Most of the business cases in the otherworldly item Circle 

were related to

 deceased people 

and

 evil spirits. After a 

while

, 

one’s karma would inevitably take a hit

.

That was why we had 

this

 unwritten rule in this business

—t

o periodically do charity work. 

During the trip

, it was 

a

 must 

not to

provoke

 any

one

. We had to be humble and patient. 

It

 was the only way 

to completely

 get rid of the bad luck!

It was a rule my grandfather 

followed

 all his life

, so

 I 

planned to do the same

. After the New Year holiday, I asked Li Mazi to 

come

 with me to 

collect

 some good karma

.

 But he was lazy and 

lost interest 

when I told him that we were going to a rural area. He declined by using Ru Xue

’s pregnancy

 as an excuse.

I didn’t feel like forcing him. I told my plans to Yin Xinyue and left on my own

,

 choos

ing

 the small paths in the countryside 

for my trip

.

It 

was the beginning

 of spring, so the farmers didn’t have many things to do 

in

 the fields. As they had free time, they would 

gather

 to play mahjong. The scene was the same all the way from Hubei to Hebei. Those folks invited me a few times to play with them

, but

 my luck wasn’t really good and I lost.

I had spent almost half a month 

drawing

protective

 charms for the villagers

or 

giving

 some financial support to the elderly or the widows. I hadn’t encountered any trouble so far. Unwittingly, I had arrived in Puyang.

Handan 

was to the

n

orth of Puyang

, and

 I 

didn’t feel like going there as

 I had just 

dealt with

 Cao Cao near Handan, so I decided to stop at Puyang.

Every time my grandpa went out to do charity work, he woul

d

spend

from

 ten 

to

 fifteen days. 

Given the time

, my mission should have 

been complete

. I decided to 

spend the 

night there and go home the 

next

 day.

To my surprise

, something 

happened

 during

 the

 last night of 

my

 trip.

Since it was the last night of the trip, I was too lazy to ask around to 

find a nice place

. I got a room in a small, simple hostel.

The owner was a grannie who seemed to be more than

sixty years old. She

 hurried to get me a room and 

t

ook

 me upstairs 

while carrying

 a kettle of warm water.

She didn’t leave a

fter placing the kettle on the table

 and

 chatted with me for a while 

in her

 Henan dialect. After talking with her for a while, I knew that she was a widow

, 

and th

is 

small hostel was the house the old couple had bought for their son after he got married.

However, her son had bought a house in another province, and he rarely went back home

to visit. After her husband passed away, the grannie remodeled the house and turned it

into a small hostel, which helped her 

earn some money

.

I admired this hard-working grannie, so I also 

told

 her my stories.

Her eyes brightened w

hen she learned that I was an otherworldly merchant. She looked somewhat hesitant. Eventually, she told me to sleep early

 and left

.

T

he look on her face bel

ied some trouble she was coping with

. Big trouble, 

I guessed

. Otherwise, 

she

 wouldn’t have 

looked

 so distr

essed

.

If

 she didn’t want to talk

, there wasn’t much I could do.

I rolled 

around 

in my bed, unable to sleep. I had 

a

 feeling th

at

my charity trip wouldn’t be successful if I didn’t

help

 her.

I resolutely descended the stairs

 and directly asked

 the 

old lady whether

 she had any trouble.

The grannie kept silent for a while. Then, she said,

“Son, follow me.”

With her

 back

 hunched

, she 

headed

 to the back of the hostel. I followed her.

There was a small courtyard behind the hostel 

that

 held quite a few miscellaneous items. There 

was also a

 single-floor house 

with a straw

 roof.

My gu

ess was that the place used to be the grannie’s old house

.

I caught a wisp of aromatic incense a

s we got closer to the house. T

he aroma became thicker and almost irritating to the nostrils w

hen the lady pushed the door open.

I couldn’t help but pinch my nose. “Grannie, why are you burning

 this much

 sandalwood in suc

h a 

small room? Although it can expel evil spirits, too much smoke in the room isn’t good for your body. Don’t you know this?”

“I didn’t have a choice…”

The grannie shook her head, then invited me in. I 

noticed

 that the altar table in her house was made of red sandalwood

, the best type of sandalwood

.

Red 

sandalwood,

 also called Blue Dragon wood, was the perfect 

tool

 to expel evil spirits. At the same time, it could bring good fortune to the family. In ancient 

times

, imperial courtiers and nobles had used red sandalwood to create accessories or furniture.  

During

 the Ming Dynasty, almost all the red sandalwood in our country had been cut down. The imperial court then sent people to various Southeast Asian countries to buy the wood. It proved how precious red sandalwood was!

I didn’t expect to see such a treasure in the house of this ordinary-looking grannie. I touched the wooden furniture; the material was genuine. Then, I recognized that even the incense holder, the offering bowls, and the tumblers 

were

 made of red sandalwood.

Behind the incense holder 

was

 a bronze box, the only item on the altar not made

of sandalwood. I reached out as I wanted to touch it

, but t

he grannie grabbed my hand, her face 

tense

. “Son, you shouldn’t touch this box.”

“Is th

ere something wrong with this

 box?” I muttered.

The grannie nodded, her face serious. Then, she came near me, whispering, “Did you notice

anything?”

I became tense 

due to

 her behavior. I turned and carefully assessed the box.

I saw a few cracks on the box which had revealed the red color inside. I then realized that it was a wooden box painted in bronze.

I couldn’t guess the age of this box d

ue to this layer of bronze paint. 

As the g

rannie 

didn’t tell me anything,

 I tried to look inside the box through the small cracks.

However, I didn

’t

find

 anything strange. I turned and gave 

her

 a skeptical look.

“

L

et me show you,” the grannie said after hesitating for a while.

S

he 

removed

 the incense holder and pulled me to the door, her face serious.

As I was about to ask her what she was doing, the

altar table shook violently. The bronze-painted box seemed to have been revived as it 

bounced

 on the table.

After each bounce, the cracks on the box would expel a wisp of red mist. However, the red mist didn’t disperse. It slowly gathered, covering the entire altar table.

Although I didn’t know what was in the box, 

it certainly wasn’t something ordinary if

 it could subdue the furniture made of red sandalwood. I quickly backed off, my gaze still 

lingering on 

the mist

.

 I wanted to know what it would do.

The mist wasn

’

t trying to attack us

, and n

othing else happ

ened a

fter it 

covered

 the altar. Around ten minutes later, the red mist was dispersed.

A cry arose from the box r

ight 

when the

 mist had 

c

ompletely 

disappeared

.

Afterward, e

verything went back to normal.

I curiously asked the old lady, “Auntie, what just happened?”

Since she had kept calm 

when

 the red mist appeared, it was 

obvious

 that it wasn

’t

 the first time this had occurred. Moreover, 

she was unharmed after all this time

.

So 

why 

was she 

so 

scared

before

? I 

felt

 there 

was more to this story

.

The grannie looked at me, then at the box. She 

placed

 the incense holder back on the altar table and piously burned three joss sticks. We left the house

 a

fter

wards

.

When we returned to the hostel, the grannie sat down

. H

er eyes reddened

as she choked with sobs. “

Actually, m

y late husband was killed by that thing…”

I frowned. I waited until the grannie calmed down to pry

 further.

 “Auntie, could you tell me what happened?”

“

Yes, I’ll tell you the whole story

.”

The grannie wiped her 

tears

. “I’ll share it with you, but you should just leave it alone.”

It seemed that she didn’t believe I could handle th

is

 kind of stuff. I simply nodded 

and started listening

 to her story.