Chapter 80: The Taste of a Geomancer

When he caught sight of himself in the mirror—a hideous, towering man—he was instantly overcome with nausea.

“So this is what I really look like?” Kurozawa’s eyes reddened as he muttered to himself, “How did excellent genes turn so biased by the time they reached me?”

“Lin Qiu…”

Kurozawa calmed himself, his crimson eyes returning to normal as he gazed toward the Lei family’s estate, a trace of gravity in his expression. “Something isn’t right about this Lei family.”

“You’ve noticed too?” Lin Qiu looked at him with surprise.

“Of course! What do you think I am?” Kurozawa shot him a look. “This place reeks of evil. The whole Lei Manor gives me the illusion of an earthly purgatory.”

“Maybe we should split up the luggage and go our separate ways?”

“Get lost!” Lin Qiu glared at him. “You think you’re Pigsy, wanting to take your share and return to Gao Village?”

He scoffed, but his heart grew heavier, recalling the system task: “The Peril of Lei Manor!”

“What exactly is the danger here? Is it connected to the Lei family, or the nine-star surrounding grave formation of this place?”

“The hour of the rooster… the night of returning souls…”

Lin Qiu gazed at the sky above the Lei estate, a shiver of dread in his eyes.

A mass of jet-black clouds loomed above, sinister and foreboding.

Kurozawa curled his lip at Lin Qiu, muttering, “We’re just here to get by. Do you really have to take this so seriously?”

Ji Heng withdrew her gaze as well, addressing the group, “Just around the corner and we’ll be at my home.”

They followed Ji Heng away from the Lei family gates, their figures soon vanishing around the bend.

Ji Heng’s house was a two-story traditional building, its white walls freshly painted. Wooden fences, deep brown in color, adorned the brick facade. Behind the quaint building, a winding river ran its course.

“This is my home. Just an old man living alone,” Ji Heng said with a sigh, gazing at the sizable house. “Life is stable, I’ve saved a little, but I have no one to pass it on to.”

Her tone was tinged with melancholy as she looked upon the house, her expression complicated. “I’m getting old. Climbing stairs isn’t easy anymore, so I live in a side room on the ground floor.”

“The rooms upstairs I hardly clean except once in a long while—they’re home to the mice now!”

She chuckled, brushing away her sorrow. “Old age makes one talkative. Forgive me for rambling. Please, come in.”

Ji Heng led them inside.

At the entrance stood a statue of the God of Wealth, with incense and offerings on the altar.

“You’ll stay upstairs tonight. There are plenty of rooms; I’ll show you the way.”

After lighting three sticks of incense and bowing, Ji Heng led them to the second floor.

The upstairs was spacious, more like an inn than a private home. Under the bright lights, the walls displayed calligraphy extolling tranquility and distance, Tang tri-colored ceramics, and Yuan dynasty blue-and-white porcelain.

Near the stairs was a fish pond, about ten square meters wide, where golden fish darted playfully among lotus leaves.

Looking at the goldfish, a gentle smile softened Ji Heng’s features. She tossed in some feed.

“I come by often to clean up and feed these fish.”

“When I see them, I don’t feel so lonely.”

“This miserly old man is about to starve us!”

“That’s right, that’s right!”

“If we die of hunger and become vengeful ghosts, we’ll haunt his dreams every night!”

Ji Heng didn’t sense the mental chatter of the fish, but Lin Qiu and the others could hear it clearly. Two of them were spirit beasts, two human, but all had evolved enough to perceive the goldfish’s thoughts.

Watching the scramble for food, their initial pity for Ji Heng’s solitude melted into amusement at the goldfish’s complaints.

“Hey, old man, give us more! We’re still hungry!” the goldfish clamored, but Ji Heng had already put away the feed and ushered the group into a suite.

“You’ll rest here tonight. Everything’s new—I clean regularly.”

“Settle in for now. I’ll go make you all something to eat.”

After a few words, Ji Heng closed the door and left.

Lin Qiu surveyed the room, while Xu Bing, full of curiosity, took out her camera and began snapping photos.

“I never expected to find a place like this in Wudu!”

“Even the fanciest places in the city can’t compare!” Xu Bing marveled, her face full of wonder.

As the younger sister of Xu Bancheng, the eldest lady of the Xu family, there was little she hadn’t seen. Precisely because of her exposure, she was even more surprised.

Ji Heng was just a geomancer from a farming family, yet her taste was remarkable.

Every object was carefully placed, blending seamlessly with the environment, as if by design.

“She’s a geomancer, skilled in feng shui her whole life. How could ordinary people ever compare?” Lin Qiu scoffed at her, then sprawled on the sofa with a satisfied groan. “So comfortable!”

The demure girl smiled, knelt at the tea table, lit the stove, opened the tea canister, and with bamboo tongs, measured out the leaves.

She quietly brewed, steeped, and rinsed the tea, her movements graceful. Water trickled onto the rosewood tea tray, flowing into the drain below.

With the tongs, she placed the second steep of tea before each of them.

Lin Qiu’s eyes brimmed with appreciation, admiration, and a hint of frustration.

How could someone so serene, like a fairy from a painting, actually be a man?

He dared not look longer, fearing his own resolve would waver. He took up his cup, sipping the scalding brew that left a fragrant aftertaste.

“Excellent tea!” he exclaimed, asking for another cup.

After tea, Lin Qiu closed his eyes on the sofa, drifting into a light nap.

Kurozawa returned to his true form—a shaggy, black dog—sprawling on the woolen rug, snoring, a transparent bubble swelling and shrinking at his nose.

“A-Qiu! A-Qiu!” the snores continued, but the bubble did not burst.

The demure girl knelt in one corner, quietly reading The Book of Intrigue, occasionally tucking a stray lock behind her ear.

Xu Bing opened her social app, interacting with family and fans, scrolling through photos and videos sent to her.

She sometimes laughed softly, other times burst out with manic laughter.

But in the next moment—

A piercing scream suddenly rang out!