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  At night, Cha Wenbin and I went up to the grave mountain. He was looking at the stars, and I was accompanying him. The two women stayed behind to watch the house. To be honest, I felt uncomfortable all over my body when I lived in Lao Guan's house. This dead person's house always made me feel eerie, especially with a strong incense smell inside. The big gate had been closed for a hundred days, and as soon as someone went in, they would shiver all over.

  On the grave, I was smoking, Wen Bin was using a compass to adjust the degree, observing the stars is a meticulous task, I'm too rough to see it. At that time of year, the weather had reached its best, with no clouds and countless stars in the sky, looking at the stars in this desolate wilderness wasn't a bad thing after all. I poured myself a drink and said: "Wen Bin, there's something I've been holding back for a long time, tonight I really can't hold it back anymore, just give me an answer."

  He didn't turn around, but said softly: "What did you say?"

  "I'll just say it straight out: 'Those two little girls, we're not fools either, which one are you planning to take?'"

  He said, "You're thinking too much." This sentence made me feel uncomfortable, but I'm not the emperor, so why should I be anxious? You've been hiding for a long time, and that's not a big deal. So I decided to make something happen today, and said: "You're not young anymore, don't delay the girl's life, okay? In the past, it was possible to marry both, but now there's a policy, only one is allowed. If I had to say, if we compare, Xiaobai is definitely better - she's a returnee from studying abroad, her family background, character, knowledge, and appearance are all impeccable. But you're just a country bumpkin, and that girl, Jinfei, has a kind heart, is down-to-earth, and since she doesn't have parents, marrying her would be a good match."

  He turned back and gave me a white eye, laughing: "You've analyzed it thoroughly, so why don't you go get married? You're not young anymore."

  "This has nothing to do with me, the two girls have taken a liking to you, Cha Wenbin, old man Cha. I'm still wondering, in terms of looks and conditions, you're not better than me anywhere, so why did they all take a liking to you, such a sour, stubborn and emotionless country bumpkin."

  Cha Wenbin said: "I'm reading the stars, if you disturb me again, go down the mountain first, I'm busy here and can't be distracted."

  He always finds some excuse, well then I'll see how long you can hide.

  The astronomical phenomenon has been noticed by people all over the world for a long time, and our ancestors are no exception. They found that the Big Dipper revolves around the North Star, making one circle in a year, with tiny changes in its position every day, but the amplitude is very small. The change of the Big Dipper in nine days is the minimum limit that can be seen by the naked eye. Therefore, the Mao Shan sect has a technique called "Nine Days Observation of the Stars", where nine days form a cycle. They will use a compass to lock onto the coordinates on the ground and then continuously observe the changes in the position of the stars for nine consecutive days.

  Anyone with some knowledge of astronomy knows that the displacement of the Big Dipper is caused by the Earth's rotation, and the change in the Earth's position creates an illusion of a change in the position of the Big Dipper. As the Earth rotates to different positions, the local biological magnetic field, or the direction of the vital energy flow, also changes. The human body is affected by this, and at different times, the brightness of each star in the Big Dipper appears different. This indeed has a scientific basis, and our ancestors did not do things that were all about deceiving people.

  The ancestors of the Mao Shan sect used stargazing and the seven passes corresponding to the ground to infer the direction of the vital energy at a certain place. Later, it came to Tian Zheng Yi Mai, and Ling Zhengyang even created a book called "Tian Yan Ju Tong Ze", which has a total of 181 kinds of seven-star and seven-pass combinations. This is also one of the founding techniques of the Tian Zheng Dao that can be used for traveling in the Jianghu.

  In the view of Cha Wenbin, stars such as Greedy Wolf and Giant Gate start bright but end dark; Lucky Store, Literary Curve, and Honest Integrity start dark but end bright; Military Curve and Broken Army start bright but end. Then, Cloudy Valley is placed in Qian position, Shang Yang is placed in Xun position, Purple Morning is placed in Li position, Heavenly Sunshine is placed in Zhen position, Jade Mansion is placed in Gen position, and Taoyou is placed in Kan position. Like a formula, he calculates the changes of star positions and brightness differences, and can accurately calculate the original position of this grave within nine days.

  It's actually quite hard work, first you have to guarantee that the starry sky is clear for nine days in a row, if it rains or is cloudy on one of those days, then it's all for nothing. So finding a suitable location for a tomb usually requires a lot of time and effort, ordinary people don't have the energy or wealth to do this, mostly only high-ranking officials would hire someone to find a good spot.

  Don't think that a Taoist can make a living by just burning incense and farming at home. Even buying incense is not enough, let alone for scattered Taoists like Cha Wenbin who don't have people giving them incense money on their own initiative. They mainly rely on traveling outside to do business. If they run into a big household that believes in them and lets them find a place, then in the past, they would give out hundreds of taels of silver as an offering. So this line of work is also considered half a year without opening for business, and when it does open, it's enough to make a living for a year.

  It's the season for plum rain in western Zhejiang, and the weather is changing rapidly. Cha Wenbin also tried his luck, made a mark, knew today's location and went down the mountain with me.

  Shang'an village is not like Hongcun, at night every household closes their doors, there are few people moving around in the village, and by 10 o'clock it's usually quiet in rural areas. To get to Lao Guan's house, you have to pass through a willow forest, which we used to call "Willow Nest" when we were young. Along the riverbank, there are about thirty or so willows with stone bases. These willows are all very old, some of their trunks are hollow and rotten, and some roots were washed away by floods, leaving only half remaining. The most abundant thing on these trees is cicadas. In the past, we kids would also come here to pick up cicada shells and exchange them for sugar at the supply and marketing cooperative.

  There are many sayings about this place, which is nothing more than that the forest is haunted. To be honest, that place is a big turn, originally it's a shaded area, plus these trees make it even bigger, so it's often not seen in light all year round.

  When I and Zhang Wenbin walked through this pagoda forest, we encountered a bit of a situation. What was it? We saw someone who was sleeping on a branch, but he was blurry and couldn't be seen clearly.

  That day I had a flashlight in my hand, and from far away it was swaying back and forth. It seemed to be about 30 meters away, and on the tree there appeared to be a white thing. The person had just come down from the grave, and suddenly he came over to me, and naturally my heart skipped a beat. I hastily pulled Zhang Wenbin and said: "Old Zhang, there's someone up there."

  Cha Wenbin stopped in his tracks, and following the direction of my flashlight, he also saw it. To be honest, at such a distance, it's not easy to judge, Cha Wenbin just said: "Don't mind him, whoever wants to stay can stay."

  I was just about to leave when I added another sentence: "Could it be a ghost?"

  "It's just a ghost, it won't bother you, what are you afraid of?" Zhang Wenbin pulled me and said: "Go away, let's pretend we didn't see anything."

  I quickly changed places with him, walking to the inside and letting him walk on the outside. When we reached that thicket, I still couldn't help but take a peek. The man's upper body was mostly blocked by the leaves, and I couldn't see clearly. Usually when encountering this kind of thing, Cha Wenbin would pretend not to have seen it. But that day, as if by coincidence, when we reached that place, there was a hole on the ground, and Cha Wenbin stepped into it with one foot and twisted his ankle, letting out a pained "Ah yo!"

  The two of them had no choice but to stop immediately, and as soon as they did, the guy in the tree also came down. Taking a look, it was a middle-aged man wearing a white shirt. My heart, which had been hanging in suspense for half a day, finally let out a sigh of relief at seeing that it was just a person.

  "Are you okay?" "I'm fine." Zha Wenbin rubbed his legs and was about to get up and leave, when the man in the white shirt arrived beside us. I turned my head to look at him, and this guy was even wearing a straw hat! Since he's here, we should exchange greetings, so I said: "Big brother, enjoying the cool breeze?" I thought to myself, is this person crazy? It's scorching hot outside, what kind of cool breeze can you find under a tree by the river?

  But unexpectedly, the guy said: "I live here, this is my home."

  "Good," I sized up that big tree and said to him: "Your house is pretty good, one day when I'm free I'll come visit."

  The man also politely said: "Welcome."

  Zha Wenbin grabbed my shoulder and said, "Let's go, what's the point of talking?" I gave that guy a hand gesture and supported Zha Wenbin, who was limping, as we walked towards Pang's house. On the way, he said to me, "You're quite bold, daring to strike up a conversation with anyone anywhere, aren't you afraid they might be ghosts?"

  "I explained: 'That's not a person, I just turned on the flashlight and he has a shadow...'"

  "Is that so?" Wen Bin said with a cold smile, "Alright, tomorrow when I'm free, I'll take you to his house and let's see what kind of person he is."

  When he said that, I suddenly got goosebumps all over: "What do you mean?"

  He glared at me and said, "I don't know whether to say your eyes are good or you're blind. Have you ever seen people moving but the shadows on the ground aren't?"

  "That......" I clearly saw that guy had a shadow, didn't I?

  "Ah, that's not its shadow, it's the tree's shadow, reflecting on the ground and looking like a person. You, when walking at night, remember to be careful and don't talk to strangers easily. If you don't go tomorrow, he'll definitely come find you, believe me?"

  I spat out my tongue and stopped talking, pushed open the old Guan's house gate and took a look inside, it was pitch black, I muttered another sentence: "These two women didn't sleep, don't know if they're waiting for us to come back."

  I was about to move forward when Cha Wenbin pulled me and said, "Something's not right. When I walked by earlier, the gate of this courtyard was clearly locked from the inside. Besides, if they're asleep, they should have closed the door for sure. If they haven't slept and left the door open for us, then the lights should be on. It's unlikely that those two would dare to grope in the dark."

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