I didn't expect Lao Niu to actually go behind my back and ask the landlord for money. I immediately got angry and said, "Boss Niu, this is probably against the rules. We signed an agreement, and you're going around asking the landlord for money without me?"

"You subcontracted this job to me, so of course I won't break the rules. I won't take a penny less from you. I'm also worried about the money, otherwise I definitely wouldn't do this. Boss Yu, please forgive me."

At this point, I knew the matter was a done deal and Lao Niu couldn't withdraw, so I said, "Okay, I can't cut off someone's financial resources. I don't want the money anymore. It's all yours."

"Boss Yu, please don't be offended. Everyone has urgent matters. Can I consider this money as a loan from you?"

I waved my hands and said, "I'm really not angry with you. Just take the money. It's yours." Then I left.

The next morning, Li Zhao called and asked, "Are you crazy? The project is going to be finished in two days, and you're giving in now?"

"Isn't that your cousin? I don't want to make money from your relatives."

"These are two different things. He built the house to make money, but we earned our money through hard work."

"Forget it, we really didn't do anything, why do we have to go in and share a cup?"

"I said, are you hiding something from me? What's going on?"

"The feng shui of Sanfen Lane might be problematic. My second brother told me not to make money there."

"Is there something wrong with the Feng Shui? Are you still drunk?"

I became a little impatient and said, "If you don't believe me even if I tell you, why bother asking?"

"It's not that I don't believe it, but what do you mean by feng shui being problematic?"

"If I knew, I would tell you. Anyway, I don't want to go to that alley anymore."

Li Zhao couldn't resist me, so he had to agree with my decision. I put the matter aside for the time being. During this time, I took on two more renovation projects. In October of that year, Li Zhao and I were having lunch at a small restaurant after collecting part of the project payment. He received a call from his cousin. After answering the call, he said to me with a serious expression, "Xiao Jing called to say there were problems with the project quality."

I was overwhelmed when I heard this and asked, "Is the house going to collapse?"

"That's not the case, but the four wooden pillars that hold the second floor in place are cracking badly. I estimate they'll collapse before next year."

"Let him find Lao Niu about this matter."

"The problem is that we took the job, so he must have contacted us."

I sighed and said, "I knew something was going to go wrong. Fortunately, I didn't make any money, otherwise God knows what kind of trouble I would have encountered." After paying the bill, we took a taxi to Sanfen Alley. At Xiaojing's house, we saw that the four large pillars at the four corners of the house were covered with cracks on the surface, like broken but not shattered glass.

I pressed gently on the surface of the cylinder a few times and felt that the wood was still quite hard. The question is why did the wood crack inexplicably?

These woods were selected by Lao Niu and I because we were worried that the construction team would cheat. The four pillars are the hardest area in the middle part of the red pine tree trunk. With the hardness of red pine wood, it is more than enough to support this thin cement board. Did we get cheated by the person who sold us the wood?

I was racking my brains to figure out what might have gone wrong when I heard Xiao Jing say to Li Zhao, "It's not just my family; several other families are experiencing this problem. It's possible that several houses have collapsed."

I suddenly asked, "Did anything happen to House No. 37 later?"

"No, after the house collapsed, they didn't rebuild it. It just stayed there."

I didn't know what to do. "Where's Lao Niu? You should go find him."

"I wish I could find him. At first he would answer the phone, but later the calls became unresolved." Xiao Jing said this with an unhappy look on her face.

It seems I still need to find Luo Tianbao, so I said, "I'll go out and make a phone call."

When I got to the entrance of the alley, I called Luo Tianbao. After the call was connected, I told him about the new situation I had encountered. After listening to him for a moment, he said, "I can't handle this matter. I have to find someone else who can handle it."

"It's all good if you can help me with this. I'm just worried that if the pillar breaks, the whole floor will collapse and crush people."

"Don't worry, we won't stand idly by if you get into trouble." Luo Tianbao said.

After hanging up the phone, I walked around the entire alley and found that five families were in the same situation as Xiaojing's family. They were all worried. I knew the only thing I could do was wait, wait for people from my hometown to come.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, I received a call from Luo Tianbao, so I took a taxi to the bus station. I knew the person who came with him. He was his uncle, the seventh in the family, so I called him "Seventh Uncle".

Uncle Qi left a deep impression on me because he was very materialistic and always spoke to everyone with a smile, much like the owner of a small hotel in the old society. I never expected that he was actually such a capable person.

"Is business going well? The old man has been talking about you several times since you went back. If you are not busy, go back and see the old man." He said to me.

"Oh, I really don't know. I have to go back quickly."

"It's not a very urgent matter. It's not too late for you to arrange the work on hand first and then go back." He laughed.

With him around, the atmosphere was lively. We chatted all the way to Sanfen Lane. When we reached the entrance, he stopped talking. He put on his glasses and stood there motionless, as if in a trance. I don't know how much time passed. I almost fell asleep standing up before Uncle Qi said, "It's rare. It's really rare."

I approached him and asked, "Uncle Qi, what did you see?"

He pointed at the straight path at the entrance of the alley and asked, "What do you think is strange about this path?"

I looked carefully for a long time but couldn't see the reason. I said, "I don't see anything."

"Look at the layout between this intersection and the house. Isn't it very neat?"

"Yes, it is indeed very neat, but what does that prove?" I asked puzzledly.

"This alleyway looks so old, it must be an old building from before the liberation. It's a slum. Have you ever seen a slum that's so meticulously planned?"

The three most accurate words to describe a slum are "dirty, messy and poor". Although the houses in Sanfen Lane are old and dilapidated, they are indeed very neatly planned, which does not conform to the characteristics of a slum.

The houses were perfectly parallel and aligned, their angles even more aligned than the military honor guard's formation. Uncle Seven said, "This is a very obvious feng shui layout, called a piercing sword. This kind of layout is the most taboo in a Yang house, because both ends are transparent and unobstructed. Simply put, it's a layout that scatters wealth. Those who live here can't keep their wealth, so they are destined to remain poor."

This is the first time I heard that housing planning can affect the wealth of the people living there. I almost laughed out loud and thought Uncle Qi was so funny.

Although I have now completely accepted ghosts and strange things, it does not mean that I can accept all strange things. I think what Uncle Qi said is nonsense. Although I cannot understand a slum that is extremely neatly planned, it is definitely not the reason he said.

Uncle Qi, of course, didn't know what I was thinking. He asked me, " Where's that haunted house where you dug out the clay jar ? Take me there to see it."

So we went to the old house No. 37 again . The gate was not closed and the yard was full of various construction waste, which were dumped by other construction teams. I suddenly thought of Wang Ding who was possessed by a ghost. I don’t know how he is doing now.

Uncle Seven asked, "You said the clay jar was dug out from the northwest corner of the house?"

"Yes."

Uncle Seven walked from the garbage heap to the northwest corner of the house, took a closer look, and said, "The clay urn was buried there by the owner who once lived here. This is called raising a house ghost, and it's also a form of feng shui."

"What does it mean to keep a house ghost?" I asked.

"House ghosts are a Feng Shui secret technique. Raising them can protect the safety of your home. However, the methods used to raise house ghosts are extremely extreme, so no one would use them unless absolutely necessary."

Luo Tianbao added, "You said there were hand bones in the clay jar. This severed hand must have been cut off from the body of a relative, because house ghosts can only feed on the bodies or lives of family members."

I said, "Yes, this severed hand is said to belong to the former master's son. He cut off his right hand because of his gambling addiction."

"Once a rich person lives in a house with a sword-piercing structure, he will definitely raise a prodigal son. This is the impact of the feng shui of a house on the living." Uncle Seven said thoughtfully while pinching the few sparse hairs under his chin.