The geomancer, seeing that Old Master Zhao still didn’t believe him, was almost moved to tears: “Just trust me, stop digging! Otherwise, it won’t bring any good to you or the entire Xiushan Village!”
Old Master Zhao remained unconvinced: “No way. I must dig it out today and see whether you’re telling the truth or not.”
“Fine, go ahead and dig. Anyway, whether it brings blessings or misfortune is your affair, nothing to do with me. At most, I’ll just give up this business with you.” Helplessly, the geomancer angrily warned, “Remember, dig three feet down and you’ll see a stone—it looks exactly like a coffin, brown in color. But at that point, once you see the coffin lid, you absolutely must stop digging. Otherwise, this site will truly be ruined. Then, not only will you receive no blessings, but your descendants will suffer disgrace and die violent deaths. This isn’t a joke.”
Old Master Zhao pretended not to hear, replying dismissively, “Is that so? I’ll just take a look. It probably won’t ruin anything.”
The geomancer sneered, “Believe it or not. Also, once this ‘stone coffin’ is disturbed, three curses will follow: first, the spiritual energy will escape, causing tremors in the earth and shaking the mountains. The coffin will appear amid flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. Second, the mountain will collapse, the stone coffin crushing everything below, and floods will sweep through the village in midsummer. Third, three months later, a boy will be born in the lower village, only to drown three days later.”
Without even collecting his payment for the hard work, the geomancer turned and headed down the mountain without looking back.
This action genuinely frightened Old Master Zhao. Thinking that the geomancer had even left without taking his money, could it be that the stone coffin really lay just beneath his hoe? If this really was the birthplace of the stone coffin, then digging it up would indeed ruin everything. It seemed the geomancer truly had some skill and wasn’t just someone who had grown up drinking plain boiled water.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, he suddenly felt a chill. Immediately, he hurriedly refilled the pit he had dug, covering it with some dry grass and branches to prevent villagers from discovering and sabotaging it. He had, in fact, gained a priceless treasure without spending a penny.
As the saying goes, joy lifts the spirit and makes one’s steps light. Upon returning home, Old Master Zhao was overjoyed, imagining how he had found such an extraordinary site. After his death, wouldn’t he go straight to paradise? He was so delighted that he couldn’t stop grinning. Unfortunately, his expression was spotted by his son, the grandfather of Zhao Shan. Curious, the son asked, “Dad, what’s got you so happy?”
Unable to contain his joy, Zhao whispered mysteriously to his son, “Son, I’ve just had a geomancer inspect a blessed plot of land behind the mountain at Sisheng Ridge. From now on, your fortunes will rise.”
“Really? Sisheng Ridge is said to have a good site, but no one’s ever found it. Which geomancer did you consult? Can he be trusted?” the son asked doubtfully.
“Absolutely reliable. But whatever you do, don’t tell anyone—not even our own family. If the secret spreads and someone ruins it, we’re finished.” Having said that, he detailed the entire process of his consultation with the geomancer to his son.
The son was overjoyed but failed to keep the secret as promised. He excitedly shared the news with his wife, assuming she, being his partner, wouldn’t cause any trouble.
However, the wife couldn’t keep the secret either. She didn’t spread it to outsiders, but she told her own family—whom she considered not outsiders. Within her family, though, there was a younger brother notorious for his loose tongue. She had overlooked this. The talkative brother couldn’t resist sharing the news and treated it like a Taiping rebel’s slogan: “Hey everyone! My sister’s family has found a blessed plot of land!”
Soon enough, the news that Old Master Zhao had discovered a “blessed plot” spread throughout Xiushan Village. Everyone rushed to Sisheng Ridge to see what all the fuss was about. Fortunately for Zhao, thanks to his cunning, the site had been carefully concealed, so everyone left disappointed.
But life is full of unexpected twists. What’s not yours will never be yours. There was a homeless vagrant in the village named Youzi. Besides stealing chickens and ducks and occasionally harassing innocent women, Youzi enjoyed doing senseless harm just to draw attention to himself. Though his actions were despicable, he didn’t care. Once, he even carved a hole in a huge pumpkin growing in someone’s field just out of boredom—and then, to top it off, he defecated inside it. Can you imagine anything more infuriating? Such a notorious prankster couldn’t possibly miss the chance to exploit the news of the blessed plot.
Without hesitation, he grabbed a hoe and sneaked off to Sisheng Ridge.
“I don’t believe they couldn’t find it! Old Zhao must have left some mark!” he thought. Unfortunately, things are always easier said than done. Youzi spent the entire day combing the ridge thoroughly, just like the villagers, but found nothing.
“Could it be fake news? Who the hell made this up? Wasted my whole day for nothing.”
As night fell, Youzi, exhausted, threw down his hoe and lay on the ground, ready to give up.
But just as he was about to give up entirely, he noticed something. Not far from him, some branches were scattered carelessly. In a mountain village, such branches were quite common—people used firewood, and these might have been cut and left to dry. Because of their ordinariness, they had likely been overlooked during the search.
A thought struck Youzi: “Could Old Zhao have covered the site with these branches?” Immediately, he jumped up and rushed over, tossing the branches aside.
Once the branches were cleared, disturbed earth appeared before his eyes. Driven by instinct, Youzi felt certain he had found the blessed site. Thrilled, he grabbed his hoe and started digging. Soon, a brown stone resembling a coffin lid appeared at his feet.
“My God! It really looks exactly like it! I’m rich!” Without hesitation, Youzi dropped the hoe and ran straight to Old Master Zhao’s house.
When Zhao learned that the secret of the “coffin land” had been exposed, he was furious beyond words. He summoned his son and scolded him harshly, blaming him for his failure.
Zhao angrily said, “You couldn’t even keep such a trivial matter to yourself! Now the secret’s out, your wife betrayed us. If the ‘coffin land’ is discovered, it’s all over.”
The son, unable to deny it, returned home and vented his anger on his wife: “You stupid woman! I told you not to say anything, but you just wouldn’t listen! Now your family can’t control their tongues, and the whole world knows! Do you want to ruin our entire family? Why did I ever marry such a disobedient woman!”
Though she had been “given away like spilled water,” the wife couldn’t bear such humiliation. In tears, she secretly jumped into the village pond when no one was looking. Fortunately, a passing neighbor noticed in time and rescued her, preventing a tragedy. The situation had escalated far beyond what anyone had anticipated.
Zhao thought to himself, “This daughter-in-law really is something. Was it really so bad, just a few scoldings? Did she have to make such a scene and let outsiders laugh at us? At least I had hidden the blessed plot well enough that no one found it. Otherwise, we’d have lost both face and fortune. No, I must go back to Sisheng Ridge and reinforce the site—just in case. No more mistakes!”
With that, Zhao put on his coat and quietly headed toward the land that would one day be his eternal resting place.
“Old Zhao, where are you rushing off to in such a hurry? It’s already dark!” Just halfway up the hill, Zhao ran into the vagrant Youzi coming down the mountain. Without a doubt, he guessed Youzi had also been searching for his blessed plot like the villagers.
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