City Feng Shui Master: The Compass Breaks, Yin and Yang Are Born

Chen Jiu delivers takeout and minors in feng shui at a university of Chinese medicine. He worries about rent every day, but he has a secret: the old compass his grandfather left him, “Wind Listener,” lets him see the “qi” invisible to ordinary people. A strange draft changes his life: windows that open and close by themselves, a shadow on the balcony late at night, and an invisible “elevator hitchhiker” force him to face the compass’s power. When Old Wang, the grocery-store owner at the entrance to the residential complex, is driven to smash an identical compass by a demolition crew, Chen Jiu’s “Wind Listener” cracks in response. A text message reading “Draft, broken” pulls him into a whirlpool of events. It turns out his grandfather’s stories about a “compass rival” were no legend. In this seemingly ordinary city, the orientation of every building, the direction of every road, and even the location of every parcel locker conceal the codes of feng shui formations. He earns rent delivering takeout while using his half-baked feng shui skills to break formations. He helps a beautiful CEO fix the “clashing energy” in her office, only to discover that her company logo conceals a soul-suppressing formation. He checks the “gathering qi” livestreaming room of an online celebrity and stumbles upon a child-spirit-raising scheme in the fan group. Even the freezer at the milk tea shop he often visits faces a “yin eye.” As the cracks in the compass deepen, Chen Jiu gradually understands that feng shui is never about praying to gods and Buddhas. It is about the struggle between people and the city. Developers sever the earth’s ley lines to put up buildings; online celebrities sacrifice their fortune for views; and ordinary people remain oblivious as they live in “haunted houses” of steel and concrete. And he, a poor student who can barely afford rent, holds half of a broken compass that turns out to be the last weight keeping yin and yang in balance.