Chapter 20: The Greedy Fatso

  Zhao Lili's home was very spacious, with an eight-immortal table placed in the center of the living room. In the center of the living room hung a painting of a tiger descending a mountain, and below it on a tribute table were arranged several ancestral tablets. Her father and mother were both wearing traditional Miao ethnic clothing, and although they couldn't understand our dialect, they could understand Mandarin. The chubby boy sitting opposite us was staring at us silently with a smile, as if he had something on his mind.

  "Dad, Mom, let me introduce you to my juniors. They are here on a tour," We quickly stood up and bowed. Zhao Lili's parents shook hands with us hastily.

  "Nie Yu, this is my elder cousin Du Dabao, let's get acquainted!" Zhao Lili said with a particularly happy tone today.

  The fat man in front of me looks like he's over thirty, with a few crow's feet at the corners of his eyes. His big eyes are shaved bald, and his round head is shining brightly under the lamp light. He's wearing a shirt and jeans, and on the table there's a handbag that seems to be full of money. Around his neck he's wearing a very thick gold chain, and on his fingers he has three gold rings, which are both big and thick.

  "Hello, Big Brother! I'm Zhao Yuer, nice to meet you! *Zhao Yuer stood up and raised his wine cup to toast him."

  "Oh, hello, beautiful ladies! Are you all Lili's good friends? My little sister is very outgoing and loves making friends. I also love making friends, let's have a drink first, now that we're here, make yourselves at home, don't be shy, come eat!" He said as he picked up his glass and downed it in one gulp.

  Wu Shi Rong stared at me in surprise, and I was also shocked that this fat guy's drinking capacity was not small, he downed the whole cup in one gulp.

  "Big brother, may I ask what you do? What kind of work is it? Judging from your appearance, you seem like a big boss?" Zhao Yuner continued to pour him wine.

  "I'm in the antique business, I just collect some unearthed antiques around Miao Village and Wen City, and then sell them to buyers in the province or secretly, it's all about buying low and selling high, haha! " After finishing his words, he drained the cup of wine.

  "Little brothers, you are Lili's junior schoolmates. You've come to the right place for tourism. The scenery here is beautiful, with beautiful mountains and rivers, and the girls here are even more beautiful, isn't that right, Lili?" Big Brother Bao seemed a bit careless, but I saw his eyes constantly sizing me up.

  "Big Treasure Brother, what kind of cultural relics or antiques have you collected?" I asked curiously.

  "They're all just some ceramics, furniture, carvings, jade and that sort of thing. To be honest, they're all pretty cheap stuff and I don't really understand it myself. Sometimes I have to ask others for advice, this industry is really deep water. Little brother, you've asked so many questions, you seem really interested? You know a bit about it?" Du Dabao picked up the wine cup and filled mine to the brim.

  "I'm sorry to make you laugh, Big Brother Bao. I really don't understand this stuff. It's just that when I was a kid, my second uncle taught me some spells to ward off evil spirits, but that's all I know. Now I'm in the archaeology department at Haicheng University, and it's only been half a semester." I said hastily, trying to be modest. To be honest, I wasn't very good at drinking and had just had a cup earlier, so my head was feeling a bit fuzzy now.

  "Huh? Exorcise evil spirits? What's exorcising evil spirits? You're a Taoist priest who catches ghosts, haha!" Du Dabao patted my shoulder.

  "I just know a little, it's when other people have weddings or funerals, I take a look at the feng shui, see if there are any unlucky places, or if they've offended any spirits. I can go take a look and then use some magic to make things right." After finishing the wine, I couldn't hold myself back either, my words were a bit slurred but my mind was still very clear.

  "Oh, so powerful, then aren't you the so-called Mr. Yin Yang? I didn't expect Lili's classmate to be so powerful, don't underestimate our family's Lili, she knows a lot too, does she understand all of our Miaojiang's Gu techniques, little sister?" Zhao Lili hurriedly used her chopsticks to knock on his bald head, scolding him for talking too much.

  "Don't listen to him, I won't do anything. What you see is what I can do. Don't listen to him, he's always talking nonsense." Du Dabao covered his head and pretended to be afraid of Zhao Lili's chopsticks.

  This fat guy is quite open-minded, and we chatted with him about our parents all the time. Zhao Lili's parents' cooking was really delicious, I ate until my stomach was full and after drinking a few cups of wine, I started to feel a severe headache, so we left her house and returned to our inn soon. On the way back, seeing that I was a bit drunk, Zhao Yu'er kept supporting me, and I could feel her strong feminine aura, even seeming to feel the warmth of her body when she leaned in close. Dazed and confused, I slept through the night without even having any dreams, finally relieving the fatigue of the day.

  "Open the door, is Nie Yu in or not? I'm your Big Treasure Brother, open the door!" Early in the morning, just after dawn, Big Treasure Brother was banging loudly on the gate of our inn. The noise attracted a chorus of curses from outside, and I hastily got up to open the door.

  "Big Brother Bao, what's up so early?" My eyes can't even open yet, and this annoying guy comes to find me so early. I'm not even familiar with him either.

  "Hey little brother, let's go inside and talk quietly!" He glanced around outside to make sure no one was watching, then followed me into the guest room with a hunched back.

  "Please sit down, what's on your mind, just say it, Big Brother Bao, I'll definitely be able to help you with anything!"

  "It's like this, little brother. When I sleep at night, I always feel like someone is blowing cool air on my face. When I wake up, I can't see anything, but I keep having dreams about a middle-aged woman stretching out her hand and asking me for something. I have this dream every day. Can you help me figure out what's going on?" Big Treasure Brother looked flustered.

  "What? A middle-aged woman wants something from you? Have you offended someone?" I feel like she's provoked some unclean thing.

  "No, absolutely nothing. I'm a straightforward person and have never offended anyone. If you can help me with this, I'll even call you Brother Yu." He stared at him with a serious expression.

  "Hey, don't call me Brother Yu, it's unlucky for you to address someone older than you in that way. You're more than ten years younger than me, I'd be fine with you calling me Uncle. So when are we leaving?" I quickly put on my clothes and shoes.

  "Let's go now, let's go to my house right away. Take a look and see if you can help me get rid of that old lady, I suspect she might be a ghost." His eyes darted around restlessly as he looked at me, as if intentionally hiding something.

  "Alright, let's go and talk about it later. If there's anything I can help you with, I'll do my best. But isn't your Miao region skilled in Gu sorcery? How come you can't even handle this small problem?" I was a bit puzzled by what he said.

  "Our Miao territory indeed has many people who practice Gu sorcery, but Gu sorcery can only be used against living people. I've never heard of it being used against the dead. Your profession will definitely be a hot career here."

  After some polite conversation, Wu Shirong and I followed Du Dabao down to the second floor of the inn. On the first floor, he treated us two to a meal. Zhao Yuer was still sleeping in the inn and hadn't gotten up yet. After finishing breakfast, we walked for about half an hour on the mountain road and arrived at Du Dabao's home.

  Du Dabao's home was also a Miao-style building, a two-story wooden structure with a sloping roof. He quickly went up to the second floor. Once inside, I took out Second Uncle's yellow cloth bag, burned some incense ash, and drew an exorcism talisman according to the instructions in the "Nine Royal God Strategies". With all preparations complete, I stood guard at his home without moving a muscle. Du Dabao didn't dare stay alone in the house and went to the inn across the way.

  I waited on the second floor of Du Dabao's house for a whole day, but nothing happened. I simply ate something and continued to wait. In a daze, I fell asleep on his bed, only to be suddenly awakened by a gust of cool wind. Looking at my watch, it was already past 10 pm. I quickly took out the willow leaf with cow tears applied to it and stuck talismans on all four windows. Then, I put one of Du Dabao's clothes in the bed to attract the ghost's attention, as ghosts usually grab people based on their breath. I was ready to catch this ghost.

  I hid under the bed, and at this time, a creaking sound seemed to be the door opening a crack. Along with the opening of the door gap, a cool breeze blew in. I stuck the leaves on my eyelids and took a look, and indeed it was a ghost. This ghost didn't see me and rushed straight to Du Dabao's bed, circled around, looked around without seeing anyone, and wanted to go out. At this time, I pulled the prepared red rope and closed the door with a bang. The female ghost was stunned, went to push the door, but her hand pushed onto the talisman and cried out in pain. I jumped out and stuck a talisman on her back in one swift motion.

  "You wicked demon, how did you come here to harm people? Don't hurry up and leave! Be careful or I'll take care of you!" I remembered the experiences of my second uncle and little sister and especially hated these harmful things. I picked up the peach wood sword in my hand, dripped blood on the talisman curse, and was about to stab her.

  "Unjust! Unjust!" The female monster hurriedly covered her chest with her hands, afraid that I would stab her. She looked to be in her forties, wearing traditional Miao village clothing.

  "Wronged? What wrongs have you suffered? Tell me." I sat down, looking at her shouting injustice feeling inexplicable, could it be that Du Dabao was killed by him?

  "Little Taoist, listen to me..." The female ghost began to tell me the reason behind the events.

  She and her husband had traveled to this village half a month ago, but the tour bus broke down on the way, so they got off to stretch their legs. At that moment, a large truck came over and hit them both, killing them instantly. They became vengeful spirits. Du Dabao happened to be driving by and sent them to the funeral home. A few days later, their son came to collect their bodies, but Du Dabao demanded 20,000 yuan in transportation fees from him, refusing to let him take the bodies otherwise. The son paid up so that his parents could rest in peace, but it turned out that his wife was ill and they had no money for medical treatment, leading to a dispute with her family over divorce. All this happened because Zhao Dabao was too greedy, which is why the female ghost came to find him - she wanted money. Every night, she would sneak into Zhao Dabao's home, stretching out her hand to demand the money that he shouldn't have gotten.

  "So that's how it is. What I said, that Du Dabao is really greedy, he did a good deed by sending you back, but he can't ask for so much money from your son, your family isn't rich either." I shook my head, it's blood-sucking money, too immoral.

  "Yes, just let me go, please, I'm not trying to harm him, I just want the money he owes my son. If he returns it, my daughter-in-law won't be able to nag him into a divorce either. He's too greedy." The female ghost actually shed tears.

  If what you said is true, I'll help you solve this matter. I'll go find Du Dabao right now and see if we can get your son's money back. You just wait here for me, I'll be back soon.