Chapter 3 of Ming Niang Yang
Paradise Town was originally sparsely populated, and households were often quite far from each other. Built on hilly terrain, the roads were rugged and arable land was scarce. Residents simply raised pigs, and the few fields they had were used to grow crops like corn, which served as pig feed. With the entire village raising pigs, economies of scale emerged. As the townspeople grew wealthier, their houses resembled Western-style villas. From above, the area looked a bit like Hong Kong's Mid-Levels villa district.
Yan Ran sat on the three-meter-long sofa in Wang Jinhua's house and nodded repeatedly. This small Western-style house was decorated in a very stylish way. Yan Ran looked at Tian Xiaohu, who was sitting across from her, and shook her head again.
Tian Xiaohu and Wang Jinhua don't look exactly alike, but they are very similar. Yan Ran felt the powerful suppression of his mother's blood from Tian Xiaohu.
At that moment, Tian Xiaohu was gazing at Yan Ran's chest and thighs with a fascinated look. Aside from XP, Yan Ran didn't think he had any issues. Depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the like had nothing to do with him.
Yan Ran drank another glass of lemon water. She was going to make up for the chrysanthemum tea she had lost in the morning.
"Sister Wang, judging by the test results, Xiaohu's indicators are all good. What do you think Xiaohu needs to adjust? Is it his emotions?"
Yan Ran arrived at Wang Jinhua's home and had Tian Xiaohu take a psychological assessment. This test consists of a series of multiple-choice questions related to psychology. The weighted scores from the test-taker's answers provide a relatively objective reflection of the test-taker's psychological state, providing a quantitative and foundational assessment of psychological well-being.
Wang Jinhua refilled Yan Ran's lemonade: "Xiao Hu, speak for yourself. Speak clearly."
Tian Xiaohu's eyes flickered as he reluctantly recalled the past: "I want to get married, but I'm afraid the bride will turn into a ghost and harm me."
Fear of marriage? Yan Ran looked through Tian Xiaohu's psychological assessment again: there were no signs of anxiety or depression, nor was there any avoidance mentality, so it didn't seem like a fear of marriage.
Yan Ran said calmly, "Why do you have such thoughts? I heard Sister Wang say it's because you heard the story of the ghost bride?"
Tian Xiaohu shook his head: "That's not a story, that's what I saw with my own eyes."
A while ago, Tian Xiaohu got together with some close friends to celebrate his upcoming marriage. It was already midnight when the banquet ended. When Tian Xiaohu was passing by Lao Gao's land on his way home, he vaguely saw a woman in a bright red wedding dress passing by him. Not far away, there was a person lying on the ground, motionless. Tian Xiaohu remembered that everyone at the table was talking about the town being haunted, which was the story of the ghost bride that Yan Ran had heard. Tian Xiaohu, who had been listening to it as a joke, sobered up immediately after seeing the bloody figure. A gust of night wind blew by, and Tian Xiaohu looked up from the woman's waist, and saw a skull resting on the collar of the bright red wedding dress.
After that, Tian Xiaohu had no idea what had happened. When he finally woke up, he was already in his own yard. From that day on, Wang Xiaohu no longer wanted to get married. He frequently complained of encountering ghosts, and even experienced severe anxiety attacks at the sight of wedding dresses.
The wedding date has been set, and invitations have been sent out to relatives and friends. Saying no to the wedding now would be like slapping yourself in the face. Wang Jinhua had no choice but to come all the way to find Yan Ran to help her child resolve the knot.
Wang Jinhua took out some peanuts and sunflower seeds and placed them on the coffee table. "I told him he was a loser and had lost his memory due to drinking, but he refused to admit it."
Yan Ran lowered his head in thought. Indeed, Tian Xiaohu's excessive drinking might cause hallucinations, which also fits his description of temporary memory loss, but there are many details worth pondering.
Yan Ran looked at Wang Jinhua and said, "Sister Wang, have you and your husband, or any of your relatives, ever had any psychological problems?"
Wang Jinhua was stunned for a moment and said, "No, never."
Yan Ran asked again: "How is the relationship between you and your wife? Do you two often quarrel or never communicate?"
Wang Jinhua cracked some melon seeds while answering, "We've been through good and bad times over the years. We're pretty good now, right? It's nothing serious."
Yan Ran asked, "I see Xiaohu's father is not at home. What does he do?"
Wang Jinhua said, "He's gone to work and only comes back during the holidays. And since his son is getting married, he should be taking leave to come home these days. No, why are you asking me this?"
Yan Ran explained: "Ah, nothing, just chatting."
Yan Ran was not just chatting, she wanted to confirm Tian Xiaohu's family background and genetic factors, and further confirm Tian Xiaohu's mental state. She just didn't want to explain to Wang Jinhua.
Yan Ran conducted repeated psychological interviews with Tian Xiaohu, carefully observing his expressions, movements, and demeanor. She ultimately came to a conclusion: Tian Xiaohu hadn't hallucinated that day, but had actually seen... a ghost. More accurately, he had seen someone or something he thought was a ghost.
What do you call this? This is called seeing things with a dazzled eye. But I can't tell Wang Jinhua this conclusion. How incompetent does it make me seem? More importantly, if a simple "seeing things with a dazzled eye" could alleviate Tian Xiaohu's psychological state, then it certainly wouldn't be my turn to come over. At this time, Yan Ran thought of someone.
"Aren't you asking me to lie? No, no!" Jie Qianchou turned and left.
Yan Ran grabbed Jie Qianchou by the collar and said, "This is called situational therapy. How can this be a lie?"
Yan Ran's treatment was a form of psychological suggestion. She planned to have Jie Qianchou "perform" an exorcism for Tian Xiaohu, and then she would deepen the psychological suggestion, thereby untangling Tian Xiaohu's inner conflict. Having made up her mind, after dinner, Yan Ran asked Wang Jinhua to take her to Jie Qianchou.
Yan Ran pulled Jie Qianchou to a deserted place outside the house, wanting him to do him a favor, but Jie Qianchou refused to agree.
"I just asked you to do a small favor, why are you so stingy?" Yan Ran pulled Jie Qianchou back.
"Huh? Classmate Yan Ran, it seems like your nickname is Iron Chicken?" Jie Qianchou touched his nose.
They sat at the same table for six years in middle school. At that time, Yan Ran was beautiful, had good grades, and was the discipline committee member of the class, but she was a bit stingy.
They were desk mates, sitting at the same table. On the first day of the first grade, Yan Ran drew a line on the table with a ballpoint pen, the way she drew it to take up more space. Yan Ran warned Jie Qian, who looked like a straw and sat next to her, that he would have to pay her ten cents every time he crossed the line. Jie Qian was shocked at the time. Others go to school to study, but you go to school to rob money? Jie Qian didn't believe it and crossed the line intentionally or unintentionally. As a result, Yan Ran made a small notebook, in which she carefully recorded when and how many times Jie Qian crossed the line, and how much money he needed to pay. Then she would settle accounts with Jie Qian every month. Jie Qian ignored Yan Ran completely. If you ask me for money, I have to give it to you. If you ask me for my life, I have to commit suicide. Who knew that Yan Ran was so capable? She waited until the parent-teacher meeting to block Jie Qian's mother and tell her that Jie Qian owed her money. In front of several parents, Xie Qian's mother's face turned black and red. After all, she had paid off her son's "debt".
The next day, Xie Qian was inconsolable. He watched Yan Ran hit him, but couldn't. He was afraid she would tell the teacher if he scolded her. Heartbroken, he could only embellish his tragic story in tiny, subtle ways, spreading it around the school. From then on, Yan Ran's nickname, "Iron Chicken," spread throughout the campus.
"How come you, a person who is so good at accounting, ended up doing psychological counseling? I remember you applied for finance as your major at that time," Jie Qianchou was a little puzzled as he recalled the past.
"What do you care? Stop talking so much nonsense and just tell me whether you are going to do it or not!" Yan Ran changed the subject.
"Well," Xie Qianchou snapped his fingers, "if you treat me to a seafood meal, I might consider your request."
"Since you said that, how are you going to settle the money you cheated me of when we graduated?" Yan Ran stared at Jie Qianchou with his arms crossed.
"Oh! You still remember such a small amount of money after all these years? Besides, we agreed that it was a loan, so how did it become a scam?" Jie Qianchou made himself look very innocent.
"You told me you were going to take your grandfather to see a doctor, and then you disappeared after borrowing the money from me? You just took away half a year's worth of my New Year's money. Tell me, is this a scam?" Yan Ran became more and more angry as he spoke.
"You stingy person, I'll return it to you now!" Jie Qianchou pretended to take out his cell phone, pretended to find a signal and prepared to run away.
"Don't worry, I'll calculate the interest for you, but it's based on compound interest!" Yan Ran also took out his mobile phone, opened the calculator and started calculating.
Seeing Yan Ran settle the score, Xie Qianchou had a stress response that he had developed over the years. He stepped forward and held Yan Ran's phone.
"Like this," Jie Qianchou snapped his fingers again: "I'll give you one chance."
Jie Qianchou took out four coins from his pocket and plucked four larger leaves from the tree. He arranged the four coins into a square and then covered them with the leaves.
"If you can guess under which leaf I hid the coin, not only will I do you a favor, I will pay you back immediately when we get down the mountain, and I will also treat you to seafood. How about it, it's easy enough, right? Do you dare to give it a try?" Jie Qianchou looked at Yan Ran provocatively.
"Do you... think I'm blind?" Yan Ran reached out to lift a leaf from the ground, but Jie Qianchou grabbed her.
"You haven't told me what to do if you can't guess it?" Jie Qianchou raised his eyebrows.
"You don't have to pay back the money I borrowed. It's just a seafood meal, I can still afford it!" Yan Ran stared at Jie Qianchou.
"What a spirit!" Jie Qianchou raised his thumb.
Yan Ran grabbed Jie Qianchou's thumb and carefully touched his hand all the way to his cuffs.
"Hey, hey! What are you doing?"
"Humph, do you think I'd be fooled? Don't try to trick me with those little tricks you used in school."
For six years in middle school, Yan Ran constantly asked Jie Qian for money, and Jie Qian would always pull off some kind of magic trick to fool Yan Ran. One day, he'd pull out a deck of cards and ask Yan Ran to guess the size, the next day, he'd teleport a few coins into a glass. Jie Qian always won back the money he'd "crossed the line," leaving Yan Ran stunned and doubting his own intelligence.
Yan Ran finally understood. This kid's parents were both professional magicians. Isn't that just like always winning at guessing the size of a card game? And Jie Qian told him he was a direct descendant of the Fucai Sect. Because of the "Fucai" in the name, Yan Ran had mistakenly thought the Welfare Lottery had its own sect. Jie Qian's explanation finally made Yan Ran understand that the Fucai Sect, more accurately known as the Fumen, was a branch of traditional magic with a history of nearly a thousand years.
Knowing this background, Yan Ran became even more excited. If he could crack the secrets of a thousand-year-old magic trick, it would be enough to prove that he completely surpassed everyone in intelligence. But the result... Yan Ran was both a novice and a playful person. After six years of guessing magic tricks, he almost became depressed.
"Okay, I'll just roll up my sleeves, okay?" Jie Qianchou rolled up his sleeves high to show that he couldn't cheat.
Yan Ran smiled slightly. This time, she finally managed to beat this kid. Yan Ran didn't rush to act. She first carefully looked at the four tender green leaves on the ground, then pointed at the leaf in the lower left corner.
"That's it."
Jie Qianchou pressed down the leaf that Yan Ran was pointing at with his hand.
"Are you sure, this is it?"
"Confirm, open it!"
Jie Qianchou slowly lowered his palm, revealing half of the leaf, and then gently picked up the leaf with his other hand. He saw nothing underneath the leaf, so where was the coin?
"Don't move!" Yan Ran shouted, then quickly grabbed Jie Qianchou's hands.
"I'll do it myself." Jie Qianchou turned his hands over on his own initiative, and there was nothing inside except the leaf.
"You cheated! You hid a coin in advance!" Yan Ran refused to admit defeat.
Xie Qianchou had a fake smile on his face. He had known Yan Ran would react like this. Xie Qianchou slowly peeled back the leaves in the upper left corner, only to see two coins lying quietly there.
"Everything has its own will." Jie Qianchou put on an unfathomable look again.
"You're a policeman now, but you're still so weird. Even if you win this time, you have to tell me how you did it!" Yan Ran checked the four coins and found nothing unusual.
"I told you, this world is ruled by fate. You didn't lose to me, you lost to fate!" Jie Qianchou was still pretending.
Just as Yan Ran was about to retort, he heard a shrill scream.
In the darkness, a flock of crows took flight, a flock of black birds merging into another, even thicker, pitch-black mass.
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