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She had considered taking the shoes to a cobbler, but during that period, Chu Yuening was preoccupied with rent payments. Hence, she opted for a bottle of glue.

After all, glue was cheap and could be used liberally.

Chu Yuening patted Chu Yi's slightly dazed face. "Hurry up and change. You'll be late for school."

Chu Yi swiftly donned her school uniform skirt and paired it with a pair of white socks and leather shoes.

With a bright and cheerful smile, the girl twirled around in her outfit – a crisp white dress with a Peter Pan collar and a dark green knitted vest. "Do I look nice?"

"You do." Chu Yuening emerged from the kitchen, holding a cup of sweetened water. She handed it to Chu Yi. "Try this, it's a new product."

The plastic cup was adorned with a charm. Curious, Chu Yi examined the cup, spinning it around. "What do these charms mean?"

Chu Yuening, too, was standing before the wardrobe, changing. "It's a Clearing Charm. It mainly helps to refresh and awaken the mind. Be sure to drink it all."

Chu Yi carefully placed the sweetened water into her backpack. "Don't worry, I'll drink every last drop. But... Elder Sister, when did you learn to draw charms?"

Chu Yuening was taken aback for a moment before swiftly retrieving a memory from her sparse recollections. "Isn't Grandpa Li from the front and back mountains a Taoist? I secretly learned from him."

Chu Yi responded with an "oh," showing no suspicion. "Grandpa Li even said he wanted to teach me how to draw talismans, but I refused. I didn't expect Sister to take up the lessons instead."

Chu Yuening breathed a sigh of relief. Once Chu Yi left, she entered the kitchen again.

The small kitchen table was cluttered with sugar water cups and cinnabar used for drawing talismans, a mess everywhere.

It had been too late last night, so she hadn't drawn many. After another half-day of experimentation, she finally confirmed that only the Mind-Cleansing Talisman could work on sugar water.

None of the other talismans were effective.

Furthermore, she could only draw two cups of the Mind-Cleansing Talisman per day.

Chu Yuening wasn't discouraged. The fact that the Mind-Cleansing Talisman worked was already great.

Of course, sugar water with the Mind-Cleansing Talisman would certainly fetch a higher price.

Just the thought of it made Chu Yuening envision countless Hong Kong dollars waving at her.

Noontime.

At Zhang's Eatery, business was bustling, leaving the staff with no time to rest.

Zhang Jiande carried a steaming bowl of creamy soup and placed it on the table. "Miss, your puff pastry soup and soy sauce roast pigeon are ready."

The woman, wearing a baseball cap, sat on a brown sofa by the window, with a black bag resting beside her. Zhang Jiande cast a glance at the bag before turning back to the counter, his mouth clenched around a pipe. He picked up the order board, drawing a line through the two dishes listed on it.

"Brother De."

Tong Hui, carrying a tray of food, noticed the boss's lingering gaze on the woman by the window. With a mischievous grin, he approached, "Does Sister-in-law know that you're acting like a lecherous guy here in the restaurant, ogling other girls?"

Zhang Jiande shot him a glare. "You rascal, you know very well about Sister-in-law's condition. If you stress her out, I'll hold you accountable."

"That just makes it worse," Tong Hui playfully draped a towel over his shoulder. "Sister-in-law hasn't even left, and you're already looking for the next one."

"I'm asking you to shut up if you can't say anything sensible," Zhang Jiande threatened, lifting his foot as if to kick Tong Hui.

Icy Cones received a kick and became slightly more subdued. He gazed at the woman seated by the window and found it peculiar. "This pretty lady has been coming here for several days in a row, staying the whole afternoon. I wonder if she really likes our restaurant's flavors."

This was also what puzzled Zhang Jiande.

He took a puff of his cigarette, lost in thought.

"I've been running this restaurant for so many years, and I've never seen a regular customer stick to the same flavor for days on end. Could it be that our café's taste is really that good?"

With no time to ponder further due to the increasing busyness of the restaurant, Zhang Jiande set down his cigarette holder at the counter and went to assist in the kitchen.

At last.

Li Huiwen removed her baseball cap. Disregarding the two steaming dishes on the table, she reached for her black bag and pulled out a camera.

Then, she brought the camera up to her right eye, peering through the viewfinder, while her left hand skillfully adjusted the aperture.

In the end, she snapped a photo of the empty dessert stall.

Her pretty face couldn't conceal her excitement.

"I wonder what time Master Chu will start work today and if there will be any more sensational fortune-telling sessions?"

She had only staked out the scene twice.

Yet, each session had been more thrilling than the last.

Up until this point, the Great Joy News had experienced a significant decline in traffic due to the lack of substantial celebrity gossip. The newspaper was on the brink of fading into obscurity.

If not for the traffic generated by the two fortune-telling sessions, the Great Joy News might have already gone bankrupt.

As the first journalist from the Hong Kong News to cover the fortune-telling sessions and verify their accuracy, Li Huiwen had recently caught the attention of the magazine's chief editor.

In fact, the chief editor had mentioned that if she could maintain the current traffic influx, she would be promoted from the frontlines to become an associate editor.

The thought of being an associate editor made Li Huiwen ecstatic. Once she achieved this, no one would be able to control her budget for assignments.

You see, usually when she had to stake out celebrities, all expenses for accommodation and food were out of her own pocket.

Li Huiwen held her camera, reviewing the photos she had taken of Che Zaiqiang earlier. "Now that Master Chu has been shrouded in mystery through these two reports, I must capture an explosive fortune-telling session to reveal his true identity."

"Only then will the citizens of Hong Kong truly believe that these stories aren't fabrications by the newspaper."

Indeed.

Though the Daily Joy newspaper had gained immense popularity recently due to Master Chu, many people remained skeptical.

Rival newspapers were slandering them, claiming that the instances of accurate predictions were staged by Li Huiwen herself for the sake of clicks and views.

The thought irked Li Huiwen. "Accuse me of fabrication, do they? I'll prove them wrong and show them that there are more genuine masters in Hong Kong than just the two on camera!"