One divination a day, a trainee celestial master

The night was as dark as ink. In the master bedroom on the second floor of the Wang family's house in Lingxia Town.

The room was shrouded in heavy blackout curtains, letting in no moonlight. It was so quiet that the only sound was the ticking of the clock on the wall.

Wang Daqiang was fast asleep with his eyes tightly closed, his brows furrowed in a knot, and his forehead covered in a fine layer of cold sweat.

"Thump...thump...thump..." A dull, eerie sound suddenly rang out in the darkness.

The sound was like someone standing at the head of the bed, repeatedly banging their forehead against the cold wall.

Immediately afterward, in the intervals between the sounds of hitting the wall, a strange, suppressed laugh from a woman could be faintly heard. "Heh...heh heh..." The laughter was sharp and hollow, as if echoing right against his eardrums.

The sound grew closer and closer.

Wang Daqiang, who was asleep, felt an extremely dangerous chill and suddenly woke up.

I don't know when, but his sleeping position had changed from lying flat on his back to lying face down on the bed.

Her cheeks sank deep into the soft pillow, making even breathing extremely difficult.

Sleep paralysis!!

He was fully conscious and desperately tried to turn his neck, to move even a little finger, but all the muscles in his body seemed completely paralyzed and wouldn't obey his commands.

"Wake up... wake up now!" Wang Daqiang roared frantically in his mind.

But he couldn't move at all. His hands and feet felt like they weren't his own, he couldn't even lift his eyelids, and it felt like something was stuck in his throat, preventing him from making a single sound.

Just as he was struggling desperately, he felt an extremely thick shadow slowly pressing down on him from behind.

First his back, then his shoulders, and finally, that cold weight pressed firmly against the back of his neck, and kept pressing down!

A feeling of suffocation washed over him like a tidal wave. Wang Daqiang opened his mouth wide, but couldn't breathe in any oxygen. His heart was pounding wildly in his chest, but his blood felt like it was freezing.

Just when he felt he was about to suffocate,

"ah--!!"

Wang Daqiang finally let out a hoarse shout, and control of his body was forcibly taken back in an instant.

"Huff... huff..."

He sat bolt upright in bed, panting heavily. His pajamas were soaked with cold sweat.

"Snap—"

The blinding incandescent light overhead suddenly turned on, instantly dispelling the darkness and suffocating chill of the room.

"Qiangzi? What's wrong? Did you have another nightmare?"

The door to the master bedroom was pushed open, and Wang Xiaoyan, the wife, walked in quickly, wearing a silk nightgown.

She had just gotten up in the nursery next door to feed her one-year-old son when she heard her husband's heart-wrenching scream. She rushed over without even buttoning her coat.

Wang Daqiang and his wife have a daughter who is already in junior high school. But Wang Daqiang is a traditional businessman who has always wanted a son to carry on the family line.

Two years ago, Wang Xiaoyan finally became pregnant again and gave birth to a big, healthy boy. The whole Wang family was overjoyed, and the old mother even went to more than a dozen temples and Taoist monasteries to fulfill her vows.

It is precisely because their precious son is prone to waking up at night that the couple has been sleeping in separate rooms for a whole year so as not to disturb each other.

"It's nothing...it's nothing..." Wang Daqiang looked at his wife's concerned face, and after a long while, he slowly recovered from the immense fear. He wiped the cold sweat from his face, his voice still a little weak, "It was that dream again...that feeling of not being able to breathe again, it felt so real..."

"Hey, you must have taken on too many projects lately, the pressure is too much, and you've developed neurasthenia." Wang Xiaoyan walked to the bedside, took out two tissues to wipe the sweat from his forehead, and gently comforted him, "Go to the city tomorrow and find an old Chinese medicine doctor to prescribe some calming Chinese medicine to regulate your nerves. Don't always listen to your mother and believe in those superstitious things."

"Okay, I understand. You should go back and check on your son, don't wake him up." Wang Daqiang sighed and waved his hand.

"Okay, then you can sleep with the light on, don't be scared," Wang Xiaoyan instructed, before turning to go back to the next room.

The instant she turned around, her gaze unconsciously glanced towards the head of the bed.

There was a thorny cactus there, much larger than usual.

The cactus was placed in an extremely peculiar spot, right below the protruding load-bearing beam on the ceiling.

Under the glaring incandescent light, the dense, sharp shadows of the cactus were stretched long and eerie, like steel needles pointing straight at Wang Daqiang's pillow.

A flicker of guilt crossed Wang Xiaoyan's eyes. But it was only for a moment before she quickly looked away, strode out of the master bedroom, and closed the door behind her.

Wang Daqiang was left alone in the room again. His pajamas, soaked with cold sweat, clung to his body, making him feel stuffy. He stood up, walked to the window, and wanted to open it to let in some fresh air.

But as soon as his hand touched the window handle, he stopped. The windowsill was densely packed with several pots of excessively lush, unidentified green vines. These vines completely blocked most of the window.

My wife kept reminding me, "It's noisy outside. The baby has only just turned one year old and his respiratory system is very fragile. The streets outside are full of dust and car exhaust. Don't open the windows in this house. I bought these plants specifically to purify the air; they'll all die if the wind blows on them."

Wang Daqiang scratched his hair in frustration, but finally let go of the window handle with a sigh and walked back to the bed that made him feel suffocated.

It was another long and agonizing night. He gripped the sheets tightly, his pupils unfocused, staring blankly at the ceiling.

……

Early the next morning. In front of Daqiang Building Materials Supermarket.

Wang Daqiang, with darker circles under his eyes than yesterday, stood at the shop entrance looking utterly hopeless, while an old woman waited anxiously beside him.

Wang Daqiang was completely skeptical about his mother's insistence on hiring a young man to assess the feng shui of their home.

But he really had no other choice.

For the past two weeks, he has gone to the best hospital in the city for a brain CT scan, taken imported melatonin and strong sleeping pills, and even consulted a traditional Chinese medicine doctor for a bitter herbal decoction to calm his mind and promote sleep.

It's no use. Absolutely no use. As soon as I lie down on that bed, even if I take two sleeping pills, I'll still fall into that terrifying cycle of sleep paralysis.

If this continued, he felt that even if he wasn't killed by a ghost, he would die suddenly.

Modern medicine is completely helpless, so he can only try anything as a last resort, hoping that the "mystical" method his mother found might work.

At 8:50 a.m., a white BYD ride-hailing car slowly came to a stop in front of a building materials supermarket.

The old woman's eyes lit up, and she quickly tugged at Wang Daqiang's sleeve, leaning on her cane: "Qiangzi! Quick! The little Taoist master is here!"

The car door opened. A foot wearing clean black cloth shoes with white soles stepped onto the ground first.

Immediately afterwards, Jiang Shou climbed out of the car. Today, Jiang Shou could be described as completely transformed from head to toe.

He was wearing the high-quality blue Taoist robe left by the old man. The robe was made of excellent material, and it fluttered in the morning breeze, with the tai chi pattern on the cuffs and collar subtly reflecting light.

He held the antique-looking wooden compass in his left hand, while his right hand rested naturally behind his back.

Combined with his already handsome features, and a touch of "aloofness and vicissitude" from staying up all night drawing talismans, he truly exuded an air of otherworldly elegance as he stood there!

Wang Daqiang stared blankly at Jiang Shou in front of him. This was completely different from the young man in the Taoist temple yesterday, wearing a cheap T-shirt that cost only a few dozen yuan! This outfit, this demeanor, even those "feng shui masters" who frequently appear on TV would probably have to step back.

"This young driver Jiang... he actually seems to have some skills!" Wang Daqiang felt a glimmer of anticipation rising in his heart. After all, these days, anyone who dares to dress like this and openly take a ride-hailing car is either crazy or a truly capable expert.

The old woman, her face filled with sincerity and piety, quickly pulled Wang Daqiang forward to greet him: "Oh, little Taoist Master, you've come all this way so early in the morning, thank you for your trouble! Daqiang was tormented all night again, please take a look!"

Jiang Shou nodded slightly, holding the compass in his left hand and drawing his right hand from behind his back, naturally forming a Taoist finger gesture in front of his chest. His tone was calm and ethereal: "Amitabha. You're too kind, Granny. I've taken your money... cough, I've been entrusted with something, so I must be loyal to you."

He appeared calm and collected on the surface, with the air of a superior person.

But in reality, Jiang Shou was secretly pleased with himself: "It's all set! Just look at the fat boss's blank stare. This top-tier skin left by the old man is absolutely killer! It really proves the old saying, 'Clothes make the man, and gold makes the Buddha.' This kind of style is worth at least five thousand yuan in incense money!"