Chapter 91: CH 91

Hidden away in the streets and alleyways of this city are many spirits and ghosts, including those who are full of discontent and hatred. Just because you cannot see them does not mean that they do not exist. If a human is weak or often sick, their “yang” energy thins out and these malicious ghosts would have the chance to come leech on to your body.

Yan Yu felt like there was a sense of “yin” energy behind his neck and it was most likely because he had used his lifeblood to draw the talisman. So, from suffering a loss of “yang” energy, he attracted a few ghosts to himself. He did not pay it much mind, however and instead, hurried his steps to go back home.

Quietly sitting in a corner of the room was the cardboard box full of items Yan Yu had been given, and he himself was sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at the credit card. There must be quite a large sum left in it, he thought to himself. If he turned it all into joss paper gold ingots, even a few vacation homes wouldn’t be enough to hold it all.

Yan Yu asked, 

“Let me save a thousand for myself to hand in my rent?”

[ Not possible dear ~ ]

Yan Yu backed up a step, 

“…… 800?”

[ ZZZ— ]

Yan Yu: “……Fine, I understand. I’ll burn this for him tomorrow.”

[ My dear host ~ How obedient hmm ~ ]

Yan Yu walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind him with a bang,

“Obedient your fucking mom.”

The room became quiet, and there was a long period of time without even the sound of the footsteps going up or down outside in the stairway. 

The curtains on the window were swaying along with the wind, and the bright white wall lamp out in the hall was twinkling along as well. Yan Yu seemed to sense something though, and after he showered, he prepared to head out. 

Only, when he passed by the half body sized mirror hanging on the wall, he paused in his footsteps, and for some reason, turned back around.

The steam in the bathroom had not dissipated yet, and the mirror was still fogged up, only able to faintly see an outline and approximate facial features. 

Maybe he was just being oversensitive, but when he had dried off his body, Yan Yu felt like he saw someone else’s face reflecting back in the mirror……

He suspiciously stared at the mirror and raised his hand. The person reflected back also seemed to follow along perfectly. However, Yan Yu narrowed his eyes slightly and kept still in this position. 

Then he covertly used his fingertips to measure the height of their hands, and found that the person in the mirror was actually shorter than himself. If you were not looking closely, you would almost never find out.

Following the cold air seeping into the bathroom, the fog on the mirror was slowly fading away, and the reflection was slowly getting clearer. Just as the face in the mirror was about to reveal itself, Yan Yu suddenly turned away and left the bathroom.

This building did not have good feng shui1. The layout was cramped, which made it very easy to attract evil spirits. There used to be a lot more people living around here before and with that boisterous lively “human” air, this was able to be suppressed. But as the neighbouring buildings were slowly being dismantled, what with all the ash and dust rolling together and becoming a part of the normal air quality, quite a few residents have already moved away.

There were some supernatural events that could not be avoided, but there was no real reason to look at things too closely. Ghosts can create mirages to arouse the deepest fear inside humans, and the more you lose your mind from the fear, the easier it becomes for them to seize their chance.

Yan Yu grabbed a few talismans that had been sitting for who knows how many years from the drawers, and then hung up a golden sword made of coins2 behind the door. It was at this time that his phone, placed on the bedside table, suddenly started to ring. Yan Yu didn’t take a closer look, and as he pasted the talismans on the window, he accepted the call, 

“Hello?”

“Yan Yu……” 

And then curses and swears rang out before she left. Yan Yu didn’t pay it any mind, however and instead, he reached over and grabbed a cigarette stick from his bedside drawer, with his heart flying away with some other thought.

Those who died an unjustified death would come back on the seventh day3, and their resentment would grow and solidify into a malicious being that would take lives away and be unwilling to leave this human plane. 

The longer they stayed, the more their personalities would devolve and, whether they were strong or weak, they would go around harming humans, or be taken care of by Shu-Shis4 and basically…… basically never have any sort of a good ending……

Xun Chuan died unjustifiably not too long ago, and so Yan Yu could still forcefully stop him. But it was unknown what would happen in the future.

Cars were flying by on the road, and pedestrians were moving hastily back and forth. Faint souls were wandering aimlessly and on the footbridge, there were many peddlers facing the cold wind and unenthusiastically calling out. There were those who sold candy, those who sold silverware, those who told fortunes, and there was also one fortune telling Yan Yu.

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In front of him was a faded yellow yin-yang cloth and he was lazily sitting on a small stool. His overly handsome face was turning heads, but it did not bring him any business.

“Fortune-telling for your life, fortune telling for your marriage, fortune telling for the weather. One hundred bucks for one reading. If it’s not true, I’ll take no money–“

Yan Yu yelled out for half an hour, but not a single customer came through. Occasionally there would be a few old grannies or grandpas, but they would rather choose to visit the gauntly looking old man across from him.

Are they blind? Could that old man be more handsome than him?

Yan Yu coldly laughed and flipped up his black collar, zipping it all the way up and covering most of his face. Only revealing a pair of deep eyes, he continued to yell out with a not very enthusiastic yell, 

“Fortune-telling for your life, fortune telling for your marriage, fortune telling for the weather. 50 bucks for one reading. If it’s not true, I’ll take no money–“

And still no one came……

“Fortune-telling for your life, fortune telling for your marriage, fortune telling for the weather. 10 bucks for one reading. If it’s not true, I’ll take no money–“

Still no one……

“Fortune-telling for your life, fortune telling for your marriage, fortune telling for the weather. 5 bucks for one reading. If it’s not true, I’ll take no money–“

And no one was going to come.

With a blink of an eye, it was already sunset. Yan Yu wiggled his numb legs and then drew a “five ghosts’ money and luck”5 array using half of a small bottle filled with chicken blood with a calligraphy brush, before continuing to wait for business.

Three minutes later, a young looking girl in a beige trench coat passed by Yan Yu’s stall and a coin rolled out from her bag. After a long journey, it pitifully stopped at Yan Yu’s feet.

Yan Yu lowered his eyes, and scribbled on the paper. He calculated one part at a time, and not long after, a six pointed star shaped like diagram appeared on the paper. His pencil hovered for a bit as if there was a slight hesitancy, but then he continued calculating. After a complicated and complex diagram was drawn, he reached a conclusion.

Their five elements6 were repelling each other, creating an interlocked cycle of life and death, repressing and inhibiting each other into an intertwined standoff and ending of life and death……

Yan Yu scrunched the paper up into a ball and then looked at the man, 

“You—-“

Twirling his pencil, he faced the lady and said, 

Notes:

*1 Feng Shui is an interesting concept and there are many different branches of “feng shui” but the word itself takes on the word of “wind” and “water”, where the wind represents the energy and water is the flow or change. There are a few meanings when people refer to this, but it’s mostly known for something like geomancy?

It can encompass how the layout of a certain place is- the optimal way of the items or things placed inside a certain room or what kind of place your house is built on and what it has around it can affect it. It can also be for what kind of day is good for certain things like marriage, for the containment/mitigation of bad, malicious events or things. Here, it’s kind of leaning to the first type of meaning I listed as an example, how the building is laid out or just where the building is situated (rather than just within a certain room).

*2 The “golden sword made of coins” as seen below is really a sword made up of copper coins (based on old/ancient currency) which is said to be able to repel evil. It is usually made up of 108 coins and laced with red thread as in the picture Plum had added. (and according to some mythology, swords have some sort of “murderous” energy, so it’s not great for the people who live in the home to always hang this up, and there’s no use unless there is some malicious spirit hanging about or coming to haunt you, etc.) As like with feng shui, this usually requires certain “readings” to determine where the best place to put this is, as to not hurt or harm anyone.

*3 seventh day: So there is a tradition with death, not just with unjustified death-ers, where every 7 days after the individual passed, there is an event (goes up to 49 days). The first 7 days that pass since the individual died are called “first 7” (where the “first” is used with the character that usually means “head”), and on this day, the individual who passed away would come back to visit home (or to visit the family members like through dreams).

There’re many traditions and customs around this. Some believe that they need to prepare a meal for the individual who passed away and then avoid making contact at all, so basically try and sleep early or hide away under blankets. Because if the individual who passed away sees the family, it could make them remember their relationships in life and take on “human emotions” which could affect reincarnation.

Some believe that they need to burn a “ladder” so that the individual who passed away can use it to go to “heaven” (of sorts). Or that the soul/spirit of the individual is roaming around after they die, not knowing that they died, so a special spirit will come after the sixth day to tell the soul that they died and they will lead them back to their family before being judged.

*4 Shu-Shi: A vocation that is related to astrology, fortune telling, and spans a great deal of the supernatural. In this case, it’s mostly those who can take care of malicious ghosts, protect homes using rituals, etc.

*5 five ghosts’ money and luck: Once again a lot of variation, but there’s two major beliefs of which five ghosts this references, but basically as the literal translation I did there, it calls on 5 particular ghosts that can bring a lot of luck relating to money or wealth, sometimes believed to use other people’s innate “luckness” or the person who is calling upon the ghosts and using his “life luck” assigned to the person at birth (from his ba-zi).

*6 five elements: They are said to be what the world is made of: “gold”, “wood”, “water”, “fire” and “ground/dirt”. Quotations there as they are not the elements described as what they mean, but rather “gathering/accumulation”, “growth”, “permeation”, “death/ending”, “merging/convergence/come together”, and it is with their interactions and relationship with each other that the world is made.

There’s a cycle of what is good together like Wood > Fire > Ground > Gold > Water (kind of like how wood can make fire bigger, what is destroyed in fire can have the ground absorb, etc.) and what is bad together like Gold > Wood > Ground > Water > Fire (like how tools can destroy trees, trees can uproot the dirt, etc.). Something you may have heard of that’s similar is the Chinese zodiac which have their own groups of what goes together and not.

*7 bringing misfortune: It’s a bit hard to explain, but the bit longer version is that he doesn’t match well with her, subduing/restraining her (whether that be luck, life, etc.), kind of like blocking her or be mismatched to the point where he is like an archenemy? Just being with her means she will always have bad luck, etc.

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