Chapter 2

Before long, Lu Xiaoyu and Xu Miao chose to believe him.

“All right. But what if we don’t get the money?”

The Earth God snorted with laughter. “Then cut me down. I’ll die in her place.”

The words were so strange that a chill ran through everyone present.

With a few sentences, he had averted a murder in an abandoned wilderness temple and broken the trap that should have killed me.

Yet something still felt wrong.

I could not say what.

There was no pretending friendship between us now. Xu Miao silently packed their things, and they went down the mountain.

Only the Earth God and I remained.

“And you.”

His voice made me jump. “What?”

He stared at me, that unnervingly perfect smile still in place.

“What do you want?”

“I have what I wanted. I’m alive. Thank you, Earth God.”

“Not enough.”

At last, I realized what was wrong.

All this time, he had never opened his mouth to speak.

Grandmother had told me only ghosts could not open their mouths.

“Xiaochun, the Earth God isn’t a god. He’s a ghost.”

Only now did I remember those words.

4

That night, I fled the temple in terror.

Soon afterward, Lu Xiaoyu really did become rich.

His lottery ticket won ten million.

The stock he bought for five million soared, earning him another five million within hours.

Outside the bar that evening, he defended the mayor’s daughter from harassment and obtained her contact details.

As for Xu Miao, she met the handsome son of the city’s richest man on her morning jog. He fell in love at first sight. Naturally, they exchanged numbers.

At noon, she found a pet dog alone on the bridge. After reporting it to the police and contacting its owner, she received five million as a reward.

The woman for whom she called an ambulance that night was the wife of the city’s richest man. A timely call saved her from an asthma attack. The family was so pleased that they settled an engagement that very night.

In days, both lives changed beyond recognition. Others could only envy them.

Yet everything had come through “fate.” Nobody could find the slightest fault. People sighed over their own bad luck and how some were simply born to wealth.

Only I remained where I was, living an ordinary, unremarkable life. Four thousand yuan a month. Work, home, another day.

Lu Xiaoyu and I parted amicably.

He and Xu Miao parted amicably too.

Everyone wondered what had happened among us. We knew, and kept our mouths shut.

Nobody but me knew why they had become so lucky so quickly.

That night, the Earth God had asked me again what I wanted.

Not daring to look at him, I repeated my original answer.

He kept staring and asking, mechanically, over and over. Finally, I was frightened enough to run.

Now, lying in bed, I read reports of Xu Miao marrying a wealthy heir and Lu Xiaoyu marrying the mayor’s daughter. Both were worth tens of millions. I could not help reflecting on it.

Then an inexplicable shudder followed.

That smile had been terrifying. He had not looked as though he was helping them. He had looked as though he was waiting for them… to fulfill their wishes.

Easy to invite a god, hard to send him away.

What did he want from them in return?

I dared not gamble on the answer.

I lived honestly, followed the rules, and worked one step at a time.

Until, two months later, Lu Xiaoyu came to see me.

He stepped out of a luxury car. Xu Miao emerged too. Both glittered with expensive jewelry and a conspicuous air of distinction.

“Long time no see, Xiaochun!”

Xu Miao rushed over and took my arm, as though we were still inseparable friends.

“What do you want?” Frowning, I pulled free.

They exchanged a look. Lu Xiaoyu spoke first.

“There is something. You haven’t told anyone about the Earth God, have you?”

I shook my head. “Don’t worry. Not a word.”

They both relaxed at once.

Xu Miao smiled. “Good! But there’s something else.”

Lu Xiaoyu smiled too. “The Earth God says we must bring you back to the temple to give thanks.”

Those smiling faces sent a shock through me.

5

“I’m not going!”

I struggled and tore my hand away. “Go yourselves. I am absolutely not going!”

I backed away warily.

“When did you see him again?”

Xu Miao laughed, a trace of contempt in her voice.

“All right, stop pretending. We’re offering you a chance to get rich. Don’t act so coy about a good thing.”

Lu Xiaoyu was impatient too.

“Pack your things. We’re going tonight. Honestly, Xiaochun, can’t you recognize an opportunity? Do you know how rich we are? I’m so rich I can barely remember who you are.”

“If the Earth God hadn’t appeared to us both in a dream last night and told us to bring you to fulfill your vow, do you think this chance would come your way?”

I was about to refuse when I noticed their bodyguard in the car, watching me intently.

If I refused here, they might bundle me inside the next second.

I had no trouble believing they would.

Not long ago, they had conspired to kill me for five hundred thousand.

“All right. I’ll come. But I still have things to finish. Can you pick me up tonight?”

Relieved, they nodded repeatedly.

Xu Miao patted my shoulder. “Finally using your head. Ha!”

“Seven tonight,” Lu Xiaoyu said, waving. “We’ll pick you up.”

I nodded.

Seven, my ass. I bought a ticket for one in the afternoon and ran!

Perhaps they were too arrogant.

Perhaps they thought I could not be stupid enough to reject a chance at wealth twice.

They posted nobody to watch me.

By the time they came to my building, I was long gone.

On the regional train home, I watched the scenery race past, irritated and heavyhearted.

I had to go home. If even home could not save me, I would die.

If I could not send the Earth God away, I would die too.

Few people knew our village had another name.

Mountain Ghost Village.

The elders said it had been a gathering place for wandering spirits since ancient times. Ghosts great and small congregated there, forming a natural barrier.

Even the Earth God governing the district dared not enter casually.

As times changed, belief in the gods weakened.

Eventually, the Earth God’s place became vacant. An old ghost seized the opening.

Once inside the deity’s shell, it neither troubled people nor bestowed blessings. Its temper was peculiar.

It was so old nobody knew how many years had passed since its death.

Nobody knew what kind of ghost it was either.

The villagers therefore knew very little about this “Earth God,” except that it was strange. Yet in moments of peril, people still risked their lives to try their luck.

Now the old ghost seemed to have set its sights on me.

Invite the Earth God. Send away the old ghost.

That was our village’s unspoken tradition. I had to go home and complete the dismissal rite. Otherwise, the consequences would be grave.

My phone rang. A friend.

Without thinking, I answered.

An angry roar greeted me.

“Lin Senchun! You fucking lied to me!”

6

I hung up without another word.

Pressing a hand to my chest, I felt my heart hammer.

Once off the train, I took a taxi straight to the village.

Few households remained. Only scattered homes belonging to old people who refused to move.

The village lay desolate, full of dead branches and withered leaves. Here and there, new shoots offered a few pitiful spots of green.

Grandpa Feng sat alone beneath the great banyan at the entrance, smoking.

He stared, then recognized me.

“Xiaochun? What brings you home?”

I had not returned since Grandmother died.

My voice shook.

“I summoned the Earth God.”

His expression changed instantly. He sprang up and hurried me into the village ancestral hall.

It was dilapidated, unrepaired for years. Old growth choked the courtyard.

Limping, he pushed open the unsteady door. On the high altar stood no ancestral tablets, but a clay statue of the Earth God.

Incense ash covered the ground beneath it. Half-burned red candles leaned at crooked angles.

This Earth God was unlike the one I remembered from childhood.

It had eyes.

“Hurry! Why have you waited until now to send him away?”

From a drawer, Grandpa Feng urgently produced talisman papers, red candles, and a compass crowded with directions.

It was exquisitely made, covered in traditional characters and precisely divided bearings. But when he turned it over, I froze.

The Earth God’s face was carved on the back.

The dismissal rite was simple. I just did not know how to perform it.

Muttering an explanation, Grandpa Feng lit a red candle and set it in place. Then he lit a stick of incense and handed it to me.

“Hold the compass. Whichever way it points, kneel and kowtow once in that direction. Keep the incense in your hand and pray silently: ‘Please, Earth God, drive it away.’”

Then I understood.

Sending the “god” away simply meant asking the true Earth God to expel the thing that had usurped his place.

I followed his instructions.

When I opened my eyes, Grandpa Feng was staring in horror, his face distorted, his eyes wide.

Pointing at the altar statue, he staggered back.

“Heavens! The Earth God! Oh, no. This is bad. Very bad!”

I followed his finger.

Two pieces of stone lay on the table. The statue’s sockets were empty. Its eyes were gone.

It had become that other kind of “Earth God.”

Grandpa Feng shook his head in anguish.

“Rebellion! The old ghost is furious! It… it gouged out the Earth God’s eyes!”

Folklore said a district could worship only one true god.

That god would inhabit whichever statue received the most incense.

Here, that was naturally the ancestral hall.

So I had not summoned the true Earth God to help.

I had angered the other one.

“Xiaochun, you must not leave the village tonight. Find somewhere to hide!” Grandpa Feng shook his head. “Survive tonight and you’ll live. Tell nobody where you are. Choose a place nobody knows!”

Only then did I learn that when dismissal failed, you had to hide from the god.

But what did this Earth God want from me?

What did I have that it was determined to take?

My phone chimed.

A message from another friend.

Reading it made my hair stand on end.

【The Earth God says you must be at the temple at midnight. Don’t think of hiding. You can’t escape him.】

【You’re a fool. He’s offering you wealth. This is your last chance. Refuse, and enjoy being poor forever. He says he’ll give us every bit of luck and every opportunity you were destined to have!】

I knew at once that either Lu Xiaoyu or Xu Miao had sent it.

They were still gloating over their wealth, luck, and status.

They had no idea the Earth God beside them was nothing like the kindly, benevolent being they imagined.

Inside that shell lurked a cunning old ghost.

7

Night fell. Grandpa Feng had already gone home.