Превратись в лебедя и прилети к тебе

Глава 55

Huang Dongbo: "Yes, yes, what exactly happened?"

Feng Junzi: "You don't need to know what happened. Everything in the world has a cause and effect. If Ding Xiaoyu's matter really has nothing to do with you as you say, then why did you come to find me so early in the morning?"

Huang Dongbo: "Teacher Feng, I'm really being haunted by a ghost. I don't know why. Can you help me and stop that woman's ghost from haunting me?"

Just as Tao Muling was about to speak, Feng Junzi gestured for her to be quiet. He turned to Huang Dongbo and said, "I might be able to give it a try. First, let me tell you, that little ronin doll in your house isn't very clean. Did you cut your finger a few days ago?"

Huang Dongbo: "Yes, I accidentally cut my finger in the office a few days ago, which happened to be around the time I received that little ronin doll."

Feng Junzi: "It has your blood on it. Go back, find it, and wash it clean. That's the first thing you need to do."

Huang Dongbo: "Is there a second one?"

Feng Junzi: "You said a ghost is haunting you, but you still haven't seen her. If you never see her, then it's fine. But if one day you see her, you should do this—make this hand seal with the fingers of your right hand, and then press your index finger firmly on her forehead, and she will disappear."

As he spoke, Feng Junzi made a strange hand seal with his right hand. Huang Dongbo studied it carefully for a long time until he could imitate it exactly, and then left with profuse thanks.

The Legend of the Psychic Chopsticks: Part 8 - Soul Separation and Inescapable Calamity

After Huang Dongbo left, Tao Muling said to Feng Junzi, "Why didn't you let me speak? Actually, the method you taught him makes a lot of sense. It's a kind of reinforced psychological suggestion that allows him to protect his self-awareness."

Feng Junzi: "Is that so? You can explain it that way."

Peach Bell: "Your approach in this regard is truly worth learning from. Making your fingers into those strange shapes is a strong suggestion. You came up with this trick on the spur of the moment, didn't you?"

Feng Junzi: "Of course not, it's a hand seal, you wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you."

Tao Muling: "Never mind, we always disagree, but I don't object to your approach. Do you think Huang Dongbo will be alright?"

Feng Junzi: "I look down on this kind of person and just want to get rid of him as soon as possible. As for what I said, it's all true. I wouldn't lie to him. Whether he's alright or not, only heaven knows. You have to understand that a calamity is a calamity, and sometimes human effort can't force it. What I told him and the methods I taught him are absolutely effective, but his own calamity can only be overcome by himself."

...

After a terrifying night at the hotel, Huang Dongbo realized that moving wouldn't make much of a difference, so he went home that day. However, he was now too afraid to spend the night alone, so he invited several single employees over to play mahjong. He enthusiastically asked two of them, who were also single and renting apartments, if they felt their living conditions were unsatisfactory, they could move in with him, since the apartment was rented by the company and was a company benefit. He even said that if they found any better apartments, the company could rent them and they could all move in together.

Several employees had only come to appease their boss, but now, seeing Huang Dongbo's attitude, they found it a bit strange. However, they didn't say anything and simply echoed his sentiments. Once the mahjong game started, it went on and on. Around midnight, Huang Dongbo felt the urge to urinate and got up to go to the restroom. While washing his hands, he glanced at the mirror and suddenly saw Ding Xiaoyu's eerie figure standing behind him, her single eye gleaming with resentment as she stared intently at him.

Suddenly, Huang Dongbo was terrified, turning around sharply to look behind him—but there was nothing there. He turned back to look in the mirror, and Ding Xiaoyu's appearance seemed to have changed; blood was flowing from her face, and she was lunging forward, raising her arms as if to struggle to leap out of the mirror. Huang Dongbo suddenly remembered the hand seals Feng Junzi had taught him, which he had practiced countless times on his own. In this situation, he didn't have time to think further; he formed the hand seals and forcefully pointed his index finger at Ding Xiaoyu's forehead—

His finger slammed heavily into the mirror, and with a sharp "crack," the mirror shattered, and Ding Xiaoyu's reflection vanished without a trace. A flying shard of glass struck Huang Dongbo squarely in the left eye. Huang Dongbo screamed, clutching his face and collapsing to the ground, blood gushing from between his fingers.

The people in the living room didn't know what had happened, but they heard the sound of shattering glass and Huang Dongbo's scream coming from the bathroom.

...

A few days later, at Tao Muling's repeated urging, Feng Junzi accompanied her to the hospital to visit Huang Dongbo. Huang Dongbo had now completely calmed down, and no strange phenomena were bothering him anymore, just as Feng Junzi had said—the ghost had disappeared. However, Huang Dongbo had lost an eye.

After returning home, Tao Muling deliberately teased Feng Junzi: "Just like you said, his fate was inescapable. But since you taught him the hand seals, why is he still blind in one eye? Did you not study properly when your master taught you, and did you do the posture of one finger incorrectly?"

Feng Junzi, however, paid no heed to the sarcasm in Tao Muling's tone. He calmly said, "I was indeed teaching incorrectly. I would like to ask you, a psychologist, a question: Are you familiar with Freud's theory of error?"

Peach Bell: "Of course I know, and you should know too, so why are you asking me?"

Feng Junzi: "The hand seal I taught him was completely correct, but I forgot one thing, which is that this hand seal is only effective when it draws blood. That is to say, when he points out his index finger, he should first prick his finger to let the blood flow out or bite the tip of his tongue to spit the blood on. He didn't know this, so in the end he still paid the price of bleeding. However, I forgot at the time, and I swear I didn't forget on purpose."

Peach Bell: "This probably indicates that your true desire deep down isn't to help him. Do you really want to use that hand seal of yours to deal with that poor woman? She's already dead, do you really want her to suffer further?"

Feng Junzi: "Wood, you've got it wrong this time. The hand seal I taught you isn't a way to harm ghosts, but rather to send them back. It's said that the wronged souls of those who die unjustly can't find their way to the afterlife and wander in the human world in unbearable pain. That hand seal is called the Rebirth Seal."

Peach Bell: "Do you always like to make things so mysterious? Don't you want to hear a scientific explanation?"

"The Psychic Chopsticks" Side Story: Soul Separation Nine, The Mystery of Soul Separation

Ever since meeting Feng Junzi, Tao Muling had been trying to correct his "ideologies," explaining to him a great deal about psychology, pathology, and social phenomenology. In reality, she never truly understood Feng Junzi, and her attempt to "assimilate" him was doomed to failure.

Hearing Tao Muling say these things to him again, Feng Junzi laughed and asked, "Aren't you scared now? Aren't you good at haunted house experiences? How come you were so scared that night?"

Tao Muling, as expected of a well-trained expert, was indeed terrified by her experience that night. However, after calming down and reflecting, she felt that all the phenomena could be reasonably explained, and she eventually calmed down. Not only did she calm down, but she even felt that the experience that night was very meaningful to her, which was something Feng Junzi couldn't help but admire.

Tao Muling replied, "After that experience, I won't do it again. I even want to write a thesis about it. There's only one question I haven't figured out yet: was Huang Dongbo sleepwalking?"

Feng Junzi: "Do you know how the term 'sleepwalking' was used in ancient China?"

Peach Bell: "You can't stump me. I know it's called 'dissociative identity disorder,' right?"

Feng Junzi: "You're right. There was indeed a term for 'dissociation of the soul' in ancient China. Later, with the advent of Western medicine, people translated 'dissociation of the soul' as 'sleepwalking.' When it was translated into foreign languages, I'm afraid no one knew what 'dissociation of the soul' meant. But 'dissociation of the soul' and sleepwalking are two different things."

Peach Bell: "Really? You're saying Huang Dongbo has dissociative identity disorder?"

Feng Junzi nodded: "I don't know if he has a disease, but this is indeed the legendary phenomenon of soul separation. You should be an expert in this area, so I'd like to ask you. Have you ever seen a patient like this, who feels that their consciousness has separated from their body and exists there?"

"Yes, there are many such cases, especially among patients who were rescued from critical condition. Most of them have had this experience. Some people believe that this is a self-protective mechanism for people to psychologically escape pain and fear. Would you call this dissociative identity disorder?"

Feng Junzi: "I'm not quite sure either, which is why I'm asking you. But Huang Dongbo's situation is different. It's not that his consciousness left his body, but rather that his body left his consciousness. His body ran into the corridor, but his conscious mind was still lying on the bed. His soul was imprisoned, and his body was out of control. This is probably what is called soul separation."

Peach Bell: "Then how do you explain that doll?"

Feng Junzi shook his head: "I am not a god, I do not know everything in this world, and I do not want to presumptuously explain everything that happens in the world."

...

Although everything is over and things seem to be over, neither Huang Dongbo, Tao Muling, nor Feng Junzi fully understand what happened that night.

Huang Dongbo did indeed prick his finger, accidentally dripping blood onto the little ronin doll. This doll may have undergone a strange change in a way we don't know. The reason Huang Dongbo accidentally pricked his finger was because the doll reminded him of something unsettling, though he wasn't consciously aware of it. Perhaps it was precisely because the doll only had one eye that he subconsciously associated it with another eye, but this awareness was so deeply buried that Huang Dongbo himself didn't feel it clearly.

Actually, on the night of July 15th, if you were someone else standing in front of Huang Dongbo's bedroom door, you would have witnessed an untold story unfold. Huang Dongbo was lying in bed having a nightmare, his soul seemingly trapped and unable to move by the nightmare, when a woman's figure appeared at his bedside.

The woman reached out as if to strangle Huang Dongbo, but her form was hollow, devoid of any real power; she had no way to harm him. However, Huang Dongbo was in a daze during his nightmare, his very soul seemingly suppressed and unable to move by his own nightmare. The woman stood by Huang Dongbo's bedside for a long time, as if she had discovered something.

After a while, Huang Dongbo sat up, got out of bed, and walked towards the door. A sinister smile appeared on the woman's lips. Just then, a small figure emerged from the wardrobe, suddenly disappearing into Huang Dongbo's body. If you stood quietly watching, Huang Dongbo would appear as a mischievous doll, taking ridiculous steps as he walked out the door.

What would have happened to Huang Dongbo if this doll hadn't appeared? Nobody knows. All that remains is what Huang Dongbo could recall later.

(The End of "The Soul's Departure")

"The Psychic Chopsticks" Side Story: Epilogue - The Unfair Price

One evening, Feng Junzi raised his cup to admire the moonlight. It was a crescent moon, yet it possessed a melancholic and desolate beauty. This time, he wasn't on the beach, but sitting alone on the balcony, while Tao Muling prepared dinner in the kitchen.

Feng Junzi was deep in thought under the moonlight when Tao Muling came out to greet him: "Dinner is ready. Why aren't you coming to eat? What are you thinking about sitting there?"

Feng Junzi: "I was thinking about the song you sang on the beach that night. Singing a ghost song on Ghost Festival, it really attracted ghosts. Huang Dongbo's house was haunted that day, right?"

Peach Bell: "Now that you mention it, I remember. That day when we went to the hospital to see Huang Dongbo, I noticed that his eyes were full of resentment. When you turned to leave, his eyes almost wanted to kill you. Did you notice? Why was that? Come to think of it, it was because you saved his life."

Feng Junzi sighed, "He won't think that way. He won't remember that I saved his life. He'll only remember that he lost an eye, and he'll hold it against me. There are some people who will never be grateful for what you've done for them. If you do even one thing that displeases them, they'll resent you for life. I knew he was that kind of person a long time ago."

Peach Bell: "He eventually lost an eye. Is this what people call retribution?"

Feng Junzi: "I think this is the right price."

Peach Bell: "Consideration? What does that mean?"

Feng Junzi: "This is a new term I just learned in May this year. Its meaning is very complicated. Simply put, if a person wants to achieve a certain goal for their own benefit, but this goal will harm others, then they have to make compensation. Of course, there is another interpretation, which is the price of equality and fairness. Perhaps Huang Dongbo's eyes are the price paid in the Ding Xiaoyu incident."

Peach Bell: "Then I don't see any sense of equality or fairness in this consideration. You could say that Huang Dongbo took Ding Xiaoyu's life, while Ding Xiaoyu only took one of his eyes. Is an eye fair compared to a life?"

Feng Junzi: "There is no such thing as absolute fairness in the world. If Ding Xiaoyu's spirit hadn't been so persistent, and instead the souls of the other dead had simply vanished with their deaths, the matter would probably have just passed by."

Tao Muling: "Your theory about ghosts may have some merit, but I still support my view that it's just Huang Dongbo's own psychological phenomenon."

Feng Junzi sneered: "Psychological phenomenon? I don't think Huang Dongbo feels any remorse for this matter. On the contrary, he doesn't think he has harmed Ding Xiaoyu's life. He only thinks that others owe him an eye."

Peach Bell sat down next to Feng Junzi and said in a gentle voice, "It's all in the past now, let's not talk about that kind of person anymore. Do you know what that fake Feng Junzi in my hallucination said to me that night?... I won't tell you even if you want to ask. Thank you for giving me this ring. It seems to really have a mysterious power, it must be a very valuable thing."

Feng Junzi: "Expensive? Let me tell you, I bought this in a shopping mall in my hometown of Wucheng when I went home for the Spring Festival. It cost me 26.4 yuan."

Tao Mu Ling: "..."

Feng Junzi: "I would definitely give you anything else, but not this ring, because it is a ring, and giving a ring as a gift has a very special meaning. Please give it back to me."

(Note by Mr. Xu: Consideration is originally a legal term, meaning a promise made in exchange for another person to do something. The money or other cost paid by someone is the price for purchasing a certain promise. From a legal perspective, a contract without consideration is invalid; consideration is a promise relationship of equivalent exchange.)

Introduction to Part 5: Goddess's Heart

Introduction: The Origin of the "Goddess"

In Chinese, "神女" (shénnǚ, goddess) and "女神" (nǚshén, goddess) have two completely different meanings, which is a testament to the wonder of the Chinese character system. When "神女" is mentioned, most people with a little knowledge will first think of the Goddess of Wushan. According to legend, the Goddess of Wushan was Yao Ji, the daughter of the Red Emperor, who was buried on the sunny side of Wushan Mountain after her death, and her soul transformed into the Goddess of Wushan. Today, among the twelve peaks of Wushan is the Goddess Peak, over 1,000 meters above sea level, renowned for its breathtaking beauty.

Legend has it that this goddess was naturally inclined towards mortal life and even appeared in human form to assist Yu the Great in controlling the floods. However, what truly made her famous was her ancient one-night stand with King Xiang of Chu over two thousand years ago. The description of the Wushan clouds and rain, attributed to Song Yu, a disciple of Qu Yuan, in his works "Gaotang Fu" and "Shennü Fu," has become a classic. Because of Song Yu's enduring fame, the Goddess of Wushan is also known as the Goddess of Gaotang, and for over two thousand years, she has been regarded as the heroine in romantic tales of emperors.

However, the status of "Goddess" in the Chinese vocabulary underwent a dramatic transformation in the 1930s. Shanghai in the 1930s witnessed the first golden age of Chinese cinema. At that time, Stanley Kwan directed and Ruan Lingyu starred in a silent black-and-white film, *The Goddess*. In the film, Ruan Lingyu plays a young woman forced into prostitution to support her child, constantly subjected to the oppression of thugs. Her child, after starting school, also suffers discrimination and humiliation. In the film's climax, she finally fights back, killing a thug with a bottle, and is imprisoned herself.

"The Goddess" is an early representative work of Chinese realist cinema and Ruan Lingyu's most representative work, considered to represent the highest level of performing arts during the silent film era in China. Due to Ruan's immense influence, "Goddess" subsequently became a euphemism for "prostitute." From a romantic tale of emperors to a streetwalker, this was probably something Song Yu could never have imagined.

Blogs have become popular online recently, and one blog called "Loving You Not Long" has garnered extremely high click rates from Tianya to Hexun. The blog's content is the recently circulated "Diary of a Prostitute." The widespread circulation of "Diary of a Prostitute" online is due to various reasons. Some say it satisfies many people's voyeuristic desires, while others say it reveals the darker side of the world.

In fact, the story I'm about to write, titled *The Goddess's Heart*, is somewhat influenced by the aforementioned online literature. As I was about to begin, a famous quote from a great man suddenly came to mind: "The goddess should be well, and the world will be astonished by the changes!" This line of poetry is also a well-known anecdote; indeed, the world changes every day. The protagonist of this story is, of course, Feng Junzi, while the other two female protagonists are the "goddesses."

Part 5: Goddess's Heart 01, Goddess Without Heart

In this world, the things Liu Xin hates most are—men and safety helmets. There are two kinds of safety helmets she hates: one is cheap and low-quality, easily breaking with any vigorous movement, utterly unsafe; the other is ultra-thin with micro-sharps, relatively high-end, but definitely invented by some incompetent and perverted man! By the way, the safety helmet she's talking about isn't the kind workers wear, but a term used in a certain industry, commonly known as a condom or birth control pill. If there are two kinds of condoms she hates, then there's only one kind of man left—all crows are black, and men are the same, not a single one is good. Even though, in a way, she relies on men for her livelihood.

By now, you've probably guessed what she does, right? That's right, she's a prostitute! "Prostitute" is now a respectful term used to refer to women working in the entertainment industry, whether officially or unofficially, who engage in sex work. At least, that's how I understand it, because it sounds better than "bitch" and is more euphemistic than "prostitute." Prostitutes in this society are also divided into different levels. For example, prostitutes working in nightclubs can use the excuse of "singing but not selling their bodies," but prostitutes like Liu Xin working in bathhouses are the most blatant prostitutes, commonly known as "chickens."

Liu Xin, 24 years old, with a vocational school diploma, has been working as a prostitute for four years. Her hometown is in the suburbs of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. Her father abandoned her mother and sister when she was in middle school and ran off with another woman.

Liu Xin and her younger sister both work in Binhai City. Liu Xin works at the Hanhao Bath Center, one of the most luxurious leisure saunas in Binhai. "Luxury" refers to three things: high-class decor, exorbitant prices, and incredibly attractive women! Liu Xin should thank her parents for giving her a beautiful face and a figure that could arouse any man's desire—she believes most men are driven by their lower instincts. Her dream is to save enough money to open a small shop somewhere no one knows her, nothing more! As for men, she has given up hope. But her younger sister is different; her dream is to save enough money to go to university, get a good job, and then find a good man.

Liu Xin's younger sister, Liu Ke'er, is three years younger than her. After graduating from high school, she also came to Binhai City to work, as a saleswoman in a clothing store in a large shopping mall, specializing in women's underwear. The two sisters don't live together; Liu Ke'er shares an apartment with a colleague, and Liu Xin also shares an apartment with her "colleague." Liu Xin doesn't live with her sister partly because she doesn't want her sister to know what she does for a living. Although her sister had suspected that she was always leaving late and coming home late, Liu Xin lied to her, saying she worked as a beer promoter at a nightclub, and the naive Ke'er believed her.

Liu Xin rented a two-bedroom apartment not far from her workplace, sharing it with another woman from the bathhouse. The monthly rent was 900 yuan, split equally between them. Liu Xin's roommate, who was also her close friend, was named Zhao Xue. Her name at the bathhouse was Yangyang, meaning "refined and elegant." However, at their workplace, they were usually addressed by their numbers; Yangyang was number 18, and Liu Xin was number 29.

These women could have stayed at the bathhouse, where they were allowed to stay overnight, but they tried their best to avoid it. No matter how late it was, they always went back to their own "homes" unless a customer specifically requested an overnight stay. The reason might be hard to believe, but it was because the Hanhao Bathhouse was haunted! Every night around midnight, the bathhouse would echo with the sounds of women singing and crying. The faint sounds would penetrate right into your ears, and even plugging your ears wouldn't help.

The sounds could be heard in the bathhouse's lounge, private rooms, and corridors, but strangely, the overnight guests couldn't hear them, nor could the bathhouse owner; only the "ladies" could hear them. Fortunately, nothing else seemed out of the ordinary, and the ladies eventually got used to it.

...

It's 5:30 PM on Friday. Liu Xin is lazily listening to her "madam's" lecture in the bathhouse's "waitress break room/changing room/makeup room." This is the time with the fewest customers, and it's also the time when the week's peak customer flow is about to begin. Every week, "madam" Sister Chen, who manages the girls, chooses this time to hold a "work meeting" for them, which is considered a "management system" of the bathhouse. The girls are all scattered around, just like Liu Xin, some reading magazines, some eating instant noodles, and some doing their manicures. The air is filled with the smells of instant noodles, sweat, perfume, and various body odors of young women. Only Sister Chen can be heard loudly saying:

"I don't care why you came here, but since you've chosen this job, you should love it. Even if you don't love it, you should respect your profession and have professional ethics! ... Being a prostitute is also a service industry. Everyone does services to earn money, so the most crucial issue is how to stimulate customers' desire to spend and their desire to spend again... Don't laugh! This is also a skill..."

Sister Chen's words today were pointed, mainly addressing the attitude of some sex workers. Generally, when customers come to a bathhouse, they usually relax in the lounge after their bath. Some customers will directly ask the madam for a sex worker, while regular customers will directly request a worker they know. However, many people won't proactively ask for a sex worker. Some of these people are accompanying friends and don't want to hire a sex worker themselves, while others are too embarrassed to ask for one. In these cases, the sex workers need to take the initiative and flirt with the women.

But some customers are quite annoying. A hostess might linger on their lap for ages, but they still won't pay and go into a room. Even more interestingly, some customers, seeing a hostess sitting down to solicit business, will flirt with her for a while, even going so far as to grope her, but still won't go into a private room. In these situations, the hostesses can't show their anger; they have to act all sweet and coquettish. Over time, some hostesses get annoyed and become less enthusiastic, adopting a wait-and-see attitude, unwilling to waste time and energy chatting with customers in the lounge. Sister Chen was talking about this phenomenon today, and she's very dissatisfied with it! Sister Chen's voice could still be heard saying:

"The customer is king. Whether they work or not, once they step inside our door and onto our turf, they have to feel this atmosphere... Some of you have a problem with your attitude, what are you pretending to be ladies for! You still have to strip naked once you're in the private room, so what's wrong with spending a little more time with the customers outside?... They can't just touch you a couple of times and make you take it off!"

Mommy Chen's lectures are always captivating, appealing to both refined and popular tastes. This is understandable; she used to work in administration and marketing at a large state-owned enterprise, but somehow ended up here. Everyone here has their own story. Liu Xin had a similar experience to Mommy Chen; she also worked for a large company in her hometown, and that's where Liu Xin's story began—

Part 5: Goddess's Heart 02, A Beautiful Woman

No one else at the bathhouse knew that Liu Xin and Mama Chen had once been colleagues at the same state-owned enterprise. This wasn't surprising; Mama Chen couldn't have been born, and Liu Xin couldn't have been born a prostitute. Everyone forges their own path, and thinking of Mama Chen, Liu Xin drifted into her memories—

Liu Xin had decent grades in school; even if she didn't get into a top university, she could still attend an ordinary one. However, her family's circumstances didn't allow her to think that way. Her mother's meager income couldn't support a family of three while also paying for Liu Xin and her sister's tuition, especially university fees. So, Liu Xin chose a vocational school, hoping to graduate early and find a job. (That vocational school has since been renamed a university, but the school and teachers are still the same—Liu Xin still feels resentful!) At eighteen, Liu Xin graduated from vocational school and was fortunate enough to find a relaxed job at a large state-owned enterprise.

The reason I say "lucky" is because she was truly lucky. Although the job market wasn't as competitive as it would be a few years later, finding a good job wasn't easy for a college graduate, and Liu Xin managed to find one. She hadn't expected much when she submitted her resume, but the company gave her an interview, which she easily passed, landing her a job as a secretary in the company headquarters office. The monthly salary of a little over 1,600 yuan might not seem high now, but it was quite substantial back then, especially considering the easy work. Later, Liu Xin heard that the company's vice president in charge of human resources, Zheng Songjiang, had personally selected her from a pile of resumes, and she was extremely grateful to him.