Hu Tu said something to his father, then hooked his arm around my neck and half-pushed, half-pulled me outside.
It took me a lot of effort to break free from his hand that was around my neck. I looked Hu Tudao up and down and asked uncertainly, "Hu Tudao, are you sure you can handle this? This is no joke."
Hu Tudao mimicked his father, patted my shoulder, and said confidently, "You can rest assured. My dad and I have seen all sorts of big scenes. A mere little female ghost is nothing to us."
"That's called leaving her to you. My purpose isn't to break her up, but to take her home so her family can talk to her and find out if she has any unfulfilled wishes, and then let her go to be reincarnated in peace." Ma Jiajie hasn't hurt me yet, and doesn't seem like anything evil. I really don't want to hurt her, and I've already promised her family that I'd let her tell them her wishes and go to be reincarnated in peace. That would be better for everyone.
“Alright, we’ll do it your way. But Brother Changming, sending away ghosts is rather complicated. It’s not as convenient as just killing them directly, and the cost is also…” Hu Tudao stopped talking as he spoke.
"Just tell me directly, how much do you need?" Of course I understood what he meant. People who do this usually like to hear others ask for prices. He was just giving an example and didn't give a real price. He just said to give whatever he could think of.
However, some people will use material goods as a price. According to them, those who study Taoism do not talk about money, but about the origin.
"Just give me whatever you think is best. I really like eating big white geese; I can eat three at a time!" Hu Tudao said with a smile, hooking his arm around my shoulder again.
My face darkened, and I forced a smirk, but I still nodded and said, "Okay, I'll ask the host to give you a 666 yuan red envelope."
"Hmm." Hu Tudao nodded expressionlessly and said, "I'll send you the things you need to prepare to your phone for the ritual tomorrow night. Oh, by the way, give me your phone number first."
I gave my phone number to Hu Tudao, and couldn't help but think to myself, "This guy must be overjoyed inside, but he's pretending to be all detached from worldly affairs. No wonder he's Hu Ergou's son; he's just as wicked as him. No, he's even worse. His heart is so black-hearted. No wonder he can build such a beautiful house."
I remember when I was a child, my grandfather would perform rituals for others. If the family was poor, he would only take a few dozen yuan as a token of his appreciation. If they were really poor, he would take a duck instead.
Unlike the old-fashioned monks, who can easily earn hundreds or even thousands of yuan. Take funerals for example, a group of seven or eight people can earn three or four thousand yuan for a single ceremony. And the more they do it, the more fake it becomes, with many procedures being omitted. They take turns sleeping, and each person can earn six or seven hundred yuan for half a day and half a night, plus cigarettes, alcohol, and small red envelopes. People in this line of work are really lucrative.
However, some people are not skilled enough to easily help others exorcise ghosts, and only veteran masters like Hu Ergou dare to take on such jobs.
However, there are also a few extremely unusual cases. For example, I once heard of one who was from our county. He went to the neighboring county to help someone exorcise a ghost. Because our dialect is different from that of the neighboring county, he thought they wouldn't understand what he was chanting. So he pretended to chant incantations in our dialect. After he finished chanting, he took the offerings, accepted the red envelope, and prepared to go home. Before leaving, he said a few more words in our dialect, roughly meaning that he was saying, "Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, this has nothing to do with me. It's all the host's business. If you want to find someone, find the host. I'm just here to freeload."
What the monk didn't expect was that one of the family members had done business in our county for several years and understood our local dialect. Without saying a word, he picked up a carrying pole and chased after the monk, causing a huge misunderstanding and becoming a laughing stock among the people.
"Okay, I'll call you after I finish delivering the packages tomorrow, and I'll take you there." I made an appointment with Hu Tudao, then got on my electric scooter and headed home.
"etc."
"Is there anything else?" I turned to Hu Tudao and asked.
"Did you just come back from town?" Hu Tudao walked around my car and asked with a serious expression.
"Yeah, what's wrong?" I asked, completely bewildered by Hu Tudao's actions.
“Something unclean sat in your back seat not long ago,” Hu Tu said, stopping on my right and pointing behind me with a serious expression.
"What?" I hurriedly jumped off the vehicle, staring at the back seat of my electric scooter with a look of horror and a very ugly expression.
Luckily, my electric scooter hadn't retracted its support yet, otherwise it would have fallen to the ground.
"Hu Tudao, you...you're not seeing things, are you?" I asked doubtfully, not seeing anything in the back seat.
“It’s impossible to be wrong. As mages, our sense of smell and eyesight are stronger than ordinary people. We can see some unusual things. There’s an evil aura lingering on the back of your seat right now. It must have sensed a deadly threat when it got close to my house, which is why that evil thing ran away.” Hu Tu said in a serious and credible manner.
Hu Tudao's words gave me goosebumps all over. I thought everything would be fine since I didn't run into Ma Jiajie tonight, but I didn't expect to be entangled with her again.
I completely believe what Hu Tudao said, because when I passed the threshing ground in Liuluo Village tonight, those three vicious dogs did not appear, just like last night.
"What do we do now?" I was completely at a loss. Although Ma Jiajie did not show any intention to harm me, anyone who knew that they were being haunted by something dirty and being dragged home would be hard to remain calm.
"Wait a moment," Hu Tu said, then turned and went into the house.
A moment later, Hu Tudao came out with a piece of yellow paper and stuck it directly on my back seat, saying confidently, "With this talisman suppressing it, even if you leave my house, that evil spirit won't dare to come near you again."
"Hu Tudao, thank you so much." I thanked Hu Tudao repeatedly. Upon closer inspection, I felt that the talisman looked very familiar, but I didn't think much of it. I got on my electric bike and prepared to go home.
"Hehe, you're welcome. 60 yuan. This talisman took my dad a lot of effort to make. 60 yuan is already a relative's price for you," Hu Tu said with a pout, looking like he had been ripped off.
Without the slightest hesitation, I took out my phone, opened WeChat, and scanned 60 yuan for Hu Tudao.
On the way back, I kept glancing back at the talisman on the back seat. I don't know if it was just my imagination, but ever since I put the talisman on, I felt that the evil spirit really didn't dare to come near me anymore, and riding the electric bike became much easier.
But then I suddenly remembered that this talisman was one of the ones my grandfather taught me to draw when I was a child.
I hurriedly turned around to look at the talisman, and it really was one of the kinds that my grandfather had taught me to draw.
I have a feeling of being tricked. I can draw this talisman too, but Hu Tu said that his father spent a lot of effort to make it. Could there be some trick to it? I guess I have to find an opportunity to test whether this talisman is effective or not.
As I was thinking about it, I went home.
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