The man looked to be around thirty years old, wearing a thick jacket that looked as though it hadn’t been washed or changed for quite some time, the dark fabric stained with patches of white dust. His hair was also disheveled, and he had a bluish stubble on his chin, looking extremely exhausted.
After all, the shop primarily dealt in funeral supplies; people who came in to buy these things could hardly be expected to be in high spirits and cheerful. Fu Sang was used to it.
“Hello, it’s me.”
Fu Sang pointed at the large menu on the shop wall:
“Take a look and see what services you need. Referrals from acquaintances get a discount.”
“I’m… looking for someone.”
The man seemed a bit dazed.
He didn’t look at the wall at all. After entering, he kept looking around uneasily, speaking haltingly:
“It’s, it’s the woman at the corner of the street with the curling clips playing mahjong who sent me. She said you have skills, and that you’re very capable. She also told me to come here and mention the name ‘Da Shuangxi’…”
“Got it.”
Fu Sang twirled the ballpoint pen in his hand, walked over to the counter, found an old notebook, opened it to a page, and wrote something down while asking:
“Did she tell you the rules? For missing persons, I can’t give an exact location, and I can’t guarantee a hundred percent success. I can only provide leads. As long as you can give enough information, I can usually see one to five leads. Two hundred per lead. Can you accept the price?”
While Fu Sang was speaking, Qi Changying, who had been kneeling by the cargo boxes, suddenly stood up as if attracted by something.
Seeing this, Huo Wei was startled and watched Qi Changying’s movements warily.
Qi Changying didn’t notice her. He was looking at the man who had entered the shop.
He dragged his chains and walked straight over, circling the man half a turn.
Then he stood behind the man, lowered his head slightly, and gave a light sniff from a distance.
Fu Sang glanced at Qi Changying, then at the man.
The man was a bit slow to react. For some reason, he suddenly felt cold. He subconsciously turned his head, only to find nothing there, and unconsciously rubbed his arms:
“The price… is fine. How do I pay?”
“No rush, have a seat first.”
Having confirmed that this deal could be made, Fu Sang moved the only chair in the shop over for the man, then rummaged through a pile of miscellaneous items to find a crumpled blank talisman paper, smoothing it out with his hand:
“First, let’s find the person. You provide the information, I ask, you answer. As for the leads, I can’t guarantee how many I’ll see, so you’ll pay for each one as I give it. The payment QR code is here, both blue and green work.”
Fu Sang poured some water into the dried-up inkstone on the counter, dissolved the cinnabar inside, then dipped a brush in it:
“Shall we start now? You don’t look too well, do you need to wash your face?”
“No.”
“Alright.” Fu Sang nodded:
“First, give me a brief introduction. Who are you looking for, why are you looking for him, and the person’s birthdate, preferably down to the exact hour.”
“Oh, oh, okay…”
Seeing that the money-grubber had business, Huo Wei didn’t disturb him further. While Fu Sang was busy, she also poured a glass of water for the guest.
The man took the paper cup she handed him, thanked her, and sorted out his thoughts before speaking:
“My name is Yu Pingfeng, I’m thirty years old, and I’m a local from the capital. I’m looking for my younger brother, my biological brother. His name is Yu Pingchuan, Yu as in equal, Pingchuan as in smooth plains. He’s twenty-four, and his birthday is… September 4th, 2001, born around ten at night.”
Hearing Yu Pingfeng recite this date, Fu Sang quickly drew a series of symbols on the talisman paper.
Qi Changying stood by the side, seemingly a bit curious. He stared intently at the talisman paper, occasionally looking up to observe Fu Sang’s rarely serious expression.
Fu Sang ignored him and continued listening to Yu Pingfeng’s account:
“My brother went missing over a month ago, without any warning. He just… suddenly vanished. We can’t contact him, and we can’t find him. When my mother found out my brother was missing, she got so anxious she fell ill from the shock. I really don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve asked everywhere I could, everyone I could think of, but there’s not a single clue. It’s like he evaporated, I can’t find him no matter what! Today I came to this area to ask my brother’s friends for information again, when that woman playing mahjong at the intersection, the one called Da Shuangxi, suddenly stopped me and asked if I had something on my mind, and that’s how she sent me here…”
Hearing this, Huo Wei couldn’t help but interject: “Your brother’s missing, didn’t you call the police? What did they say?”
“Of course I did. I reported it forty-eight hours after he lost contact, but they just… couldn’t find him.”
Yu Pingfeng spoke haltingly, then drank the water in the paper cup in one go, his hands unconsciously crushing the cup out of shape.
“Where was he and what was he doing the last time you contacted him?”
“He…” Yu Pingfeng thought for a moment:
“…he ran a bar near the university town. That night I called him, telling him to come home for dinner on the weekend. It was really noisy on his end… we barely said a few words before he hung up, and I couldn’t reach him the next day. The store surveillance only caught him leaving around midnight. The outside cameras didn’t pick up anything. The friends he was eating with only said he felt stuffy and wanted to go for a walk, and then he just never came back…”
“Understood.” Fu Sang interrupted Yu Pingfeng, casually tossing him a pair of scissors:
“Cut off a lock of your hair for me.”
He really sounded desperate. He couldn’t find the person, and was so worn out he had no other options, so he came to try metaphysics as a last resort?
Over the years, most clients who came to Fu Sang for such services were in exactly this situation.
It’s tough in their line of work these days. After all, it’s the age of science, and materialism is promoted. People wouldn’t pin their hopes on the supernatural unless they’ve hit a dead end.
Usually, the “supernatural” that ordinary people can find is useless for real matters, and those charlatans just want to swindle them out of their money. Having heard too many tragedies of losing both money and hope, Fu Sang now always feels like telling such clients “congratulations”;
Congratulations on finding the right person. It won’t cost two hundred thousand or two million, and with a referral from an acquaintance, it’s only two hundred yuan.
Fu Sang finished drawing the talisman paper in his hand and used it to receive the lock of hair Yu Pingfeng handed over.
Then he folded the talisman paper several times and wrapped the hair inside into a small triangle. He then pulled out a plastic lighter from his pocket, using the flame to singe the edges of the talisman paper.
After doing this, he reminded everyone: “Quiet.”
The yellow talisman was slowly blackened by the flame, and thin wisps of smoke drifted out.
Fu Sang dropped it into an iron tray, sat down on the stool, and closed his eyes.
The room became extremely quiet, so quiet that even breathing was barely audible, except for the cheap clock on the wall ticking every second.
After an unknown amount of time, Fu Sang frowned slightly and asked abruptly:
“This younger brother of yours, isn’t he morally questionable?”
Yu Pingfeng seemed not to understand, and was stunned for a moment before asking: “Wh, what?”
Fu Sang opened his eyes:
“I’m asking about his private life and conduct. The smoke from this burnt talisman smells terrible, and the smoke itself isn’t clean either. In short, he’s not a good person.”
“You…!” Hearing an outsider suddenly judge his younger brother who has been missing for days, Yu Pingfeng couldn’t help but get angry.
But before he could truly lose his temper, it suddenly occurred to him that he’d never mentioned anything like that when talking about his brother earlier. Could it be… this person actually had some real skill?
So the anger that had just risen was immediately extinguished, and Yu Pingfeng felt a bit awkward:
“Ah… he’s… the type who plays around quite a bit, you know.”
That was a very tactful way to put it.
The flame consumed the paper quickly, and the talisman paper and hair in the iron tray quickly turned to black ash.
As the last ember died out, the copper coin bells hung around the shop suddenly rang, creating a clattering cacophony. The sudden noise startled Yu Pingfeng.
Huo Wei, who was standing at the side, turned a bit pale on hearing the noise.
Fu Sang, however, raised an eyebrow slightly, directly took the payment QR code from the counter, and held it up in front of Yu Pingfeng:
“Please scan the code. Don’t pay less, and don’t pay more. Two hundred yuan.”
Yu Pingfeng was stunned for a moment, then quickly pulled out his phone and aimed it at the QR code.
The internet in the shop was a bit slow. After half a minute, when the speaker’s voice announcing the payment finished, Fu Sang gave him the answer:
“He’s dead.”
“…” They were two simple words, but Yu Pingfeng seemed not to understand:
“Wh, what did you say?”
“I said, Mr. Yu, your younger brother, the one named Yu Pingchuan. He’s already dead.” Fu Sang kindly repeated.
“Who says?! Who says he’s dead?!” Unexpectedly, Yu Pingfeng suddenly stood up from his chair and roared.
Fu Sang thought for a moment and raised an eyebrow: “I said so.”
“You… You’re talking nonsense! Nonsense!!” Yu Pingfeng, who had been in a dazed and weary state before, was now fully awake.
He pointed at Fu Sang’s nose, his eyes reddening:
“Impossible, I’m telling you, it’s impossible! How could a perfectly fine person just be dead? The police said he was just missing, and you, a charlatan, are acting like King Yama now?!”
This was something Fu Sang didn’t like to hear.
He yawned: “Then go find the police. Why come to me, a King Yama?”
“…” Huo Wei was sweating bullets watching from the side.
Once the payment was cleared, this guy truly had no fear. How had this shabby shop of his survived all these years? How come it hasn’t been trashed by customers yet?
“Sorry, sorry, big brother.” Huo Wei was genuinely afraid these two would come to blows, so she quickly stepped in as a peacemaker: “My friend here has a strange temper. You know, people in this line of work more or less have a bit of that… how does it go, believe it and it exists, don’t believe it and it doesn’t, right? As long as there’s hope, the person is definitely still there, don’t you think?”
She said this, but having grown up with Fu Sang, she naturally knew how capable this guy was.
Since he said the person was dead, then that person couldn’t possibly be alive.
But that was way too blunt! Did he even know how to write the word “tactful”!
Yu Pingfeng’s face was already flushed red. His emotions were running high, and he wouldn’t listen to Huo Wei’s advice:
“I think you’re all scammers, scammers! That woman playing mahjong at the intersection is your accomplice, isn’t she?! What living immortal, what divine Taoist, how could my brother, a perfectly fine person, just be dead? How could he die?! You son of a bitch, talking out of your ass! Give me my money back!”
“Hey, personal attacks are crossing the line here!”
Huo Wei was both angry and frustrated, and what made it worse was that amidst the chaos, Fu Sang showed no awareness of his own problem and was still adding fuel to the fire:
“Wake up, Mr. Yu. First of all, assuming you haven’t hidden anything or lied, the fact that an adult suddenly cut off contact with his family without any conflict is itself extremely strange.
“Secondly, your brother is twenty-four, not four. Apart from telecom fraud syndicates in Northern Myanmar and those dealing in organ trafficking overseas, nobody’s interested in trafficking him. And since he didn’t leave the country voluntarily, given his good family background and career, the possibility of being tricked into illegally crossing the border under some ridiculous reason is practically zero.
“Lastly, what benefit is it to me to scam you? Even if I were a swindler, I’m not running a telecom fraud operation; I don’t need ‘pigs’ or ‘cattle.'”
Fu Sang casually dumped the talisman ash from the iron tray into the trash can:
“Of course, I’m not a policeman or a doctor. With no body and no trace of the living, it’s normal for you to want to leave some room for hope for yourself and your family. It’s fine if you don’t believe me when I say he’s dead. But the rule is one payment for one message. The message has been given; whether you believe it or not is up to you. If you don’t, I’m deeply sorry, but no refunds.
“However, on the principle of doing business with integrity and a conscience, I have to say it even if you don’t want to hear it. The police didn’t say he was dead only because they lack evidence and a body, but I don’t care about those things. So, the person is indeed dead. His body won’t be easy to find, and his only hope might be me. If you leave, he’ll just be missing forever.”
Fu Sang narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at Yu Pingfeng who was panting with anger. Seeing that he had finally calmed down a bit, he raised his hand and held the payment QR code up to him again: “Besides life and death, the other things I saw can be summed up in two more leads for you. That’ll be four hundred total. Do you want to consider it?”
Yu Pingfeng’s left cheek bulged slightly, likely from him clenching his jaw.
He glared fiercely at Fu Sang, as if he might turn around and leave at any moment and call the Industry and Commerce Bureau to file a complaint. Maybe he really had thought about it, but the fact was that he reluctantly pulled out his phone and scanned the plastic piece with a “beep.”
Fu Sang curled the corner of his mouth and tossed the payment QR code aside:
“Thank you for your patronage.”
