Chapter 1: Offending God

  This is a village built at the foot of Changbai Mountain, called Qiugang Village. The village is not big, with only 70 or 80 households, because there is a bus station nearby, so transportation is convenient, and this village is not very closed off.

  Today is the Qingming Festival, in accordance with Chinese traditional folk customs, people will burn money to worship their ancestors, go for an outing to express their feelings, or invite souls back home and hold Buddhist rituals, all of which are meant to express their grief and nostalgia for their deceased loved ones.

  Putting down the compass, Qin Feng rushed into the room and lay on the bed. For him, today was quite tiring. In the morning, he had hurried back to his hometown of Autumn Village from university, and with his grandfather and parents, they paid their respects to his grandmother. He had thought that he would sleep well and drive away the fatigue of the journey, but unexpectedly, after a short while, neighbors came knocking on the door, asking him to take a look at the feng shui of their graves or perform some rituals during the Qingming Festival.

  Because he had learned a bit of skills from his secular grandfather, the village's Heavenly Master Tao, and some familiar old Qin family people in the village knew that Qin Feng, the grandson of Old Man Qin, was somewhat skilled in Taoism, so whenever they encountered any unclean troubles, they would come to find him or his grandfather.

  Normally, Qin Feng had no problem solving those tiny problems the size of sesame seeds. Just like that, he was passed from east to west and suddenly became a famous person in the village.

  Lying on the bed, panting heavily, I turned my head to look out of the window and saw a wisp of smoke drifting away in the distance, carrying with it thoughts and longings. The gloomy weather was just right, setting off the atmosphere of today.

  He closed his eyes, and Qin Feng was about to take a good nap, but unexpectedly, before five minutes had passed, the drowsiness that had just surged up in his mind was again driven away by a loud and urgent shout from outside.

  "Old Qin! Is your little Feng home?" A loud, shrill voice of a middle-aged woman came from the courtyard, sounding urgent and anxious, as if there was something important.

  "Ah, Aunt Zhang, is Little Feng in trouble?" Qin Dad put down the flower pot and hastily greeted her.

  "Oh no, quickly get your Xiao Feng to take a look at our Dou Dou, I don't know what's going on but she's been running a fever nonstop, we've given her shots and medicine but it's not getting any better, it's driving me crazy!"

  Listening to the conversation in the yard, Qin Feng subconsciously felt that something was wrong. He tried his best to overcome his fatigue and hastily put on his shoes to come to the yard, asking Zhang Auntie: "Auntie, when did DouDou's illness start?"

  "It was the night before last, I went to the clinic and hung up for several days, but the IV drip didn't work, I suspect if something evil happened?" Aunt Zhang changed her tone and paused for a moment, then continued, "You also know that the village chief is strict with you spiritual people, even your grandfather was so angry that he didn't come back. Now in the village, except for Xiaofeng, you and your grandfather, no one else understands, luckily you came back today, hurry up and take a look."

  Aunt Zhang's words suddenly brought back the painful memories of Pizi. What she said was true, that year when Grandpa returned to his hometown from Longhushan Tianshi Tao, he was discovered by the village head while treating himself for being scared by a ghost. The village head, who was deeply influenced by this, immediately accused Grandpa of spreading feudal superstition and drove him out of the village. Although it has been twenty years since then, every time Grandpa thinks about it, he still feels resentful.

  Although Qin Feng inherited his grandfather's skills, he was fortunate to have studied well and was admitted to Jingchuan City Normal University, which brought glory to his ancestors and re-wrote the history of Autumn Village from zero to having university students. It is precisely because of this that the village chief not only did not scold him but instead showed great care for Qin Feng.

  Zhang Aunt's home.

  As soon as he entered the room, Qin Feng found that Doudou was lying on the bed with a pale face, weak and in pain. The five or six year old child had become like this, and Qin Feng couldn't help but feel pity for him. He reached out to touch Doudou's forehead, only to find that it wasn't hot like when he usually had a fever, but instead felt icy cold, as if a cold knife was placed on his skin, making Qin Feng quickly withdraw his hand.

  "Where did Pea go before she got a fever?" Qin Feng started questioning Zhang Shu.

  "Let me think for a moment..." Zhang Auntie furrowed her brow, trying to recall the events of that time: "Before she came down with a fever, DouDou was playing with FangFang from next door at the Land Temple in the east part of the village."

  "What's wrong, Xiaofeng? What's going on?" Zhang Aunt was also anxious and felt that something was off, but she didn't know the reason.

  After listing these words, Qin Feng looked at DouDou's illness and finally understood why he was like this. "He has offended the god, but it's not a big deal. As long as you and DouDou bring some offerings to the Land Temple to burn incense and worship, apologize to the Land God, everything will be fine." Qin Feng told the truth, although he had offended the god, but the problem was not big, so he comforted Zhang Shu.

  Actually, Qin Feng himself still remembers this phenomenon vividly, and he had also encountered it when he was young. When he was a child, because of his mischievousness, he ran to the Land Temple and spat on the statue of the Land God like spitting out saliva. In the end, just like DouDou, he had a high fever that wouldn't subside, and injections and medicine didn't work either. Fortunately, Grandpa was there, and after finding out what Qin Feng did wrong, he personally brought him to the Land Temple to apologize, and only then did Qin Feng's illness get better.

  (This phenomenon usually doesn't happen in rural areas, but on the 3rd of March, Qingming Festival and Ullambana Festival, when the spiritual world is more sensitive, you must not do anything that offends ghosts or gods, otherwise you may get into trouble.)

  When he returned home, it was already noon. Qin Feng, who had been busy for half a day, dragged his tired body back home. The sky was somewhat gloomy, similar to Qin Feng's mood, carrying a body full of fatigue and still bustling about. Originally wanting to go home and rest, but having been busy since morning until now, he looked at the wisp of blue smoke drifting from afar, lowered his head and took a deep breath.

  At this time, Grandpa Zhang from nearby Zhangjiacun who had gone out to see the feng shui had returned and was smoking a cigarette while chatting with Qin's father over tea.

  After lunch, with nothing to do, Qin Feng was about to take a nap and make up for lost sleep. These days were just right for a holiday, and Qin Feng had nothing to do anyway, so he thought of staying at home for a while longer. But things seemed to have other plans for him today, destined to be busy. Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, "Ding ding ding...!" Grandpa's phone suddenly pulled him back from his dream.

  "Hey, Director!"

  It was a call from the director of the funeral home.

  "Qin Lao Han, where are you?" A hurried voice came from the other end of the phone.

  "I'm at home, what's wrong, Director? You've come to find me with something?" Grandfather frowned, feeling that something was off. He thought that if there were any issues in the funeral home before, it would usually be Old Feng, who was in charge of managing the fire, who would notify him, but now it was actually the Director himself who had called over, and judging from his appearance, something important must have happened.

  "Alright, you'd better come back quickly, there's a family member of the deceased looking for you." The director sounded somewhat anxious when he said this.

  "Are you looking for me? Did I do something wrong?" Grandpa was somewhat surprised.

  "No, they're looking for you because they need your help. Their father passed away this morning, and according to his last will, they want to bury him in a coffin instead of cremating him. You know as well as I do that we don't know the proper procedures for this. After some thought, it seems like only Old Qin would know."

  "What about Old Zhang? He also knows this stuff, I'm at my hometown now, and it's likely that I won't make it back in time."

  "Hey, these are not the key points. You don't know that the family members said their father was acting suspiciously before he died and said some nonsense, scaring them so much that they didn't know what to do. They've been gathering in the funeral parlor's waiting room. According to them, the deceased ran into the road and got hit by a car. Since you're knowledgeable and have some experience with driving out ghosts and evil spirits, come back quickly and take a look!"

  "This is...! Alright, I'll go back right away!"

  With years of experience, Grandpa knew this was no ordinary matter.

  After hanging up the phone, Qin Feng asked his grandfather curiously: "What's wrong, Grandpa?"

  "Xiao Feng, you come with me, you've learned something from me, this matter you also come with me!" Grandfather said hastily while packing things up to Qin Feng.

  "What's wrong?" Qin Feng furrowed his brow, still not understanding.

  "Going to the funeral home to take care of some troublesome matters."

  Standing beside him, Qin's father didn't know what was going on, but also wanted to persuade them to stay, "Yes, Dad, why do you have to leave suddenly? Stay here for two days."

  Qin's father and mother were concerned, and Grandfather also knew about it. But at the moment, things are urgent, and listening to the tone of the curator, it seems very anxious, so I can only put away my phone, stand up and answer Qin's mother: "Forget it, next time. Now Xiao Feng wants me to go with him to do something important, if we delay any longer, we won't make it."

  After packing up their things, Qin Feng was dragged away by his grandfather before long. At this point in time, the situation was urgent, and when the curator called, the body had already been waiting at the funeral home for some time. Moreover, such a strange situation had occurred, causing Qin Feng and his grandfather to break out in a cold sweat.