Chapter 108: Heavenly Yi Noble

Huang Boyuan took a sip of his cold Longjing tea and continued. "At that time, Jiangcheng hadn't been demolished yet. I was selling prescriptions at the Ancient Building in the old city. An entire morning passed without a single inquiry, right up until that noble benefactor appeared."

"It's strange to say, but after all these years, I can remember every detail of that man's clothes and appearance, yet I simply can't recall his face."

"It's as if his face vanished from my memory forever. Sometimes I even wonder if I actually met him back then, or if I just made him up. Did he ever really exist?"

I had to admit that Huang Boyuan's story had successfully piqued my interest. "Did that man help you?"

Huang Boyuan nodded. "I originally planned to bury this matter forever, to take it with me to the grave. But since you're asking today, I'll tell you. I just hope you can keep it a secret."

"Don't worry. Confidentiality is a basic principle in our line of work."

Only after receiving my firm reassurance did Huang Boyuan slowly begin to speak. "That man walked out from the depths of the Ancient Building. By the time I noticed him, he had already been standing beside me for a long time."

"At that time, I was in absolute despair. Treating it as my very last try, I took out my prescriptions and showed them to him."

"He didn't take my prescriptions. Instead, he sized me up, repeatedly muttering a few phrases I couldn't quite understand."

"Something about a god of the heavens, standing alongside Taiyi, serving the Great Emperor of Heaven, descending to the three celestial bodies, residing in the mansion of the Dipper and Ox, and that wherever this god goes, all malice and violence retreat into hiding."

"I only found out later that he was talking about my Fate Pattern. My eight characters carried a benefactor, and my four pillars held both blessings and the God of Food in the same position. It was the most auspicious deity in destiny—the Heavenly Yi Noble."

"Whenever I encountered trouble, someone would help me; whenever I faced danger, someone would save me. I would turn calamity into fortune, achieve early fame, and easily advance in wealth and status. If my destiny rode a prosperous tide, I would eventually rise to become a minister or a lord."

"Such a Fate Pattern obviously didn't match my down-and-out state at the time. The man also clicked his tongue in wonder. After asking me many questions, he said he had a method that could allow me to enjoy wealth and honor in the mortal realm from then on, so I would never again have to suffer the disaster of poverty."

"I had already hit a dead end. Figuring I had nothing left to lose, I patiently listened to what he had to say."

At this point, Huang Boyuan's complexion turned terribly grim. Whatever happened next had clearly become a festering wound in his heart.

"What method did that man—who looked like neither a monk nor a Daoist priest—propose to you?" I asked, a bit anxious with the story left hanging.

Huang Boyuan paused for a long time before finally forcing out the words: "Kill my wife."

"What?!" I gasped, my eyes widening. "You didn't actually do it, did you?"

"We had supported each other through thick and thin for so many years. How could I do something worse than an animal just for wealth and glory?" Huang Boyuan sighed. "My reaction at the time was similar to yours. Young and arrogant, I even hurled insults at that man who was neither a monk nor a priest."

"But he didn't mind. Instead, he patiently advised me, spouting nonsense about how a marriage between a Dragon and a Rabbit invited a disaster that would sever one's head. He claimed that if it weren't for my exalted Fate Pattern, my family would have probably been ruined and dead long ago."

"Before leaving, he took a Blank Scroll from his cloth sack and gave it to me, saying that as long as I hung this painting in my room, I would understand everything."

"At that time, I truly had nowhere left to turn. I had sat outside all day without selling a single prescription. I had borrowed from every relative and friend, yet when I returned to my rented shack, the medical fees I had gathered were only enough to save one person!"

Huang Boyuan rubbed his temples, habitually picked up the teacup on the table, and downed the cold tea in one gulp.

"That night, our family ate our last meal together."

"The next day, I traveled far away to meet a medicine merchant in the south. When I returned two days later, I discovered that my wife had committed suicide by taking poison."

"When she died, only our eldest daughter was by her side. The child said that before Wanjun passed away, she had been talking to a Blank Scroll, as if a person was hidden inside that painting."

"I always felt my wife's death was related to that bizarre scroll. Unfortunately, I searched the entire house but couldn't find it. It seemed to have vanished from the mortal realm along with my wife's passing."

"After my wife left, my life did indeed undergo a massive change. No matter what I did, everything went smoothly. I could always get whatever I wanted, as if I had noble benefactors helping me at every turn."

"I made my first fortune selling prescriptions. Then, because I had studied pharmacology with my father since childhood and understood traditional Chinese medicine very well, I caught the eye of a large pharmaceutical company. Even the company boss's daughter fell for me, and it naturally followed that I remarried. Afterward, I experienced a meteoric rise, going from a lowly medicine salesman to my current position as executive director. The company's scale has also expanded dozens of times over. Everything seems to go perfectly as long as I have a hand in it."

I was somewhat mesmerized listening to Huang Boyuan's story. The latter half of his life had played out like someone using cheat codes. "The Heavenly Yi Noble truly lives up to its reputation."

My sigh was completely genuine, but upon hearing it, Huang Boyuan let out a bitter laugh. "You all look at my glory and prestige, but in reality, I haven't been happy these past dozen years. Truth be told, what I miss the most are the days when I squeezed into that rented shack with Wanjun."

"Did something else evil happen to your family?"

"Not exactly. It's just that after I remarried, my eldest daughter left the country in a fit of pique and hasn't contacted me in years. Although my second daughter lived past fifteen, she can only lie in a hospital bed, relying on medication to survive, spending more than half the day in a dazed, half-awake stupor. You've already seen my youngest, Huang Guanxing. Having a son in my old age should have been a blessing, but that brat only knew how to drink, play around, and stir up trouble—and now he has been murdered by scoundrels."

Listening to Huang Boyuan made even my own heart feel tired on his behalf. It really was true: the poor had their sorrows, and the rich had their troubles.

"Although this life is dull, I was fairly satisfied with it. But just three days before Huang Guanxing's accident, I received a letter from a stranger."

"The sender demanded that Blank Scroll from over twenty years ago, threatening that if I didn't hand it over, they would destroy my family."

"At the time, I had long since forgotten about that whole affair. Besides, the Blank Scroll was already gone. Where was I supposed to find it for them?"

"So I ignored it. I simply installed surveillance cameras in the house and arranged for bodyguards to secretly protect my family."

"But who could have guessed that even such strict security measures wouldn't be enough? Three days later, Huang Guanxing had his accident."

"At first, I didn't connect the scroll to my son's death. It wasn't until you pulled out this Buddha Head Pendant that I finally realized."

A brief silence fell over the office. Huang Boyuan handed the Buddha Head Pendant back to me. "What do you think the Two-Faced Buddha actually represents? A secret signal? A proof of identity? A faith? Or a piece of information?"

I put the pendant away without answering immediately. The situation was even more complex than I had imagined. I originally thought I could get clues about the Two-Faced Buddha from Huang Boyuan, but who knew he would only bring me new mysteries?

"The Two-Faced Buddha wants to get that scroll from you. But if the scroll is such an important item, why did they give it to you in the first place? Those people operate ruthlessly; their original intentions were probably never pure, and they were plotting something from the very start." I could see the shadow of the Two-Faced Buddha in every one of my broadcasts. The more I learned, the more I understood the terror behind that name. They had started laying out their plans over twenty years ago. Whether it was the Anxin Hotel or the Bridge No. 3 Crematorium, these people seemed to be secretly carrying out a shocking conspiracy.

"I also felt something was off. That man who was neither monk nor Daoist priest casually told me to kill my wife the moment he opened his mouth. He was definitely not a good person." Huang Boyuan took out a key he carried on him, unlocked a drawer in his desk, and pulled out an incredibly ordinary-looking letter.

"This is the letter they sent me a few days ago. I've kept it safe. You are the second person to see it." Huang Boyuan was extremely cautious. Having navigated the ups and downs of the business world for years, he deeply understood that it was always better to be safe than sorry.

I opened the envelope. Inside was a piece of grayish-white letter paper. Every single character on it had been cut out from a newspaper and pasted on. The letter didn't say much and had no signature; it mainly focused on that painting.

"You'd better use your connections to send this letter to the Public Security Bureau for a fingerprint test. Also, can you remember anything else about that Blank Scroll?" The Two-Faced Buddha always felt extremely mysterious to me. I ran into them in every single case, to the point where I had no idea what they were actually plotting. This threatening letter at least gave me a direction to investigate.

They had desires too. If I could find that scroll before they did, I would seize the initiative and hold their lifeline in my hands.

"It's been over twenty years, so I can't remember clearly. However, I heard my eldest daughter say that before Wanjun passed away, she wrote a line of text on that painting. The gist of it was her hoping that I could keep our second daughter alive. She went through unimaginable hardships to come to this world, so I should at least let her see its colorful beauty and feel the warmth of a family."

"Is that all?" Not even knowing its exact appearance, I couldn't deduce anything at all. "Forget it. Keep searching around your house. Look through the old houses you used to live in and see if you missed any spots. That painting is crucial."

Huang Boyuan nodded to show he understood. He thought for a moment, then pulled a blank check out of the drawer.

Writing down a number with his pen, he pushed the check in front of me. "Here is 500,000. Take this first. If you can uncover the background of the Two-Faced Buddha and keep my family safe, I'll give you another 500,000."

"I can't accept a reward I haven't earned, and we already agreed on a price earlier. If you really want to express your gratitude, I hope you can answer one question truthfully." Without touching the check, I stood up and looked into Huang Boyuan's eyes.

"Ask away. As long as it doesn't involve company secrets, I can answer you."

Resting my bandaged palms on the expensive pearwood desk, I spoke very quickly. "Back then, when that man suggested you kill your wife, were you ever tempted?"

Director Huang had never expected me to ask such a question. His hand, which had been fondling the Thousand-Eyed Bodhi, froze mid-air in front of his chest. He resembled a petrified stone statue, remaining silent for a long time.

"I think I already know the answer." There was no cause without a reason in this world, and no effect without a cause. Straightening up, I didn't say another word, simply turning around and leaving.

Director Huang was left all alone in his luxurious office. He stared silently at the check on the desk, his thoughts seemingly drifting back to over twenty years ago.