Lin Fang stood in the cramped living room of the rental house, staring blankly at the divorce agreement in his hand.
The paper glowed with a dead white in the dusk light, like a talisman, nailing his marriage of the past three years and the last bit of warmth given to him by this city.
The living room was dim, and the electric light had been broken for two days, and he hadn't fixed it. The only light in the room came from the broken glass on the balcony, and a ray of sunset slanted in, just falling on the old wooden box.
That was the relic left by my grandfather. It was covered with dust, and the lock was rusty, like a grave forgotten by time.
Lin Fang squatted down slowly, stretched out his hand and gently stroked the lid of the box, his fingertips brushing across the old scratches. He remembered that his grandfather often said when he was a child that Feng Shui was not superstition, but about regulating qi, observing the situation, and changing fate in accordance with heaven.
He didn't understand it at that time, but later he went to college, studied design, fell in love, got married, had children, and went further and further away, and his grandfather's stuff became a joke.
Until today.
He opened the wooden box, and the smell of old paper and medicinal herbs hit his nose. An old compass lay quietly at the bottom of the box, with cracks all over the edges, but the copper surface of the Tianchi in the center still glowed with an obscure light.
There was also a yellowed notebook with three words on the cover - "Yin Yang Record".
Lin Fang paused for a few seconds and gently turned to the first page. The handwriting inside was crooked, but it revealed a different kind of power:
"In Feng Shui, those who go against the will of heaven will have their fate changed and their qi will circulate. Everything has a cause, and when the situation is established, it will move."
He stared at the line of words for a long time, and suddenly laughed. He laughed at his own embarrassment, failure, and poverty, and also laughed at the absurdity, chaos, and unreasonableness of this world.
"Grandpa, how about... I believe you again?"
He raised his head, the room was still dim, but the compass seemed to tremble faintly in the twilight.
At 11 o'clock in the evening, Lin Fang sat in front of the computer, listening to the voice.
It was a voice invitation from an unfamiliar number, with an unconcealed eagerness and some inexplicable trust in the tone:
"Mr. Lin, we found out that your grandfather was the descendant of the Golden Letter of the Luozhou Feng Shui Association in 1993... We suspect that the unusual movement of the old house is related to the "revival of the evil situation"... I am willing to pay for the round-trip air ticket and double the remuneration, just ask you to go to the United States in person to examine the house and solve the situation."
After listening, Lin Fang was silent.
He didn't know if this was a scam. Who would still look for a Feng Shui master in this era? Besides, he didn't debut professionally, and he didn't even know 50% of his grandfather's stuff.
But the phrase "the descendant of the Golden Letter in 1993" shocked him.
Grandpa did go south in 1993 and participated in a Feng Shui conference. After returning, he stayed indoors. That year, he burned all his props, leaving only a notebook and this compass.
Lin Fang looked at the pile of IOUs, utility bills, and the living expenses of his children in the corner. Hesitation and struggle were intertwined on his face.
Half an hour later, he sent a message:
"Okay. You take care of the visa and air tickets, and I will leave after receiving the deposit."
The other party replied "OK" in seconds.
His heartbeat was slightly disordered, and he took a deep breath.
Perhaps this was really the last life his grandfather left him.
The next morning, Lin Fang ran to three banks in the city to withdraw his only savings, and shamelessly called his college roommate to borrow money. The roommate was shocked on the other end of the phone:
"Are you crazy? You have nothing now, and you want to go abroad to help others with Feng Shui? Why don't you believe in fate?"
Lin Fang smiled, like a lone wolf in the cold wind: "I believe in fate, so I have to go out and take a look."
The passport was issued four years ago, and the photo on it was still the shy smile when he just got married. He took a photo of his passport and sent it to the travel agency, ran to apply for an expedited visa, and found an airline agency with a mediocre reputation. He paid 3,000 yuan to exchange for an economy class ticket to Los Angeles the next day.
When he returned to his rental house at night, he was so tired that his eyelids were fighting, and he fell asleep in a daze.
- In his dream, he stood between a red sky and earth, with an overturned Bagua map under his feet, and flames rising to the sky above his head, and the sky and earth collapsed. A low voice like a bell rang in his ears:
"Li fire moves, Qian heaven opens, three disasters and nine disasters, moving will break the situation."
He woke up suddenly, his heart beating like a drum. His first reaction was to get up and take out the compass, set up a formation on the ground to draw a hexagram.
Three copper coins fell to the ground with a clang, and they were repeated, and finally the hexagram was obtained:
The hexagram of "Li is fire" changes to "Qian is heaven" when it moves.
He stared at the hexagram, and an inexplicable chill rose in his heart.
- Li fire means unrest, fission, and disaster.
——Qiantian means destiny. The extreme masculinity turns the destiny.
"The hexagram of great movement... Could it be that my trip is a change of destiny?"
He didn't dare to think too much, and quickly packed his things, putting the compass and his grandfather's "Yin Yang Record" into the suitcase.
When boarding was approaching, the sky suddenly changed and dark clouds pressed down.
Lin Fang stood in front of the glass wall of the waiting hall, looking at the sky outside, feeling inexplicably irritated.
Suddenly, a flash of lightning broke through the clouds, illuminating the entire runway in silver. He subconsciously looked at the flight that was about to take him to the United States, and there was a blue auspicious cloud logo on the fuselage.
The next moment, the broadcast sounded:
"CZ687 flight is open for boarding, please go to gate C12..."
He stood up with his luggage and looked into the depths of the dark clouds in the distance. But in his eyes, a sentence that his grandfather said before his death that year appeared:
"Feng Shui is not a question of belief or not, but whether you have the ability to perceive it."
He walked into the boarding gate.
——The door of destiny slowly opened.
The plane slid in the wind and rain. One second before takeoff, there was a sudden crosswind, the cabin shook violently, and screams were heard. But at the moment when the tire left the ground, the dark clouds outside the window were pierced by a golden light, and a ray of rosy clouds fell into the cabin.
Lin Fang looked at the light, as if he saw a very far, very distant self - walking out of the old fate and embarking on a new fate.
Nine hours later, Los Angeles landed.
As soon as Lin Fang landed, a white man in a suit held a sign: "Mr. Lin".
He was picked up by a black Lincoln, which drove very fast, passing through the brightly lit streets of West Hollywood, and finally stopped at the door of a Spanish-style red-tiled villa.
"This is the manor." The driver stopped the car and said respectfully.
When Lin Fang got out of the car, a slight chill rose from the soles of his feet.
——There is something wrong with this house. Feng Shui emphasizes "open hall, backed by mountains, green dragon on the left and white tiger on the right", but this manor in front of him has a long straight road rushing into the gate, and the strange rockery built in the corner of the house can't block it, but instead gathers evil spirits.
Looking at the two sides of the gate, two black walnut trees are used as "evil-suppressing wood", but they are withered and black, and dead.
"The gate of life opens the dead situation, and people are restless if the air is not flowing." Lin Fang murmured in a low voice.
As soon as he entered the door, a blonde woman in a nightgown came up, her eyes were panicked, and her tone was trembling: "Please save my daughter..."
Lin Fang saw the girl in her arms, her face was pale, her palms were blue and black, and her expression was confused. It was obvious that she was hit by the "evil spirit entering the body" pattern.
Walking further inside, he saw a metal statue placed in the middle of the living room. It was a "praying statue" with a snake crown, with a strange shape and full of oppression.
Lin Fang's eyes turned cold, and he whispered:
"What school of Feng Shui did you hire?"
The hostess was stunned: "He said it was... the 'New Century Metaphysics Reform School' under Hermione in the UK..."
Lin Fang shook his head and sneered: "How can the West understand the Eastern destiny? This is playing with life."
He turned to the empty living room, took out the compass he brought with him, flicked his finger, and the purple gold compass needle instantly fixed on the "Dui position".
"Dui means marsh, for women, for young girls, and mainly for young girls."
The compass needle turned three circles, suddenly stopped, and pointed to the southwest!
Lin Fang moved his feet, walked to the back door of the kitchen, and slapped the wall with his palm.
"Bang!"
The tile cracked, revealing a sealed secret compartment, in which was a shiny black "evil-inviting bottle"!
There is an old saying in Feng Shui: "Hidden evil brings disaster, the deeper it is hidden, the more serious the injury!"
Lin Fang bit his fingertips, and a drop of blood spilled on the bottle. Suddenly, black air rushed to the sky, and the lights in the house went out!
One minute later, the lights were restored.
The girl woke up, her face turned rosy again, she slowly opened her eyes, her eyes wandered, but she was out of coma.
The hostess was stunned for several seconds, then suddenly fell to her knees, tears like a reservoir bursting, and the words "Thank you, Master Lin!" were almost trembling.
At that moment, Lin Fang was neither proud nor moved.
He just stood there, quietly looking at the girl's open eyes.
"Don't kneel," he said softly, but with an inexplicable tiredness, "She was able to wake up because she still had a connection in her life. I just... did what I should do."
The hostess was still kneeling, as if she didn't know how to express her gratitude, which made Lin Fang a little uneasy. He squatted down and gently helped her up. His hands were clearly jointed, but they also had a certain calmness and restraint polished by time and wandering.
"You have been guarding her for two nights and three days. When I entered the door just now, I knew that the air in this room was not right, but you were not confused at all. You saved her... earlier than me."
After saying that, he didn't stay any longer. He slowly stood up, took a look at the girl's steady breathing, and breathed a sigh of relief imperceptibly.
The light fell from behind him, casting his shadow on the ancient gold-rimmed painting opposite. The painting depicted a European nobleman standing in the corridor of the castle with a solemn expression. And Lin Fang's figure was obliquely covered on the painting, with an unfamiliar outline, but inexplicably fitting.
No one knew who he was.
No one knows how an ordinary divorced man from southern China came to this strange country, to this exquisite villa, and to reverse the fate of a girl he had never met before.
Even he himself might not know.
Lin Fang looked at the girl, his eyes slightly narrowed, but he suddenly remembered his grandfather's words before he died.
"Feng Shui is not a technique, but a way. If you really learn it, one day you will help others break the situation, and you will also slowly understand your own situation."
He lowered his eyes silently and whispered:
"This way is heavier than I thought. The moment he turned and left, a strange night wind passed silently outside the window, and the bronze lion in the courtyard moved slightly. No one noticed that the Big Dipper in the sky was missing a star.