A sleek, modern office.
Bright incandescent lights, professional desktop computers.
Social elites in suits and leather shoes.
Yet, in the dimly lit hallway, they were burning funeral supplies one by one.
Openly engaging in superstition.
Modern technology was advanced; the paper clothes and paper houses made for the dead were exquisitely crafted, looking almost like the real thing.
In particular, the pair of lifelike paper figures—a man in red and a woman in green—with bright red cheeks were crafted with incredible detail, even if their eyes hadn't been drawn in yet.
One of the colleagues rubbed their arms and said with a grimace:
"Sss... why does this look so creepy to me?"
Someone immediately chimed in:
"Right? I always feel like this hallway is filled with Yin energy."
Nan Zhi didn't have the heart to burst her colleagues' bubble.
The hallway never saw the sun, and the air conditioning on the seventeenth floor was always blasting, so it was naturally cold.
It didn't have much to do with ghosts.
A group of people were talking all at once, sharing all sorts of rumors.
The hallway wasn't just filled with people from Nan Zhi's office; there were others from different floors watching the spectacle.
"No wonder they had to find a master to perform a ritual!"
"I heard that the one causing trouble this time is that coder who fell from the twenty seventh floor rooftop.
When he died, didn't he land right on the billboard outside the seventeenth floor? His hand was broken, and he was almost split in two.
When the firefighters came, he... was only then lifted off of it."
"Wait, is no one saying anything about them doing this so openly in the building? Doesn't property management care?"
"How can property management stop them? They just say they invited someone to look at the feng shui without saying it explicitly. What can you do, call the police?"
"Hasn't this been going on for several months? They say that when people work overtime, they often hear someone knocking on the glass, and the printer starts copying things by itself.
If you're working late alone, you can even hear the sound of someone else typing on a keyboard..."
"Stop, stop, this sounds way too creepy."
"The people in this company are all terrified. Many say they've seen a ghost, and it's causing a lot of panic.
They probably had no other choice, which is why they found a master to take a look."
"Is it useful? Didn't they invite someone before? They're probably all scammers."
In fact, the haunting on the seventeenth floor had been rumored throughout the building for a long time.
But that was all just private gossip and stories; aside from the people at the advertising company, no one took it seriously.
But this time, the advertising company directly hiring a master to perform a ritual essentially confirmed the rumors, making them feel more real than ever.
"These are all things burned for you... take them and stop bothering us... enter the afterlife quickly, and be reincarnated soon..."
The advertising company manager muttered as he burned the items, his face stiff. His movements were very unpracticed, and he nearly scorched his leather shoes.
It looked like this was his first time doing something like this.
"Manager Huang, the burning is almost done. We can begin."
A white haired old man wearing a Tang suit was escorted out, surrounded by a crowd like a star.
This must be the "master."
Nan Zhi craned her neck, finally getting a clear look at what this master looked like.
Snow white hair and wrinkled skin, but with a vigorous gait. He had a silver white beard on his chin, and although he looked aged, he was full of spirit, his eyes sharp like hooks.
The old man didn't wear a yellow robe or carry a Bagua on his back like in the movies.
He just wore a very ordinary Tang suit and trousers, with a pair of somewhat simple cloth shoes.
Overall, it was a very convincing outfit.
Behind the old man followed a young girl, about high school age, with two long braids, wearing the uniform of the city's No. 1 High School.
Judging by their ages, the two were likely grandfather and granddaughter.
"Master He, I've burned almost everything you instructed. Is there anything else you need?"
Manager Huang quickly stood up and said respectfully:
"Are there too many people here? Do we need to clear the area?"
"No need."
The old man glanced at the burned paper ingots and nodded understandingly. His hawk like gaze swept across the crowd:
"It's fine to have many people. Human vitality is strong, and I can use that energy to help me work. It'll save me some effort later."
As he spoke, Master He put his hands behind his back and said to the crowd of onlookers:
"Those born in the Year of the Rooster, Ox, or Pig should leave. Those with weak horoscopes, the sick, and pregnant women should also leave.
Don't watch a spectacle you shouldn't watch, lest you accidentally invite trouble. When the time comes and you hurt yourself or others, no amount of regret will help."
After saying that, Master He stepped out of the stairwell with steady strides in his cloth shoes, ignoring the crowd's reaction.
He certainly had the air of an expert.
I wonder what his strength would be if converted into cultivation.
Nan Zhi rubbed her chin.
After hearing those words, the crowd became restless.
A few who met the criteria were reluctant to leave but were eventually pulled away by their companions.
After all, in matters like this, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Taking ten thousand steps back, even if nothing happened today, who could guarantee that a future slip on a banana peel, a misdelivered document, a traffic jam, or a child falling wouldn't be related to this?
Watching the show was fun, but life was more important.
Before long, more than half of the people on the seventeenth floor had left.
Those who remained were either recording videos or craning their necks to watch the excitement, wishing they could get even closer to see clearly.
Nan Zhi and Zhang Qiuyu were standing near the front, so they could see everything most clearly.
In a spot near the window of the advertising company, two desks had been moved aside to clear a large open space.
In that space sat a table covered with a red cloth, piled with a variety of items:
A white porcelain bowl filled with rice, a large rooster with its legs tied and eyes blindfolded, a thick stack of yellow talismans covered in incantations, and a small coin sword.
The offerings were also quite unique: a bowl of tofu, a bowl of cilantro, a bowl of raw eggs, and three bowls of clear water.
The most unusual item was a willow broom tied with red cloth, which wasn't standing up but was hidden under the table.
Just looking at these things gave Manager Huang a boost of confidence.
Although it had taken him several days to prepare these items—he had nearly run himself ragged just finding a rooster that was over three years old.
But this also made him trust Master He a bit more.
If the master had just started chanting incantations or dancing to drive away evil right away, Manager Huang would have thought he was a fraud instead.
"Um, Master, do you need to look at a compass or calculate the timing or something?"
Manager Huang asked cautiously. "If it's not a problem, we should hurry and finish so we don't delay the start of work this afternoon."
Master He walked slowly to the long table, grabbed a handful of rice from the bowl to smell it, and then nodded:
"Then let's begin."
...
...
This Master He's way of performing the ritual was a bit different from what Nan Zhi had imagined.
She thought he would act like those in old Hong Kong movies, first calling upon a peach wood sword, performing the Seven Star Kick, then burning yellow paper and scattering white rice before forcing Chen Ping's ghost to manifest.
Instead, Master He simply stood before the table, lit incense sticks, and burned paper money into the bowls of clear water one by one.
How is this any different from what Manager Huang was just doing?
Nan Zhi frowned.
Suddenly, her expression became subtle, and she quietly clenched her fist.
Chen Ping was here.
It was just after twelve thirty, almost the time of day when the sun was at its strongest.
Yet, outside the window of the seventeenth floor, a cloud of dark mist suddenly appeared.
That mist slowly coalesced into a broken human form, crawling in through the open window bit by bit. It crouched on the offering table and began to greedily devour the raw eggs in the bowl.
Nan Zhi blinked in surprise.
This Master He is the real deal.
Rate on N.U.
