Named Chen Jianfan

When Gai Jiuyou arrived, he was wearing a straw hat and simple, heavily patched cloth clothes. He looked to be in his early fifties. In his left hand, he held a feng shui compass, and in his right, he carried a canvas sign hanging from a bamboo stick that read: “Fortune Telling and Divination, Geomancy and House Reading.” At a glance, he dressed exactly like a traveling feng shui master.

“This child’s fate is not meant to end here. If he is poisoned to death, wouldn’t that be a shame?” he shouted loudly from outside the door.

My father was startled, spilling the medicine all over the ground, and hurriedly invited Gai Jiuyou inside.

Strangely enough, as soon as Gai Jiuyou appeared, the foxes lurking around the yard instantly scattered and fled in terror. The screeching and chirping noises vanished, and the heavy, anxious feeling in my parents’ hearts completely dissipated.

“Master, though I am just a mountain hunter and haven’t read many books, I still understand what a heaven-forsaken fate means,” my father said. “As the saying goes, Heaven never seals off all exits. But once Heaven blocks the path completely, a person has no chance to live. I only chose this path because I had no other choice.”

Gai Jiuyou smiled and said, “The green dragon-shaped aura helped the baby be born early, which already changed half his fate. How can we give up halfway? Let me tell you, this baby’s fate is incredibly tough. Heaven cannot destroy him, and demons cannot kill him either. The Chen family ancestors did good deeds and accumulated virtue, so your lineage will absolutely not end here.”

My father’s eyes instantly lit up, as if he had finally found a glimmer of hope.

Gai Jiuyou turned to my father and mother and continued, “I need to borrow a strand of the child’s hair to go up Qinglong Mountain and slay the fox demon. A fox demon dares to haunt humans—where is the justice of the Heavenly Dao? We can’t let a mere fox turn the world upside down. Once I prove my strength, I will take this boy as my disciple.”

“No… no,” my father said quickly, worried that Gai Jiuyou would meet a terrible end. “Four feng shui masters came before and also wanted to take the baby as a disciple. They all died mysteriously… and you still want to take him? Besides, that… that fox can stand up and talk like a human.”

“That’s right,” my mother added specially. “That white fox said it wanted our baby to be its son-in-law! It haunted us multiple times and even left a jade pendant as a betrothal gift.”

In truth, the moment my parents saw my master, they doubted his abilities.

After all, his presence and demeanor were worlds apart from the four great feng shui masters who came before. Those four had been dressed in luxurious clothing, looking incredibly wealthy and dignified, like grandmasters who had seen the world. But my master looked like the kind of low-profile, ordinary person who would be mistaken for a fraud if thrown into a crowd.

Gai Jiuyou smiled disdainfully. “Zhuge Half-Immortal and those other three were just frauds seeking fame. How can they be compared to me? Just do as I ask. If I die, it has nothing to do with you. Just consider it as me being buried alongside the baby.”

Only later did I learn that Gai Jiuyou was a feng shui master far superior to the four great masters from the provincial capital. His abilities were beyond anyone’s imagination.

He then looked at my mother and said, “That fox demon doesn’t have the ability to speak yet. It merely released some evil aura to delude your senses, making you think it was speaking. It was nothing more than an illusion and a blinding trick.”

Since things had already reached this point, my father decided to treat a dead horse as if it were alive. He quickly cut a lock of my hair. Fearing for Gai Jiuyou’s safety, my father even fetched his shotgun and wood-chopping knife, intending to go up the mountain with him.

Gai Jiuyou flatly refused my father. He only asked my father to prepare a simple meal and give him five yuan, saying this was his rule for doing business.

In his words, since I hadn’t officially bonded with him yet, the rules could not be broken, so he would only take five yuan.

Doubts rose in my father’s heart again, but on second thought, even if the man was a liar, it was only a meal and five yuan. He could afford to bite the bullet.

In reality, my master wasn’t lying. When he saw poor people suffering, he would step in to save them and charge only five yuan. As for the rich and powerful, his price would be an astronomical figure, and it would still depend entirely on his mood.

Soon, Gai Jiuyou went up Qinglong Mountain all by himself. That midnight, thunder cracked and lightning flashed across the mountain, lasting the entire night. Strangely, it wasn’t long before my body temperature returned to normal. I could cry loudly again and began drinking milk with all my might.

My mother was overjoyed and said we had met a living deity who saves the poor and suffering. She even said that if he couldn’t make it down from the mountain, they would set up a memorial tablet for the old gentleman.

Just when my parents thought Gai Jiuyou might have died on the mountain, he returned to the village two days later in the morning. He looked completely pale, and he tossed a white fox tail right in front of my parents.

“A mere old fox demon dares to covet the destiny of the Azure Dragon’s Son. I cut off one of its tails, so it won’t dare to offend again,” Gai Jiuyou said calmly. “As for its daughter whom it wants to marry to the baby, she must protect the child for eighteen years to make up for their crimes.”

He then asked, “By the way, does the baby have a formal name?”

“Gousheng. Chen Gousheng!” my father said with a simple, honest smile. “A humble name makes a child easier to raise.”

Gai Jiuyou laughed and said, “Gousheng can only be his childhood nickname. I will name him Chen Jianfan. As the disciple of Gai Jiuyou, he will be a grandmaster standing at the peak of feng shui in the future. He must have a resounding name.”

My parents were deeply grateful and treated Gai Jiuyou to a grand feast.

After three rounds of drinks and finishing the food, the heavy stone in my father’s heart finally dropped. He gathered his courage and asked, “Master, what exactly is going on with the strange things happening to the baby?”

My master was naturally free-spirited and easygoing, and he quickly became good friends with my father. He replied, “It’s a long story. Let me make it short—Qinglong Mountain has a massive history.”

My father was in high spirits and chimed in, “I’ve heard that there are immortals on Qinglong Mountain, but I’ve never seen one!”

My master took a sip of wine and continued, “Brother, listen to me slowly. We have to start from the time of the Tang Dynasty.”

Hearing this, my father hurriedly told my mother to hold me close so we could all listen together.

My mother smiled and said, “Gousheng is still so small, what can he understand?”

My father replied, “Let him listen early, consider it an early education.”

My master said, “Back then, the Tang Dynasty’s Imperial Chancellor, Yuan Tiangang, was ordered to sever eighty-eight dragon veins across the land to protect the Tang Dynasty’s rule. However, he left three intact. One allowed Wu Zhao to replace the Li family and become Empress Wu Zetian. Another gave rise to Huang Chao, whose army clad in golden armor overthrew the Tang Dynasty. As for the last remaining dragon vein, it lies right inside Qinglong Mountain.”

My master took another sip of wine:

“Legend also says that right after the feng shui master Lai Buyi finished writing the Qingwu Xu, it was taken away by a white ape who served as a messenger under the Emperor of Nanhua. A hundred years later, it was passed down to Liu Bowen. Liu Bowen used it to assist Zhu Chongba in establishing his empire. After obtaining the Qingwu Xu, Liu Bowen combined it with his own years of insights and wrote the Feng Shui Yin Yang Jing. After Liu Bowen died, the book was taken away by the white ape again, and it is hidden deep within Qinglong Mountain.”

This whole explanation completely dumbfounded my parents.

Severing dragon veins, secret feng shui manuals, grandmasters… having lived near Qinglong Mountain for so many years, they had never heard these rumors.

Strangely enough, cradled in my mother’s arms, I actually let out a silly giggle.

My mother blinked and asked, “This sounds like a play. What does all of this have to do with our Gousheng?”