Chapter 100: CH 100

“After another 36 days, the time for the ghost door to open will arrive. If you want to reincarnate, that will be your best chance.”

She then dropped three copper coins into the turtle shell. When she lifted her eyes up again, it was not the sight of that female wandering ghost that greeted her. Instead, she had been replaced by a dark, gentle beauty of a man.

Su Qing paused in surprise, and then gently shook the turtle shell in her hands a few times, 

“Ah, isn’t this the pretty little brother I saw just now? Did you come find me because you have unresolved desires or was there something you wanted to ask?”

Looking extremely warm and inviting, Xun Chuan crossed his leg and put an ankle on the opposite knee before suddenly exploding out his resentment and causing all the wandering souls to titter with fear and back up. His pair of phoenix eyes subtly scanned over Su Qing and just like Yan Yu said, she was wearing a full outfit of designer clothes: a rich woman.

Xun Chuan lifted his eyes, 

“You moved here for this?”

Su Qing’s fingers stroked over the ancient old copper coins, 

“I only earn money from the dead. Where there is the most “yin” energy, where there are many lost wandering souls, I will go. If you have unfinished wishes, as long as you give enough money, this lady here can help you finish it hoh~”

Xun Chuan looked at her without a sound.

Su Qing seemed to understand something and she smiled, 

“Alright, it’s not any unfulfilled desire I can help you bring to life. What other questions do you have, ask them now. This lady still has to do her business.”

Xun Chuan did want to leave, but then he remembered something and suddenly said, 

“Can you read bagua diagrams?”

He reached up with an overly pale white finger, and used his resentment to draw a six pointed star-shaped array in the air, almost the exact same as the one in the drawer.

Su Qing took a look and then said, 

“It’s a life divination diagram.”

“The end of the year, month and day are all of the pinpoint numbers of 3, 6 and 9, pointing to an opposite balance. The five elements are also opposite of each other. Top is life and bottom is death, “dui” is life, “kun” as empty, one lives, one dies…… it’s a diagram for a Sheng Si Ju.”1

Xun Chuan silently listened to her, without a single decipherable expression on his face, and then he asked quietly, 

“What does it mean?”

Su Qing looked over the array again in greater detail and then pointed to a string of numbers above, 

“This person’s birth, in the year and the month, isn’t great. Their life’s too hard.”2

And then pointed at the string of numbers at the bottom, 

“And this person’s life is too weak. All of the five elements are getting held down by the one above, matching perfectly to misfortune. Much like a rabbit who stands in front of a fox, a sheep who fell into the wolves’ den……”

The night was growing darker, and Su Qing hadn’t turned on the lights in her apartment. Only a clay pot quietly stood by her hands, accompanied by a small dish that was filled with about half a year’s worth of lamp oil for her eternal flame3. A long black wick was submerged inside, burning with a light about the size of a bean.

The light was flickering, warming up Xun Chuan’s cold white face, almost making him look like he was made of jade. And yet right at this time, a sudden breeze of “yin” energy blew by and that eternal lamp shook a bit, before it was extinguished. Smoke weakly wafted up from the last remnants of the flame, and the wandering souls lining up started to become terrified and ran away, causing chaos for no apparent reason.

Su Qing wanted to light it back up, but she was stopped by Xun Chuan’s resentment pressing down on her wrist. Beside her ear, a man’s low husky voice rang out, his tone a sweet ice cold, sparking goosebumps all the way down her spine, 

“Go on……”

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Xun Chuan repeated himself, 

“Continue what you were saying. Go on.”

In the darkness, Su Qing could only see a pair of blood red eyes, reddened to the point of being terror inducing. She paused and then put down the lighter in her hand and said, 

“To speak more plainly, the person on top will bring the person on the bottom to their death. Because the lives of the two do not match in one way or another, as long as they are together, they will be opposites and oppose each other’s life force. In the end, without a doubt, it will end in one’s death as the other one lives.”

The moment the last word came out of her mouth, her wrist was relieved of the pressure after a momentary pause, and that extremely heavy presence of an atmosphere began to fade away, as if it had never been there.

While they conversed, the wandering spirits in the stairway had been pushing each other and then those who were pushed, were pushed back, turning the area into a mesh pit of chaos. When Su Qing used the lighter to light that eternal lamp back up, they finally settled down into order, as if nothing happened – forming back into their queue and continuing to line up.

Xun Chuan floated back through the wall of Yan Yu’s apartment and bumped right into Yan Yu who was peeking through the gap in the door. His expression was focused, so focused he didn’t seem to have noticed Xun Chuan at all. So Xun Chuan could only raise his hand and lightly rest it on Yan Yu’s shoulders.

For once in his life, Yan Yu looked surprised for a moment. Seeing that it was Xun Chuan, he subconsciously straightened up and stopped hovering around the door. Walking towards the bed, he said,

“What did you see?”

Xun Chuan didn’t follow him, and with his own back against the door, his soul was invisibly split in two: one side was thinking about things, and the other was used to answer his question, 

“…… She’s like you. A shu-shi. Helps ghosts finish their unfinished business and earn money from the dead.”

Yan Yu didn’t find anything out of place about Xun Chuan and so he only nodded his head at his words, 

“No wonder she’s that rich.”

He then turned to lay down on his bed, turning on the TV for some background noise to at least cover up the racket outside. Then he grabbed a little book and continued practicing his arrays. With the sound of pen scratching on paper, Xun Chuan pulled his thoughts back together, and with his eyes on the TV, he asked, 

“Why did you break up with me the first time……”

The sounds from the TV were too loud and so Yan Yu couldn’t clearly hear what Xun Chuan said. Without lifting his head, he asked, 

“What? Why what what?”

Xun Chuan tried his best to use a very casual tone of voice and repeated himself, 

“I said, why did you break up with me the first time.”

Notes:

*1 As in chapter 96, where I explained a bit about the bagua cloth/diagram, Su Qing is specifically referencing parts of the diagram (specifically the dui/kun part which I mentioned is like pool of water/ground and the symbols ☱/☷ in the previous footnote) and comparing them with each other – this entire thing delves quite deeply into the specific components and that goes beyond, way beyond, what I know/can explain TT__TT

But in that sense, a “Sheng Si Ju” which I’m taking the pinyin for as it’s getting harder to describe (๑‾᷅^‾᷅๑) means basically the “standoff between life and death”. 

Like the couple in the chapter where the wife died and mentioned very briefly by Yan Yu as the husband “bringing” misfortune to his wife, the same situation is being described by Su Qing – the way their ba-zis form the diagram create this “Sheng Si Ju”, where every element is in opposition to each other and with Yan Yu’s ba-zi (explained in footnote 2), it creates this “standoff” as I’m calling it, but really like a “situation”, where life and death are like chess pieces on a chess board (in opposite colours, of course) and kind of almost one move off from a checkmate on either side, if that makes any more sense… Or I guess like the prophecy from Harry Potter haha, where one must live as the other must die (but by the other’s misfortune) 

*2 Here she’s saying that Yan Yu’s ba-zi is determined to be a bit special in the way that his ba-zi says he has terrible luck/misfortune (bit of variance on that as it could also mean that he brings misfortune to everyone around him, but he himself has a “hard” life meaning he can survive most of his hurdles, but not the people around him could, so terrible for family, lovers, friends, and will always be alone/by himself).

And so in the next part where she mentions Xun Chuan’s life is too weak, it’s too weak against Yan Yu who is overpowering with how “hard” his life is.

*3 Eternal flame or eternal lamp as I call it later on, basically means a candle light that will not be extinguished by blowing on it and instead must naturally burn out by themselves. This is done by a special mechanic within how it’s made (and apparently was found in tombs and supposedly when tomb raiders entered the tomb, they would be greeted by light. It’s said to be lit up by the oxygen when the tomb was open, but one of the reasons it’s eternal besides its purpose was this), but traditionally, this kind of fire was made as lighting for the emperors when they died in their tombs, in hopes of making it as bright as it has been in their palaces before, as well as in some places to be believed that without this flame, some certain types of malicious beings/ghosts will grab random people by sound and do bad things to do, so the “eternal” could also mean to pass beyond life into death.

TL Tidbit:

:O We’re in the 3 digits!!! And already past the halfway mark (and almost to a year…)! Thank you everyone who has been along with me on this journey, and here’s to hope you all enjoy the rest too!!!

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