Chapter 2

Chapter 2

My dad shut the bedroom door, staggered over to the sofa, and lay down. He told me to take the bank card from the drawer. He also said he had bought two other insurance policies and some kind of fund, and told me to write all of it down.

He sounded like he was giving his final instructions. Panic welled up in me until my eyes turned red.

When he saw me wiping away tears, my dad anxiously pushed himself upright.

“You’re almost an adult. What are you crying for?

“Xiaoyang, hurry up and get everything ready. Go next door and ask Uncle Zhao to come help us drive. We’re going to the train station right now.”

The village bus only came twice a day. My dad had driven himself back.

But he was in terrible shape now. He swayed when he walked, and his whole body kept trembling. There was no way he could drive again.

I answered and went to call Uncle Zhao.

The moment I opened the door, someone kicked me hard in the chest.

My body flew backward, and I hit the floor so hard my head spun and my vision blurred.

Against the light, several burly men in black swarmed in. Last of all came a middle-aged man with fair skin, dressed in an expensive Tang suit.

The instant my dad saw him, his face changed.

He rolled off the sofa, dropped to his knees, and pleaded, “Master Wu, the boy is still young. I-”

“That isn’t how business is done.”

Master Wu’s face was stern. The assistant beside him handed over a contract.

“It’s written in black and white. Once a Yin Guest starts lying in yin, they can’t stop halfway. And yet you just ran off. You have no sense of contractual spirit whatsoever.

“Master Sun, this isn’t how matters should be handled. Am I right?”

Only then did I realize my dad had come back without the employer’s permission. He had sneaked away.

My dad was drenched in sweat. Trembling, he kept apologizing, saying he couldn’t take this job after all. If necessary, he would return double the money.

Master Wu gave a disdainful little laugh and lifted a finger.

“The fee I paid the feng shui master just for locating an auspicious burial site was seven figures.

“What are you going to use to compensate me?”

I had heard my dad mention some of the rules of this line of work before.

Once a Yin Guest accepted a job, it was fine if nothing happened. But if some accident occurred, that meant he had formed a connection with whatever was underground. Under no circumstances could someone else be swapped in.

Unless the employer was willing to abandon that burial site entirely.

Now that I heard the cost of locating an auspicious burial site alone was several million, I knew there was no way my dad could afford it.

He knelt on the floor and begged Master Wu over and over, saying we were willing to pay half the money. But no matter how he pleaded, Master Wu remained unmoved.

Those men grabbed my dad under the arms and forced us into the car.

Not long after the car pulled away, my dad suddenly began convulsing. Great clouds of black vapor gushed from his mouth.

A thick, fishy stench spread through the car.

It was like the corpse of an animal that had been rotting for ages, thrown into a pit of fermenting dead fish. The smell was so rich and sharp it stung our eyes and made tears stream down our faces.

Everyone covered their mouths, retching, and stuck their heads out the windows.

Even so, the driver did not dare stop, because Master Wu’s car up ahead was still moving.