I consulted a feng shui master in Hong Kong.

That evening.

Chen Qinghe was busy in his newly rented shop.

He hasn't been idle during this time either.

Besides the Taoist treatises left by my master, I also bought some essays and geography magazines commonly found in Hong Kong from newsstands.

If Sanxuan Temple wants to establish itself in Hong Kong, it naturally needs to improve its understanding of Hong Kong. Only by being familiar with a place can it apply feng shui and physiognomy techniques in a way that suits local conditions.

Huang Shouzhou initially told Chen Qinghe that he wanted to learn the feng shui and physiognomy techniques of the Sanxuan School.

"Junior brother, junior brother, can I learn the feng shui and physiognomy techniques of our Three Mysteries Sect, just like you?"

From what I've seen over this period, it's clear that Huang Shou-chou also has a strong yearning for the profession of Feng Shui master.

Of course, Huang Shouzhou had wanted to become a feng shui master when he was following Li Zhengfeng in his early years, but Li Zhengfeng felt that he did not have the talent and did not want to teach a fool.

Now that he's finally managed to get his hands on Chen Qinghe, Huang Shouzhou naturally has a few more ideas.

"No problem, what do you want to learn?" Chen Qinghe asked.

Huang Shouzhou immediately perked up: "What kind of stuff? What you talked about during the day sounded impressive to me."

"Feng shui, face reading, house selection, dragon vein finding, auspicious date selection, dream interpretation, Yin and Yang, Five Elements, Tai Chi numerology—a whole bunch of miscellaneous things." Chen Qinghe casually flipped through a newspaper page, his tone as nonchalant as reciting a menu. "The Three Mysteries Sect has been passed down for hundreds of years, with each generation adding a little something. In the end, whether you're truly skilled is another matter; your brain definitely needs to be sharp first."

Huang Shouzhou's eyes lit up: "Then which one can I learn the fastest?"

Chen Qinghe then looked up at him and asked, "The fastest?"

Huang Shou-chou nodded immediately.

Chen Qinghe pushed a stack of papers aside: "Let's learn this first."

Huang Shouzhou took it, initially excited, but his smile gradually froze when he saw what was written on the first page.

The top line was written in small characters by Chen Qinghe himself.

"The first step to mastering this is to memorize the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, the Twenty-Four Mountains, the Eight Mansions and Nine Palaces, the Five Elements' generating and restraining relationships, and the waxing and waning of Yin and Yang."

Further down, there's an even more chilling list: what is a mountain, what is a direction, what is a bright hall, what is a water mouth, what is a clash, what is borrowing energy, what is a dead end, what is a living end; and then there are palmistry, eye physiognomy, gait and complexion, facial bone structure and annual fortune, roof ridges and beams, the height of doors and windows, all densely written over a dozen pages.

Huang Shouzhou stared at the paper for a long time before swallowing hard: "This...this is the beginner's guide?"

"Otherwise what?" Chen Qinghe said, "Do you expect to learn how to change your fate right from the start?"

Huang Shouzhou's lips twitched: "I thought... at least I should learn something that I could see first."

"This is what we can see," Chen Qinghe said. "The most taboo thing for a Feng Shui master is not a lack of ability, but a superficial understanding. If you can't even distinguish the orientation of the mountains, or understand the strength and weakness of the Qi (vital energy), yet you dare to predict life, death, fortune, and misfortune for others, that's not Feng Shui, that's harming people."

Huang Shouzhou was speechless, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and recite the poem.

At first, it was alright; he forced himself to memorize each word carefully. But as he went on, his tongue became tied in knots, his head went numb, and he felt completely drained. Especially when he got to the lines "Jia Geng Bing Ren, Zi Wu Mao You; Qian Kun Gen Xun, Chen Xu Chou Wei," his mind was just a hot, sticky mess, and he wished he could just shove those pages back into Chen Qinghe's arms.

Chen Qinghe found it somewhat amusing, but didn't actually laugh.

He knew Huang Shou-zhuo's aptitude.

Huang Shouzhou wasn't exactly brilliant, but he wasn't truly stupid either.

His problem isn't his brain, it's his restlessness. He sees something useful and wants to achieve instant success, and he sees something troublesome and wants to avoid it.

Such a person might be able to get by in business, but when it comes to academics and law, the biggest problem is that their temperament is unstable.

So Chen Qinghe deliberately gave him the most boring part first.

If someone can patiently memorize it, it means they are at least willing to endure hardship; if they can't even get past this hurdle, then there's no point in learning anything else.

Huang Shouzhou had been memorizing for almost half an hour when he finally couldn't hold on any longer. He looked up, his eyes wide with disbelief: "Junior brother, were all the founders of our Three Mysteries Sect particularly idle?"

Chen Qinghe, who was sketching a topographical map of the area near Repulse Bay on paper, didn't stop drawing when he heard this: "What do you mean?"

"If I weren't busy, how could I have so much to memorize?" Huang Shouzhou said with a pained expression. "I've only just started the first page, and I already feel like I can't read anymore."

Chen Qinghe said calmly, "Our ancestor wasn't idle; he was afraid his descendants would be too foolish."

Huang Shou-zhuo: "..."

The only sounds in the shop were the turning of paper and the soft scratching of pen tips on the paper.

After a moment, Huang Shouzhou couldn't help but ask, "Junior brother, what exactly did you see when you looked at Su Yulian during the day?"

Chen Qinghe stopped writing this time.

He had already sketched out a rough route on the paper on the table.

The Repulse Bay area, nestled between mountains and the sea, is a rare place where energy gathers.

Logically speaking, a house built in such a place, as long as it's not built recklessly, should mostly be auspicious for prosperity and good fortune. However, Su Yulian's complexion was clearly off, indicating that the problem wasn't with the surrounding environment, but with the house itself.

"Let's start with the simplest thing," Chen Qinghe said. "Her husband died by jumping off a building, right?"

Huang Shou-zhuo nodded.

"If someone truly wants to die, their vital energy will mostly dissipate before they die," Chen Qinghe said. "No matter how strong their obsession was before, at the moment of death, their vital energy will first leak out. But when Su Yulian mentioned her husband, her sadness was genuine, yet she herself always had a lingering feeling of being entangled by death energy. It wasn't the normal yin energy left after death; it was more like the house had preserved that vital energy, preventing it from dissipating."

Huang Shouzhou was taken aback: "You mean, after her husband died, the house still retained his spirit?"

"Yes." Chen Qinghe put down his pen and looked at the sketch of Repulse Bay. "So it wasn't just a house where someone died. There was something wrong with the house itself, and the person was trapped inside, which eventually led to that life being forced to the window."

Huang Shouzhou felt a slight chill run down his spine.

"Then why didn't you just say so during the day?"

"In a place like Repulse Bay, we can't speak definitively without seeing the houses," Chen Qinghe said. "Besides, Su Yulian herself isn't entirely innocent either."

"Is she unclean?"

Chen Qinghe glanced at him calmly: "She was afraid, but she wasn't afraid of the house. Her toes were pointing outwards, but her shoulders were turned inwards, which means she wanted to retreat but didn't dare to; her eyes kept glancing down, which means she'd been on guard against something these past few days; she said that when her husband jumped, her throat tightened twice, but her nostrils didn't twitch, which means she didn't entirely believe it was suicide. More importantly, she looked back at the car door—not at me, but at the corner at the end of the street."

Huang Shouzhou was stunned.

The sea breeze carried a hint of night dew, making his heart tighten.

At that time, all he could think about was "Repulse Bay," "the beautiful widow," and "two hundred thousand in advance," so he didn't care about these details.

"You mean, she has someone else behind her?"

"Yes," Chen Qinghe said, "but we don't know yet whether she came of her own volition or was forced to come."

Huang Shouzhou remained silent for a moment, then suddenly couldn't help but think about the money again: "But didn't she say that a prepayment of 200,000 would bring in even more money after the deed is done?"

Chen Qinghe glanced at him and actually smiled.

"Something seems off, but if there's money to be made, why not take it?"

Huang Shouzhou was taken aback at first, but then he laughed.

These words, coming from Chen Qinghe, were more practical than any grand principle.

With Chen Qinghe around, Huang Shouzhou wasn't afraid of anything that might happen later.

It can be better than before

The next day, Su Yulian indeed came to the shop on this street in Sham Shui Po again.

To Chen Qinghe's surprise, Su Yulian did not come alone this time.