Превратись в лебедя и прилети к тебе

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Feng Junzi: "Where do you live?"

Girl: "I stay at a hotel near that underground plaza. I ran into you not long after I left the hotel today. Are you going to take me home now?"

Feng Junzi then realized that the girl might have been watched while she was at the hotel, and this group was not of simple origin. Call the police? How to put it? Send her back to the hotel? Then all his efforts this afternoon would probably be wasted. He sighed and asked, "What do you plan to do?"

The girl stared at Feng Junzi with her big, expectant eyes: "I don't know anyone here, except for you. I'll listen to you."

Feng Junzi shook his head. He had brought this trouble upon himself. Since he had already helped her, he decided to help her to the end: "Then come with me for now."

And so, as if possessed, Feng Junzi brought the girl back to his home.

Part 4: A Pair of Chopsticks Episode 3: Snowfield Egrets Seem to Leave No Trace

Feng Junzi's guess was correct; the girl was indeed Japanese, named Momoki Rin. Actually, even before Feng Junzi reached his doorstep, he was already starting to regret bringing this Japanese girl home without any explanation, and she had actually come back with him without any explanation either. Although Feng Junzi regretted it, once he turned around and saw the girl's clear, somewhat helpless eyes, he immediately lost his composure.

The girl seemed to have guessed what Feng Junzi was thinking. During her self-introduction, she proactively took out her ID and passport for him to inspect—apparently, she carried these with her while shopping, which slightly surprised Feng Junzi. Feng Junzi had studied English for ten years from middle school to university, taking countless English exams, but like most people with similar experiences, he couldn't read or write, and the sight of illegible foreign characters gave him a headache. However, he still carefully looked at a few key details on his documents, and his surprise only deepened.

"I can't believe you're already twenty-five. You look like you're eighteen or nineteen. What did you eat to grow up like that?"

To many, this might sound like a common, albeit unimpressive, compliment. However, Feng Junzi spoke it with genuine sincerity, and the girl's smile was genuine; she could hear the sincerity in his words. Feng Junzi then exclaimed, "So you're studying in America, and even a PhD student! I truly admire you!" Feng Junzi wanted to find a few more words to praise her, but realized he didn't recognize any other English, so he had no choice but to return the documents to her.

"My name is Feng Junzi, Feng as in wind, flowers, snow, and moon, and Junzi as in a righteous gentleman. This is my home." Feng Junzi finally remembered to introduce himself.

Peach Bell: "Feng Jun, your home is just like you, so stylish. I really like this white wood-grain floor. Thank you so much, there are so few people like you these days."

Feng Junzi: "Don't use your honorifics to address me. Just call me Feng Junzi. Calling me Feng Jun sounds weird. By the way, you just came back with me like this. Aren't you afraid I might be a bad person too?"

Peach Bell: "I can tell that Feng Junzi is not a bad person."

Feng Junzi laughed: "You should just call me Feng Junzi. Feng Junzi Jun sounds too convoluted. How do you know I'm not a bad person? As the saying goes, you can know a person's face but not their heart."

Peach Bell: "There is an old Chinese saying that 'the face reflects the heart.' If you can know a person's face, you can certainly know their heart. Mr. Feng, you are now doubting my origins and the identities of those who are pursuing me. Why don't you just ask me directly?"

“I think you would have told me even if I didn’t ask,” Feng Junzi said, feeling a little embarrassed that his thoughts had been exposed. Instead of pressing the issue directly, he said, “You shouldn’t call me Mr. Feng, just call me Feng Junzi. By the way, I haven’t asked you what you’ve come to Binhai for. Are you here for tourism?”

Tao Muling: "I'm here on behalf of our school for an academic exchange at Binhai Normal University, but it's scheduled for next month. I've come early, kind of like a little vacation. I never expected to meet such a kind person like you in Binhai. You once let a very special girl stay at your house for a long time. Are you always this warm-hearted?"

Feng Junzi was startled by these words, because what he had just been thinking about was an experience from his past: he had once brought a female ghost named Piaopiao home, and Piaopiao had "lived" in his house for a long time (see "Ghost Alley" for details). He had just been reminiscing about this when the other person brought it up. Feng Junzi asked in surprise, "Is that really true? How did you know?"

Tao Muling smiled and said, "I don't know, but I saw it. I saw you thinking about this scene just now."

"You can read minds? That's impossible!"

Tao Muling replied seriously, "This is not mind reading. It's a very formal psychological dialogue technique, and I specialize in this field. I know what you mean by mind reading, but my major isn't as magical as you make it out to be."

Feng Junzi: "What did you study?"

Momoko Rin: "Behavioral psychology, my mentor is...a professor at...university, who is very famous in this field."

Feng Junzi: "Don't speak English to me. Huxton, Philippa, Gengatemore, Maabiton, I can't remember them. Can you show me your ID again so I can look it up in the dictionary... Ah, you really are a psychology PhD... Guess what I'm thinking right now?"

Peach Bell: "You were on guard, I couldn't see that, but I don't understand what my ID has to do with the telephone pole?"

Feng Junzi sighed inwardly, truly astounding! He had just been wondering if the girl's ID was fake, thinking of the illegal "ID forgery" advertisements plastered everywhere on telephone poles. Facing someone like this, Feng Junzi dared not let his mind wander any further. He admitted that when he first saw this girl, he was purely attracted to her sex appeal, and couldn't help but have some unspoken fantasies. Thinking about it now, he couldn't help but blush slightly.

The girl seemed to see through his thoughts and said, "You don't need to worry. I can't understand all of other people's psychological activities in every situation. My research results can only detect a small part of them in specific situations."

Feng Junzi sighed, "This is already quite remarkable. Actually, I once attended a psychology lecture. There is a psychologist in China named Zhu Jianjun who introduced a technique called 'intentional dialogue' on television. I didn't quite believe it at the time, but now I've finally experienced it for myself!"

Peach Bell: "Feng Junzi, you are a very special person. I can feel that your spiritual power is very strong, which is obviously different from ordinary people. Moreover, I have also discovered that there is a very special energy hidden in your spiritual power. This energy is probably not even aware of itself, let alone others."

Feng Junzi laughed: "If someone else said such things, I would just consider him a traveling performer. Everyone accepts it when a fortune teller says someone is different from others, and when they say someone has potential, it's universally true and impossible to verify. It's a kind of psychology, you know. I didn't expect a psychologist like you to say such things!"

Peach Wood Bell: "Wandering the world performing arts?"

Feng Junzi: "You probably haven't met them. You must know what a Gypsy is, right? I met a lot of itinerant performers when I was young, and I learned a lot of strange and unusual things. I believe you when you say my spiritual power is special, but as for any other hidden potential, I don't know."

Peach Bell: "I'm serious. I had this feeling the moment I saw you, and I could also sense that you genuinely wanted to help me without any other motives, which is why I went with you."

Feng Junzi: "I still can't help but ask, who exactly are those people? Why are they tracking you?"

Peach Bell: "I don't know who they are. I think they're tracking me because they might be looking for something on me, or want to know something."

Feng Junzi: "So it wasn't about robbing you of your money or your virtue, that's really strange. What is it about you that can pique the interest of these people so much? I don't think they're simple characters either."

Tao Muling: "Since you're so eager to know, I'll tell you a story..." The girl looked up at Feng Junzi and slowly recounted a story that seemed both legendary and true. Feng Junzi was deeply captivated by the story. He gazed intently into the girl's eyes, finding them mesmerizing, their shimmering light possessing an indescribable charm. He even wondered, why is there such a difference in the eyes of women? Compared to Tao Muling, the eyes of many so-called beauties were simply lifeless bubbles! He was lost in this clear, bottomless pool of autumn water, forgetting whether he should have been on guard.

...

Have you ever experienced memory loss? I'm not referring to amnesia certificates; even normal people sometimes have gaps in their memory. Feng Junzi had such an experience. It happened shortly after he graduated from university, when he was working at a nuclear power plant in East China. One evening, he had dinner with some female colleagues. After drinking a bottle of Jiannanchun liquor and half a jin of Gujinggong liquor, the only thing he could remember was the next morning. Lying on his dormitory bed, he had no idea what had happened the night before. His two roommates said that they had helped him take off his clothes and threw them on his bed the previous night, and told him to go downstairs and check his bicycle.

When Feng Junzi went downstairs and saw his bicycle, he gasped. His brand-new mountain bike was twisted into a pretzel shape, while he himself was completely unharmed. He later questioned the female colleagues who had dined with him that night, but they all just smiled and didn't answer. Those smiles made Feng Junzi uneasy, but thankfully he wasn't a very sensitive person. Since they didn't bring it up, he didn't ask again, pretending it had never happened. However, from then on, Feng Junzi gave up drinking, though not completely. He tried to drink less spirits, but still enjoyed beer and wine, believing this way he could retain many pleasures in life.

Feng Junzi's memory gap had only occurred once in his life, many years ago. But this morning, when he woke up, that feeling suddenly returned. Feng Junzi found himself sleeping in his study, unable to recall why he was there. He began to slowly recall how he had "picked up" a Japanese woman named Momoko Rin on the street the day before. Momoko Rin was an American PhD in psychology, and they had talked for a long time.

Feng Junzi only remembered some conversations between him and Tao Muling, and that Tao Muling later told him a story. He couldn't recall what the story was, or what happened afterward. He couldn't remember what he had for dinner the previous night, or even if he had eaten dinner at all. He was currently sleeping in the study, so Tao Muling must be staying in his bedroom. He began to suspect that he might have drunk too much baijiu (Chinese liquor) again yesterday.

Feng Junzi yawned and went out, intending to get a glass of water from the kitchen. He found Tao Muling already up and making breakfast in the kitchen. Tao Muling was wearing his pajamas, which were noticeably oversized, with the sleeves and cuffs rolled up. Feng Junzi thought to himself, "Is she wearing nothing under those pajamas?" Tao Muling greeted him, "You're up! I didn't have any clothes to change into, so I took the liberty of wearing your pajamas. You don't mind, do you?"

Feng Junzi thought of pajamas and the other person mentioning pajamas, which reminded him of the other person's apparent ability to read people's minds. He immediately pulled himself together and stopped overthinking. He replied, "I'm sorry, I don't have any women's clothes here. Please change into whatever clothes of mine suit you. Last night..."

Feng Junzi wanted to ask what happened last night, since he couldn't remember anything. He wondered if he had drunk too much again, like many years ago. But before he could finish, Tao Muling answered, "You drank a lot last night and got drunk. How are you feeling now? I've made you some hangover tea. Take a sip."

Hearing Tao Muling's words, Feng Junzi didn't press the matter further. He took the teacup and said, "That's strange. How come you don't have a headache at all even though you're drunk? What delicious food are you making?"

Momoki Rin: "I'm making sushi, it'll be ready soon."

Feng Junzi: "Skinny people? Why eat skinny people? If you're going to eat someone, eat a fat one!"

Momoki Rin laughed and said, "It's sushi, not skinny. Sorry, my Chinese pronunciation isn't standard."

Feng Junzi: "You can make sushi at my house? Where did you get the ingredients?"

Tao Muling: "I have dried seaweed, canned sardines, and fresh cucumbers. Just cook a pot of rice. I also found a special bamboo mat for making sushi on your bookshelf."

Feng Junzi: "What? A special bamboo mat for making sushi? Where did you find it?"

Peach Bell: "It's right next to that purple stone ink sea on the bookshelf."

"Oh my god, that's the brush roll I use to tie my calligraphy brush!"

Part 4: A Pair of Chopsticks, Episode 4: Quietly Guarding the Ethereal Night with Sound

It was Sunday. After dinner, Feng Junzi was about to rest for a while when Tao Muling, already dressed in her clothes from the day before, asked him, "When are we leaving?"

Feng Junzi was a little confused: "What are we going to do?"

Peach Bell: "Didn't you teach me yesterday how to completely shake off these people's pursuit?"

Feng Junzi: "I taught you? How did I teach you?"

Peach Bell: "You said the best way to get rid of being followed is to stop the other person from looking for you, and the best way to stop them from looking for you is to make them believe that you are no longer in this place."

Feng Junzi nodded: "That makes a lot of sense. How exactly do we do it?"

Tao Muling: "You said I should go back to the hotel to check out and make a public appearance to draw out the stalkers. Then, I should book a train ticket to Changchun at the hotel's business center so that everyone knows I'm going to Changchun. You should go to Shenyang in advance and buy two train tickets from Shenyang back to Binhai. I'll get off in Shenyang, and you wait for me on the platform. We'll calculate the time and walk through the crowd through the exit tunnel to catch the train back to Binhai."

Feng Junzi's head was spinning. He thought, "This is so troublesome!" But then he realized that this kind of terrible idea was indeed his style. Since he had already given someone a suggestion while drinking yesterday and had promised to help, he couldn't be lazy now and had to go.

...

When the two returned home in the evening, they were both exhausted. Feng Junzi was certain that Tao Muling had shaken off her pursuers. Unless she had a GPS device, it was impossible for a person to track her. Therefore, her pursuers must now be certain that she had gone somewhere else, either Changchun or Shenyang. Feng Junzi, having spent the whole day on this, was also filled with doubt. He couldn't believe that he could have made such meticulous arrangements while drunk. The timing between the train's arrival in Changchun and the train's departure in Binhai was calculated perfectly, and the surging crowds on the platform and in the tunnels provided excellent cover. When the train back to Binhai started moving, the train to Changchun hadn't even started moving yet.

Feng Junzi wasn't stupid; he wouldn't really believe he was drunk last night. After returning home, he discreetly checked the liquor stores and found five extra empty beer bottles, apparently from when he and Tao Muling drank together. This only fueled his suspicions; five bottles of beer shouldn't have gotten him that drunk.

Tao Muling said that the plan to get rid of the stalkers that day was devised by Feng Junzi. Now there is one thing Feng Junzi can't understand: "Just how serious must the problem be for him to be so interested and go to such lengths to help Tao Muling get rid of the stalkers?" There must be a very important reason for him to do this, but he can't remember what the reason is.

Feng Junzi's last memory of last night was Tao Muling's clear and captivating eyes. Considering Tao Muling's identity—a psychology PhD—he could vaguely guess that he had been unwittingly manipulated, perhaps hypnotized. But can hypnosis truly erase a person's memory? Feng Junzi had never experienced this before.

Thinking this, Feng Junzi felt that Tao Muling had acquired a strange aura. He never expected to pick up such a person from the street. However, Feng Junzi's mentality was quite interesting. He didn't care. He immediately thought, "I've even brought a female ghost home before, why would I care about a woman? But this woman does have something in common with the female ghost—she's a Japanese devil!"

If someone else had such an experience, they would worry that the other person had controlled them through hypnosis. However, Feng Junzi knew a little about this, and he knew that hypnosis or other psychological techniques could not control a person to do something they didn't want to do. So he wasn't worried about it. In fact, he was quite curious.

That night, he tossed and turned, unable to sleep. He grew increasingly interested in Tao Muling's identity and past, feeling as if he had entered into a fascinating game. His mind raced, conjuring up images of Chen Zhen, Kawashima Yoshiko, and others. He even wondered if Tao Muling might be a Japanese or American spy. If so, he felt it was his responsibility to uncover her secrets.

Lost in thought until late into the night, Feng Junzi suddenly understood why he couldn't sleep. He was still shaken by his brief amnesia from the previous night, somewhat worried that he would wake up in the morning and find everything gone from his memory. The thought made him chuckle, but amusement didn't stop him from falling asleep. He came up with a seemingly foolish but absolutely effective solution—he simply wouldn't sleep tonight!

...

Feng Junzi told Tao Muling that he had met many martial arts figures in his youth and learned many strange and unusual things, which was true. For a period of time in his youth, he practiced alchemy and studied a set of things such as fasting and breathing exercises, guided meditation, drawing energy from the lower body, and circulating energy through the body. It can be said that he was ahead of the qigong craze in mainland China.

However, Feng Junzi didn't become a master. He was a bit unlucky, nearly suffering a qi deviation while meditating and refining elixirs. Feng Junzi grew up in Wucheng, which was just a small city at the time. People in cities today might not understand the environment back then—how could there still be pig slaughterhouses in the city center? Feng Junzi's near-qi deviation experience was related to pig slaughtering.

Not far from Feng Junzi's house lived a butcher who slaughtered pigs in his backyard every few days. He usually started slaughtering very early, before dawn, to deliver the pork to the market by daybreak. That day, Feng Junzi meditated a little late, until almost dawn. As he regulated his breathing and entered a state of tranquility, his inner energy flowing through the crucial point of the Twelve Levels (the area of the chest and throat), he suddenly heard an incredibly grating scream. Nowadays, to describe someone's unpleasant scream as a "pig-like howl," what Feng Junzi heard was unmistakably a pig-slaughtering scream.

Perhaps due to his young age and lack of composure, the scream made Feng Junzi feel his blood churn, and he saw a dazzling array of colors before his eyes. Realizing something was wrong, he quickly calmed himself and regulated his breathing, taking a long time to regain his composure. Fortunately, he escaped unharmed. However, this unexpected experience left Feng Junzi with a lingering problem: when he was extremely tired or mentally overworked, he would often experience nightmares at night. In these nightmares, he couldn't move his body but could see everything around him, yet he was constantly surrounded by a series of sharp, tinnitus sounds. According to doctors, this was tinnitus, which occurs when the brain is excessively fatigued. However, since graduating from university, Feng Junzi hadn't experienced this again in all these years.

That night, Feng Junzi felt something was amiss; a feeling from many years ago returned. Deciding not to sleep, he remembered he hadn't practiced meditation in a long time, so he decided to meditate overnight. Having cultivated his foundation for over a decade, Feng Junzi quickly adjusted his body, breath, and mind, entering a state of complete absorption, melting his consciousness and body into a state of emptiness. In this ethereal state, sensory perception was still present, but left no trace; it could be described as a bird flying across a mirror, casting a shadow as it passes, but leaving nothing behind. However, today was different. As soon as Feng Junzi entered a meditative state, he heard a sharp, piercing cry, the same tinnitus that had plagued his nightmares for years.

A thirty-year-old naturally has much better composure than a teenager. Feng Junzi remained calm, simply ignoring the sound and letting it ring in his ears. But the sound went on and on. At first, it was a faint scream, but then it gradually grew louder and became a very real sound.

Feng Junzi listened quietly, the sounds around him becoming the realistic crashing of waves against the rocks. Gradually, the sound of gunfire and cannons rose from the waves, growing louder and more deafening. Just as Feng Junzi felt his eardrums were about to give way, the gunfire subsided, and he heard the cries of a woman. The cries were mournful, but then they changed, becoming the tender cries of a baby…

The sounds of waves, gunfire, and the cries of women and children mingled in Feng Junzi's ears. He was probably grateful for his past experience with tinnitus, which allowed him to remain calm and focused in his meditation. In his meditative state, the sounds grew increasingly real, so real they seemed unlike anything he'd heard in a dream. He listened carefully to the direction of the sounds and realized they were coming from his bedroom—Tao Muling was sleeping there.

Feng Junzi was puzzled and immediately snapped out of his meditative state. However, the moment his mind wandered, all sound suddenly vanished. Feng Junzi became restless. He walked to the bedroom door and knocked. He heard the sound of the peach wood bell turning on the light, and then, still sleepy, asked, "Feng Junzi, is there something you need?"

Feng Junzi: "Peachwood Bell, did you hear anything just now?"

Tao Muling opened the door, seemingly not fully awake yet: "What was that sound? I didn't hear anything. What's wrong? Can't you sleep?"

Feng Junzi: "It's nothing, nothing at all. It's probably just some noise outside. Go back to sleep."

Tao Muling glanced at Feng Junzi with a puzzled look, said nothing, and went back to sleep. However, Feng Junzi found it even harder to fall asleep. He returned to his study and tried several more times. Strangely enough, the sound seemed to be truly present in the room, only audible when he was in a meditative state. As soon as Feng Junzi entered a meditative state, the sound would immediately come, and its direction was unmistakably from the bedroom.

Part 4: A Pair of Chopsticks 05 Don't Lament the Smallness of the World

After a night of tossing and turning, Feng Junzi naturally didn't get much rest. He was groggy throughout the next day at work. In the afternoon, Feng Junzi received a call from his old friend Chang Wu. Feng Junzi asked weakly, "Chang Wu, what's up? Did you encounter something strange while solving the case?"

Chang Wu answered irrelevantly: "Feng Junzi, do you know Lin Zhenzhen?"

Feng Junzi: "Lin Zhenzhen? I know her. She's a reporter from Beijing, and her parents are from Binhai. She was recently transferred to the Binhai reporter station. She's quite pretty. How come you know her?"

Chang Wu: "I don't know as many girls as you do. I just picked up her wallet."

Feng Junzi: "What? You found Lin Zhenzhen's wallet? You're really unlucky. It's embarrassing to keep a wallet belonging to an acquaintance so secret. You have to return it and miss a chance to make a fortune... By the way, how did you know to call me? You don't know I know Lin Zhenzhen."

Chang Wu: "Your business card is in my wallet. Looks like either you two are on good terms, or you just hand out your business cards to any pretty girl you see..."

Feng Junzi: "Hold on, how can you be so sure that wallet belongs to Lin Zhenzhen?"

Chang Wu: "There was an access pass for a Beijing newspaper in my wallet, and the name on it was Lin Zhenzhen."

Feng Junzi: "Congratulations! Someone's treating you to drinks tonight."

Chang Wu: "Who is it?"

Feng Junzi: "Of course it's for the owner, Lin Zhenzhen. We're hosting a banquet to thank our honest police officer, Chang Wu. Hang up now, I'll call Lin Zhenzhen. I'll introduce you to this beautiful woman tonight."