Chapter 185: Chapter Sixteen You Damn Pitfall

"If you again take this house as the central palace, look at the northwest Hai direction: not only are there mountain gullies, but the water flow even slants through the house—this exactly matches that line in the classic: 'After passing Chen, Xun, Si, almond wild peach blossoms…' With this Hai water reflecting, the master's daughter-in-law cannot help but be licentious! And, do you know what I discovered?" As he got excited, Pangzi's eyes shone, and he swallowed his saliva.

"What did you discover?" Pangzi's tone sounded like he had made a major discovery, making me involuntarily tense up.

"I discovered……" Pangzi first leaned in, speaking softly and mysteriously, then his voice uncontrollably burst with delight: "I discovered that this household's daughter-in-law is actually having an affair with her father-in-law—hahaha, this is outright incest!"

Pangzi's ecstasy left me somewhat speechless, yet at the same time I couldn't help sighing inwardly at the power of geomancy. One school of geomancy is hardly inferior to the art of divination; even a simple layout reveals so many intricacies. Daoist esoteric arts are indeed profound and extensive—none of the five metaphysical arts are simple.

"By the way, Pangzi, can you tell what position they used? 'It was as if possessed by spirits—I actually went over and asked this.'"

Pangzi imitated QingSongShu's gesture of stroking his beard… but he doesn't even have a beard!

"I guess it's the old man pushing the cart," Pangzi said emphatically.

"Tch, why couldn't it be the hegemon's force…"

"Hard… screw your sister, all you're saying is other people's gossip—what does it have to do with ghosts and gods?" Halfway through, I suddenly came to my senses. Secretly I thought, "Phew!" Damn, my pure-minded thoughts were almost led step by step by Pangzi into the depths of depravity.

"There is… something related to ghosts and gods, and that's this pond." Pangzi pointed at the small pond before him, solemnly saying: "This pond lies in the Kun direction relative to the stage; where there is water in Kun, there must be yin substances. Moreover, according to the stage's orientation, there should have been a small pool beside this pond, but it has now been filled with earth; previously that pool's position was to the west. The southwest and west directions both have ruthless harmful waters—saying this residence indicates no abnormal 'person,' who would believe that?"

"Oh, now that you say it! The reason the performance that night went awry was because the good brothers in this water hall were messing with ghosts." After he said that, I gradually understood the context.

Who knows…

Pangzi, picking his nose at the side, shook his head and said: "No, that's not it; my earlier analysis assumed the stage must be a building with someone living inside for it to work."

Me: "……" Then all that you said before—what's the use of it!

Pangzi spread his hands, pursed his lips, and said: "In theory it's useless; I merely heard that a few years ago the place where this stage was erected was a wealthy family's house, which later fell into decline and was torn down. Being idle, I just analyzed the previous feng shui layout."

"In other words… everything you said has nothing to do with any incident that occurred at the stage." I had black lines across my forehead.

Pangzi shook his head and said: "Whether it's related or not, it's still too early to draw a conclusion; I'm unwilling to overlook any detail. You also know that many details we haven't noticed have causal connections. Often, the truth of an event lies hidden in those easily overlooked details."

"So have you discovered the truth?"

"For now…… not yet!" Pangzi spread his hands, rubbed his forehead, weakly gazing up at the floating white clouds in the sky.

But soon, Pangzi regained his vigor, slammed my shoulder hard, and loudly said: "But rest assured, I already have a detailed plan in mind?"

"Oh?" I asked in surprise: "What plan?"

"Hehe, this method is…… to lure the snake out of its hole!" Pangzi gave a hehe laugh, bent down, and whispered his plan into my ear.

Pangzi's so-called "lure the snake out of its hole" is actually the case reenactment commonly used by police in investigations. According to his plan, we would have everyone reenact a play. Meanwhile, we would prepare our weapons and closely watch from the side. If any ghost or monster appeared to cause trouble, our prepared ambush would surge forward and capture that ghostly creature.

The plan is excellent, the method is superb! This is the conclusion I reached after hearing the plan.

"Since that's the case, I'll go to sleep first; we'll talk about everything after tonight's performance!" I stretched and moved my limbs left and right.

"Alright, you go sleep, I'll go eat, then after eating I'll stroll around to experience the enthusiasm of those northern girls!" Pangzi rubbed his flattened belly, his face full of anticipation for exotic charm.

I crouched beside him, looking doubtful: "Getting up in the middle of the night to look at feng shui—aren't you tired?" I felt doubtful from the bottom of my heart; Pangzi's nature has always been to love eating and then love sleeping. Even though he got up so early last night, even if I slept dazedly for half a morning in the stage's basement, I still felt weak all over, my eyes heavy with fatigue. Even I am like this—Pangzi surely can't not be sleepy-eyed.

"Ha… don't worry, after seeing you off I went back to the dorm and caught an extra nap, only getting up at eight o'clock this morning." Pangzi likewise stretched, waved his hand, and said: "That's that—I'm going to eat first."

I just stood there, clenching my fists, standing firm in the wind, watching Pangzi's slowly receding figure, gnashing my teeth, a vicious feeling slowly welling up in my gaze.

After a moment, Pangzi dazedly turned around: "Hey, why aren't you… holy shit, what are you doing!"

Before Pangzi could finish speaking, he was hit by my thunderous barrage of punches and kicks.

"Damn, you bastard, you tricked me into getting up in the middle of the night to do hard labor, only to run back to the dorm and sleep in. You damn well—if I don't beat you flat, how can I face your father?"

"Holy shit… who looks at feng shui in the middle of the night? Even if you can read the compass clearly, you still can't see the situation." Pangzi stared at his swollen head, muttering a dissatisfied protest.

……It seems he's right—indeed, in the middle of the night you can't see things clearly?

………………………………

Night fell quietly; tonight's stage lights were bright, and many elders and villagers from Hu Family Village gathered below. Some nibbled melon seeds in twos and threes; others gathered together chatting about family matters. Some elderly women led children, sitting in groups of two or three, gossiping about village affairs.

The elders showed off their past hawking cries, the children's wailing, the mothers' scoldings, adding an extremely thick stroke of rural flavor to this tranquil night—it seemed to also possess a distinct charm.

Pangzi and I were also among those spectators; we all shared the same purpose—to wait for the opening of this grand performance.

This afternoon, while I was on the verge of vomiting my heart out, Pangzi acted coquettish toward Liu Guozhong, shaking his shoulder, whispering that he had grown up in the city and had never seen a theater troupe perform, begging Liu Guozhong to let the troupe give him a performance no matter what, so he could broaden his horizons.

Regarding this nephew's request, as his uncle he naturally would not refuse—moreover, this uncle dotes on his nephew. Thus, the affectionate Liu Guozhong waved his hand and simply had Song Lin make preparations. Tonight, the entire theater troupe dispatched most of its members, solely for Pangzi to perform a few of his specialty pieces.

After Liu Guozhong agreed, I immediately sprinted out of the house at a hundred-meter dash speed, pressed against the wall and vomited with all my might.

Damn, are they letting me live or not? A 150‑catty fatso acting all delicate and clingy—this life is unbearable. Just thinking about having to live with Pangzi from now on, and that he might later show such a coquettish expression, makes my whole body shudder uncontrollably… tears streaming down my face.

Although the process made me, as an onlooker, feel utterly wretched, no matter what, Pangzi's goal was ultimately achieved.

However, the process encountered some setbacks. In our expectation, everything should have proceeded according to that night's procedure, and the first play performed should have been an anti‑Japanese drama.

Yet Liu Guozhong set the first play to be "Lin Chong's Night Escape to Liangshan Marsh" from Water Margin.

Liu Guozhong said, if we're going to perform, we should perform the best—Kunqu, which is the Liu Family Troupe's forte. Although after Pangzi's earnest, somewhat shameless pleading, Liu Guozhong agreed to stage an anti‑Japanese spoken drama as the second show, we still had to honestly watch the first Kunqu performance in full.

Amid everyone's anxious waiting, a sudden clamor of gongs and drums rang out, and the stage curtain, at this moment, was thoroughly declared open.

Yet at that time, the pitch‑black sky grew somewhat overcast, thick black clouds blanketed the entire dark heavens, the air was sultry and oppressive, and simultaneously this gray‑tinged sky seemed to be brewing a great drama.

Perhaps…… this is the calm before the storm, or maybe not.