Xu Qing and Zhao Zhonghe had never liked the sight of each other. The moment they crossed paths, it was as if a spark had fallen into a pile of cotton—one touch and they would go up in flames.
Over there, Third Master Huang was only too happy to watch the fun. He reached out to stop the dental-brokerage clerk who was about to mediate, thinking only of getting the two of them to start fighting as soon as possible. If either of them got hurt, their dental brokerage even had a clinic a few steps east.
A fine profit-making opportunity from merely watching the show for free—he wished something like this would happen several times a day.
Inside the dental brokerage, Fourth Master Li heard the commotion and poked his head out. Seeing the two shouting and about to come to blows, he hurried out to mediate.
"Captain Zhao, Brother Xu, we're all just out here trying to make a living. Is there anything you can't discuss openly? Whatever you do, don't damage the harmony between you."
"Brother Xu, hurry up and apologize to Captain Zhao!" Fourth Master Li gave him a meaningful look, clearly saying that if he apologized, the matter would be over.
Unable to withstand Fourth Master Li's persuasion, Xu Qing cupped his hands and said with a heavy nasal tone, "It was my fault. Though Captain Zhao did wrong an innocent man, I shouldn't have spouted such nonsense either. How about this? From now on, whenever Captain Zhao comes to my shop, I'll give him twenty percent off."
At first, Fourth Master Li's face was filled with relief. But when he heard the final sentence, he nearly choked to death.
How could Shopkeeper Xu's mouth have no door on it? Who would want a discount from your shop?
Captain Zhao's face visibly began to flush with rage.
"You little brat! You'd better not fall into my hands either. The day you break the law and end up at the Patrol Office, I'll give you a fifty-percent discount too!"
With that, Zhao Zhonghe turned and glared at Third Master Huang, who had been enjoying the spectacle. Baring his teeth, he said, "Huang the Third, your matter isn't settled yet! I'm in a foul mood today, so you'd better not play any roundabout games with me later!"
Third Master Huang's expression froze. You two can argue all you want—what does that have to do with me?
Leaving aside what Zhao Zhonghe wanted with Third Master Huang.
Meanwhile, after Xu Qing explained his purpose to Fourth Master Li, he followed a manager from the dental brokerage to choose a residence for handling corpses.
"What sort of house does Shopkeeper Xu wish to purchase?" the manager asked along the way.
"Preferably one that faces away from the sun and is somewhat secluded. I like quiet places. Also, the courtyard mustn't be too small, and the soil in it mustn't be too hard."
Hearing this, the manager, who was accustomed to buying and selling houses, was visibly taken aback.
Other families all wanted the ground in their courtyards to be as hard as possible. Why was this man, of all people, asking for soft earth?
Xu Qing explained that he had no other hobbies in his spare time and simply enjoyed tending vegetable gardens and growing flowers and plants. If the ground in the courtyard was too compact, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to drive a hoe into it.
The manager of the dental brokerage thought about it and decided that it did make some sense.
And so, the two wandered around for half a day. They saw plenty of houses, but none of them caught Xu Qing's eye.
In his eyes, those houses either had too much yang energy or were too close to the bustle of the city. At long last, they found one that seemed suitable, only to discover that beneath the courtyard was not packed earth but a naturally solid bedrock.
The kind that sent sparks flying even when struck with a hoe.
How much effort would it take to bury corpses there?
After looking around to the end without finding anything suitable, Xu Qing thought that he might as well buy the house with the bedrock foundation and make do with it.
At worst, he would put in more effort, break the stones into pieces, dig them out, and haul in some soil to fill the courtyard.
As he was thinking this and preparing to speak, he suddenly realized that the manager had brought him to a very familiar residence.
Wasn't this where that treacherous fellow Liao An had hidden his silver? Back then, through Liao An's lantern-show vision, he had even dug three hundred taels of silver from beneath the rice jar.
Why had the manager brought him here?
After thinking it over briefly, Xu Qing understood the connection.
Liao An had originally been one of the dental brokerage's people, so this vacant house likely belonged to the brokerage as well.
Following the manager into the residence, Xu Qing looked it over from front to back. He activated his Qi Gazing Technique, and five-colored misty qi drifted through the air. The Feng Shui of the entire residence appeared before him without the slightest concealment.
Black, white, gray—even lurid blood-red. The only thing missing was the flourishing qi a Yang House ought to have.
Xu Qing clicked his tongue in wonder.
Come to think of it, when he had come to retrieve those three hundred taels of silver, he really hadn't noticed that the Feng Shui of this residence was so excellent.
It was plainly a fine place where plenty of people had died before!
Judging from the gray misty qi spilling from the mouth of the well, there were probably still bones inside.
Then he looked at the beams in the main room. A ring of rope marks invisible to ordinary people's eyes was still emitting black smoke. Someone had probably once tied a noose there.
Xu Qing asked with some curiosity, "Whose house was this before? Why does its Feng Shui seem so formidable? I'm afraid quite a few people must have died here, right?"
The manager coughed twice awkwardly. "Shopkeeper Xu, you know how to read Feng Shui?"
Xu Qing cast him a glance and said blandly, "I deal in dead people's business. Besides helping people with Funeral Processions and burials, the thing I do most often is Feng Shui Geomancy. These are the skills I rely on to make a living. What do you think—can I read it or not?"
Hearing this, how could the manager not know that the man before him truly had some skill?
"Please don't take offense, Shopkeeper Xu. To be honest, this house really was half a haunted house. I hadn't planned on bringing you here either, but we've already looked at all the houses that could be viewed up ahead, and there was nowhere else to go."
"I handled this poorly. I'll take you back right away!"
The manager of the dental brokerage sized people up according to their status. The moment he realized he had encountered a master of Feng Shui, he hurried to apologize.
An ordinary person would probably have cursed and stormed off by now.
But Xu Qing was no ordinary person. He wasn't even a living human!
"Hold on. Why hurry back? I've never believed in evil spirits. Tell me first—what exactly happened in this house? How did it become a haunted house?"
The manager saw Xu Qing looking up at the roof beams. Then Xu Qing even raised a hand to measure and gesture around his own neck. The sight made it seem as if he wanted to hang himself, and the manager stared until his scalp prickled.
"Master Xu, please don't joke around. This house really does have a story."
As the manager recounted the sealed-away past of the residence, he deliberately retreated two steps. Only after reaching the doorway, where the sunlight could shine on him, did he feel more at ease.
The story of this residence wasn't long—or rather, the story of each of its owners wasn't long.
It all began ten years ago. Back then, this was still a dilapidated old courtyard. Since it wasn't too remote, Third Master Huang of the dental brokerage bought it cheaply and hired craftsmen to rebuild it.
Third Master Huang's nickname was Huang the Skinflint, and at the time he was a notorious tooth broker in this area.
After the house was completed, the mason in charge of the work went to settle the wages with him.
How could Third Master Huang honestly settle the account? After a bout of nitpicking by lamplight, he declared that the construction was shoddy and riddled with flaws.
In the end, he actually chopped the wages that should have been paid in full by half!
It was from that time onward that the house began to turn strange.
The tenants and buyers who moved into the house were, one after another, either found hanging or drowned in the well, or suffered a serious illness that left them half dead.
Gradually, people began saying that the mason had used Yinmen methods and set up a formation in the newly completed house. That was why the Feng Shui here had deteriorated.
When Third Master Huang heard this, anger surged through him. He immediately sent people to find that mason, but even after turning Linhe upside down, they couldn't find him.
At that point, even he had no choice but to believe in evil. So he invited monks and Daoists versed in Feng Shui Geomancy, along with all sorts of spirit mediums who danced wildly and sprinkled Talisman Water, to come diagnose the house.
After all that treatment, not only did the residence show no sign of improving, but three of the monks and Daoists who came to dispel its disasters and ward off its misfortune fell ill. He even had to pay for physicians to treat them.
Tell me, how could he be so cursed?
In the end, someone suggested, "Since the house is no good, why not tear it down and rebuild it? Surely that would break the formation?"
When Third Master Huang heard this, he thought: if he tore it down and rebuilt it, wouldn't that amount to paying for two houses?
He would never take such a losing deal.
And so, the house became a sticky piece of merchandise that the dental brokers routinely used to deceive and trick people.
Why call it sticky? Because not long after selling it, the buyer would sell it back at a low price. Some buyers didn't even get the chance to sell it—the residence would return to the dental brokerage through one channel or another.
After hearing the manager's account, Xu Qing thought to himself that Third Master Huang was truly shameless. No wonder that day, when he had offered condolences at Yang Chunfu's coffin, Huang had set up a stall and helped Fourth Master Li collect the gifts.
So he was the sort of person who never lifted a finger without profit—a greedy and miserly character.
Seeing that Xu Qing remained silent, the manager probed, "Shopkeeper Xu, this Feng Shui won't be easy to alter. If it really won't do, we can go back for now and come again another day."
Before he could finish speaking, Xu Qing said:
"I like this house. This is the one!"
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