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—to periodically do charity work. During the trip, it was a must not to provoke anyone. 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, choosing 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 north 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 would 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 took me upstairs while carrying a kettle of warm water.

She didn’t leave after 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 this 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 when she learned that I was an otherworldly merchant. She looked somewhat hesitant. Eventually, she told me to sleep early and left.

The look on her face belied some trouble she was coping with. Big trouble, I guessed. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have looked so distressed.

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

I caught a wisp of aromatic incense as we got closer to the house. The aroma became thicker and almost irritating to the nostrils when the lady pushed the door open.

I couldn’t help but pinch my nose. “Grannie, why are you burning this much sandalwood in such 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 the grannie grabbed my hand, her face tense. “Son, you shouldn’t touch this box.”

“Is there 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 due to this layer of bronze paint. As the grannie 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.

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

She 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 nothing else happened after it covered the altar. Around ten minutes later, the red mist was dispersed.

A cry arose from the box right when the mist had completely disappeared.

Afterward, everything 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 afterwards.

When we returned to the hostel, the grannie sat down. Her eyes reddened as she choked with sobs. “Actually, my 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 this kind of stuff. I simply nodded and started listening to her story.