In just a few short minutes, the several apartment buildings on the east side of the entire Nanshan Community exploded with noise!
Lights turned on in every household, one after another. The hurried sound of footsteps came from all directions, all of them surging toward the same place.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry!”
“How could anyone do something like this!”
“Isn’t this dragging down the whole community? That Lu family kid has no sense of public decency!”
Complaints and discussions arose one after another, and eventually, they all converged on the floor where Lu Chen’s family lived.
The stairway was packed with people, and the apartment itself was so crowded you couldn’t move — a tiny space of just fifty or sixty square meters somehow squeezed in twenty or thirty people.
Add in all the people inside and outside, there were easily over a hundred!
In the living room, Lu Chen’s parents looked terribly embarrassed. His mother kept glaring at his father every now and then, blaming him for blowing things up so big.
Lu Wan was scared by the scene and timidly hid behind her brother.
Lu Chen gently patted his sister’s head, but the corner of his mouth held a smile that no one around could quite figure out.
“You’re still smiling!” his second uncle couldn’t help but yell. “You’ve invited the King of Hell into your home, and you can still smile!”
As one of the three managing uncles of Nanshan Community, these three uncles held considerable prestige in the apartment building.
Whenever any family had an issue, they would ask these three uncles to come and mediate.
Right now, the three uncles were sitting stiffly and upright on the living room sofa, each looking more grim than the last.
If word of this kind of thing happening in the community got out, wouldn’t people just laugh their heads off?
In a worst-case scenario, the entire community might get shunned by the surrounding neighborhoods, who would think this place was unclean.
“Speak! Where did you get these two sacred statues from?” The first uncle raised his walking stick and slammed it heavily on the floor, his face stern as he spoke.
But Lu Chen was completely unflustered: “First Uncle, where do you think I could get them from? A temple, of course.”
“A temple? A legitimate source?”
“Why, is there another kind?”
“Heh, Xiao Chen, don’t think we old guys have lost our marbles.” The first uncle gave a cold snort. “Everyone here knows how much it costs to get sacred statues from a temple. Where would you get that kind of money?”
“Exactly! One is the Lord of Wealth, the other is the King of Hell. At market price, just one of them would cost six to eight hundred thousand! You got two at once and still claim it’s from a legitimate source? Who are you trying to fool!”
“Eight hundred thousand isn’t even enough! For a Lord of Wealth like that one, I’d say it starts at at least a million! Xiao Chen, it’s not that Uncle Zhou looks down on your family, but if your family really had that kind of money, you’d have moved out to a big fancy house long ago. Why would you still be crammed into this rundown apartment building with the rest of us?”
The neighbors started buzzing with heated discussion.
Lu Chen’s mother was about to speak, but Lu Chen stopped her with a single look.
Lu Jianming also looked at his son and wife with a confused expression.
Yeah, where did all this money come from?
Wasn’t it just fifteen thousand yesterday?
The first uncle continued with a stern face: “Xiao Chen, I’ve always thought of you as a sensible, good kid. Let me promise you first — whatever happens today stays within our community. We uncles have always sided with our own over what’s right. Even if you’ve made a mistake, if we can protect you, we will. No matter where you got these statues from, you must send this King of Hell back!”
He paused and looked around the room. “Nanshan Community absolutely does not allow anyone to bring this kind of dark, yin spirit home. This is for the good of the whole community. Because the people living here are all struggling, our fortunes are already low. If you invite Him back, aren’t you just making everyone more unlucky and miserable?”
“That’s right! Just standing in your apartment right now, I feel a creepy yin wind and I’m totally uncomfortable!”
“This kind of yin spirit is too taboo. How could you bring it into your home?”
“No wonder I felt something was off when I came home tonight. So it was your family’s doing. Xiao Chen, if you won’t think for yourself, at least think for us! If some family in the community suffers a disaster, it might well be caused by this yin spirit!”
The neighbors grew more and more agitated, pointing fingers one after another.
The first uncle slammed his walking stick on the floor again, and only then did everyone quiet down.
The second uncle and the third uncle spoke in turn.
Second uncle: “Xiao Chen, did you understand what the first uncle said? We don’t care where these statues came from, and we won’t report this to the authorities. Of course, let me make this clear too — if anyone dares to report this privately and we catch them, you’ll bear the consequences yourself!”
Third uncle pushed up his glasses: “That’s right. A community should love and help each other, never stab each other in the back. Xiao Chen, take the statues back. If you insist on keeping one, that… what’s the name of that Lord of Wealth again?”
“Lord Jun Cai,” Lu Chen reminded him.
“Right. That one I haven’t really heard of — you can keep him if you want. But that King of Hell statue has to go back. No negotiation!”
The three uncles and the neighbors all nodded emphatically.
Lu Chen waited until everyone had finished speaking, then stepped forward.
He didn’t argue back right away. Instead, he first bowed deeply to the three uncles.
“First Uncle, Second Uncle, Third Uncle, thank you for your care. What you said about ‘siding with our own over what’s right’ — honestly, it really touched me. All these years, although our Nanshan Community has been poor, with you three uncles keeping order, the families have mostly gotten along peacefully.”
The three uncles’ expressions softened slightly, but they still maintained their authority: “Alright, Xiao Chen, that’s just our duty. Just give everyone a straight answer — when are you going to send this King of Hell back? How about tomorrow?”
But Lu Chen shook his head. “I’m sorry, First Uncle. These two statues really did come from a temple. As for where the money came from, I’m not hiding it from anyone — I got it by asking Lord Jun Cai for it!”
“Xiao Chen, why are you so stubborn!” someone couldn’t help but interrupt. “Your family couldn’t even afford meat a few days ago. Your dad said you’d been eating vegetarian for nearly a month! And now you’re telling us you have millions to spend on sacred statues? Is your Lord Jun Cai even more effective than Lord Zhao? Even if Lord Zhao bestowed good fortune, he couldn’t give that much all at once!”
“Exactly!”
“Alright, everyone shut up! Let him speak!” The second uncle waved his hand and cut off the chatter again.
Lu Chen paused, then continued: “As for the King of Hell, I just reached an agreement with His Majesty. In the future, I need to help the underworld gather more incense offerings in the human world. So I can’t possibly send Him back, and even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.”
“What did you say? You made an agreement with the King of Hell?” The third uncle looked utterly bewildered, then turned to Lu Jianming. “Jianming… maybe tomorrow you should take Xiao Chen to the hospital? If you don’t have the money, everyone can chip in. Listen to what he’s saying! You’re just a young nobody — no power, no influence — why would the King of Hell make any agreement with you?”
“Yeah, the more he talks, the crazier it gets!”
“I can testify that my son isn’t lying!” Lu Chen’s mother finally couldn’t hold back and stepped forward. “Right before you all came, my son was talking to the King of Hell! I was in the back room at the time!”
“I testify for my brother too!” Lu Wan also timidly raised her little hand.
But all they got in return was a collective burst of laughter from everyone.
“You really don’t believe us?”
“Of course not!”
“Alright, since none of you believe me, I’ll just give a demonstration myself.”
Lu Chen had been eager to try this for a while now.
Talking is useless compared to showing them!
He looked at the first uncle and said seriously, “First Uncle, what I’m about to say might be a bit offensive. Please forgive me in advance.”
The first uncle furrowed his brow slightly, not understanding what was coming.
Lu Chen took a deep breath and said, “If I remember correctly, Aunt Qiu has been gone for about six months now…”
“Brat! Why are you bringing that up!” The second and third uncles shot up from their seats like they’d been electrocuted, their faces drastically changing.
Then they both looked anxiously at the first uncle.
The first uncle’s surname was Qiu. The “Aunt Qiu” Lu Chen mentioned was his most beloved youngest daughter, who had passed away from illness half a year ago.
They said that to save his daughter, the first uncle had spent nearly all his wealth and spent every day soaking in temples praying and begging for her life to be extended. But in the end, he couldn’t stop the tragedy.
A gray-haired person burying their black-haired child — there’s no greater pain in life.
From that day on, everyone in the community noticed that the first uncle had become silent and withdrawn, with no trace of a smile left on his face.
Everyone knew that “Aunt Qiu” had become a taboo topic. No one dared to mention his daughter in front of the first uncle.
And now…
Instantly, everyone’s anger flared up, blaming Lu Chen for deliberately bringing up a sore subject.
And the first uncle’s expression, predictably, had turned terribly grim — so dark it looked like it could drip water.
But Lu Chen didn’t back down an inch. He still looked directly into his eyes: “First Uncle, what if I told you I could let you see Aunt Qiu again? Would you want to?”
These words hit like a thunderbolt, freezing everyone in place.
The first uncle’s pupils began to dilate, his mouth opening and closing involuntarily, and his whole body trembling as he slowly stood up: “What… what did you say?!”
Lu Chen’s voice was firm and decisive: “Right here, right now, in this very moment, I have a way to let you see Aunt Qiu!”
