Chapter 26: Finding a Fine Place to Put Down Roots

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Chapter 26: Finding a Fine Place to Put Down Roots

Actually, even if the mayor really was taking bribes, it wasn’t nearly as simple as people imagined for someone in Yu Shenliu’s position to use that fact to shake the power the mayor held.

If the mayor’s bribery were exposed in full, it could certainly bring him down. But what would happen after that? Up to now, Yu Shenliu hadn’t accomplished anything particularly noteworthy, so it was impossible for him to rise to the top in one step. Most likely, another deputy mayor would be promoted, or an outsider would be brought in as the new mayor. A new official would naturally want to make his mark, and instead of benefiting Yu Shenliu, the change could actually cost him.

Besides, what would people think of Yu Shenliu if he exposed his superior’s wrongdoing? A troublemaker! People like that didn’t last long in officialdom. Everyone would think Yu Shenliu was bullying others by relying on his family background. That wouldn’t be good.

Ultimately, Yu Shenliu’s real goal was to gain a certain amount of power and establish a record of achievements, not to bring down the mayor.

Still, knowing that the mayor had this particular weakness was already a point of leverage.

Yu Shenliu knew that Chen Yuan didn’t approve of using metaphysics for matters like this, so the fact that he was willing to tell him this much was already giving him considerable face. What happened next was up to Yu Shenliu himself.

The next day, Yu Shenliu took Chen Yuan around to look for a storefront that suited his tastes.

Compared with ordinary people, who consider factors such as location and foot traffic when looking for a shop, Chen Yuan was different. When looking for a place for his own shop, the first thing he considered was feng shui.

Strictly speaking, many of the factors ordinary people considered were themselves part of feng shui. It was just that feng shui also took certain things they could not consider into account. Take the location of Boss Wang’s mobile phone shop, for example. The area had heavy yin qi, which had, by a strange twist of fate, been suppressed by the mirror. In other places with similar problems, the common solution was to turn the area into an intersection or commercial district, using the flow of people to dilute the yin qi. But this kind of crude solution could also easily cause trouble. If the area were turned into an intersection, traffic accidents would become more likely. If it were turned into a commercial district, things could go wrong more easily if the layout was poorly designed. In feng shui, however, such problems could be suppressed with things like artificial rockeries, gradually resolving them completely.

Yu Shenliu also knew how capable Chen Yuan was, so from the beginning, he didn’t simply choose the busiest part of the city to show him. Chen Yuan actually preferred quieter, more secluded places. After all, good wine needs no bush, and with Chen Yuan’s abilities, anyone who genuinely wanted to find him wouldn’t have trouble doing so, no matter how out of the way his shop was.

Still, if he was going to open a shop, he had to consider his customers. So Yu Shenliu first took Chen Yuan to a commercial street near his home. It wasn’t an especially bustling market district, but there were plenty of boutiques and similar shops. It was obvious that Yu Shenliu had put some thought into the choice. Most of the businesses nearby were small shops, so Chen Yuan’s shop would not look out of place. The commercial street also had a certain amount of foot traffic without being overly busy or fast-paced, which should suit Chen Yuan’s personality quite well.

Unfortunately, after Chen Yuan looked at the various clothing stores, boutiques, hair salons, and other shops along the street, he shook his head.

“Everything here is too much about cosmetics and such. There’s too much superficiality,” he said. “Too many artificial things. They’re not conducive to cultivating a calm mind.”

Although Yu Shenliu had taken care not to choose somewhere excessively busy, the types of shops along this street added another layer to its character. That was how feng shui worked. It was not merely about the terrain or layout; it also took into account what exactly surrounded a place.

Yu Shenliu could only shrug helplessly. Fine, they would look somewhere else.

The second place Yu Shenliu had prepared was outside a small park. There was a row of storefronts here, with several teahouses and jade shops. The whole area looked quiet and peaceful. The moment one stepped into it, it felt as though even one’s mind slowed down with the surroundings, leaving one exceptionally at ease. Yu Shenliu had chosen this place according to Chen Yuan’s preferences, since Chen Yuan naturally favored this kind of refined, tranquil atmosphere.

Yu Shenliu had not misjudged Chen Yuan’s personality. Chen Yuan really did like this sort of place. So when Yu Shenliu brought him here, he immediately saw Chen Yuan’s eyes light up.

“What do you think of this place?” Yu Shenliu asked Chen Yuan, feeling that Chen Yuan should be satisfied this time.

Although he really liked the feel of the place, Chen Yuan still shook his head. “I really like it here, but it still won’t do.”

“Why not?” Yu Shenliu was puzzled. Weren’t people like those masters supposed to prefer quiet places like this? The kind of people who secluded themselves deep in the mountains and forests. Even the place where Chen Yuan had been fortune-telling before was a secluded corner of a park.

“This place is refined, quiet, and secluded,” Chen Yuan first acknowledged. Then he changed tack. “But look at it this way. Because of the atmosphere of places like teahouses, there are actually quite a few people who are interested in metaphysics. If I opened a shop here, there would inevitably be a lot of people coming by. Although it looks like a quiet and secluded place now, that might not be the case once I opened a shop.”

With that explanation, Yu Shenliu understood. He had thought this place would suit Chen Yuan perfectly, but apparently it really did have its problems.

If this place wouldn’t do either, then they would have to find somewhere else.

This time, after winding through several turns, Yu Shenliu finally brought Chen Yuan to the center of a ring-shaped building. The place looked very quiet, with hardly any sense of human activity. Pointing to the circle of shops above, Yu Shenliu explained, “The shops upstairs sell books and various small goods, but they only open in the afternoon.”

Chen Yuan looked around before asking, “There are more bookstores than anything else, right?”

The shops here barely had any signs, making it impossible to tell what they sold, yet Chen Yuan answered without hesitation. Yu Shenliu paused, then, thinking of Chen Yuan’s abilities, nodded. “Yes. How did you know?”

“The four sides are enclosed. Although there’s nothing covering the top, sunlight has a hard time reaching this place.” Chen Yuan examined the layout. It was obvious that this place rarely saw sunlight throughout the year. “Generally speaking, if a place like this were a residential area, although its circular shape would avoid direct clashes and allow things to flow harmoniously, it would also be prone to accumulating stagnant and yin qi, which wouldn’t disperse easily. If the shops here sold small goods and the like, there wouldn’t be much that could be done about it. But if there are a lot of books here, that changes things.”

“People say that within books lies a golden house, and within books lies a beautiful woman. Although you can’t exactly take that saying literally, books contain the ‘Dao,’ and therefore harbor righteous energy. Generally speaking, wherever books are found, that righteous energy washes away impurities, making it difficult for anything unclean to linger. Even in ancient legends, when strange things were said to arise around books, they were more often said to become spirits rather than monsters. After all, books are things that enlighten and educate people.”

Chen Yuan explained, then added, “This place would actually be quite good. They open in the afternoon, so I can open in the morning.”

It had taken a while for Chen Yuan to finally find a place he was satisfied with, so Yu Shenliu said, “Then let’s go up and see which ones are available for rent.” As far as he remembered, there were still several vacant shops here. Even some that had occasionally been rented or purchased were currently sitting unused, so there was no need to worry about Chen Yuan not finding a suitable one.

“Okay,” Chen Yuan replied, following Yu Shenliu as they made their way upstairs.

If they came in the afternoon, when all the shops were open and their goods were on display, it would only make things more troublesome. Now that the shops were all closed, the two of them only needed to check whether any of them had notices posted outside saying they were available for rent.

Chen Yuan and Yu Shenliu searched slowly from the bottom up. When they reached the second floor, they found a shop with a rental notice posted outside.

The notice, however, looked quite old. Who knew how long it had been hanging there? It was already grimy and dirty.

Yu Shenliu didn’t think much of it, but when Chen Yuan reached the entrance of the shop, he paused for a moment and called out, “Yu Shenliu, wait a second.” As he spoke, he looked around, surveying the area.

“What’s wrong?” Seeing Chen Yuan examining the surroundings, Yu Shenliu genuinely had no idea what he was doing, so he asked.

“Wait. Let’s go up another floor and take a look.” Chen Yuan grabbed Yu Shenliu by the arm and headed toward the stairs. Once they reached the next floor, he ignored the other shops and went straight to the one directly above the shop they had just seen, only to find another rental notice hanging outside.

Chen Yuan frowned but said nothing. He simply went up another floor to look.

There were rental notices on shops in the exact same position on three consecutive floors, and all the notices had clearly been there for quite some time. Yu Shenliu realized there was something wrong too. It was not until they reached the fifth floor that they stopped finding shops for rent. Chen Yuan then pulled Yu Shenliu back down to the first floor and stood beneath those shops, looking around.

“Something’s wrong with this location?” From the way Chen Yuan was acting, Yu Shenliu understood that he had discovered a problem.

“Mm.” Chen Yuan nodded. “If I’m not mistaken, these shops have never had very good business, and all sorts of troublesome things are bound to happen here.”

At Chen Yuan’s words, Yu Shenliu immediately thought of Boss Wang’s feng shui mirror. Could this be the same kind of problem? Just as he was thinking about it, Chen Yuan spoke.

“It’s not that kind of problem, but there really is something wrong with the feng shui here,” Chen Yuan replied, continuing to examine everything around them. “However, it’s not unsolvable.”

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