Chapter 308: Teaching Shiyu "Micro-expressions"

There are only more than ten days left until the Chinese New Year, and Shangzhou is full of New Year atmosphere.

All departments of the company were finishing up their work, and Mr. Chen was also visiting the branch offices in other places. He invited me to join him, but I declined.

The reason for my decline is simple: I am worried about Taiyi Temple.

I go to Taiyi Temple almost every day. Every workplace has to take a holiday, and Taiyi Temple is no exception. Shiyu has consulted the Taoists.

Most of the Taoists were ready to go home, only two elderly ones were willing to make the temple their home.

I asked Shiyu for his opinion: "What about you?"

He said, "Master, since you just got married, I will be on duty."

"You haven't been back for a year."

"I don't have any parents. I grew up in an orphanage."

This sentence left me speechless for a long time. I looked at him carefully, but he didn't have the fearful look of an orphan.

Without parents or relatives, he lived alone in this world. It turned out that his life experience was so unique.

Nanxi hadn't told me anything, so I knew nothing about it. My mind quickly searched to see if I hadn't cared enough about him, or if I had been harsh on him.

Fortunately, he is independent and steady, and I don't think I have ever hurt his self-esteem.

Despite this, a faint sadness filled my chest.

Seeing that I was silent, Shiyu's eyes flashed with tears. He wiped them away and said, "Master, don't sympathize with me. I'm used to it."

"I'm not sympathizing with you, I'm just happy for your strength."

"Over the years, I've really gotten used to it. This is why I became a Taoist priest. After all, there are fellow Taoists in the Taoist temple, and there are pilgrims coming and going."

I said, "If you're willing to stay, then come to my house for the New Year. As for the days before the New Year, I don't have anything else to do at the company. I can just prepare New Year's goods and things like that, and I don't have to worry about anything at home. I'll just come to Guanli every day."

It’s just that during the first month of the year, I have to go to my father-in-law’s house and hang out with friends, so it’s a bit busy.”

"Great, I can learn more from you."

After talking with Shiyu, I called everyone to a meeting and announced that from now on, anyone who wanted to go home could leave the temple. They just had to come back to work early during the Spring Festival, when the temple was bustling with incense and needed more help.

Everyone started leaving the temple, and by the afternoon, only Shiyu, I, and two other Taoist priests were left. One of them was also in charge of the meals, so there were only three of us actually managing the temple.

Taiyi Temple is indeed quiet.

Shiyu and I had a rare good time, where we could really sit down and talk about things. I felt like I was back in those happy days at Youranju.

The same thing is that we are in a good mood, sitting together and talking about people and the world. The difference is that I am now a master, and the Shiyu in front of me has become the me of the past.

Shiyu has a better foundation and deeper skills than I did back then. If he doesn't need explanation, I'll talk to him directly. If he does need explanation, I'll enlighten him step by step.

I started teaching him micro-expressions in the form of stories.

I said, "A bachelor met a widow and came up with the first line of a couplet: Pomegranate flowers are in bloom, two red petals covet the spring beauty. What does this behavior belong to?"

Shiyu said, "Tease and test."

"If a widow is annoying, what are her micro-expressions? Let's start with her eyebrows."

Shiyu said, "Lower your eyebrows."

"Yes. When someone lowers their eyebrows at you, it's a defensive measure. When someone lowers their eyebrows completely, it's the prelude to a rage."

Shiyu asked, "What if the widow is uneducated and doesn't understand the meaning of the first couplet of the bachelor's poem?"

I said, "A widow will raise her eyebrows. Raising her eyebrows indicates fear, worry, misunderstanding, and confusion. It means that she senses that someone is not well-intentioned, but she doesn't understand what the other person is saying."

Shiyu said, "If the widow understood the bachelor's poem and could retaliate with ease, what would her eyebrows say?"

I said, "Then her eyebrows would barely move, but a hint of contempt would flicker in the corners of her eyes. So, the protagonist of the story, this learned widow, picked up her pen to satirize bachelors. She wrote: 'The leaves of the sycamore tree fall, and a bachelor is left to fend for himself in the autumn wind.'"

Shiyu said, "That's right. That's a powerful counterattack."

"Now that we've talked about eyebrows, let's talk about eyes. Eye expressions are easy to explain. Joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness are all expressed in the eyes. There's no need to teach this; you already know it all.

I'm mainly teaching you how to watch others laugh. There's only one kind of laugh that uses all the facial muscles. That's a hearty laugh. It comes from the heart. The sound of laughter is: Hahahahahaha.

This kind of happy laughter, continuous laughter is a sincere laughter.

Any discontinuous laughter is very meaningful.

For example: Hehe. Laughter is disjointed and fake. You don't agree with what you say.

Hee hee, it's different from hee hee. It means secretly happy, or gloating over someone else's misfortune.

Wow, it's surprising, or fooling you, or even mocking.

Smiling with pursed lips indicates a strong sense of vigilance (of course, except for those with ugly teeth).

Smiling on one side of the face while the other side is stiff and the corners of the mouth are turned down indicates embarrassment, indecision-making and fear.

For example, if your boss assigns you a task and you can't do it, you will smile like this, not wanting to offend him but also expressing embarrassment.

A fake smile is characterized by a slight upward curl at the corners of the mouth, which quickly retracts. But a fake smile isn't necessarily bad. We often encounter fake smiles in public, also known as professional smiles. While they may not be genuine, they're better than a stiff face.

Shiyu said, "Turning your face to the side, looking at people out of the corner of your eyes, and smiling slightly, what does that mean?"

I laughed out loud: "That's a common move women make. One is that they like you, and the other is that they seduce you."

I taught Shiyu for an hour and was ready to take a break.

At this time, the Taoist priest came in to announce that someone wanted to consult me ​​and asked if I had time to receive him.

It was strange that someone was still asking for advice at this point. I said, "Bring him in."

Then he said to Shiyu, "This is better. You should observe carefully and learn on the spot."

A man in his fifties came in. His attire indicated he had led a good life. He had probably seen me before, and as soon as he entered, he greeted me, "Hello, Master."

I smiled and replied, "Hello, please sit down."

The man said, "My last name is Ning. I'm upset because I had a fight with my wife today. We've been arguing all the time for years, and we're still arguing right before Chinese New Year.

I really can't figure it out, so I'm looking for you to pour out my frustrations. I don't know what I did wrong. Please give me some advice."

I pointed at Shiyu and asked, "Can he sit in on the class?"

Lao Ning said, "Okay, there's no secret."

"Then tell me."

Lao Ning added, "It's a long story. I might have to take up quite a bit of your time."

I laughed: "Is it a 72-episode TV series?"

He smiled. "That's not the case. If I don't explain clearly what happened first, then what happened later will seem... Anyway, I can't express it."

Shiyu and I looked at each other.

"Okay, you can talk as long as you want."

Lao Ning said: "This is a pure and beautiful love story."

I nodded.

Lao Ning said, "Master, I want to smoke a cigarette."

People who have such high demands still have psychological barriers. In order to close the psychological distance with him, I said, "Don't call me Master, we are just friends."

"No, you are the master."

"The one who scares the layman is called a master, the one who spends the bank loan is called a boss, and the one who divides the text into lines is called a poet. When humans pretend, God laughs. My name is Wan Shanhong, start your story."

He laughed at what I said.