I consulted a feng shui master in Hong Kong.

The next morning, Chen Qinghe and Huang Shouzhuo went straight to Jinfulou.

That was an old teahouse in Hong Kong, not very big, but in a prime location, next to a jewelry store on the left and a watch shop on the right. There were also a few private rooms on the third floor, where people in the jewelry business, foreign goods business, and foreign trade dealings often met to discuss business. If Master Zhou really met people here often, he wasn't some street hustler.

Huang Shouzhou felt uneasy the whole way.

"Junior brother, are we really going up there?" he lowered his voice. "What if that guy sees us going up? Won't he turn on us on the spot?"

"He might not know who we are," Chen Qinghe said. "Even if he did, he might not dare to turn against us in public."

Huang Shouzhou then calmed himself down a bit.

The two entered through the main entrance, ordered a pot of tea, and chose a seat with a view of the entrance to the private booths on the third floor.

The teahouse was quite crowded, with people speaking Cantonese, Mandarin, and even mixing in English.

Several well-dressed middlemen sat by the window, holding small jewelry boxes in their hands, and whispering to the people opposite them about the price.

Huang Shouzhou was dazzled by what he saw, but Chen Qinghe simply glanced around without making a sound before fixing his gaze on a fat man around fifty years old standing at the entrance of the private room on the third floor.

The man wore a gray-blue long robe with a string of sandalwood prayer beads hanging from his chest. He had a fair complexion and was slightly plump, but his brow bones were low, and his eyes always looked down before looking up.

He sat behind a small tea table, speaking in hushed tones to a man in a sharp suit opposite him. The man in the suit handed him a small paper package, which the portly man opened, glanced at, and then tucked into his sleeve.

Huang Shouzhou followed Chen Qinghe's gaze and his heart skipped a beat: "This is Master Zhou?"

"It should be."

How can you be so sure?

"There are cinnabar stains on his cuffs," Chen Qinghe said. "People who write unorthodox talismans for years can't wash cinnabar off their fabric once it seeps in. The cinnabar on those items from the Pei family is from the same source as the old stains on his cuffs."

Huang Shouzhou gasped in shock.

The two didn't rush forward, but sat and slowly drank their tea. Chen Qinghe wasn't in a hurry; he wanted to observe not only Master Zhou himself, but also the people coming and going around him.

This observation lasted for nearly an hour.

The more Huang Shouzhou looked at it, the more he felt something was wrong.

A total of four or five people went up to find Master Zhou. Two of them were obviously in the jewelry business, one was a middle-aged man who had opened a new shop, and the other looked like he was in real estate.

Everyone who went upstairs looked a little anxious as they came downstairs, but most of them had flushed faces as they came down, as if they had been promised some kind of benefit.

"Junior brother," Huang Shouzhou finally couldn't help but lower his voice, "this old guy... doesn't seem to have only done one deal with the Pei family."

"It's more than just not like him," Chen Qinghe said. "He's setting up a stall here."

Huang Shouzhou then realized that Master Zhou wasn't just occasionally meeting people at Jin Fu Lou; he was using this private room as his business hideout. A tea table, a pot of tea, a string of Buddhist beads, plus the traces of cinnabar in his sleeve, were enough for him to slowly stuff those shady tricks into various shops and houses.

The longer Chen Qinghe sat, the colder his expression became.

He originally intended to hold off on taking action and slowly figure out what kind of people this group was.

But after observing this for the day, he became even more certain: this wasn't just Master Zhou alone; there must be someone else behind him.

The introducer's surname is Qiu, and he is most likely just one link in the chain.

"Let's not go upstairs yet," Chen Qinghe said calmly. "He's seen enough people upstairs today. If we really want to confront him, now's not the time."

"And what about us?"

"Back to the Pei family."

Huang Shouzhou was taken aback: "The Pei family? Weren't they all demolished yesterday?"

"Yesterday was just to quell their anger," Chen Qinghe said. "The real root of the problem hasn't been eradicated yet. Since I saw Master Zhou again today, I need to go to the Pei family's place again."

Huang Shouzhou followed him downstairs with some skepticism.

As the two left, Mr. Zhou, who lived on the third floor, happened to look up and glance down.

His gaze swept across the teahouse lobby without lingering on Chen Qinghe, but Chen Qinghe could sense a fleeting glint in his eyes for a moment.

That wasn't the look of an ordinary businessman discussing business in a teahouse.

That was the look in the eyes of someone who had already seen blood.

Chen Qinghe didn't turn around. He led Huang Shouzhu out of the back door of the teahouse, hailed a car, and headed to Pei Family Gold Shop.

……

When they arrived at the gold shop, Pei Shijie was taken aback to see them again, but then personally came out to greet them.

"Master Chen, what brings you here again? My mother looked better this morning than yesterday, and my brother's fever has gone down."

"That's why I came back." Chen Qinghe didn't smile and walked straight inside. "Their family has just recovered, but the roots of this shop haven't been completely eradicated yet."

Upon hearing this, Pei Shijie immediately followed: "It's not over yet?"

"Yesterday I only removed the few things you could see in your shop," Chen Qinghe said as he walked. "But a real windfall trap isn't just in places like doors, cabinets, lamps, and coins; it also leaves a hole in the most unexpected places."

He led his men into the inner hall.

The inner hall is where the Pei family's ancestral portraits are displayed. The incense burner, candlesticks, and ancestral tablets are all present on the table, arranged in a very orderly manner.

Huang Shouzhou still felt there was nothing wrong with this place, but Chen Qinghe walked straight to the ancestral portrait table and gently moved the small incense burner at the front to the side.

There was a thin piece of paper pressed under the incense burner.

The paper had turned yellow and the edges were brittle from the incense smoke, indicating that it had been pressed down for a long time.

"This is..." Huang Shouzhou leaned over to take a look and immediately gasped.

That was a talisman.

Chen Qinghe used two fingers to pick up the paper. The moment his fingertips touched it, his expression suddenly darkened.

The talisman was not thick, and the cinnabar on it was written with a simple rune.

But those few strokes of the pen made his eyes grow colder and colder.

That's a talisman from the Three Mysteries Sect.

It's not just a talisman from the Three Mysteries Sect, but one that's extremely rare for outsiders. Even Master Li Xuansong, when he was alive, had only seen the complete manual a few times.

But it just so happened to appear under the ancestral portrait table of the Pei family.

and--

The ending strokes were altered in two places.

The talisman, originally meant to "draw energy to protect its owner," was changed to one that "draws energy to attract wealth." With just one stroke of the pen, the talisman meant to save lives became a talisman meant to feed the wealthy.

"Junior brother, what's wrong with your complexion?" Huang Shouzhou asked in a low voice when he noticed that his expression was off.

Chen Qinghe did not answer immediately.

He turned the talisman over and looked at it again, his fingertip lingering on one of the modified strokes, remaining motionless for a long time.

After a long while, he slowly spoke: "This is a talisman from the Three Mysteries Sect."

Huang Shouzhou froze completely.

"The Three Mysteries Sect?!"

"Someone altered two strokes," Chen Qinghe said in a deep voice. "Not many changes, but the person who wrote this talisman must have seen the original manual."