Unfold the oil paper; inside are dried mugwort, cinnabar powder, and a little glutinous rice soaked in black dog blood.
"Go to a Chinese medicine shop and buy these herbs. Mix them together in the following proportions: three qian of mugwort, one qian of cinnabar, and five qian of glutinous rice. Wrap them in yellow paper to form a triangle."
I used chopsticks to draw a map on the table.
"Place one at the base of the west wall of your house, for west belongs to metal, and metal can overcome wood, thus preventing evil spirits from clinging to you; sew another into your inner pocket, close to your heart, to block the light of your three souls and seven spirits."
Dazhu frantically pulled out his old-fashioned mobile phone and started snapping photos of the tabletop.
"Master Chen, please say it again! Is the west wall base on the left or the right? Should the glutinous rice be raw or cooked?"
I held his trembling wrist, indicating that he didn't need to be so nervous: "Raw glutinous rice, the older the better. Remember, change the sachet on the first day of each month. Bury the old one at the crossroads. The yang spirit walks on the main road, and the yin spirit dares not touch it."
After doing all this, I sat back down on the wooden stool and continued to ask, "What was the room that Lao Zhou took you to like?"
"Blue bricks and gray tiles, a wedding couplet with the words 'May you have a long and happy marriage' pasted on the wooden door!"
Dazhu's voice suddenly softened: "Pushing open the door reveals a carved bed, with peanuts and red dates hanging inside the canopy, and the bronze incense burner on the table still emitting smoke..."
"And then?" I moved closer to him.
"I walked there like I'd lost my soul!"
Dazhu suddenly ripped open his collar, revealing a pale blue finger mark on his chest.
"Lotus candles were lit inside the room, and a bronze incense burner sat on the table. When the woman entered, she was carrying a lacquered tray with a stick of incense on it..."
"I was terrified, but when I saw her unbutton her clothes, my mind went completely blank, and all I wanted to do was hug her..."
"Is it the woman you met at the night market?"
"No! She's even prettier than that woman!"
Dazhu took a big gulp of wine.
The liquor trickled down his chin and into his collar: "She lit the incense, and the smoke drifted into my nose. I felt like my soul had been ripped out..."
He suddenly covered his face, and sobs escaped through his fingers: "Master Chen, I'm so sorry to my wife, but that feeling... was more comfortable than being an emperor!"
I didn't respond, but instead expressed my understanding.
How could a rough man like him possibly hold back when faced with something like this?
I'll give you money, and I'll let you sleep with me.
A woman who is beautiful and gentle—what man could resist her?
"The person was gone by daybreak!"
Dazhu slammed his hand on the table: "There's a blue and white porcelain bowl on the table, with 'Made in the Chenghua period' engraved on the bottom!"
"I thought I'd been tricked by Lao Zhou and wanted to settle the score with him, but then I saw more than a dozen men walking out of the alley, all with blank stares, not even realizing they'd tied their belts backwards!"
Do you know those people?
"They're all dressed like bosses, not one of them looks like a construction worker!"
Dazhu trembled as he pulled out his cigarette case, only to find that he had already finished smoking all the cigarettes.
"Later, Lao Zhou took me to an auction house in the provincial capital, and this bowl sold for 800,000 yuan!"
He suddenly grabbed my wrist, his nails almost digging into my flesh: "Guess what? The bronze candlestick he gave me on the second night sold for 1.2 million!"
I gasped: "How many nights did you go in total?"
Five nights!
Dazhu's eyes suddenly went vacant: "On the fifth night, that woman didn't light any incense. She just whispered in my ear, 'Bring your friends next time.'"
"When I woke up at dawn, there was no porcelain on my pillow, only white hair!"
He suddenly trembled all over: "Old Zhou said this was 'the fragrance of turning back,' meaning she had taken a liking to me! But a few days later, Old Zhou died—died in his own bed, his life essence drained, and down there... down there was a wad of fox fur stuffed in!"
As he was talking, Old Zhou suddenly burst into tears.
"I've spent all my money on my daughter's medical treatment, but now I dream about that woman every night!"
"She was combing her hair by my bedside and asked me, 'When are you bringing your friends over?'"
As he spoke, he suddenly knelt down with a thud, his knees hitting the blue bricks with a dull thud: "Master Chen! Please save me! I don't want to die like Old Zhou!"
I hurriedly helped him up and asked, "Your daughter's treatment won't cost more than a few million. What happened to the rest of the money? Did you gamble it away?"
I stared at his faded collar and greasy cuffs, which seemed completely out of place with his windfall of millions.
Dazhu suddenly shook his head violently: "I didn't gamble... I really didn't gamble..."
He suddenly lowered his voice, his cloudy eyes bloodshot: "That money... was all used to buy lives."
"Buy your life?"
I frowned as Dazhu's nails dug deeply into my wrist with astonishing force.
He suddenly leaned closer to me: "Have you ever seen a fox cub with a human face?"
Dazhu's voice trembled: "After returning from the third trip to that village, white hair started growing all over my body. At night, I always heard the sound of fingernails scratching the wall. Old Zhou said that I was 'entangled' and that I had to use yin wealth to ward off the disaster!"
He suddenly ripped open his collar, revealing five dark red scratch marks below his collarbone, shaped exactly like the claws of a fox.
“I went to the black market to find a ‘master’. They said that I needed to gather nine virgin boys and girls whose birth dates and times were yin, soak copper coins in their blood, and arrange them into a ‘resurrection array’ to break the curse.”
Dazhu grinned, "I gave them three million, but... but I was completely swindled!"
As he spoke, Dazhu knelt down heavily once more, his forehead hitting the ground with a dull thud.
"Master Chen! I can hear them crying every night! Please save me, if this continues, my daughter... my daughter will be dragged away by them too!"
"Get up first, the ground is cold."
I pulled his arm hard, but found that he was as heavy as a rock, his knees pressed firmly against the floor.
Dazhu suddenly grabbed my wrist: "Master Chen! Please save my daughter! She's only eight years old, you can't..."
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