The next morning, in a small quiet cafe next to the park where Ah Tong exercises daily, Xiao Wu was already there waiting. Now Xiao Wu is in a dilemma as being a prudent man, he was worry that he might says the wrong thing and made Ah Tong back out of the wedding at the last minute. To be frank, he had met Miss Han once and had found her likeable as she speaks her mind outright with no hidden agenda. He was thinking of how to assure Ah Tong's worry when the latter arrived.
Ah Tong: 'Sorry to keep you waiting as Miss Han had called me regarding the appointment to collect the wedding gown.'
Xiao Wu: 'Not a problem, I am on leave today as I had arranged to meet a relative from overseas this afternoon.'
Ah Tong then blurted out: 'What do you think I should do now, postpone the wedding to a later date until I get another opinion from your uncle?'
Xiao Wu: 'No, no. My uncle would not advise on a marriage that is going to take place and I cannot lie to him.'
Ah Tong: 'Then what should I do?'
Xiao Wu: 'I do not know why you are so worried about the word Fen which is different from the one that is mentioned in the divination. Anyway, as long as she is not born in the year of the rat 1948, it should be all-right. Sometimes I do think that we should not take fortune telling to the extreme of letting it dictates our life or it shows that your love for her is not strong enough.' Xiao Wu had used the play of words intentionally to make Ah Tong think more about his own feelings more than what the divination says.
Ah Tong: 'Yes, I do feel guilty thinking about this but there is this uncomfortable feeling that I have. I was thinking why it is so coincidental for me to find out about it before the wedding. She had never mentioned this to me though the father thought she had.'
Xiao Wu: 'Simple, as she had accepted the name her father gave and it is always used in her documents right? This shows that it is just the mother only who uses this name. Further in destiny analysis, what is predicted had happens as you have already met a Xiao Fen would means that it won't be repeated again.'
Ah Tong: 'You are correct, I did hear about this before. Yeah, I should not think further about it as my wedding is only a few weeks away as I don't think anyone can else that can replaces her.'
He also had enough of those lonely days with strangers before meeting Miss Han.
With that, Xiao Wu heaved a sigh of relief instead of Ah Tong as he was thinking that he should have actually told Ah Tong that it is already pre-ordained in his destiny when a 鐵板 Tie Ban Iron Plate reading is used. But then, it might have affected and change his destiny for the worse if he decided to stay unmarried. After all, Ah Tong had already avoid girls born in the year of the rat and that should be good enough to avoid this prediction. At the same time, he was wondering whether the father or somebody had got the birth year mixed up as 1949 was a few years after World War 2 and the British administration was still undergoing changes however he thinks it was unlikely. He had remembered Ah Tong is going through good luck cycle from the bazi chart that he saw on that day of the fortune telling. This should be a favorable event though both destiny analysis are different methods but they should tally.
Soon the wedding day came and Xiao Wu was given preferential treatment at the dinner. Ah Tong had felt that after meeting Xiao Wu, he had managed to avoid marrying a girl born in the year of the Rat. He had been amazed about the accuracy of the fortune telling that Master Tie Pan did for him and believed in it strongly.
Well, as what Xiao Wu had analysed on the bazi chart was correct, Ah Tong, a weak fire Fire Day master was undergoing a Bing Zi (Fire and Water) luck pillar and further got married in a Ding Si year. It was not surprisingly that even before the marriage, Ah Tong had closed a major property deal and had made a substantial commission from it. Ah Tong had then decided to set up his own property company and in fact, had already found an office which was undergoing renovations. He had told Miss Han that he wants to postpone their honeymoon to a later date in that year because of new company. He also had wanted to clear some of the matters at his previous company and therefore would be very busy in between. Miss Han was very supportive and in fact, resigned from her job to help Ah Tong to oversee his company at times when Ah Tong had to go back to his previous company to settle some documentation for those previous property deals that he had closed.
One interesting thing about the office that Ah Tong rent is an Age 6 building facing South, the main entrance however is at the South East sector where there is a combination of Star 1 and Star 2. In the Xuan Kong script, :'一加二五伤及壮丁，坎流坤位，买臣常妇贱之羞 . Kan flow at Kun trigram bad for man and women.' as '腹多水而膨胀.' which is a clash between water and earth when one of the elements turn strong (Anyway, this interpretation I will leave it to readers to research). For commercial uses, it is still good as it brings prosperity for Age 6.
It was another good news for the couple when a few months later, Miss Han got pregnant. Soon she gave birth to a baby boy and Ah Tong was overjoyed and in fact, held a celebration dinner to share his joys. His company is also doing well as it had clinched several new projects in the booming Hong Kong property market. It was indeed, a double joy.
Another year passed and they have another new addition with the birth of a baby girl to the family. Soon Miss Han was bored with staying at home and taking care of the children and voices it out to Ah Tong. Ah Tong immediately suggested that she can help out at his company as certain projects that he have to personally handle can be assigned to her as in his line of business, he don't trust anybody because of the competiveness.
One fine day, Ah Tong came to hear about an old bungalow put up for sale after being unsold in an auction. Apparently, there were rumours about it being haunted and nobody wanted to buy it. Ah Tong had then thought: 'Well, I can just buy it and sell it at a good price as it is cheap. Afterall, I am not going to live there.' He had not thought of calling Xiao Wu as they have not kept in contact as Ah Tong have shifted to another property and did not go to the same park to jog anymore. Further, his company had also kept him busy and with entertaining clients more for his benefits, he had less time to socialize as well as being married. It is strange that most people when they are in good luck, they don't bother much about spiritual or metaphysical stuffs. It is only when they meet with a mishap or problem that can't be solved by coventional method, they then resort to unorthodox means.
After contacting the lawyer who is acting for the trustees, he asked Miss Han to inspect the property with an assistant as he was busy that day. It was about evening time when Miss Han and the administration assistant by the name of John Khoo went to look at the property. It was an old decrepit house with musky smell and an overgrown garden. Apparently it was vacant for several years, and while in the house, Miss Han noticed that John tried to stay around areas where there are windows and sunlight. She thought that then he might have been influenced by the rumours of it being haunted. She personally felt that there is nothing to worry about, not that she don't believed it but she thinks that as long as she don't provoke anything if there are any, there should not be any problems. She then went up to the second floor of the house alone as she do not want to force John to go along. After looking around and feeling satisfied, she then proceed to go back to the ground floor. As she was going down the stairs halfway, she thought she heard somebody called her and instinctively look up. At that moment, one of her foots was halfway in the air onto a step and she miscued and fell headlong down the remainder of the staircase to the ground floor. John heard her shouts and rushed immediately to the staircase as he was already being wary of the place. By then, she was lying unconsciously on the ground and he immediately carried her to the car and rushed to the hospital as the house was in a too remote area to get to a telephone. At the hospital, he immediately called Ah Tong to tell him about the mishap.
To be continued........
Dear friends, my apologies as I had wanted to complete translating the story by this year but as it needs to take another two parts of a page like this, I can only finished it by next year. A Facebook friend Lucy had requested me not to kill the story so I will try to give a more complete translation which I had actually not wanted to, Haiz. Anyway, I would LIKE to thank everybody here for the support given to my blog and I would like to wish everyone :
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!!!
And no, the world is not going to end yet.....
