Records of the Halls of Ten Thousand Affairs: Chapter 30: Mountain Spirit (Part 3)

Records of the Halls of Ten Thousand Affairs: Chapter 30: Mountain Spirit (Part 3)

Liu Zhiyuan looked thoughtfully at Old Zhao. Old Zhao finally couldn’t sit still anymore. He slapped the armrest of the sofa and stood up. “You insolent child! How dare you point fingers at me!” Chen Jiu retreated to advance, going with the flow. “Don’t be so hasty. My qualifications are still shallow. I wouldn’t dare compete with a senior like you. But my master, the old man, should have some qualifications, right? Strictly speaking, you still have to call him senior brother.” Old Zhao glared at Yunshan, looking furious on the surface but extremely uneasy inside. Actually, Chen Jiu’s guess was spot on. He was indeed a half bucket of water sloshing around. But these three people might not have any real skills either. When it came to snatching this long term rice bowl, he couldn’t afford to be vague. He had to risk half his old face to fight for it. “Manager Liu, there are swarms of swindlers like these master and disciple trio out there. You can’t just believe their nonsense. If anyone can come and eat from this bowl, are my certificates just for decoration?” Old Zhao scoffed. “Wild methods, not presentable.” When Liu Zhiyuan heard this, he thought it made sense. So he rubbed his hands together and asked with an apologetic smile. “This old master, Old Zhao has indeed gone through authoritative…” Yunshan was taken aback by his question. His little broken Yunshan Temple had been around for thirty or forty years. Back when there were still some incense visitors, no one had ever asked him for these damn certificates. He pretended to be calm and looked at Chen Jiu, but was actually hesitant. This was a small scene. The disciple should be able to handle it, right? When Old Zhao saw them not speaking, he immediately snorted with a laugh, feeling he had won a round. He mocked. “What’s wrong, can’t produce them? I think you’re just here to swindle.” “Fine, then Master, don’t hide it anymore.” Chen Jiu crossed her arms and said indifferently. “You just need to casually mention two secret things about the scenic area that you calculated. Whether we have real skills or not, Manager Liu will know as soon as he hears.” The senior sister initiated the fight, and Su Xiaoyu followed instantly. So she also crossed her arms and glared at Old Zhao together with Chen Jiu. Old Zhao shivered from their combined glare and plopped back down onto the sofa. So Yunshan closed his eyes and casually calculated. After a moment, he said. “A bronze incense burner is buried east of the cable car starting station. This bronze incense burner is fist sized, buried for who knows how many years, with some strange carvings on the surface. Directly below it is precisely the position that suppresses the earth qi. When the construction team dug to this place, a worker thought this bronze incense burner was an antique and wanted to steal it back to sell for money. That night, he had a high fever and spoke nonsense. Is that right?” Liu Zhiyuan was stunned and quickly said. “Yes, yes.” Even if they kept tight lipped, the general course of events might still spread through word of mouth among the workers. But the detailed appearance of the bronze incense burner, apart from a few people involved, probably only a divine calculator could figure out. “The engineering supervisor was afraid something would happen, so he quickly had people bury that thing back.” Yunshan smiled and looked at Old Zhao. “But unfortunately, your skill is insufficient, junior brother. You know that trouble has already been caused under this mountain, but your level is not enough to handle it. You had no choice but to have them seal the hole with concrete, then paste a dispensable soul stabilizing talisman, temporarily resolving the immediate predicament. Naturally, you thought it was your own great power.” The more Old Zhao listened, the darker his face became. “Junior brother Zhao, you have the ability to fool people, but you can’t solve the problem. Without a diamond drill, why take on this porcelain work?” Yunshan stroked his beard and said. “The mountain spirit can no longer be restrained. If you continue to let it be, the feng shui fortune of this place will only plummet. By then, this scenic area won’t be lively for long before turning back into a barren mountain.” “What!” Liu Zhiyuan couldn’t help but stand up when he heard this. When his own interests were involved, of course he became more anxious. Liu Zhiyuan looked at Old Zhao and said anxiously. “Master Zhao, is what he said true? Don’t hide it at this critical moment. When the scenic area closes, won’t you also be out of a job?” Old Zhao frowned at his beard, thinking in his heart that he could still earn big money for another year or two. Once the scenic area gates closed, he had his own places to go. It’s just that this place paid quite generously, and he really couldn’t bear to let go now. All because of this inexplicable master and disciple trio. If they hadn’t suddenly barged in, he might have been able to muddle through for quite a while longer! “Hmph, the things hidden in this Qinghua Mountain, I can’t handle them. Do you have the ability? Be careful not to bite off more than you can chew, angering things you shouldn’t provoke, and then you won’t be able to clean up the mess.” Old Zhao sneered, stood up, and walked past Liu Zhiyuan with his hands behind his back. “Manager Liu, if you’re willing to believe them, I’ll gladly hand over my position as feng shui consultant. I’ll take my leave first. For matters related to contract termination, contact my assistant online.” After saying this, he didn’t wait for Liu Zhiyuan to make any gesture of retention. He put on an appearance of righteous indignation and strode away. Chen Jiu found it amusing in her heart. What an old slickster, not forgetting to save face before leaving. Only the master and disciple trio and the bewildered Liu Zhiyuan remained in the office, looking at each other. “Master Yunshan, can you really solve this mess?” Liu Zhiyuan asked with hope. If this master was also just putting on a brave face, he would have to swallow his pride and go back to beg Old Zhao. He hoped Master Yunshan wouldn’t disappoint him. Yunshan then resumed his profound and mysterious posture, raised his hand, and gestured for Chen Jiu to continue the discussion. “Of course, my master is a great power. But before that, you need to tell us everything that has happened in this scenic area since its development, in full detail, without concealment.” After Chen Jiu finished speaking, she walked to the sofa that Old Zhao had vacated and sat down leisurely. This time it was Su Xiaoyu’s turn to play the attendant role. When the senior sister raised her hand, she perceptively brought over a water cup. Chen Jiu took a sip and nodded with satisfaction. “That’s a long story.” Liu Zhiyuan sat back in his spacious office chair and let out a long sigh. A few years ago, late spring, the groundbreaking ceremony for Qinghua Mountain Scenic Area. The developer invited local leaders to cut the ribbon. Drums and gongs clamored, firecrackers blared, extremely lively. It was on this day that Old Zhao came to report. It was said that he also came through the boss’s connections. Liu Zhiyuan was just a manager and couldn’t ask the boss about it. The boss’s surname was Qian, in his forties. He made his fortune in real estate and became quite superstitious after getting rich. He specially invited Old Zhao on the first day to stabilize the scene. The ceremony process wasn’t complicated. Leader’s speech, ribbon cutting, firecrackers, then starting to drive the first pile. Originally everything went smoothly. Who would have thought that at about four meters underground, the drill bit got stuck. The worker thought it had hit bottom, so he increased the power to press down. However, the drill bit didn’t move at all. At this point, the operator felt something was wrong. He turned off the machine and called the engineering captain. The captain had him pull up the drill bit to take a look. A small piece of black material was embedded in the alloy teeth. The texture was like some kind of bone, with an oily glossy surface on it. The crowd whispered among themselves. The captain reached out to touch it, and a layer of white frost immediately formed on his fingertips. He seemed to be frozen and immediately withdrew his hand, cursing that it was evil. He casually wiped his finger on his pants, ordered people to bring tools to pry it out. That bone like thing fell to the ground and instantly shattered into several pieces. The fracture was gray. Looking closer, there was actually something squirming inside. Those thread like things that looked like blood vessels were actually moving slowly with consciousness. In an instant, all the workers present changed their expressions. Someone said in fear. “We must have dug up something unclean!” The captain glared at him, not intending to stop, and waved to continue. The second pile was driven at a different position, less than two meters from the first pile. When driven down to the same depth, the drill bit actually got stuck again. This time, besides that strange hard object, a stream of foul smelling black water also gushed out of the pile hole, and it was very viscous. Now the engineering team didn’t dare to continue. Everyone was scared into a cold sweat and quickly went to notify the boss. Boss Qian hadn’t finished his socializing yet. He was called over in a hurry and looked a bit unhappy. But when he saw the foul smelling black water pit that was clearly not of petroleum quality, he also felt a bit scared. He called someone to bring Old Zhao back. When Old Zhao arrived, the black water had already been pumped dry. He examined the pile hole for a while, then touched the wet soil with his hand, thinking that things were not good. “Boss Qian, this piece of land is not very auspicious. Let’s change the location for construction.” At this point, his conscience was not yet completely gone, and he told Boss Qian honestly. Boss Qian held a cigarette in his mouth and frowned. “How can we just change it? The land is already approved, the plans are out, money is invested. Changing location and re approving, at least another two years of waiting. I can’t afford that loss.” Old Zhao pondered for a moment and had to say. “Then at least change the direction. Move more than twenty meters east from here.” The assistant brought over the drawings. Boss Qian took one look and shook his head again. “To the east is a cliff. The foundation is not easy to drive. The engineering team says that position requires piles to be driven fifteen meters deep. The cost will at least double.” Old Zhao was somewhat troubled. “Boss Qian…” Boss Qian puffed smoke and interrupted impatiently. “Master Zhao, I didn’t hire you to hear these useless things. Just tell me, how to resolve this, and how much?” Old Zhao stood in place, looking at the pile hole. He saw that in the depths of the hollow, black bubbles were gradually bubbling up again, faintly reflecting light. At first glance, they looked like dead people’s eyes. A great ominous sign. All kinds of misfortunes indicated the anger of Qinghua Mountain. Offending the earth spirit, there would inevitably be continuous bad luck ahead. At the small end, financial fortune would be low. At the large end, human lives would be at stake. But whoever doesn’t earn money when there’s money to be made is a bastard. Old Zhao gritted his teeth and accepted it with a stiff scalp. “Fine.” He opened his mouth wide and named a price. Boss Qian only twitched his eyelid and didn’t bargain, agreeing. The pile driving continued. Old Zhao lit incense around the area, burned a few talismans, picked up the several shattered pieces of black bone one by one, wrapped them in yellow cloth, and buried them. Then he used his horsetail whisk, chanting and praying in circles, putting on a mysterious performance for half an hour. There was no other way. At least he had to make the boss feel that it wasn’t a trick, that the money was worth spending. After that, the construction went smoothly indeed. No more unexpected situations were encountered. Various parts of the scenic area began to be renovated one after another. Everything proceeded according to plan. Old Zhao came once a month on a fixed schedule, which counted as inspection and maintenance, patching things up. It’s just that with his level of cultivation, he truly couldn’t cure the root of the problem. He was just deceiving laypeople.