Chapter 12: Empty Millstone (3)
It wasn’t a good idea to contemplate these words too closely and as Jiang Shining said them, he himself couldn’t help but shiver. This shiver was caught head-on by Xue Xian who once again raised his head.
Xue Xian was quite impressed by this Nerdy. He was a ghost himself and yet he was shameless enough to be afraid of ghosts!
Jiang Shining’s whispered words were soft and fast. Hearing them, Xuan Min’s brows knitted and quickly relaxed again. He said monotonously, “I understand now.”
Xue Xian said, “The heck you do!”
He had a naturally impetuous personality and an explosive temper and he ended up running into a mellow Jiang Shining and then a Xuan Min who would never run even if the sky was falling! Xue Xian felt like his entire lifespan was being shortened. Too impatient to wait for Xuan Min’s reaction, he flipped out of the hidden pouch and with a couple of twists and tumbles noiselessly grabbed onto Liu Chong’s pants. Within the blink of an eye, he had already disappeared underneath those thick grey-blue robes.
The remark that Xuan Min calmly made immediately roused the foolish Liu Chong whose reactions were a beat behind. As soon as Jiang Shining raised his head, he locked eyes with Liu Chong.
The pupils of those eyes were unfocused, big but soulless, and looked very strange. With them staring fixedly at anyone, they could even end up wetting their pants.
Jiang Shining turned, wanting to run away. Little did he know that encountering ghosts was just like encountering wild dogs—in a standoff, they may hesitate and hold back but as soon as you moved a little, they would immediately pounce. Liu Chong let out a low growl from the back of his throat, subconsciously forgetting about Xuan Min, and rushed at Jiang Shining, who had made a slight movement.
The Nerdy’s ghastly pale face rapidly turned green. His frightened yell had barely escaped him when it was forcibly swallowed back down. Even at a time like this, he still could not put aside what books described as “a gentlemanly image”. He wanted to run but not in an overly awkward manner. With one leg about to spring up and the other rooted in place, he almost twisted himself into a knot.
Thunk—!
The uncoordinated Jiang Shining finally fell to the ground as expected and began using his two palms to scurry backwards.
The “Liu Chong” fabricated by the array possessed the foolishness of the real Liu Chong, his every movement clumsy and illogical. He gave off the impression where one would not know how to even begin to try to stop him.
Jiang Shining watched as Liu Chong came rushing at him. He sucked in a breath of cold air, shrunk back, and closed his eyes.
Within a flash, a muffled thump sounded. Jiang Shining felt only the breeze produced by sleeves sweeping over him. Following this, the stone tiles in front of him trembled violently for a second. Those ice-cold fingers that he could imagine strangling his neck never reached him.
Grimacing, Jiang Shining carefully opened his eyes only to see Liu Chong sprawled head-over-heels at his feet. He had clearly taken a hard tumble for some reason.
The fool probably didn’t think that he would fall and had reacted a bit slowly. He didn’t even have time to stretch out his arms for support and thus landed squarely on his face.
He was shocked for a moment but quickly made use of both arms and legs to scramble up, all the while shaking dirt off his body and staring at the ground in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Xue Xian had just rolled out from Liu Chong’s grey-blue robes, holding a thin strip of cloth in his hand. Somehow, it looked quite like a…
Waistband?
Jiang Shining took another look and discovered that the fool had fallen only because right as he pounced, his pants had fallen to his ankles and tangled up his feet. Liu Chong was clumsy in the first place and his feet were not very agile so with his pants tripping him up, he took a good fall. And since he knocked his forehead, he stayed on the ground shaking his head for a long time and still could not recover.
As Xue Xian rolled onto the ground with the waistband, he handily tossed it onto Jiang Shining’s face. “Stop idling and tie this dummy’s hands and feet together!”
Then, he turned to Xuan Min with a disdainful expression and said, “Quick, pick me up. Pulling out that ragged cloth strip almost ripped my arms apart”.
Pick me up…
Jiang Shining was silently speechless. How is a paraplegic able to keep himself so busy, somersaulting around like that?
On second thought, it occurred to him that he was actually the hindrance causing trouble for others and suddenly felt quite ashamed. No longer concerned about the fact that “pulling out someone’s waistband” was ungentlemanly, he obediently used a long strip of cloth to tie Liu Chong’s left hand and right foot together, muttering “excuse me” as he did so.
Xue Xian scoffed at his sickly-sweet habits.
In order to help these two scoundrels escape danger, he had to drag along his two useless legs and put down his pride to pull out someone else’s waistband. This Baldy ought to kneel respectfully with a thump and use both hands to raise him up and place him back in his original spot. Who knew that this Baldy lacked any good sense—truly a lowlife!
Xue Xian tilted his head up to glare at Xuan Min and intended to glare at him till he felt some guilt. However, at this moment, he discovered that Xuan Min’s left hand was wrapped around the string of copper coins at his waist. Clearly, he was about to detach them to do something.
Could it be that the Baldy had already decided to act?
It probably never crossed Xuan Min’s mind that “pulling out the waistband” was a possible subduing tactic nor could he have predicted that things would turn out this way. He stared blankly for a moment before realizing what had just happened.
And so, Xue Xian could only watch as the Baldy once again removed his fingers from the string of copper coins.
When Xuan Min picked him up off the ground, Xue Xian suddenly felt a little regretful—if only he had known sooner, he would not have rushed to pull that fool’s waistband. Perhaps, he would have finally seen just what the baldy was capable of!
Having missed this superb opportunity, Xue Xian’s mood deflated instantly. His entire paper body went soft and his head drooped as if he was being hanged while he stayed suspended from the opening of Xuan Min’s hidden pouch.
Xuan Min glanced over him with a furrowed brow, thinking that he might be up to some new antics. Using a finger, he lifted the paper head hanging from the pouch opening. While his finger was in contact, the paper head just barely remained upright; as soon as his finger let go, it flopped down again, boneless.
Xuan Min, “…”
With this, Xuan Min could pretty much confirm that this vile spawn had caught some disease. He shook his head and said “Let’s go” to Jiang Shining without much of an expression.
As soon as the words were said, Advisor Liu and his party began banging ferociously on the narrow door. After a couple of consecutive strikes, even the bolt of the wooden door began loosening up a bit.
Bang, bang, bang—!
A quiver ran through Jiang Shining’s body at the sound of the door being struck. He hastened to follow behind Xuan Min.
Going through numerous doors in this maze-like mansion, they bumped into many groups of people along the way. Those people would be talking among themselves as if they were actors in some great play. But they turned hostile as soon as they caught sight of Xuan Min’s group, immediately becoming enshrouded in a ghostly aura. Some quick and some slow, they followed behind Xuan Min’s group, screeching. They were like kites, attached behind them at a distance neither too far nor too close.
By the time Jiang Shining turned at the corner and entered a door, he had jumped out of his skin more than twice. Among those people were a few nameless servant girls and boys of the Liu family and three Advisor Lius, two Liu Chongs, two wooden cane-wielding, small-footed old grannies and the like…
Two very frail-looking little servant girls used their bare hands to rip apart an old tree barring their way while they were in pursuit. Although that old tree was drying out and near death, it could not be described as thick and sturdy. And yet, to tear it apart, those hands had to be as sharp as knives!
Jiang Shining felt a wave of lingering fear as he watched this. Before all this, he had woken up in an empty room and had only gone through two doors before bumping into Xue Xian and the others. That was really some dumb luck he had.
By now, if he still had not realized that the doors and paths of this mansion had significant patterns, then all of his studies would have been for naught.
Fortunately, Xuan Min appeared completely unperturbed. His strides were long and quick but his demeanor did not carry a single hint of fear nor panic. He seemed to have already made his calculations, entering courtyards through doors without any hesitation. Jiang Shining self-proclaimed that he wasn’t bad at directions but he still dizzily lost his way among these twists and turns. However, Xuan Min still remained clear-headed.
After hanging there for quite some time, Xue Xian suddenly raised his head like a corpse coming back to life and asked a question, “Baldy, where are we going?”
Xuan Min replied, “The Gate of Life, through the Gate of Death.”
With his voice full of suspicion, Xue Xian said, “Unless I’ve gone blind, we’ve passed through this courtyard three times already.”
Xuan Min said calmly, “The Gate of Concealment is here”.
Xue Xian asked, “And so?”
Xuan Min said, “You’ll understand if you look behind you.”
Xue Xian silently lifted his droopy head and put aside his pride to turn around. He saw a wall of white linen. “…Are you making fun of me? Behind me is your tattered old monk robe.”
Xuan Min, “…”
On the other hand, Jiang Shining also turned to look behind him. After taking a few more hurried steps, he suddenly realised something. “Where did those people back there go? Why did they disappear? Just now, I could still hear their growling.”
Only then did Xue Xian understand what Xuan Min had meant. Tilting up his head, he said, “Did you purposely shake them off?”
Xuan Min replied with a bland “Mn”.
Among the Eight Gates, neither ominous nor auspicious, the two neutral doors of Concealment and Circumstance were not completely useless. The Gate of Concealment was a place for hiding away, making it perfect for seeking refuge.
By entering and exiting three times, Xuan Min cleanly lost the kites behind them.
Then, turning on his heel, he left the yard through the south-west narrow door, walking down a long corridor with large strides.
“Isn’t this the Gate of Death that we accidentally entered?”
Just when Xue Xian expressed his surprise, he saw Xuan Min open the narrow door at the corner of the corridor and push Jiang Shining inside with a single motion. “The Gate of Death is the path of the ghosts. To you, it is highly auspicious.”
Jiang Shining was startled by the push and stumbled a couple of steps, stepping over the threshold and into the courtyard.
Liu Chong and Old Granny Liu who had been inside originally had long since been drawn out by Xue Xian and Xuan Min. However, it was barren now; aside from Jiang Shining, there wasn’t even the shadow of a ghost left.
As soon as both of Jiang Shining’s feet stepped into the yard, he promptly disappeared, dispersing like bubbles.
“Did Nerdy exit the array?” asked Xue Xian.
Xuan Min nodded and began making a beeline through twists and bends towards the Gate of Life.
The location of the Gate of Life, Xue Xian was even more familiar with…
“Isn’t this Liu Chong’s shabby old room?” Xue Xian looked upon the shadowed little room at the end of the stone-paved path. No matter how he looked at it, that place shrouded in gloominess could hardly have anything to do with a “Gate of Life”. “If you tell me that this is the Gate of Death, I’d find it more believable.”
“It once was,” Xuan Min replied in a deep voice. “However, the eight directions of this Liu Mansion have been reversed. The Gate of Death has become the Gate of Life.”
“How so?” Hearing this, Xue Xian furrowed his brow. Suddenly, he recalled Jiang Shining mentioning before that “the mole on Liu Chong’s face had switched positions. It used to be on the left, but now it was on the right”. An idea flashed through his mind. “The mirror?”
Xuan Min lowered his gaze and swept a glance over the paper head. This vile spawn was indeed rowdy but not stupid. “With the Liu Mansion’s previous Eight Gates, the Gate of Death was located at the room on the south-west side, the main room on the north-west was the Gate of Opening and on the north-east was the Gate of Life.”
Xue Xian thought back to what Xuan Min had asked Advisor Liu as he stood outside Liu Chong’s room…
The north-west room belonged to Advisor Liu, whereas his still pre-pubescent son, Liu Jin, lived in the north-east room.
The Gate of Opening was the head of the Eight Gates, an analogy to setting foundations and establishing campaigns. What Advisor Liu wanted was none other than to rise through the ranks and have a successful career. So naturally, he would stake claim to the Gate of Opening.
All of a sudden, Xue Xian realized the purpose of Advisor Liu’s Array of River Draining into Sea.
It was unfortunate for the foolish, slow-witted Liu Chong who could not tell the difference between life and death, yin and yang. After living for more than twenty years, his most presentable skill was probably folding those half palm-sized ingots. Using this sole expertise, he filled a room with his filial piety, even making separate piles and labelling names for fear of being partial.
Mountains of gold and silver abound. All is safe and sound...
Who knew whether Old Granny Liu had ever said such words in front of a young Advisor Liu while burning paper ingots. However, even if she had, he probably would have forgotten all about it. Otherwise, how could he bear to treat his foolish son in this way, casting him aside like old shoes.
The Array of River Draining into Sea.
Liu Chong was the river and the Liu family was the sea.
It was just that Advisor Liu probably had not realised that fengshui arrays must be completely perfect. Any slight variation could cause Heaven and Earth to reverse, turning calamity into auspiciousness and turning auspiciousness into calamity. The copper mirror that Old Granny Liu and Liu Chong had buried under the tree together, representing “switching auspicious and calamitous omens for yearly peace”, happened to be such a variable.
And so, the Eight Gates reversed and the Gate of Death became the Gate of Life.
…Just then, only a few steps away from that gloomy little room, the narrow door leading to the main room creaked.
Xue Xian was already becoming numb due to these sudden turn of events. He thought, It couldn’t be another Liu Chong, right?
Plastered to Xuan Min’s waist, he stretched his neck to look…
It really was Liu Chong again!
“There’s no end to this!” Xue Xian’s temper rose up in a second. He lifted a hand to vault out but just as half of his body made it out, he stopped again. Shooting a sidelong glance at the string of copper coins by the Baldy’s waist, he thought, Perfect chance!
And so this paper named Xue, with tongue sticking out and claws outstretched, snagged Baldy’s copper coins like a fish hook and stuffed them into Baldy’s hand. Head upturned, he said, “What are you waiting for?”
Xuan Min used a finger to press him back down. “Do not rush. This person’s mole is on the left.”
“…” Xue Xian choked on air in anger, his neck once again falling to hang on the opening of Xuan Min’s hidden pouch.
Chapter 12: Empty Millstone (3)
It wasn’t a good idea to contemplate these words too closely and as Jiang Shining said them, he himself couldn’t help but shiver. This shiver was caught head-on by Xue Xian who once again raised his head.
Xue Xian was quite impressed by this Nerdy. He was a ghost himself and yet he was shameless enough to be afraid of ghosts!
Jiang Shining’s whispered words were soft and fast. Hearing them, Xuan Min’s brows knitted and quickly relaxed again. He said monotonously, “I understand now.”
Xue Xian said, “The heck you do!”
He had a naturally impetuous personality and an explosive temper and he ended up running into a mellow Jiang Shining and then a Xuan Min who would never run even if the sky was falling! Xue Xian felt like his entire lifespan was being shortened. Too impatient to wait for Xuan Min’s reaction, he flipped out of the hidden pouch and with a couple of twists and tumbles noiselessly grabbed onto Liu Chong’s pants. Within the blink of an eye, he had already disappeared underneath those thick grey-blue robes.
The remark that Xuan Min calmly made immediately roused the foolish Liu Chong whose reactions were a beat behind. As soon as Jiang Shining raised his head, he locked eyes with Liu Chong.
The pupils of those eyes were unfocused, big but soulless, and looked very strange. With them staring fixedly at anyone, they could even end up wetting their pants.
Jiang Shining turned, wanting to run away. Little did he know that encountering ghosts was just like encountering wild dogs—in a standoff, they may hesitate and hold back but as soon as you moved a little, they would immediately pounce. Liu Chong let out a low growl from the back of his throat, subconsciously forgetting about Xuan Min, and rushed at Jiang Shining, who had made a slight movement.
The Nerdy’s ghastly pale face rapidly turned green. His frightened yell had barely escaped him when it was forcibly swallowed back down. Even at a time like this, he still could not put aside what books described as “a gentlemanly image”. He wanted to run but not in an overly awkward manner. With one leg about to spring up and the other rooted in place, he almost twisted himself into a knot.
Thunk—!
The uncoordinated Jiang Shining finally fell to the ground as expected and began using his two palms to scurry backwards.
The “Liu Chong” fabricated by the array possessed the foolishness of the real Liu Chong, his every movement clumsy and illogical. He gave off the impression where one would not know how to even begin to try to stop him.
Jiang Shining watched as Liu Chong came rushing at him. He sucked in a breath of cold air, shrunk back, and closed his eyes.
Within a flash, a muffled thump sounded. Jiang Shining felt only the breeze produced by sleeves sweeping over him. Following this, the stone tiles in front of him trembled violently for a second. Those ice-cold fingers that he could imagine strangling his neck never reached him.
Grimacing, Jiang Shining carefully opened his eyes only to see Liu Chong sprawled head-over-heels at his feet. He had clearly taken a hard tumble for some reason.
The fool probably didn’t think that he would fall and had reacted a bit slowly. He didn’t even have time to stretch out his arms for support and thus landed squarely on his face.
He was shocked for a moment but quickly made use of both arms and legs to scramble up, all the while shaking dirt off his body and staring at the ground in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Xue Xian had just rolled out from Liu Chong’s grey-blue robes, holding a thin strip of cloth in his hand. Somehow, it looked quite like a…
Waistband?
Jiang Shining took another look and discovered that the fool had fallen only because right as he pounced, his pants had fallen to his ankles and tangled up his feet. Liu Chong was clumsy in the first place and his feet were not very agile so with his pants tripping him up, he took a good fall. And since he knocked his forehead, he stayed on the ground shaking his head for a long time and still could not recover.
As Xue Xian rolled onto the ground with the waistband, he handily tossed it onto Jiang Shining’s face. “Stop idling and tie this dummy’s hands and feet together!”
Then, he turned to Xuan Min with a disdainful expression and said, “Quick, pick me up. Pulling out that ragged cloth strip almost ripped my arms apart”.
Pick me up…
Jiang Shining was silently speechless. How is a paraplegic able to keep himself so busy, somersaulting around like that?
On second thought, it occurred to him that he was actually the hindrance causing trouble for others and suddenly felt quite ashamed. No longer concerned about the fact that “pulling out someone’s waistband” was ungentlemanly, he obediently used a long strip of cloth to tie Liu Chong’s left hand and right foot together, muttering “excuse me” as he did so.
Xue Xian scoffed at his sickly-sweet habits.
In order to help these two scoundrels escape danger, he had to drag along his two useless legs and put down his pride to pull out someone else’s waistband. This Baldy ought to kneel respectfully with a thump and use both hands to raise him up and place him back in his original spot. Who knew that this Baldy lacked any good sense—truly a lowlife!
Xue Xian tilted his head up to glare at Xuan Min and intended to glare at him till he felt some guilt. However, at this moment, he discovered that Xuan Min’s left hand was wrapped around the string of copper coins at his waist. Clearly, he was about to detach them to do something.
Could it be that the Baldy had already decided to act?
It probably never crossed Xuan Min’s mind that “pulling out the waistband” was a possible subduing tactic nor could he have predicted that things would turn out this way. He stared blankly for a moment before realizing what had just happened.
And so, Xue Xian could only watch as the Baldy once again removed his fingers from the string of copper coins.
When Xuan Min picked him up off the ground, Xue Xian suddenly felt a little regretful—if only he had known sooner, he would not have rushed to pull that fool’s waistband. Perhaps, he would have finally seen just what the baldy was capable of!
Having missed this superb opportunity, Xue Xian’s mood deflated instantly. His entire paper body went soft and his head drooped as if he was being hanged while he stayed suspended from the opening of Xuan Min’s hidden pouch.
Xuan Min glanced over him with a furrowed brow, thinking that he might be up to some new antics. Using a finger, he lifted the paper head hanging from the pouch opening. While his finger was in contact, the paper head just barely remained upright; as soon as his finger let go, it flopped down again, boneless.
Xuan Min, “…”
With this, Xuan Min could pretty much confirm that this vile spawn had caught some disease. He shook his head and said “Let’s go” to Jiang Shining without much of an expression.
As soon as the words were said, Advisor Liu and his party began banging ferociously on the narrow door. After a couple of consecutive strikes, even the bolt of the wooden door began loosening up a bit.
Bang, bang, bang—!
A quiver ran through Jiang Shining’s body at the sound of the door being struck. He hastened to follow behind Xuan Min.
Going through numerous doors in this maze-like mansion, they bumped into many groups of people along the way. Those people would be talking among themselves as if they were actors in some great play. But they turned hostile as soon as they caught sight of Xuan Min’s group, immediately becoming enshrouded in a ghostly aura. Some quick and some slow, they followed behind Xuan Min’s group, screeching. They were like kites, attached behind them at a distance neither too far nor too close.
By the time Jiang Shining turned at the corner and entered a door, he had jumped out of his skin more than twice. Among those people were a few nameless servant girls and boys of the Liu family and three Advisor Lius, two Liu Chongs, two wooden cane-wielding, small-footed old grannies and the like…
Two very frail-looking little servant girls used their bare hands to rip apart an old tree barring their way while they were in pursuit. Although that old tree was drying out and near death, it could not be described as thick and sturdy. And yet, to tear it apart, those hands had to be as sharp as knives!
Jiang Shining felt a wave of lingering fear as he watched this. Before all this, he had woken up in an empty room and had only gone through two doors before bumping into Xue Xian and the others. That was really some dumb luck he had.
By now, if he still had not realized that the doors and paths of this mansion had significant patterns, then all of his studies would have been for naught.
Fortunately, Xuan Min appeared completely unperturbed. His strides were long and quick but his demeanor did not carry a single hint of fear nor panic. He seemed to have already made his calculations, entering courtyards through doors without any hesitation. Jiang Shining self-proclaimed that he wasn’t bad at directions but he still dizzily lost his way among these twists and turns. However, Xuan Min still remained clear-headed.
After hanging there for quite some time, Xue Xian suddenly raised his head like a corpse coming back to life and asked a question, “Baldy, where are we going?”
Xuan Min replied, “The Gate of Life, through the Gate of Death.”
With his voice full of suspicion, Xue Xian said, “Unless I’ve gone blind, we’ve passed through this courtyard three times already.”
Xuan Min said calmly, “The Gate of Concealment is here”.
Xue Xian asked, “And so?”
Xuan Min said, “You’ll understand if you look behind you.”
Xue Xian silently lifted his droopy head and put aside his pride to turn around. He saw a wall of white linen. “…Are you making fun of me? Behind me is your tattered old monk robe.”
Xuan Min, “…”
On the other hand, Jiang Shining also turned to look behind him. After taking a few more hurried steps, he suddenly realised something. “Where did those people back there go? Why did they disappear? Just now, I could still hear their growling.”
Only then did Xue Xian understand what Xuan Min had meant. Tilting up his head, he said, “Did you purposely shake them off?”
Xuan Min replied with a bland “Mn”.
Among the Eight Gates, neither ominous nor auspicious, the two neutral doors of Concealment and Circumstance were not completely useless. The Gate of Concealment was a place for hiding away, making it perfect for seeking refuge.
By entering and exiting three times, Xuan Min cleanly lost the kites behind them.
Then, turning on his heel, he left the yard through the south-west narrow door, walking down a long corridor with large strides.
“Isn’t this the Gate of Death that we accidentally entered?”
Just when Xue Xian expressed his surprise, he saw Xuan Min open the narrow door at the corner of the corridor and push Jiang Shining inside with a single motion. “The Gate of Death is the path of the ghosts. To you, it is highly auspicious.”
Jiang Shining was startled by the push and stumbled a couple of steps, stepping over the threshold and into the courtyard.
Liu Chong and Old Granny Liu who had been inside originally had long since been drawn out by Xue Xian and Xuan Min. However, it was barren now; aside from Jiang Shining, there wasn’t even the shadow of a ghost left.
As soon as both of Jiang Shining’s feet stepped into the yard, he promptly disappeared, dispersing like bubbles.
“Did Nerdy exit the array?” asked Xue Xian.
Xuan Min nodded and began making a beeline through twists and bends towards the Gate of Life.
The location of the Gate of Life, Xue Xian was even more familiar with…
“Isn’t this Liu Chong’s shabby old room?” Xue Xian looked upon the shadowed little room at the end of the stone-paved path. No matter how he looked at it, that place shrouded in gloominess could hardly have anything to do with a “Gate of Life”. “If you tell me that this is the Gate of Death, I’d find it more believable.”
“It once was,” Xuan Min replied in a deep voice. “However, the eight directions of this Liu Mansion have been reversed. The Gate of Death has become the Gate of Life.”
“How so?” Hearing this, Xue Xian furrowed his brow. Suddenly, he recalled Jiang Shining mentioning before that “the mole on Liu Chong’s face had switched positions. It used to be on the left, but now it was on the right”. An idea flashed through his mind. “The mirror?”
Xuan Min lowered his gaze and swept a glance over the paper head. This vile spawn was indeed rowdy but not stupid. “With the Liu Mansion’s previous Eight Gates, the Gate of Death was located at the room on the south-west side, the main room on the north-west was the Gate of Opening and on the north-east was the Gate of Life.”
Xue Xian thought back to what Xuan Min had asked Advisor Liu as he stood outside Liu Chong’s room…
The north-west room belonged to Advisor Liu, whereas his still pre-pubescent son, Liu Jin, lived in the north-east room.
The Gate of Opening was the head of the Eight Gates, an analogy to setting foundations and establishing campaigns. What Advisor Liu wanted was none other than to rise through the ranks and have a successful career. So naturally, he would stake claim to the Gate of Opening.
All of a sudden, Xue Xian realized the purpose of Advisor Liu’s Array of River Draining into Sea.
It was unfortunate for the foolish, slow-witted Liu Chong who could not tell the difference between life and death, yin and yang. After living for more than twenty years, his most presentable skill was probably folding those half palm-sized ingots. Using this sole expertise, he filled a room with his filial piety, even making separate piles and labelling names for fear of being partial.
Mountains of gold and silver abound. All is safe and sound...
Who knew whether Old Granny Liu had ever said such words in front of a young Advisor Liu while burning paper ingots. However, even if she had, he probably would have forgotten all about it. Otherwise, how could he bear to treat his foolish son in this way, casting him aside like old shoes.
The Array of River Draining into Sea.
Liu Chong was the river and the Liu family was the sea.
It was just that Advisor Liu probably had not realised that fengshui arrays must be completely perfect. Any slight variation could cause Heaven and Earth to reverse, turning calamity into auspiciousness and turning auspiciousness into calamity. The copper mirror that Old Granny Liu and Liu Chong had buried under the tree together, representing “switching auspicious and calamitous omens for yearly peace”, happened to be such a variable.
And so, the Eight Gates reversed and the Gate of Death became the Gate of Life.
…Just then, only a few steps away from that gloomy little room, the narrow door leading to the main room creaked.
Xue Xian was already becoming numb due to these sudden turn of events. He thought, It couldn’t be another Liu Chong, right?
Plastered to Xuan Min’s waist, he stretched his neck to look…
It really was Liu Chong again!
“There’s no end to this!” Xue Xian’s temper rose up in a second. He lifted a hand to vault out but just as half of his body made it out, he stopped again. Shooting a sidelong glance at the string of copper coins by the Baldy’s waist, he thought, Perfect chance!
And so this paper named Xue, with tongue sticking out and claws outstretched, snagged Baldy’s copper coins like a fish hook and stuffed them into Baldy’s hand. Head upturned, he said, “What are you waiting for?”
Xuan Min used a finger to press him back down. “Do not rush. This person’s mole is on the left.”
“…” Xue Xian choked on air in anger, his neck once again falling to hang on the opening of Xuan Min’s hidden pouch.
