Chapter 45
Chapter 45
Master’s expression changed again!
Simple delight became astonished joy.
She stared and circled me several times, making my skin crawl!
“Uh, Master… you’re frightening me. Did I say something wrong?”
“No!” She shook her head. “Ah-Zhong, you surprise me again and again. Your understanding of the heart is already so profound, yet you’re only thirteen. I was nowhere near as perceptive at your age.”
Master kept praising me today, leaving me embarrassed!
She said seriously, “Good, evil, and justice reside in the human heart. Those who do evil cannot escape life tribulation. Perhaps demons are born evil, and perhaps some stubborn villains believe themselves right. Such people cannot enter our school and have nothing to do with us. If we encounter them, we eliminate them.”
Her answer seemed to resolve my question without entirely doing so.
But pressing further would make me argumentative.
And if I angered Master, I might be hit. Better leave it there.
I was overthinking. I knew I was not evil, so following my conscience was enough. As for others?
I could not control them!
After all that thought, I cupped my hands and bowed with a grin. “One conversation with Master surpasses a century of study. Your words are sweet rain to your disciple. I understand!”
Smack!
She slapped my head.
I clutched it. “Why, Master?”
“I just told you not to be glib, and you’ve forgotten already. Does everything I say enter one ear and leave the other?”
“Oh. Understood.”
The sun set and darkness gathered.
I guessed dinner was ready, ran home to pack it, and brought it back to eat with Master. Afterward, I returned home and discussed school with my parents.
Since they were ordinary people who would worry, I omitted the vicious corpse escaping its coffin during the procession.
I told them only amusing things about school and daily life.
…
Early the next morning, I went back to Master’s house.
She had said we could begin accepting paid jobs from neighboring villages!
She would take the jobs and bring me along.
I sensed she had no need to do them except to give me experience.
Old Cao said her lofty level might leave my training short on practice, but clearly that was not true.
“Besides my parents, Master truly treats me best!”
Warmth filled me.
At her house, she waited in the main room wearing her strange mask.
Except when alone with me, she never showed her true face. As far as I knew, no one else had seen it!
That made me feel specially trusted.
“Let’s go, Ah-Zhong. A family at Xiao Family Bend is building a house, but they can’t drive the foundation. Bloody water is seeping from the ground, so they asked for a feng shui master.”
“Yes, Master.”
I nodded excitedly.
This was my first job with her since becoming her disciple!
Xiao Family Bend lay east of Wujia Village in a river bend. Being closer to Lianghe Town, it was wealthier.
Our client was a prominent household. Local gentry since the Republican era, the Xiaos chose the right side during later turmoil and remained comfortable after the founding of the People’s Republic…
They opened a restaurant in Lianghe Town shortly after reform began a decade earlier.
Their business was smaller than Boss Duan’s but still successful.
Rural people felt deeply tied to ancestral land. After earning money, Old Master Xiao wanted a large new house on an auspicious village site.
He first hired a folk Taoist master from neighboring Hegou Village, who chose a good plot.
But soon after construction began, trouble appeared!
While compacting the foundation, workers struck a mysterious hard object that broke their rammer. Yet digging with shovels revealed nothing.
Still vigorous, Old Master Xiao personally ordered them to dig deeper.
Before they reached half a meter, bloody water bubbled from the soil!
It quickly filled the pit, terrifying the workers.
They refused to continue!
Old Master Xiao considered it ominous and recalled the Taoist.
Unable to explain, the man vaguely blamed impure energy deposited in an earth vein and claimed a guiding ritual would resolve it.
Xiao Family Bend had excellent feng shui: a mountain behind it and a jade-belt river curving in front.
A truly ominous site seemed almost impossible.
Yet the ritual failed.
The folk Taoist master became embarrassed. Without his modest reputation, Old Master Xiao would probably have treated him with contempt.
…
Master’s reserved nature meant she did not tell me this.
I pieced it together from villagers’ discussions after we arrived.
The Xiao ancestral home stood at the village center.
Even from afar, its feng shui looked excellent.
A wooded hill rose behind it, while the river ahead occupied a classic wealth-gathering position. No wonder the Xiaos prospered for nearly a century.
But the old house was ancient. Termites had riddled its beams and pillars, making renovation difficult.
The Classic of Dwellings said: Better to move than demolish, for energy follows but easily breaks.
If an ancestral home was too ruined to repair or inhabit, relocation was better than rebuilding on the spot.
Reckless demolition could break a family’s fortune. With correct procedure, moving carried that fortune elsewhere intact and was simpler.
Master said there were exceptions. A skilled carpenter proficient in Lu Ban arts could make rebuilding on-site preferable.
But carpenters who still knew Lu Ban arts were probably rarer than a Red-Boat Oarsman–a river oarsman–and far rarer than folk Taoist masters…
We crossed Xiao Family Bend to the stopped construction site at its end. Several workers still lived nearby.
Like the ancestral home, it had a mountain behind and a jade-belt river ahead. A wide gap between two distant mountains on the left admitted wind, which dense trees slowed into a gentle breeze.
Wind and water flourished, slow and gentle rather than violent.
“This truly is an excellent residential site! Nothing should be wrong.”
An elderly man in a Zhongshan suit approached with several followers.
In his sixties, he stood straight, with large knuckles and a vigorous bearing.
This was Old Master Xiao.
Seeing Master’s mask, doubt flashed in his eyes, but he cupped his hands.
“You must be Immortal Lady Qin. Old Wang is a friend. At dinner two days ago, he called you remarkably skilled, an extraordinary person, so I invited you to examine my site. What is wrong here?”
His words sounded polite, but he used no honorific.
Clearly he doubted the Immortal Lady’s ability.
Master modestly said, “You flatter me,” then turned to me. “Ah-Zhong, assess this site’s feng shui and find the problem.”
What?
I had expected something like this, but being singled out before so many people still made me nervous.