Shaman of the Northeast: My Wife Specializes in Strange Cases

My name is Liu Yu. I'm an idler in a family compound in Harbin's old factory district. I usually keep an eye on the pool hall for people or lend a hand at the fruit stand. Put bluntly, I'm the kind of layabout everyone else says is wasting his life.

But my wife, Yan Jia, is something else.

We were childhood sweethearts and grew up together. Her family has passed down the art of incense roots for generations, and she's a bona fide spirit medium. She specializes in strange things science can't explain: babies who cry through the night, sleep paralysis, ghosts appearing in dreams to report violent deaths, and sinister spirits bringing misfortune. The people who come to her are all poor souls who've been tormented until they don't know what else to do.

My wife has her own way of dealing with these matters. The five spirit families, Hu, Huang, Chang, Mang, and Hui, hold court with her. The Bai family treats illnesses with no physical cause, while Qing Feng and Yan Hun help investigate. The Bei King guards the altar, and Black Mother, the Eagle Immortal, and the Turtle Immortal protect it from outside. She doesn't bother with empty pretenses: investigating, resolving problems, and urging people to do good all rely on the spirits' abilities and a kind heart. The only trouble is that she's always exhausted afterward, so I have to take care of her.

I'm just an ordinary person. I can't see or touch any of that stuff, but I was born with a strong yang constitution, and foul things steer clear of me. When my wife helps people, I sit nearby serving tea, backing her up, standing up to rude people, and cleaning up the mess afterward.

Someone gets jealous and starts talking trash about her? Liu Yu won't stand for it.

Someone tries to pick a fight and extort us? I'll show them what it means to mess with a tough guy from the factory district.

Anyway, things keep happening one after another in this old family compound: sinister, bizarre, people wailing for help, midnight knocks at the door. My wife and I go from household to household, helping them sort it all out, doing good deeds and building up a little good karma.

Want to hear what we've run into?

Then find a warm kang, brew a pot of tea, and let's