Chapter 44: 44 The brick house

That evening at work, I asked Xiao Lingdang if I could talk to Sister Tan, but she informed me that sister Tan did not want to see me. It seemed that everything was suddenly stuck in a deadlock.

Time passed this way for a few days, then something happened that would stir things up.

Jiang San was the name of an ordinary farmer in the countryside. It was not easy for him to save some enough money to be able to build a new house. He hoped that perhaps some day, virtue would be rewarded. One of his friends who drove a van for a living, knew he wanted to build a house, so he took the initiative to tell Jiang San about a site that had some leftover bricks which he could just pick up free of charge. They seemed to be of good quality, too. Jiang San quickly reacted and asked his friend to bring the bricks over to him, along with a pack of smokes.

The bricks arrived and the quality was in fact, very good. With just a little bit of cleaning, they would be good as new! Rural people never lacked strength or the will to work, so they could actually take advantage of getting these used bricks and taking care of them if it meant it would save them money.

As they were building the house, the people working on the house noticed a dark red liquid flowing out from the seams between the brick. Nobody could explain what was going on. These rural people had never seen this before. Jiang San was stunned. The workers advised him to tear down the house, but the house had cost Jiang San three hard years worth of sweat and blood to save enough money to build.

The workers were not willing to go to back to work because they are afraid of what was going on. Jiang San was too caught up in not wanting to waste his money to order the destruction of the half built house. So he went to seek divine advice. This was how the matter had eventually come to our attention.

The first master he went to visit was Huang Xiaolong, that was how he was able to inform us that he had confirmed the bricks that were used by Jiang San were the bricks from the demolition of the wall tiles in the restroom.

Without any delay we rushed to Jiang San’s family home. We wanted to keep up with all the new information before it was too late or anything suddenly changed.

When we arrived, Jiang San’s family was surrounded by a lot of people. A man, alone in the half brick house, wore a robe of monks and was holding performing a sword dance, murmuring, and shouting from time to time before a small makeshift alter.

Wu Jian pulled my clothes: "There are too many people here now. It's not convenient for us to investigate."

Before I could get back to Wu Jian, Huang Xiaolong smiled behind me and said with a low voice, "Don’t worry. These people will leave in a moment."

"Why?" I wondered.

Huang Xiaolong pointed to the front of the crowd: "What that Taoist priest read was the Sutra of driving away evil and performing an exorcism, while he stood on an old grave. This is what is done by some to curse those inside. There’s no doubt that he was to blame for this."

I looked along the direction that Huang Xiaolong’s finger was pointing to. It was true that there was a hump under the foot of the Taoist priest, but roads in rural areas such as these are typically uneven. Though he said it was an old grave, I still think that’s a bit of a stretch. Besides, Jiang San would probably not choose to build his house atop a grave. That was a very taboo thing to do.

Huang Xiaolong saw that I did not believe him, but he didn’t give any further explanation. He just gave me a mysterious smile. My thoughts of Xiaolong had changed a lot since the day I met him. He still had this mysterious aura about him, which made it so people couldn’t quite see right through him. It was this mysterious air about him that would make anyone consider him a master of some some sort.

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The Taoist priest was still singing and dancing, and Wu Jian who was usually very patient, gradually changed his expression to one of impatience. He asked Huang Xiaolong, "Master Huang, are you being serious?"

Huang Xiaolong did not answer, his eyes just stared straight ahead. My heart sped up and I hurriedly look forward, but nothing was happening. The Taoist priest was still there. The people watching him had to admire his abundant physical strength.

A gust of wind blew and the candles on the altar swayed. When the Taoist priest turned around, the yellow crown with the two long whiskers was blown to the ground by the wind, the Taoist priest's thin face was revealed. The Taoist priest’s movement halted a little bit, followed by a shout. His footsteps swayed, he stood with a single foot, and made a beautiful posture, the sword in his hand pointed to the crown on the ground with the intention of stirring it up.

Just then the Taoist priest suddenly stops short. Before I could react, I heard the Taoist priest emit a chrill cry. The scene was quiet, then countless screams emerged from they bystanders around him. A huge amount of the people scampered off. There were still a few people who were bold dared to stand at a distance, muttering about what was going on.

That was when I was finally able to see that there was a crack on the ground which had mysteriously appeared. The Taoist priest fell onto one leg, his other leg was deep in a crack. The entire leg was practically inside the crack and some blood was spilling onto the floor.

Huang Xiaolong looked at us proudly, but Wu Jian eyebrows frowned :"If it was you that did it, you are a bit ruthless.”

Huang Xiaolong's eyes were wide open and he was about to retort, but Wu Jian had already stepped up and gone to try to help the Taoist priest. He crouched low to the ground, trying to take out the Taoist priest's foot from this mysterious crack.

I hastened to help by trying to pull out the Taoist priest a few times, though he did nothing but shout painfully. It seemed his foot had been firmly stuck, and now the most important thing to do was to save his life. We didn’t have time to care about the brick house at that moment.

After Wu Jian and I got up, the other villagers saw that there was no danger to them, so they were all relieved. One by one, they stepped forward to help. Unfortunately, the Taoist priest’s foot was clearly stuck, no matter what we did. Wu Jian had to call the police for backup.

When the police arrived, Wu Jian told them what was going on and went up to Jiang San who was in pain. He patted him on the shoulder and handed him a cigarette: "Come on, have a smoke."

Jiang San shivered as he took the cigarette, he shivered as he ignited it, and said pitifully: "Thank you, Big Brother." It was obvious that Jiang San also saw the scene very clearly, and was very grateful for Wu Jian's help. Otherwise, the Taoist priest would have suffered a lot more, and if some other accident would have happened, he would have been in the middle of it all.

Wu Jian uses his small talk to speak with Jiang San, and finally got permission from Jiang San to enter the room that had not yet been built. In fact, there was no need to get permission from Jiang San to enter into it. When we entered the room, we saw a lot of villagers pointing at the door and talking about the house, and occasionally some bold people would go in.

The room had no roof, was full of light, and it could be seen through the crevices of each brick that a dark red liquid was slowly oozing out. Though it was slow, it was actually a constant flow out, with a faint stench that could be detected as you get closer. It was like that of dried blood.

We looked around for a while, but we didn’t find anything abnormal. The dark red liquid didn’t completely form words and could not provide any useful information. After some discussion, Huang Xiaolong's proposal was unanimously approved. We decided to wait until nightfall to see if the green bricks would change when the shade of Yin Qi was the heaviest.

Wu Jian’s smooth talking had worked its wonders. Jiang San was warmly hosting us, and from the old house he brought out some tables and benches, so that we would not have to sit foolishly on the ground.

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