Brother Xiang grabbed Jin Xi Shan with his left hand and said, “Tsk, those guys only gave you stuff you can look at but not actually use. I’m giving you something you can’t even buy if you wanted to.”

“Shit, Brother Xiang’s talking big again!” I thought to myself, feeling that this wasn’t going to end well. Liu Tian Yi also looked back, seemingly eager to mock Brother Xiang. With a smug smile, he said, “Something like that exists? Show us, then! As far as I, Liu Tian Yi, am concerned, there’s nothing I want that I can’t buy!”

Provoked by him, Brother Xiang opened his backpack, took out something triangular that looked like a charm, and handed it to Jin Xi Shan. “Lady, let me tell you, not even the mayor could get his hands on this if he wanted to. But today, I, Brother Xiang, am giving it to you as a birthday gift.”

“Isn’t this just an ordinary charm?” Liu Tian Yi sneered. “If I wanted, I could go to the temple and get a hundred of these, no problem.”

“This isn’t an ordinary charm. Since Brother Xiang is giving it to you, Xi Shan, just accept it. This thing is as special as he says; it’s something even your parents couldn’t get.” Surprisingly, Han Si Fan, who was nearby, actually spoke up in support of Brother Xiang.

Hearing Han Si Fan say that, Jin Xi Shan became curious and took the charm, saying thank you. I was close by, but I had no clue what use it could have. However, seeing the sparkle in Han Si Fan’s eyes as she looked at it, I didn’t have to guess—this had to be some rare item.

After that, Brother Xiang seemed pretty pleased, strutting grandly into the KTV. Liu Tian Yi muttered under his breath, “So what, it’s just a stupid charm.”

The charm really turned out to be something amazing. I found out later that it was a protective item an old master had given Brother Xiang to keep him safe. It even ended up saving Jin Xi Shan’s life once. But that’s a story for another time.

The KTV room was huge, with room number 8888. Renting it for a night supposedly cost the same number in price, and that’s not even counting the drinks. Adding up the booze alone usually costs tens of thousands. Jin Xi Shan’s family must be something else.

Most of us weren’t really into singing. Only Little Fatty was hogging the microphone, wailing away. Meanwhile, Liu Tian Yi and three other guys kept their distance, like they didn’t want to be seen with us. They gravitated towards where Jin Xi Shan and Han Si Fan, along with two other girls, were sitting.

The rest of us were silently fuming. Not long after, Han Si Fan seemed to have had enough of those guys. She pushed them aside, walked over to me, and hooked her arm around mine, saying, “Let’s go to the bathroom.”

With that, she led me out, and naturally, Liu Tian Yi shot us a hateful look as we left.

Once outside, Han Si Fan muttered, “Damn, those jerks just kept bragging about how awesome their dads are, how rich their moms are—ugh, it’s disgusting.”

“So why didn’t you slap them a couple of times?” I joked, knowing her fiery personality. Han Si Fan rolled her eyes at me and said, “No matter what, they’re still Xi Shan’s friends. It wouldn’t be good to start a fight. Come on, keep me company while I have a smoke to chill out.”

“Alright.” I nodded and followed her. We hadn’t even reached the restroom when she suddenly frowned, shaking her head. “Something’s not right! This KTV is off!”

“What’s wrong?” I looked around, seeing a few servers. The place was lavishly decorated—nothing seemed strange.

“Close your eyes and feel it carefully!” Han Si Fan said. I nodded and closed my eyes. After a moment, I did feel something—it was strangely stifling, like being in a tightly enclosed room.

“It does feel a bit stuffy, probably just bad air circulation,” I replied, not thinking much of it.

“Quick, go get Xiang! He’s the expert here!” Han Si Fan urged, looking tense. I nodded, turned back to the room, and shouted, “Brother Xiang, come here!”

Brother Xiang had already had a few drinks, his face flushed, and he was wobbling a bit. He called out, “Hey, kid, what’s up?”

“There’s something I need to ask you!” Han Si Fan walked over and grabbed him by the collar, dragging him down to the parking garage since the hallway was crowded. Once we were in the garage, she slapped him twice, snapping him out of his tipsy state.

“Xiang, check if there’s anything wrong with this place.” Han Si Fan demanded. Brother Xiang, still a bit hazy, looked around and said, “Everything’s fine. This is a Three Yuan feng shui setup, it’s got great feng shui, the boss is making a fortune here.”

“Close your eyes and feel it carefully!” Han Si Fan insisted. Brother Xiang slowly closed his eyes. After about ten seconds, he suddenly opened them wide, looking around. “There’s definitely something wrong here! I can smell the child-mother’s blood!”

Then he started sniffing, as if trying to track something down in the garage. After a while, he found a small piece of cloth under a main support pillar. It was a strip of mourning cloth, with some blood stains on it.

Brother Xiang sniffed it, frowning. “It’s definitely child-mother’s blood. If I’m not mistaken, there’s another piece in the water tank on the KTV rooftop.”

We hurried up to the rooftop, and sure enough, we found another piece of mourning cloth in the water tank. Brother Xiang held the two pieces in his hand, furrowing his brows. I asked, “Brother Xiang, what’s going on?”

“This is a type of evil setup, it’s an inescapable trap. One piece of mourning cloth, stained with child-mother blood, is placed in the water tank as the ‘heaven net,’ and the other piece here in the parking garage as the ‘earth net.’ This setup disrupts the Three Yuan feng shui here. If we hadn’t found this within two days, people here would start seeing ghosts and even dying. This is serious—who would do something like this?”

“Young ones, why are you meddling with my feng shui setup?” Suddenly, a voice sounded behind us.

We turned around to see an elderly man, around fifty, dressed in a black Tang suit. He had a kind look, standing at the stairwell entrance. This rooftop had only one stairwell, leading up from the fourth floor.

“Using these things to harm people isn’t exactly respectable, sir. What kind of grudge do you have against the boss here to go to such lengths?” Han Si Fan took a few steps forward, glaring at the old man.

“Just because you kids have learned a bit of elementary Taoist magic, don’t get too cocky. Put those things back, and I’ll pretend this never happened.” The old man then pulled out a small, dried-up corpse of a baby from behind him. The baby’s body was shrivelled like a piece of dried meat, pitch-black, no bigger than a hand, and wrapped tightly with red strings.