The day I was born, blessings from the heavens descended, with clouds forming dragon-like shapes, and sparrows perched densely upon the branches.
The fortune-teller said it was a sign of a dragon and phoenix appearing together, and that I would surely be a dragon or phoenix among humans, bringing blessings to my family!
The parents were overjoyed and offered him a reward of three thousand yuan, which back then could buy an entire floor of a building!
My father drives a Turbo Honda, and his business partners are all Hong Kongers. The money aspect is not as important as the fact that the fortune-teller's words are melodious and enjoyable, so he deserves to be rewarded!
In the following years, my family's wealth continued to grow, and my parents became increasingly busy. They often returned home once every two months, resulting in a lack of intimacy between my parents and me.
Until I was eight years old, the fortune-teller suddenly said that I would encounter a deadly calamity every nine years!
My parents made an important decision: to retire from business.
They said that making more money was not as important as spending time with their children.
But a big incident occurred the next day.
A bloody, skinless female corpse was hung above my house.
The police arrived and concluded that the female corpse was my mother. As for my father, he was missing and his fate unknown.
My mother's tragic death and the sudden change in our household caused me to cry heart-wrenchingly.
The relatives seemed to be avoiding something and no one came to take care of me. I could only stay at the police station.
Crying for a long time, I eventually accepted the reality and realized that my father was probably gone.
From then on, I would be an orphan.
The police decided to send me to an orphanage.
It was at this time that my uncle appeared!
With red eyes and a choking voice, he said, "Xian Shen, you have a hard life. From now on, you'll live with your uncle!"
As the saying goes, "Brothers and sisters are like a mother and father, blood is thicker than water." Even if bones are broken, they are still connected by tendons.
My uncle is the closest and dearest person to me.
After moving in with my uncle, he and his wife treated me exceptionally well.
My cousin brother had a strange illness, being paralyzed on one side, but he often made me laugh. Whenever there was something good to eat, he would always give me half.
My cousin brother said, "I consider you like a real brother."
Even if he can't stand up, he can still protect me from the wind and rain!
I was very moved!
Before I knew it, a year had passed.
The day before the Winter Solstice, my ninth birthday.
My uncle bought a big cake, and the whole family sat around the table happily.
I was just about to blow out the candles when my uncle grabbed my head and "bang!" slammed it onto the table!
I was caught off guard and was knocked unconscious.
When I woke up, my hands and feet were tightly bound to the bed, and 64 white candles were burning quietly by the bedside, arranged into a special shape.
My cousin brother, who was paralyzed on one side, sat in the middle of the candles. The candlelight made his shadow spread on the wall, looking like a ravenous demon!
My uncle had an expression of disgust and said, "Do you really think I raised you for free?"
"Just because your parents did that kind of scumbag stuff, you being alive at all was a stroke of luck!"
"Do you know why you've lived for a year?"
"Because when you were nine years old, your destiny was the best!"
I was scared silly and struggled wildly.
My uncle took out twelve thick and long silver needles and stuck them through my body, piercing into my internal organs!
I screamed in agony and begged my uncle to let me go.
My uncle paid no attention to my cries; instead, he sneered and said, "This is called mailing the twelve houses of the body!"
After the twelve needles were inserted, my cousin brother was able to stand up. My good fortune and life were now his!
I felt like my bones were being drilled open, and some indescribable thing was flowing out of me, causing me unbearable pain.
My cousin brother, however, had a smile on his face as if he had been reborn.
In the end, I was like a dead dog, thrown out into the suburbs by my uncle.
As my uncle said, in the northern winter, with temperatures as low as minus 20 to 30 degrees Celsius, people are killed by the cold every day.
By tomorrow, when the police notify him, he will say that I ran away from home on my own. With a simple procedure, he will have me cremated, and the inheritance of my parents will be his.
In the dead of winter, with ice three feet thick, it's cold enough!
But even such coldness is not as cold as a tenth of my uncle's.
That night, there were also thunderstorms. The rolling thunder was almost enough to break the sky, and the ground was constantly emitting black smoke, which was terrifying.
The cold and pain tortured me, making my consciousness gradually blurry and unconscious…
When I woke up again, I was lying on a single bed.
The room was warm, filled with a faint smell of blood.
There were twelve blood-stained steel needles standing by the bedside!
A middle-aged man with a pink nose sat by the bedside, his hair disheveled, eyes like crabs, and no trace of spirit left. He appeared drowsy and sluggish.
I recognized the old man; he is called Qin Waizi!
It was he who gave me my fortune at birth. Since then, every time my parents went out, they would ask him to divinate for good or evil.
They had mentioned several times that they wanted the old Qin to adopt me as his disciple.
The old Qin had always smiled and refused, saying, "Xian Shen has a very heavy fate. A dragon's fate that will ascend to the heavens. I am not capable of receiving him now!"
In a moment of clarity, I struggled to get up and wanted to kneel and thank the old Qin for saving my life!
But as soon as I moved, the pain from the needles that had pierced deep into my bones made me scream in agony.
The old Qin reached out and comforted my head, sighing, "Xian Shen, your fate is too hard. I will take you as my disciple. No one will dare to bully you in the future."
……
I cried, unable to speak through my sobs.
After that, I became the apprentice of Old Qin.
He never allowed me to call him "Master," only letting me call him "Old Man."
He was a fortune-teller, but the things he made me learn had nothing to do with it.
Cutting trees, sawing wood, making coffins. Boiling juice, spreading paper, folding paper, and wrapping them.
Even more outrageous, he would take me out to dig up people's graves at night and pull out the corpses to cut their hair!
At first, I was so scared that my face turned pale and I peed myself.
Old Qin said, "If you're peeing your pants out of fear now, how will you take revenge in the future?"
"If you don't have the courage, then those with courage spend the money your parents earned with their lives, leading a smooth life for a lifetime and not encountering any troubles at all."
My eyes filled with tears, and I became more courageous!
Any fear is not as powerful as the hatred in one's heart!
Over the next ten years, I learned enough skills to run a funeral service business with plenty of spare capacity.
I asked Old Qin why he didn't teach me fortune-telling. He was a fortune-teller, so it didn't make sense to teach me the skills for a funeral service business.
Old Qin sighed and said, "You had a dragon's fate that was destined to ascend to the heavens, but it was taken from you. Moreover, you absorbed the earth qi of three 'break' days, making you look like a plague god. It took me a lot of effort to help you alter your destiny and make it a 'yin' life. You can learn some nine-star rowing techniques for now, which is not bad. Don't be greedy."
I was stunned, and my emotions gradually sank.
My cousin brother is living off my good fortune, spending the inheritance of my parents.
He must be living very comfortably now, right?
But I'm so uncomfortable, my heart aches, as if I've been pierced through!
"Old Man, when will time finally arrive? When can I take revenge!" I asked Old Qin with red eyes.
Old Qin patted my shoulder and said, "Don't worry about such things. Go get the longevity wood out. It needs to be washed and wiped down. And where are those eight paper figures?"
I pointed to the storage room.
I went to the backyard with my head down and a downcast expression.
Under the eaves was a black coffin.
The wood grain was fine and the texture was thick.
Three years ago, Old Qin had me chop down over twenty old willow trees and use the heartwood to make this coffin.
The willow tree is yin in nature, and its heartwood can nourish a corpse.
Old Qin always said that he was getting older and that he didn't know when he would die. He wanted to prepare a longevity wood coffin in advance so that eight immortals could carry it and he could go out with a bang!
I always thought Old Qin's words were not pleasant to hear and unlucky.
Old Qin smiled but said nothing.
Wringing a cloth with cool well water, I wiped the coffin meticulously.
The coffin surface was as shiny and reflective as a mirror!
Rubbing my aching temples, I sighed deeply.
I was clear-headed now.
Old Qin is very particular; whenever I couldn't control my emotions, he would make me wipe the coffin.
The cool well water had a calming effect on me, as it was something that humans naturally respond to.
While I was thinking, I asked Old Qin if he would like to drink two cups in the evening.
I went to invite Aunt Liu from the village head to come and sing a tune for him.
As I walked to the front courtyard, I saw a chair there, with eight lifelike paper effigies standing on either side.
Old Qin was dressed in clean and tidy mourning clothes, with his head slightly lowered and his eyes listless.
I was shocked and exclaimed, "Old Man!"
I rushed forward and fell to my knees in front of the chair, my heart filled with extreme fear!
Old Qin trembled slightly and slowly looked up.
"Ai, I'm a bit sleepy, and I even fell asleep."
He smiled, but his face was paler than a ghost, even the pink nose no longer had its usual color.
"Dammit... Old Man, you scared me to death!" I blushed and spat, "What are you doing? A living person wearing mourning clothes and setting up paper effigies, aren't you afraid of scaring me to death? You're sending a white-haired person off to meet a black-haired one?"
Old Qin, however, stared at me blankly, his eyes, filled with fine lines, full of reluctance.
"Xian Shen, the time has come," he said dryly.
