NR | Chapter 10

I thought to myself that I had always been an honest, proper sort of person. In all these years of living, I never seemed to have offended anyone. So how had so many big shots suddenly turned up here, each one seeming itchy unless they made a fool of me? A ghost wall was not something I’d willingly run into. How was I supposed to know that if you went there would be no problem, but if I went, another road would just appear?

Tian Yuqing finally took his gaze off me. He pushed Tian Xiao slowly to the threshold and stopped there. I looked at Tian Xiao’s withered, bony hand, and a wave of pity for the old man rose in my heart. He had spent his whole life wandering the jianghu, and in his old age he still couldn’t find peace. He even had to come personally all the way to this godforsaken place.

I looked up and saw the pajama guy take two enamel cups out of a drawer. Then he used one of those 1980s-style thermoses to pour two cups of hot water. He carried one of them to the threshold and handed it to Tian Xiao, but the old man didn’t take it. The two of them just stood there in a stalemate.

After one or two minutes of deadlock, the pajama guy finally shifted slightly to the side, smiled into the light from inside the room, and said, “You can actually hand over the jade casket now. That way they can no longer threaten you, and they won’t be able to threaten us either.”

Tian Xiao shook his head a little sluggishly and sighed. “Didn’t we already foresee that this kind of situation would come years later?”

I picked up on something wrong in those words and stepped forward. “What do you mean, something we already foresaw?”

From ancient times to now, the study of divination and fortune-telling, if you put it in a mystical way, is basically reading destiny. If you put it plainly, it’s really about teaching people how to seek advantage and avoid harm. The hexagrams that get divined are usually extremely obscure and hard to understand, not something just anyone can decipher.

My family had nothing to do with divination, so I had always been somewhat skeptical that this craft could really see the course of a person’s whole life. Not to mention that within this line of work there was also some rule about three things that couldn’t be looked at.

The pajama guy and Tian Xiao kept the same united silence and ignored me. Being brushed off like that was truly annoying, but I knew that everyone standing here had more life experience than I did. Even Tian Yuqing hadn’t stepped in to interrupt, so naturally it wasn’t my place. Still, I was very annoyed.

Tian Xiao was still looking at the pajama guy. His body straightened slightly. “Lu Ayao, this time you have no choice. We have no choice either. Once you reach Gansu, you’ll understand why I had to come personally to invite you. This is all our fate.”

The man called Lu Ayao withdrew the enamel cup and brought it to his lips for a sip of water. I looked at him and finally saw clearly what was on half his face.

It was a kind of porcelain that looked like wrinkled paper. The porcelain was thin and translucent, and on it were written some talismans in cinnabar that I couldn’t understand. They had almost fused with his skin, looking completely natural. The talismans stretched from his chin all the way up to his lower eyelid.

I really couldn’t tell whether this was a custom or some personal perversion. But what kind of custom would implant porcelain shards into the skin of someone’s face? I studied Lu Ayao again. He was wearing worn-out pajamas that had pilled up, very young, with not a trace of the aura of a “successor” on him.

In this line of work, when people are hired to assess a house or grave site, many clients seem to naturally place enormous trust in anyone who looks mysterious and superstitious. Even if that person’s skill isn’t that good, they’ll still trust them completely. So nowadays, a lot of people in this business deliberately dress themselves up that way for better results.

For example, Tuanzi Tan wore agates and jade all over himself, along with a big necklace strung with beads. Or my fourth brother, who didn’t like hanging things on his body, so he started studying tea ceremony and incense burning and decorated his shop in an antique style.

But none of that color could be found on Lu Ayao at all. He was like someone drifting outside the line of work entirely. Add in the fact that his behavior was already a little abnormal, and if I were an outsider coming to find someone to assess a house, I’d also think he was unreliable.

The only thing that felt eerie to me was the porcelain figurine placed there.

After waiting for what felt like forever, Lu Ayao finally looked up with a smile. He sat back behind the table, pointed at me, then said to Tian Xiao, “I need to speak with him alone. You shouldn’t be in a hurry about fifteen minutes, right?”

I was extremely confused. My brain hadn’t even reacted yet. Lu Ayao wanted to talk to me?

When Tian Yuqing heard Lu Ayao’s words, he looked up too, his expression shifting in ways I couldn’t read. He seemed ready to step over the threshold, but Tian Xiao on the wheelchair held him back with a hand.

Tian Xiao made a “please” gesture, turned his wheelchair slightly, and looked at me. “Child, we’ll wait for you outside.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he shoved me hard. I hadn’t expected that such a frail-looking old man could have so much strength. He pushed me so hard I stumbled, nearly tripping over the threshold. If I had actually fallen headfirst and died like that, it would have been humiliating beyond words.

The moment I stepped inside, the wooden door behind me shut with a thud. I looked down and only then realized that on either side behind the door sat a porcelain figurine about the size of a palm. Threads were tied to their hands, looping up around the ceiling before hanging down in front of Lu Ayao. The threads were so thin they were almost invisible.

Lu Ayao waved me over and pushed the cup of water no one had touched toward the chair opposite him.

As long as something could breathe, I still wasn’t going to be afraid.

I walked over, pulled out the chair, and sat down. “What do you want to tell me?”

Lu Ayao had already turned serious, but his logic was clear. He said, “We don’t have much time. I’ll speak quickly, and I’ll try to keep it simple, so you need to listen with full attention.”

I froze, but before I could say anything, Lu Ayao paused slightly and continued, “Coming here was a mistake. I have a way to correct that mistake now. There’s a car behind this building. I can help you leave and return to a normal life.”

“Wait, hold on,” I interrupted him. “No, what mistake? Why is coming here a mistake? Do you know what my fourth brother and the others are looking for?”

Lu Ayao rolled up his sleeve and glanced at his watch, then slightly organized his words. “Do you know what the thing in your hands is?”

I glanced at the large wooden box by my feet.

Lu Ayao said, “They’re investigating this casket. Of course, part of it is from above, and part of it is their own doing. But as far as I know, everyone who got their hands on this casket ended up with no good outcome. I never intended to get involved in this matter, but I didn’t expect those old foxes to talk you into coming. So I have no choice but to step in.”

Suspicion rose in me. I thought, do I know you from before or what? I’m a proper, upstanding college student. From the day I was born until now, I’ve spent twenty years running myself ragged for my studies. Whether you get involved or not, what does that have to do with whether I came here?

“I know you probably don’t trust me, but I don’t care about that. Right now I need you to make a choice, leave here and go back to Henan, or keep following them?” Lu Ayao took out a copper coin and placed it in front of me.

Actually, at the time, this seemed like a very easy decision. First, I couldn’t completely believe what this twitchy Lu Ayao was saying, because he was hiding part of the truth. So his words only held half-weight with me.

Second, my heart still told me I should go meet up with my fourth brother. Being with him would make me feel more at ease. Besides, this was the age of law and order now. It was long past the old jianghu style of coercion and inducement. As for safety, it shouldn’t be that bad.

I took the copper coin from Lu Ayao and said, “I’m going to Gansu.”

The moment I said it, Tian Yuqing pushed the door open. “Time’s up.”

Lu Ayao smiled at Tian Yuqing, took out a bag from under the table, stood up, and patted my shoulder. “Then let’s go.”

Then he asked Tian Yuqing, “You should have clothes to change into and equipment in the car, right?”