Chapter 3: Qimen Prediction

  Luo Fei left and didn't go home, but instead rode his bike to the foot of a mountain near Shibaicun Village, where a blind man with the surname Su lived.

  Luo Fei has been crazy about Feng Shui since high school. Whenever he had nothing to do, he would hold a book related to Feng Shui in his hands and study it diligently. He thought that China's thousands of years of culture were truly amazing. So at that time, many people in the village called him "bookworm".

  In fact, Luo Fei's previous interest was just a simple hobby, but what really drove him crazy about this mysterious thing was actually due to Su Mangzi.

  According to his father, Su Mangzi was an extraordinary person. At the age of 10, he began studying physiognomy and by 20, he had mastered the I Ching and the Eight Trigrams. By 25, he had become a master at finding auspicious locations and never made a mistake. At 30, he became well-versed in the art of divination and from then on, traveled the world. Up until now, although he doesn't dare to boast about being able to see through heaven's secrets, he can confidently say that he is able to predict people's fortunes and misfortunes. For many years, he has helped people ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune, with very few failures, making him a man of great reputation and wealth. However, after growing old, his eyes suddenly lost their sight, and he had no choice but to return home in low spirits, relying on the help of a few younger relatives from his family. Later, after Luo Fei became acquainted with him, he would occasionally come over to help take care of him as well.

  After graduating from university, he didn't stay in the local city to develop his career and chose to come back because he couldn't abandon his crazy love for this field. He felt that there were still many things he needed to study deeply with him.

  He rushed to the foot of the mountain and arrived at Su Mang's gate, Luo Fei threw down his bicycle and shouted loudly: "Master, Master........"

  "What's all the commotion about? Isn't it here?" Su Mangzi's impatient voice came from inside the house.

  Lu Fei pushed the door open and went in, seeing his master lying on a rattan chair with his eyes closed, looking relaxed. He hastily told him about what had happened from start to finish, and finally looked at him and said: "Master, you have to help me with this."

  Su Mangzi smiled and gently waved the fan in his hand, saying: "In these few years, you've followed me to learn physiognomy, divination methods, and geomancy. Logically speaking, you should understand many things by now. Why don't you try drawing a divination diagram yourself?"

  "Me..." Luo Fei smiled wryly. If it was just a matter of talking on paper, he could still manage, but when it came to actual operation, he didn't have the confidence.

  "In the past half year, you've made great progress, what's lacking is only experience." Su Mangzi sat up straight, "Whether it's searching for people or objects, they're actually connected. Isn't it just about losing a head of cattle? You should treat it like a person. If you don't try, how will you know if you can do it?"

  Luo Fei nodded, gritted his teeth, and randomly took out a few bamboo skewers from the bamboo tube beside Su Mangzi. He recalled the approximate time when the Su family's plowing cow went missing, and then combined it with some peripheral factors at that time.

  Soon, several bamboo slips fell to the ground, presenting an irregular scattering pattern.

  "What is the hexagram like?"

  "Up dry, down dry, dry is heaven." Luo Fei was stunned.

  "Qian represents heaven, Kun represents earth. Now we can confirm that the lost item is not in the southeast, but rather in the northwest position." Su Xiangzi smiled and patted his hand, "However, the Qian Dao changes, the great way has no boundaries. So the current divination symbol is still quite vague, you might as well combine the Qian Gua with the Qi Men calculation again."

  Luo Fei smiled bitterly and shook his head. The master was not helping him, but taking the opportunity to test him. Qimen actually refers to Qimen Dunjia, which is based on the I Ching Bagua, combined with astrology, geography, eight gates and nine stars, yin-yang five elements, three odd six instruments and other elements. It is the highest level of predictive science in ancient times, so Qimen Dunjia has been called the imperial academic theory since ancient times.

  Although he has learned a lot of knowledge in this area over the years, when it comes to using it, he doesn't know where to start.

  But judging from the master's appearance, he definitely won't help himself. With a strenuous effort to concentrate, Luo Fei randomly picked up a bamboo stick and began to calculate on the ground. Fortunately, it was just an ordinary search for lost items, only requiring calculations on the ground, if it were a big deal that required real skills, he would be powerless.

  It took nearly an hour, and Luo Fei casually threw the bamboo slip to the ground, letting out a sigh: "Yang Liu Ju, Shi Gan Ren, fell into Qian Gong. Jiutian Zhu Wai, Geng Niu arrived at the northwest Qian Gong position."

  "Have you determined the orientation of Qian Gong, but can you roughly determine its position?" Su Mangzi continued to enlighten.

  Luo Fei furrowed his brow and pondered for a moment before speaking cautiously, "Combining the divination symbols and the calculations of the Qimen method, since the Qian palace is located in the northwest position, there is no fixed number, so I'm afraid we won't be able to find the lost ox. Even if we do find it, perhaps only its skeleton will remain."

  Su Mangzi nodded in approval and immediately warned seriously: "You still don't understand the profound meaning of the Qian Kun Dao. You should know that the completion of the Yi Jing, is the transformation of Qian Kun. It is vast and complete, and it matches the heavens and earth. Therefore, the way of Qian Kun can be compared to the way of the heavens and earth, encompassing the transformations of the heavens and earth without excess, creating all things without leaving any out, and understanding the way of day and night. Thus, these two hexagrams of Qian Kun are actually also the hexagrams of the heavens and earth."

  Lu Fei took a deep breath and nodded in understanding: "Your meaning is that there's still a turning point within this Qian Gua?"

  Luckily he often listened to Su's teachings, otherwise an ordinary person would definitely not understand what he just said.

  "So I'll let you recast the Qimen to determine the specific position of the Qian Palace." Su Mangzi nodded in approval. "The hexagrams include all things, but after all, they don't have the accuracy of Qimen."

  "The result of the calculation shows that the location of Qian Gong should be the largest house in the northwest direction of our village." Luo Fei nodded, Su Mangzi's meaning was not to say that divination is inferior to Qi Men calculation, but each has its own strengths.

  "Will there be other variables in the result of Qimen Dunjia's prediction?" Su Mang asked back.

  Luo Fei carefully looked at the Qimen diagram drawn on the ground and paused for a moment before saying, "The layout shows that there is a faint presence of Geng metal in the northwest position, carrying evil energy."

  "That is to say, there are still unknown dangers." Su Mangzi nodded, "As the saying goes, Geng Jin brings disaster, and Gang Jian is the most powerful. Water makes it clear, fire makes it sharp. When the earth is moist, it gives birth, when the earth is dry, it becomes brittle. You can win against Jia brother, but lose to Yi sister. You just need to remember not to neglect the variables of things."

  Lu Fei nodded slightly after a moment of contemplation. Originally, he didn't quite understand, but at this moment, under the guidance of his master, he felt a sudden clarity.

  In terms of the term, Geng is the autumnal killing energy, and the Geng metal with evil spirit is the most sinister. In other words, if he rashly finds it, he may suffer a little loss, such as being beaten by someone. The severity depends on the lightness or heaviness of the evil spirit brought by Geng metal.

  But this is not unsolvable, as the saying goes, "get water and clear, get fire and sharp." It's just that you can't solve it by being hard-headed. In short, you need to use softness to overcome hardness.

  How can softness overcome hardness?

  Luo Fei left Su Mang's residence, thinking hard all the way. The owner of the largest house in the northwest of the village was an old lady, who always had a gentle face when meeting anyone. It seemed to be the distant aunt of Guan Shi's family. Her family was wealthy, her son and daughter-in-law ran a company in the big city, but she suddenly wanted to come back and take a look when she got older. Her son was filial and followed his mother's wishes. He even sent his only precious son to study in the countryside with his grandmother. Of course, he also wanted his son to experience the hardships of rural life, raising sons in poverty and daughters in wealth.

  But the Lin family's efforts were clearly in vain, as their grandson was a notorious little tyrant in the surrounding villages. He relied on having some stinky money and acted like he owned the place. Whenever he had time, he would take two large Tibetan mastiffs for a stroll around the village, causing a ruckus that sent chickens flying and dogs jumping, like a bandit raid. Luo Fei had been busy dealing with his troubles as the head of the local security committee for half a year now.

  But how could this wealthy family possibly be related to the Su's lost cow? Could someone be playing a prank?

  Still recalling Master's teachings about Qimen Fengshui in my mind.

  "Lu Fei, where have you gone? The director is almost anxious to death!"

  The sudden voice from the roadside startled him, and when he looked up, Han Yun'er was standing by the side of the road with a flower umbrella.

  Han Yun'er is the only female civilian police officer in the town police station, but she is not on the regular payroll. It's said that she came to intern with Zhu Yuemin. So she usually doesn't go out and is responsible for managing some document files and meeting records within the station.

  "How did you come here, I remember that Director Zhu didn't bring you over before?" After Luo Fei became the head of the security department, he often had to go to the office to report on his work and listen to some spiritual files passed down from above. He would come and go, and because they were similar in age and had common topics to talk about, they became familiar with each other.

  "I temporarily brought over an important document from the county for the director." Han Yun'er's beautiful eyes sparkled mischievously as she blinked, "It just so happens that the villagers on that side are still making a ruckus, so the director arranged for me to come find you."

  Lu Fei nodded, probably because the captain was worried that she was a girl. Seeing her still holding a sealed file folder in her hand, he smiled and said: "Captain must have something else to tell me?"

  Han Yun'er tilted her head and carefully sized him up, nodding with a smile: "You're indeed quite clever. As I said earlier, I was going to assign two villagers to help you. However, the villagers are still causing trouble over there, so you'll have to find someone to help you on your own. Consider me as one of the helpers I've assigned to you."

  Lu Fei couldn't help but laugh: "At least it's better than having no one to help."

  "What's wrong with you, looking down on us women?" Han Yun'er said with a pout.

  "No, no. I'm just afraid of troubling you." Luo Fei hastily waved his hand, this woman couldn't be offended. There were many small rumors in the department that still needed to be heard from her mouth later on.

  "You're quite eloquent." Han Yun'er gave him a sideways glance.

  Luo Fei had a strange feeling. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly felt an inexplicable excitement in his heart. Originally, he was not confident in his own divination. At this moment, Han Yun'er's sudden appearance proved that the Qimen he calculated based on the divination symbol was reasonable.

  Isn't "using softness to overcome strength" just a kind of omen?

  "I've got some good news for you." Han Yuner looked around cautiously, even though there was no one nearby, and still habitually lowered her voice.

  "What's the good news?" Luo Fei also came with interest.

  "The county just received a document, preparing to establish security teams in each township. Team members will be selected from young people between 20 and 25 years old in the town. The team leader will be incorporated into the regular establishment and receive financial salary." Han Yun'er had a mysterious look on her face.

  "Does this have anything to do with me?" Luo Fei was stunned for a moment, as if he had sensed something.

  "Idiot, listen to me finish speaking." Han Yun'er glared at him angrily, "You're now the youngest head of public security in the whole town and a university graduate, you absolutely have a chance to get in."

  Luo Fei shrugged: "If I were to become a security team member, I'd rather be my own director of public security. At least that's still a leadership position."

  Jokingly, the security team said disperse and disperse, without any guarantee. Like some city management teams now, they are doing things that offend people, with no future prospects, and in the end, they are resented by others. Many police stations have inconvenient tasks assigned to the security team.

  "What if you had the chance to be the team leader?" Han Yun-er asked casually.