Chapter 19: Replacing Fate and Substituting for Calamity (Seeking follow-up reads, chapter reviews, and monthly votes)

At the moment of awaiting the judgment of life and death, Xiao Hong clearly perceived that the hen tied to the bedside was no longer struggling...

She became increasingly terrified.

She did not know if this ghost, having killed the chicken, would also kill her.

That chicken was no longer flapping because a hemp rope had already hung it from the roof beam.

And within the gaze of the hanging ghost, a maid scared half to death lay by the bedside, screaming: "Don't come over here!"

Her Life Fire was precarious, barely more than the vitality of a chicken... it was precisely a good target to strike at.

Above the roof beam, it was unknown when a blood-stained hemp noose had hung down.

The terrified maid, unable to control herself, walked toward it step by step.

She took the initiative to loop the hemp rope around her neck.

The hemp rope suddenly pulled taut, its top end vanishing into the dark crossbeam, while the bottom end tightly coiled around Xiao Hong's neck.

Her limbs began to convulse, her eyes wide open, her face twisted and deformed from suffocation; her hands clawed powerlessly at the tightening hemp rope, leaving only deep nail marks.

Her feet kicked and struggled in mid-air, the noose tightening more and more...

During the process of the hanging murder, watching the fading of life and the constant struggling and flapping, this Condolence Guest Evil Qi felt an indescribable satisfaction.

It was just... why was the resentment and Evil Qi produced by hanging this young girl so weak? It hadn't increased its own strength in the slightest.

Seeing the harvest was meager, this evil ghost looked with disgust at the old women who were still snoring despite such a commotion.

The evil ghost left the room... it did not choose to continue killing, although it could also enter dreams to terrorize people, but that would consume too much of its Evil Qi.

Once others discovered someone had hanged themselves tomorrow, the entire Xu family would fall into panic, and it would be easier to strike then.

In a terrifying atmosphere, its killing ability would also increase.

The evil ghost intended to leave first and wait for the matter to ferment, killing another in a few days, but it could not find the "door" it had entered through.

Thus, another gust of yin wind vortex howled in the courtyard, smashing who knows how many things...

This ghost became increasingly anxious... it was fine when it came, so why was there no door when it wanted to leave?

Never mind a door, it couldn't even pass through the courtyard walls. Thus, it was so anxious it kept circling in the courtyard, even wanting to seize back the room to scare the people awake and manipulate them into taking it out.

Finally, hearing the sound of a rooster crowing from outside, the evil ghost was terrified.

It was about to be dawn; it had to find a place to hide.

The panicked evil ghost rushed to hide inside the Well. The Well was deep and connected to Earth Qi; it saw no light and was difficult to be discovered.

After the daylight was bright, Master Xu and Xu Mu looked at the mess in the courtyard, their faces gloomy and thoughtful.

The old women and servants in the entire courtyard all looked at each other: "A huge demonic wind blew last night."

After Xu Jia woke up, he was unhurried; he chewed on a clove and rinsed his mouth with tea.

He asked casually: "Why hasn't Xiao Hong come?"

The one serving was an old woman; Xu Jia felt some disdain that she was not meticulous enough.

"This..."

The old woman had some taboos.

Xiao Hong had tied a hen to the foot of the bed yesterday, but when she got up in the morning, she was ill, feverish and sweating, while the tied hen was hanging from the roof beam, dead and stiff. "Even if you don't say it, I know; she must have been possessed by a nightmare."

After drinking a bowl of porridge, he held a slice of ginseng under his tongue.

Xu Jia walked out of the room and saw Master Xu there pacifying the people: "This house needs to be repaired carefully; a gust of wind blew, and many tiles fell off."

He did not mention those strange occurrences of the night at all.

Niu Congcong also had dark circles under his eyes, but his eyes were bright as he stared at Xu Jia. It was clearly a questioning intent.

Xu Jia said: "Father, Mother, repairs can be done slowly; why not get rid of the bad luck first, do a big cleaning, move things in every place that doesn't see light, sun them, and clear the dust."

Master Xu understood Xu Jia's hint and nodded: "It is necessary to remove the bad luck; not only must we remove the bad luck, but we must also perform a 'blessing-through-marriage'!"

Xu Jia: When was this decided? How come I don't know?

"I intend to arrange a marriage for you; of course, since you haven't passed the imperial examinations yet, you will take a concubine first, then take a main wife..."

"I, this..."

Lady Xu sighed: "My son, we are old, and you have gone through such an ordeal. Mother knows your body is not very comfortable and you might not want to marry so early, but with one more person to take care of you, Mother will be at ease... Since we are going out today, we will find Zhang Meipo and arrange a good marriage for you."

"Wait a moment!" Xu Jia said hurriedly: "I haven't really gone out yet, nor have I clarified the matter of how I died and came back to life. Moreover, Father, Mother, I feel that my previous death was suspicious; someone wanted to harm me..."

Xu Jia asked again: "Father, Mother, during the time I was ill, did any strange people come?"

Xu Jia took the initiative, staring into their eyes with a burning gaze.

Xu Jia's eyesight was powerful; the two old people felt guilty being watched: "What strange people could there be... don't overthink it. However, what you said also makes sense; we must wait until your body is better before talking about a marriage; we cannot rush..."

Master Xu turned his head and ordered the servants and old women: "The young master said to clean thoroughly; did you hear me? You cannot be negligent or lazy; don't let me catch you..."

Seeing Master Xu stammering and not mentioning the Daoist, Xu Jia grew suspicious, turning instead to Niu Congcong: "Congcong, you go back first, quickly set up the altar, and step into cultivation."

Niu Congcong nodded repeatedly, and after saying goodbye to Master Xu and Xu Mu, he let Sha Erzhu carry him home.

The Xu family then began a big cleaning from top to bottom.

The Xu residence occupied about two and a half mu of land, with a main house, courtyard, side rooms, and surrounding walls all complete. The layout was a 'Hui' character shape on the outside and a 'Gong' character shape on the inside.

The 'Hui' shape followed the outer architecture of the courtyard's high walls; the kitchen, tool room, firewood room, the lower side rooms where the old women lived, and the guest rooms for visitors were all here.

The 'Gong' shape was where the front hall and the rear living quarters were, with a connection in the middle.

The front hall was a place for receiving guests, while the rear living quarters were where the masters lived and read, and there were also side rooms that could be provided for concubines to live in.

The overall layout was symmetrical and neat, with clear distinctions between primary and secondary, blue bricks and dark tiles; there were basically no major problems in terms of Feng Shui.

After all, when Grandpa Xu was in business, and later donated for an Eighth-Rank Scattered Official, leaving behind a foundation of a hundred mu of fertile land, he must have invited professional people to design and build it to live in such a large house.

However, thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river; Feng Shui matters are always changing, otherwise, it wouldn't have been a single heir for three generations, and even the death of the predecessor Xu Jia was likely because the family fortune was not flourishing.

After Xu Jia directed the people to clean, those who needed to move cabinets moved cabinets, those who needed to change the position of the beds changed the position of the beds, and at the same time, he began to calculate the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams.

After all, the 'Hui' plus 'Gong' character structure was suitable for the "Nine Palaces" method to fix and measure the Feng Shui.

The so-called Nine Palaces Method is, in fact, just filling in a Well-shaped grid to divide it into nine regions.

The servants and matrons all listened to Xu Jia's commands, and very quickly, they slightly altered the original layout, changing the direction of the "Qi flow."

(End of this chapter)