Saturday morning arrived with a sky the color of washed-out gray, a shade of humidity and pollution unique to Shanghai. Chen Wei sat before his laptop, a complex Excel file open on the screen. The numbers, colored cells, and growth charts were supposed to be his world, the place where he felt most powerful and secure. Today, they were just soulless glyphs.
An unread email from his department head blinked in the corner of his screen, its subject line reading "URGENT: Phoenix Project Update." It was undoubtedly a request for weekend work.
He sighed, a weariness seeping into his bones that had little to do with lack of sleep. A week ago, this email would have been an interesting challenge, a logical puzzle for him to solve. Now, it was just a nuisance, a faint echo from a life he wasn't sure he belonged to anymore. How could he care about optimizing an app's conversion rate when there were tigers in qipaos strolling along the Bund and spiritual mosquitoes sucking the life out of people on the subway?
He closed the laptop, not even bothering to read the email. The decision felt like a mixture of guilt and rebellion. He was neglecting his tangible, salaried responsibilities to chase something invisible and insane. He was betting his career, and possibly his sanity, on the word of a feng shui shop girl in a panda hoodie.
A pure risk analysis would show this to be an act of logical suicide.
'But,' a voice in his head countered, 'your logic saw a wisp of gray smoke leave a man's chest. Your logic felt the nod from that tigress. The old logic doesn't apply anymore. You need a new set of rules, a new operating system, or you'll just be a system error waiting to be deleted.'
The thought solidified his resolve. He pulled on a simple jacket, made sure the black agate bracelet was still on his wrist, and walked out of his apartment, heading towards Yuyuan Garden.
At ten o'clock sharp, Chen Wei pushed open the door to the Hall of Assembled Treasures. The brass wind chimes sang their clear note, and the familiar scent of sandalwood greeted him.
Lin Xiao Tong was there, but she wasn't in her pajamas. She wore a simple, indigo-colored liàn gōng fú—a martial arts training uniform—her short hair tied back neatly. She looked completely different, serious and focused. A sign hung on the door: "Temporarily Closed."
"You're on time," she said, without a smile. "Good. In this world, being late can get you killed."
She motioned for him to come behind the counter, to a smaller area that looked like a tea room. A woven cattail cushion sat on the floor.
"Sit. The first thing you need to learn is 'silence.' Not silence of the mouth, but silence of the mind. Your perception is like a hypersensitive microphone. If you're constantly making noise inside, you'll never hear the subtle sounds from the outside."
Chen Wei sat, trying to comply. But silence was difficult. His mind was a storm of questions, fears, and calculations. The Phoenix Project. Hu Meilan. The cost of the bracelet. Was he being scammed?
Xiao Tong seemed to ignore his struggle. She simply began to prepare tea in silence. He watched her. Her every movement was precise, deliberate. The way she rinsed the small clay pot, the way she measured the leaves, the way she poured the hot water. The stream of water made a soft, trickling sound, and the steam that rose carried a clean, pure scent that almost seemed to scrub the mind.
Chen Wei focused on that sound, on that scent, and slowly, the chaos in his head began to settle.
"Better," Xiao Tong remarked without looking up. "Now, first lesson. You call it 'qi,' but that's too generic a term. It's like calling all vehicles 'transportation.' You need to learn to differentiate. Consider this shop your laboratory."
She stood and walked to a shelf. "Everything in the universe has a vibration, an energy signature. Normal people can't feel it. Daoists like me train for years to be able to tell them apart. But you... you seem to have been born with a receiver. The problem is, you don't know how to read what you're picking up."
She picked up two objects. One was a string of old, verdigris-stained coins tied with a red thread. The other was a milky-white jade pendant carved in the shape of a cicada.
"Close your eyes. Hold out your hands."
Chen Wei obeyed. He felt a cool, rough object placed in his left palm—the string of coins. Immediately, a sense of chaos washed over him. It wasn't bad, but it was complex, like the din of a crowded marketplace. He could feel countless faint imprints—a merchant's greed, a buyer's worry, a gambler's hope. It was Rén Qì—Human Qi, the energy of people, accumulated over centuries.
"Now," Xiao Tong's voice said. She placed the jade pendant in his right palm.
The feeling was completely different. It was pure, still, and cool, like a high mountain lake on a windless morning. It held no human emotion, only a sense of peaceful, ancient existence. This was Líng Qì—Spiritual Qi, the energy of heaven and earth, gathered in the jade over millennia.
"Open your eyes."
Chen Wei opened them, a sheen of sweat on his forehead. "I... I felt it."
"I know," Xiao Tong said, a flicker of surprise in her eyes. "Most beginners just feel 'warm' or 'cold.' You felt the 'texture' of it. Alright, next."
She led him on a tour of the shop, having him touch and describe what he felt. An old Bagua mirror radiated a sharp, protective energy, like a soldier standing at attention. A dried gourd felt hollow and absorbent, like a spiritual vacuum cleaner. A bronze statue of Guan Gong emanated Zhèng Qì—Righteous Qi, an energy that was unyielding, powerful, and uncompromising.
As Chen Wei practiced, he began to notice something strange. His ability wasn't just limited to supernatural items. He looked at the LED light on the ceiling and felt its clean, steady flow of electrical energy. He glanced at the wifi router in the corner and "saw" a complex, invisible network of signals blanketing the room, carrying tiny packets of data. It was exactly like how he'd felt the neon lights on the subway.
'It's not just the qi of the earth,' he realized. 'It's the qi of this era. The qi of the city. Electricity, radio waves, data... they're a form of energy, too. One that traditional Daoists might not pay attention to.'
"Hey, look at this," Chen Wei said, a hint of excitement in his voice. He pointed to a large feng shui crystal hanging near the window. "It's not just refracting sunlight. It's... filtering it. It's taking the natural light, which has Líng Qì, and separating it. But it's also drawing in the energy from the signs across the street. It's like a spiritual network hub."
Xiao Tong watched him in silence. She walked over and placed her own hand on the crystal. She closed her eyes, and Chen Wei could see her concentrating. After a moment, she opened them, a thoughtful look on her face.
"I can feel the sun's Líng Qì being amplified," she admitted. "I can't feel what you're talking about with the signs. It's too faint, too muddled. It's like trying to hear a whisper in a roaring stadium."
She looked at Chen Wei. "Your ability... it's not normal. Most of us learn to sense the big, ancient flows—dragon veins under the earth, the qi of heaven. You can hear the static, the micro-currents of the modern world. That's why you were so sensitive to things like the Star-Sucking Hag. They operate on the same low, urban frequency."
She crossed her arms, pacing. "There's an old legend, a very old one, about people who could hear the 'symphony of the city.' They didn't just use talismans or formations; they could 'persuade' the city to help them. They could borrow the power of a skyscraper, or hide themselves in the chaos of a busy intersection. Most people think it's just a fairy tale. Like the legend of the Yin-Yang Harmonizer."
She stopped, looking at Chen Wei as if truly seeing him for the first time. Not as a customer, not as a burden, but as an unknown variable. A new piece on the board that no one had anticipated.
"Alright, Chen Wei," she said, her tone shifting, more serious than ever before. "The plan has changed. We're not just going to learn defense."
"We're going to find out what that 'signal receiver' of yours can really do."