A Good-for-Nothing

72. Oddities in Zu Family (2)

Translator: Dragon Rider

On hearing that his elder brother was going there, Zu Ming was delighted at first but then lapsed into worry. “Elder Brother, do you want me to get a couple of helpers to go with you?”

“That’s not necessary. We’re just going there to find out what might be the problem.”

Zu Ming heaved a sigh of relief, but the next remark of his brother brought his heart back into his mouth. Zu Zhichong shot him a ferocious glance and said, “When I’m away from here, you’d better do some thinking and figure something out, because I’ll be expecting a logical and plausible explanation from you when I return.”

After saying this, Zu Zhichong took He Zheng out of the room. Feeling like weeping but had no tears, Zu Ming gave an involuntary shudder of fear.

The new development zone was a large late-model industrial park in the Sui City, the construction of which started only a few years ago. As the development of this area progressed, more and more people were moving here to settle down. Compared with older sections of the city, the new development zone had the largest floating population. The People’s Garden, which was next to the Central Square, was the most heavily populated area. The forest of department store buildings around the Central Square, in particular, had already become the most prosperous business district of the whole Sui City.

Especially after night fell, the area seemed like a sea of lights, as if daytime had not yet come to an end and would never do.

Amid a lot of newly completed and uncompleted constructions, the property fenced with giant green railings had been bought by Zu family not long ago, who planned to build a new department store building on it. It was at dusk that He Zheng and Zu Zhichong arrived. In the afterglow of the sun, the construction site of the department store building seemed pretty normal.

What Zu Zhichong had been learning was Fu-craft (Fu is a piece of rectangular paper on which magical figures are drawn by Chinese Taoist priests to invoke or expel spirits and bring good or ill fortune) and exorcism circles. When it came to geomancy, he was a complete amateur, but the two realms were not totally unrelated. They drove around the construction site and didn’t find anything unusual.

At this moment, there were still many builders working on the site.

The supervisor in charge of the construction work, on seeing Zu Zhichong’s car, hurriedly walked over and greeted him. “Oh, First Young Master, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

With a calm expression on his face, Zu Zhichong pointed at those workers and, without making any civilities, instructed explicitly, “Take me to the spot where those things happened. I’d like to see it.”

The supervisor’s face instantly paled visibly. “We–Well, First Young Master, I’ll have a security guard take you there.”

With a wave of his hand, a security guard in a blue uniform trotted over to them.

“Xiao Lin, lead First Young Master to the place where the couple of men… to take a look.”

Zu Zhichong, who could tell that the supervisor was trying to avoid going there, didn’t say anything. He gave a twitch of his head flicking his hair sideways and with that the security guard called Xiao Lin took the hint and hurriedly led the way.

Xiao Lin was very reluctant, but he had no choice but to follow the instruction. “Fir–Fir–Fir–First Young Master, it’s on the third floor. Pl–Please follow me.”

Legs trembling violently, the young security guard seemed as if he could die from fright at any moment. It took him quiet a long time to lead the two of them to the scene. Seeing legs of the young security guard were still shuddering uncontrollably and his eyes were constantly darting back and forth, Zu Zhichong didn’t have him stay but directly told him to leave.

At this time, they were on the third floor of this uncompleted department store building and could see the builders bustling around on lower floors.

“Did your younger brother just now say that these workers stops working when night falls?”

“Yeah.” Zu Zhichong gave a downward glance and saw that the scene of the accidents had been fenced. Nobody dared to approach it.

“I can’t identify the problem. We need a geomancer. But since several people died here in succession, there’s definitely something evil at work. He Zheng, can you do me a favor?”

He Zheng cocked an inquisitive eyebrow at him. Zu Zhichong queried, “There should be information about some exorcism circles in the handbook my sect-uncle gave you. Can you remember if there’s one called ‘the Ghost-eliminating Circle’?”

After the yin jade (in Chinese philosophy and medicine, yin and yang are the two opposing principles in nature, the former feminine and negative, the latter masculine and positive) was broken, He Zheng’s memory had become exceptionally good. Besides, he just read the handbook the night before, so he remembered vividly. He Zheng inclined his head.

“This place is too big, and the sun will probably set in a dozen minutes. I’m afraid things might go south when it gets dark. We each handle four positions. Zhen, li, dui, kan (four of the Eight Diagrams) are mine. You are to take care of xun, kun, qian and gen (another four of the Eight Diagrams). Let’s put Anti-ghost Fu at these positions and lay a Ghost-eliminating Circle here, so that even if anything evil shows up, the circle will restrain it for a certain amount of time.

I’ll find a professional and come back here to take a look at night”

He Zheng inclined his head and watched as Zu Zhichong fished a piece of yellow Fu paper and a brush-pen dipped in red ink out of his bosom, placed the Fu paper on his palm and started drawing Fu patterns. Quickly and fluently, each Fu was finished at one continuous stroke. After merely a couple of minutes, eight Anti-ghost Fu were completed.

In the past, He Zheng had imagined that drawing a Fu was an easy job, but after he entered this industry, he had come to realize that nobody could easily draw a Fu without powerful internal energy.

As a result, he couldn’t help but have a completely new appraisal of Zu Zhichong. It seemed that someone pulling strings for him had not been the only reason why he had gained admission to the headquarter of SMB.

Zu Zhichong fished four Anti-ghost Fu out of his bosom and handed them to He Zheng. He Zheng took them, folded them into triangles the way Zu Zhichong did his own Fu, and then pocketed them.

“Then let’s split up, get this over with and then meet at the car in a few moments.”

After saying this, the two of them walked through the side door and split up.

The setting sun shed a soft glow on He Zheng’s handsome profile, making his unduly fair-skinned face crimson. During the first half of his trip, he had encountered a couple of girls walking past, all of whom sneaked a look at him, but since this was a construction area, the deeper he walked into it, the fewer people in sight. Soon, He Zheng found the first position. As Zu Zhichong had told him to, he scooped a hole in the soil and buried a Fu in it.

After burying the first Fu, he went to the second position and buried a second one. Though not really a tricky job, it did take him quite some time. When He Zheng finished, the last ray of afterglow faded away from the sky. Night had fallen before he noticed.

It took He Zheng another couple of minutes to return to the rendevous that he and Zu Zhichong had previously agreed on. Seeing He Zheng coming back, Zu Zhichong, who had arrived shortly before him, waved at him.

“Let’s go grab a bite and come back here later.”

He Zheng inclined his head and the two of them left by car.

What they had failed to notice was that, shortly after they left, a figure walked out of a hidden corner. It was a security guard in his twenties, his face lifeless, a vacant look in his eyes, as if he were a marionette under someone’s control. In his hands were a couple of Fu that Zu Zhichong and He Zheng had buried a few moments ago.

This man was none other than Xiao Lin who had led the way for them just now!

After another few moments, a man in a neat suit showed up behind the security guard. In a somewhat dull way, the security guard handed those Fu to the man, who instructed without even glancing at them, “Burn them.”

The security guard, still wooden, followed the man’s order and burnt those Fu.

Watching the small dancing flames, the man had a somewhat sinister and venomous look on his face.

‘It seems that I’ll never be rid of these pests from SMB.’ He had just found this nice place which could help his master enhance his strength when these two men showed up threatening to ruin everything!