Watchmen

That night, Jiu Jie and Gu Shi Tong got off the plane. Gu Shi Tong arranged a limousine that would take them to the center of the city, and he also arranged for a hotel for Jiu Jie to stay in.

No more words were exchanged that night.

In the morning of the second day, Jiu Jie had just finished breakfast when Gu Shi Tong fetched him in a limousine. 

After Jiu Jie got into the car, he asked Gu Shi Tong, “Where are we going?”

“We are heading  to DN University.” When Gu Shi Tong replied, the car had already started moving.

“Why are we going there?” Jiu Jie questioned.

“I’m bringing you to see my daughter. Before you start her treatment, you need to understand her a bit first.” Gu Shi Tong answered.

“Your daughter is still studying in University?”

“No, she graduated a long time ago. She has a talk today that we can go see.”

It was the third of October. In the south of the Yantze River, the weather was gradually getting cooler.

The chauffeur was shuttling Jiu Jie and Gu Shi Tong back and forth within Nanjing. Gu Shi Tong was sitting primly, while Jiu Jie was looking at everything while leaning against the car window.

“Is this your first time in Nanjing?” Gu Shi Tong inquired.

Jiu Jie gave a noise of a.s.sent.

“How do you feel about this place?” Gu Shi Tong asked again.

“This place…” Jiu Jie frowned, “The Yin energy in this city is rather strong.”
Once the words had left his mouth, even the driver couldn’t help but glance at him through the rearview mirror.

Gu Shi Tong laughed. “Your words really hit the mark. The people who come here, including the locals, all feel that the Yin energy is quite strong. There are a lot of related legends because of this.”

“What legends?”

“Let’s not mention the past ones, let’s talk about the most recent. They say that because so many people died in the Nanjing ma.s.sacre,  the unhappy souls were unable to find peace, causing the city to have strong demonic energy. Following the directions of a very capable person after the founding of the country, four engraved pillars were built at the four corners of the city to shake off this baleful energy… Of course, this could be something fabricated by later generations, but the truth of the matter couldn’t be verified. I trust that you don’t believe this as well?”

Jiu Jie shook his head, “The Watchmen have never believed in Feng Shui, and I don’t either.”

“Oh?” Gu Shi Tong laughed. “Then how did you realize that the Yin energy is strong here?”

“Through the people’s hearts.” Jiu Jie said.

“Hearts?”

“Yes, hearts.” Jiu Jie said, “People’s state of mind and brain waves are mutually affected. Although this only applies to the unconscious plane, the ordinary person would be hard-pressed to feel that, so it would be easy for the Watchmen to search it out. In the city, many people think that the Yin energy is very strong. This kind of unconscious state of mind will start to spread after a certain period of time. Even if this place has nothing, in everyone’s mind, the impression that this place has strong Yin energy will forever remain. Over time, under a vicious cycle, even if this city’s Yin energy is weak, it will still have to be strong.”

“What you just said is referring to the subconsciousness?” Gu Shi Tong asked.

“Not bad, looks like you don’t just understand Watchmen, but you also know a

lot about psychology.”

Gu Shi Tong smiled. “You praise me. How can I understand psychology? It’s just that my daughter majors in psychology, so I learned on the surface that we could have a common language. Actually, I don’t really find psychology interesting, I didn’t approve at first when she wanted to study it. 

“Why?”

“Because psychology touches upon a lot of philosophical questions. Until now, I don’t think this is something that girls should be learning. Women learning philosophy will destroy philosophy, and destroy women in the process. My daughter isn’t that pretty. If she studies it too, it’ll be hard for her to marry when she grows up.

“Gu Shi Tong, you’re joking. You’re rather handsome, so your daughter must be very beautiful as well, right? Why do you need to worry about marriage?”

Gu Shi Tong heard this and immediately gave a brittle smile. “I’m embarra.s.sed. Let’s stop talking about this.”

Just as the two were comparing their conversational skills, the car had stopped at the front door of  the decorated archway of DN University’s campus.

At this time, the driver leaned over and grabbed a set of exercise wear from the pa.s.senger seat, and pa.s.sed it over to Gu Shi Tong, while saying, “Uncle Gu, these are what Miss wanted delivered. You can pa.s.s it on to her.”

Jiu Jie glanced at the exercise wear. The size was very big, but it looked like it could fit him. He thought, “Gu Shi Tong’s daughter is not a big fatty right? A fatty learning psychology would certainly be hard to marry.”

Gu Shi Tong took the clothes, and entered the school with Jiu Jie in tow. The driver then turned back to the car, and drove to the park.

Gu Shi Tong led the way, making a few turns before entering a teaching block where they arrived at the doors of a lecture hall. Jiu Jie noticed that a poster was posted on the wall. At the top of the poster was a striking t.i.tle, 《Clinical Application of Hypnosis》.The speaker was Gu Shi Chen, and the center of the poster had a picture of a woman. Her figure was very obese, but her skin, contrary to his expectations, was very fair.

Jiu Jie thought, “Gu Shi Chen? The fat lady in the poster should be Gu Shi Tong’s daughter right? No wonder he was so worried. If I had a daughter who was a psychologist and a fatty, I would also be worried that she couldn’t marry.”

The poster relayed information that the talk would be commencing at 10am. The time had pa.s.sed, and the big hall was filled with people. 

The talk was starting, and Jiu Jie and Gu Shi Tong entered from the back door, and sat down in a remote, empty corner. 

On the stage, a lithe young lady held up a microphone, while gently explaining some psychological knowledge. Because they were far away, Jiu Jie could not clearly make out her looks, but he had no interest in that. He was just biding his time, waiting for Gu Shi Chen to come onto the stage.

This girl though, he thought that she was just the opening act, but she showed no intention of stopping. She continuously spoke and it was getting even more complicated while she continued. Listening to the speaker, Jiu Jie felt sleepy, and unwittingly let out a yawn.

The talk was revolving around hypnotism and its importance on a patient in a clinical setting. It got even more boring as it went on, and even more mysterious. Gradually, more and more students were becoming like Jiu Jie, impatient to stand up.

When the question and answer section came around, there were people standing up immediately. They did not just question the validity of the content of her talk, but also the validity of hypnotism treatment as a whole. 

Facing the crowd’s questioning, the girl calmly said, “Looks like I’ve spoken for so long, everyone has some doubts about my hypnosis treatment.”

The students were talking spiritedly, from the expressions of the people, the answer was obvious.

“That’s good.” The girl said, “Since everyone still has doubts, then we’ll do a test right now. We’ll pick a volunteer from the audience and test it on stage. How about that?”

There was an uproar once everyone heard that, the atmosphere immediately became livelier.

Even the sleepy Jiu Jie had also regained his spirit. It was very difficult to hypnotise a person with such a large crowd watching. Additionally, one would not have any understanding of the randomly picked volunteer, which would make it even harder to hypnotize them. Jiu Jie honestly thought that even he wouldn’t be able to guarantee success.

“Then, who’s willing to be a volunteer?” The girl on the stage asked.

Once they heard that, a bunch of hands were immediately raised. The lively atmosphere was infectious, making people more daring. A lot of them had some psychological problems.

Jiu Jie, who was sitting in the corner, saw the scene, and had his interest piqued. His lips curled up, while thinking, “It’s getting interesting.”

The lady looked at the sea of enthusiastic people raising their hands and finally picked a male student to come up to the stage. This student was also the one who had asked her the question just now.

The student, who had just been picked, was very slender and energetic, he walked up to the stage eagerly. 

“Do you believe the talk that I was giving just now?”

When she finished asking, she faced the microphone towards the student.

“No. DN University has always been focused on research and scholarly matters, we have never believed in the metaphysical. What you’ve just been talking about is not actually science.”

Once he was done, the audience let out a response.

Faced with such a situation, her calm demeanor was not affected, and she continued by asking, “Do you believe that I can hypnotise you right here, right now then?”

The male student laughed very loudly, while saying, “No, I don’t believe you can. If you can hypnotise me right now, I’ll run around the school naked.”

The whole hall erupted into laughter.

When the girl heard it, only the corner of her mouth curled up, but had no hint of anything else.

The audience haven’t even stopped laughing, and the girl hasn’t even replied, when the guy hurriedly asked, “What if you fail to hypnotise me though?”

The implication behind his words was very obvious, the whole hall suddenly became quiet, and everyone was gazing at the girl on the stage. 

Her face remained placid, just like a cool, elegant iceberg. She shifted the microphone over to herself, and calmly said, “If I can’t hypnotise you here, I’ll strip naked and run one lap around the whole school.”

“Hoo！Hoo!”

There was a brief moment of silence before the hall exploded into noise. The casual words dropped by the girl had turned the whole hall’s state of mind a bit hot. The noise was loud enough to overturn the roof.

Jiu Jie frowned slightly, while thinking, “This girl has too much faith. Under thousands of staring eyes, the disturbance factor was very high. Wanting to hypnotise a person was easier said than done. Even if it was Uncle Luo, he wouldn’t dare to make a complete guarantee.”

He thought deeply for a moment. This girl had so much faith in her skills, that male student couldn’t be one of her accomplices, right?

After the hall quieted down, the girl turned towards the student, “Are you ready? I’ll hypnotise you now.”

There was a round of laughter after that.

“I’m ready!” The male student said loudly. His eyes were shining, evidently excited for the bet.

The girl turned towards the host beside her, “I’ll be troubling you to please move two chairs up here, if not, he’ll be forced to lie on the floor when he gets hypnotised.”

A short while later, a few students labouriously helped the host carry two chairs on stage.

“That’s good,” the girl’s ice-cold voice held no warmth. “I’m going to begin. Everyone, please remain silent.”

The hall was quiet, everyone opened their eyes bigger and stared at the stage.

“Oh, right, I still don’t know your name.” The girl said as she held a hand out towards the student.

Even though the guy had provoked her publically, she remained courteous.

“My name is Xiang Guang.” The male student also held out a hand.

Just as the two hands were about to make contact, the girl’s left hand shook, dropping the microphone. She quickly caught it with her right hand, preventing it from dropping to the floor.

The male student had one hand in the air, unable to advance or retreat, and was obviously embarra.s.sed.

The girl pretended not to notice his distress. She lifted the microphone with her right hand, asking again, “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. What is your name again?”

“I’m called Xiang Guang.” The student repeated.

At this moment, the girl’s left hand was fiddling with her hair. Her right hand handed the microphone over to the male student as she said, “I’ll be troubling you to help me hold this for a moment.”

The male student held out his hand to receive it, but before he had a good grip, she had already let go. “Pa!” The microphone dropped onto the floor, causing it to release a loud static noise. Everyone received a shock while covering their ears.

Faced with this situation, the male student was in a daze, his mind empty.

At this moment, the girl suddenly turned her head, the tips of her hair flashing past the male student’s eyes.

The guy was unconsciously wanting to close his eyes. At the same time, he heard the icy-cold and slight lovely voice saying, “Close your eyes.”

The male student closed his eyes, only feeling that his mind was empty like the clouds.

The girl walked towards the student and softly said into his ear, “Deep breaths, relax.”

The student unwittingly did as he was told, only feeling his breaths slowly deepening and his taut body slowly relaxing.

The girl laid a hand across his shoulder, one hand holding his waist, while lightly saying, “Go to sleep, go to sleep.”

The girl’s gentle voice was soothing to the soul. The male student only felt his eyelids getting heavier, his consciousness getting a bit fuzzier, and he was feeling attacked by a strong sleepiness causing him to really fall asleep.

The girl’s hands embraced the male student strongly, and at the same time, signaled the host to come and help.

The host cottoned on, and hurried over to help. The two worked together to carry the male student over to the two chairs.

The girl lightly clapped her hands, then turned around and faced the audience, with a satisfied grin on her face.

The audience members, seeing the student sleeping soundly on the chairs, were all gaping like idiots.

Everyone was shocked at this turn of events!

Silence, a shocked silence. The large hall was so silent, a pin drop could be heard.

The moment of shock soon pa.s.sed, and a few people seemed to have had their spirits returned. They could not believe what had just happened in front of their eyes, and they were all believing that it was the girl’s schemes.

The people started clamouring, and a lot of them were shouting.

“Xiang Guang, wake up! Stop pretending! Your acting is too exaggerated!”

“Boy, your zipper isn’t zipped up, hurry up and pull it up! If not, JJ will pop out!”

Property of Fantasy-Books.liveoutside of it, it is stolen.

“Fifty cents, stop acting, that’s enough. You still want to swindle out of a meal?”

“……”
“…”

The silent hall had suddenly become a vegetable market, with everyone clamoring in a confused group.

Gu Shi Tong, who was coldly observing the scene, turned his head, and laughingly asked Jiu Jie, “What do you think? That person is a phony right?”

Jiu Jie frowned slightly, his expression was also quite shocked. He shook his head, “No, he really has been hypnotised.”

“Oh? What do you think of the standard of the hypnotist then?” Gu Shi Tong asked again.

“Very formidable!” Jiu Jie said with a severe face, “What she just demonstrated was instant hypnotism. If a Watchman wants to be able to do that, he needs to have seen at least four pages. She isn’t just formidable in her specialized ability, but even more in her psychological quality. To be able to momentarily hypnotise someone under such a stressful situation, this women is not that simple!”

Gu Shi Tong laughed, while asking again, “Then, how would you compare to her?”

Jiu Jie thought for a moment, before saying a bit shamefully, “I’m inferior to her.”