"Uh—" Rainie Bai's cheeks flushed bright red at David Yu's shameless words. She felt as if everyone knew about her wild night with Shawn Young yesterday, and the thought made her incredibly embarrassed.
"David Yu, what nonsense are you spouting! I—I was helping her look for her father last night!" Shawn Young saw Rainie Bai's bashful look and knew she was shy, so he jumped in to rescue her.
"Oh! Oh! Right, right! My bad, I must've been seeing things, haha—sorry!" David Yu caught Rainie Bai's embarrassed expression and realized he needed to watch his words. After all, if the 'pretty boss lady' got upset, all his waiting last night would be for nothing!
"By the way, David Yu, we—couldn't find Simon Bai. Have you seen him?" Shawn Young remembered David Yu knew this place well, so he asked directly.
"Uh—I, I was dozing off on the street corner all night, didn't really notice! What's up? That shoe-shiner—oh, I mean, Mr. Bai, is he pulling some stunt again? Playing missing?" David Yu asked in surprise.
"No—he, he's like this lately, probably doesn't want to see me!" Rainie Bai explained sadly.
"Oh! Got it! Mr. Bai's just that kind of stubborn guy, sigh—can't let things go! There are way too many things in life you just can't get over!" David Yu lamented.
"David Yu, I heard you used to be riding high, called the God of Wealth, but you still ended up stuck in the gambling world! Don't you regret it?" Shawn Young looked at David Yu and asked.
David Yu's body jerked at those words, his face shifting through a storm of emotions. All sorts of feelings flooded his heart, his eyes grew distant, and his usually cheerful, chubby face went blank. He stared at the sky in silence for a while, then let out a long sigh and said to Shawn Young, "Kid, that's all ancient history! A real man doesn't brag about past glories! I might not be a hero, but back when I was on top, everyone around me was chasing after wealth and status. I got hooked on the thrill of being praised and surrounded by fans, thought I was hot stuff! Haha—who knew it would all vanish so fast? Now I'm just a loser, eating and waiting to die, not even sure where I'll end up! Saying I don't regret it? That's impossible!"
Shawn Young nodded, then gathered his spiritual energy and scanned David Yu's forehead. He noticed a strange, bluish-grey aura that was even more obvious in the sunlight, swirling around without fading. Clearly, the evil spirit attached to him had settled deep in his mind. If it wasn't exorcised, the spirit would gradually devour his soul and essence, eventually destroying his spirit completely. That would be the day David Yu met his end!
After checking him over, Shawn Young felt confident and asked David Yu, "David Yu, you've been having these weird dreams for almost two years, right? And during these two years, you've been gambling nonstop, losing money every time, but you just can't control your inner demons. You always think you'll win it all back next round, but in the end, you've lost your entire fortune without even realizing it! Isn't that right?"
"Yeah, yeah! That's exactly it. At first, I won and lost, but ever since I started having those weird dreams two years ago, I've never won again—not even a tiny bit! Every night I sleep, I dream about five creepy kids in red clothes, carrying a bizarre sedan chair piled high with gold and silver treasure. They parade back and forth in front of me, grinning in a way that's freaky and scary, pale as ghosts, totally not like real kids!" David Yu shuddered as he spoke, paused, then added, "And every time I wake up, I'm too scared to sleep again or concentrate on anything. Eventually, I found that only sitting at the gambling table—no matter how much I lost—could help me escape that nightmare for a while! Only when I'm gambling do I feel normal, and the more I lose, the better I feel! Damn it! In these two years, I've lost over two billion! My whole fortune, gone like a rocket!"
Rainie Bai was dumbfounded and asked in shock, "Whoa! Over two billion?! You—you were really that rich? That's insane!"
David Yu rubbed his shiny bald head and sighed, "I'm from Hubei, but I made my fortune in Shanxi. I'm a famous coal boss there. In Shanxi, not many people know the name David Yu, but everyone knows 'Sunny Yu'—that's me!"
"Ah! You're that 'mysterious missing' coal boss from Shanxi—'Sunny Yu'! I heard your mines supply enough coal for several cities every year! We've all heard about you! You're a top entrepreneur!" Rainie Bai exclaimed, amazed. As a university student studying finance, she naturally knew about successful businessmen like David Yu.
"Eh—so what if I'm a private entrepreneur, or top of the pack? I still ended up in a gambling den, lost everything! Haha—life's a damn joke! Who would've thought it'd be this wild—" David Yu said, rubbing his bald head with a self-deprecating grin.
"Wow! I didn't expect you to be such a big shot! A real boss! Heh—" Shawn Young laughed, then his face turned serious as he said to David Yu, "Mr. Yu, let me be honest—someone put a spell on you. It's a wicked supernatural ritual!"
"What?! A spell? What the hell is that?!" David Yu jumped in fright, but seeing Shawn Young's serious face, he knew it wasn't a joke and couldn't help but believe him.
"This kind of evil ritual is called the 'Five Ghosts Wealth Manipulation Ritual.' You were probably cursed by someone you trusted deeply!" Shawn Young said coldly.
"Why do you say that?" David Yu asked, confused.
"Because the 'Five Ghosts Wealth Manipulation Ritual' has some pretty specific requirements—you need to know the victim's birth date and time, their daily habits, and then, at the right moment, scatter the souls of five little ghosts and mix them into their food. By doing this five times at different intervals, those spirits enter the victim's body and gradually take over their mind, controlling their thoughts and actions, making them do whatever the spellcaster wants! Since the spell lives in your brain, it messes with your nerves, which is why you keep having those nightmares. The ghosts you see in your dreams are the spirits that got inside you! They're under the spellcaster's control, tormenting you nonstop until you're ruined. It's a nasty, vicious ritual, and whoever did this to you definitely wanted to destroy you!" Shawn Young explained, his face deadly serious.