Mr. Zhou's Guess

In the front hall, he heard a clamor from the rear courtyard, while startled cries came from beyond the gate.

Beneath the white lanterns,

Mr. Zhou looked like a clay or wooden idol in a temple. Light fell across him from above, leaving his face alternately bright and dark.

He sat beside the large banquet table.

He did not move.

Once he was alone, the smile finally vanished from his face.

His expression went blank.

But an anxious fire burned in his heart!

He toyed with a wine cup on the table, so restless he could hardly stay seated. Why had Fa Ming not returned yet?

"That fool couldn't have botched it, could he? I sent him to inspect the feng shui, and he can't even manage that? I should have sent someone else!"

Inside the Qian Family mansion, the Market Tiger was no easy man to deal with, and the Flaming Monkey was as slippery as a ghost.

If they discovered Fa Ming in the rear courtyard in the middle of the night,

a few words would probably be enough to expose him.

Mr. Zhou had an excuse of his own,

but it might fool Qian Dayou, not Qian Laosan.

For the sake of the Feeding Ritual he was to perform tonight, they might let him off this once. After tonight, though, his days would grow difficult!

And yet, wealth had a way of stirring the heart!

"Wealth, companions, methods, and land. Wealth, companions, methods, and land!"

Put another way, without the right connection, even a hundred pieces of gold could not buy a single Longevity Method!

But with a hundred pieces of gold, that connection might just appear!

It all depended on how money was used. A man might choose not to spend it, but he could not afford to have none!

Where, though, was that money to come from?

Was the answer not right here?

"When Heaven offers a gift and you refuse it, calamity is sure to follow!"

Everything that had happened in the past had surfaced because of the trouble at the Qian Family mansion today.

All those past events were like threads.

Now those threads had woven themselves into a single piece of brocade

and laid themselves before Mr. Zhou.

He had spent the entire day turning the past over in his mind.

And he had arrived at a bold guess!

All he needed now was one piece of evidence.

One piece of evidence that an ancient temple truly stood within this estate! With that, he could be certain that tonight's events were nothing but the fruit of something planted years ago!

Scene after scene from the past replayed in Mr. Zhou's mind.

Things that had once seemed unrelated joined together there.

From that gleeful beheading before the temple,

to the Qian Family's sudden rise,

to the destruction of the Earth-Fire Cult here.

And back then, his Master had still been alive.

His Master had said, "The Earth-Fire Cult knows its feng shui!"

Mr. Zhou set down his wine cup and tapped the table again and again, making an irritating tok, tok, tok!

The history of the Qian Family's rise flashed through his mind. They had never been some deeply rooted Lineage. In his younger days, Qian Dayou had been a street ruffian, no different from the lawless thug who had argued with him earlier.

Then his family had struck it rich, though three of the five Qian brothers had died.

Only Qian Dayou and Qian Laosan remained.

Those two survivors...

Qian Dayou had become Master Qian, while Qian Laosan had somehow found his way into a clerk's post at the government office! From then on, the family's rise had been unstoppable, until they became the local power.

And the timing of that rise—

"Less than a year after the Earth-Fire Cult was destroyed."

With no one around, he simply spoke aloud. Stroking the Ritual Jar, he closed his eyes again. "The Earth-Fire Cult were madmen, true, but their madness had its reasons.

"They searched the classics and combed through old records. Even when they refined babies into Primordial Pills, wicked and horrifying as it was, they followed rules. They even had prescribed methods for pills meant to add a few years to a life.

"So why were they so fixated on this poor, remote county?

"After being defeated here once, why would they come back again?

"Could the legend be true? Did someone really slay a Fell Dragon in Fisherfolk Village, causing its resentment to sink into the county seat?

"Could this county truly have a Dragon Pearl?"

The more Mr. Zhou thought about it, the faster his thoughts raced. He even recalled a scene he had witnessed years ago from within the crowd. The captured Earth-Fire Cult members had not feared death. Even with their mouths gagged, they had tried to speak.

But the official presiding over the execution would not let them say a word.

At the execution ground, the blades had fallen again and again!

A Daoist master had stood there too. It was this master who had come down from the mountains and led the authorities in wiping out the Earth-Fire Cult.

If Mr. Zhou remembered correctly,

each time a head was taken, the Daoist used a talisman and sprayed a mouthful of water over it.

"Sacrifice Kin, Increase Wealth."

At that thought, Mr. Zhou spoke the words aloud.

Sacrifice Kin, Increase Wealth was a class of feng shui arrangements, not a single arrangement. Many different methods could achieve that particular result.

But it was not something a ruffian like Qian Dayou could have accomplished. Even after he became the Market Tiger, a local tyrant, what he did not know, he did not know.

"But there is a way to borrow fortune and life—"

His eyes narrowed.

Mr. Zhou's fingers stopped tapping.

"It has to do with the ghosts and gods in temples!"

These ghosts and gods were not deities like the Earth God or the City God, but something rooted more deeply in everyday folk belief.

Or, to put it more plainly,

"Borrowed Ghost Fortune."

"But what kind of ghost would lend you luck for so many years without demanding repayment? Or did you really stumble upon something the Earth-Fire Cult left behind?"

If that was so,

there were twists and turns here that he could put to good use!

Just as he thought he had pieced together how the Qian Family had made its fortune,

the noise outside grew louder. Mr. Zhou rose, intending to take a look.

Then a voice came from that direction.

"Master! It's almost time. We need to begin the ritual!"

Mr. Zhou said, "All right, I know. Hm? Fa Ming? When did you get here?"

The speaker was none other than Fa Ming, whom Mr. Zhou had sent out.

Standing in the darkness, Fa Ming said, "Master, I just got here!"

Mr. Zhou stared at Fa Ming, who stood where the darkness met the lantern light. Frowning, he asked, "Why aren't you coming closer?"

Fa Ming looked puzzled. He took two steps forward and came up to his Master. "Huh? Master, what do you mean?"

Seeing that everything about Fa Ming seemed normal, Mr. Zhou let out a breath of relief.

Still, he took out a talisman, burned it, and circled it above Fa Ming's head.

Only when nothing happened did he say, "It's nothing. You were standing too far away."

He glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, then leaned down and asked, "What did you find when you investigated?"

Fa Ming said, "There really is an unusual place. A small courtyard." He recalled walking through the rear courtyard as it grew colder and colder, until he was shivering. Then he had come to a dead end. Strangely, that dead end had been formed by trees.

The row of trees sealed the place tight. Neither wind nor rain could get through.

While he hesitated, an old woman had appeared out of the darkness. She had kindly taken his hand and led him straight through the wall of trees into a courtyard.

Mr. Zhou was thrilled. "What did that courtyard look like?"

Fa Ming replied, "Uh, just a little courtyard. Not very big, and the gate was narrow."

Yet even as he spoke, Fa Ming did not realize that his words contradicted what he had seen.

After the old woman had led him inside, he had found the courtyard vast. Two large side halls stood beside the main hall, and pretty young women moved through them.

There had even been a tall horse standing inside one of the halls. Lights blazed throughout the courtyard, and it bustled with activity.

It had been like a hall hosting a feast of song and dance!