I was so scared that I was about to scream, but I heard Luo Tianbao calmly say outside the house: "All things have spirits, so why be surprised? No one here will hurt you, so why are you afraid ?"

Strangely enough, after hearing his indifferent words, my panicked mood immediately calmed down.

And when I was no longer afraid, the paper man no longer showed any abnormalities.

Maybe it was just my illusion.

After I dressed the two paper figures, I returned to the mourning hall . Luo Tianbao asked, "You don't have any cardiovascular disease, do you?"

"No." I felt a little nervous when I answered.

"What you're about to do is called sū tíng chú, which means kowtowing to the colored statue. This is a funeral prayer ritual and the only available means of atonement."

"How many times should I kowtow?" I asked.

"I don't know. There's no time limit for counting the days. It all depends on how long you can persist. The longer you do it, the better the effect. However, this prayer ritual isn't suitable for cardiovascular patients or those with high blood pressure. As long as you don't have these conditions, you can count the days."

"As long as Dad is alright, I'm willing to have my head broken off."

Luo Tianbao nodded and said, "It's easy to say, but it's really hard to do. But you have to remember that the effect of the compensation is proportional to how long you persist. The longer the time and the more uncomfortable your body is, the better the effect."

"I know it was me who caused the trouble, so I must make up for it." I said firmly.

Luo Tianbao didn't say anything, just patted me on the shoulder and left.

I was the only one left in the huge ancestral hall, and the atmosphere inside was a bit eerie . I wasn't very brave, but I could only grit my teeth and endure it. So I knelt on the cushion in front of the colorful statue and began to kowtow.

I didn't feel anything at first, but after more than ten minutes I felt uncomfortable, especially my waist felt more and more tired, and my knees began to hurt after kneeling for a long time. But thinking that this could solve my father's troubles, I gritted my teeth and held on. So I even used the strength of my hands. When I stood up, I used my arms to push up my body instead of using the strength of my waist.

I kept exerting force on all parts of my body, and I don't know how long I kept knocking. In the end, I really couldn't hold on any longer, especially my arms, which were so weak that I almost fell to the ground.

I was so exhausted that my saliva and snot were all over the floor. You can see how miserable I was.

Later, because I was so exhausted, I fell asleep on the ground. When Luo Tianbao woke me up, my muscles ached as if they were being cut by a knife. I struggled to get up but I had no strength at all.

He helped me up and said, "It should be effective at this point."

"I hope so. I really couldn't take it anymore yesterday. I was actually planning to keep doing it all night."

"Well, it's not easy for you either. Take a hot bath first to relieve your fatigue."

The place where he took me to take a hot bath was very strange. It was not the bathhouse at home , but in a woodshed. In the middle of the woodshed stood a large clay pot almost as tall as a person. It was steaming and filled with hot water.

After Luo Tianbao went out and closed the door of the woodshed, I took off my clothes with difficulty and saw a bruise on my knee, which was swollen like a steamed bun. The slightest touch made me grimace in pain.

Holding the edge of the tub, I struggled to get into the water. The hot water didn't give my sore muscles any sense of relief. It was like thousands of tiny thorns piercing my flesh. These patches of "pain points" produced a pain that was worse than death. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even scream. I opened my mouth for a long time, but could only gasp for air.

However, as my body gradually adapted to the water temperature, the stinging sensation gradually disappeared. I waited until the water temperature was no longer suitable for bathing before I got out of the tank. However, as soon as my legs stepped on the ground, I felt a loss of feeling in my knees. I fell to the ground with a thud. My bruised knees were now swollen like buckets, and the surface of my skin was stretched to the point of being transparent, even emitting a layer of dark light.

Then I remembered the common sense I learned in junior high school: hot compresses should never be applied to swollen parts of the body, otherwise the blood circulation will increase the swelling.

It seems that Luo Tianbao is quite capable but does not know basic common sense. I was also tricked by him and wanted to cry. I crawled to the door and wiped my body with a towel with difficulty. I could only put on my clothes, but there was no way to put on my pants.

I had no choice but to call for help. Luo Tianbao didn't seem to have left. He pushed the door open and went into the woodshed. Seeing me lying on the ground, he didn't feel much sympathy. He just said lightly, "Have you finished your bath?"

"My legs are so swollen that I can't walk." I said with a grin.

"Oh." He responded indifferently, then brought me a bath towel for me to wrap my naked body, and then asked the villagers to carry me on a stretcher to a room in an unknown house. After resting for a day, the swelling in my legs disappeared. After I got out of bed, dressed and left the room, I saw Luo Tianbao sitting in the living room.

"Is this your home?" I asked, looking at the luxuriously decorated living room.

"Yes, I must have entertained you," he said.

"What else do you need me to do?"

"No need for that. Uncle and aunt's birthplace has been reburied."

"So my dad's luck can change?"

"It's unlikely that you can change your luck. Just stop having any more bad luck. But there's no way to fix this. You're definitely going to be unlucky. Yesterday, I made you soak in hot water, which prevented you from walking. My purpose was to keep you home for a day. Staying home is the easiest way to dispel the bad luck. I hope it works."

"Brother, what kind of bad luck will happen to me?" I asked worriedly.

"You've broken the tomb of a living being. This is called breaking the Dao, or inviting evil spirits. The consequences of provoking evil spirits can be serious or minor. Biting your tongue could be retribution, or even sudden death . It's hard to say."

The more I listened, the more worried I became. "So, my whole life is going to be wasted on this?"

"Of course not. You stay in my room for the next few days. When the time comes, I'll take you to break the evil spirit."

"How do you calculate this timing?"

"It depends on your luck, but don't worry, I can definitely break the evil spirit you have attracted." After saying that, he patted my shoulder.

After returning to the room, I found that everything in the room had been specially treated. The bed had round edges, the large cabinet had no glass mirrors, and there was a blanket on the floor.

In short, there are no sharp corners, hard wood, or sharp objects in this room. It must be a specially made room, which makes me feel relieved.

Three days passed in this small room. On the evening of the fourth day, Luo Tianbao came in and said, "It's almost done."

"What happened?" I asked curiously.

"I heard this morning that Second Uncle's investigation has concluded. Fortunately, you haven't had any quality disputes since you started working on the project, and the quality is also very good. So someone spoke up for Second Uncle, and the result was a serious warning within the Party and a demotion of one level."

I didn't feel any better after hearing the result, because although I kept my job, my dad's path to promotion was over, and all this was just the result of me crushing a bunch of tributes.

This is the misfortune caused by ignorance.

Luo Tianbao said: "You have also overcome your calamity."

"Really? I haven't had any bad luck in the past few days. I haven't even bitten my tongue."

"You can't do business anymore. Losing money is a disaster," he said.

I slapped my head and said, "If I forget about this, will I be safe from now on?"

"You can't be indifferent. You still need to break the evil spirit. But you are lucky. You have a ready-made method to break the evil spirit. This can be considered a change of luck. Otherwise, if you use martial arts to break the evil spirit, you will suffer a great loss."

"Oh, so what method do we use?"

"Come with me, and you'll know when you get there."

This time we were not in Longhua Village. Luo Tianbao drove me to a nearby village. The village was at the foot of Bat Mountain. The area near the mountain was under construction and was surrounded by a circle of dark blue aluminum plates.

Our car stopped in an area shaded by trees. It was dark at this time and the forest was pitch black. With the help of the car lights, we could see that a piece of land had been dug up in the middle of the woods. In the pit was a large stone coffin . It had no lid and was completely empty.

Luo Tianbao pointed at the stone coffin and said, "This is your evil-breaking place."

I asked curiously, "A stone coffin can also ward off evil spirits? What should I do?"

"If you take off all your clothes and go in there naked and spend the night, the curse will be broken."

I didn't expect Luo Tianbao's method of breaking the evil spirit to be so strange. I said, "It's October now. Even if I break the evil spirit by sleeping naked in a coffin, I'll still be frozen to death by tomorrow."

"You have already started to change your luck. It is absolutely impossible for you to freeze to death." Luo Tianbao said affirmatively.