The distressed look on Mrs. Lee’s face was a clear sign that something was wrong. When we had first met, I had come to know both she and her husbands were straightforward people. Everything in their minds was either illustrated on their faces or directly conveyed via words.

I put aside my lunch box and went out to her, “You look worried, Auntie. What’s wrong?” Mrs. Lee sighed once and said, “Aye… Is your father in, Shiyan?” She must have gotten herself into a tight spot again since she asked for my father immediately when we met, and I said to her, “Urm… My father had gone fishing with Uncle Quan. They had left even before the sun was up.” She immediately asked where he had gone fishing. The matter seems to be extremely urgent, I thought, she might even had thought of going to the place where my father was fishing to ask for his help! Knowing that the matter could wait no longer, as clearly shown by her tone and the looks on the people behind her, I said quickly, “Calm down, Auntie. Pray tell me what had happened. I’ll make a call for help so that he can return as soon as possible if the matter is indeed grave.” Mrs. Lee sank into a seat and said, “It’s my son! He’s just entered middle school, you see. But he’s been to school barely for a few days, and yet he’s already been badly beaten and bullied! A bunch of other children had ganged up on him, pummeling him and forcing him to pay up some ‘protection fees’! They had even thrown his schoolbag away. I had wanted to keep everything under wraps, hoping that everything would simmer down. This is only a quarrel among kids, see? I had spoken to his teacher, who had promised to assemble their parents to discuss and resolve the issue. But my husband, Mr. Lee, got wind of this somehow and he became so angry. There were also his friends, some of them were involved with gangsters and the ilk, had made everything worst by encouraging him to take action by threatening to cleave off the children’s limbs! Some of these are the parents of the children who had come to me to apologize, but I did not dare to lead them to see my husband!” She gestured to the people behind her, and she said again, “Then I remembered, only your father is capable of calming him down, hence here am I for his help!” Some of the parents stepped over, and one of them quipped, “We’ll do anything to compensate. Now that things are of such dire state, we must work together…”

I raised a hand to wave them off and had all of them seated while I placed a call to Mr. Lee, “Hello? Uncle Lee? This is Shiyan speaking. My father had guessed that you might be having a tantrum, hahaha… He asked me to invite you over for a talk. He has a class going on now, but he’ll join you shortly. Are you interested in coming over?” Through his voice, I could tell that Mr. Lee was obviously still boiling when he answered my call, but the mention of my father had mysteriously magicked away much of his rage and anger as I heard him saying, “I’ll come immediately!”

Ending the call, I dialed another call to my father this time, only to hear a toneless and disinterested voice of an answering machine, “The number you have called is currently unavailable. Please try again later!” What followed was the interminable ramblings of fresh offers and promotions that blurred into abstraction as I struggled to tune off from. Time was of the essence! I hit redial; again, the same hollow voice, and again; the same voice yet again! Out of options, I called Uncle Quan’s number, and heard the same lifeless voice droning unenthusiastically, “The number you have called is out of service!” This is bad, I thought, Mr. Lee was on the way but Father was nowhere to be found! At this rate, he might even skin me alive in his rage, if he discovered my trick! Muttering with exasperation, I said, “Of all times, it has to be now!” as I allowed myself to crash into my seat with defeat.

Still, when God closes one door, he opens another. Just when we were panicking from not knowing what to do, a vile sneer came loudly from a distance as if the person was very near. A young man, with some others behind him, had meandered into the reception room, leading a blind old man who was wearing round, moon-like sunglasses alongside himself. Lin Feng teased and said, “Ah! What fortune brings our Blind Master here?” I jabbed at Lin Feng, “You might want to be mindful of your mouth, Brother Lin…” But instead, the old man sniggered, his giggles both repulsive and devilish. This old man, despite his lack of sight, was one of the instructors in this Institute, specialized in the subtle study of the “Yi Jing” (literally the Book of Changes) of the infamous Four Books and Five Classics of Antiquity China. The study of this particular text also meant that he had a very extraordinary skill: divination. The young man who was leading him by his arm was his apprentice, also another of our young instructors here at the Institute, called Yuan Chongxi. It was whispered in the corridors of the Institute that this Blind Master had reached the ripe age of sixty. Most of the time he kept to himself, preferring to remain in his chamber on the first level of the Institute. But somehow he had wandered across the entire length of the corridor to this reception room today.

Just then, the Blind Master asked, “I-is that… Is it Lee’s wife here?” Hearing this, Mrs. Lee immediately went to him and said, “Oh my! It’s Brother Chen! I hope you’re well!” With a vulgar smile, the old man responded, “Well, I am well!” They chatted for a while before the old man explained his sudden visit. “I was near the stairs when I heard your voices. I’ve heard everything. Let this old man solve this predicament for you in Brother Hai’s absence!” His remarks almost made me laugh, the Blind Master was very much older than my father, yet still, he addressed my father as if he was the senior! Again, the fact that he had come to offer his help, rather than the manner of his addressing of my father, was more perplexing! This old man was one who guarded the secrets of his skill with ardent zeal and jealousy! Why was he generous today? Despite being one of the subjects available for study at the Institute, the Yi Jing was a discipline passionately shunned and averted by many great students these days no thanks to the general and media-driven stigma that the general population had reserved for fortune tellers and soothsayers of the ilk. Therefore, despite serving as advisors and instructors in the esoteric skills of divination at the Institute, both Yuan Chongxi and the Blind Masters had no students of their own. Was he here today in search of a respite from the monotony of his hermithood?

The old man propped himself into a sofa, allowing his old frail person to plunge into the soft cushions and sniggered vilely. “Heh heh heh, give me the birthdates and hour of birth of your child, Mrs. Lee. Let me have a look.” This filled me with suspicion; what Mrs. Lee required would help. How would divining the fate of her son help in this seemingly banal deadlock? But with the immediate offer of a lifeline, Mrs. Lee hastily looked for a pen and paper. But with a sudden realization of the Blind Master’s eyesight, she stowed away the stationary. She began telling him her son’s birthdate and time of birth. With that information, the old man began twirling his fingers in muted calculations.

But the gnarly old man stopped just then and rubbed his nose. He turned his head towards Lin Feng and sniffed. “What is that smell?” Lin Feng raised the lunch box with his hands closer to the old man and told him, “Err… It’s rice with braised pork belly…” The old man took a breath and savored the aroma of the food and exclaimed, “Come! Let me have a bite!” The two other female instructors wrestled with their urge to laugh while Mrs. Lee looked bashfully at the old man’s antics. Lin Feng hurriedly replied, “Errr… Let me call for the delivery of another new one.” He fished for his handphone and placed a call to a local food delivery service. But the impish old man was over his shoulders, harping incessantly. “More meat, remember!”

Feeling amused, I patted the older man on the shoulder and said to him, “Master Chen, back to business please!” Instead, he reached over his shoulder for my hand and said, “Not Master! Call me Uncle!” I grappled for the last ounce of sanity I could muster and manage. “All right, Uncle it is then! Come on now, back to business!” Only the old man continued with his calculations! At length, he said, “Ah… I’ve found it.” Mr. Lee, now renewed with hope, implored immediately. “Some advice please, Brother Chen.” The Blind Master said to me, “Lead them all to my place, Shiyan. Do not come out without my instructions!” I herded Mrs. Lee and her contingent of distressed parents to his place to wait everything out and returned to the old man who left me another set of instructions: I was to lead Mr. Lee to him when he arrived. With the pretense that my father was still busy in a class, the Blind Master would first talk to him.

It did not take long for Mr. Lee to arrive at the Institute finally. We were near to the room where the Blind Master was waiting when the old man’s voice could be heard from the other side of the door, “Mr. Lee is here? Come, come! Let’s have a chat while we wait for Brother Hai’s class to end!” I ushered Mr. Lee to a seat and poured him some water. The old man coughed twice before he said, “You’re here to meet Brother Hai, I see? What’s going on? Come, tell this old man and see if he can be of help!” Mr. Lee, still gasping with anger, began with his story. “Alas! It’s all because of my son! He’s just entered middle school for barely a few days, and yet he’s already been bullied! A few other children each had a round walloping him, and they even threw away his school bag! They think they can get away after beating up my son! It’s useless to speak to their teacher! They would at most give the boys an earful and maybe offer some money as compensation! But money’s not what I’m after! I must give them a heavy lesson!” The old man cleared his throat and said calmly, “Oh Brother Lee… Look at you! Quench your anger and hear this old man out! Let this old fool relate to you a story.” I could see that Mr. Lee had great respect for the Blind Master as he replied, “Please do tell, Brother Chen.”

And hence, the Blind Master Chen’s lips quivered as he gently whisked us off into the rabbit hole of his tale…

Once upon a time, there was a family whose parents both had perished, leaving only three brothers. The two older brothers had started families of their own and their youngest brother was still a young child. The three brothers kept close and lived together and worked their fields together, and life was bountiful and good to them. The elder brother and his wife would busy themselves working the fields every day, the second brother’s wife would take care of all other household chores while the youngest brother deeply immersed in his studies and schoolwork. Only the second brother was but a lackadaisical good-for-nothing who had only the deepest interests in anything but helping out the family. However, everyone in the family had a wish; a desire that their family would have a baby; it was a conundrum which they had painstakingly scoured for solutions yet with no apparent glimmer of hope, until one day, a distant relative of the eldest brother’s wife knew a doctor who recommended a way that might help the wives to conceive. The doctor promised not to receive any payment until the wives were with child. The whole family then got together and discussed, deciding ultimately to give it a try for the cost of treatment was hardly substantial. Most importantly, it was the solution to the conundrum which had been bogged them down for so long. Not long afterward, the wife of the eldest brother was indeed pregnant with child. The whole family traded off all that they could to pay for the treatment, and after ten months, the baby was finally welcomed into the family: a plump baby boy. Everyone in the family could not be happier at the glad tidings. But one day, the second brother lost all his money in a gambling game. When he reached home, desperate and dejected, his eyes fell upon the lone baby in the house and evil crept into his heart. A plan so hateful and heinous came to him, and he took the baby away…