Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The next day, I hauled a truckload of liquor to the neighboring city.

The client this time counted as a repeat customer, though the last time he came to me, it hadn’t been to move cargo. It had been to settle a supernatural matter.

In the years since my company went bankrupt, I had been trying to pay off my debts. Besides driving long-haul, I had occasionally taken on jobs helping people ward off evil and drive away bad luck.

Just like that old Daoist had predicted back then, I really had ended up making a living between yin and yang.

Wei Zhang was one of those cases. He was a good man by nature, but someone had sold off his accumulated merit and used it to nurture a piece of jade.

He’d contracted a yin illness at a young age. Every day, it felt as if he were carrying a huge stone on his back.

The master he went to at the time told him to find someone with a tough birth chart to help him break the matter, and that was how he found me.

I helped him dig out that piece of jade. After that, we became the kind of friends who had gone through life and death together.

When I delivered the goods, Wei Zhang was already waiting outside for me.

The moment he saw me, he came up with a worried look on his face. “Brother Long, the thing you asked me to do didn’t work out.”

“The master who read my situation back then heard that the client I wanted to introduce was you, and he immediately stopped receiving visitors. I raised the price several times over, but he only said one thing: he couldn’t handle it.”

I wasn’t too surprised. Wei Zhang wasn’t the first person to give me that answer.

Because Tang Dong kept pestering me, I had wanted to find a capable master to take a look. After all, I was only someone who relied on brute force. I wasn’t a professional.

I asked former clients to help me search far and wide, and we contacted several masters. In the end, their answer was always the same-couldn’t handle it.

Wei Zhang’s brows were knit tight with worry. “Brother Long, can you wait a little longer? I’ll ask around through some more people. These days, masters with real ability aren’t easy to find. It takes time.”

I patted Wei Zhang on the shoulder. “No need for now. It’s not exactly a serious problem. If it really comes to it, I’ll deal with it myself.”

At the end of the day, I simply didn’t believe Tang Dong could really turn into some vicious ghost.

In all my years doing Chongsha, I had seen plenty of strange and wicked things that could cross the guardrail and get onto the official road. None of them had been as cowardly as Tang Dong.

I had a feeling there might be some other reason behind Tang Dong’s situation.

Worst case, I would be the one to send him on his way in the end-either his soul would scatter into nothing, or he would obediently be buried.

I hauled goods for Wei Zhang for about another half month. During that time, I didn’t see Tang Dong again.

I had almost forgotten about him when I unexpectedly received a call from the village chief back in my hometown.

Although the village I came from was poor, it had been around for a long time. The older generation had supported one another through the hardest years, so they were all deeply attached to each other.

The village had our ancestral graves, and my family members were buried there as well. Usually, the villagers helped keep an eye on them.

I called the village chief Uncle Ye. He was older than my father, but still hale and hearty. He was an upright man too, and he looked after every household in the village.

But for some reason, when Uncle Ye called this time, his voice was hoarse and weak, and he spoke hesitantly.

“Changdong, do you… do you have time? If you do, come back to the village.”

“What’s wrong, Uncle Ye? Did something happen?” I asked.

Uncle Ye fell silent for a long while. Faintly, I heard something roaring on his end of the line. The sound was muffled, as if someone’s mouth had been covered.

“There is… something. It’s not convenient to explain over the phone-”

“All right. I’ll head back tomorrow.”

I could hear the tremor in Uncle Ye’s voice, so I didn’t ask any more questions. I simply agreed at once.