Mr. 05

Fang Zhiyi heard the report, but he continued drinking his tea with perfect composure, harboring absolutely no intention of going to save his apprentice. You reap what you sow; why should I be the one to save him?

On the other hand, that foolish apprentice Lin Adai was quite anxious, incessantly urging his master to go save his senior brother.

Fang Zhiyi looked at him, suppressing the urge to hit him. Arguing with a fool was, in itself, truly stupid.

He was waiting.

Inside the police station, Yan Wushuang felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at the ashen-faced Li Huaian before him. The man looked like a corpse... but Yan quickly patted his own face. There were no ghosts or gods in this world.

He looked again at Li Huaian's raised heels, standing on tiptoe, and felt an inexplicable coldness.

Fang Zhiyi finally received the notification from the police station to come and collect his apprentice.

He made his way to the station at a leisurely pace, only to see a grim-faced Yan Wushuang.

"What kind of trick are you pulling this time? Are you toying with me?"

Fang Zhiyi glanced at his apprentice behind the iron bars. The apprentice looked incredibly eerie at that moment: only the tips of his toes touched the ground, he was completely naked, his neck was craned unnaturally in one direction, and a bizarre smile hung on his lips. No matter how you looked at it, something was wrong.

"I wouldn't dare," Fang Zhiyi said innocently. "This brat stirred up trouble himself, so he has to pay for it himself, doesn't he?"

Yan Wushuang said with some disgust, "I thought I had misjudged you, that you were just a traveling quack doctor at heart. I didn't expect you to be a full-blown charlatan. And you keep talking about breaking feudal superstitions. Heh, can't keep up the act anymore?"

Fang Zhiyi glanced at him and pulled out a small bottle of water with leaves soaking in it. "Wipe this on your eyelids."

Yan Wushuang didn't take it.

"Scared?"

Yan Wushuang snatched it away, gritted his teeth, and wiped it onto his eyelids.

"And now? How are you going to perform your feudal superstition?"

Fang Zhiyi didn't answer him; he simply pointed toward the cell.

Yan Wushuang merely turned his head, and instantly felt a chill shoot from his heels straight to the top of his skull.

A "person" was pressed tightly against the naked back of Li Huaian, its feet padding under Li Huaian's feet, and its head resting atop Li Huaian's head. It looked utterly grotesque.

"Impossible!" Yan Wushuang felt his legs go weak.

Fang Zhiyi smiled and took a few steps forward. The Peddler saw him and looked fearful.

Yet Fang made no further move. "If you've had enough fun, leave. What he did was indeed excessive, but you shouldn't take on karmic debt because of it. Otherwise, your record down below won't look good."

The Peddler seemed to realize something. Whether out of fear of Fang Zhiyi or because he listened to reason, he vanished on the spot. As soon as he left, Li Huaian collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Th-th-this..." Yan Wushuang was in shock; he felt his worldview taking a heavy beating.

Fang Zhiyi ignored his scoundrel of an apprentice and simply said, "Feudal superstition is undesirable. However, in these chaotic times of war and turmoil, there will always be souls that cannot find rest... How should I explain this to you?" He paused. "From a scientific perspective, what we often call ghosts are a form of energy. You can understand it as them living in a dimension different from ours, like two parallel lines."

As he spoke, he even reached out and drew in the air.

"But because of the chaos in the world, or at certain points in time, these two non-intersecting lines will overlap to a certain degree. That is why some people can see so-called ghosts. But in reality, these ghosts cannot do anything too excessive... unless it's like the one just now, who hadn't completely detached from this dimension and could do a bit more."

Fang Zhiyi cleared his throat. "The purpose of my existence, and that of my sect, is to guide these departed souls who haven't left in time, reducing their impact on the human world... Actually, more often than not, what we do is provide spiritual comfort to the living. You know, sometimes the ghosts people fear are the very people others would give anything to see just one last time."

He changed the subject. "Of course, this is just one of our subjects. The rest are still as I said: martial arts, calligraphy and painting, astrology..."

Yan Wushuang remained silent for a long time. What he had seen was hard to accept. Fang Zhiyi's words sounded very off, yet somehow... scientific?

"You... there was something wrong with that water you made me wipe on!" He found his answer.

Fang Zhiyi shrugged. "I can never wake a person who is pretending to be asleep. No matter, there will be plenty of opportunities."

He left, ignoring the apprentice, and Yan Wushuang did not stop him.

A few days later, Lin Adai's parents sneaked back and arranged to meet him.

Lin Adai was very happy to see his parents visiting, but when he heard they wanted him to steal his master's property deed, he immediately felt conflicted.

"Your mother and I just want to take a look, to see if he has the financial ability to take good care of you," Lin's father said, giving an extremely far-fetched excuse. Yet, Lin Adai did not suspect a thing.

So, taking advantage of his master's absence, he started searching. Since Fang Zhiyi never hid anything from him, he remembered where the property deed was kept.

When Yan Wushuang received news from the mayor that someone had brought Fang Zhiyi's old property deed to request a transfer of ownership, his already dazed mind churned with emotion.

He rushed to the mayor's place and saw the town's wealthy Master Huang.

Yan Wushuang frowned and asked, "Who sold you the deed?"

Master Huang looked at him with disdain. "None of your business. The deed is in my hand, so the house is mine."

Yan Wushuang slammed his service pistol onto the table. "Do you realize that stealing a property deed is a serious crime?"

"What theft? I bought it! Bought it with real gold and silver!" Fang Zhiyi's house was in a good location. He had wanted to buy it before, but Fang Zhiyi hadn't agreed. Suddenly, someone was selling it, so Master Huang certainly wouldn't miss the chance.

Yan Wushuang said, enunciating every word, "The deed in your hand is the old one. It has already been invalidated."

"Nonsense!" Master Huang slapped the table.

It wasn't until the mayor said the same thing that he panicked.

"Bastards! Those two bastards tricked me!"

With this, Lin Adai's parents surfaced as the culprits. Yan Wushuang was a serious man; a theft had occurred, so he immediately reported it to his superiors. These two gamblers had no background and no real skills; they were pinned down the moment they got off the train.

Lin Adai was still foolishly wondering when his parents would visit him again and return the deed, when Yan Wushuang arrived with his men to arrest him.

He watched his master wave at him, looking as if he had known all along that this calamity would befall him.

Meanwhile, his senior brother, having lost face last time, was hiding in his room all day and refused to come out.

The day after Lin Adai was imprisoned, Fang Zhiyi appeared at the police station. Seeing him, Yan Wushuang immediately remembered the bet between the two of them and ground his teeth in frustration.

However, going back on his word was not something he could do, so he could only unwillingly call out, "Master."