The sudden roar from the brick-like device startled Qi Changying. The whole ghost trembled slightly, looking up at Fu Sang, then at the image in the little brick in his hand.
“You scared my ghost. Go die.”
Fu Sang opened the drawer beside him, took out a cigarette, and rummaged through the pile of odds and ends on the table to find a plastic lighter. He lowered his head and lit the cigarette.
“Holy shit, you’re actually raising a… by your side?!”
Zhuge Buhuo was about to lose his mind, nearly blurting out the key word. Fortunately, Huo Wei slapped him on the back in time, helping him regain his senses so passersby wouldn’t mistake him for some deranged lunatic pretending to be a taoist master.
Zhuge Buhuo cleared his throat twice and lowered his voice, but still couldn’t hide the shock in his tone:
“You’re actually keeping a ghost by your side???”
“No way?” Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Is this a question of whether it’s possible or not?! Holy shit, is he clear-headed? Was he just communicating with you? He can communicate normally with people??? That’s at least Red Wrath level and above, right?! You actually keep a Red Wrath by your side?!”
**The ranks in order are: Gray Despair, Cyan Resentment, Black Ferocity, Violet Erosion, Red Wrath, Vermilion Nightmare, and Crimson Evil
Even if someone rode a pig flying through the sky right now, Zhuge Buhuo wouldn’t be more shocked than this.
“It’s not a Red Wrath,” Fu Sang took a drag on his cigarette, then slowly flicked the ash off and told him:
“It’s a Crimson Evil.”
As it turns out, people don’t easily accept the truth when things are far beyond their comprehension.
Zhuge Buhuo let out a scoff:
“What nonsense are you spouting? Crimson Evil? Do you think Crimson Evils are sparrows, flying all over the sky?”
Clearly, he hadn’t noticed Huo Wei’s expression suddenly turn serious.
She gritted her teeth, “Fu Sang, have you lost your mind? Weren’t we not supposed to let anyone know about his existence?”
“My nephew is fine. He made a blood oath with me. He can’t speak of anything concerning me.” Fu Sang naturally wouldn’t fight an unprepared battle, explaining casually.
“?” Hearing this, Zhuge Buhuo quickly pulled himself out of his shock.
“Wait, what are you talking about? Wasn’t the oath I made with you limited to that case you handed over to me?”
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow, looking like he was in a good mood: “Ask yourself.”
“What? Ask myself what??” Zhuge Buhuo was genuinely on the verge of a breakdown.
“Ask yourself whether your skills are really that lacking, that you couldn’t even notice someone has tampered with the blood oath. So much so that now, and even further into the future, as long as you reveal Martial-Uncle Fu Sang’s secrets, or say or do anything that harms the safety of Uncle Fu Sang and his spiritual or ghostly form, Martial-Uncle Fu Sang will personally pick out a plot of land with excellent feng shui for your grave and send you off himself.”
“…Zhuge Fu Sang, I fuck your dad!!!”
“What’s the rush? As long as you keep your mouth shut and are loyal and righteous enough, will this blood oath get in your way?”
Fu Sang let out a light laugh, getting back to business:
“Let’s get back to the point, is there anything else? If not, hang up.”
“There is, there is.” Huo Wei had been watching the drama unfold from the side, amazed.
It was only after hearing Fu Sang’s question that she came back to her senses:
“Don’t you think this whole thing is incredibly eerie? That case your nephew picked up is all the way in Yongfu, two thousand kilometers away from the capital! But the Zhuge family’s Shaosi never leaves the house and never socializes…nobody even knows what he looks like. He stays holed up in his mountain residence every single day, so how could he possibly pick up and sign off on a case all the way in Yongfu? And the person who posted it isn’t even in the city, but way out near some mountain valley. Isn’t that terrifying?”
Unlike the family head, the young heir, and all those miscellaneous elders and seniors, “Shaosi” was a very special title within the Zhuge family.
The existence of this position could be traced back a thousand years, when the Zhuge family still had an activity called “Tianji,” held once a year, mainly for the salvation of restless spirits and praying for a smooth year ahead, good weather, and all things peaceful.
The current “Shaosi” was called “Jisi” back then, but because the Zhuge family’s Jisi would only choose young men, they were generally referred to as “Shao Jisi.” However, in the present day, a thousand years later, the Tianji activity had long been abolished, and the Shao Jisi naturally had no reason to exist. But through a thousand years of tradition, the Shao Jisi’s role had gradually come to resemble a “holy son,” a kind of mascot-like spiritual symbol, so the position was preserved.
It was just that from “Shao Jisi,” the ceremonial function was dropped, and it was shortened to “Shaosi.”
For as long as Fu Sang could remember, the current Shaosi had always held this position.
It was exactly as Huo Wei said…the current Shaosi was elusive, hiding in the mountain residence all year round, rarely seen.
Fu Sang had been taken in by his master as a child, and now twenty-four years had passed. In all that time, he had only seen that Shaosi twice, and each time the person wore a bamboo hat veiled with black gauze. Not only did he refuse to communicate with anyone, but he also wouldn’t allow anyone to get close. All that could be made out was that he was a tall, slender young man.
Fu Sang lowered his gaze and thought for a moment, then only gave Huo Wei one sentence in reply:
“He can sign however he wants. If there’s nothing else, hang up.”
With that, not giving the other side any time to react, Fu Sang directly pressed the end call button.
Afterward, he stayed in the same position, smoking his cigarette down to the very end. Only when it was finished did he sit up and stub it out in the ashtray.
“How did Miss Huo end up inside that little brick-shaped thing?”
The video call from earlier had just given the ignorant ancient ghost another lesson.
“I refined her. Her soul is sealed inside there. Do you want to go keep her company?”
Fu Sang brushed it off casually, getting up and rummaging through the pile of odds and ends beside him.
Calling it a “pile of odds and ends” was putting it mildly, but “garbage heap” wouldn’t be far off either. Probably only Fu Sang himself knew what was actually in that mess, because soon enough, he dug out a crumpled map and several strands of white cotton thread like he was treasure hunting.
He pressed the map flat and spread it out across the table, then tied the bone coin with eight cotton threads and placed them over the capital’s location on the map. He pulled out the eight thread ends, aligning them with the eight directions. Finally, he pulled the snake-bone nail from his waist and tossed it to Qi Changying:
“Give me a drop of blood.”
“Okay.”
Qi Changying didn’t ask what he was doing,he simply followed orders and obediently pressed his fingertip against the tip of the snake-bone nail.
Black blood dripped from Qi Changying’s wound. At the same time, Fu Sang felt a slight stinging pain at his index finger.
“Drip it onto the bone coin.”
“Okay.”
Qi Changying did as he was told.
The ink-black blood, unique to ghosts, fell onto the surface of the off-white bone coin, standing out starkly.
But like a drop of water falling into a high-density sponge, the ink-black spot grew smaller and smaller, until it seemed as if it had been absorbed into the bone coin itself.
Looking at the eight cotton threads, there was no change.
“Continue.”
The second drop, the third drop. Still nothing happened.
Fu Sang frowned.
He lost patience and grabbed Qi Changying’s hand, intending to press the wound on his fingertip directly onto the bone coin’s surface. But whether it was because he moved too abruptly or for some other reason, blood dripped from the wound on his own fingertip, which was of the same origin as Qi Changying’s. It landed lightly on the back of Qi Changying’s finger, then slid down along the curve of his slender finger, eventually mixing with the drop of ink-black ghost blood and falling together onto the bone coin.
The blood was still quickly absorbed into the bone coin, but unlike the previous times, this time, the cotton threads on the bone coin finally reacted.
The threads pointing due south and southeast gradually deepened in color, as if soaked in blood. Dark red blood spread and stretched between the fibers, slowly saturating the entire threads.
Fu Sang frowned slightly, and following the direction the threads indicated, looked south from the capital city.
From due south to southeast of the capital.
Yongfu was indeed within this range.
“Ding-aling!”
The wind chime at the door rang again. Fu Sang quickly put away the map and bone coin on the table and looked up.
But this time, the one who entered wasn’t a customer, but Da Shuangxi, who had a head full of curly hair clips.
Da Shuangxi was wearing a face mask and a bathrobe as thick as a quilt. She was wearing cotton socks on her feet and a pair of flip-flops.
“Sangzi, are you busy?”
“Not really, Sister. Just say what you need to say.” Fu Sang said succinctly.
Da Shuangxi, with her face mask on, couldn’t smile freely even if she wanted to:
“Oh, it’s like this. My family bought a piece of land back in our hometown, and they heard I know a formidable Feng Shui master, so they want to invite you over to take a look. The pay should be over 10,000, maybe more if it’s not enough. I’ll cover all the round-trip flights and accommodation. So, do you have time?”
Fu Sang didn’t usually take out-of-town jobs; he found running around too troublesome. So when he heard the first part, he was about to cruelly turn Da Shuangxi down. But when he heard the latter part, the words that had reached his lips obediently went back down.
He immediately changed his tune.
“Okay. How many days?”
“I’m not sure how many days. If the reading goes well, those old fossils in my family might ask you to check out other places too. But either way, it shouldn’t be longer than a week.”
Da Shuangxi reached up and pressed the lifted edge of her face mask back down.
“So when are you free these next couple of days? I’ll check the flights based on your schedule, alright?”
“It’s up to you. I can leave anytime.”
Fu Sang casually pulled the cotton threads off the bone coin and tossed them back into the pile of junk along with the map.
Fu Sang didn’t know much about Da Shuangxi. He only knew her family was from Shanghai, and most of their business was there too. She was originally supposed to be an heiress who’d inherit the family business, but she lacked ambition and had some unpleasantness with her family over certain matters. So a few years ago, she took her personal savings and headed north, buying a few courtyards in the capital. Now she spends her days playing mahjong, acting as a big landlord, holed up in the small alleys all year round.
The reason she was going back to her hometown this time was because an elderly family member was ill and she had to go visit. Plus, she heard her family was looking for a reliable Feng Shui master. Keeping with the principle of “not letting good things go to outsiders,” she loyally recommended her good brother.
Thanks to her, Fu Sang also got to experience the extravagant life of Shanghai.
On the night they arrived, Da Shuangxi first took him to a family banquet.
The venue was in the most bustling area of Shanghai’s central district, on the top floor of a building that reeked of money just by walking past it.
Fu Sang took the fully transparent elevator, watching the scenery outside rise higher and higher. The city’s nightscape lay beneath his feet, and he was a little lost in thought.
“What are you thinking about?”
Leaving the small alleys of the capital behind, Da Shuangxi had transformed from the small-yard, mahjong-playing, bathrobe-wearing landlady into a glamorous, wavy-haired, beautiful big sister. Her whole aura was different. It seemed the curling clips she always wore on her head really weren’t just a stereotypical symbol of a landlady.
“I was thinking, if I’d started working a thousand years ago, would I be able to afford this building today?”
Fu Sang came back to his senses and said blandly.
“Oh, stuff like that, if you’re born with it, you have it. If not, don’t bother thinking about it, it’s useless.”
Da Shuangxi’s assessment was very apt. After speaking, she opened her compact to reapply her lipstick. As the cap of the lipstick clicked shut, the elevator also stopped at the top floor. She patted Fu Sang’s wrist and led him out of the elevator.
Fu Sang wasn’t unfamiliar with extravagant architecture and decor, but what he’d experienced before were the Zhuge family’s traditional Chinese gardens hidden deep in the mountains. This kind of high-tech, cyberpunk urban landscape also existed in the capital, but he could only pass by them.
Maybe it was still his poverty that limited his imagination. Before coming here, he hadn’t imagined that people could have the class of climbing to the city’s highest building just to have dinner completely surrounded by a 180-degree night view.
The private room on the top floor was large, and there were many people. It was clear this was a lively, big family.
As they got closer, Da Shuangxi first hugged a woman draped in furs, with slightly extravagant jewelry and makeup. After that, the woman looked at Fu Sang, sized him up, and asked, “And who’s this handsome young man? He’s dressed quite uniquely.”
“Him? He’s the Feng Shui master I’m planning to introduce to Grandpa. I’ve known him for a long time, he’s my good brother.”
Da Shuangxi introduced him to the woman, “His name is Fu Sang. Sangzi, this is my cousin. Just call her Sister Su.”
“Sister Su.” Fu Sang nodded at her.
Sister Su raised her chin slightly, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.
“Oh my, I was just saying Feng Shui masters are getting younger and younger these days, and all of them are handsome young men. Look, my younger brother also brought one. He’s not much older, and apparently he’s from a big family in the capital, so he’s got quite an impressive background.”
Da Shuangxi also smiled: “Really?”
“Yes, really. Not just anyone can do this line of work. You need to know their background. People from big families are reliable, certainly not comparable to just anyone. But Ah Xi, the person you recommend definitely won’t be wrong either.”
With that, Sister Su waved her hand behind her, “Ajian, come here!”
The young man called “Ajian” responded to Sister Su’s call and came over, bringing another young man with him.
The young man and Fu Sang were similar; both carried a kind of “simple and unpretentious” air that didn’t quite fit the surrounding opulence.
When they got closer, Fu Sang and the young man saw each other clearly. Fu Sang showed no reaction, but the young man let out a surprised “Huh.”
“What’s wrong? This is Master Fu Sang. Have you met before?” Hearing the reaction, Sister Su smiled and looked at the young man.
The young man looked a little embarrassed, nodded, then shook his head, and extended his hand towards Fu Sang.
“Fu Sang… You might not have seen me before, but I’ve heard your name. I’ve long admired your reputation. I didn’t expect to meet you here.”
“?” Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly, reached out and shook his hand:
“You are…?”
“Oh, oh… sorry for not introducing myself.
“Greetings, Little Martial Uncle, my name is Zhuge Buyi.”
