Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The strange woman had been sitting in the café for nearly an hour.
Outside the window, rain came down in sheets. Her low, hoarse voice seemed soaked with damp as well, sticky and heavy, making the hairs on the back of my neck rise.
“I know none of this is a hallucination. I’ve cried, I’ve screamed, and my family almost had me committed to a psychiatric hospital.”
The woman suddenly straightened. Her face was so thin it looked sunken, and her round eyes fixed on me without blinking.
“Master Qiao, you’re my last hope.”
I scratched my head.
“I’m just a feng shui practitioner. If you’re looking for someone, you should go to the police.”
Her voice shot up.
“What good are the police? They said Shen Haixin doesn’t exist. No household registration, no such person. They’re all in on it!”
She was getting worked up, so Ling Ling quickly tried to soothe her.
“Sis, calm down. Master Qiao will definitely have a way.”
Then she clasped her hands together and gave me a pitiful look.
“Qiao Moyu, please. Help my cousin.”
My name is Qiao Moyu. I’m a junior at Nanjiang University, and also the only Earth Master successor of this generation.
In ancient times, Earth Master was a general term for feng shui practitioners. Later, it specifically referred to feng shui masters capable of observing the stars.
As the saying goes: first-rate Earth Masters read the constellations, second-rate Wind Masters seek the water’s mouth, and third-rate practitioners are a dime a dozen.
Most people practicing today are ordinary feng shui practitioners. In ancient times, those who truly mastered the arts of observing stars and reading qi all served in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, in service to the imperial family.
My Qiao ancestors once served as directors of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau and as the hereditary Sect Master of the Feng Sect.
That day, my roommate Ling Ling asked me to meet her at a café, saying her cousin had run into trouble and begging me to help.
At first, I thought it would be some minor matter, like running into an evil spirit or brushing against a Curse. I never expected what her cousin told me to be so far beyond anything I had imagined.
According to her, she had a fiancé she loved deeply. His name was Shen Haixin.
The two of them met while traveling and fell in love at first sight. Within half a year, they were already talking about marriage.
The night before the engagement banquet, Shen Haixin answered a phone call, and his expression suddenly changed.
“Qianqian, slow down. What happened?”
“Okay, okay, I understand. Don’t panic. I’ll come over right now.”
After hanging up, Shen Haixin said he had to go out for a while.
Her cousin was immediately unhappy.
According to local custom, on the day of the engagement, the groom’s side had to arrive at the bride’s home early in the morning with the betrothal gifts. The auspicious time calculated by the fortune-teller was 6:18 a.m., an hour neither of them usually ever woke up for.
Her cousin had always been cautious by nature, so that night, she had made a special trip to the groom’s home to remind him again of everything they needed to pay attention to the next day.
“It’s almost eleven already.”
“There’ll be so much to do tomorrow morning. How do you still have time to go out?”
Shen Haixin smiled ingratiatingly.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got everything ready. I promise nothing will go wrong.”
“You go home first. Stop worrying.”