Chapter 7: Gold Ingots (3)
Xue Xian was afraid that the Baldy was dull-witted and could not fully understand the meaning of one mere pinch. And so, while the blockhead Liu Chong averted his eyes, Xue Xian flipped over quietly so that he was facing upwards and stared fixedly at him.
After all, paintings were not as lively as real people. This painting of Xue Xian’s getting even an appraisal of “okay” was already too much and was still very far from perfection. The eyes alone were already lacking by half the intelligence of real people.
After being pinched a little too hard, Xuan Min lowered his gaze coldly. He wanted to give a warning to the naughty vile spawn but was caught off guard as he caught the gaze of the drawn pupils at the pocket opening.
An exposed belly coupled with a pair of almost expressionless black eyes, it vaguely gave out a sense of “to die with grievance”.
Xuan Min, “…”
On his way, the number of demons and vile spawns that he had voluntarily caught were not many but they were not few either. Most of them were stubborn before they were caught and became reverent after. They remained cautious and fearful until they were exorcised. Those like Xue Xian, who, even after being caught, did not behave or treat themselves like an outsider and moved about restlessly, this was rather the first time it happened.
Xuan Min always thought that the mannerisms of this vile spawn were rather “colourful”, as if he could act out an entire play all by himself.
His gaze landed fleetingly on the paper man and then reached two fingers in to pinch the paper out of the pocket.
Xue Xian, “…” I’m not done with you!
Xuan Min’s fingers truly did not look as if he lived on the streets. They were long, slender and pristine as if they had never touched dirt. He didn’t look as if he grew up in a monk temple within the mountains and certainly not like a wandering monk. Rather, he looked like the nobles and princes who lived comfortable lives.
But the Xue Xian now did not notice nor did he have the mindset to.
With the paper between his fingers, Xuan Min moved the paper one inch towards Liu Chong.
Xue Xian, “…” When I’m able to summon thunder, I’ll strike you wherever you are, wherever you go!
“This?” Xuan Min asked Liu Chong lightly.
Xue Xian, “…” If I don’t strike you into a piece of charred skin, my name will be “Four-Legged Long Bug!”
“Mn,” Liu Chong nodded his head hard and gave a silly smile.
Xue Xian, “...” What the hell are you laughing at?!
Xuan Min shook his head right as the blockhead was about to take the paper and with that unshakable expression, he said, “No.”
At least you know your place.
Xue Xian, who previously had been screaming internally, finally relaxed and the paper that was originally pulled taut went slack, hanging limply on Xuan Min’s fingertips. Going from being half paralysed directly to being fully paralysed.
Liu Chong looked at Xuan Min with extra seriousness and nodded, albeit with a hint of regret. He was someone who did not understand the ways of the world nor did he know things like “subtlety” or “concealment”. The word “regret” was written plainly on his face.
Every movement made by idiotic people would be slower by half a second as compared to ordinary people. Less nimble but with a little more strength. The way they stared at people, their speech, and their way of nodding or shaking their heads would all be done with extra effort.
Clumsy, but particularly touching.
Like noodles that had gone bad, Xue Xian hung between Xuan Min’s fingers. His gaze brushed past Liu Chong and did not return again. He thought that this blockhead was probably poisonous and could poison people to be as silly as himself. He was afraid that if he looked at him a little while longer, he would have lost his mind and jumped into the blockhead’s hand himself.
What a scene that would be!
However, to his surprise, the Baldy seemed to be even more straightforward than the blockhead. Not only did he completely ignore the regret on the blockhead’s face, he also impolitely took a step ahead to enter the blockhead’s room.
Fortunately, before entering the door, the Baldy reluctantly remembered the things called “etiquette and shame” and nodded to the blockhead.
Xue Xian, “…” Would saying one more sentence kill you? If the blockhead understood what you meant by that nod, I’ll take your surname.
Before his mocking sneer could leave his lips, Liu Chong had already gone back to the room, waving happily to Xuan Min, “Come in!”, very much like a kid who had found a playmate.
Xue Xian, “…”
He begrudgingly pursed his lips and finally decided to behave.
After several rounds in Xuan Min’s hands, the vile spawn finally managed to settle down.
The half open door was pushed open fully by Liu Chong and the room came fully into the view of the group—the pile of oily yellow paper ingots were far more than Xue Xian had first seen. They weren’t just beside the door. After a brief look, there weren’t a lot of places left to stand in the entire room.
Adviser Liu seemed to be quite upset. The moment he saw how his eldest son’s room looked, he turned his head away and had absolutely no intention of stepping into the room. Instead, he stood a foot away from the door and waited with his hands behind his back.
He was probably in torment. On one hand, he was hoping that Xuan Min would help him adjust the fengshui of the house. On the other hand, he wanted to get rid of the monk who equally did not understand the ways of the world.
Anyone who knew how to read the mood would be a little restrained at this time so as to not upset him.
However, the monk didn't know how to.
Not only did he not know, he didn’t even look at other people!
Adviser Liu was going to die from anger.
Xuan Min would not have bothered no matter where he stood. Even if he stood like a pole ten feet away, it would not have prevented Xuan Min from entering the room.
Liu Chong’s room was decorated so crudely that it didn’t look befitting for the eldest young master of the adviser’s mansion at all. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it the room of a servant. All in all, there was only a table, two wooden chairs, and a bed that was narrow in comparison to Liu Chong.
The room itself was only the width of a palm, narrow and compact. Yet, there was still a partition in the middle that divided the bed and the table and chairs into two rooms, making it seem even more cramped.
Who knew for how many years was everything in the room being used. All of them were ashy and looked especially ancient and the only colour was surprisingly from the oily yellow paper ingots that were piled everywhere.
Xuan Min picked one up and looked at it from top to bottom.
Because he was facing upwards and was at a lower vantage point, Xue Xian happened to see the bottom of the ingots clearly from where he hung between Xuan Min’s fingers.
There were only three words written on it: father, dusk, dusk.
Xue Xian, “…” What the hell is this?!
Just after he scolded did he realise that those weren’t three words written vertically but one: dad. The words were written from the blockhead’s clumsy hand and that’s why they were spaced widely apart.
But after seeing the ingot, he suddenly understood why Adviser Liu didn’t have any nice looks for his son. Writing down the name of a living person onto the paper ingots was no different than a curse. But looking at Liu Chong’s appearance of a simple-minded person, it was obvious that he most probably wrote this for fun.
But soon, Xue Xian swallowed the previous idea back.
This was because on all the paper ingots that Xuan Min had picked up, their bottoms all had something written on them and so childishly written that they could be divided into parts.
Bored to the limit, Xue Xian counted in his head, “Seven ingots, two father dusk dusk, three girl good and two absolutely empty.”
…
What kind of hobby is this?
However, from the several ingots picked up by Xuan Min, Xue Xian roughly knew how to distinguish them. This Liu Chong was silly, but, surprisingly, he still knew how to categorise. The pile by the door was probably all father dusk dusk as in written for his dad, Adviser Liu. The pile beside the table was all for his mom. The ones scattered on the floor had nothing written on them yet.
Then…for whom was the pile by the bed for?
Clearly, Xue Xian was not the only one who had noticed this. Xuan Min briefly looked over the piles in the outer room and stepped into the inner room where the bed was placed.
The moment he stepped into the inner room, Xue Xian sneezed from the yin energy that came onto his face.
Liu Chong, “…” ???
He stared at the expressionless Xuan Min for a moment and then turned to Xuan Min’s fingers with a confused look as if he did not understand why the sneeze came from his fingers.
However, neither Xuan Min nor Xue Xian had the time to notice Liu Chong’s actions. They were all shocked by the heavy yin energy emanating from the inner room and collectively looked towards the pile of paper ingots beside the bed.
Xuan Min frowned and went over, picking up an ingot for inspection.
This time, it was not “father” or “mother“ that was written on the bottom but a large blob of ink. It seemed as if he had written something more complicated than “father and mother” and so it was directly smudged together into one.
Xuan Min picked up two more and found that they looked exactly like the previous ones.
However, one of them wasn’t smudged that badly as Xuan Min could still barely recognise most of the character “Liu”.
Xuan Min knew little about Adviser Liu’s family. When he saw this character, he could only think of Adviser Liu and his two sons. But from that large blob of ink, it didn’t seem like the word written would be “Liu Xu”, nor did it look like “Liu Chong” or “Liu Jin”.
Just as he bent down to pick up another one, something rolled out of his pocket.
The thing cried out “aiyo” and happened to roll right onto that pile of paper ingots. When it landed, it puffed up like a cow skinned bag, expanded, and turned into a living, breathing person.
*****
This person had pale skin and was slightly green beneath the eyes and appeared as a tired scholar. It was none other than Jiang Shining.
He probably didn’t think of how he could suddenly turn from a paper to a human. Hence he asked, entirely at a loss, “How did I roll down?”
Seeing that Liu Chong wasn’t someone who would cry at the sight of a human appearing out of nowhere, Xue Xian also stopped playing pretend and replied, “Because the yin energy is too abundant.”
After all, ghosts thrived in yin. The reason why Jiang Shining couldn’t move once it was daytime was because the yang energy was too heavy during the day. The yin energy in this room was even more insidious compared to the mass burial mounds. Naturally, Jiang Shining had it good.
However, the fact that Liu Chong could still live a good life even with such a heavy yin energy was strange in itself.
“Then why didn't you roll down?” asked Jiang Shining in disbelief.
Xue Xian said roughly, “No, I haven’t died. I don’t belong to the same category as you, old man.”
“Then why are you clinging to a piece of torn paper so badly?” Jiang Shining thought that the one called Xue was sick in the head.
If you’re not a ghost, you must still have a body. If you still have a body, how bored would you have to be to tear out your soul and live by a piece of paper? If not sick in the head, what else could you be?
Xue Xian hung on Xuan Min’s fingertips and said languidly, “What do you care? Rather than wasting effort speaking, you might as well get up.”
After all, this sickly scholar had turned into a living human. Even if he was as thin as a wooden stick, he wasn’t light. Paper folded ingots could not withstand any weight. After Jiang Shining rolled onto them just now, they were flattened by a half and the mountain of gold was instantly razed to the ground.
When he glanced around and realised what he was sitting on, he jumped and put his hands together towards Liu Chong in apology. “I’m sorry, so sorry.”
Just as he was struggling hastily to get up, Liu Chong, who stood at the side, snapped out of his daze and finally reacted. The moment he noticed the floor that was covered by the flattened ingots, he roared “Ah—!” and shoved Jiang Shining aside, kneeling on the floor himself to carefully fold the flattened ingots back.
The blockhead’s strength was much greater than ordinary people so of course Jiang Shining’s body would not have been able to withstand such a push. He immediately rolled over and collided with the wooden cabinet beside him.
The wooden cabinet was knocked off a few inches and proceeded to clash against the wall with a bang.
Still dishevelled from the tumble, Jiang Shining supported himself against the floor, wanting to get up and help Liu Chong with the ingots as an apology. But as soon as he tried to get up, he drew in a sharp breath and withdrew his hand.
There was an extra hole on his open palm that made him wince but there was no blood.
This was how paper-made skin was like. It could allow ghosts to walk on solid ground and touch solid objects just like half a living human, but it was also extremely easy to get hurt.
“Why are there nails even under the cabinet?” grumbled Jiang Shining. He then turned towards the direction of Xue Xian and whispered, “Next time…If there is a next time, could you make a skin out of cattle skin for me instead of paper?”
Xue Xian asked, "How about I make one out of human skin?"
Jiang Shining, “…”
Xuan Min’s face was still expressionless but his fingers moved and pressed accurately on Xue’s mouth in order to prevent this vile spawn from spouting nonsense every time he opened his mouth.
Xue Xian, “…”
“Eh? That’s strange—there’s a talisman under this nail.” When Jiang Shining was getting up, he quickly glanced at the floor where his hand was pierced and spotted something strange out of the corner of his eye.
Xuan Min frowned at his words and lifted his robes a little while bending down.
There was a sharp corner that poked out from the small exposed area where the cabinet had been knocked away. Xuan Min tore an edge of his robes and using the torn white hemp, rubbed against the sharp corner with his fingers. As the mud on the surface was cleared away, the sharp corner gradually came into focus—
Judging from the oily yellow color, it was a copper nail with three vertical ridges on its side.
Since it was wrapped in a layer of such old mud, this copper nail must have been here for at least three years already and yet, there was no hint of rust on it. It was still lustrous and was obviously not just any normal nail.
Most importantly, it pinned down a grimy piece of paper.
Xuan Min frowned, lowered his eyes and using the white hemp of his robe swept away a thick layer of dust—
Sure enough, it was a piece of yellow paper on which complex drawings were drawn with cinnabar.
Even if one did not understand the contents, one would have known what this was. Jiang Shining froze for a moment and then pushed the drawer aside to expose more ground.
On the ground that was previously obscured by the drawer, there were a total of three copper nails, each of which held down a yellow talisman that pointed towards the south-west, north-east, and north-west, respectively.
“This…What are these talismans for? Longevity of life? Physical healthiness?” Jiang Shining stared at these few talismans and froze for a moment, feeling strange, as if his body was getting warmer.
This was strange. After all, ever since he became a wandering ghost, he had never felt “warmth”. He used to be wrapped in frost and cold all year round and had long become used to it. Feeling such warmth so suddenly made him a little uncomfortable.
And so, he shifted two timid steps to the side.
Xue Xian, who always liked to tease him, had his mouth pressed on by someone and could not open his mouth even if he wanted to.
So when he asked this question, no one answered for a long time. It was rather embarrassing.
It was not until Xuan Min finished reading the contents of the three talismans that he said indifferently, “A fengshui array.”
Xue Xian, “…” Obviously.
The continuous movement in the room made Adviser Liu, who was waiting outside, restless. He stared at the door for a moment, then finally walked to the door, saying, “Master, did someone hit something just now? Was it my silly son causing trouble?”
He seemed to not like this room very much and looked as if he wouldn't take a step into this room no matter what. Even while standing by the door, he shot an extremely disdainful look at the pile of ingots in the room.
Xuan Min stood up as he heard him and stepped over the threshold to the outer room. He asked Adviser Liu, “Who lives in the north-west room?”
Adviser Liu looked at the north-west corner, confused. “That’s the house I live in.”
Xuan Min glanced at him and said again, “North-east.”
Adviser Liu asked, “Huh? North-east? My son Liu Jin is the one who lives in the north-east room. He’s my youngest son who fell into the well this morning. Master, why are you asking about this? Is there something wrong with these two rooms?”
Xuan Min did not answer immediately. He paused for a while before saying, “Have you heard of the Array of River Draining into Sea?”
Looking at his face, no one could tell whether he was happy or angry. It was still the same cold and expressionless face as if he was asking about ordinary things like eating and drinking. However, Adviser Liu’s face had already drained white.
He stood outside with a stiff neck for a long time before moving his eyes, glancing at the drawer inside the room. When he saw that the drawer had shifted from its place, his face turned even more unpleasant. “This, this…To tell you the truth, Master, for these past two years, my body has, it hasn’t been so well. So, so—”
As Adviser Liu tripped over himself outside, Jiang Shining had already moved from his original position. He retreated two steps when Adviser Liu was asking and managed to avoid his sight. There were two reasons for doing this. One, it was bound to stir up some trouble if he, who had been long dead, suddenly appeared in front of someone who recognised him. Two, as soon as he looked at Adviser Liu, anger started boiling all the way up to his head.
When he thought of the suffering that his own parents had endured when they were alive, he could not help but grit his teeth.
While he was busy swallowing his anger by the door, Liu Chong, who had been busy with the paper ingots, finally noticed the talismans on the floor.
The attention of blockheads would always be easily distracted. As he stared at the yellow talismans, he let go of the paper ingots in his hand and shifted two steps to squat in front of the talismans.
Whenever children see something new, it doesn't matter if it is clean or dirty, safe or dangerous, they will always touch it with their hands. The blockhead Liu Chong was stuck in such a confusing age. He stared intently at the three copper nails and couldn’t help but reach for the tip of the nail.
The oily top of the copper nail was still extremely sharp as if it had been sharpened just now. It wouldn’t have been a problem to cut hair just by blowing it against the edge, let alone Liu Chong’s thin layer of skin.
And so, the blockhead ended up with a hand full of blood.
“Ah—Don’t move!” When Jiang Shining reacted and moved to stop him, it was already too late.
The bead of blood slid down the copper nail and seeped into the yellow paper.
Liu Chong raised his head in bewilderment, stunned by his shouting.
There was a moment at which Jiang Shining thought that the entire old room had become terrifyingly silent as if the cold wind that beat against the walls had suddenly ceased.
Wandering ghosts were probably more sensitive than real, actual people. He felt that there was no breath around him and it was strangely calm.
Both standing by the door, Xuan Min and Adviser Liu exchanged a glance and raised their heads to the sky.
The winds were silent and so were the clouds.
The entire Liu mansion was engulfed in silence…
The strange silence didn’t last for long. In only a few blinks of the eye, the howling wind started again. But this time, the wind sounded as if it was whimpering. It carried with it a sense of bitterness and was completely different than before.
After several back and forths, the whimpering noise grew louder and louder. At first, it sounded like the crying of ghosts from all four sides, making the hair of anyone who heard it stand on its end.
In the midst of the unusual howling wind, something made a ringing sound.
Like the reverberation of metals clashing against each other, yet a little different.
Xue Xian, who was drooping in between Xuan Min’s fingers, stiffened immediately. Other people might not have distinguished this sound clearly, but he could hear it extremely so.
Because it sounded like the sound of the thing he was searching for.
North-east!
With some difficulty, Xue Xian raised his face to look in that direction.
The Baldy had just now asked once again about who lived in the north-east room?
Xue Xian was just thinking about it when a strange voice merged with the howling wind and increased in strength within a second. In that split second, everyone felt as if the back of their heads had been struck by a bat. Ears ringing, black exploded in front of their eyes and they promptly lost consciousness.
Chapter 7: Gold Ingots (3)
Xue Xian was afraid that the Baldy was dull-witted and could not fully understand the meaning of one mere pinch. And so, while the blockhead Liu Chong averted his eyes, Xue Xian flipped over quietly so that he was facing upwards and stared fixedly at him.
After all, paintings were not as lively as real people. This painting of Xue Xian’s getting even an appraisal of “okay” was already too much and was still very far from perfection. The eyes alone were already lacking by half the intelligence of real people.
After being pinched a little too hard, Xuan Min lowered his gaze coldly. He wanted to give a warning to the naughty vile spawn but was caught off guard as he caught the gaze of the drawn pupils at the pocket opening.
An exposed belly coupled with a pair of almost expressionless black eyes, it vaguely gave out a sense of “to die with grievance”.
Xuan Min, “…”
On his way, the number of demons and vile spawns that he had voluntarily caught were not many but they were not few either. Most of them were stubborn before they were caught and became reverent after. They remained cautious and fearful until they were exorcised. Those like Xue Xian, who, even after being caught, did not behave or treat themselves like an outsider and moved about restlessly, this was rather the first time it happened.
Xuan Min always thought that the mannerisms of this vile spawn were rather “colourful”, as if he could act out an entire play all by himself.
His gaze landed fleetingly on the paper man and then reached two fingers in to pinch the paper out of the pocket.
Xue Xian, “…” I’m not done with you!
Xuan Min’s fingers truly did not look as if he lived on the streets. They were long, slender and pristine as if they had never touched dirt. He didn’t look as if he grew up in a monk temple within the mountains and certainly not like a wandering monk. Rather, he looked like the nobles and princes who lived comfortable lives.
But the Xue Xian now did not notice nor did he have the mindset to.
With the paper between his fingers, Xuan Min moved the paper one inch towards Liu Chong.
Xue Xian, “…” When I’m able to summon thunder, I’ll strike you wherever you are, wherever you go!
“This?” Xuan Min asked Liu Chong lightly.
Xue Xian, “…” If I don’t strike you into a piece of charred skin, my name will be “Four-Legged Long Bug!”
“Mn,” Liu Chong nodded his head hard and gave a silly smile.
Xue Xian, “...” What the hell are you laughing at?!
Xuan Min shook his head right as the blockhead was about to take the paper and with that unshakable expression, he said, “No.”
At least you know your place.
Xue Xian, who previously had been screaming internally, finally relaxed and the paper that was originally pulled taut went slack, hanging limply on Xuan Min’s fingertips. Going from being half paralysed directly to being fully paralysed.
Liu Chong looked at Xuan Min with extra seriousness and nodded, albeit with a hint of regret. He was someone who did not understand the ways of the world nor did he know things like “subtlety” or “concealment”. The word “regret” was written plainly on his face.
Every movement made by idiotic people would be slower by half a second as compared to ordinary people. Less nimble but with a little more strength. The way they stared at people, their speech, and their way of nodding or shaking their heads would all be done with extra effort.
Clumsy, but particularly touching.
Like noodles that had gone bad, Xue Xian hung between Xuan Min’s fingers. His gaze brushed past Liu Chong and did not return again. He thought that this blockhead was probably poisonous and could poison people to be as silly as himself. He was afraid that if he looked at him a little while longer, he would have lost his mind and jumped into the blockhead’s hand himself.
What a scene that would be!
However, to his surprise, the Baldy seemed to be even more straightforward than the blockhead. Not only did he completely ignore the regret on the blockhead’s face, he also impolitely took a step ahead to enter the blockhead’s room.
Fortunately, before entering the door, the Baldy reluctantly remembered the things called “etiquette and shame” and nodded to the blockhead.
Xue Xian, “…” Would saying one more sentence kill you? If the blockhead understood what you meant by that nod, I’ll take your surname.
Before his mocking sneer could leave his lips, Liu Chong had already gone back to the room, waving happily to Xuan Min, “Come in!”, very much like a kid who had found a playmate.
Xue Xian, “…”
He begrudgingly pursed his lips and finally decided to behave.
After several rounds in Xuan Min’s hands, the vile spawn finally managed to settle down.
The half open door was pushed open fully by Liu Chong and the room came fully into the view of the group—the pile of oily yellow paper ingots were far more than Xue Xian had first seen. They weren’t just beside the door. After a brief look, there weren’t a lot of places left to stand in the entire room.
Adviser Liu seemed to be quite upset. The moment he saw how his eldest son’s room looked, he turned his head away and had absolutely no intention of stepping into the room. Instead, he stood a foot away from the door and waited with his hands behind his back.
He was probably in torment. On one hand, he was hoping that Xuan Min would help him adjust the fengshui of the house. On the other hand, he wanted to get rid of the monk who equally did not understand the ways of the world.
Anyone who knew how to read the mood would be a little restrained at this time so as to not upset him.
However, the monk didn't know how to.
Not only did he not know, he didn’t even look at other people!
Adviser Liu was going to die from anger.
Xuan Min would not have bothered no matter where he stood. Even if he stood like a pole ten feet away, it would not have prevented Xuan Min from entering the room.
Liu Chong’s room was decorated so crudely that it didn’t look befitting for the eldest young master of the adviser’s mansion at all. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it the room of a servant. All in all, there was only a table, two wooden chairs, and a bed that was narrow in comparison to Liu Chong.
The room itself was only the width of a palm, narrow and compact. Yet, there was still a partition in the middle that divided the bed and the table and chairs into two rooms, making it seem even more cramped.
Who knew for how many years was everything in the room being used. All of them were ashy and looked especially ancient and the only colour was surprisingly from the oily yellow paper ingots that were piled everywhere.
Xuan Min picked one up and looked at it from top to bottom.
Because he was facing upwards and was at a lower vantage point, Xue Xian happened to see the bottom of the ingots clearly from where he hung between Xuan Min’s fingers.
There were only three words written on it: father, dusk, dusk.
Xue Xian, “…” What the hell is this?!
Just after he scolded did he realise that those weren’t three words written vertically but one: dad. The words were written from the blockhead’s clumsy hand and that’s why they were spaced widely apart.
But after seeing the ingot, he suddenly understood why Adviser Liu didn’t have any nice looks for his son. Writing down the name of a living person onto the paper ingots was no different than a curse. But looking at Liu Chong’s appearance of a simple-minded person, it was obvious that he most probably wrote this for fun.
But soon, Xue Xian swallowed the previous idea back.
This was because on all the paper ingots that Xuan Min had picked up, their bottoms all had something written on them and so childishly written that they could be divided into parts.
Bored to the limit, Xue Xian counted in his head, “Seven ingots, two father dusk dusk, three girl good and two absolutely empty.”
…
What kind of hobby is this?
However, from the several ingots picked up by Xuan Min, Xue Xian roughly knew how to distinguish them. This Liu Chong was silly, but, surprisingly, he still knew how to categorise. The pile by the door was probably all father dusk dusk as in written for his dad, Adviser Liu. The pile beside the table was all for his mom. The ones scattered on the floor had nothing written on them yet.
Then…for whom was the pile by the bed for?
Clearly, Xue Xian was not the only one who had noticed this. Xuan Min briefly looked over the piles in the outer room and stepped into the inner room where the bed was placed.
The moment he stepped into the inner room, Xue Xian sneezed from the yin energy that came onto his face.
Liu Chong, “…” ???
He stared at the expressionless Xuan Min for a moment and then turned to Xuan Min’s fingers with a confused look as if he did not understand why the sneeze came from his fingers.
However, neither Xuan Min nor Xue Xian had the time to notice Liu Chong’s actions. They were all shocked by the heavy yin energy emanating from the inner room and collectively looked towards the pile of paper ingots beside the bed.
Xuan Min frowned and went over, picking up an ingot for inspection.
This time, it was not “father” or “mother“ that was written on the bottom but a large blob of ink. It seemed as if he had written something more complicated than “father and mother” and so it was directly smudged together into one.
Xuan Min picked up two more and found that they looked exactly like the previous ones.
However, one of them wasn’t smudged that badly as Xuan Min could still barely recognise most of the character “Liu”.
Xuan Min knew little about Adviser Liu’s family. When he saw this character, he could only think of Adviser Liu and his two sons. But from that large blob of ink, it didn’t seem like the word written would be “Liu Xu”, nor did it look like “Liu Chong” or “Liu Jin”.
Just as he bent down to pick up another one, something rolled out of his pocket.
The thing cried out “aiyo” and happened to roll right onto that pile of paper ingots. When it landed, it puffed up like a cow skinned bag, expanded, and turned into a living, breathing person.
*****
This person had pale skin and was slightly green beneath the eyes and appeared as a tired scholar. It was none other than Jiang Shining.
He probably didn’t think of how he could suddenly turn from a paper to a human. Hence he asked, entirely at a loss, “How did I roll down?”
Seeing that Liu Chong wasn’t someone who would cry at the sight of a human appearing out of nowhere, Xue Xian also stopped playing pretend and replied, “Because the yin energy is too abundant.”
After all, ghosts thrived in yin. The reason why Jiang Shining couldn’t move once it was daytime was because the yang energy was too heavy during the day. The yin energy in this room was even more insidious compared to the mass burial mounds. Naturally, Jiang Shining had it good.
However, the fact that Liu Chong could still live a good life even with such a heavy yin energy was strange in itself.
“Then why didn't you roll down?” asked Jiang Shining in disbelief.
Xue Xian said roughly, “No, I haven’t died. I don’t belong to the same category as you, old man.”
“Then why are you clinging to a piece of torn paper so badly?” Jiang Shining thought that the one called Xue was sick in the head.
If you’re not a ghost, you must still have a body. If you still have a body, how bored would you have to be to tear out your soul and live by a piece of paper? If not sick in the head, what else could you be?
Xue Xian hung on Xuan Min’s fingertips and said languidly, “What do you care? Rather than wasting effort speaking, you might as well get up.”
After all, this sickly scholar had turned into a living human. Even if he was as thin as a wooden stick, he wasn’t light. Paper folded ingots could not withstand any weight. After Jiang Shining rolled onto them just now, they were flattened by a half and the mountain of gold was instantly razed to the ground.
When he glanced around and realised what he was sitting on, he jumped and put his hands together towards Liu Chong in apology. “I’m sorry, so sorry.”
Just as he was struggling hastily to get up, Liu Chong, who stood at the side, snapped out of his daze and finally reacted. The moment he noticed the floor that was covered by the flattened ingots, he roared “Ah—!” and shoved Jiang Shining aside, kneeling on the floor himself to carefully fold the flattened ingots back.
The blockhead’s strength was much greater than ordinary people so of course Jiang Shining’s body would not have been able to withstand such a push. He immediately rolled over and collided with the wooden cabinet beside him.
The wooden cabinet was knocked off a few inches and proceeded to clash against the wall with a bang.
Still dishevelled from the tumble, Jiang Shining supported himself against the floor, wanting to get up and help Liu Chong with the ingots as an apology. But as soon as he tried to get up, he drew in a sharp breath and withdrew his hand.
There was an extra hole on his open palm that made him wince but there was no blood.
This was how paper-made skin was like. It could allow ghosts to walk on solid ground and touch solid objects just like half a living human, but it was also extremely easy to get hurt.
“Why are there nails even under the cabinet?” grumbled Jiang Shining. He then turned towards the direction of Xue Xian and whispered, “Next time…If there is a next time, could you make a skin out of cattle skin for me instead of paper?”
Xue Xian asked, "How about I make one out of human skin?"
Jiang Shining, “…”
Xuan Min’s face was still expressionless but his fingers moved and pressed accurately on Xue’s mouth in order to prevent this vile spawn from spouting nonsense every time he opened his mouth.
Xue Xian, “…”
“Eh? That’s strange—there’s a talisman under this nail.” When Jiang Shining was getting up, he quickly glanced at the floor where his hand was pierced and spotted something strange out of the corner of his eye.
Xuan Min frowned at his words and lifted his robes a little while bending down.
There was a sharp corner that poked out from the small exposed area where the cabinet had been knocked away. Xuan Min tore an edge of his robes and using the torn white hemp, rubbed against the sharp corner with his fingers. As the mud on the surface was cleared away, the sharp corner gradually came into focus—
Judging from the oily yellow color, it was a copper nail with three vertical ridges on its side.
Since it was wrapped in a layer of such old mud, this copper nail must have been here for at least three years already and yet, there was no hint of rust on it. It was still lustrous and was obviously not just any normal nail.
Most importantly, it pinned down a grimy piece of paper.
Xuan Min frowned, lowered his eyes and using the white hemp of his robe swept away a thick layer of dust—
Sure enough, it was a piece of yellow paper on which complex drawings were drawn with cinnabar.
Even if one did not understand the contents, one would have known what this was. Jiang Shining froze for a moment and then pushed the drawer aside to expose more ground.
On the ground that was previously obscured by the drawer, there were a total of three copper nails, each of which held down a yellow talisman that pointed towards the south-west, north-east, and north-west, respectively.
“This…What are these talismans for? Longevity of life? Physical healthiness?” Jiang Shining stared at these few talismans and froze for a moment, feeling strange, as if his body was getting warmer.
This was strange. After all, ever since he became a wandering ghost, he had never felt “warmth”. He used to be wrapped in frost and cold all year round and had long become used to it. Feeling such warmth so suddenly made him a little uncomfortable.
And so, he shifted two timid steps to the side.
Xue Xian, who always liked to tease him, had his mouth pressed on by someone and could not open his mouth even if he wanted to.
So when he asked this question, no one answered for a long time. It was rather embarrassing.
It was not until Xuan Min finished reading the contents of the three talismans that he said indifferently, “A fengshui array.”
Xue Xian, “…” Obviously.
The continuous movement in the room made Adviser Liu, who was waiting outside, restless. He stared at the door for a moment, then finally walked to the door, saying, “Master, did someone hit something just now? Was it my silly son causing trouble?”
He seemed to not like this room very much and looked as if he wouldn't take a step into this room no matter what. Even while standing by the door, he shot an extremely disdainful look at the pile of ingots in the room.
Xuan Min stood up as he heard him and stepped over the threshold to the outer room. He asked Adviser Liu, “Who lives in the north-west room?”
Adviser Liu looked at the north-west corner, confused. “That’s the house I live in.”
Xuan Min glanced at him and said again, “North-east.”
Adviser Liu asked, “Huh? North-east? My son Liu Jin is the one who lives in the north-east room. He’s my youngest son who fell into the well this morning. Master, why are you asking about this? Is there something wrong with these two rooms?”
Xuan Min did not answer immediately. He paused for a while before saying, “Have you heard of the Array of River Draining into Sea?”
Looking at his face, no one could tell whether he was happy or angry. It was still the same cold and expressionless face as if he was asking about ordinary things like eating and drinking. However, Adviser Liu’s face had already drained white.
He stood outside with a stiff neck for a long time before moving his eyes, glancing at the drawer inside the room. When he saw that the drawer had shifted from its place, his face turned even more unpleasant. “This, this…To tell you the truth, Master, for these past two years, my body has, it hasn’t been so well. So, so—”
As Adviser Liu tripped over himself outside, Jiang Shining had already moved from his original position. He retreated two steps when Adviser Liu was asking and managed to avoid his sight. There were two reasons for doing this. One, it was bound to stir up some trouble if he, who had been long dead, suddenly appeared in front of someone who recognised him. Two, as soon as he looked at Adviser Liu, anger started boiling all the way up to his head.
When he thought of the suffering that his own parents had endured when they were alive, he could not help but grit his teeth.
While he was busy swallowing his anger by the door, Liu Chong, who had been busy with the paper ingots, finally noticed the talismans on the floor.
The attention of blockheads would always be easily distracted. As he stared at the yellow talismans, he let go of the paper ingots in his hand and shifted two steps to squat in front of the talismans.
Whenever children see something new, it doesn't matter if it is clean or dirty, safe or dangerous, they will always touch it with their hands. The blockhead Liu Chong was stuck in such a confusing age. He stared intently at the three copper nails and couldn’t help but reach for the tip of the nail.
The oily top of the copper nail was still extremely sharp as if it had been sharpened just now. It wouldn’t have been a problem to cut hair just by blowing it against the edge, let alone Liu Chong’s thin layer of skin.
And so, the blockhead ended up with a hand full of blood.
“Ah—Don’t move!” When Jiang Shining reacted and moved to stop him, it was already too late.
The bead of blood slid down the copper nail and seeped into the yellow paper.
Liu Chong raised his head in bewilderment, stunned by his shouting.
There was a moment at which Jiang Shining thought that the entire old room had become terrifyingly silent as if the cold wind that beat against the walls had suddenly ceased.
Wandering ghosts were probably more sensitive than real, actual people. He felt that there was no breath around him and it was strangely calm.
Both standing by the door, Xuan Min and Adviser Liu exchanged a glance and raised their heads to the sky.
The winds were silent and so were the clouds.
The entire Liu mansion was engulfed in silence…
The strange silence didn’t last for long. In only a few blinks of the eye, the howling wind started again. But this time, the wind sounded as if it was whimpering. It carried with it a sense of bitterness and was completely different than before.
After several back and forths, the whimpering noise grew louder and louder. At first, it sounded like the crying of ghosts from all four sides, making the hair of anyone who heard it stand on its end.
In the midst of the unusual howling wind, something made a ringing sound.
Like the reverberation of metals clashing against each other, yet a little different.
Xue Xian, who was drooping in between Xuan Min’s fingers, stiffened immediately. Other people might not have distinguished this sound clearly, but he could hear it extremely so.
Because it sounded like the sound of the thing he was searching for.
North-east!
With some difficulty, Xue Xian raised his face to look in that direction.
The Baldy had just now asked once again about who lived in the north-east room?
Xue Xian was just thinking about it when a strange voice merged with the howling wind and increased in strength within a second. In that split second, everyone felt as if the back of their heads had been struck by a bat. Ears ringing, black exploded in front of their eyes and they promptly lost consciousness.
