Chapter 190

Chapter 190

The next day, we went to the office for a morning meeting.

We almost never held meetings, but since a new colleague had joined us, it was only natural to have one.

The meeting was very brief. Meng Yifan introduced Anning to everyone and said a few polite words.

Aside from that, he also announced something that mattered quite a bit to the employees.

“In the past, when everyone sold houses, they were normal houses.”

“Now, what we’re selling are Stigmatized Property listings. They’re unlucky to deal with, more or less, and the workload has gone up quite a bit too.”

Meng Yifan smiled and said, “From now on, everyone’s performance commission will get an extra three points on top of the original rate. If your commission was fifteen percent, it’ll be calculated as eighteen percent. If it was twenty percent, it’ll be twenty-three.”

“Also, we didn’t have meal subsidies before, so I’ll add three hundred yuan a month for everyone.”

The sudden benefits naturally got everyone excited.

The meal subsidy wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

And that extra three percent commission wasn’t small either. After all, the profits on Stigmatized Property were high, so the commissions were naturally high as well.

“Boss, you’re awesome. Getting sudden benefits like this feels like New Year’s.”

“The moment our new colleague arrives, we get benefits.”

“We should thank our new colleague. Let’s treat her to a meal!”

Anning had probably never experienced this kind of atmosphere before. She looked very restrained and kept forcing an awkward smile.

Meng Yifan laughed. “Anning has to go out with Second-in-Command today for business. Treating her to a meal can wait. I won’t be in the office today either. Xiao Xie, you watch the shop.”

Xie Peng looked utterly confused and muttered a couple of lines.

“That’s freaking weird. Why am I always the one watching the shop…”

After everyone dispersed, Song Xiaotian went back to the office and brought out four Talisman, one for each of us.

These Talisman were Peace Talisman made by Seventh Master, but they weren’t for keeping people safe. They were for warding off evil.

Once we had each put on a Talisman, I was just about to ask Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian which family they were going to.

But before I could even ask, those two bolted into the car like they were running for their lives. They stuck their heads out the window and shouted at me, “We’re going to the male victim’s house. The other family has a ten-thousand-yuan reward, so we’ll let you two earn that money. Heh heh heh!”

With that, the two of them drove off. I didn’t even get the chance to curse at them.

The other family was the female victim’s home. Two people had died there, one adult and one child-a mother and her son.

When it came to a Ghost, female ghosts were usually the fierce ones and no easier to deal with than male ghosts. The main reason was that women were naturally associated with yin, so after death, turning into a ghost meant yin upon yin.

Moreover, women were inherently emotional. If a Ghost lingered on, there had to be an obsession, and that made it difficult to persuade them to leave.

On top of that, the dead were a mother and son. Although the conditions of their deaths weren’t enough to form a mother-and-child evil spirit, that household was still more dangerous than the other one.

Those two immoral bastards, Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian, knew which place was worse, so they dumped the fiercest one straight onto me.

That ten-thousand-yuan reward probably wouldn’t be easy to earn.

I drove Song Xiaotian’s car and prepared to head to that Stigmatized Property with Anning.

After getting in, Anning said she wanted to go home first-back to my rental place.

“Go back? What for?” I asked her.

“There’s something I didn’t bring…”

“Is it important?”

She nodded.

I didn’t ask any more questions. It was still early anyway, so I drove her back first to pick it up.

Since both of us were carrying backpacks, I had no idea what she took, and I didn’t feel right asking.

Once she got her things, she came back down. Only then did we drive over to that Stigmatized Property.

When we arrived, it was right around noon-twelve-thirty. It was currently Wu Hour, and there was still half an hour before Shen Hour.
Zi Hour and Wu Hour are the moments when Yin and Yang intersect. Extreme yin transforms into extreme yang, and extreme yang transforms into extreme yin. Wu Hour is the height of yang, which makes it the point where yin is born from yang at its peak.

For now, all I could do was take Anning to get something to eat and wait until Wu Hour had passed before entering that building.

We had a bowl of noodles at a noodle shop near the residential compound, then sat there for a while. By the time we were done, it was just about Shen Hour.

Wu Hour was over, so naturally, we could go in now.

This residential compound had been built ten years ago, and the environment was quite nice. The average housing price here was around fifteen thousand yuan per square meter.

Housing prices in Lanjiang City generally weren’t all that high, so a development averaging fifteen thousand was considered mid-range in every respect.

From the moment I stepped into the compound, my eyelid started twitching-and it was my right eyelid.

Unease settled over me. When we reached the bottom of that building, I didn’t dare go straight in.

I hesitated for a long while, then decided to cast a hexagram for Anning and me.

But interpreting a hexagram now would inevitably waste time. Besides, when it came to divining major matters, a hexagram master never cast for himself. First, because his own judgment would be too biased and prone to error. Second, if the result was bad, was he supposed to believe it or not?

There were three methods of interpretation in Six Yao: image, number, and principle.

The way I had interpreted hexagrams before relied mainly on “number,” also known as Najia Divination.

This time, I was going to interpret the hexagram through “image.”

I steadied my mind, turned back, and looked to the left. The first thing I saw was a family of four coming out of the building.

Four people. So I took four as the upper trigram. In the number system of the Earlier Heaven Eight Trigrams, four represents the Zhen Trigram, making the upper trigram the Zhen Trigram.

I immediately turned back and looked to the right. The first thing I saw was the streetlights inside the compound. There were two of them, so I took two as the lower trigram.

In the Earlier Heaven Eight Trigrams, two represents the Dui Trigram, making the lower trigram the Dui Trigram.

The only people here today to handle the Stigmatized Property were Anning and me, a total of two, so I took two as the moving line.

At this moment, Anning and I were the Zhen Trigram, while the ghost was the Dui Trigram.

Zhen was wood. Dui was metal. Dui metal overcame Zhen wood. The ghost overcame Anning and me…

The unease in my heart grew heavier, but I kept calculating.

The ghost was yin, and we were yang. The Dui Trigram was also a yin trigram, while the Zhen Trigram was a yang trigram. If Dui overcame Zhen, that meant yin overcame yang…

The more I calculated, the more cold sweat broke out over me.

This was an ominous hexagram!

I wanted nothing more than to slap myself across the face.

So now, was I supposed to believe it or not?

Seeing me break out in a cold sweat, Anning leaned closer and stared at me. “What’s wrong? Are you feeling sick?”

I wiped the sweat from my face, took out three copper coins, and handed them to Anning. “Throw these three coins. If all three land character-side up, we go in. If they don’t, no matter what else they show, we turn around and leave.”

Her beautiful eyes widened. “Why? Isn’t this our job? The boss said we have to settle the matter here before we’re done.”

I said, “Don’t worry about that for now. Just throw them.”

She didn’t say anything more. She took the three copper coins from my hand and tossed them straight onto the ground.

My heart leaped into my throat. I hoped they wouldn’t all land character-side up. As long as they didn’t, then it was heaven’s will. If heaven’s will didn’t want me to go in, I would turn around and leave. I would obey heaven’s will.

But of course, the more you feared something, the more likely it was to happen. Three copper coins, each with a flower side and a character side. There were clearly so many possible combinations, yet all three landed character-side up!

“See? This is heaven’s will.” A faint smile appeared at the corners of Anning’s mouth.

She wanted to go in because she wanted to make money.

I picked up the copper coins from the ground and led her into the building.