Lang Jiuchuan chose a piece of camphor wood roughly a foot in length. It was not large, so she carried it herself. She also asked the shop owner what the woman before her had purchased.

The shop owner, surnamed Cheng, heard the question and let out a long sigh. “Her? She ordered a large piece of willow wood — for a coffin. I am having it sent over to the Feng Family coffin shop. That Song Family young madam is a pitiable soul. She has extraordinary embroidery skills. She once completed an embroidery of Guanyin in the double-sided technique — said to be so lifelike and suffused with compassionate spirit and divine aura that a noble family presented it to the palace, where it is kept enshrined.”

Owner Cheng sighed again and continued. “A woman of her talent could sustain herself entirely on her needlework, and she used it to put a candidate for the imperial examinations through his studies. She was on the verge of becoming an examination official’s wife and finally enjoying some peace — and then, without warning, misfortune struck. The candidate died. From that point on, every manner of bad luck found its way to her. Her husband gone, her parents-in-law gone, even the cat she kept at home did not escape. She has been like a star of solitary calamity, and now even her daughter is nearly at death’s door.”

He let out another sigh. “Wait — that is odd. If that is the case, the willow wood coffin they are making is large enough for a grown adult.”

A cold feeling crept through Lang Jiuchuan’s heart.

An adult-sized coffin. With such overwhelming death energy on her, and her daughter nearly gone — could she be planning for mother and daughter to share a single coffin?

Lang Jiuchuan asked nothing further. She walked out with the timber in her arms. Fu Qi said with a frown, “That malicious spirit following that young woman just now — could it be the very cause of all the deaths in her family?”

“There is no karmic debt of harming living souls upon him. But as for the Song young madam’s appearance — her complexion is dark and without light. The shadow of disaster has gathered at her heavenly court, the star of misfortune has settled upon her, the inauspiciousness will not lift. She is fated to damage those closest to her first, then those around her. As that Owner Cheng said, her life was once smooth and prosperous — for things to change so suddenly points to something having been done to her fate.”

Fu Qi did not understand. Could someone truly alter another person’s fate?

Lang Jiuchuan explained what had once happened to Xue Shi.

Fu Qi drew a sharp breath. “You are saying someone exchanged her fate as well?”

“I do not know her birth chart, so I cannot say for certain. There may be other causes as well.” Lang Jiuchuan said evenly, “Whatever the truth is, I must wait until she comes to me of her own accord before I can help.”

“You do not intend to seek her out and help her yourself?”

Lang Jiuchuan shook her head. “I have already pointed her toward the path of hope — that single thread of possibility. Whether she can grasp it depends entirely on her own choice. If she cannot, then it is the will of heaven. Medicine cannot save the one fated to die; the Buddha’s mercy reaches only those with the right affinity. The Dao is the same.”

Song Yuedie’s mother returned to her small courtyard with a box of confections from Sufang Studio. She unlocked the door, and a difficult-to-name smell immediately met her — she seemed not to notice it, walking directly to the bedside. She stood there for a moment, then reached out with a trembling hand to lift the blanket.

Beneath it, a girl of no more than five or six years, all skin and bone, was bound at the wrists and ankles by chains. Suddenly flooded with light, she looked up. Her throat released a hoarse, wretched sound, and she began to wail.

Song Yuedie’s mother felt tears well up at once and swiftly wiped them away. “Little Butterfly, Mother brought you pastries from Sufang Studio — the snow flower cake you love most.”

She pulled the cloth from the child’s mouth. The child cried out at once, “Hateful woman! Let me go! You weren’t satisfied with destroying my father and grandparents — now you want to destroy me too? Everyone is dead and you’re still alive — why don’t you go and die! Go and die—”

Her mother clamped a hand over her mouth. The child bit down with all her might until blood ran freely.

“Soon, Little Butterfly, just a little longer. We will go together, mother and daughter.” Song Yuedie’s mother murmured the words as though she felt no pain at all.

Song Yuedie went suddenly still. The frantic light faded from her eyes, clarity returning. She released her grip and called out softly, “Mother.”

Her mother threw herself forward, gathering the child into her arms, pressing kiss after kiss to her face. “Mother is here. Mother is right here.”

“Mother, my head hurts so much.”

The woman stiffened. She leaned forward to look — and let out a startled cry, collapsing to the ground. Her hand seized the dagger beneath the bed. Tears dripped down one after another.

Myriad Affairs Shop — where a lady’s troubles may be resolved.

All at once, those cool and quiet words resounded again in her mind.

Myriad Affairs Shop… Myriad Affairs Shop…

At that moment, Lang Jiuchuan had already arrived at Tongtian Pavilion, and she was now seated in a private room under the contemptuous gaze of A’Piao.

Before A’Piao had even asked what had brought her, Lang Jiuchuan made a sweeping gesture and announced, “Come — say hello to Manager A’Piao.”

Fu Qi materialized before A’Piao in all his vivid presence. The latter took one look at the armored figure and the dense, overwhelming killing energy that wreathed him, and remarked, “Where did you dig up a ghost general like this?”

He was no match for Lord Zhong, the ghost general serving the main master — but that ferocious killing energy had already fully condensed into something formidable. Given proper cultivation, this could become an extraordinarily fierce ghost general.

Lang Jiuchuan gave A’Piao a brief account of Fu Qi’s origins, then concluded, “The matter is now resolved, and he has latched on to me. He has no wish to reincarnate and intends to remain in the mortal world, so I must find a place for him. It is not that I wish to put him to labor — it is simply that, seeing how Tongtian Pavilion has apparently made you look down on my little shop, and since he has nothing to do, I thought to have him do the same kind of trade as… the same occupation as you.”

A’Piao’s eyes widened.

What do you mean, the same kind of “trade?”

He was a fully proper, eight-facets-of-grace, highly accomplished head manager.

“Look at that overwhelming killing energy of his — it has fully taken shape. With something that fierce sitting in the shop, are you certain it will attract customers, rather than frighten them all away?” A’Piao said, a twitch in his expression.

Lang Jiuchuan replied, “I will stamp a soul seal on him to keep it in check. On top of that, reading some Daoist and Buddhist scriptures daily will cultivate the mind and settle the spirit. Most importantly, you can teach him to cultivate the Ghost Path — then he will be able to master that killing energy himself. A touch of fierceness is no bad thing, actually. It will simply add to the sense that my Myriad Affairs Shop is something out of the ordinary.”

“Ha! Enjoy losing money then!” A’Piao laughed coldly.

Fu Qi’s brow creased slightly. He had always been called the White-Faced General — a scholarly commander. Was he truly so frightening?

The thought came out before he could stop it.

“You consumed living souls and bred resentment within you, which has transformed into killing energy — it is a ferocity of the spirit, not of the face,” said Lang Jiuchuan. “It is a quality — a fierce and sharp one — that makes ghosts and people alike instinctively recoil the moment they perceive it.”

Fu Qi fell silent for a moment, then pointed at A’Piao and said, “But he does not fear me.”

A’Piao laughed outright. “You want me to fear you? Come back after another hundred years of cultivation.”

Lang Jiuchuan immediately put in, “Do not underestimate him. He is my ghost, and will be nourished by my soul incense. Given proper cultivation, you may not necessarily be his match.”

A’Piao stared. “!”

Was this boasting — or payback for his past impudence?

“Very well then — let him cultivate. I’ll watch to see just how impressive he becomes.” He shot a sidelong look at Fu Qi, and the spark behind his eyes crackled with competitive fire.

“Then give him the Ghost Path cultivation method and take him through the basics.”

A’Piao slapped the table and shot to his feet. “And why would I? Am I training a disciple just so he can come back and beat me? Do you think I am foolish? Besides, there hasn’t even been a formal apprenticeship ceremony.”

Fu Qi dropped to one knee. “Fu Qi pays his respects to Master!”

A’Piao stared. “……”

When, exactly, had he agreed to become anyone’s master? This person had wasted no time — the very first lesson learned was to follow bad examples, and he had already mastered the art of shamelessness.