PTGWD Extra 3: Fried Chicken

[Extra 3]

[About Fate]

However, constantly being favored by fate isn’t always a good thing.

Whenever someone close to him experiences a dramatic shift in their fate line, it tends to resonate with the power of destiny—and inexplicably, that person ends up near Fang Yanzhou.

For example…

One afternoon in first grade, after school, Fang Yanzhou was suddenly struck by an overwhelming craving for fried chicken from a remote little shop—a craving so intense, he felt he’d die on the spot if he didn’t get there immediately.

So he dashed three kilometers on his annoyingly inconvenient human legs to the fried chicken shop, and right as he arrived, he saw Uncle Li Xuan in casual clothes, holding a pizza, strolling past the store like he had the day off.

The moment he saw Li Xuan, something sparked inside him.

Yanzhou strained his still-developing voice and shouted, “Watch out!!”

Li Xuan froze mid-step and turned around, stunned to see little Fang Yanzhou in school uniform with a backpack. “Tangtang? What are you doing here?”

Before he could finish his sentence—

A loud SMACK rang out.

A flowerpot fell from a high floor and shattered half a step away from Li Xuan, covering him in dirt and shards.

Li Xuan’s face went blank for half a second.。

He looked up toward where the flowerpot had fallen. No doubt—if Fang Yanzhou hadn’t yelled just then, the pot would’ve smashed his head like minced meat.

Cold sweat soaked his shirt instantly. Still shaken, Li Xuan frowned and looked up at the building, already planning to investigate thoroughly the next day.

Equally terrified, Fang Yanzhou ran over with sweat streaming down his face, his eyes slit like a little beast’s. He glanced around warily, then tugged on Uncle Li Xuan’s sleeve before his aching legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground.

Li Xuan quickly scooped him up. Fang Yanzhou leaned weakly against his uncle’s shoulder, so exhausted he nearly foamed at the mouth, and croaked, “Uncle… you should… buy me fried chicken…”

That day, Li Xuan treated Fang Yanzhou to the fanciest fried chicken combo available—with two scoops of ice cream—and personally drove him home.

…

Just a few days later, another inexplicable accident occurred.

Fang Yanzhou was in the middle of his first-grade final exam. He had just received the math paper when, suddenly, his head began to spin and stars danced before his eyes.

Fighting to stay upright, he scribbled through the test in three minutes, turned it in, and collapsed the very next second at the exam room door.

When he came to, he was lying in his dad’s clinic bed—Fang Xingzhou stood on his left with a syringe, Lu Jianchuan on the right looking deeply worried. Meanwhile, Yanzhou himself felt totally fine—full of energy, strong, and not the least bit unwell.

“Awake?” Fang Xingzhou patted his head, flicked the air bubbles from the syringe, and the sharp needle gleamed menacingly in the sunlight. “It’s nothing, baby. Just a bit of glucose, and then you can go back to class.”

Fang Yanzhou stared at the needle, dazed for half a second.

Then he shot up from the bed and bolted toward the door, shouting as he ran: “Dad, I’m fine, I wasn’t even sick, I faked it! No nononono I don’t want a shot!! Waaahhh!!”

His protest was in vain.

Thirty seconds later, Daddy Lu’s tentacles had him tightly strapped to the bed. Daddy Fang gave him the injection without mercy. He bawled for five straight minutes and only stopped after being fed three chocolates.

Once the glucose drip finally finished, Fang Xingzhou returned to work. On the way out, Lu Jianchuan held their son and stared at him in disbelief, muttering:

“Baby… did we grab the wrong kid on hatching day? If you inherited my genes, how could you possibly get sick? This is so weird…”

The blow to his ego was too much—Fang Yanzhou burst into tears again.

He cried all the way downstairs. As they approached the parking lot, the area was suddenly cleared. A large group of special forces had rushed in, surrounding the hospital entrance, all looking up with grim faces. Something big was clearly going on.

 Fang Yanzhou’s fate-sense tingled.

And not just him—Lu Jianchuan’s instincts were flaring too. He narrowed his eyes and looked up at the rooftop.

At that very moment—

Two dark figures plummeted from the 18th-floor rooftop.

Screams erupted from the crowd. Lu Jianchuan gave a casual “Hmm?” and, just before the figures splattered into the pavement, sent out two tentacles that caught them midair, gently set them down, then retracted instantly.

It all happened in under 0.1 seconds. Most people were still mid-scream, having only glimpsed a blur—while the two jumpers were already standing safely on the ground.

Lu Jianchuan glanced at the two he rescued and immediately let out a cheerful “Yo,” flashing a familiar grin.

One was an unknown suicide jumper. The other—once again—was the ever-unlucky Officer Li Xuan, accidentally dragged down by the other person.

Lu Jianchuan’s eyes crinkled. “Good afternoon, Officer Li. Since when do you handle family drama cases?”

After two weeks of narrowly escaping death, Li Xuan looked pale as a ghost. When he turned and saw Lu Jianchuan and Fang Yanzhou, he exhaled in deep relief.

Unable to discuss the case in public, he walked over shaking, said nothing, and simply patted Fang Yanzhou’s head—trying to absorb some of his luck.

“…Long story. I’ll buy Tangtang some fried chicken!”

And so, Fang Yanzhou scored another free fried chicken meal—this time tossing back a good luck buff to his poor unlucky Uncle Li Xuan, sincerely wishing him fewer life-threatening situations in the future.

…

Unfortunately, not even the luck buff could cancel out Li Xuan’s misfortune.

A week later, Fang Yanzhou received a perfect report card, happily bounced out the door with a fat wad of allowance, planning to secretly gorge on junk food—only to accidentally walk straight into a police perimeter. Again.

Fang Yanzhou stared wide-eyed at the armed officers, starting to question whether he actually controlled misfortune instead of luck.

He crept forward bit by bit—and of course, fate “blessed” him again, helping him sneak right into the heart of the action.

He could feel an intense cursed aura, wrapped around a black gun.

The man holding it was clearly possessed—the space between his brows darkened, drooling, shouting “Stay back!” while pointing the weapon at a most unfortunate hostage—

Yep. It was Uncle Li Xuan. Again.

But this time, the officers weren’t from the regular force. They wore uniforms from the Research Institute. Even Uncle Yan Xin was there, tapping away rapidly on his computer, calculating who-knows-what.

After finishing, Yan Xin glanced at Li Xuan and mouthed something. Li Xuan nodded grimly.

Fang Yanzhou saw this and sighed, raising a tiny palm to his forehead.

He saw a tragically doomed fate line being born from that nod—growing fast and inevitably leading to a disastrous outcome.

But it was fine!

Uncle Li Xuan would definitely buy him fried chicken later!

Fang Yanzhou tucked his allowance deep into his pocket, transformed into a spotted puppy, and bounded straight into the innermost cordon.

The tense standoff froze for a moment.

The agents couldn’t fathom how a dog had slipped into an airtight lockdown zone. Yan Xin broke into a cold sweat, sensing their plan was about to be wrecked by this variable.

He kept signaling at Li Xuan, urging him to wait until the dog left before acting. But Li Xuan just stared, feeling strangely familiar with the pup, yet not entirely sure.

Wasn’t this… the spotted dog from Xiangxing Street? Named Liu Bang or something?

But they were dozens of kilometers away—how could the dog be here?

As a seasoned special agent, Li Xuan quickly deduced a terrifying possibility. Cold sweat dripping, he whispered to the dog, “Out! Go on! It’s dangerous! Be good, baby, listen!”

The already unstable suspect was triggered by this scene and completely snapped.

Bang!

The shot came without warning.

Yan Xin was too shocked to speak, tears forming in his eyes. But when he looked again—Li Xuan’s head was still intact, no brains splattered. He was just frozen in place.

Even though the gun had been pressed to Li Xuan’s temple, the shot had somehow missed and hit the ground instead.

The spotted dog barked happily: “Woof woof! Woof woof woof!”

It wagged its tail and lunged at the suspect.

The suspect screamed, fired three more times—missed every shot. Furious, he kicked at the dog, slipped, and fell flat on his face.

Li Xuan and the other agents snapped into action, swarming forward and subduing the suspect and the cursed gun, sealing it inside a special containment case.

Thus ended a two-month-long tense manhunt—just like that.

The turbulent fate line quickly settled. The spotted dog already smelled fried chicken and joyfully bit onto Li Xuan’s pants leg. Li Xuan picked him up and planted a huge kiss on his head.

“You really are my lucky charm, Tangtang. I’m treating you to fried chicken!”

The dog wagged its tail like a propeller, turned back into a boy, hugged Uncle Li Xuan’s neck, and bargained, “I want the super deluxe set!”

Li Xuan: “Plus two ice creams.”

Fang Yanzhou: “Deal!”

Thus, the first fate god in history to be bribed by fried chicken and ice cream brought the Institute a new A-class paranormal item: the “Cursed Gun” that makes anyone miserably unlucky.

Fang Yanzhou thought Uncle Li Xuan was only unlucky because of the gun.

But in the days after that…

After too many “coincidences” where he bumped into life-threatening situations involving Uncle Li, Fang Yanzhou began to question—how did Li Xuan and Yan Xin even survive before he was born?

To avoid constant disruptions to his daily life, he had no choice but to join the Research Institute at a young age, so he could get Li Xuan’s schedules in advance and prepare countermeasures.

One time after a mission, clutching a thick bonus envelope, he was picked up from the scene by Fang Xingzhou. He couldn’t hold it in and asked:

“Daddy, I’ve already saved Uncle Li Xuan 18 times,” he counted on his fingers. “How did he survive before I was born?”

Fang Xingzhou picked him up and kissed his forehead.

He replied gently, “Their jobs have always been dangerous. Most agents never make it to retirement. Maybe Officer Li used up all his luck just waiting for you to be born.”

Fang Yanzhou froze for a second, then his eyes lit up, and his baby-fat cheeks beamed with sunshine.

“Really?” he asked.

“Mhm,” Fang Xingzhou said, casually taking the bonus from him. “He overdrew his luck to wait for you, so now he always runs into danger. That’s why Tangtang must protect him, Yan Xin, and all the hardworking agents. Right?”

Fang Yanzhou nodded firmly, suddenly feeling the heavy responsibility on his tiny shoulders.

“I’ll take good care of Uncle Li and Uncle Yan!” he declared, fists clenched with determination.

Fang Xingzhou smiled and ruffled his hair.

“…But daddy, why are you taking away my bonus?”

Fang Xingzhou remained expressionless as he tucked the money into his bag. “I’m just saving it for you until you’re grown up—so you don’t keep sneaking off to eat junk food… Shh, don’t argue. Lulu’s smelled fried chicken on you many times.”

Fang Yanzhou, who had been planning a major feast, deflated immediately. “Oh…”

He looked at his lost bonus, then at Dad, then back at Li Xuan and Yan Xin still cleaning up the scene—and suddenly, he smiled again.

It’s fine, he thought.

Uncle Li Xuan will buy him the super deluxe fried chicken meal—with TWO ice creams!!