“Alright, I think this would be good for now.” In the back room of another coffin home, the watcher came over to Sue’s side and took a careful look at the body of an old woman lying inside of a redwood coffin. “It’s time to put the jade medallion in.”

“What - people still do that?” Sue was just about to wrap up, and she was surprised to see the watcher had a small ring-shaped jade medallion in her hand dangling from a red thread. She gradually lowered it into the mouth of the old woman. Sue could see the old woman’s name and birthday etched on both sides of the medallion

“Yes, people still do that. Because right now it is as good a time as any, even better time or more valuable time to do this.” The watcher shook her head and closed the old woman’s mouth as the jade medallion fell in. Then she tied the red threads around the old woman’s neck and left a meticulous knot under her jaw: “After all, it’s a final gift, in hopes for her protection and blessing when she moves into the other world.”

“Does it work?” Sue asked.

The watcher made a “shh” sign, then took out a coin made of two layers of wood and placed it upon the old woman’s forehead. After these many days of looking into traditional spiritual rituals and practices, she became much more knowledgeable about the artifacts, both commonly and uncommonly used. And right now, she recognized this very coin, something she wouldn’t be able to do if she had not spent that much time in the archives. It was called “The Coin of Resolution and Good Will”, a kind of relatively uncommon yet not super rare artifact used along with the medallion. The coin should be made of two separate pieces stuck together into a thicker one - one side was to be made of peachwood, the side to touch the skin to cleanse the remnant of negative emotions and energy from the death; and the other side was to be made of redwood, to face upwards and to channel the love, care and blessing of the dead to their children and heirs.

The watcher picked a small glass jar from her side, inside of which was a light yellow concoction made of honey and wine, common “glue” for sticking accessories and jewelry to the body, and stuck the wooden coin to the old woman’s forehead.

“Okay, help me push her into the spot, her family will be picking her up soon.” The watcher nodded after making sure the coin was in the right spot and was firm enough so that it would not slide off.

Two of them bowed to the foot of the coffin with three incense sticks in their hands for three times after, before heading out of the coffin home and closing the door behind.

“So, to answer your question.” The watcher sighed as she washed her hands with the water from a metal bowl placed under the sun: “I don’t know if it works. Some say it does, some say it actually does the contrary, some say it’s just superstition. But it is the requirement of the family, so - ”

“Understood.” Sue nodded, and she waited her turn to wash her hands.

“And - I’m answering you now because I don’t want to upset her.” The watcher shrugged: “But that’s probably enough for today. Have you brought a clean cloth bag? I have some additional sticky rice for you.”

“Oh! Right! Thank you!” Sue nodded with relief and a little excitement.

“What are you doing with this rice? You used everything up from last time already?”

“I - well, I’ve been learning about certain traditional evil repellant rituals.” Sue shrugged and tried not to answer in detail, for the need for secrecy was still top priority.

“How’s your friend?” The watcher shook her head: “I - I heard about Clergyman Park, I’m so sorry. Hope you’re doing well.”

“Thank you, I’m just trying to get through. She needs more time.” Sue sighed.

When Sue left, she did not immediately go home, but instead went to the docks area to catch the street vendors who were still selling snacks to get something Gloria would like. And on the side, she went there just to pick up small metal bowls of steamed sticky rice she hid in discrete corners.

Buried in the balls of rice were small incense sticks or small pieces of charcoaled red wood. Some of the bowls were knocked on the floor, some were stolen or thrown away. Among ten small bowls she placed this early morning, she was only able to get back three.

After extracting the small incense sticks and redwood, she threw the rice into the water and headed home.

The first thing she needed to do when she got home was to crush the incense sticks and charcoaled redwood, and put the powder into a small bronze pot filled with oil and rice wine. Then she pulled out a long piece of yellow talisman paper and a painting brush, dipped the brush into the concoction, swirled it and drew a straight line along the length of the talisman paper as steadily and evenly as possible.

With this “talisman” with only one line on it, Sue stuck it onto a small wooden altar placed in the corner of the apartment. This was something she learned from reading old records from the community archives with Turner Ouyang - a simple way to measure how Qiyun flow fluctuated in the area. It would record only the passive signs of the change in flow and did not require any active input of Qi or any other types of energy, thus would not lead any negative effects back to her.

After making two bowls of instant soup, she went to check the talisman paper. The portion of the line close to the top had turned red. The next thing she needed to do was measure the red part. Then she drew a line of the same approximate length on the calendar - thus, with several days of measuring, she was able to gauge the strength of Qiyun flow in the docks area over this period of time.

The first three days she started measuring, the lines seemed to be of similar length. Then the lines began to grow shorter and shorter over the following four days. But then today, the length was visibly longer than the previous days’. This meant that something changed in the docks area, and introduced some kind of positive Qiyun to the area and alleviated effects of the negative flow.

Sue frowned and pulled out her phone - she heard somewhere that something happened last night at the docks. Could it be related?