The Exorcist

Well, well. You all will have to thank Eileyn Chua for making me continue translating the story if you like it as she had PM me on my Facebook and I had told her that it was boring for me as I felt that this part was uninteresting and I do not know how to go about it. Actually, at that moment I had no intention of carrying on with the story, me BAD. I was amused when she said that ‘How can a real life story be boring!’ and so here we go,

John: 'The doctor says that most of the impact was absorbed by her skull in the fall and therefore nothing else was affected. However, she is still unconscious and the doctor says it could be a while before she regained consciousness.'

Ah Tong: 'Thanks for sending her to the hospital as it must have hard on you. My apologies for the trouble it had caused you.'

John: 'It’s not a problem as this is something I have to do but I still think it is inauspicious and it would be best to leave that property alone.'

Ah Tong then immediately thought of Xiao Wu as he is the only person who knows more about spiritual matters. He then decided to give him a call but the public phone was hogged by an old lady for the past half hour and he do not want to create any fuss. It was then that John told him that Miss Han had awoke and he was glad but then she just stared blankly at him and John when she saw them.

Ah Tong: 'Don't worry, I am here, you must have received a shock after the fall. The doctor says that you are all-right except that you might have a bit of a headache.'

Miss Han still stared at him and then said:  'I was going down the stairs when I thought I heard somebody called and as I looked up, somebody then pushed me from behind.'

She then smiled to herself but in a while started sighing. Ah Tong was shocked and told John to stay by her side while he looks for the doctor.

The Doctor, an old man in his sixties looked up from a file as Ah Tong went into the office without knocking.

Ah Tong: 'My apologies, I am worried that there is a problem with my wife.'

The doctor kindly asked instead of being offended by his abrupt interruption: 'Hmm, what is your wife's name?'

 Ah Tong realizing that he has been impolite: 'Sorry, it is Miss Han Si Xun'

Doctor: 'Its' all right, I was told earlier by your colleague that you were not around as I want to brief you on what is her situation.'

'Your wife has a previous history of neurotic disorder before and her skull had absorbed most of the impact from the fall she had. Because of this, she might have a relapse and suffer from a nervous breakdown. Physically she looks all-right but....'

Ah Tong interrupted abruptly again: 'Yes, she does not appear to recognize me.'

The doctor: 'It’s all right as sometimes for cases like this, it is normal that the patient will take time to recover in a few days’ time. You just need to monitor her every day and in the worst scenario, then you let us make a confirmation and send her for mental rehabilitation.'

Ah Tong was shocked that his wife had a history of mental problems as she have never mentioned to him before.

Ah Tong: 'Well, all-right, I will get back to you if there is any further problem when I bring her home.'

The next day, Ah Tong bought Miss Han back home. He then informed his secretary to cancel all appointments in the night as he do not think that the maid alone would be able to handle any problems having to take care of his two children.

After 2 days, Miss Han insisted on going to work with him but he refused as he do not think that she have recovered yet. She would at times ignored him and sit by herself staring blankly at the wall. She would also talk to herself and laughed for no reason. The rest of the routine was normal for eating, bathing and this surprised him as she still looked normal as before.

One day, she then suddenly went out by herself one without informing the maid who called him when she can't find Miss Han. He then rushed home and was relieved when he saw her going into the apartment with two bags of what he thought was groceries. It was not as it is clay materials for pottery and which then he felt more at ease; he then hoped that in this case, she might go back to her normal self soon by doing things that she liked.

One day, he returned home and found her with her hair disheveled, sitting on the sofa in the living room with her hand full with clay and the whole living room was scattered with clay debris.

Ah Tong: 'What happened?'

Miss Han: 'They don't listen to me and I punished them by dumping them into the toilet bowl.'

Ah Tong was struck speechless as this would choke up the whole plumbing system in the building. He immediately went to look for a maintenance supervisor and told him the problem. In the end, he had to spend a substantial amount of money to get a team of plumbers to remove the clay materials from the plumbing system of the whole building.

He then ordered the maid to dump whatever clay materials left and forbids Miss Han to do any more pottery works. She then quarrel with him saying that he also do not allow her to accompany him to work and she feels bored doing nothing at home.

That night, she slept on the sofa and refused to be coaxed to bath by the maid.

He then shook his head and sighed and went to bed.

The next morning, he then got ready for work and went to the dining hall to have his breakfast and was surprised to see Miss Han all dressed up properly. She smiled at him and said: ‘I am going with you to the office as I will be bored now that you forbid me to do my clay potting.’

He shook his head and said: ‘Why don’t we do it another day as I will be busy the whole day and unable to keep you company.’ He was actually worried that she might create further havocs after what happened the other day as he would be too occupied to monitor her.

She just stared blankly at him and then looked down on the floor while keeping quiet.

He then immediately left as he was afraid that he might acceded to her request as he find it’s heartbreaking when feeling the disappointment in her slumped posture. However when he stepped into his office, he was immediately preoccupied in a meeting with his staffs and after that, went to meet his corporate client who is having a major acquisition deal of a prime land in the commercial business district. It kept him busy the whole morning and he soon forgot his worries, after taking his lunch, he then got back to the office with the client to finalize some documentation works.  He reached his office building and at the entrance, he got out of the car to hand the car keys to the valet to park. Suddenly, there were loud banging sounds on his car boot, he turned and looked and was shocked to see his wife there and she shouted loudly on seeing him looking at her: ‘Finally you are back!’  He was embarrassed as he tried to explain to his client who was clearly shocked.

He quickly ushered his client to the office and asked John to attend to him while he immediately sent Miss Han back home despite her protests. From then, whenever he was not in the office, he would call back at times to check whether his wife was there but however could not do anything about it. She would really sneaked back to the office unexpectedly despite his instructions to his maid to keep her at home. Apart from other erratic behavior while there, she would at times  ordered an employee into his office room and berated that unfortunate person for an hour or two for no reasons. However, at times, she would be friendly and make an employee chat with her about the latter domestic life while treating the employee to snacks that she made and bought along from home.

She would also sometimes disappear for days after telling him she wants to go home as she was unhappy when he reprimands her for ordering the staff around for no rhyme or reasons. He had called her father to make sure that she was all-right and was shocked when told that she was not there. He was perplexed every time when she comes back and refused to tell him her whereabouts. The worse was sometimes when he was in sound sleep in bed at night; she would just slap him out of sleep or hit his head claiming that there is something strange on him. This started to drive Ah Tong crazy and he really felt that he now understand the Iron plate divination prose of ‘….哭笑不得’  of ‘being unable to laugh or cry’   

He then suddenly remembered Xiao Wu again and immediately called him. He was glad when Xiao Wu was the one who answered the phone. He told Xiao Wu about the problem after the usual formality chat and arranged to see him for lunch. Xiao Wu told him to get the exact birth time of Miss Han as he wants to check the bazi chart to see if he can find out the problem. As the medical report from the last visit to the doctor had the birth details, he bought it along for the appointment.

At the restaurant, he saw Xiao Wu was already waiting for him, greeting him warmly despite that they have not kept in touch with each other because of his business commitments and he felt guilty about meeting him only after he had encountered problems. Xiao Wu greeted him warm heartedly and does not look offended that Ah Tong had contact him only after encountering problems. They then sat down and after ordering their food, he immediately handed the medical report to Xiao Wu where the birth details are written.  Xiao Wu looked at it and immediately exclaimed: ‘No wonder, she is still considered born in the year of the Rat as her birthday is still in January before the handover to the Ox year in February.’

Ah Tong was taken aback and said: ‘I thought January is considered the New Year as it is the first month of 1949.’

Xiao Wu: ‘No, because for our Chinese astrology, the first month starts with Li Chun in February for that year 1949 and she is still considered born in the year of the Rat.’

Ah Tong: ‘Oh no, that means the Iron plate divination has come true and in a way that I have not expected. What can we do now? Is your uncle able to give any advice on how to resolve this issue?’

Xiao Wu: ‘Did you try asking your doctor about mental rehabilitation for her?’

Ah Tong: ‘Actually I had bought her to the doctor to verify her conditions as sometimes she would be normal and at times, becomes another person. The funny part is in front of the doctor, she behaves normal and the psychology tests done were favorable. The doctor insisted that she have recovered. ’

Xiao Wu: ‘When you called me, I had immediately called my uncle but his assistant told me that he is no longer practicing and had left for Mainland China to retire while leaving him to inform clients. We might have to look for other masters, give me a few days and I tried to find a reliable one who we can get advice from. Her birth chart is too complicated for me to solve the problem as all I can see is that she is now in unfavorable luck period.’

Xiao Wu added on: 'Further, it is reflected in your birth chart too as your Eating God Chou the Ox in your spouse palace is being clashed by this year Tai Sui, Ji Wei the Goat and as you are weak Fire, it is unfavorable. We will need to do another Tie Ban reading to see if we can find where the problem is.'

After lunch, they both then parted ways with Xiao Wu assuring Ah Tong that he would try to find a solution. Ah Tong was also glad as he found that he have someone to share his problem with. That night, he finally was able to have a good sleep and wondered why he had forgot about Xiao Wu after initially  wanting to contact the latter while at the hospital that day after the incident had happened.

One day, Xiao Wu suddenly asked to meet Ah Tong at a Tim Sum Restaurant saying it is urgent and that he wanted to introduce a person to him. Ah Tong cancelled all his appointment for the day and went immediately as he hoped that it would put an end to his problems. Previously before, they had already went to see another Iron Plate Divination master and had made no further progress on his problems.

On reaching the table where Xiao Wu was seated, there was a strange looking man with him. Strange in that there is faint gold tine on his face and he was thin as a bamboo. Xiao Wu then introduced him as Iron Bone Ye, the name is probably is because of the metal color tine and his skinny frame. He was told that he is the disciple of a famed Exorcist named Strange Whispers 聶異人.

Both of them specialized in spiritual problems and Xiao Wu explained that since the last time that they had approached another Iron Divination Plate master for advice and had made no headways, he thinks that it is probably a spiritual problem as it started from the visit to the haunted house.( Actually they had met a bogus Iron Plate Master, some of these masters were actually conned into paying thousands of dollars by unauthentic masters who just gave them the theories without the application part and they had no choice but to hope to recoup their loss through what the meager knowledge that they were given on unwitting clients. These masters were said to have a set of specially formulated questions to make the clients give away their personal details unknowingly in the考时刻 part ).

Anyway, to carry on, Ah Tong agreed as he had become more worried with Miss Han as she had sometimes disappeared for days and he could not trace her whereabouts even after instructing the maid to tail her. Further, that bogus Iron Plate master had unintentionally makes matter worse by giving him a prose ‘暗有夫?’ ‘A secret husband?’  using the checking of the minutes segment of the hour of birth 考时刻 as an excuse in order to find out whether he have any marital problems unethically and then gleefully confirmed to show off his expertise when he see the shocked face of Ah Tong. Ah Tong was shocked as he thinks that her frequent disappearance could be a possibility of a third party involved because of this prose given‘暗有夫? After all, there are many things that he did not know and that he only found out after marriage.

Iron Bone Ye: ‘Mr. Tan, this sounds like a serious spiritual problem to me and I might not be able to handle it alone. Tell you what, I will arrange with my master Strange Whispers to go with me to your office and then to your home to do some checking and put some charms to help you avert this disaster.’

Ah Tong: ‘I appreciated it very much and I would be very grateful if my present problem can be resolved.’

It was then agreed that it would be arranged in the following week after Master Iron Bone informed his master.

That day, exactly at the time they had arranged to meet after Xiao Wu had informed Ah Tong later, the exorcists punctually arrived at his office. Ah Tong was surprised to see that the master of Iron Bone looks more like an elder brother of the latter instead of an old sagely man which he had envisaged as in movies. After the usual formality, both of them solemnly went around the office and Ah Tong had no idea of what they were actually doing, as at times, one of them would chant and the other would use some hand gestures. Master Iron Bone then took out from a bag he was carrying, two metal calabashes and told Ah Tong to hang it at the main door into his company without any explanations.  He then instructed Ah Tong to bring them to his home.

On reaching Ah Tong’s apartment, they then go through almost the same routine but however, when they reached his master bedroom, Master Strange Whisper then said something to his disciple Iron Bone who took out a talisman and burn it in the air, scattering the ashes at the door. Master Iron Bone then took out a sword made from coins stringed together and told Ah Tong to hang it at his main door to the Apartment. They then left, telling Ah Tong to contact them if things don’t improved after which Ah Tong had as instructed by Xiao Wu gave them the stipulated fees in a Chinese red envelope/packet.

Coincidentally, Ah Tong’s apartment have the same sitting or facing in Feng Shui as his office. As mentioned before in my previous post, his main door have Star 1 and Star 2 at the South East Sector which coincidentally is the same.The combination of Star 1 and Star 2 which in the Xuan Kong script,:'一加二五伤及壮丁，坎流坤位，买臣常妇贱之羞 . Kan flow at Kun trigram bad for man and women.'

It is strange that often destiny goes in hand with Feng Shui and that most people would find that they have the same Feng Shui chart for their house and workplace.

Now interestingly, the spiritual cures which in this case are metal material that the Exorcists uses is the same as used in Flying star Feng Shui  to counter the two delinquent stars 2 and 5. After the masters had left, his wife then came back as he was on the ladder putting the coins sword and Ah Tong panicked as he had the impression from ghost movies that the possessed victim would go into some kind of excited frenzy on seeing stuffs like this. He was disappointed though glad as Miss Han nonchalantly walked in and went straight into the master bedroom without saying a word.

It was to Ah Tong surprise that the following week, Miss Han started to behaved normally without going into her unusual routine that he has been accustomed to now. This could be a reason why the spiritual masters can coexist with Feng Shui masters in the Chinese culture with both having their supporters and as explained above on their methods used. 

Though Miss Han started to behave normally now, she would sometimes look strangely at him when they were together having dinner or accompanying the kids. The other interesting thing is that since the day she had that unfortunate incident, she did not show abnormality when she is with the children, still treating them lovingly as a mother which is why Ah Tong was in a dilemma on whether to put her in a nursing home or not initially. 

Surprisingly a week later, she had then asked permission to follow him to work which he had declined as he was still worried though things had been eventful after the Exorcists had come. That night when he went home, he saw two big bags on the table in the living room. He was curious and opened it to see what it was. It was again the clay materials used for pottery which had then reminded him of the last incident. He immediately took it out and threw it away in the rubbish dump. An hour later, he heard Miss Han shouting for the maid and then scolding the maid. He went out of the bedroom to see what the commotion was. He then told Miss Han that he had threw the materials away as he was afraid that she might throw it into the toilet bowls again. She apparently could not recollect that incident as she started to berate him for doing it. When he told her that she could be having neurotic disorders, she immediately felt insulted and it got worse. She then out of the blue said:

‘I want a divorce.’

Ah Tong was stumped and to be frank, he actually had the thought sometimes ago during the period she was giving him a lot of stress and as he was thinking that since the Iron plate divination was unfavorable for him to marry a woman born in the year of the rat, it would be best for them to separate. Ah Tong had also been under pressure the whole week for a property deal that went awry with the owner threatening to sue him and with this; he just could not take it anymore. He had also remembered the last Tie Ban reading from the bogus master about: ‘Secret husband’ and in a fit of anger and jealousy, angrily retorted: ‘All-right. It’s you who want to have a divorce, I would not object as I have been suffering for so many months from your unruly behavior.’

On hearing that, Miss Han immediately turned and went to the Master bedroom. He could hear her packing her clothes after taking out the luggage from the storeroom. He was surprised when after packing her clothes, she went to the children’s bedroom. He then got worried and followed her and saw her hugging the children who were already asleep.  She did not make any sounds while ignoring him at the same time. She then walked to the main door and said: ‘You don’t have to worry, I would leave the children with you and I would be staying with my father until our divorce is finalized.’

To be continued…….