Chi Yan begins to feel the chill disperse little by little only after climbing into the car, slowly warmed by the July heat.
He buried his face in his hands and let out a long breath. After a long time, he finally recovered enough to lower his hands. He fished out a very ordinary white business card from his pocket.
Chi Yan only shoved the card in there carelessly yesterday and didn’t take a close look at it afterwards. He realized that the card only had a name “Tang Guangyuan” printed on it, with a handwritten string of address on the bottom. The recently written address was in the suburbs of eastern Sumin City. No subways that went there, but two buses did. Chi Yan had a vague idea where it was.
Chi Yan put the business card back into his pocket, set the address into his phone, and followed the GPS.
In the past few years, Sumin City underwent massive urban construction. The urban area expanded a lot. Even though it was still a far cry from its neighbor, Shiming City, Sumin City changed a lot. When he was a child, Chi Yan lived with his grandparents in Laocheng District so he wasn’t very familiar with Su District. He reached the address only after driving for over an hour. The place was a newly built villa area constructed 2 years ago.
After Chi Yan registered outside, he drove around the community for more than 10 minutes before he found the right building. He pressed the doorbell a little anxiously. The person who opened the door was not the elderly man from yesterday but a woman in her 40’s.
Chi Yan brought out the business card, showed it to her: “I’m looking for this gentleman, Mr. Tang Guangyuan. He gave me his card yesterday.”
The woman nodded and let the Chi Yan through the door, saying to someone inside: “Mr. Tang, it’s your guest.”
As he expected, Chi Yan saw the elderly man he from the day before sitting on the sofa, dressed in the same style. He was reading the newspaper and wearing a pair of far-sighted glasses. When he saw Chi Yan come in, he put down the newspaper and removed his glasses, stood up and smiled: “I had guessed you would visit.”
The two took a seat. As the woman served up some nice tea, Mr. Tang turned to her and said: “Ms. Gui, there’s no more work for the day. You can go home first. Tomorrow is Sunday so you can have the day off.”
Ms. Gui responded before she quickly packed up and left.
Chi Yan observed the layout of the house: “Do you live here?” He was very surprised that such an expert actually lived in Sumin City. Yet, he had never heard of him.
Tang Guangyuan waved his hand: “I came here at someone’s request. This is a friend’s house. He’s never home so he lent it to me for a few days. Who would have thought that I’d encounter your case.”
Chi Yan remembered yesterday, how the elderly man looked so anxious and said he needed to “save someone.” He asked: “Was the problem solved?”
Tang Guangyuan nodded: “I also want to thank this young brother for your help. It was a close call, but no one was hurt.”
It’s good that the problem was solved. Since it was none of his business, Chi Yan didn’t ask anymore. He was heavy-hearted. He didn’t know how to approach the topic so he slowly sipped his tea. His throat felt dry. Chi Yan was in such a hurry to get here, that he hadn’t taken even a single sip of water.
Tang Guangyuan took the initiative: “It is as I suspected. This young brother was able to see through the illusions thanks to my Mind-Clearing Talisman. It is why you came to me.”
Chi Yan nodded. Although he already knew that the reason he suddenly sobered up and regained his memories was because of this elderly man, only now did he realize that the man had secretly placed a Mind-Clearing Talisman on him.
Mr. Tang reached out and tapped the small bottle on Chi Yan’s chest: “This is the bottle that contains the ashes?”
Chi Yan nodded and took off the bottle as instructed, only to see Tang Guangyuan take out 2 talismans–one for the interior and another for the exterior of the bottle. He wrapped the bottle up and set it aside.
Using this opportunity, Chi Yan explained everything–from his weak constitution to Zhang Taoist’s suggestion to wear Ye Yingzhi’s ashes on his body and to set up his tablet at home. Chi Yan was not stupid. He was previously under the illusions for so long, but no one noticed anything. Only this old man in front of him was able to see through it. Based on Chi Yan’s experience, he could tell that Mr. Tang is a true expert. The old man is the only one who could save him now.
After Tang Guangyuan heard the situation, he bitterly slapped his thigh: “Muddleheaded! How could he have made such a suggestion! What shallow understanding, knowing one part, but clueless about the rest! This person possessed the fiercest constitution even when living, Keeping his ashes nearby after death along with worshipping his tablet twice daily…. How could it not bring severe consequences?”
At that time, Xi Qing Shan’s Liu Taoist also said something similar. It’s just that Chi Yan didn’t want to believe him. At this point, it’s too late for regrets.
Tang Guangyuan asked him: “What do you think? What do you want to do?”
“What do I think….” Chi Yan smiled bitterly. “Of course I want to send him off, but I don’t know what methods there are.”
Tang Guangyuan nodded in understanding.
Chi Yan hesitated a bit before adding: “Just one thing… at that time, I was the one that disturbed Mr. Ye from peace. In the end, I was in the wrong first. Please don’t hurt him, just send him on his way.”
Although he was harassed by ghosts since young, he never really knew much about them. Besides, the monks and Taoists he visited throughout his life all said different things. He wasn’t sure what Ye Yingzhi really is or whether people had souls and really reincarnated after death. He hoped that it was like what movies depicted, and Ye Yingzhi would be free and able to go to where he was originally supposed to be.
Tang Guangyuan didn’t respond, only handed him a talisman and a box of matches: “After you go back, burn this talisman and dissolve it in water. Try to think of a way to lure that thing into drinking the water, and it should be solved.”
Ordinary people are ignorant. Always imagining unrealistic things and believing themselves to be kind. Something that could already be seen by a normal person and even able to draw people into an illusion is already as evil as they get. Completely eliminating them is the only method. But this isn’t something that this youngster needs to know. It would only increase his worries, and could conversely make things worse and even harm the youth.
Chi Yan was frightened: “You mean… I should go back by myself?”
Tang Guangyuan nodded: “If a stranger appeared, especially someone who is a student of Tao and obviously different from ordinary people, it could alert that thing. If that happened, it would be difficult to make it go away even if we pulled out the big guns.” Tang Guangyuan already lived for so long, he had long since mastered the art of communication. He purposely used misleading words to make the youth in front of him think having that thing drink the water was the only peaceful method. Otherwise, they would need to use force to solve the problem. But in truth, either way would led to the same result–that thing would be obliterated.
Chi Yan’s heart was vividly shaken by the possibility of alerting Ye Yingzhi. Even the fear of going back to face him alone was slightly alleviated. He squared his jaw and was about to nod when Tang Guangyuan handed him 2 more talismans: “If the situation gets out of hand, you can use these two to escape.”
From the black gas yesterday, Tang Guangyuan knew that the thing this young man provoked was not easy to deal with. If he possible, he didn’t want any trouble either. However, the water of that “Evil-Suppressing Talisman” could definitely take care of any evil spirit.
He took the small porcelain pendant from the parcel paper and handed it to Chi Yan: “In order to keep that thing from suspecting anything, put this back on. You can return this to his grave after the matter is resolved.”
Chi Yan grasped the 3 talismans along with the matches, placed them into his pocket separately. He forced a smile and thanked Mr. Tang before leaving.