"Are you Yu Da Shi?" the old man's aged voice asked.
Yu Daochen nodded. "I am Yu Daochen, the owner of this shop."
Upon hearing this, the old man immediately knelt down and began to cry, "Master Yu, you must help me."
Yu Daochen quickly helped the old man up from the ground. "Let's go inside and talk."
The two entered the shop and sat down. Yu Daochen placed a ceramic kettle on the stove to heat water. The old man said excitedly, "Master Yu, you must save me."
Yu Daochen raised his hand to signal her to calm down. "Tell me what happened first."
The old man wiped the tears from her eyes and began to speak. "My name is Han Hui, and I am twenty-three years old."
Twenty-three years old?
Yu Daochen suddenly realized that although she looked like an old woman in her sixties, her face didn't match.
There was only one possibility for this situation: her lifespan had been borrowed.
Han Hui was not a local of Jiangdu. She had recently come to Jiangdu to work as a programmer in a company.
If she hadn't said anything, no one would have guessed she was only twenty-three.
Her current state of appearance began half a month ago.
Half a month ago, Han Hui went out drinking with colleagues. On her way back that night, she saw several hundred-yuan bills tied with red string...
On the day of the incident.
Seven-thirty in the evening, outside a roadside stall.
"Xiao Hui, shall I give you a ride back?" the woman standing by the taxi asked.
Han Hui waved her hand. "No need, the room I rented isn't far from here. I'll walk back."
"Then I won't see you off," the woman said, nodding as Han Hui refused.
"No, no, you should go back quickly, it's getting late," Han Hui said, watching the taxi leave before walking towards her rented room.
Han Hui's rented room was not far from here, just a five or six-minute walk after passing through a park.
The park wasn't too large, but it was filled with many couples on dates.
In the park, Han Hui sighed as she looked at the couples around her.
By seven or eight in the evening, it was completely dark. As Han Hui walked, she felt her foot step on something.
Han Hui looked down and saw several folded hundred-yuan bills. Due to the darkness, she didn't notice that a red string was tied around the money.
Although Han Hui was not greedy, she couldn't bring herself to leave money she found on the ground like a three-year-old child.
Han Hui put the money in her bag and continued walking towards her rented room.
Back in her rented room, Han Hui took a bath and lay on the bed. She suddenly remembered the money she had found and took it out of her bag again.
She had roughly estimated it to be about five or six bills earlier.
Han Hui took them out and saw that they were tied with a red string. After removing the red string, before Han Hui could count them, a yellow paper fell out.
Han Hui was a little confused. She opened it and saw several red characters written on it with some kind of pigment.
The color didn't look like it was from a red pen or cinnabar, but rather like blood.
"Borrowing your lifespan for fifty years."
Han Hui was so scared that she dropped the paper on the ground. This was just like the "borrowing lifespan" stories told by the older generation.
Although Han Hui was an atheist, any girl would be afraid of such things.
The next morning, Han Hui called her colleague to tell her about finding the money.
Han Hui initially didn't think much of it, but after hearing what her colleague said, she became a little scared and decided to return the money.
Han Hui took the money downstairs, planning to return it to the park after breakfast.
However, when she reached the breakfast stall, she realized her phone was out of battery and had turned off. Helplessly, Han Hui looked at the five hundred-yuan bills in her hand and thought, "I'll just use this to pay for breakfast first, and then I'll replace it with another bill later."
Han Hui took out one bill to pay for her breakfast and then went back upstairs to replace the cash. She then returned to the park and went to the spot where she had found the money yesterday, returning the five hundred yuan exactly as it was.
That very night, Han Hui had a strange dream. In the dream, a thin and withered old man was grinning at her and repeatedly saying.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you..."
The next morning, Han Hui woke up and was about to go to work when she walked into the bathroom and discovered that she had suddenly aged by more than fifty years.
Han Hui was terrified and immediately called her colleagues for help. Her colleagues took her to see many masters, but none of them could help.
Later, she heard that there was a very powerful master named Yu on Old Street, but he had a strange rule of only opening his shop at midnight.
Seeing a glimmer of hope, Han Hui decided to try. However, she had come three times before, and the shop was always closed. This time, it was finally open, but no one was there. Han Hui waited until two-thirty in the morning.
After listening to Han Hui's description, Yu Daochen couldn't help but be a little surprised.
How malicious could someone who borrows lifespan be? One "xun" is ten years, so this was a full fifty years of lifespan borrowed!
What's more, it was only for five hundred yuan.
Even more infuriating was that the five hundred yuan was eventually returned.
If I were her, I would have rushed back to the park to retrieve the five hundred yuan as soon as I realized I had aged, so I could at least recover some of the loss.
Of course, that's not the main point.
The art of borrowing lifespan is not actually that difficult, though Yu Daochen didn't know how to do it.
It's unknown who invented this spell, but there's a legend in the martial world that it originated from the Celestial Masters' Mansion.