Chapter 0089: The Couple's Calamity
Khun Na assumed she was talking in her sleep and didn't pay much attention, proceeding to engage in intimacy with his wife. The next morning while washing up, his wife said, "Why did you do it twice last night? The first time you even covered my mouth with your hand, like you were raping me. It was thrilling, though—you were incredibly forceful, not like your usual self at all." Khun Na's heart skipped a beat. He didn't dare say much, thinking that someone must have snuck in and had their way with his wife without her even knowing.
He was livid, vowing to hunt down this audacious lecher and hack him to death. From then on, Khun Na intentionally extended the casino's closing time by two hours. However, he didn't stay to watch the floor; instead, he hid in the storage room adjacent to the bedroom, peering through a discarded, normally locked iron door to spy on the bedroom.
By the fourth day, he noticed movement. His wife was sleeping alone in the bedroom when, in the pitch black, the bedroom door slowly opened. Khun Na found it strange—the door was deadbolted, and only the two of them had keys. How was it opening? No one could be seen entering, yet the door closed on its own. Khun Na watched as his wife, like a sleepwalker, lifted the covers herself, slowly removed her nightgown and underwear, raised her legs, and her body began to move rhythmically. Her mouth only emitted low, muffled moans, as if being covered by a hand.
Witnessing this, Khun Na trembled all over. Steeling his nerves, he grabbed a machete and charged out. He slammed the bedroom door open and flicked on the lights. In an instant, he felt a gust of bone-chilling wind sweep past, causing him to shiver violently several times. His wife's body immediately flattened against the bed. Opening her eyes and seeing Khun Na's state, she screamed in terror, confused about what was happening.
Khun Na, huffing and puffing, searched the room relentlessly. His wife's arousal hadn't even faded yet; seeing her husband fully dressed and rummaging through the room with a knife, she was also startled. She asked, "What... what's going on?"
"There's a ghost in this room, a lecherous ghost!" Khun Na whispered.
His wife shrieked in fear, wrapping herself in the duvet and refusing to come out. Khun Na searched every corner, inside and out, but found nothing. After a thought, he pulled out his keys and opened the room where the Dark Tablet was kept. When he turned on the light, he was stunned. The clay slab with the photograph wasn't on the wooden cabinet; it was sitting quietly in the very center of the floor. Khun Na tried to recall—the last time he had entered this room was at dawn, and back then, the Dark Tablet had been perfectly fine on its shelf.
Khun Na broke into a cold sweat. He had a sinking feeling that doing "that thing" in this room that day had definitely been improper. He immediately pulled out his mobile phone and called Frank Fang, explaining the situation in full detail. Frank Fang was sound asleep; he answered the phone in a daze, listened for a moment, and told Khun Na they would talk tomorrow.
After hanging up, Frank Fang put the matter out of his mind. By noon the next day, Khun Na couldn't help but call him again. Only then did he reluctantly go to the casino. Khun Na's wife looked embarrassed; the idea of an outsider knowing she had been "raped by a ghost" was mortifying. Frank Fang went to the room where the Dark Tablet was kept; the slab was still in the middle of the floor. Frank Fang casually picked it up, placed it back on the cabinet, and clapped his hands. "OK, it's fine now!"
"What? That's... that's it?" Khun Na couldn't believe his ears. "Nothing has been solved!"
Frank Fang laughed. "What else do you want me to do? Should I pull the man's soul out of this Dark Tablet, give him a beating, and tell him not to mess with other people's wives anymore?"
Khun Na was speechless but said, "But you have to help me think of something. I can't just watch this dead man haunt my wife."
Frank Fang snorted. "I already told you the taboos, but you chose not to follow them. What can I do? I'm just an Amulet broker, not a Master Ajarn. I'm afraid of ghosts too. Go find someone else to solve it." Having said that, he turned to leave. Khun Na, naturally unwilling, grabbed Frank Fang, and they began to argue heatedly. His wife, afraid of being overheard by outsiders, rushed up to mediate. Eventually, Frank Fang had no choice but to promise he would ask Ajarn Pong. Only then did Khun Na let him go.
In reality, Frank Fang had no intention of asking Ajarn Pong. He still remembered clearly how the Taipei mob boss, Brother Yao, had caused the death of Kanzy. In his heart, he detested people who didn't play by the rules, so he ignored the matter, thinking he'd deal with it whenever Khun Na nagged him again. About half a month passed. Frank Fang's Amulet business was booming, and he was making more and more money. Even his gambling moved to VIP suites in grand hotels.
One day, Frank Fang passed by a local fruit shop; the secret entrance to Khun Na's casino was located in that shop's warehouse. He remembered the Dark Tablet incident again, wondering how many more times Khun Na's wife had been possessed. He thought he really should help Khun Na ask about a solution. Just as he was planning to drive to see Ajarn Pong that afternoon, he noticed the fruit shop's iron shutters were tightly closed, with a "For Rent" notice posted on them. He found it strange. Just then, the owner of the restaurant next door came out to buy cigarettes. Frank Fang, who was well-acquainted with him, pretended to buy cigarettes as well, greeted him, and asked why the fruit shop was closed and for rent. What about Khun Na's casino inside?
The restaurant owner looked around and whispered, "You don't know? Khun Na and his wife both died over ten days ago!"
Frank Fang was shocked and hurriedly asked what had happened. As they stepped out of the cigarette shop, the restaurant owner told him that about half a month ago, one morning, several gamblers came to kill time. They entered the fruit shop and rang the bell at the secret warehouse door, but no one opened it for a long time. They figured the couple had gone out on business and didn't think much of it, but it remained the same for several days. The fruit shop owner hadn't seen them for days either; their phones were always off. He wondered where they had gone, but then he smelled the stench of decomposing corpses in the warehouse. Sensing something was wrong, he called a locksmith to open the secret door. When he went inside, he was paralyzed with horror. Khun Na's wife was lying naked on the bedroom bed, the sheets soaked through with blood from her lower body. Khun Na was lying on the floor of the room where the black-and-white photograph was kept, his right hand tightly gripping a knife plunged directly into his own heart. Both corpses had already begun to rot.
The shop owner and the locksmith had no choice but to call the police. When the police inspected the scene, it went without saying that all the casino equipment was exposed. The autopsy result was that Khun Na's wife had been raped to death, while Khun Na's case was even stranger—all evidence pointed to suicide. The rape case remained unsolved for the time being, but the fruit shop owner was also arrested and sentenced for conspiring with Khun Na to run a gambling operation.
Hearing this news, Frank Fang felt a twinge of guilt. If he had gone to see Ajarn Pong earlier, perhaps there would have been a chance to resolve things. Of course, if Kanzy hadn't died so miserably, he wouldn't have been so cold-hearted. Since it had already happened, there was nothing to be done. From then on, Frank Fang established a rule for himself: whether a friend or a stranger, if someone who invited an Amulet, Kuman Thong, or Ghost Child from him ran into trouble because they failed to follow the rules of offering, he would not involve himself in the aftermath unless the party was willing to pay.
Several years passed in the blink of an eye, reaching the end of 1999. Frank Fang's Amulet business was thriving, with customers across all regions and industries in Thailand. Thailand is not an immigrant country, and theoretically, foreigners are not allowed to change to Thai nationality. He had to use money to bribe a customer working at the Immigration Bureau to process a Permanent Residency permit for himself, finally "whitewashing" his identity. However, he still didn't dare return to Guangdong to see his family. Chinese law dictates that there is no statute of limitations on homicide; in other words, as long as Frank Fang was discovered by Chinese police, he could be arrested at any time. He had no choice but to stay obediently in Thailand and continue his Amulet business.
There are forty to fifty thousand temples in Thailand, and every temple has Amulets and Kuman Thong. Local Thais can invite an amulet from a temple at any time, but most of those are Light Amulets . If one wished to achieve certain unspeakable goals or was desperate to solve specific hardships, they had to turn to Dark Amulets or even Evil Dark Amulets. Consequently, Frank Fang's business primarily involved helping people invite Dark Amulets and Ghost Children.
At that time, Chinese people knew almost nothing about Thai Amulets and Kuman Thong, and few sought them. Most of his clients were local Thais or from Southeast Asia. Having spent two years in Malaysia and now being settled in Thailand, Frank Fang understood Burmese, Filipino, and Cambodian Khmer in addition to those two languages. This proved to be a great help in expanding his business.