Chapter 0090: The Beautiful Girl's Fortune Telling
That day, as usual, Frank Fang went to a famous temple in Bangkok to invite Amulets. The temple housed two extremely renowned Luang Phor monks whose blessed Amulets were highly sought after. Frank Fang had bribed a young monk at the temple to notify him the moment the masters produced a new batch. This way, Frank Fang was always the first to secure the goods.
Frank Fang acquired over a dozen Amulets for less than forty thousand Baht, knowing he could flip them for several times that amount. As he left the prayer hall and walked through the courtyard, he spotted two young women—one tall, one short—exiting an adjacent hall. Both were young and beautiful, but their expressions were dejected; the shorter girl, in particular, looked listless and drained. Frank Fang was multi-tasking, talking business on his mobile phone with one hand while holding a drink in the other. He slowed his pace as the girls passed him, overhearing them grumbling. He noticed the ring on his right hand, which contained Five Venoms Oil, slowly change color from yellow to gray. Once the girls were a distance away, it shifted back to yellow.
Though he was on the phone, Frank Fang's ears remained sharp. He heard them saying things like, "Why can we never get one?" "Is the Luang Phor unwilling to sell to us?" and "Who knows when the next blessing ceremony will be?" Hanging up, Frank Fang quickly caught up to them and asked directly, "Excuse me, beautiful ladies, were you looking for Luang Phor's Amulets but couldn't find any?"
One of the girls replied, "Yes! Every time we come, they say someone has already taken them all. It's so annoying!"
Frank Fang grinned and unzipped his backpack. "The Amulets are all right here. Take a look." The girls were stunned. Frank Fang remarked on the "coincidence"—that he just happened to buy everything the masters blessed. "If you want them, I can sell them to you for a fair price."
The girls were delighted and reached out to pick some, but Frank Fang added, "Don't rush. Ten thousand Baht each, no bargaining. Take your time." The girls immediately recoiled. "What? Ten thousand Baht? The normal offering price is only around three thousand. Are you trying to profile off us?"
"Am I supposed to do all this legwork and sell to you for nothing?" Frank Fang asked with feigned shock, though his eyes gleamed with greed.
Seeing the look in his eyes, the girls realized he was a professional Amulet broker. They were furious and turned to leave. Frank Fang called out, "Don't regret it. You know the masters don't bless many of these. They're getting old; in a few days, these might become limited-edition relics." Knowing he was right, the girls turned back, pleading with Frank Fang to sell them two at a discount.
Frank Fang stared at the two beautiful young women, his eyes shining. Noticing his gaze, they said indignantly, "We are worried sick, and you're not only scalping Amulets but also trying to hit on us?"
Frank Fang asked what the emergency was. One girl snapped, "What's the point in telling you?"
"I know you're carrying some foul energy, aren't you?" Frank Fang's words caused their faces to turn pale instantly. One of them stammered, "How... how do you know that?"
Frank Fang laughed. "Of course I know. I know many powerful Ajarn masters. Perhaps I can help you!" He quickly identified himself as a professional broker.
The girls were clearly swayed. One whispered to her companion that they should tell him; after all, he clearly had connections if he managed to snag all the temple's stock. They moved to a nearby restaurant to eat and talk. Only then did Frank Fang learn the whole story.
The two girls had been classmates from primary school through university and were best friends. The taller, slender one was named Banya, and the shorter, more curvaceous one was Innala. They had a very wealthy classmate who often threw parties for the class. A month ago, this classmate held a birthday party at her luxury villa for students from three different classes—nearly two hundred people.
Because the host was wealthy, the girls all wore their finest clothes to avoid losing face, making the party a sea of beauties. Besides students, there were some older guests—social acquaintances of the host and business friends of her parents. Among them was a man of extraordinary presence. He was handsome, roughly forty years old, with a buzz cut in the front and a braid in the back. Dressed in all-white traditional robes and holding black prayer beads, he looked like a detached hermit.
This kind of man was a magnet for young women. Within half an hour, the students were well-acquainted with him. He introduced himself as Ajarn Patan, a friend of the host's father from the Philippines who specialized in Buddhist studies and lived in Penang. When the girls asked if he could tell fortunes, Ajarn Patan claimed he rarely did so because his predictions were too accurate, which could shorten his own lifespan.
The more he demurred, the more interested they became. They pestered him until Ajarn Patan finally gave in, saying, "Whichever of you is the wealthiest, I can predict who her future husband will be." None of the girls were actually from rich families, but Innala often expressed her envy of the wealthy, so her classmates teased her about it. This time, they all pointed to Innala, joking that she was the "rich one." Innala didn't correct them; she wanted to know who her future husband would be and went along with it with a smile.
A few days after the party, Innala, accompanied by Banya, went to Ajarn Patan's suite at a Bangkok resort. They were frightened to see him holding a dull, gray human skull. Ajarn Patan explained, "This skull was left behind by an enlightened monk. It is a tool for rituals, like a witch's wand. Do not be afraid."
Under Ajarn Patan's direction, Innala sat on the floor while he sat behind her to perform the rite. It lasted less than ten minutes. Afterward, Ajarn Patan told her, "Your future husband will be a Chinese man surnamed Li. His family is poor, but his future is limitless." Neither girl quite believed it, but Ajarn Patan said it didn't matter—they would know within two years, and he wasn't charging for the fortune anyway.
They left and eventually forgot about it. But then the trouble began. From 그날 on, Innala felt wrong. It felt as if someone was constantly pushing her back, trying to shove her off a cliff. Her mind became foggy, her thoughts sluggish, and she suffered from various hallucinations. Her health plummeted; she was constantly feverish and plagued by nightmares. Doctors could find nothing wrong.
Eventually, a classmate suggested she might have "picked up" something unclean and asked if she had offended anyone. She couldn't think of anyone until Banya reminded her of the ritual with Ajarn Patan. Using fortune-telling as an excuse, Banya got Ajarn Patan's number from the wealthy classmate's father. When Innala called him, Ajarn Patan didn't even try to hide it. He admitted he had placed a Sickness Hex (Ji Jiang) on her. He claimed that since her family was rich, they should donate fifty thousand US dollars to support his spiritual cultivation to have the hex removed. Otherwise, she would suffer like this for the rest of her life.
Innala was stunned. She demanded to know why he would do this. Ajarn Patan simply said that as "wealthy people," a few myriad dollars were nothing. Innala cried out that her family had no money and that the "wealthy" label was just a joke among friends. Ajarn Patan merely chuckled, saying rich people always say that. He told her to think it over and, once she had the cash, to bring it to his residence in Penang, Malaysia. He would provide the address once she arrived in the city.
Innala was furious and told her family. They went to the police, but with no physical evidence, the police couldn't open a case and eventually dropped it. Innala's parents called Ajarn Patan to plead with him, but he ignored them, stating that even if he had hexed the wrong person, the rules of the Necromancer profession forbade removing a hex without payment.