At Five, I Took Leave to Officiate Funerals and Weddings in My Village

Qin Hao, the current head of the Celestial Master’s mansion, is a renowned Taoist master and one of China’s foremost experts. Feng shui, fortune-telling, ghost exorcism: there’s nothing he can’t do. But one day, Qin Hao unexpectedly transmigrates into the body of a little boy in a parallel world. And the boy’s seniority is astonishing: he’s the new clan chief of Changping Village. Just then, the crew of the variety show Strange Tales from the Countryside arrives in the village, and the five-year-old Qin Hao’s funeral ceremony is livestreamed from start to finish. The whole internet goes wild: “No way! Am I seeing this right? Are little kids these days really this impressive? Why does he look even more professional than a Taoist priest from Mount Longhu? Am I imagining things?” “I’m dying. This is the youngest ancestor I’ve ever seen. He looks all baby-faced, but acts like an old man, and somehow it doesn’t feel weird at all.” “He’s even more professional than a Taoist priest from Mount Longhu. I’m sold: Qin Hao is the next heir to the Celestial Master’s mansion on Mount Longhu.” … He suddenly goes viral and becomes the internet’s number-one sensation. Qin Hao takes it all in stride. To a Celestial Master, this is just a small funeral. Before long, Qin Hao is telling fortunes, offering blessings, reading feng shui, revising family genealogies, and exorcising ghosts, becoming the country’s number-one wonder. “Master, isn’t this unscientific?” Qin Hao: “You have to believe in science.”