When Master received the bank card with 100,000 RMB in it, his face split into a grin so wide it almost reached his ears.
He verified the whole story over and over again before he finally asked, "How did you know that the rings are actually worms?"
After a short pause, I scratched my head and answered, "I saw it wiggle a little when I was in Tao Tie"s stomach.
As an experienced man who"d seen much of the world, he simply nodded and allowed Senior and I to leave.
Just like that, our problems came to an end and we never stopped operating our recycling station.
Whenever I see strange gadgets, I would be reminded of the old man in Tao Tie"s stomach.
I would then paste a note on the unfamiliar gadgets, informing the old man how to use them, in hopes that he wouldn"t feel bored inside.
Half a month later, on a bright morning, Senior knocked on my door frantically. He shouted, "It"s bad, Goudan!"
Startled, I jumped off my bed and wondered if someone"s belonging had fallen into Tao Tie"s stomach again.
I hurriedly opened the door and saw Senior pointing outside. "People. So many of them!"
"What happened?"
"They"re all looking for you to have their Feng Shuis read. Master"s having difficulty holding them back. They"re all calling you the Feng Shui Master," he explained anxiously.
"Feng Shui? Master?" I blurted out incredulously.
I quickly got dressed and rushed to the main hall. I looked out of the main gate and was stupefied at how many cars were parked along the streets.
Jaguar, Bentley, Rolls-Royce...
All kinds of luxurious cars, black in color, filled the pitiful looking streets.
Senior nudged my shoulder, snapping me out of my daze.
I turned around and walked toward the main hall filled with people in western suits and leather shoes.
As soon as they saw me, they started, "This must be the Master that Old Jin was talking about right?"
"Isn"t he too young to be a Master? Seems unreliable."
"How dare you doubt the Master? Don"t you know that Old Jin had recently acc.u.mulated half a year"s profit in a month? It"s all thanks to this Master"s Feng Shui readings. You mustn"t question his abilities."
I could vaguely hear their conversations.
Old Jin?
I immediately thought of the gold shop owner, Old Chen.
Feng Shui readings? Master?
I started to understand what was going on.
Master walked over to my side and laughed. "What Feng Shui arrangements did you make for Old Chen, my dear disciple? Was it really that accurate?"
I answered helplessly, "Only the two that you taught me!"
"Which two?" he asked, confused.
"He"s working with gold right? Since earth produces gold, I simply placed a stone tablet on the soil outside his door. And since gold subdues wood, I had him pull all the ivy on the wall onto the ground. Suppress earth to retain gold, spread wood to strengthen gold," I described briefly.
"Wow, Goudan! How am I not aware that you actually pay attention to my lessons? It seems like you"re pretty talented in reading Feng Shui," Master said.
"What should we do about these people, Master?" I asked.
"What do you mean what should we do? They"ve all come for you!" he exclaimed, pressing down on my shoulder.
I let out a helpless laugh. "It"s okay if I help a few, but if I were to advise all of them, wouldn"t my inadequacy be exposed? I really don"t know much and you know that! Are you sure we shouldn"t reconsider this?"
Master nodded while stroking his whiskers. "You know what, that actually makes sense, Goudan. Okay. I"ll send them away first as this business must be done slowly. We"ll do bidding, alright? The highest bidder will get a reading..."
I heaved a sigh and immediately went to hide behind the hall.
"Where"s your disciple, Priest?"
"He was just here a moment ago."
"I"ll offer 40,000 for a reading!"
"40,000? Stop messing around, Fatty. I"ll pay 80,000!"
"80,000? Perhaps all of you are unaware but Old Jin spent over 100,000 to get Master"s advice. Aren"t you guys insulting him by offering such prices?"
I started to sweat. Master was a greedy man and I knew that he was going to come up with a terrible plan.
Taking in their discussions, Master raised his eyebrows and gave a cold smile. "Reading Feng Shui is akin to divulging the will of heaven. It"s magic and my disciple has limited powers. As such, only the highest bidder will receive advice. Come back for the bid tomorrow noon, alright?"
"Bid?"
"Why are you doing this, Priest?"
"We"ve made a wasted trip, then?"
Master kept his hands behind his back and smiled serenely as he said, "Once a month, with a minimum bid of 10,000 and a 5,000 increase. Come back tomorrow noon. Thanks for coming today. It truly is an honor. Dadan, see them out."
Senior Chen Dadan nodded and walked over to the center of the hall. "Please return and visit tomorrow, sirs and madams."
The frustrated crowd slowly dispersed, groans filling the hall as people made their exits.
The next noon, the number of visitors doubled.
Rows of visitors filled the hall.
Master told me to don a yellow Daoist robe and sit right in the middle.
All benches in the temple had been brought inside the hall but they were still barely enough to accommodate everyone.
Master did, however, prepare 50 wooden tablets beforehand and wrote numbers on them.
He even prepared additional ten tablets just before noon.
There were about roughly 63 people who came.
It seemed as though all the reputable and wealthy merchants in the area came looking for me.
Master couldn"t contain his grin. He cleared his throat loudly to get everyone"s attention before announcing, "The Art of Feng Shui. The first auction starts now, with 10,000 as the minimum bid."
Tablets were raised into the air, one after another.
Master announced eagerly, "Number 4, 15,000."
"17, 20,000."
"60, 25,000."
"34, 150,000."
"18, 155,000."
Master"s voice was trembling by now, his excitement obvious.
Just then, number 42 stood up with his tablet raised and declared, "500,000."
The crowd fell silent in an instant.
There was a short pause before everyone started whispering among themselves.
"Is this little master really worth 500,000?"
"What if this is all Old Jin"s set up?"
"But he did make significant profits this month!"
"Could be sheer luck. This price just doesn"t seem right."
"Do you know that guy?"
"Isn"t he the unlucky guy, Zhao Bayi? His wife and children have all gone berserk."
"This auction happens monthly right? Let"s just give it to him. If even this unfortunate man"s luck turns for the better, there"s no reason for us to doubt this master"s ways."
Some bidders got up and left the hall, the rest following suit shortly after.
Seeing that no one was interested in increasing their bids anymore, Master quickly stuttered, "500,000, going once, going twice... sold!"
Master had mixed emotions at this point.
He was happy with the money, of course, but he was also thinking about the possibility of the inaccuracies in my reading. If my work turned out to be a sham, this auction would be the first and the last.
The owner of tablet number 42 walked over to the middle of the hall that was now more or less empty.
Number 42 knelt before me and started bawling, "Please save my family, Master. I"ll pay you any amount as long as you do, be it 500,000 or 1,000,000."
The remaining visitors were stunned.
I quickly pulled him up and into my room.
Master had Senior clear the place before following us in.
Once we were inside, the man put his tablet down and rambled on, "My name"s Zhao Bayi and I"m the boss of a steelwork factory. I started a few months back, and my wife and daughter started getting possessed. They went crazy and the doctors just can"t cure them. I even sought help from the biggest temple in China, but they couldn"t do anything about it because the spirits were vile."
Master shook his head in dismay. "That is too much, sir. There"s a price for Feng Shui reading. You"ll have to top up for us to get rid of the spirits."
Zhao Bayi cried out, "Money isn"t the problem. I can mortgage my factory and sell my house. I"m willing to do anything just to get my family back."
I can"t believe Master was going to take advantage of this guy"s predicament.
"500,000, it"s a deal," I informed Zhao Bayi.
He managed a small smile in the middle of his sobbing.
Master pulled me to a corner and chided, "Are you mad, Goudan? Do you know how to cure mental patients?"
I shrugged, "Don"t worry Master. Eliminating evil is our job. I must go."
"How confident are you?" he asked.
I knew I couldn"t give him a low number. "90%, but with Senior, it"s a 100."
It was a blatant lie of course.
I had no idea where to even begin.
Senior came running in. "You need my help, Junior? Oh, I"ve cleared the hall, Master."
"Good, good. Well then, go get ready, you two. Would it be by card or cash, dear sir? You can pay us half first and the rest when the job is completed," Master suggested kindly.
We left the temple right after collecting the deposit.
We followed him to a jeep parked far away.
It was incomparable to the luxurious cars we"d seen the day before.
Not wanting to question him, we sat through a quiet, half an hour journey.
Zhendong, Villa district.
There was a villa all the way in and it stood out from the rest.
Zhao Bayi pointed at it and said, "That"s my home. My wife and daughter are being taken care of by a nanny whom I"ve hired a month ago."
We got off the car and I took out my compa.s.s.
I held it toward the house and the needle started spinning uncontrollably.
I took a deep breath. Senior, too, saw the compa.s.s and got frightened.
"I"ll enter but you wait outside until I call for you. There really is something going on inside," I instructed Zhao Bayi.
Zhao Bayi simply nodded before handing me a silver key. I dragged Senior over to the house.
The moment we opened the door, an unwelcoming gush of wind escaped.
It hit me and I experienced vertigo.
Even Senior staggered backward from the force.
I quickly opened up a small box that I kept in my pocket and smeared a little donkey blood onto my eyelids.
I chanted some spells to open up my third eye before fixing them onto the interior of the house.
A middle-aged woman was sitting upright on a sofa in the middle of the hall.
Beside her sat a twitching lady that was holding on to a girl"s hand. The whole scene was indescribably spooky.
Senior shouted at once, "Please come out, Aunty, there are spirits inside the house."
I put my arm in front of him. "Donkey blood opens up the third eye. That woman is the spirit."
I could see black smoke rising from that woman"s body.
She smiled coldly. "How can you tell, eh?"
Senior opened his third eye shortly after and I hurriedly took out a few talismans with my left hand. With my right, I retrieved a wooden sword from behind my back.
The woman got up slowly and approached us as the mother and daughter continued twitching in the hall.
I felt gooseb.u.mps all over my body.
Senior, too, was startled by the woman"s ghastly appearance.
The whole house was filled with black smoke.
I pierced a talisman with my sword while chanting and smacked it toward the woman.
She blocked my sword effortlessly with one hand and kicked me in the stomach.
I flew about three meters back, slamming into the shoe rack.
That wasn"t a woman"s strength.
She said cooly, "You really think your rubbish can hurt me?"
Her voice sounded neither like a woman nor a man at that point.
Senior had initially looked like he wanted to help me, but instead, he rushed over to the woman and held her in a death grip. "She"s not a ghost. The sword is ineffective. She"s a wind fox, as described in the Cla.s.sic of Mountain and Sea..."
Before he could finish, the woman executed a tombstone piledriver, effectively knocking him unconscious.
It was my first time witnessing such a splendid attempt.
I was still in shock when she walked toward me.
Oh my G.o.d, a wind fox?
Doesn"t Senior know that I have limited knowledge about the contents of the Cla.s.sic Mountain and Sea? What"s the point of telling me the type of species? Why didn"t he just tell me how to deal with it? What am I going to do?
She grabbed me by my shirt and easily lifted me up.
A familiar voice filled my ears. It was the voice of an old man.
"Roar at her," he advised simply.
I inhaled deeply before following the voice"s instruction.
It wasn"t loud, but she loosened her grip and curled up.
The black smoke around her rose up and scattered. She asked weakly, "What dragon are you?"
"What dragon?" I repeated.
"I don"t care what dragon you are. My master, the real dragon, will destroy you on my behalf..." her voice became fuzzy and a silhouette of a green fox emerged from her body.
It jumped out of the window speedily and I was at a loss.
When I regained my senses, the mother and daughter were no longer trembling and twitching.
The woman was calling for the police while the daughter screamed, "Get lost, baddies!"
I quickly called for Zhao Bayi.
Seeing his family safe and sound, Zhao Bayi brought the nanny and Senior to the nearest hospital.
All of us squeezed into the seven sitter jeep.
At the hospital, the nurses carried the woman and Senior inside.
Even though Senior was. .h.i.t hard, he only sustained minor injuries and was able to wake up a few hours later.
"What is the wind fox all about, Senior?" I asked.
"Are you alright, Junior? Where are we?" he questioned, puzzled.
"I scared the fox away, but what is it, exactly?" I repeated.
"The Wind fox, or the wind beast, is similar to humans in the way that they are naturally lazy. It resembles a sable and is green in color. Fire can"t burn it and blade can"t cut it. Fighting it is like hitting a leather bag, impossible to damage. Hitting its head a thousand times could knock it out, but it will revive when wind enters its mouth. Stuffing calamus into its nose would kill it," he explained.
I pondered over what the real dragon the wind fox mentioned could be, my brows knitting with the effort.