NR | Chapter 2

In a house on Longshan Road in Lăngling, Henan, I sat on a long bench and had already been waiting for more than an hour. The little half-cup of tea in my hand had been topped up again and again, and cooled again and again. For the thirty-second time, I checked my watch. If no one showed up in ten minutes, I was going to buy an afternoon train ticket and get the hell out of here.

This private house had been left behind by my maternal grandfather before he died. It was swept clean, with a memorial tablet and incense burner set up on the altar. My grandfather’s family had been famous feng shui masters. People in their line of work were very particular about such things, so even though the courtyard was empty and no one lived here anymore, the incense before the altar had never gone out.

After finishing the last cup of tea, I set the cup down and dragged my suitcase up as I rose from the bench. I thought to myself that it wasn’t like I didn’t want to come back and help. If I kept sitting there, I was afraid I’d freeze to death in this place.

I was squinting at the road signs when I noticed that this tiny county used to be nothing but wasteland. Now it had been renovated into residential houses, and it had left me completely turned around.

Just as I was rubbing my chin and staring, I heard two honks from behind me.

A Passat came around the slope, and a head poked out of the window to curse at me. “You little brat, what are you standing there thinking about?! I told you to go to the shop and you wouldn’t, so now I have to come invite you in person?”

The crew cut in the car was my maternal grandfather’s eldest disciple. He was the same generation as an uncle, and not even that much older than me. After my grandfather passed away, he had been helping manage the family’s inherited craft and business. My grandfather said he was born with a pure yin birth chart and had a hard fate. Not to mention arranging feng shui for yin houses, even hiding out from debt in one would probably not be a big problem.

Compared to him, I just had no connection to this line of work. But he and I had been brothers since we were kids, thick as thieves. He was the fourth child in his family, and I was used to calling him Fourth Brother. After saying it long enough, I couldn’t be bothered to change it.

I was still a proper, upright college student. Cursing people out was not my thing. Fourth Brother had been taking over my grandfather’s business for years, and he was slick with words. Sure enough, before I could even figure out how to fire back, he cut me off.

Fourth Brother said, “Young master, what, studying abroad too long and gone stupid? You don’t even recognize people now? Do you really think your brother has nothing better to do? What are you standing there for? Get in the car. Stop blocking the road.”

I took a breath and hauled my suitcase into his car. To be honest, the last time we’d been out climbing mountains and catching crabs together was years ago. Feng shui business for looking at houses was not easy, and it wasn’t simple to keep a shop running either. More often than not, you had to deal with both sides.

Fourth Brother had seen far more ghosts and demons than I had. Over the past few years, I’d also felt that he had changed more than a little. Setting aside whether he still cared about our old bond, I definitely couldn’t just turn around and leave in front of him. That would have been way too shameless.

When you ran into someone that experienced and mature, I couldn’t help getting nervous. It wasn’t that I was scared. It was just an instinctive reaction to someone stronger. I always felt like the things I was thinking, he could see through seven or eight parts of it at a glance.

Fourth Brother took a drag on his cigarette and glanced at me through the rearview mirror, smiling. “You finally got a break, so stay at my shop for a few days. After the New Year, you can go with me to the cemetery and see Master. Hey, how’s your mom doing?”

“Pretty good. She and her boyfriend moved south to live there. They just moved, and they’re planning to spend the New Year over there, so she won’t be coming back this year,” I said.

I’ve always been in favor of my mom pursuing her own happiness. My maternal grandfather only had her as a daughter and treasured her like the apple of his eye. When she was young, she was foolish and liked handsome men. After getting married, she realized they couldn’t make it work, so she divorced.

She only found out she was pregnant with me after the divorce. It should have been an accident, but my arrival surprised my grandfather. He threw a very grand full-month banquet. Feng shui masters from all over came to congratulate him, and naturally I took my mother’s surname. My surname was Gan, and my given name came from the meaning of “heaven-sent sweet rain, bright and pure as wind and moon.”

The county town wasn’t big. Before I could even react, Fourth Brother had already parked by the roadside, directly across from a storefront on the corner of the street called “Yinggan Hall.”

Fourth Brother got out, crushed out his cigarette, and said to me, “Gan Ji, go upstairs and put your things in the room. I’ve already had the help clean it up for you. There’ll be guests coming later. They’re all insiders, so don’t say anything stupid and mess things up for me.”

I nodded and followed him into the shop, silently complaining to myself that even now, looking at a house still came with so many rules. They had to make it mysterious just like in the old days, with every one of them acting like an old fox, hiding things and refusing to say them plainly. Living like that was exhausting. No wonder my mom didn’t like coming back for the New Year.

Fourth Brother’s storefront looked small from the outside, but inside there was far more to it than met the eye. The building went deep in a completely unreasonable way. It was unremarkable outside, but inside it was big enough to count as half a ceremonial hall.

I saw incense burning on the table, along with a set of exquisitely maintained teaware. Fourth Brother had picked up that habit from my grandfather too, and he liked fussing over tea. For something fresh, he could drive a hundred kilometers to Xinyang just to find tea farmers who were picking leaves.

Right after I went upstairs with the helper and put my things down, I heard a jumble of footsteps from downstairs. I grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and was cracking them while peering over the wooden staircase. The shop’s decor was very particular, and every staircase leading to the upper floor had a folding screen set up to block the view.

People kept coming into the shop one after another, and the helpers inside all stopped moving at the same time. I hid behind the screen and peeked, thinking, why did Fourth Brother have so many clients? It was almost New Year’s already, and there were still this many people coming to look at houses?

“Everyone’s here. Chen Si, shouldn’t we be getting started?” I heard a very young male voice say.

I found that strange. Chen Si was Fourth Brother’s real name. He had learned the craft from my grandfather, and in the past few years he had traveled all over the place and made a big name for himself. A lot of fellow practitioners in the Central Plains called him Fourth Brother, and very few addressed him by his full name like this. It sounded disrespectful.

As soon as the voice fell, Fourth Brother lifted a hand. The helper at the door took the hint and started closing everything up. First came the two interior soundproof mahogany doors, then the second layer of security mesh was pulled down, and finally the outer rolling shutter was lowered. After making sure everything was sealed, the two helpers stood guard by the door.

In an instant, the shop fell completely silent, leaving only the sound of tea being brewed and water being poured.

I had no choice but to stop cracking sunflower seeds. What on earth was going on here? Had Fourth Brother agreed to some kind of secret bureau and gone off to do a covert mission to save humanity? The thought had barely formed before I immediately rejected it. My family just looked at houses. It wasn’t that serious.

Fourth Brother walked around to the main seat and sat down. He asked one of the guests, “Yuqing, what happened? You came in such a hurry that I didn’t even have time to prepare anything.”

“According to Yujingzi, the key has appeared again,” said the person speaking. I couldn’t make out his face, but the way he tasted the tea was smooth and effortless, his tone steady and even, without much fluctuation. “After all these years of peace and quiet, it’s about to start shaking again.”

A key? What key?

Just then, someone suddenly slammed the table hard. The tea cups rattled with a sharp clatter.

I leaned forward a little and heard the broad-shouldered, thick-backed man curse, “Tian Yuqing, I think you’ve studied those foreigner things until you’ve gone stupid. Yujingzi is always spouting nonsense. Who knows what kind of scheme she’s got up her sleeve? If you believe that woman’s bullshit, the Tian family will be ruined by you sooner or later!”

Tian Yuqing, who had been cursed like that in front of everyone, didn’t get angry. He only took off his glasses and wiped them. “The Liu family handles water-related business, a place where trade and commerce flow smoothly. Their ancestor was Liu Sanshui, who was never exactly clean in his dealings. It’s not strange that his subordinates would have many channels for information. What Yujingzi said is still somewhat credible.”

“Hah! Since you believe that woman so much, why isn’t she here today? Don’t tell me the two of you have been messing around in private with some unspeakable business.”

The little red door on the right side of the first floor was suddenly pushed open from inside, startling me so badly that I jolted. Several sunflower seeds fell from my hand. That was Fourth Brother’s room, and I had absolutely not expected anyone to be inside, let alone a woman.

The one who came out was an extremely beautiful woman. A qipao wrapped around her figure, emphasizing her graceful shape. She didn’t even spare me a glance as she slowly circled around the screen in her high heels and sat down on a lantern chair beside Tian Yuqing.

Her steps were unhurried. As soon as the hooligan Tan saw her arrive, he immediately clamped his mouth shut and stopped talking.