Guai Dao Hu Zong Ren

  That night, Hu Zongren and I returned home separately. The next morning, I was woken up by his phone call early in the morning. He said on the phone that he was taking a taxi towards my home to pick me up, and then we would go meet Mr. Yang together. So I quickly got dressed, and Cai Jie had heated some buns for me before going out, which I hastily ate a few of before rushing out to wait for Hu Zongren by the roadside.

  After getting on the car, Hu Zongren told me that he had called Mr. Yang early in the morning and made an appointment to have tea and talk about something at a place in Jiangbei. I asked him which teahouse it was, and he said it was a certain Xuan. As soon as I heard this, I burst out laughing, because Hu Zongren and I were extremely familiar with that teahouse. Moreover, I also understood why Hu Zongren had chosen that place. Firstly, the boss was an acquaintance of ours, and we would often go there to bask in the sun after playing billiards. Secondly, the teahouse's seating area was outdoors, and because the boss was a pretentious person, the style was more upscale, with a larger activity range, and it was less likely that anything that shouldn't be broken would get broken. Thirdly, the location of the teahouse was on the top floor of an old-style street district's low-rise building, and downstairs was a gathering place for vendors, with a relatively large flow of people. If something were to happen later, it would be convenient for us to escape. Hu Zongren told me on the way that things had basically been figured out, and it wasn't difficult to send away Mrs. Weng's ghost. However, he felt that before sending her off, Mr. Yang must be punished, and he owed Mrs. Weng an apology.

  Although Hu Zongren is quite arrogant, I have always admired his sense of justice. After arriving at the teahouse, Mr. Yang had not yet arrived. I told the boss to find us a seat on the outside, near the corner, because we wanted to discuss something. The boss was an acquaintance and knew what we did, so he quickly arranged for us. After sitting down and ordering tea, I called Mr. Yang.

  About 40 minutes later, Mr. Yang arrived. When he saw Hu Zongren and me, a hint of surprise flashed across his face. Probably because of what we were wearing. Both Hu Zongren and I are the kind of people who dress casually, to the point where you'd doubt that we're here to discuss business. But as a seasoned businessman, he smiled warmly and shook hands with us before sitting down. I pulled out my cigarettes and offered him one, but perhaps because he noticed they were only 13 yuan, he just politely accepted it without lighting up. Then Hu Zongren looked at me and asked Mr. Yang, "Sorry to trouble you on a weekend, Mr. Yang." Mr. Yang replied, "What's a weekend to people in business?" Hu Zongren said, "I heard your paint can be drunk directly? Is that really true?" Mr. Yang said, "If it's direct drinking, that's an exaggeration. It needs to be diluted first, and after the concentration decreases, it can be drunk. Although it won't harm the human body, it still can't be used as a beverage." After he finished speaking, he burst out laughing, and I followed suit with a silly smile.

  Mr. Yang took out a stack of albums and materials from his bag, handed them to us, and asked us to understand their company first. When I and Hu Zongren pretended to look at it, he kept boasting about how powerful his company's qualifications were, how modernized the production line was, and how humanized the products were. Neither I nor Hu Zongren understood these professional terms, but looking at him treating us as experts in the field while speaking with flying spittle made me want to laugh.

  So they chatted on for a while, and Hu Zongren still couldn't get the better of me. He was the first to lose his patience. With a sly smile, he asked Mr. Yang, "With your successful career, your family must be very happy, right?" Mr. Yang chuckled and said, "Actually, it's not that great. My family is just getting by." Hu Zongren continued, "So what does your wife do? How old are your kids?" I understood what Hu Zongren was getting at - this was our usual trick for finding fault with someone. Since we knew the inside story, as soon as the other person lied, we had a reason to immediately expose their deceit. But who would have thought that Mr. Yang's next words would be completely unexpected by both me and Hu Zongren?

  He told us that his lover is the financial officer of his company and he has a child who will be one year old soon.

  This shouldn't be the case, so I started to think that he was lying. But exposing him like this seemed a bit too much. I exchanged a glance with Hu Zongren, and then I couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Yang, it seems you got married quite late, such a successful career already, and your child is only one year old." He smiled and said, "Yes, he just got married last year."

  It wasn't until now that we finally understood. We originally thought he was unwilling to reveal too much to outsiders, but who knew, what he said was actually true. So it means that after Mrs. Weng died suddenly because of him, not long after, he remarried. And if the child is almost 1 year old, then it means that this child was already conceived when Mrs. Weng was still alive.

  As expected, Hu Zongren also thought of this point, he smiled mysteriously and then reached out to take a cigarette from the box on my desk. This guy always only takes cigarettes from me when we're together but never buys his own. After lighting up, he suddenly said, "Mr. Yang is really good at enjoying life, your ex-wife hasn't been dead for long, and your backyard is already lush and fruitful again."

  Mr. Yang was stunned for a moment, probably not daring to believe his ears, so he asked in confusion, no... excuse me, what did you just say? Hu Zongren drank some tea, spat out the water, and then looked at Mr. Yang with a slanted gaze, asking him, what's wrong? You still remember, huh? I thought you had forgotten that your wife's name is Weng something!

  Mr. Yang looked very surprised, but he probably didn't understand why I and Hu Zongren knew these things. He was a businessman, very cunning, so he stood up angrily, slapping the table while loudly asking Hu Zongren, "Who are you two? What qualifications do you have to talk to me like this? Are you sent by that crazy woman's family or not? I warn you, this matter is not over between us!"

  After he finished speaking, he made a gesture to turn around and leave. I was sitting relatively close to him, and earlier he had made such a fuss that the store owner came over in search of the noise, but when he saw it was us, he tactfully walked away, probably understanding that we two were there to cause trouble today. Fortunately, at the time it was still morning, and it was Sunday, so there weren't many people in the hall. I saw him trying to slip away, so I immediately stood up, grabbed his bag strap, and tried to pull him back into his seat. Mr. Yang naturally struggled, he pulled on his own bag while his face turned red with anger, saying viciously to me, "What do you want to do? Let go of me! If you don't let go, I'll call the police!"

  But I'm not exactly known for my good temper, especially when it comes to being startled by others. When he said that, I got fired up. Originally, I wasn't using much force, but suddenly I exerted a lot of strength and pulled him over, pinning him down in his seat. I told him, "You're right, this isn't over between us. What's the hurry to leave?" After saying that, I reached out and grabbed his neck, speaking viciously, "Mr. Yang, you need to understand, since we've brought you out, we won't let you go back so easily. There are some things that must be settled today, otherwise, your remaining days might not be so pleasant!"

  He was caught by my neck, although he had been struggling all the time, but I guess he felt that he couldn't struggle with me, so he glared at me and Hu Zongren. Hu Zongren is much more violent than me, he suddenly stood up, grabbed Yang's collar, this move made my hand that was holding his neck loosen for a moment, which made me quite unhappy. Although Hu Zongren's appearance is not bad-looking, but in comparison, as a fierce and evil person, I seem to be harmless. He had a cigarette in his mouth, the lit end almost touched Yang's face, then he narrowed his eyes, with a sly look, told Yang, now I'll tell you what happened, if I say something wrong, you can refute me, but I warn you not to lie to me, otherwise your face will have several more beautiful and moving blisters.

  Mr. Yang was clearly frightened and didn't say a word, just staring at the cigarette in Hu Zongren's mouth with a hint of horror. Seeing him calm down, I brought over the stool and sat down beside Mr. Yang with a thud. Hu Zongren began to tell Mr. Yang everything he had heard from Old Lady Huang about Mrs. Weng and Mr. Yang the night before, and there were several places where he got it wrong that I helped fill in. Throughout the whole process, Mr. Yang's expression changed from initial surprise to final terror. When Hu Zongren saw that he was thoroughly frightened, he loosened his grip on Mr. Yang's collar and asked him, "Don't you want to ask us how we knew all these details?"

  Mr. Yang nodded. Hu Zongren leaned in close to his ear and whispered in a very unlikable tone, "It was your deceased wife who personally told us..."

  Mr. Yang trembled and said, "How is this possible! She's clearly dead!" Hu Zongren rolled his eyes, reached into his clothes and pulled out a talisman he always carried with him, slapped it onto Mr. Yang's forehead with a loud crack, and said to Mr. Yang, "Take a good look, what is this? This is a Daoist symbol, now you know what we do, right?" After finishing speaking, Hu Zongren sat back in his own seat and continued smoking, while Mr. Yang didn't dare to run, only cowering in fear on his own seat, shivering with fear.

  Hu Zongren said to Mr. Yang, "Today I've brought you here to make you understand how you owe this woman and that you must pay the price for it. We need you to follow us and apologize to your deceased wife in person. Otherwise, I'll let you experience this fear for the rest of your life."

  Mr. Yang said, face to face? Are you saying I still have to see her? Hu Zongren thought for a moment and said, it's almost like that. Mr. Yang said in fear, I don't want to, I don't want to see her! Hu Zongren sneered and stood up, stepping on Mr. Yang's ** and said to him, you have no choice but to see her, otherwise you'll be haunted by the ghost for the rest of your life.

  Mr. Yang said with a sob, you are threatening! This is against the law! Hu Zongren gave him a white eye, then turned to me and said, brother, if he still doesn't want to go with us, you can pour the scalding water from the teapot into his sleeve. I said okay, feeling amused in my heart. Hu Zongren turned back to Mr. Yang and said, see? This is what we call a threat.

  In the end, Mr. Yang still yielded under Hu Zongren's tyranny. As we took him to Yuanjia Gang, my attitude towards Hu Zongren also eased a bit, after all, the anger had dissipated. At the bottom of it all, this was someone else's family affair, and we were just hired hands who happened to intervene in this matter of human and ghostly paths. On the way, Hu Zongren called Zhang Dajie and told her to prepare the elevator, saying that we were coming to send off the soul.

  This time, the car went straight to B2. After the driver left, I said to Mr. Yang, "Do you still remember this place? Here, in front of a certain person, you slapped your original wife and said some ruthless words, which was what you said that made her so angry that she couldn't get over it. Although you didn't directly cause her death, her death was too sudden, and it has to be said that it's all your responsibility."

  Mr. Yang hung his head in shame, lost in thought. I felt a little soft-hearted, thinking that even the most ruthless person would be prone to remorse when past events were vividly recalled. I didn't continue speaking, but instead followed Hu Zongren, taking Mr. Yang with us, and got on the elevator from the basement level. As we entered the elevator, the old man who collected fares seemed to have recognized that the two of us were the same lunatics who had dressed up as women yesterday, but before he could ask any questions, we hastily closed the elevator door.

  The elevator went straight up to the 9th floor. According to what Zhang said, since Mr. Yang's company moved out, the 9th floor had been empty, but the door lock had already been changed. When we met with Mr. Yang, he was dressed neatly, but now he looked disheveled, probably just like when he first met Mrs. Weng twenty years ago. He walked ahead of us and led us to a door, which I guessed should be his former office. He reached out to touch the door and suddenly knelt down in front of it, crying sadly.

  I took a step back with Hu Zongren, letting him quietly reflect on his past mistakes in his heart. Indeed, even if this person's character was not good enough, he still spent many happy years with Mrs. Weng. If he remained unchanged, people would say that he was old-fashioned and didn't strive for progress. But once changes became too big, it was easy to forget one's original intentions. Perhaps at the beginning, their life was difficult and living conditions were not good, but I think that was when they truly had happy days as a couple.

  I walked up to Mr. Yang and handed him another cigarette, this time he didn't pretend to be cool, but directly lit it up. So I patted his shoulder, and then we stepped back into the elevator together. The elevator door was blocked by something that Hu Zongren had found, so it couldn't close. In the elevator, I retreated to one side and let Hu Zongren take care of this matter. Hu Zongren drew a character on the ground with rice grains, then took out his own talisman, using the talisman as a brush, he drew symbols in mid-air on the symbol paper, muttering words under his breath. After finishing drawing, he burned the symbol in his bagua bag. At this time, Hu Zongren said gently to Mr. Yang, if you have any apologies to make, say them now in your heart, if not now, then there will be no more chances later, this is what you owe her, and you should repay it.

  Mr. Yang could no longer bear it, perhaps he was truly remorseful, at least I would like to believe so, he knelt in the elevator and wept bitterly. Then Hu Zongren chanted while lifting the bag of eight trigrams, letting the ashes scatter everywhere, Hu Zongren said, it's time, you can rest assured on your way, the kindness and resentment will be repaid in the next life!

  A very soft, familiar woman's laughter came from above our heads, the kind of laughter we had heard countless times before, a laugh of relief. Perhaps for Mrs. Weng, what Mr. Yang owed her was not a life, but a sincere apology. When I looked up, the hair strands on the air vent were also gone.

  After everything was done, we sent Mr. Yang to Ping Street, he insisted on inviting us to dinner, I really didn't want to have dinner with someone who had just been threatened by us. So we refused, when parting ways, Hu Zongren told him that he hoped every year on the anniversary of his ex-wife's death, he could go to her grave to pay respects, even if you now have a new family and your own children, but paying respects to the deceased is not shameful.

  After seeing Mr. Yang off, Hu Zongren and I went to find Zhang Dajie again. After repeatedly assuring her that a similar situation would not happen again, Zhang Dajie settled the commission with Hu Zongren. She gave him the money quite readily, after all it wasn't her own money. After taking the money, I said to Hu Zongren, "It's already noon, let's go have a good meal!" But he counted out some of the money, forced it on me, and said, "No, we're going to your place."

  I asked him, what's the point of going to my house if there's nothing good to eat? He said let's go finish watching that movie we didn't finish yesterday, your TV is really great, I'll buy one too when I get back, hahaha.