"Young man, don't listen to his lies," the middle-aged man said solemnly: "That's just mud scraped off his body. I reckon he hasn't bathed for at least a week."
"Alright, alright, next, next," the host had no choice but to step in again, desperately pushing the middle-aged man away: "Sir, please step down."
The second volunteer for divination was a teenager of only seventeen or eighteen. This teenager's attitude was obviously different from the middle-aged man. As soon as he came on stage, he grabbed the little prodigy's hand and shook it desperately: "Master! Master! I have long admired both Tibetan Buddhism and the Holy See, as well as various schools of cultivation. I've been reading 'The Ethereal Journey' for five years now, and it's rare to meet a master like you today. Will you take me as your disciple, please?" The teenager took a few steps back and struck a cool pose: "Master, how do you rate my aptitude? Am I a prodigy in cultivation that only comes once every five hundred years?"
Daheshang Wuming glanced at him and smiled: "Merely an ordinary mortal, but with good fortune."
"You!" The teenager was angry: "You've totally misjudged me. I'm definitely a talented cultivator. I've felt a certain energy within me since I was a child, and I especially love eating sweet potatoes... Master, if it doesn't work out, find a vampire to turn me, sure."
Xiao Kai usually enjoyed reading fantasy novels, but seeing the teenager's performance, it was obvious that he had gone too far from reading, and he shook his head quietly: "Hmm... young people these days..."
"Enough, stop bragging," the little prodigy also smiled: "Now, go fifty meters to the east, turn left, and you'll see a place selling lottery tickets, the kind where you can claim your prize on the spot. Buy ten dollars' worth of tickets, and I guarantee you'll win."
"Really?" The teenager became suspicious.
"Try it and you'll see," the little prodigy's confident smile reassured the teenager, who left without a word. The audience below also began to discuss, feeling very curious.
Calculating a person's past life can be done by collaborating with someone, but calculating lottery numbers can only be considered as real skill. The mud pill that little prodigy cast just now was still uncertain. If his calculation could succeed, then the pill just now was likely to be some kind of sacred Tibetan medicine. The teenager was quick, he returned out of breath in five minutes, holding five unscratched lottery tickets.
"Here, Master, I bought the lottery tickets. I'll scratch them in front of you." As he spoke, the teenager had already scratched the first one, which unexpectedly read "Thank you for supporting China's welfare cause."
He continued to scratch off the second one, with the same phrase that every lottery player saw every day.
The third and fourth were still expressions of gratitude.
"Huh, did the little prodigy make a mistake?"
"Oh, they're not winning tickets. I told you, these things don't win that easily."
"Haha, I knew it. So-called metaphysics isn't that mystical."
"...”
"L-Little prodigy, there's only one ticket left," the teenager's hands were trembling slightly: "Should... should I let you scratch it?"
"No need, you scratch it," the little prodigy smiled assuredly: "Don't be nervous, go ahead and scratch it."
The teenager cautiously scratched off the ticket, revealing a exquisitely printed number inside.
"One zero, two zeros, three zeros, four zeros... Wow! I really won, ten thousand bucks!"
"My goodness, he really won the jackpot! This little prodigy is amazing!"
"Yes, he's not just a prodigy, he's a living Buddha!"
"Ah, why didn't I go up and let the living Buddha calculate for me?"
"I say, host, are you still accepting registrations?"
The teenager excitedly walked off the stage. With ten thousand bucks, he forgot about wanting to find a master to learn cultivation from. The host looked at the third volunteer and then at Xiao Kai, who was eager on the side, hesitating: "Or... this time... would you like to perform?"
"Haha, it's finally my turn!" Xiao Kai leaped three feet high: "Alright, it's my turn to perform now. I'll show you what real high-tech fortune-telling is like – accurate every time!"
"Um... sir, what's your name?" the host asked.
"Oh, my surname is Yan, you can call me Xiao Kai." Xiao Kai efficiently opened up the various large and small instruments next to him. All the indicator lights started flashing, and the hum of the instruments filled the air. The third volunteer standing there was obviously intimidated by Xiao Kai's demeanor, quietly swallowing his saliva and turning to ask the host: "C-Can I request to be divined by Master Zhang instead?"
"No, absolutely not! You are mine!" Xiao Kai's ears twitched, and he rushed over, grabbing the volunteer's wrist. The volunteer happened to be an elderly person, and being pulled by Xiao Kai, he instantly became immobile. His face turned red with anxiety, but seeing Xiao Kai ready to explode at any moment, he didn't dare say a word of refusal.
Xiao Kai took the microphone from the host: "Ladies and gentlemen, I am Yan Xiao Kai, 21 years old this year, of respectable appearance, in good health, does not smoke, does not drink alcohol, and has no bad habits. Currently employed in the Planning Department of Tianyi Corporation, skilled in business, with solid basic skills, unmarried, and currently single."
"You should talk about your machines," the host whispered to remind him.
"Oh, right," Xiao Kai straightened his neck and struck a pose he thought was the coolest: "Actually, I am a scientist..."
"Boom!" Laughter erupted from the audience below!
"Hmm, don't laugh, you'll understand how great a scientist I am once I explain the principles of my design to you," Xiao Kai said earnestly: "Let me tell you, what I've invented is truly revolutionary. It's your greatest honor to be the first to witness it."
After the audience gradually quieted down, Xiao Kai began to speak again.
"According to my understanding, the first thing to do is to completely break the so-called 'uncertainty principle' in quantum mechanics. Everyone who has studied physics should know that in the microscopic world, the trajectory of an electron is fundamentally incalculable. We can only determine its probable movement based on the probability of its appearance in various locations, which is known as the 'electron cloud'. However, I have always insisted that everything in this world can actually be accurately measured. The so-called 'uncertainty' is nothing more than an insufficient condition for inference. Given sufficient conditions, I feel that the development and changes of all things can be accurately inferred!"
Xiaokai suddenly threw back his head, skillfully glanced at the audience, and fervently exclaimed, "The whole world, even the entire universe, can be completely predicted!"
He patted his computer and said, "And this unprecedented and unique complex program that I have been working on for nearly five years can accomplish this incredibly precise and complex prediction process!"
"Wow, that's really impressive!" Xiaoguan listened with astonishment. "Xiaokai, where did you find this speech? I have to admit, I've been fooled by you."
"Ha-ha, nothing special," Xiaokai said. "Actually, this is the thesis I wrote when I graduated from college, but in the end the teacher gave me a 'poor' grade."
Xiaoguan was speechless.
"Ha... yawn!" The host yawned. "Are you done? If you're done, let's show everyone, Xiaokai."
"Okay," Xiaokai skillfully pulled up a table on the computer and began interviewing the elderly person who volunteered to come up for a fortune-telling.
"How old are you this year?"
"What is your height and weight?"
"How many sons do you have? How many daughters? What are their names?"
"What is your blood type?"
"Do you have high blood pressure? How about fatty liver?"
"Where is your home located? How many rooms and halls?"
"Did you ever have an affair when you were young? How many women have you been involved with in your life?"
"Here are three pictures, which one would you choose as wallpaper?"
"What is one plus two?"
"Is your sexual fantasy object Xia Qiang or Lin Zhiling?"
"What is your bank account number? What is your password?"
The elderly person had always had a good temper, but even so, after half an hour, when Xiaokai asked for the elderly person's bank password, the elderly person couldn't control his outburst. His trembling finger pointed at Xiaokai, and his lips twitched, "You... you... you little rascal, you unscrupulous animal trying to deceive me... you... you clearly want to seize my estate!"
"No, no, Sir, I absolutely don't mean that," Xiaokai was also anxious. "I want to obtain the most accurate prediction results through the most thorough investigation!"
"You... you unscrupulous boy, you better not! I am not stupid, I won't tell you that my password is my birthday!" The elderly person was clearly also furious.
"Oh, then what is your birthday?" Xiaokai asked casually.
"Hmph, March 6th," the elderly person said. "I won't tell you."
Xiaokai, no fool, dared not speak again and muttered under his breath, "Alright, let's just do the calculation with this incomplete information."
"What will happen if the data is incomplete?" The crowd below became curious.
"It doesn't matter," Xiaokai said earnestly. "My program is extremely advanced. It will integrate as much as possible with the incomplete data to come up with the most rational analysis. The conclusions it provides will definitely not be wrong. However, if there's too little data, it can only make superficial conjectures and can't make very precise predictions."
"Oh, that's okay, as long as it gives results," the audience's expectations were not high.