“Go on,” the fool said, then paused and added in a low voice, “Why do you care about that person? If he wants to listen, let him… Don’t worry, even if you’re wrong, I won’t say anything.”

“Don’t!” the con artist suddenly raised his voice. “You’d better say it.”

Edward Clark lowered his head and chuckled twice.

“Your first love was last year, right?” the con artist asked.

“…Yeah.” The fool sounded surprised.

“You’ve actually been in a relationship?” The con artist’s assistant was also shocked. “There’s actually a girl that blind?”

“What do you mean,” the fool protested, “Why can’t someone like me be liked? And isn’t it kind of bad to judge people by their looks? Besides, even Jimmy is so handsome and nobody likes him…”

“If you can’t talk properly, shut up.” The con artist said, then after a pause added, “If you don’t change how you address me in the next sentence, I’ll tell you exactly where all your teeth will fall out tonight.”

The assistant laughed so hard he choked on his own saliva.

Edward Clark tried to hold back his laughter.

“If you want him to read your fortune, hurry up and ask,” the assistant said, still laughing.

“I just want to know, when will I fall in love again?” the fool said.

“I can’t see that,” the con artist replied.

“Why not?” the fool asked. “Can’t you just make something up?”

“Who are you to me that I’d make something up just to amuse you?” The con artist was very dismissive, and after a two-second pause, delivered another blow, “I can’t see when you’ll fall in love again, but I can see that you won’t have any love to fall into for the next two years.”

“Damn.” The fool was heartbroken. “For real?”

“If you believe it, then it’s real,” the assistant said earnestly. “Just wait two years and see… if you can still find us after two years, that is.”

Edward Clark laughed silently for a while, then stopped listening to the conversation. The con artist didn’t keep bluffing, and just listening to the fool sulk wasn’t interesting anymore.

He still had a pile of study materials waiting for him.

He pushed Jimmy out of his mind.

After Mr. Brooks IV left, David Reed kept wanting to get up and leave. Big Tom and the others were tuning the speakers on a patch of open ground by the flowerbeds, and he wanted to go join them.

But Eric Bennett didn’t seem like he was going to move, so he could only sit still, just glancing over there from time to time.

“Go ahead, don’t just sit here with me,” Eric Bennett finally spoke. “Just don’t tell them I was here. I want to sit for a while.”

“Okay,” David Reed immediately bounced up, but quickly sat back down beside him, looked at the person in front of them who hadn’t moved at all, and whispered, “That guy, is he okay?”

“A top student heartbroken over love, what could be wrong?” Eric Bennett said.

David Reed stared at him for a while. “You’re really something else.”

“Go on, go on.” Eric Bennett waved him away.

David Reed hopped down the steps and ran over to Big Tom and the others.

Eric Bennett stared at the back of the person’s head in front of him for a while. The guy seemed to be meditating—he hadn’t moved for almost ten minutes.

He hesitated, glanced around, pinched off a small piece of cement debris from who knows where, aimed at the steps to the right of the guy, and flicked it over.

He often tossed things into trash cans from a distance and usually made it, so he was pretty confident in his aim.

But the cement piece broke into two tiny bits the moment he flicked it.

One tiny bit landed where he intended, on the step to the right of the guy.

The other tiny bit landed on the guy’s head.

And it didn’t bounce off.

It just calmly stayed on top of his head.

Edward Clark raised his hand and touched his head.

He stared blankly at the little piece of cement in his hand, then turned his head.

Of the three people behind him, only one was left at some point—the con artist called Jimmy, who was looking at him.

Edward Clark didn’t feel much about this kind of provocation. He just flicked the little cement lump back to Jimmy and asked, “Something you need?”

“No,” Jimmy looked down at the cement that had returned to his hand. “Nice aim.”

Edward Clark’s train of thought for reviewing had already been interrupted, so he didn’t turn back around. He just looked at him and asked, “Do you charge?”

“What?” Jimmy frowned.

“You know… fortune-telling,” Edward Clark said. “How much?”

No one knew what kind of street con artist Jimmy was, but as soon as he heard the words “how much,” his expression changed: “What did you say?”

Edward Clark looked at him without saying a word.

“Do you know who I am?” He pointed at himself.

Edward Clark thought for a few seconds, cleared his throat, “Are you… Jimmy?”

Jimmy was stunned at first, opened his mouth but couldn’t speak for a long time, then suddenly burst out laughing: “If it were anyone else, you’d be dead right here, you know that?”

Edward Clark curled his lips, holding back a laugh.

“Ignorance is no crime, go ahead and laugh, it’s fine,” Jimmy moved down one step and sat behind him, stretched out his hand, his tone was kindly but his words were fierce, “My name is Eric Bennett, ‘霁’ as in ‘clear skies after rain.’ Just call me by my name. If you get it wrong again, I’ll make you the brightest spinning top tonight.”

霁哥, huh…