The village chief, hearing what I said, asked tentatively, "Are you talking about the Wei Zi brought back by Bu Huangquan?"

I nodded, "That's her!"

Only then did the village chief sit down. "To tell you the truth, the old Bu family really had some strangeness about them. Bu Huangquan brought back a woman from who knows where, and then Bu Youming mysteriously disappeared."

"I used to hear people say they saw Bu Youming on Fengshui Street in the city. I even asked someone to look for him, hoping he could come back and take care of the village affairs."

"Who knew that when we went there, we couldn't find Bu Youming."

"People on Fengshui Street told us that the things that happened to the old Bu family on Fengshui Street were even weirder than what happened in the village. I don't want to talk about those things; I get scared just hearing about them."

"After the old Bu family left, the woman they brought back never left. Every now and then, she'd pop up in the village."

"Today she's sitting on the rafters of someone's house, smiling at people; tomorrow she's standing by the well, waving at people."

"Everyone in the village has seen that woman, and they're all too scared to stay in the village. But if we don't stay in the village, where can we go? In the end, we found a powerful fengshui master to come and try to subdue her."

"After that fengshui master came, he chatted with that woman in the Bu family's courtyard for a whole night. When he came out the next morning, he told us, 'Don't be afraid. That woman is just waiting for someone. If you don't provoke her, she won't come and bother you.'"

"The fengshui master said: he had come to an agreement with the woman. During the day, the village is your territory; at night, it's her territory. Just don't go out at night, and nothing will happen."

"When the person who brought the woman out returns someday, he can take her back. Then there will be nothing wrong with the village."

"The villagers were still scared. That woman, she really goes into people's houses! Just imagine, you're sleeping, and suddenly you look up and see someone on the ceiling. Or you go to the kitchen to get some water and suddenly run into someone standing by the stove. Wouldn't that be scary?"

"That fengshui master told the villagers to find some nooks and crannies in their yards or by their doors and build small shrines with four bluestone slabs, to enshrine guardian ghosts. If that woman comes, the guardian ghosts can block her."

"The villagers thought: isn't this just enshrining the guardian spirits? So they did as the fengshui master said. And the village finally quieted down."

That's not right!

That fengshui master was lying to the villagers.

In Northeast China, there's a custom of enshrining guardian spirits, and people aren't averse to them. The villagers could accept that.

But what that fengshui master did was obviously not enshrining guardian spirits; he was inviting ghosts into the village.

Guardian spirits are righteous immortals; they can be enshrined in shrines, or you can build small temples in your home, write the names of the great immortals, and burn incense to worship them.

That fengshui master had people build stone temples in dark, hidden places, without memorial tablets inside. This was clearly a place for wandering souls to stay.

More importantly, immortals don't scare people for no reason.

The ghosts I encountered on my way through the village were clearly showing me some malice.

I asked calmly, "The door I saw just now, is that the gate-keeping ghost that your family enshrines?"

"That's right!" The village chief nodded. "It's also because I get along well with that ghost that I dare to enter the courtyard at night. Other people don't dare to leave their houses at night."

"But since then, we haven't seen that woman in our village."

I continued to ask, "How did the old Bu family's house disappear?"

The village chief said, "I don't know!"

"After the old Bu family had their accident, no one dared to go to their house anymore. Only that fengshui master went there once."

I nodded. "What's that fengshui master's name? Do you know?"

The village chief said, "I think his name was Xue Shaoyuan."

I was stunned when I heard that. "Are you sure you didn't remember it wrong?"

The village chief said, "I didn't remember it wrong! That fengshui master specifically told me to remember his name. If anyone asks in the future, you have to be able to say it."

"Especially if people from the old Bu family ask, you have to be clear."

"Otherwise, if there's a misunderstanding and people from the old Bu family come after him, he can't bear the burden of the old Bu family's affairs!"

I immediately stood up and said, "Take me to see your family's small shrine."

The village chief led me back to the courtyard. His family's small shrine was right next to the base of the courtyard wall. What was strange was that the shrine didn't have a door.

According to common sense, a small shrine made of four bluestone slabs should have one side empty, representing the door.

However, the village chief's small shrine had the door facing tightly against the wall, which was equivalent to building a coffin?

I casually lifted a stone slab and saw the steel needle I had shot out lying horizontally in the shrine. It seemed that my steel needle had entered the shrine along the stone crevices in the wall.

I looked up and asked, "Did you build this shrine yourself?"

The village chief replied, "No, the shrines in the village were all built by Mr. Xue!"

I casually flipped the stone slab back and saw the mark of the Gui Guan Men (Ghost Coffin Sect) hidden behind the stone slab.

What on earth was Xue Shaoyuan up to?