Chapter 63: Vast is the Sea of Life

Yang Rui hung up the phone and curled his lips. "Good tea? More like last year's stale tea dust." However, since his objective was achieved, he immediately hailed a taxi and headed straight for the address sent by Ms. Zhang—an old residential complex noticeably a tier lower than "Splendid Grandeur."

The Zhang family lived on the seventh floor, and there was no elevator. Panting slightly from the climb, Yang Rui knocked on the door and was greeted, as expected, by Ms. Zhang’s face, which was plastered with smiles yet exuded shrewdness. The interior decoration was brand new, but the materials and design carried a cheap feel, and the air still retained a mixed odor of inferior paint and glue.

"Master Yang, you've had a hard trip! Please come in! The place is small, so please don't mind!" Ms. Zhang greeted him enthusiastically, though her eyes subconsciously swept over the canvas bag Yang Rui was carrying, seemingly weighing the heft of his tools.

Too lazy for pleasantries, Yang Rui cut straight to the chase. "You're too kind, Ms. Zhang. Let's get down to business. Show me the floor plan, and tell me the birth dates of your family members."

Taking the floor plan, he noted down the Eight Characters of Ms. Zhang and her husband. Her husband was born in the Year of the Rat, 1972, the Year of Renzi. Yang Rui had a rough idea in his mind. The apartment faced slightly east, with a long and narrow layout, and both lighting and ventilation were mediocre. As usual, he first determined the orientation in the hallway.

Pulling out the quaint and heavy Sanhe luopan, Yang Rui skillfully leveled it, stabilized the magnetic needle, and rotated the outer disk to align with the heavenly center and the ten paths.

"Sitting on Mao and facing You, overlapping Jia and Geng by two parts," Yang Rui announced the orientation. In Period Eight, the Mao-mountain and You-facing layout is a declining-qi dwelling, characterized by mediocre fortune and even signs of decline, particularly unfavorable for middle-aged men. Hearing the words "declining qi," Ms. Zhang’s expression turned somewhat unappealing.

Entering the interior and placing the compass in the central palace, the qi field was indeed stagnant. Holding the luopan, Yang Rui began inspecting position by position. When he reached the master bedroom, his footsteps halted. The master bedroom was located in the northeast corner of the entire building, and the window directly faced the side wall of an old building, forming a cramped angle sha (malicious energy).

Holding his breath in concentration, he placed the compass again in the center of the master bedroom. The base plate was set firmly and level, and the magnetic needle returned to position after a slight tremor. He first looked at the inner layer of the twenty-four mountains, and the master bedroom fell into the Gen Palace. Then, his sharp gaze cast onto the dense scales and symbols on the outermost layer of the luopan—that was the territory of the seventy-two dragon fenjin and the one hundred and twenty fenjin.

The seventy-two dragon fenjin divides the 360-degree celestial circle into seventy-two equal parts, each part being 5 degrees, corresponding to the sixty Jiazi plus twelve specific "blank spaces," known as empty-death dragons or great empty-death dragons. It is one of the core layers in feng shui liqi used for precisely determining fenjin sitting degrees, judging the prosperity and decline of dragon veins, and the auspiciousness or inauspiciousness of sitting mountains, placing special emphasis on the relationships of generation and restriction with the sitting mountain and the destiny of the master.

Yang Rui's fingertips gently traced the rosewood disk surface, finally stopping where the cross-shaped heavenly center line pressed against the seventy-two dragon fenjin line on the outer disk. With a focused gaze, he whispered the fenjin incantation under his breath:

"Jiazi and Yichou are sea gold, Bingyin and Dingmao are furnace fire... Gengxu and Xinhai are hairpin gold..."

To his sight, the heavenly center line pressed precisely on the "Gengxu" fenjin line!

"Gengxu fire dragon..." Yang Rui frowned deeply. Among the seventy-two dragon fenjin, Gengxu belongs to the "fire" dragon. Meanwhile, the master of the house was born in the Renzi year, and his tonal five elements belong to "mulberry wood."

"Prosperous fire overcomes wood, an ominous sign!" Yang Rui thought to himself. "The Gengxu fire dragon sitting degree inherently carries a fiery nature, strongly suppressing the Gen Palace earth position to form fire generating earth, but overly fierce fire conversely scorches the vitality within the earth. More importantly, the fire dragon directly restricts the master's mulberry wood destiny! This is a sign of great inauspiciousness, predicting bodily harm to the master, stagnation in career, vulnerability to accidental bloodshed, and marital discord."

He looked closer at the tiny symbols beside the Gengxu fenjin line, which marked the positions of the "Yellow Springs Eight Sha" and "Robbery Sha." Unluckily, right beside the Gengxu line was engraved a small, malevolent sha symbol.

"Ms. Zhang," Yang Rui raised his head, his expression exceptionally solemn, "There is a major problem here in the master bedroom! The sitting degree falls on the ominous line of the Gengxu fire dragon, clashing with your husband's destiny of wood and fire, forming a restrictive assault. This is called 'sitting sha.' Furthermore, the wall-knife angle sha pointing straight through from outside the window adds insult to injury. Living here long-term, your husband will, at the very least, suffer frequent illnesses and loss of wealth, and at worst... I'm afraid there are accidental worries! Your marital relationship will also be severely affected."

Ms. Zhang’s face turned pale instantly, her previous shrewd calculations entirely replaced by fear. "Ah?! Master... Master Yang! What... what can be done about this? This bedroom can't be used? We... we just finished decorating, moving elsewhere is just too difficult!"

"Moving is the most thorough solution," Yang Rui sighed, knowing that making her launch a massive upheaval was impossible. "If it's truly impossible to change houses or alter the door orientation, we can only forcefully resolve it within the master bedroom." He pointed to the direction corresponding to the Gengxu fenjin line on the luopan. "We need to bury 'Six Emperor Coins' and 'Mount Taishan Stone Boldness' right here, using metal to drain the fire sha and earth to stabilize the palace position. The windowsill directly facing the sha direction must be hung with a consecrated 'convex Bagua mirror' plus 'Five Emperor Coins gourd' to reflect and contain the sha energy. In addition, the overall color scheme of the master bedroom must avoid fiery colors such as red, purple, and orange, and should instead use earthy color systems like light yellow and off-white, to drain fire and generate earth, indirectly nourishing your husband's wood destiny. A small pot of 'lucky bamboo' can be placed at the head of the bed to bridge with water and harmonize the dispute between wood and fire. Remember, these items must be consecrated, and their positions must be precise!"

Yang Rui explained with clear logic, combining luopan data, five elements generation and restriction, and form sha with liqi so seamlessly that Ms. Zhang had no choice but to believe him. Shocked to her core, she nodded repeatedly, completely losing any trace of her previous stinginess. She quickly took out a red envelope. Although its thickness fell far short of old Chen's, it was still much more "generous" than Yang Rui had anticipated.

"Master Yang, I leave everything in your hands! I will attend to all these things you mentioned immediately! Please accept this red envelope first, and once the negative energy is resolved, our whole family will visit in person to thank you properly!" Ms. Zhang's voice was slightly trembling.

Yang Rui pinched the red envelope, estimating it was enough for several meals, which made him feel quite satisfied. He put away the luopan, gave a few more instructions regarding the auspicious timing and precautions for placing the remedial objects, and then took his leave hastily. He needed to find a place to hole up before Su Jin potentially came to corner him in the "afternoon," or... bite the bullet and return to his stall to check out the situation.

Stepping out of the old residential complex, hit by the cold winter wind, Yang Rui instinctively wrapped his old cotton-padded jacket tighter around himself. Weighing the two red envelopes—one thick, the other thin—they felt just like the myriad walks of life in this "Cloth Metropolis." Having avoided the trouble of Su Jin and made a small profit, he should have felt relaxed, yet thinking of the ominous Gengxu fire dragon line in the Zhang family's master bedroom conflicting with the husband's wood destiny, his heart still felt somewhat heavy. Feng shui could be adjusted, but the destined constraints of human hearts and fate... He shook away these distracting thoughts and hailed a taxi. It was time to return to that tiny pugilistic world behind the thin iron shutter door, wondering if a storm was waiting for him right there.