Chapter 8: A Commission

At noon the next day, Xie Sui arrived at Fushun Lou on time. Led by a waiter, he made his way to a pre-booked private room.

Inside the antique-style room, a young man was already seated at the round table, waiting.

the young man looked to be about twenty years old, appearing as though he were still in college. He had dyed red hair and wore a jacket covered in various brand logos, with three piercings through his eyebrow. Even while sitting alone in a rattan chair and staring blankly, he subconsciously maintained an arrogant expression, making him seem somewhat difficult to get along with.

“Apologies, I’m late…” Xie Sui began, but he was interrupted by the red-haired youth before he could finish.

The moment the young man saw Xie Sui walk in, his eyes lit up. He stood up abruptly and rushed to Xie Sui’s side in a few quick strides, grabbing him firmly by the shoulders.

Xie Sui suppressed his discomfort and allowed the man to hold him.

“Hello, hello! You must be Xie Sui! I’m ‘Ganfan Huahua Shijie,’ the one who gave you those tips during your livestream last night!” The red-haired youth looked excited, showing no shame whatsoever in saying such a cringeworthy online handle out loud. “By the way, my real name is Lin Zixin. You can call me whatever you like.”

Xie Sui didn’t understand why the man was so excited to see him. He watched with a wooden expression as Lin Zixin talked to himself and pulled him toward the table.

Lin Zixin’s enthusiasm was unnaturally high. If one had to describe it, he was like a puppy wagging its tail after seeing its owner return home after a long absence.

Why would a rich second-generation heir, who could casually throw away over forty thousand yuan on tips, be so enthusiastic toward him?

Xie Sui wasn’t quite sure how to handle someone so overly familiar. He subtly withdrew his hand and quickly switched into his professional livestreaming mode, smiling as he said to Lin Zixin, “May I ask why Mr. Lin asked Old Zhao to arrange this meeting?”

Xie Sui knew his transition into the topic was blunt, but this was the limit of his social capacity as someone with social anxiety. Rather than spending a long time in a room with a stranger exchanging pleasantries, he preferred to talk business and get straight to the point.

Lin Zixin didn’t seem offended by Xie Sui’s abrupt change of subject at all. Seeing Xie Sui take the initiative to bring it up, he dropped the formalities and asked with an expectant look, “I watched your entire livestream last night. Host, you actually know a thing or two, don’t you?”

Xie Sui neither admitted nor denied it, instead following the lead of the conversation. “Have you encountered something strange?”

Lin Zixin gave an embarrassed laugh and scratched his head. “Something happened back at my old family home. It’s also a problem with a house. I saw how easily you handled The Haunted House, so I thought about inviting you to my hometown. My second uncle is too useless. He went to all sorts of temples and shrines to invite so-called masters of Shijiao and Xuanjiao, but those old guys were all useless show-offs. My uncle got scammed out of a lot of money and still couldn’t solve the family’s problem. It’s hilarious.”

Seeing Lin Zixin about to veer off-topic, Xie Sui quickly interrupted. “Can you tell me in detail what’s wrong with the house?”

“It’s our family’s ancestral hall,” Lin Zixin said, shrugging with an air of indifference. “My family’s side is quite traditional. The ancestral hall isn’t just a place to house the ancestral tablets¹; weddings, funerals, and other major events are held there too. Because of what’s happening at the hall, my cousin’s wedding date has been postponed.”

Despite saying something was wrong with the ancestral hall, Lin Zixin didn’t look worried at all. Instead, he took on the air of a storyteller sharing a ghost tale, gesturing animatedly as he explained to Xie Sui:

“So, two months ago, the person keeping watch at the ancestral hall at night heard noises coming from inside. When he went in, the ancestral tablets on the table had fallen over one after another. At the time, he thought they’d been blown over by the wind, so he didn’t think much of it. He straightened the tablets and left. But what happened next proved that the tablets falling wasn’t a coincidence… For an entire week, at the same time every night, the tablets would fall!”

“The elders in the family thought it was due to a lack of offerings, which made the ancestors angry and caused the tablets to tip. So, they organized a grand ceremony, hired dragon and lion dance troupes, and placed the ‘three sacrifices’ of meat along with fruit and flower baskets before the ancestral tablets. After this ritual, the tablets stopped moving. What became strange instead were the offerings – the meat sacrifices, like the three animals, were gnawed completely clean until only bones remained, while the flowers and fruits weren’t touched at all.”

As Lin Zixin spoke, he took out his phone and showed Xie Sui photos he had taken of the offerings.

“Look at these tooth marks imprinted on the bones. This definitely isn’t a mark left by a human eating. If a wild beast had broken into the hall, there’s no reason the guards wouldn’t have seen it. Besides, shouldn’t a beast take the food away to eat it in a safe place? Normally, they wouldn’t just eat it right there in the hall.”

Xie Sui took the phone.

The photo had been taken from a high angle, specifically avoiding the ancestral tablets. The three meat sacrifices were just as Lin Zixin described, gnawed so clean that not a single shred of meat remained. On the altar covered in red cloth, only the skulls of a cow, a sheep, and a pig were left. Looking closely, one could clearly see sharp tooth marks imprinted on the yellowed, grayish-white bone.

Xie Sui frowned, gesturing at the bite marks on the bone to calculate their actual size in his mind.

Although he had a faint guess as to what it was, Xie Sui didn’t show it. He pushed the phone back to Lin Zixin and continued asking, “Are there any other abnormalities? If it’s just this, you could find out what’s eating them just by setting up a surveillance camera in the courtyard.”

At the mention of surveillance, Lin Zixin let out a disdainful sneer. “Of course we installed cameras. We put them up the day after it started. Since it’s not convenient to film inside the ancestral hall, the old men moved the offerings to the courtyard to see if the cameras could catch whatever was messing around.”

“The next day, the meat offerings were still gnawed down to the bone. However, the cameras didn’t capture anything stealing the food. They only recorded the meat on the sacrifices disappearing bit by bit, as if an invisible mouth were eating it.”

Recalling that eerie surveillance footage, even someone as heartless as Lin Zixin couldn’t help but shudder.

“I haven’t gotten my hands on the surveillance footage yet, so I can’t show it to you for now. But other things have happened besides that. Otherwise, my second uncle wouldn’t be so desperate to find all these masters to perform exorcisms.”

Lin Zixin poured himself a cup of tea and continued, “Our Lin family has been in the shipbuilding business since ancient times. The Minjiang Shipbuilding Group belongs to us. Ever since the ancestral tablets started falling over and the offerings began vanishing mysteriously, none of the ships from our shipyard have been able to launch.”

“As soon as they touch the water, the hulls rust, as if their entire service life has been sucked out of them in an instant. After scrapping two ships, my second uncle didn’t dare try again. The company has been at a standstill for over two months, and not a single order has been completed. Fortunately, the normal shipbuilding cycle is quite long… but two months is probably the limit. If this drags on any longer, the orders might be canceled entirely. That’s what my second uncle is so worried about.”

Xie Sui noticed a blind spot: “How did your family link the inability to launch ships with the issues at the ancestral hall?”

“We’re a business family, and people in business are particularly superstitious. The company has employed a metaphysical consultant for a long time,” Lin Zixin explained.

“That metaphysical consultant was invited to the company by my grandfather while he was still alive. Our family consults this advisor for everything from shipbuilding to breaking ground for houses, asking him to help calculate auspicious dates and such. When a new baby is born into the family, we also ask him to draw up an Eight Characters² chart to check for any predestined calamities. This master is truly accurate, especially when it comes to predicting fortune and misfortune. When the trouble started at the ancestral hall, my second uncle contacted him immediately.”

Lin Zixin sighed with some helplessness. “However, that metaphysical master could only see that this incident was related to the Feng Shui of our ancestral hall. He couldn’t calculate anything else. He said that every profession has its specialty, and his expertise lies in fortune-telling and divination. He hasn’t studied things like Feng Shui, geomancy, ghost hunting, or drawing talismans, so he suggested we find another master.”

“My second uncle wanted him to introduce someone, but the master said he had no Xuanmen³ heritage and was just an independent practitioner who didn’t know anyone else like him. So my second uncle had to go looking on his own… but masters who are both capable and active in the secular world are truly hard to find. All the ones he’s found over the past two months have been frauds.”

At this point, Lin Zixin suddenly stood up, reached across the table to grab Xie Sui’s hand, and leaned over the surface, looking at him with burning eyes. “But you’re different! After watching your livestream last night, I believe from the bottom of my heart that you’re a capable person! You handled that trending case at The Haunted House so easily, so the matter with our family’s ancestral hall surely won’t be a problem for you!”

It really wasn’t much of a problem, but it was quite a hassle. The issue with Lin Zixin’s family was neither big nor small. Even if left alone, no major disaster would occur. This sort of thing wouldn’t take lives and would naturally vanish when the time was right. It just depended on whether the Lin family was willing to endure several months of economic losses.

The main thing that puzzled Xie Sui was Lin Zixin’s attitude. His schadenfreude suggested he didn’t actually care about the ancestral hall or the company’s financial losses – so why was Lin Zixin so anxious to have him solve it? Could there be some kind of trap?

As if sensing the rejection on Xie Sui’s face, Lin Zixin quickly added, “I’ll cover all round-trip travel and accommodation costs. I’ll pay a fifty thousand deposit upfront, with a final payment of one hundred and fifty thousand upon completion. If you feel the price isn’t right, we can adjust it upward.”

Xie Sui pulled his hand from Lin Zixin’s grasp and then took the other man’s hand in his own, his tone even more sincere than Lin Zixin’s. “Alright, that’s no problem at all. I’m free lately and can leave at any time.” As long as the money was right, everything was negotiable, regardless of any potential traps. This was two hundred thousand yuan. If used carefully, it was enough for the three children’s surgery fees.

The two exchanged contact information, and the matter of checking the Feng Shui at Lin Zixin’s ancestral hall was settled.

The food was served quickly. Although the prices at Fushun Lou were outrageously high, the taste of the dishes lived up to the cost. At the very least, it was much better than instant food.

Halfway through the meal, Lin Zixin remembered something and hurriedly said to Xie Sui, “Oh, right. School starts in a few days, so I won’t be able to go back to my hometown with you. When you go to my family’s ancestral hall, could you start a livestream? I want to see exactly what kind of thing is causing trouble there.”

Xie Sui’s hand paused as he reached for a dish. He asked hesitantly, “Your ancestral hall… allows filming?” What kind of “filial” behavior was this?

Lin Zixin waved it off dismissively. “Oh, it’s fine as long as you don’t film the ancestral tablets. Don’t worry, I’ll talk to my second uncle about it.”

“Alright.” Since the employer didn’t care, Xie Sui had no reason to refuse.

The meal ended with both parties satisfied. Afterward, Lin Zixin specifically called a car to send Xie Sui back to the urban village⁴.

Even though it was only a bit past two in the afternoon, the sky seemed to darken instantly upon entering the urban village.

This chaotic place seemed to possess a strange magic. Greed, exhaustion, despair, resentment… layers of negative emotions seemed to take physical form in this village. As long as one was inside, they would be shrouded in this gray substance composed of negative emotions, slowly turning into a walking corpse controlled by them.

Xie Sui skirted around the piles of trash on the street corners and the filthy water flowing freely on the ground, making his way to his familiar apartment building with practiced ease. He stepped into the dim stairwell, which was covered in small advertisements.

He walked up the narrow stairs to the top floor. When he saw his own front door standing wide open and his ancestral tablets thrown out onto the landing, Xie Sui’s expression instantly turned cold.

He turned to look at the opposite door. His neighbor seemed to have been hiding behind it, watching through the peephole for Xie Sui’s return. Before Xie Sui could even knock to inquire, the man opened the door and stepped out.

The greasy, disheveled middle-aged man living next door pointed a finger rudely at Xie Sui’s nose and began to curse. “You actually worship these ghostly things in your house! If you’re not afraid of the bad luck, we are! I’m giving you one day to get all this junk out of here!”

Xie Sui didn’t even need to ask; the man immediately admitted to being the one who had broken into his home.

Xie Sui remained silent, standing amidst the pile of overturned spirit tablets and staring at his neighbor with a blank expression.

After staring at each other for a moment, the older man shivered and instinctively took a step back. “Are you a mute? Say something!”

Xie Sui gave a cold laugh. “So you realize I’m keeping these shrines in my own home… I’ve already discussed this with the landlord, and he doesn’t have a problem with it, so why do you? If you really can’t stand it, you’re welcome to pay for my relocation. I’ll pack my bags and leave without a second thought.”

“I haven’t burned spirit money at your door, nor have I scattered ashes there. These aren’t living pests like snakes or rats that might escape and bother the neighbors. I’m simply keeping a shrine in my home. Is that illegal?”

“Oh, and by the way, breaking into my apartment constitutes illegal entry. You’ve already broken the law, do you realize that?”

“You should consider yourself lucky you didn’t throw out the ash urn as well. If you had, this wouldn’t be something you could settle just by paying a fine.”

Translator’s Notes