Chapter 25 Part 2
Li Hao and his friends’ competitive spirit was instantly ignited by his words.
Unclean things? What could be more unclean than his neighbor Shi Xuan’s Yin qi?
Li Hao immediately said, “We’ll keep it!”
With Doctor Wu Heng around, what was there to be afraid of?
As latecomers, they had to fight and scramble to surpass He Yunxiao.
Damn, he should have gotten pregnant with snake fetuses and given birth to a litter for Doctor Wu, all calling him Godfather.
Wu Heng, hearing this, grabbed the little white snake, which had been acting coy in front of He Yunxiao. “I keep my word, this is your new territory, go mark it.”
To spirit snakes, the water in newly dug wells wasn’t as clear and refreshing as ancient wells. It wasn’t as appealing.
Wu Heng added, “This well cost over two hundred thousand yuan per square meter, do you know what that means?”
The little white snake’s eyes lit up. ‘Unlimited Orleans flavored chicken wings for life!’
“Whoosh—” The little white snake jumped into the well, swimming in the water, rubbing against the well walls to mark its territory. ‘Haha, now I’m a snake with property in Beijing!
At that moment, Wu Heng’s words “Xi Xi is a young lady from Beijing” became a reality!
After the little white snake finished marking its territory, Wu Heng wrote a talisman on the well’s edge. Barring unforeseen circumstances, no unclean things would emerge from this well, and with proper care, it might even gain spiritual energy.
“Doctor Wu Heng, we’ve prepared the joss paper you asked for. Is this for the Hungry Ghost Festival?” Li Hao, seeing the well ceremony completed, beamed and quickly instructed the servants to bring the joss paper.
Having watched Wu Heng’s live stream with Wang Qiang yesterday, they had bought the traditional yellow paper.
Wu Heng nodded and had them sit at the stone table in the courtyard. “Let’s fold joss paper ingots. Also, start a live stream for my daily check-in.”
He Yunxiao and the others vaguely remembered the custom of folding joss paper ingots during festivals in southern China, but they didn’t have this tradition and didn’t understand Wu Heng’s intention.
[Is the streamer teaching us how to fold ingots today? I just bought some joss paper today, the yellow kind.]
[There’s actually special paper for folding ingots, but seeing the streamer use joss paper, I’ll use it too.]
Folding joss paper ingots wasn’t difficult. Wu Heng gave a brief demonstration, and the seven or eight young men started folding.
“You’re folding it wrong, these two corners should be in opposite directions, I’ll teach you.” Wu Heng, seeing Shi Xuan’s half-finished ingot, reached out, held his fingers, and showed him again.
Shi Xuan nodded. “I understand.”
Li Hao, watching this, almost burst out laughing.
Hahaha, Shi Xuan was the top student in their grade, known for his quick learning, wasn’t he? How could he be so stupid as to not even know how to fold a simple ingot, needing to be taught twice?
As Li Hao was laughing, he turned and saw He Yunxiao, holding the little gray snake, looking at him like he was an idiot.
He Yunxiao looked at Li Hao and his friends with smug disdain. As expected, his status in Doctor Wu’s heart was special, so those guys didn’t understand the deeper meaning, hahaha.
[That gloomy guy seems quite clever, how can he not even know this? I learned it just by watching through the screen.]
[Classic clueless straight guy comment.]
[It doesn’t seem that different from the ingots we usually fold.]
“Done, looks quite similar,” He Yunxiao said, placing his finished ingot next to Wu Heng’s sample for comparison.
Li Hao, his friends, and Shi Xuan also placed their finished ingots on the table. Since there wasn’t much technical difficulty, theirs looked almost identical to Wu Heng’s.
Wu Heng, however, picked up the one folded by Shi Xuan, taking a closer look.
The quality and appearance of the folded ingots were important.
Ingots folded by ordinary people only had the shape, burning to ashes and sent to the underworld. The better the quality, the higher the exchange rate in the underworld.
Wu Heng observed that the ingots folded by Li Hao and his friends only had the shape, without the added Yin energy of underworld currency. He Yunxiao’s was slightly better, probably due to having a spirit snake daughter.
But Shi Xuan’s—
The quality and appearance were exceptional, almost indistinguishable from Wu Heng’s sample.
If there were any spirits present, they would be drooling over these two ingots. Just these two alone could be worth a whole pile of useless joss paper burnt by ordinary people!
He was a shaman doctor from ancient times, his skills were naturally different, but Shi Xuan…
Wu Heng played with the ingot folded by Shi Xuan, a thoughtful expression on his face.
Every patient he had consulted online recently had some connection to Shi Xuan. He had just seen the spider on Shi Xuan’s leg, and the spider silk from the patient’s belly button at the tertiary hospital might have come from that spider.
Perhaps it was just a coincidence.
Wu Heng looked at Shi Xuan again. The young man had sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, his gaze as cold as a winter pond, yet warming slightly when he met his eyes.
He still couldn’t see through him, his life or death a mystery.
Everyone else was an open book to him, only Shi Xuan was an abyss.
Wu Heng took out his phone and looked at the photos netizens posted in the online forum of their folded ingots. Occasionally, there were a few useful ones like He Yunxiao’s, the rest were just waste paper. After all, few people in this world could access underworld currency.
Wu Heng put down the ingot. “Fold more, I’ll need them for the Hungry Ghost Festival.”
Shi Xuan suddenly asked, “Who’s the best in your opinion?”
Wu Heng was taken aback. Was there even a ranking for folding ingots?
Li Hao and his friends understood. As expected of the top student, always wanting to be number one.
Wu Heng answered honestly, “You.”
The corners of Shi Xuan’s lips curled up slightly.
The friend with green hair leaned closer and asked, “What about us?”
Wu Heng: “Those at the bottom aren’t ranked.”
The friend with yellow hair looked at He Yunxiao, then at Li Hao, and said teasingly, “Doctor Wu Heng, are these for that girl with the extra two ounces of flesh you connected with earlier?”
“You said some administrators can’t manage such a large live stream, our Brother Hao has experience in managing people.”
Alarm bells went off in He Yunxiao’s head. These latecomers were trying to steal his position as administrator! Damn it!
He Yunxiao, while folding ingots, said with a sneer, “My daughter is Doctor Wu Heng’s only goddaughter.”
Li Hao and his friends were momentarily speechless, then, glancing at the nearby well, they regained their confidence. Having connections was great, wasn’t it? He Yunxiao would soon learn his lesson.
Wu Heng took out a paper shovel and a creased joss paper bill, the two he snatched from the Yin messenger, unfolded the shovel, refolded the paper into two gold ingots, and casually tossed them into the pile Shi Xuan had folded.
“That’s enough,” Wu Heng said, looking at the sky. “I still have someone to meet. Close the live stream for me after the one-hour check-in.”
Li Hao and his friends were now engrossed in folding ingots, thinking of Wang Qiang’s awful parents, they said, “You go ahead, Doctor Wu, we’ll continue folding and burn some for our ancestors. I suspect they weren’t very helpful when we were crawling around like snakes last time.”
He Yunxiao looked at the time. “I should go back now.”
Li Hao and Wang Dong each placed a hand on He Yunxiao’s shoulder. “Stay a bit longer, Young Master He, what’s the rush?” Was this the time for him to be in a hurry?
They had to let He Yunxiao witness Wu Heng returning to Nan Nuo village through this well, so he would cry his eyes out, hahaha.
He Yunxiao was confused and continued folding ingots.
Wu Heng got into Shi Xuan’s car, a quick calculation confirming the location of the bridge where Chen Zhao was.
Shi Xuan parked the sports car outside, and Wu Heng, not letting him follow, walked across the grass, used the vines, and jumped down into the space under the bridge.
Chen Zhao was startled, then, seeing that it was Wu Heng, he checked the time, feeling slightly disappointed. “It hasn’t even been eighteen hours yet.”
It seemed he wouldn’t be able to collect the locker fee, how disappointing.
Then he realized, “Wait, weren’t you still in your hometown yesterday? How did you get here so fast?”
Wu Heng said, “Haven’t you ever taken a plane?”
Although he hadn’t either, it didn’t stop him from saying so.
Chen Zhao exclaimed, “Do I look like someone who can afford a plane?”
He then took out the ball of spider silk from his backpack and tossed it to Wu Heng. “What do you need this for?”
Wu Heng pulled at the incredibly fine, elastic thread.
“Spider silk born from Yin energy makes the best suture, someone will need it.”
Chen Zhao wasn’t interested, asking, “I heard a big shot in Beijing is ill and has invited renowned doctors for consultations. Are you going?”
Wu Heng countered, “Were you invited?”
Chen Zhao shook his head, then excitedly held up five fingers, whispering, “Of course not, I’m going as an apprentice, to make up the numbers. They’ll pay me five hundred yuan.”
This was extra income, he wouldn’t have to share it with his master.
Hearing this, Wu Heng turned and left the bridge without hesitation, swinging back up using the vines.
Shi Xuan opened the car door for him, sat in the driver’s seat, one hand on the steering wheel, and asked casually, “Going to Li Hao’s place or mine?”
“Either is fine.”
Wu Heng didn’t care which well he used to return to Nan Nuo village, the destination was the same.
“Li Hao’s place is a bit far, mine is on the way,” Shi Xuan said, driving towards his house.
He Yunxiao had already folded over a hundred ingots, his fingers starting to ache. “I’m leaving, what are you guys even doing?”
Li Hao and his friends, looking at the sky, wondered why Wu Heng hadn’t arrived yet.
Wang Dong went to the well and shouted, “Doctor Wu?”
He Yunxiao, thinking they were crazy, left while they weren’t paying attention.
In the dim twilight, Li Hao and his friends sat at the stone table, looking at the pile of ingots, and shivered.
Li Hao said, trying to sound confident, “He, he must be busy, he’ll definitely use our well to go back after he’s done. Let’s wait a bit longer.”
Who would choose that dilapidated place when they had a new house? This was normal thinking, right?
Besides, hadn’t Wu Heng agreed to use their well when they asked him about it before?
The group of young men waited by the well, and waited, and waited. Who knew Wu Heng was so sentimental!
Wu Heng received a WeChat message the next morning, a voice message from Li Hao.
The voice on the other end was almost choked with tears. “Doctor Wu Heng, have you ever experienced waiting from dusk till dawn?”
