Chapter 168: Orange Tree
The Daoist Temple was about to end business operations, and Yan Wentao planned to pack up his things and go with Auntie to check the situation.
In the end, Auntie shook her head and said, “Not today, it’s too late. Daoist Master, is tomorrow daytime okay?”
Yan Wentao naturally said it was no problem, but he was just puzzled since she had said she had nightmares every night, and he thought she would hope to resolve it as soon as possible.
Auntie seemed to see Yan Wentao’s doubt, and the next sentence explained, “My son doesn’t really like me doing this stuff. He’s coming home for dinner tonight, and if we run into him, he’ll definitely get angry.”
It wasn’t just that he didn’t like it much; actually, her son had repeatedly forbidden her from finding people to perform religious ceremonies anymore, and even said she was superstitious.
But she had no choice; she couldn’t sleep through the whole night like this—how could that go on forever? She could only secretly seek solutions.
After knowing the situation, Yan Wentao nodded to show understanding.
He quickly made an agreement with Auntie for the time tomorrow afternoon, and the two sides exchanged contact information.
At this point, Xuan Xia and Yan Wentao finally knew that Auntie was actually surnamed Feng.
Before leaving, Yan Wentao gave Auntie a Daoist amulet and told her to carry it with her.
In the evening, Yan Wentao mentioned Auntie Feng’s matter to Daoist Master Qin.
Daoist Master Qin asked for the address, but Yan Wentao could only give a rough location; Auntie Feng hadn’t specified more, just saying to contact by phone tomorrow.
Daoist Master Qin nodded and thoughtfully said, “It’s pretty far over there. You’re not familiar with the transportation here yet, so tomorrow have Li Xinze take you.”
“Okay, good.” Yan Wentao was touched.
Yan Wentao had originally planned to go find Auntie Feng after lunch at noon, but he received her call early in the morning.
Auntie Feng was extremely excited on the phone; the last bit of doubt she had held toward Yan Wentao had completely dissipated after one night.
It was just because the talisman Yan Wentao gave her was really effective!
At this moment, Yan Wentao was already Auntie Feng’s lifesaver, and Auntie Feng asked when he could arrive at her house. If possible, she hoped he could come right away.
Yan Wentao discussed it with Daoist Master Qin, and after getting his agreement, he advanced the departure time.
Just as he was about to get in the car, Xuan Xia followed over too.
“Boss, you’re going too?” Yan Wentao asked curiously.
Xuan Xia got in the car first, then poked her head out to answer him, “Don’t feel any psychological burden. I just think you’re not familiar with Ningzhou, so I’ll keep you company and go with you to take a look.”
She originally didn’t have to go, but the talisman Yan Wentao gave Auntie Feng yesterday was one she had drawn. So didn’t she have to go see what was up?
Li Xinze overheard and secretly found it amusing; she didn’t seem familiar with Ningzhou either, did she?
But since she wanted to go, Li Xinze naturally had no objection.
Who would dare to object?
Yan Wentao thought to himself that he didn’t have any psychological burden either; he was just a bit flattered.
A car sent and someone to accompany him—the treatment was even better than at Qinghui Temple.
……
Following the navigation, Xuan Xia and the others finally found Auntie Feng’s house.
Auntie Feng’s house was in the south of Ningzhou, almost out of the urban area.
The houses in this area were all self-built houses, so every household had built their homes quite uniquely.
Auntie Feng’s home was a three-story small building with front and back yards, plus an outer wall; from the outside, it looked very much like a standalone villa.
Upon learning that Yan Wentao was almost there, Auntie Feng had been waiting at the door early, her expression unable to hide her anxiety.
When Yan Wentao got out of the car, Auntie Feng hurried over a few steps, “Daoist Master Yan, you’ve finally come!”
While Yan Wentao and Auntie Feng were greeting each other, Xuan Xia said to Li Xinze, “You go back first; we’ll make our own way back when we’re done.”
Li Xinze said, “It’s far from here, and transportation back isn’t convenient.”
Xuan Xia said, “It’s fine; worst case we take a taxi. You should go back and help Daoist Master Qin.”
Xuan Xia had seen Yan Wentao’s workload these past few days; with him away today, she worried Daoist Master Qin would be too busy, so she wanted Li Xinze to return quickly to help.
Li Xinze thought about it and said no more, following Xuan Xia’s arrangement.
After Li Xinze drove away, Xuan Xia looked over at Yan Wentao; Auntie Feng was about to lead him inside.
Yan Wentao wasn’t in a hurry to go in; instead, he first checked the terrain and feng shui around the house.
Xuan Xia walked over, and Yan Wentao had pretty much finished looking; he said nothing, just asked Auntie Feng to take him inside to see the feng shui layout.
Auntie Feng immediately welcomed the two into the yard.
The yard at the entrance had flowers and plants, and the environment looked nice.
Yan Wentao looked around and nodded, then went into the house to check the layout.
Auntie Feng hadn’t been able to say much outside before, but now that they were in her own home, she could finally speak, eagerly saying, “Daoist Master Yan, the talisman you gave me is really effective!”
As she spoke, she took out the talisman; the cinnabar script on the talisman paper had faded, leaving only gray marks—it could no longer be used.
After the two looked at the consumed talisman, Yan Wentao asked Auntie Feng, “Did you dream of your daughter-in-law again last night?”
“Yeah, still that ghostly appearance.” Auntie Feng said with lingering fear, “Luckily Daoist Master Yan, you told me to carry the talisman with me; I even took it to bed. This time when she tried to scare me, the talisman got hot and woke me up with the heat.”
When she woke up, the amulet still had residual heat; Auntie Feng took it out and looked, and her mood was extremely excited at the time.
If her son hadn’t been sleeping at home last night, she would have called Daoist Master Yan right after waking up; she barely waited until her son left in the morning and called right away.
Auntie Feng added, “I even dozed off a bit after daybreak, and this time I didn’t dream of her again.”
Yan Wentao nodded, his line of sight scanning the indoor layout.
Xuan Xia also looked around; she wasn’t yet proficient in feng shui layouts, and looking at the house’s layout now, she couldn’t spot any issues.
But just feeling-wise, as soon as she entered this house, she didn’t feel very comfortable.
While Auntie Feng wasn’t paying attention, Xuan Xia exchanged a glance with Yan Wentao and quietly said, “Have you spotted the problem? I just feel like the house isn’t very comfortable.”
Yan Wentao shook his head at her; he couldn’t explain in detail, but his feeling was the same as Xuan Xia’s—an indescribable discomfort.
But he hadn’t finished checking the indoor layout yet, so Yan Wentao couldn’t make a judgment and asked Auntie Feng to continue showing them other areas.
Auntie Feng naturally agreed.
She took the two through all three floors up and down, except for her son’s bedroom.
“My son doesn’t like people entering his room; even if I go in without touching anything, he can tell, so I won’t take you in, Daoist Master Yan.” Auntie Feng explained.
“No problem.” Yan Wentao replied.
As they spoke, the three passed by the window at the stairwell, and Yan Wentao suddenly stopped, looking toward the backyard through the window.
The backyard had been turned into half vegetable garden and half orchard; the vegetable side had a loofah trellis and a few patches of leafy greens. The orchard side had several different fruit trees, including orange trees and loquat trees.
But……
Yan Wentao said, “Believer Feng, the orange tree in your house hasn’t been taken care of well this year.”
Auntie Feng looked along Yan Wentao’s line of sight and said indifferently, “The orange tree is just like that—one year good, one year bad. Last year it bore a lot of fruit, this year it’s all wilted. My son takes great care of it every time he comes back, but it just won’t thrive.”
Yan Wentao pondered for a moment, “To be frank, the fruit trees in the backyard aren’t planted very well.”
Auntie Feng jumped up at once upon hearing this, “Ah? What do you mean, Master!”
Yan Wentao: “…”
Auntie Feng reacted and immediately corrected herself, “Oh, no, I mean Daoist Master.”
“Block the wind and gather vitality.” Xuan Xia provided the explanation from the side.
But Auntie Feng didn’t understand; she only got “gather vitality” and strangely asked Xuan Xia, “But isn’t gathering vitality supposed to be good? Isn’t it all about storing wind and gathering vitality?”
Xuan Xia smiled and continued explaining, “Storing wind and gathering vitality is about storing auspicious wind and wealth vitality indoors, but the backyard layout isn’t great, especially those fruit trees—they block auspicious wind but easily gather evil vitality, so it’s not good.”
Auntie Feng at least understood “evil vitality” and quickly asked, “Then what should we do? Do we need to remove those trees?”
Yan Wentao said, “No need to rush; let’s go to the backyard and take a look first.”
“Oh, oh.”
Auntie Feng led the two to the backyard again.
At this time, the sun had already climbed high, and the summer heat was rising with it.
But in Auntie Feng’s backyard, the summer heat wasn’t strong, and it was especially quiet.
There were a few old trees clearly outside the house and yard walls, yet no bird calls, not even cicada chirps could be heard.
It was like……dead silence.
In short, not normal.
Xuan Xia casually asked Auntie Feng as if chatting, “Auntie Feng, it’s pretty quiet here; does someone usually catch cicadas?”
“Catch cicadas? No.” Auntie Feng wondered why she asked that.
But thinking about it, this summer had indeed been quite quiet; it wasn’t like previous years.
Xuan Xia said “oh” and said no more.
After a short walk, the three arrived in front of the orange tree.
Yan Wentao carefully examined the half-dead-looking orange tree, and as time passed, his brows slowly furrowed.
Auntie Feng had been watching his expression and, seeing his face grow increasingly grim, couldn’t help asking, “Daoist Master, what’s wrong? Is this tree really bad?”
If it was really bad, then it needed to be dealt with.
But thinking of how carefully her son tended to this tree, Auntie Feng couldn’t help sighing, muttering to herself, “It’s a shame my son put so much heart into this tree; if we remove it, he probably won’t agree.”
“Your son really does care about it.” Xuan Xia chimed in, pointing at the soil under the orange tree, “He loosens the soil from time to time?”
The new and old soil was too obvious.
Auntie Feng said she wasn’t very clear; her son came to tend to it from time to time but never needed her help.
At this point, Xuan Xia leaned close to Yan Wentao and asked him, “Have you figured anything out?”
Yan Wentao said in a low voice, “I have a bad feeling; it might be related to this tree.”
Xuan Xia felt the same, so she actively said next, “Then let me give it a try.”
With that, she pulled a talisman from her pocket.
