather die and do one wrong thing to his friend for only this time than get his wife and son into trouble. He could not bear to see them suffer with him and help him find ways to pay the money back to his friend.