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墨書 Inktalez
Just like the House God in my home, it is a particularly reliable entity. I bought this house as a second-hand property, which is already five years old. The previous owner was a Korean who purchased it with the intention of waiting for its value to appreciate. As it turns out, he was a smart man; over five years, this house turned his one million into two million. A few years ago, the real estate market was so distorted that a concrete building could sit there without any attention and still earn money faster than a high-level white-collar worker. Truly, land is more valuable than people. When I first moved in, I was so busy that I didn't take the time to build a good relationship with the House God.
It turned out that it had been living here for five years without anyone bothering it. When I suddenly moved in, it felt rejected and started causing trouble for me. The freshly pasted wallpaper inexplicably peeled at the corners, and the air conditioning broke down four or five times, only to be repaired and break again after just one day of use. The repair service began to suspect that I was deliberately making things difficult for them. Some items I clearly placed on the coffee table would vanish when I turned around, only to mysteriously reappear on the dining table after a while. After these incidents, I decided to pick an auspicious day to offer a ritual to the House God.
If no rituals were performed upon moving in, it is still possible to make amends later. In Hong Kong, they pay particular attention to this; whenever someone moves into a new home, they perform a ritual, mostly involving worshipping the four corners. This method is quite effective; I won't go into details here, but you can look it up online. It doesn't need to be overly complicated; a simple offering will suffice.
At that time, I also worshipped the four corners because it was straightforward. Since then, the air conditioning has never broken down again, and the previously peeling wallpaper miraculously re-adhered itself to the wall without any trace. Just think about it: the adhesive on that wallpaper must have dried out, yet it could still stick firmly to the wall—this is something science cannot explain. Besides that, it has helped me in many ways. For instance, last year when I went back home for the New Year, the water pipe in my laundry room burst and water was gushing everywhere. However, between my laundry room and the living room's main door was a kitchen with a floor higher than that of the laundry room; water couldn't possibly flow over the kitchen floor to reach the front door. Yet my neighbor saw water pooling outside my front door and called to ask if I had left the faucet running. Later, I called management to send someone to turn off the water valve. When I returned home to Guangzhou two days later, aside from water in the laundry room and at the front door, everything else was dry.
Clearly, my House God had helped by letting some water flow near the front door so that my neighbor would see it and remind me about the burst pipe.
So occasionally, I light some incense at home as an expression of gratitude—not asking for anything in return but simply acknowledging my otherworldly friend and expressing my appreciation for its presence. Of course, it can be mischievous; whenever I'm up late typing away at my computer, it lightly plays with my hair as if poking me with fingers. I always say, "Come on now, I'm trying to get work done." After that, it stops being playful. Deep down, I know it's reminding me to get some rest.
The House God never comes out to scare anyone nor does it let you see it; even when I opened my spiritual sight, I couldn't see it. They are usually very weak—too weak to pose any threat to us. Of course, not all House Gods require worship; if you don't worship them, they will leave once they've stayed long enough. They won't bother you unless you disturb them. Moreover, they are quite well-behaved; most of the time they simply hide in some corner of your home and never roam around freely.
This also relates to the resident's birth date and time; generally speaking, those who are not purely Yang won't easily provoke hostility from House Gods, so we need not worry too much. It's still true that they are good friends. This explains why some people move into the same house and have smooth experiences while others face difficulties.
Regarding House Gods, that's all I'll say for now; I hope after reading this you won't become overly suspicious. The reason they are called House Gods instead of house ghosts is because they are indeed harmless—at least not harmful in any significant way.
Returning to the main topic: after that Spirit God discarded its clothes and left them behind, Master naturally sent it away. That brought things to a close for now. We tidied up a bit before preparing to rest.
Master's house has only two bedrooms with two beds; rural villages aren't too particular about such things—Master shares a room with Master Pan while Master Xiao and I share another room. This arrangement made me quite uncomfortable; sure enough, that night Master Xiao kept me up chatting about trivial matters without regard for my need to drive seven or eight hundred kilometers back to Guangzhou alone the next day.
The next morning after breakfast, Master Pan and I bid farewell to Master before heading our separate ways. Due to my exhaustion, I decided against rushing back to Guangzhou immediately—even though there was still an injured Spirit God at home that needed attending to.
I was planning to head home first, check on my parents, and take a nap before continuing my journey at night. Just as I left my master's house and hadn’t driven far, I found Village Road blocked by a group of villagers.
Village Road was already narrow, sometimes requiring reversing when cars met. Now, a bunch of people were gathered in the middle of the road, seemingly unaware of what they were doing. Even after honking, they wouldn’t budge. One Youngster rushed in front of my car and shouted, “What are you honking for? Can’t you see we’re busy up ahead?”
Not only were they blocking the road, but they also had the audacity to complain. I had only honked once! Just as I was about to retort, I noticed that the crowd was approaching my car. I thought to myself, I haven’t run over anyone’s chickens or ducks; are they trying to extort me?
Such incidents were common in rural Village. Sometimes, chickens or ducks wandered onto the road and got run over by passing cars. If someone witnessed it, they would gather around your vehicle and wouldn’t let you leave without paying several hundred dollars in compensation.
But I hadn’t run over any chickens or ducks! As I pondered how to handle the situation, I suddenly saw someone in the crowd sweeping the road with a large broom, which had a child’s clothing tangled in it. They were shouting a name while sweeping, and not far away, another person responded.
I instantly understood what was happening. I rolled down my window and asked the Youngster, “Is it that their child’s spirit has been scared away?”
The Youngster frowned slightly and replied, “You know that already? You just honked; what if you scared their spirit away again while they were trying to call it back?”
Damn it, I only just realized what was going on! Besides, whether I honked or not wouldn’t affect their ritual.
Not wanting to explain myself further and relieved that these people weren’t after me, I felt less anxious. Such occurrences were quite normal in rural Village. Some children had a low awareness of danger and loved to play outside even after dark. It wasn’t unusual for them to be frightened by something and lose their spirit temporarily. Therefore, the elders in Village knew various ways to deal with such situations.
Just like these people now; they used a broom made from Bamboo Branches, tied with clothing recently worn by the child, and stuffed some candies into the pockets of the clothing. They would start sweeping from the nearest intersection to their home while calling out “xxx is coming home!” Another person would stand nearby responding with “Okay! Coming home! Coming home!” They would repeat this all the way home several times to call back the child’s frightened spirit.
As they drew closer, I could only slowly reverse my car. The road was too narrow, and I didn’t want to obstruct their efforts. While I was backing up, an elderly man with gray hair hurried towards me, waving his hand as he approached.
I was puzzled; could my reversing be hindering them?
When the elderly man got closer, he tilted his head and scrutinized me for a moment before saying, “Young man, are you Master X’s disciple?”
I nodded and said, "Yeah, what's wrong?"
The old man looked at me with surprise and said, "That's perfect! I need help with my grandson; he's scared out of his wits."
I replied, "Aren't you already trying to summon him back? The method seems correct; you should be able to bring him back."
The old man shook his head and said, "We've tried many times, but nothing works. We've also tried other methods." He then shared a few more traditional techniques with me, which were quite practical.
"Really? It should have worked by now," I said, feeling puzzled. It's quite common for someone to be scared out of their wits, and it shouldn't be a big deal. In some cases, even without these methods, the spirit would return on its own after a few days.
The six o'clock update is here, and there will be an additional chapter later tonight. Thanks to "Salty Fish Loves Old Cat" for the five diamonds. He mentioned that he sent a red envelope in the group yesterday when I wasn't around and gave me one separately—good job! Regarding Liu Bi's new book, it's currently under review and should be published within this week.
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