Chapter 160

Chapter 160

The scream was followed by the sound of something heavy crashing to the floor and shattering…

Clang! Crash!

“What happened?!”

I frowned slightly and looked toward the kitchen.

The piercing scream startled everyone in the dining room.

Then Yao Nan’s mother rushed out of the kitchen, her face filled with terror.

“Yilong was helping take the clay pot of stewed beef off the gas stove. I don’t know what happened, but the stove suddenly shot out an enormous flame and burned his hands. We need to get him to the hospital immediately!”

Liu Yilong’s parents were also present. The moment they heard, they panicked.

They rushed into the kitchen at once.

The warm, cheerful atmosphere of the birthday party instantly became tense.

I also stood in the kitchen doorway and looked inside.

Liu Yilong truly was in miserable condition…

Both his hands had been burned by the flames, and patches of skin had peeled away.

He had been lifting the large clay pot of stewed beef off the gas stove when the sudden flames burned both hands.

Under the excruciating pain, he naturally couldn’t keep hold of the pot.

The entire thing had fallen and shattered against the floor–the crashing sound we heard had come from that.

Scalding beef and broth splashed out of the pot, burning the tops of his feet and his knees and causing a second round of injuries.

I had to admit… his luck truly was terrible!

Liu Yilong’s mother couldn’t keep her tears from falling when she saw how badly he was hurt.

“My boy, my poor boy. How could you be so careless? Sister Zhao, what happened to your gas stove?”

The “Sister Zhao” she addressed was Yao Nan’s mother, Zhao Jiao.

At a complete loss, Zhao Jiao said, “I… Someone from the natural gas company inspected our stove just last weekend. There wasn’t anything wrong with it.”

At that moment, a middle-aged man stepped forward, tried turning one of the stove’s knobs, then inspected the appliance. He looked puzzled as well.

“There truly isn’t anything wrong with it. It works perfectly fine. How could this have happened?”

It appeared that he might have some relevant technical background.

Liu Yilong’s father frowned deeply and said in a grave voice, “This isn’t the time to inspect the gas stove. We need to get him to the burn unit’s emergency room right now! Yilong, can you still walk?”

“Y-yes… Dad, it hurts so much.”

“Bear with it.”

Liu Yilong’s father glanced at everyone present.

“I’m sorry, everyone, but we may need to leave first. And Brother Yao, I’m sorry we ruined the atmosphere at your daughter’s birthday party.”

Yao Nan’s father hurriedly shook his head. “Don’t say that. I’ll go to the hospital with you.”

“There’s no need. Our car is parked downstairs. The county hospital isn’t far. We can drive ourselves.”

The Liu family soon left.

Yao Nan’s father still felt guilty, so he sent one of his trusted subordinates who was present–a bachelor–to accompany them to the hospital.

But after all that commotion, everyone remaining felt terrible too.

The birthday party had once been warm and cheerful. Now the atmosphere was oppressively somber.

Everyone sat around the table and ate, their expressions visibly strained.

Under the table, Wang Dachun lightly bumped my leg with his own, then shot me a meaningful look and grinned wickedly.

His meaning was obvious: Boss, was that your doing?

I shook my head in denial.

It truly hadn’t been me!

I admitted that I wasn’t especially even-tempered. Anyone who dared provoke me would inevitably receive a taste of their own medicine.

But I wasn’t so vicious that a few spiteful and unpleasant remarks would make me inflict second- or third-degree burns on someone.

Personally, I thought it might genuinely have been an accident.

As we continued eating… something else suddenly happened!

Bzzzt, bzzzt.

A strange sound suddenly came from the living room.

Sparks flashed from the television’s electrical outlet, and a tongue of flame leaped out.

Another fire!

The adults were terrified. Yao Nan’s father and several other men hurried over, took off pieces of clothing, covered the flames, and beat them out. At last, they extinguished the fire.

It hadn’t caused a greater disaster.

Huff, huff…

Yao Nan’s father, Yao Tianlin, loosened the top button of his shirt and panted heavily.

“What’s going on today?”

The guest who had inspected the gas stove moved over and examined the outlet behind the television. Frowning, he said, “It might have been a short circuit. Or perhaps the wiring has deteriorated. We’d need a thorough inspection to know for sure. But Old Yao, this is a new apartment, isn’t it? I remember you only finished the renovations during the first half of this year.”

Yao Tianlin nodded, looking rather helpless.

By then, everyone had lost their appetite.

I saw that the smile had vanished from Yao Nan’s face. The corners of her mouth turned downward, and she plainly felt deeply aggrieved.

It was understandable. She had been happily celebrating her birthday.

Anyone would feel awful after two accidents in succession!

Doubt also began filling my mind.

“Is this a coincidence? Something doesn’t seem right…”

I scanned my surroundings and pretended to wander casually around the apartment.

In reality, I was sensing for any sinister, abnormal aura–but there was none. Everything seemed normal.

At the very least, no rogue occultist had tampered with the place.

Could it truly be pure coincidence?
Yao Nan’s birthday party was basically ruined.

The guests felt uncomfortable as well and politely took their leave one by one.

Yao Nan’s parents escorted them to the door and exchanged a round of courtesies.

Before long, only the four families of Yao Nan, Wang Qian, Wang Dachun, and Zeng Jin remained in the apartment, along with me.

“Nannan, don’t feel bad. It’s all right. Look, you still had a very happy birthday!”

Wang Dachun and Zeng Jin immediately echoed the sentiment, nodding repeatedly.

“Exactly, Yao Nan. Look, even Brother Wu traveled dozens of li from home to celebrate with you. He gave you a treasure too! I’m so jealous I can hardly stand it.”

I didn’t know what to say to comfort her.

Besides, Wang Qian, Dachun, and the others had already said everything…

I glanced toward the other end of the living room, where Yao Tianlin sat on a couch chatting, shaking his head, and sighing. A vague, inexplicable sense of unease refused to leave my heart.

Sure enough, the trouble wasn’t over!

Yao Tianlin had been speaking with Wang Qian’s father, Wang Chao, when his expression suddenly froze.

It immediately contorted in agony. Clutching his heart with one hand, he collapsed onto the couch.

“Old Yao, Old Yao, what’s wrong? Don’t frighten me!”

Zhao Jiao panicked. She supported her husband, completely at a loss.

Yao Nan was also badly startled. She rose and ran toward the other side of the living room.

“Dad!”

This time, genuine tears spilled from her eyes. She rushed to Yao Tianlin and cried out beside him.

Wang Dachun’s father, Wang Min, remained composed and asked calmly, “Does Old Yao suffer from acute heart disease?”

Zhao Jiao shook her head.

“Then it may be an acute myocardial infarction! Hurry. Honey, go downstairs and bring the car to the entrance of the building. I’ll try to stabilize Old Yao first.”

As he spoke, Wang Min loudly called Yao Tianlin’s name to keep him conscious. At the same time, he formed a hollow fist with his right hand, laid his left hand over it, and used his body weight to roll and press across Yao Tianlin’s chest from right to left.

I glanced at Wang Dachun. “Your father is pretty capable.”

Without waiting for his response, I continued.

“We can basically be certain now that this isn’t a coincidence. Something uncanny is definitely affecting Yao Nan’s home!”

“What?!”

Wang Dachun and Zeng Jin jumped in fright.

“Boss, it’s broad daylight. Would a ghost really come out now?”

I shook my head.

“I don’t mean a literal ghost. I mean something uncanny. But I haven’t sensed even the slightest aura of a magical art. That leaves only one possibility… feng shui!”

That was right.

Only feng shui could cause all manner of inauspicious events without leaving the aura of a magical art behind.

Feng shui itself wasn’t an ability through which a cultivator used their own qi to cast an art.

Instead, it cleverly borrowed the forces of nature, heaven, and earth to influence or even create good and ill fortune.

Naturally, sensing with my qi would reveal no clue.

“Sigh.”

I also sighed softly and thought to myself…

“Perhaps my talisman arts have advanced too quickly lately. My strength and reserves of qi have grown so fast that I’ve become overly dependent on them. As a result, my perception when applying feng shui isn’t as sharp as it used to be. I’ll have to pay attention to that in the future.”

As I considered the matter, I began carefully examining the apartment.

I quickly made a circuit of the rooms but found no errors in the layout or furnishings.

In that case… the problem had to be outside!

I went first to the kitchen, where the gas stove had inexplicably shot out flames and caused the first accident.

Since no one had had time to clean properly, beef broth still remained on the floor.

It was a bright kitchen with a window and excellent natural light.

I approached the gas stove and looked out the window.

Sure enough!

One glance revealed a serious problem.

This was a newly developed district of Lianghe Town, which meant it lay relatively close to the town’s outskirts. A little farther out was the industrial fringe, with various factories and similar facilities.

The kitchen window of Yao Nan’s home directly faced three enormous smokestacks at the foot of a distant mountain!

In feng shui, this was a classic form baleforce–and since smokestacks belonged to the fire element, they brought tremendous scorching fire energy.

At this point, I more or less understood the cause.

But I planned to keep looking…

So I went to the balcony outside the living room and looked down once again.

Good grief!

I found another extremely serious problem.

A three-way intersection was visible from the living room balcony.

The roads to the front-left and front-right met at an angle, then extended directly toward Yao Nan’s home in a triangular shape. They resembled crossed, razor-sharp swords.

This was unexpectedly another form baleforce–also a fire-form baleforce.

Even I was astonished.

Yao Nan’s home was being struck head-on by two separate fire-form baleforces.

Fire-form baleforce!

As the name suggested, feng shui theory defined it as form baleforce caused by objects shaped like fire. It was also called fire-punishment baleforce or a fire-form assault.

The corresponding feng shui configurations and shapes involved all manner of physical or figuratively sharp objects directing their force at a building or residence.

A home affected by this type of feng shui configuration…

Made its owner prone to bloody calamities, fires, and poor health. Acute illness might inexplicably strike, injuries became more likely, and the household’s fortunes were prone to disaster.

In short, it was an exceptionally inauspicious feng shui configuration!

Ordinarily, being struck by one fire-form baleforce was already painful enough.

Yet Yao Nan’s home was being struck by two at once.

“No wonder so many uncanny events occurred while I couldn’t sense any sinister aura. This is an extremely inauspicious configuration created by feng shui.”