Matt’s Intuition

"It’s you guys?"

Of course Skye remembered. She had made the call.

But she hadn’t expected one of them to be blind…

Skye herself didn’t discriminate against blind people, but could a blind person really work as a lawyer? Turn left when you go out—there’s a blind massage parlor that would suit you perfectly.

That massage parlor didn’t have a single real blind masseur. It didn’t matter whether your technique was good; what mattered was that you were handsome. You’d probably be very popular.

If Old Wang weren’t here, I’d want you to give me a massage too…

Old Wang’s massage skills were insanely good. He had been the first blind masseur at that parlor, and all the current masseurs, male and female alike, were his students.

Sensing Old Wang’s unfriendly gaze, Skye quickly coughed and straightened up. "Have you made up your minds? If so, help us draw up a contract… I didn’t prepare one."

Foggy froze.

Did I hear that right?

You didn’t even prepare a contract, yet you’re making the people you want to hire prepare one? Aren’t you afraid we’ll screw you over?

You really do need legal counsel!

Foggy rubbed his hands together, his face wreathed in smiles. "We’ve thought it through. We’re willing to serve as legal counsel for the Azeroth Specialties Shop. But we need to renegotiate the salary. I think twenty thousand dollars is still too little. You have to understand, we’re outstanding law students from Columbia University. We’re future top lawyers, the kind who make a million a year… Matt, don’t you agree… Matt?"

When he turned around, he found Matt standing completely still. His blind eyes were fixed directly on the slightly chubby Chinese man lying in the recliner. His chest rose and fell faintly, and his breathing was heavier than usual. Only a close friend like Foggy could notice those details…

So what was wrong with Matt?

If you were staring at that mixed-race beauty, I could understand. But you were staring at a man. What the hell was I supposed to make of that?

Was this slightly chubby Chinese guy better-looking than me? Were you abandoning me?

"Yes, we’ll do as you said. We’ll sign the contract." Matt hadn’t heard a word Foggy had said.

From the moment he saw the person in the recliner, his ears had been unable to leave him.

Yes, his ears.

When he was very young, radioactive material from a truck had splashed into his eyes. He lost his sight, but his other senses had unexpectedly become stronger.

Taste, smell, hearing, touch, and… intuition.

His sense of touch could distinguish the traces left by ink on paper, allowing him to read by touch. That had carried him from middle school through university and made him the best student in the entire law department, with more reading under his belt than 99.9 percent of Columbia University students.

His sense of smell could distinguish different people by their body odor, even sort through the countless complicated scents in the environment. He could tell which woman had just had passionate exercise, how many people had participated, what professions they had, and whether they had gone one after another or at the same time.

His sense of taste was sharp enough to count the grains of salt on a pretzel and determine which dish had cut corners on its ingredients.

He possessed intuition stronger than a woman’s. He had once foreseen his father’s death and his ex-girlfriend’s departure.

But the most important sense to him was hearing.

After more than a decade of intense training, he could hear every word spoken by thousands of people within several hundred feet and extract the one voice he wanted from that ocean of sound.

He could even hear a person’s heartbeat from twenty feet away and judge their emotional state from its rhythm and frequency—whether they were excited or afraid, terrified or nervous.

He could also hear anyone’s blood circulation, breathing, and bodily movements, allowing him to judge their actions and condition.

All six senses combined gave him judgment and insight stronger than Sherlock Holmes’s.

Although he had no eyes, he "saw" more clearly than anyone else.

As long as he wanted to, no movement made by anyone within twenty feet could escape his perception.

He knew many people’s secrets at Columbia University: Professor Connor from the law department had affairs with several women; the eighteen favorite positions of Miranda, who often slipped into the woods; how many times Foggy jerked off each week, how many seconds each time lasted, how many tissues he used, and that pungent smell…

And now,

those five senses far beyond ordinary human limits

were all focused on a single person.

Matt was doing everything he could to perceive the person gently rocking in the recliner.

A person he had never met before, someone strange to the extreme.

There was a faint smell of alcohol on him. He was someone who liked to drink and had drunk recently, though not much. He had self-control.

The liquor was erguotou, the cheapest kind. Yet the small shop had more expensive Bamboo Leaf Green and vodka, which meant he was stingy, or… frugal.

Judging from the flow of his blood, the friction of his clothes, and the creaking of the recliner, he was around six feet tall and somewhat overweight. He had no strong muscles; there was more fat on him, and his body-fat percentage was very high. Someone like that should have poor physical fitness, but this person was an exception.

His heartbeat was very slow, much slower than that of most athletes, yet more powerful and regular to an extreme degree.

Such a heartbeat was almost impossible.

Anyone, even while thinking or dreaming, would experience slight changes in their heartbeat. From those changes, Matt could judge their emotions.

But the man in the recliner had a heartbeat as steady as a clock, making it impossible for Matt to determine his emotions.

Was he in some blank, thoughtless daze, or was he capable of controlling his own heartbeat?

His breathing was slow, but every breath was extraordinarily long. His lung capacity was almost impossible to estimate. Perhaps it was greater than that of two marathon runners combined.

None of that was what mattered.

What mattered most was that Matt had a strange intuition.

This was a very powerful person, ten or even a hundred times stronger than Master Stick.

It reminded him of Kunlun Iron Fist and Madame Gao.

Kung fu masters who cultivated Qi could control their heartbeats and even stop them for a period of time. Their breathing was long and deep, and some could even go three days and three nights without breathing.

Madame Gao was an old woman.

And according to Foggy’s description, that Kunlun Iron Fist was similar in height to the man in the recliner, though thinner, more energetic-looking, and more powerful.

But for kung fu masters, body shape could be controlled. There were even rumors of bone-shrinking techniques that could alter a person’s height, build, and even appearance.

Matt’s intuition told him that the man in the recliner was Kunlun Iron Fist.

In that instant, he realized this was no coincidence.

The other party had deliberately sought him out as legal counsel. Otherwise, why would a tiny grocery store need legal counsel?

"I should have realized it sooner!" Matt seriously reflected on himself.

He was still too young and inexperienced. He should have known coffee didn’t fall from the sky and that there was no such thing as a free lunch.

If Foggy hadn’t taken the call and agreed on the spot, he probably wouldn’t have come.

But he did not refuse.

Since the other party had already found him, there was no use hiding.

And he had an intuition:

This was not a bad thing for him, but a good thing.

The man in the recliner was a good person.

"Matt!"

Foggy hurriedly tugged Matt and whispered, "We can negotiate! We can push it to thirty thousand… at least twenty-five!"

"The price is very reasonable." Matt smiled and "looked" toward Old Wang. "Sir, what should we call you? When do we start work? I’m sorry, but we haven’t graduated yet, so we can only work part-time."

"If you want to come to work, we don’t even have anywhere for you to work… The shop is only this big, as you can see."

Old Wang looked at Matt with a faint smile, as though he were looking at a rare giant panda. "We’ll call you if anything comes up. Looking forward to working together?"

He extended his left hand.

Matt hesitated for a moment, then extended his left hand as well. "Looking forward to working together."

Their hands clasped.

A wisp of True Qi entered Matt’s body.

His entire body trembled.

I’m going to write Chapter Three. I probably won’t finish before midnight. I’ll post it when it’s done, so no need to wait.