Sunday, October 14, 2018

The Skull 4: Tree Roots (骷髅4:树根)

Believe it or not? Tree roots can cause mysterious pains to descendant of a deceased...

I visited Mr. Anh Dung in his mansion in Hanoi, Vietnam as for a reason otherwise people like me would not have a chance to meet this rich businessman. According to Anh Dung that he and his siblings were attacked by strange illness where all of 5 folks were having severe migraine and eyesore almost at the same time.

His brother who was in the USA had the same problem while his eldest sister in Australia also had the same symptoms. Likewise Anh Dung's two brothers residing in China and himself also suffered from the same mysterious migraine and eyesore; specifically the pains were concentrated on the left side of the skull.

After exhausting all available modern diagnostic technology, Anh Dung had a very strange dream. In that dream his late father came to him and said that something pierced into his left eye and brain and the old man was suffering. He asked Anh Dung to help him get rid of his nagging problem. Felt clueless to what his father was trying to tell him, Anh Dung suddenly awakened in his dream by the crying sound of his 3 year old son.

Still bewildered of his pa's message, Anh Dung tried to consult spirit medium and fortune tellers in Hanoi but received no satisfactory answer until one day he had a lunch meeting with one of his Hong Kong business partner, Mr. Lee.

Mr. Lee invited Anh Dung to have a drink in a local pub but Anh Dung declined on the reasons of migraine and eyesore. Lee's natural response was to ask Anh Dung to consult a specialist but after Anh Dung relayed he and his siblings' nagging issue and his strange dream, Lee suggested to Anh Dung that his problem might be caused by ancestral grave Feng Shui and not medical related.

Anh Dung was curious but he wasn't too believe in Chinese Feng Shui but Lee said that it is no harm to ask someone to have a look as he will introduce an acquaintance to Anh Dung. And you have guessed that the person was me. And that was how I ended up in Anh Dung's house.

After looking around Anh Dung's mansion, I suggested to him that we should visit his father's grave. Anh Dung agreed and we started our journey first thing in the next morning. 

It took us slightly more than 1 hour to reach the grave of Anh Dung's dad. There were many huge trees surrounding the grave and the place was quite tranquil. 

I took out my compass and took some readings but nothing too unusual as Anh Dung has hired a very famous Feng Shui master to do the site selections and auspicious timing selections.

Finding no clues of what went wrong, I started to frown and Anh Dung could be seen giggling beside me as he didn't expect me to find faults with the grave. So after pondering for a while, I suggested to Anh Dung that we should exhume his old man's grave as the problems must be in the grave.

That suggestion was not a welcomed one as digging out the remains of someone of status is still a big deal to his descendants for the fear of disturbing the already good Feng Shui. Seeing that Anh Dung was indecisive, I decided to pack my bag and go.

But before I even ventured to take a step, Anh Dung took out a pistol and pointed at my head and said: "Do you dare to bet on your life? I will shoot you at point blank if there is nothing wrong underneath the grave?"

Though I can see ghosts but I have no six senses, I could only guessed. It was a case of damn if I do, and damn if I don't. I had to do something so I bit the bullet and said: "Just pull the trigger if there is nothing wrong."

Mr. Anh Dung was a powerful man in Hanoi and he immediately summoned a few diggers to the site and start digging the grave.

Soon the diggers reached the coffin cover and tree roots were seen entangled with the cover and it took the diggers great efforts to lift the cover. And as soon as the cover was lifted, the old man's remains were largely buried within the tree roots leaving the old man's skull that could still be seen. Even so, the old man's skull were already very tightly grasped by tree roots making it very difficult to be separate out.

Anh Dung was satisfied with my prediction and as it will take hours to separate his pa's remains from tree roots, he decided to leave the job to the diggers and we returned home.

There was no need for me to remain in Anh Dung's house so I excused myself and took the next flight back to Malaysia.

One month later, I received a letter from my pal, Mr. Lee. There was a cash check and a note with message: "Payment for your Feng Shui audit. Anh Dung's migraine and eyesores were gone. You are always welcomed to visit Anh Dung! TQ."

I liked the generosity of Anh Dung but not his hospitality... no one can enjoy when a pistol is pointing at his head, or can you? This is the first time and last time I performed Feng Shui audit under a gun point. Ha!