Fengmen Village: A Karmic Debt

“Fengmen Village…” Bai Wanwan murmured, her eyes fixed on the dossier retrieved from the Special Incident Investigation Bureau. Within its pages, details about the anomaly known as Fengmen Village were starkly recorded.

Unlike the death-trap Seam-Lip Clinic Bai Wanwan had previously encountered, Fengmen Village, this particular anomaly, presented a genuine opportunity for successful clearance.

The entity presiding over this anomaly did not appear to be an unreasonable presence. As long as one adhered strictly to the established rules, a successful passage remained a distinct possibility.

What struck Bai Wanwan as peculiar, however, was that the legends surrounding Fengmen Village had been widely discussed online for well over several decades.

Yet, the official discovery and intervention into Fengmen Village as an anomaly had only occurred in the most recent years.

****

“Master Bai,” a woman’s voice pleaded through the phone, “we are truly terrified. Please, help us. My son is the apple of our entire family’s eye. If anything happens to him, I have no intention of living either.”

“They all say you possess great power, capable of subduing spirits from afar,” she continued. “With enough compensation, you can even speak a good word for someone before King Yama himself.”

“We truly have no other options left,” she choked out. “We are willing to pay a million yuan! This is the life savings my husband and I have accumulated over half our lives.”

Listening to the woman’s hoarse voice on the other end of the line, Bai Wanwan felt a profound sense of helplessness.

‘Who on earth spread the rumor that I could speak to King Yama?’

“I can help you,” Bai Wanwan replied, her voice steady, “but your son’s situation appears to be far from optimistic. Even if I go, I might not be able to achieve a favorable outcome.”

“However, I will do my utmost. In the worst-case scenario… I might only be able to bring you back a corpse.”

Bai Wanwan sighed softly. She then asked the woman for the child’s birth details, performing a quick divination by counting on her fingers.

This child, naturally lively and restless—in essence, a mischievous ‘bear kid’—indeed had a tribulation marked in his destiny.

However, this particular tribulation had nothing to do with him personally; it was a karmic consequence sown by his parents.

In other words, the child had been born into the wrong family. He had reincarnated into this world specifically to use his fated tribulation to repay his parents’ karmic debts.

“Master Bai, please help us! You must have a way,” the woman implored, her voice growing more desperate. “That’s Fengmen Village, you know! In our hometown, terrifying legends about it have been passed down for generations…”

“Even the children sing that nursery rhyme…”

– “Fengmen Village, winding roads,”

– “Go inside, never come out~”

– “Quiet by day, noisy by night,”

– “Nannan hanged herself…”

The woman murmured a few lines of the nursery rhyme, innocent as a child’s song, but her voice cut off abruptly before she could finish.

“Hey, that’s unlucky,” she quickly added. “I won’t bring up any more taboos for you this late at night.”

The woman sighed softly, a clear indication that she understood the profound dangers within Fengmen Village, and the high probability that her son’s fate was grim.

From the noisy background on the phone, Bai Wanwan could distinctly hear several men sharply discussing something.

Only a few phrases could be made out vaguely amidst the indistinct chatter…

“We certainly wouldn’t dare go in; if you enter, you never come out.”

“Let this master try. If they’re alive, we want to see the person; if dead, we want to see the corpse.”

“Any family whose child dies in Fengmen Village—it’s unlucky, a curse on their descendants…”

This was likely a discussion between the family elders and the male members. Bai Wanwan surmised that the environment the woman lived in was, in all likelihood, intensely superstitious.

It was even the kind of superstition that could potentially bring harm to others!

Superstition, too, came in different forms. Mourning deceased relatives and believing one’s heartfelt wishes could be conveyed to them through incense offerings constituted one type of superstition.

Believing in human sacrifice, constantly resorting to live or blood sacrifices, and even using mystical pronouncements to control others’ thoughts and instill fear—this, too, was a form of superstition.

Yet, these two types of superstition were worlds apart in their essence…

The people on the other end of the line were, in all likelihood, adherents of the latter kind.

To be honest, Bai Wanwan hadn’t wanted to get involved in this matter. However, after reviewing the detailed information regarding Fengmen Village, she immediately changed her mind.

This was because she had noticed a stark difference: the data concerning the anomaly of Fengmen Village, as recorded by the Special Incident Investigation Bureau, was completely distinct from the urban legends circulating online.