Chapter 195
Chapter 195
Although everything in Liu Jing’s home had been cleared out, what had been taken away was mostly furniture and appliances.
There were still some odds and ends piled up in the rooms, most of them things Liu Jing had used.
From the clutter, I found a diary. Judging by the handwriting and the contents, it was Liu Jing’s.
There was also a business card tucked inside it.
“Wang Guofu, Level-One Feng Shui Master. Main services: Bazi Fate Reading, Feng Shui Surveying, relationship counseling, Defying Heaven to Change Fate…”
The moment I saw what was printed on the card, I noticed he’d even listed Defying Heaven to Change Fate.
This guy had some nerve. He dared to steal business from the Heavenly God.
And the key point was, as someone in the mystic arts, he was also doing relationship counseling.
The man was a complete mishmash.
I was about to look through Liu Jing’s diary for clues. I figured the Yin Gathering Talisman she’d brought home had probably come from this Wang Guofu.
This Wang Guofu was definitely no good.
Just as I opened to the first page, Anning’s voice rang out from the Master Bedroom.
“Chen Mo! Come here!”
I hurried over with the diary in hand and asked what was wrong.
“Look.”
She handed me two Talismans and pointed under the bed. “I found them under the bed frame.”
I took them and looked. These two Talismans were exactly the same as the one I’d found behind the door. They were also Yin Gathering Talismans!
Three Yin Gathering Talismans had appeared in a single bedroom!
Forget Liu Jing. If I slept in here, I’d probably end up depressed too.
Oh, no. I was already a little depressed to begin with.
“This wasn’t suicide. It was murder.”
I tore down the Talisman behind the door as well. “The reason Liu Jing became depressed was entirely tied to Feng Shui. And now three Yin Gathering Talismans have appeared. These three Yin Gathering Talismans were basically death warrants. They pushed Liu Jing, whose mind was already on the verge of collapse, straight toward death.”
“Someone used Feng Shui to harm Liu Jing.”
Anning frowned. “Who would want to hurt her? She was just a housewife.”
“It should have something to do with this Wang Guofu.” I handed the business card to Anning and said, “Wang Guofu is a Feng Shui master. He must know a few tricks, or he wouldn’t have used Yin Gathering Talismans to deceive Liu Jing.”
Liu Jing had a habit of keeping a diary. She should have written down why she went to see Wang Guofu and what she wanted from him.
Anning and I sat on the floor with our backs against the bed and read through Liu Jing’s diary together.
What kind of person keeps a diary?
Either someone who loves life deeply, or someone who is deeply disappointed in life and helpless against it.
Without a doubt, Liu Jing was the latter.
Her diary recorded all kinds of trivial things from daily life, ordinary things that couldn’t have been more mundane. Yet every word revealed the bitterness and helplessness that had filled Liu Jing’s entire life.
A few entries even moved me, an outsider, in spite of myself.
“The baby wet the bed today. I washed the quilt and sheets, then cleaned the house. Guests came over, so I made a whole table of dishes. I’m so tired today. But his mother said in front of the guests that I don’t do anything at home, that I’m lazy. My husband spoke up for me. After all, I just gave birth. But he still doesn’t know that I’m the one doing all the work around the house.”
“Today I bought myself a dress and his mother scolded me for it. She called me the ugliest things, so I cursed her back. When he came home that night, that old woman complained about me and said I hit her. My husband slapped me across the face. I feel so miserable. If my mom were still alive, I could go back to my parents’ home. But I don’t have one.”
“If that old woman wasn’t in this house, my husband and I wouldn’t fight. I don’t want to fight either. I know he’s exhausted from making money, but I can’t control my emotions. I hope my husband won’t argue with me.”
“Yesterday I fought with that old hag again. I cursed at her, and she threw me out. I was locked outside the door all night. No one would open it for me. My husband wouldn’t open it for me either. I’m so sad.”
More than half of the diary was filled with accounts of Liu Jing being bullied by her husband’s family. Anning was grinding her teeth by the time she finished reading them.
When I kept reading toward the last few pages, I found the part where Liu Jing went to see Wang Guofu.
“Today I took the baby to the park for a walk and ran into a Feng Shui master. He said my husband and I would get divorced. I don’t believe in that kind of thing, so I cursed him out. He didn’t get angry. He just said everything he told me was true. Then he counted on his fingers and calculated my birth date: the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month. I was born on the Ghost Festival. Almost no one knows that. Only my husband’s family knows, because it’s considered terribly unlucky.”
“I believe him now. He really is an expert. He said my husband and I would get divorced, so that must be true too. I’m so scared. I can lose anything, but I can’t lose my husband.”
“That expert gave me three Talisman papers. He told me to stick them behind the bedroom door and under the bed. This Talisman paper can make my husband devoted to only me, just like he used to be, and it can even drive that old hag away. I’m so happy. I believe this Talisman is real!”
At this point, Anning couldn’t help saying, “How could she be so stupid? How could she believe that?”
I said, “In her world, her husband was everything. Wang Guofu took advantage of that and made her willingly put the Yin Gathering Talisman in her own home. But that’s not the important part.”
“The important part is that she was born on the Ghost Festival…”
Anning said, “Plenty of people are born on the Ghost Festival. I used to know someone who was born then too, and it wasn’t a big deal.”
It really wasn’t a big deal. Being born on the Ghost Festival didn’t mean anything by itself.
But there was someone else who had also been born on the Ghost Festival.
“Lv Zhengxian was also born on the Ghost Festival…” I said, looking at Anning.
A long time ago, when I learned that Du Ruhai was Lv Zhengxian, I had gone through his detailed records. Song Xiaotian had shown them to me.
And since the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month was the Ghost Festival, I remembered his birth date especially clearly.
The moment Anning heard Lv Zhengxian’s name, her expression turned somewhat ugly.
“Do you know that Lv Zhengxian is dead?” I asked her.
She nodded. “That day… I saw you bite him to death.”
After hesitating again and again, I decided to tell her the truth. “Lv Zhengxian isn’t dead. He’s still alive. But he doesn’t go by Du Ruhai anymore. His name is Du Yunting now.”
When Anning heard that Lv Zhengxian wasn’t dead, her entire body went rigid. Her expression looked even worse than before.
The grudge between Lv Zhengxian and her was mainly because of Du Yuwei. Du Yuwei’s biological parents were also Anning’s parents, and although Lv Zhengxian had killed them, Anning had been sent to an orphanage when she was very young, so she had no emotional attachment to them.
But Du Yuwei and Anning were identical twins. The bond between the sisters ran deep.
Her hatred for Lv Zhengxian was no less than mine.
“Are you saying… Liu Jing’s death has something to do with Lv Zhengxian?” Anning asked after taking a long while to calm herself down.
I shook my head and said I didn’t know.
As long as anything had even the slightest connection to Lv Zhengxian, I would link it back to him.
But for now, I still didn’t dare say for sure whether Liu Jing’s death had anything to do with him.
Maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe it wasn’t.
But if Liu Jing’s death really was connected to him, then Wang Guofu was one of Lv Zhengxian’s people.
And Liu Jing might not have been the only person Wang Guofu had killed…