Chapter 9 Homecoming

"Tears began flowing down the face of the old man. "He filled my cup again with tea and said to me, 'I know this might put you in a difficult position, Master. I am but a coal miner who does not know how to speak well. But the die has been cast. Please help us to make amends with Cousin Fen so that she would be tormented no more and she can be rebirthed again. Tell us what to do! Offerings, sacrifices, or prayer rituals; we'll do anything. Even if my wife has to depend on the Taoist's talisman for the rest of her life, or, maybe you can shave off a few years of my life! Please, Master! I'll even kneel to you!' The old couple fell to their knees and began to bow to me. I quickly pulled them up and said to them, 'Well well well. I'm not the one who's being tormented now. Moreover, I have promised you earlier; I'll refund you your payment if I'm unable to help you!' "This, at least, calmed down the old couple. Then I thought of a possible solution, and I asked them, 'By the things that you'd said, I'm sure that you are nice people. Would you be willing to be foster parents to a ghost?' Feeling puzzled, the old man asked, 'You want us to take Cousin Fen as a foster daughter?' I waved my hand and said, 'No. It's a woman who is dead. But the matter is directly related to your predicament. Fostering a ghost means that you will burn offerings for her on the thirty-fifth day and the hundredth-day from the date of her death, as well as the anniversary of her death and Qing Ming festivals. This engagement will continue for three years. Are you fine with this?' The old couple immediately agreed, saying, 'No problem!' I nodded and said, 'You'll continue using the talisman for the moment. I'll write you a new one if you need another one. My son will come to you in a few days. Wait for him.' "Back at the Institute, Shiyan asked me about how we should proceed. I began to give the matter a thought. It would not be difficult to search for the missing pieces of the ghost's soul. Even Shiyan himself was able to do it. But the ghost Fen would still be amnesiac if we were to merely summon back the fragments of her soul. To completely resolve the problem, we have to find out the reason that caused her memory loss and simulate the setting to jolt her memory. Still, we would first need to summon back her soul and replicate the incident. We would still need a key individual, one that I think I knew. But enlisting the help of that person might be a tad tricky, although it's still manageable. I then called for Shiyan to drive me to seek out that person, him!" My father was now pointing at Mr. Zhang, who burst into laughter and replied, "Let me continue with this part of the tale. I was angry at the time when this father-son pair came to me." Mr. Zhang was saying, his finger pointing to both my father and I this time, "A couple of guys from my staff were in trouble after a bit of a drink, and I have had to deal with it. I thought that Brother Hai and his son were looking for me, hoping that I'll be able to introduce them to another close friend of mine, Nie Xiaojun, who is a famous doctor. There have been a great number of people who had asked for such favors of me. Thinking that they were no less different to those disturbing people, I yelled to them, 'Go! Get out of my sight! No matter what you came here for!!' Instead, Brother Hai and his son got up from their seats and turned to leave. He had barely taken two steps when he stopped and spoke without turning back to face me, 'Your friend Nie Xiaojun wanted to come and surprise you with a visit. But he was involved in an accident with your business rival Liu Wenhua. What's more, the accident might have even caused damage to a certain porcelain antique in your rival's car... Come to me if you need help. I'll be expecting your visit at the Wen Chang National Studies Institute!'" I got up to my feet and filled everyone's cup with wine and said to them, "Uncles and Aunties, please enjoy the meal as you listen to our story. Have some food, Father. Let me continue with the tale." I placed down the wine flask and began, "So Father and I walked out of Mr. Zhang's office and got into our car. Immediately Father said to me, 'Call Uncle Quan. Tell him to close the Institute after the current session. We'll reimburse the students later. Call the staff to the Kaichao Hotel (Literally the Glorious Dynasty Hotel). It's my treat. Let's have some fun together!' " When I reached this part of our story, Mr. Zhang pointed to my father, saying, "This old toad knew that I would be coming to him for help! He was avoiding me on purpose! Never anger a person who possesses great abilities, that's the lesson I'd learned that day!" Everyone erupted into laughter once more. I resumed with the story-telling, "We had dinner that night and had some fun at the karaoke center before everyone went home. But when Father and I returned to the Institute, we found Mr. Zhang already waiting in a car parked outside the Institute. This time, Mr. Zhang greeted us respectfully, saying, 'I was rough earlier today, young friend. Please do not mind my bad manners!' My father bade me to open the gates as he led Mr. Zhang in as he said, 'Please come inside. In truth, I am very much older than I look. I'll just take your compliments as applause for my youthful appearance.' Once inside, I made Mr. Zhang some tea, and my father went straight to business, 'I daresay it's better for you to be slightly embarrassed before me rather having to apologize humbly before your own business rival, Liu Wenhua, is it not?' Hearing this, I noticed that Mr. Lee's cheek burned with a scarlet patch although I detected a hint of surprise on his face!" Mr. Zhang then quipped suddenly, "Indeed! For many times I've heard people saying that the Head Person of the Wen Chang National Studies Institute possessed extraordinary abilities! But never have I once believed what those people said. In fact, I had even rebuked many for being superstitious. But ever since meeting Brother Hai for the first time, I found that he has another pair of eyes; one that allows him to peer into the depths of one's heart and wring the truth and secrets out of that person!" "My father does have extraordinary powers that no one could hide secrets from him indeed," I thought, "but he could amaze you partly because he never spoke according to the normal logic." Carrying on with the story, I began again, "Then my father said to Mr. Zhang, 'Call for Nie Xiaojun and Yang Xiaoshan. Have them come here as well!' Mr. Zhang was instantly astonished then." Mr. Zhang injected again, "This was absolutely baffling. Much later after this incident, I did ask the two of them about Brother Hai. But both of them denied that they knew him! How did Brother Hai know their names and their involvement with the accident? When all was said and done, I began to realize that this was merely a sliver of what Brother Hai was capable of. What happened after, was even more bizarre and incredible! I would not have believed it if I did not witness everything with my own eyes!" I smiled and continued recounting, "Mr. Zhang then placed calls to the two persons and summoned them too. "When everyone was present, my father spoke to them, 'I will help you with this matter. You will all come with me to the house of this Mr. Liu. Mr. Zhang and Mr. Nie, you will only have to sit still and leave everything to me. You will neither have to say anything nor will you have to apologize. But Mr. Yang, you're the perpetrator of this accident. Hence I will need your agreement that you will fully consent to my requests. You will bow when I say so and you will act as I bid you to. I will promise that none of the actions that I'll require you to carry out will be disrespectful, dishonorable, and immoral. Can you do this?' Yang Xiaoshan, who was already bewildered beyond words, could only agree readily. "Hence, we went to the house of Liu Wenhua on Mr. Zhang's car. Mr. Liu, who recognized Mr. Zhang's car, was immediately upset when he saw that it was Mr. Zhang who had come to him. He must be thinking about how should he exploit and leverage the situation to his benefit then. I could almost see him trying to be proud and aloof. My father first went forward with me in tow closely behind. Yang Xiaoshan came after me with Mr. Zhang and Mr. Nie trailing behind. But my father said nothing. He turned and tugged at Yang Xiaoshang, pulling him to the front to meet Mr. Liu and barked at him, 'On your knees! Call him Uncle!' Liu Wenhua, perplexed, instantly gestured for a pause with a time-out hand signal commonly used in basketball games as he exclaimed, 'Wait a minute! What is this! What Uncle? I do not know who he is!' My father growled at Yang Xiaoshan, 'Explain yourself!' Yang Xiaoshan then muttered meekly, 'My name is Yang Xiaoshan. I do not know my father's name. My mother's name is Liu Xiurong. My father died when I was very young, so my mother remarried with another man whose family name was Ma. She too died later on because of an earthquake. Therefore I continued living with my stepfather until one day, I ran away, due to his mistreatment of me...' "Suddenly, Liu Wenhua, a proud and stern man of respectable standing, began gushing with tears like a sobbing woman. Weeping profusely, he jerked and pulled at Yang Xiaoshan, examining his body for birthmarks. Finally, he found the mark he searched for and crumbled to the ground, whimpering, 'Where have you been, you rascal! Do you know that Uncle had so painstakingly searched high and low for you! Even your Elder Uncle could not bear to close his eyes when he died long ago...' A few other elders of the family meandered out of the house, moaning and wailing with tears as if it was a funeral for a deceased member of their family! All of a sudden, a voice called out from one of the younger kin, saying, 'Here comes our Third Uncle!' It was Liu Wenhua's younger brother, Liu Wenli who came. One of the relatives said to him, 'It's Xiaoshan who has returned!' Liu Wenli shuddered once and pointed the opposite room, saying in a choked tone, 'I need to go there!' His families replied, 'Why? Come and see your nephew." "I need..." Liu Wenli tried to respond but he could not utter a word. He was overwhelmed by the sudden reunion and had tried to walk away for not wanting his family to see him weep. But he could no longer resist the sadness and sorrow that throbbed so strongly within his heart. He too, collapsed to the ground, with tears pouring uncontrollably. The brothers hugged Yang Xiaoshan tightly in a heap as they cried. "My father beckoned to us, signaling for us to leave. Silently, Mr. Zhang, Mr. Nie, my father, and I slipped away. We got on the car and wanted to leave, and Mr. Zhang asked my father excitedly, 'Is this a drama performance?' I got out of the car and stepped to the front, saying, 'Let me drive, Mr. Zhang. I'll be able to try driving a nice car while you get to listen to the story by my father!' My father, seated comfortably at the back, was unsealing his wine flask. He took two swigs and said calmly, 'This is a long story, I'm afraid...' "