Zhao Wuyou really did know how to hold his temper. Perhaps his grandfather had warned him again and again that, to change his fate pattern, he had to rely on Yueru.
With that in mind, however angry or unwilling he might be, he wouldn't dare lose his temper with her.
If she came to dislike him, he would be finished. He wasn't simply trying to find a girlfriend. His life and everything he had depended on this girl. He couldn't afford to be careless.
What he had said, though, made me scoff. It was sickening. This was only a street of wedding and funeral shops, yet he was presenting it as the world of the occult arts.
If that world amounted to this little street, we'd be a laughingstock.
Wuyou didn't seem to have much aptitude for the arts himself. His mystic yang energy was pitifully weak, barely stronger than an ordinary person's.
His grandfather, Zhao Qiankun, was an established feng shui master, after all.
Even an ordinary person, living with a grandfather like that every day, should have picked up some real skill.
Yet Wuyou's ability gave cause for concern. No wonder his grandfather was so eager to find him a girl chosen by Heaven, with a strong fate pattern that could turn his own around.
With so little skill, if anything happened to his grandfather, Wuyou might not outlive him. The old man's death could take his grandson with him.
Yueru looked curious at his words.
Ordinary people were always fascinated by the strange things within the occult arts.
Despite her dislike of him, she followed him to the shop opposite mine.
It seemed to sell nothing but paper effigies. Every one was remarkably lifelike.
I had noticed the shopkeeper when I came yesterday. He had some skill, but not much, and I hadn't paid him any special attention. I watched without intervening.
I wanted to see what Wuyou meant to do there.
I deliberately kept out of sight. Yueru didn't notice me.
From the shadows, I watched him lead her to the paper effigy shop. 'Shopkeeper! Bring out an effigy!'
A slightly stout middle-aged man soon carried one out and set it before them.
It was life-size, made in every detail to look like a real person. It could have passed for a model.
The only difference was that its eyes hadn't been painted in. There was a reason for that. With an effigy so lifelike, you never finished it by dotting the eyes.
Once the eyes were added, it might come alive and draw yang energy from the living.
For a living person, that could be a terrible disaster.
It was the same idea as the old tale of painting a dragon's eyes and bringing it to life.
None of the effigies in the shop had painted eyes.
'Watch, Yueru. This is just an ordinary paper effigy, but I can bring it to life. Keep your eyes open. Don't blink, and don't be too surprised.'
He picked up a brush. He was going to paint in its eyes.
I looked around. There were no restless souls here, nor any wandering ghosts.
His attempt ought to fail. People said that painting the eyes could bring an effigy to life, but the reason was that a lifelike figure, once given eyes, amounted to a body.
Not a living person's physical body, but something halfway to one. Wandering ghosts or restless souls could possess it.
A living person's body already held a soul, one formed through the six paths of rebirth.
Restless souls and wandering ghosts couldn't drive it out. The body's soul would have to leave of its own accord, and that simply wasn't going to happen.
An effigy made so lifelike offered the ideal vessel for most restless souls to possess.
I remembered a story Grandfather had told me. Perhaps it wasn't a legend at all, but something that had really happened.
I used to think of it as a legend. After Uncle Qiu's account of Heiyao Mountain, I was increasingly inclined to believe it.
Grandfather said that sometime in the late Ming dynasty, a paper effigy had become a supernatural being. In fact, a restless soul had possessed it.
Using that paper body, the soul had cultivated its power little by little, until it became something immensely powerful and evil.
That was very difficult to achieve.
Paper was fragile. Even with ghost arts to hold the body together for a long time, it would eventually fall apart. It wasn't a real body.
To grow so powerful would take many fortunate opportunities, and care at every step.
'Patriarch, grant me the spirit-sealing brush; let me give this paper effigy a soul...'
Wuyou made a show of going through a few ritual hand gestures with the brush, then painted the eyes onto the effigy's face.
Soon a pair of eyes looked out from it. With those in place, it was so lifelike that it seemed no different from a living person.
From a distance, you would have taken it for someone alive. Only up close could you have spotted anything wrong.
I had expected his efforts to fail. Yet not long after he finished speaking, the effigy's body swayed. It really did seem to be coming alive.
Puzzled, I searched the area again. There were no wandering ghosts, no restless souls anywhere nearby.
Then why was it moving? I looked again. A restless soul was already inside it, controlling its body.
The soul seemed dazed, its gaze vacant, as though someone was controlling it.
Was a master nearby helping Wuyou?
The effigy maker had some ability of his own. If someone else was interfering with his work, why wasn't he reacting?