After watching Aunt Mei leave, Zhong Fa closed the door.
With trembling hands, he took a hand-rolled cigarette from the pack in his pocket and put it between his lips.
Scritch! Scritch! Scritch!
The match flared, and he lit the cigarette between his lips.
Hiss... whoosh...
Zhong Fa leaned against the door and slowly slid down until he was sitting on the floor.
When he finished one, he lit another.
After smoking the only two cigarettes in the pack, both rolled the night before, Zhong Fa's complexion went from deathly pale to a waxy yellow.
He stared blankly at the spirit tablet on the altar opposite him for more than ten minutes before finally getting up and walking over.
He took out three incense sticks, lit them, and placed them in the incense burner.
Resting one hand on the altar, Zhong Fa looked at the spirit tablet.
"Master, if you'd taught me everything you knew back then, I wouldn't have ended up like this."
"But... you were right about one thing, Master."
Zhong Fa smiled.
"I really am a genius."
"Master, in a few days, you'll get to see my masterpiece."
Zhong Fa turned and went into the bedroom, then entered the underground chamber.
When he came out again, a fresh hand-rolled cigarette hung from his lips, and the pack in his pocket was full.
After checking on Li Shirui in the side room, Zhong Fa called her grandfather.
"Come over."
Half an hour later, Li Weiguo arrived.
"Master Zhong, what's wrong?"
Zhong Fa pointed at Li Shirui in the coffin. "Her soul has been released. Take her back."
Li Weiguo nodded.
"I'll call the people at the Tianmen Funeral Home right away and have them bring Xiao Lei over too."
"No need. It's already over."
Zhong Fa's words made Li Weiguo pause.
"Over? Master, do you mean..."
"There's no need for another rite. I've taken care of everything."
Li Weiguo was puzzled. Zhong Fa had clearly said earlier that the two children should be brought out of the funeral home in turns. How could it be over when only Xiao Rui had been brought out?
Looking at Zhong Fa's stern face, Li Weiguo ultimately didn't dare ask any more questions.
He left twenty thousand yuan on the table, then followed the Tianmen Funeral Home's hearse away from the Sever Yin and Yang shop.
Zhong Fa watched the vehicle bearing the words "Tianmen Funeral Home" drive away, then turned and closed the shop.
When Zhong Fa appeared again, he was at the North City Fushou Funeral Center.
Du Rui's face lit up at the sight of him.
Zhong Fa almost always came at night. Their first meeting had been the only time he'd come during the day.
For him to break that pattern now, something must have happened.
And when Zhong Fa had taken the ashes from him yesterday, he'd said something was going to happen at the Tianmen Funeral Home!
Could he really have pulled it off?
"Master Zhong, have a seat!"
Du Rui poured him some tea and was about to ask, but Zhong Fa spoke first.
"I need something."
"Oh? Go ahead, Master Zhong."
"A young boy's blood."
Du Rui froze.
"Master Zhong, what exactly do you mean by a young boy's blood?"
"Blood from a boy under twelve."
"What?"
Zhong Fa's words startled Du Rui, but he quickly said, "Master Zhong, I can get you ashes, but blood? I don't have any here!"
Zhong Fa pinched out the remainder of his cigarette and took another from the pack.
The pack, which had been full, was already half empty.
Scritch!
He lit the cigarette with a match and sat on the sofa, smoking without a word.
Beside him, Du Rui stared grimly at the smoke, which sank instead of rising.
After a long silence, Du Rui said, "Master Zhong, I can only get blood that isn't all that fresh, and I can't be sure when I'll get it."
"Within seven days."
With that, Zhong Fa got up and left.
Du Rui didn't stop him. He didn't even ask about the Tianmen Funeral Home.
Only after seeing Zhong Fa walk out through the main entrance did he pick up his phone and make some calls to find out what had happened.
When he heard that everything was business as usual at the Tianmen Funeral Home, Du Rui slammed his phone onto the desk with a crack!
"I knew it!"
Du Rui paced around his office twice with his hands behind his back, muttering nonstop, "Plenty of demands, but he hasn't done a damn thing. Does he really think he can push me around and get whatever he wants?"
Looking grim, Du Rui picked up his phone and found a number.
In the end, however, he didn't dial it.
Zhong Fa was difficult to deal with, but weren't the others just as bad?
"Hmph. This is the last time!"
On the first floor of a building in the Happiness Residential Complex, on the west side of Tianmen County.
Knock, knock!
Zhong Fa knocked on the door.
Half a minute later, footsteps sounded behind it.
Click!
The security door opened a crack, revealing a slightly cloudy eye.
Only after the person inside recognized Zhong Fa did the door open fully.
Aunt Mei stepped out and clasped one of his hands in both of hers, her expression caught somewhere between sorrow and joy.
"Ah Fa, you're here. Come in."
Zhong Fa went inside.
The curtains were drawn tightly shut, leaving only the lights to illuminate the rooms.
"Aunt Mei, it looks like you've been taking good care of Uncle Dong."
Aunt Mei tugged up the corners of her mouth in a smile.
"I've done everything just as you told me. I was afraid something might go wrong, so I didn't dare make any decisions on my own... Ah Fa, sit down. I'll make you some tea."
"You did the right thing, Aunt Mei. We can't take chances when it comes to Uncle Dong. No need for tea. Take me to see him."
Aunt Mei stopped mid-turn, her dull eyes shifting toward a spot in the room.
"All right. I'll take you to see your Uncle Dong."
Aunt Mei headed toward the master bedroom, but stopped at the door to its bathroom.
Turning, she opened the bathroom door.
The bathroom had an ordinary layout: a sink, a mirror, a toilet, a shower, and a bathtub.
Zhong Fa stepped around Aunt Mei, entered, and approached the bathtub.
He nodded at the moist black soil filling it.
His gaze shifted to one end of the tub.
There, a head with bluish-black skin protruded from the soil.
It looked just like someone soaking in a bath.
Except ordinary people used water, while he used soil.
"Uncle Dong, I'm here."
Zhong Fa lit a hand-rolled cigarette and took a drag.
His half-lidded eyes were filled with satisfaction.
Uncle Dong had been dead for over a month, yet his corpse showed no signs of decay. Naturally, that was all thanks to him.
The soil in the bathtub wasn't merely soil. It had been mixed with medicinal ingredients such as mao xiang, lesser galangal, pei lan, Sichuan pepper, cassia bark, musk, and realgar to prevent decomposition.
Throughout the past month, he had also instructed Aunt Mei to splash crow blood into the bathtub every day to slowly gather yin energy.
Though the amount was small and couldn't compare with the effects of a Yin-Gathering Talisman, after such prolonged exposure, Uncle Dong's corpse now held a considerable amount of yin energy.
With the Spirit-Sealing Talisman suppressing it, however, Uncle Dong wouldn't become an undead corpse or nurture a vengeful ghost.
Turning, Zhong Fa asked Aunt Mei, "Aunt Mei, is Uncle Dong's bed ready?"
With one hand resting on the door, Aunt Mei drew her lingering gaze away from Uncle Dong's closed eyes.
"Yes. I had people bring it in and set it up a few nights ago. It's made of cypress."
Zhong Fa nodded.
Cypress was yang in nature. Evergreen and full of vitality, it could suppress yin energy, while a coffin made from it could keep yang energy out.
"In that case, let's give Uncle Dong a new place to sleep."
With his cigarette between his lips, Zhong Fa pushed the soil in the bathtub aside. Once Uncle Dong's entire body was exposed, he scooped him straight out of the tub.
Feeling the stiffness and icy chill of Uncle Dong's body, Zhong Fa smiled around his cigarette.
He carried Uncle Dong to the second bedroom, where he saw the coffin taking up more than half the room.
The coffin wasn't resting on the floor, but on four long benches.
This was Uncle Dong's bed!
After placing Uncle Dong inside the coffin, Zhong Fa removed the Spirit-Sealing Talisman from his chest. Then he took a mask made of copper coins strung together with red thread from his bag and placed it over Uncle Dong's face.
"Aunt Mei, give me a hand putting the lid on."
Aunt Mei nodded, and together they strained to put the coffin lid in place.
"Aunt Mei, you still have crow blood, right? Remember to open the coffin between eleven at night and one in the morning every day and pour the blood in along the inside walls. Do that for the next seven days. Whether Uncle Dong can come back to life depends on these seven days."
"And don't take off that mask or let the coffin touch the ground."
Aunt Mei asked hesitantly, "Ah Fa, can your Uncle Dong really come back?"
Zhong Fa placed both hands on Aunt Mei's shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Aunt Mei, don't you trust me?"
Her vacant eyes met his, and she seemed to see Zhong Fa as a child again, riding on Uncle Dong's shoulders and giggling.
"I trust you, Ah Fa."
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