I consulted a feng shui master in Hong Kong.

At the entrance of the old dyehouse, carpenter Deng and several workers were carrying a new log from the front yard to the back. When they saw the car parked at the entrance, they paused for a moment.

Chen Qinghe was in the front yard supervising the joints of the main pillar when he heard Huang Shouzhou call out from outside the door, and that's when he looked up.

"Qinghe! Inspector Lu is here!"

Chen Qinghe put down the ruler in his hand, wiped the dust off his waist, and came out to greet him.

Lu Qibang got out of the car and stood at the entrance of the old dyehouse. He first looked around the area, and after a while, his expression became more serious than last time.

"Master Chen, you've got the vision down really fast."

"We have a place, we can't delay." Chen Qinghe gestured for him to walk towards the side courtyard. "The house is messy, come inside and sit down."

The old house in the side courtyard that hadn't been demolished yet had been tidied up by Huang Shouzhou a few days ago. The tables, chairs, and benches were all there, and it had become Chen Qinghe's usual place for entertaining people.

Lu Qibang entered the house and sat down. Police officer Xiao Fei followed him in and carefully placed the brown paper bag he was carrying on the table.

The bag was bulging.

Huang Shouzhou stood at the door, glanced at the paper bag, and tactfully withdrew, closing the door behind him.

There were only three people left in the house.

Lu Qibang didn't beat around the bush and pushed the brown paper bag in front of Chen Qinghe.

"Master Chen, I'm here today because there's something inconvenient about going through the official procedures at the police station. I'd like to ask you for your help."

Chen Qinghe didn't move immediately, but only glanced at him.

"Just tell me, Officer Lu."

Lu Qibang smiled.

"There are some cases piling up at the police station, not major cases, but not minor cases either. Some investigations were cut off halfway through, and some had no leads at all. My colleague, Little Fatty, compiled a stack for me a couple of days ago, and picked out a few that I'm not entirely sure about myself, and I'd like you to take a look."

"If I can help, I will; if I can't, consider it a visit from me."

That's already a very polite way of putting it.

Chen Qinghe looked at him, neither refusing nor agreeing immediately, but simply pulled over the brown paper bag and slowly took out the contents one by one and spread them out.

Seven or eight portions.

On the outside of each file, Little Fatty had written a few small words in pencil in the corner: Death from falling from a warehouse, old woman living in an old building for a long time, a family of three in Yau Ma Tei falling ill, an old shop in Causeway Bay going bankrupt one after another, an old house in Happy Valley where a baby was crying at night, two tenants dying in an old building in Shau Kei Wan...

Chen Qinghe flipped through the pages very slowly.

Lu Qibang sat opposite him, neither urging him nor interrupting, but simply lowered his head and slowly took a sip of tea.

Time passed minute by minute.

Xiao Fei stood behind Lu Qibang, even his breathing became soft.

About fifteen minutes later, Chen Qinghe finally closed the last copy and looked up.

"Lo Sir."

"Please speak."

"In most of these cases, I can't be of much help."

Lu Qibang's eyes flickered slightly, but his expression remained unchanged.

Chen Qinghe reached out and pushed four or five of them to one side.

"In this case, a person fell to their death from a warehouse. According to the case file, only the deceased was present at the time of the incident. There were no witnesses, no external injuries, and no signs of struggle. After so much time has passed, the scene has already been tampered with and altered, and even the original timber was not preserved. In this kind of case, without witnesses, physical evidence, or the scene itself, it cannot be determined by just one glance."

"In this case, the old lady lived in the old building for a long time and passed away suddenly, but the case file says that she had reached the end of her life. She lived in that old building for thirty years, so if we were to investigate, we would have to look at the current residents of that building, but her original room had long been rented out and was occupied by a new person, so there were no traces of the original place."

"The continuous defaults of the old shops in Causeway Bay are not my responsibility. Accounting matters are handled by people, not by houses. If Inspector Lu wants to investigate, he shouldn't come to me; he should let his colleagues at the police station do the auditing."

Upon hearing this, Lu Qibang chuckled.

That makes sense.

"I can't help you." Chen Qinghe pushed the case files aside, his tone flat. "No clues means no clues. If I insist on looking at them, I'll only make things worse for Inspector Lu."

Lu Qibang nodded, not insisting.

He never expected to find a definitive answer for each of these files. Hearing "this one won't work" actually made him feel more at ease than receiving an inaccurate answer.

Chen Qinghe paused for a moment, then spread out the remaining two portions again.

"I can cast a divination for you regarding these two matters."

Lu Qibang raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Serve divination?"

"Six lines of divination." Chen Qinghe tapped his finger on the first case file. "In this case in Happy Valley, the baby in the old house cries at night. According to the file, the child is healthy, the parents are fine, but the baby only cries at night. The time of crying is almost always the same, and soothing the baby from the west-facing window to the courtyard helps. If the police investigate this kind of thing, it's like the blind men and the elephant. But if I cast a divination, I can point you in the right direction."

"Another case," he flipped to the file on a family of three in Yau Ma Tei who were ill, "This family was fine after moving away, but fell ill after returning. This isn't fate, it's a matter of the house. But I've never been to their house, I don't know the terrain, the air vents, or the surrounding layout. It's impossible for me to directly point out the problem. But I can cast a divination for them and tell you the most accurate time to go and see them."

Lu Qibang listened attentively.

"Then please do me the trouble, Master Chen."

Chen Qinghe didn't say anything more.

He got up, walked to the corner of the wall, and took out three copper coins from an old wooden box.

The copper coins were old, their color darkened, and their edges worn smooth. Chen Qinghe gently shook them in his palm, his expression gradually calming down. Then he laid out a clean sheet of yellow paper and leaned over the table.

One line, two lines, three lines...

The money fell onto the table with a very soft, crisp sound.

Xiao Fei held his breath and couldn't resist leaning closer to take a look. Lu Qibang, on the other hand, remained composed, leaning back in his chair, but his gaze never left the table.

After casting the hexagram, Chen Qinghe did not speak immediately. He first looked at the hexagram for a while, and then flipped over the case file from Happy Valley to compare it for a moment.

"This matter," he raised his eyes, "you have the policeman wait outside the west wall of that old house at midnight on the third day of next month. Wait for what—I don't need to tell you, you'll know when you get there."

Lu Qibang paused for a moment, then nodded.

"it is good."

Chen Qinghe cast another divination, which landed on the case of a family of three in Yau Ma Tei.

This divination was performed more slowly than the previous one.

After landing, Chen Qinghe watched for a while before saying:

"If this family wants to investigate, you can't go during the day."

"The best time is next week in the evening, when the sun is just below the roof ridge. Have the family open all the doors and windows for half an hour, then close them. You can take someone in to take a look and see as much as you can. Although I can't make a direct diagnosis for you, my divination suggests that the problem isn't inside the house, but outside the walls."

Lu Qibang was slightly taken aback.

"Outside the wall?"

"Hmm." Chen Qinghe didn't explain further. "Just go at this time, keep your eyes open, and you'll understand."

Lu Qibang did not ask any further questions.

Having worked at the police station for so many years, he knew that hearing something once was enough. Asking further would only diminish Chen Qinghe's willingness to offer guidance.

He took a sip of tea, carefully closed the two case files, and set them aside.

Chen Qinghe didn't say anything more and was about to put the remaining files together.

But his fingertips suddenly paused.

There was another one at the very bottom.

He had only glanced at it when he flipped through it earlier, without looking closely. But now that his gaze had returned to it, his brows slowly furrowed.

The two pencil strokes on the cover, written by the chubby boy, read—

"Strange things have happened to a certain mansion halfway up the mountain in the past two months."

Chen Qinghe looked up at Lu Qibang.

"Why wasn't this one among the others?"

Lu Qibang was taken aback at first, then followed his gaze and his expression changed slightly.

"You mean the one at the bottom?"

"Um."

"That case wasn't originally on the list that I asked Fatty to organize." Lu Qibang sat up straighter and reached out to pull out the file. "It happened two months ago. The case was held up by another team, and our team didn't take it. Recently, some word got out in the police station, so I asked Fatty to get a copy as well. I was planning to ask you about it next time."

Chen Qinghe didn't say anything, but reached out and spread out the case file.

The first page is the processing record.

The person who reported the case was a family surnamed Qiu from Banshan.

The Qiu family is quite influential in Hong Kong, having started their business in shipping, docks, and foreign trading companies.

It has declined slightly in recent years and is not comparable to what it used to be.

Chen Qinghe's gaze slowly moved downwards.

The contents of the report made him frown even more.