Cyber Ghosts

Rushing into the room, Zhou Yuan gave Hao Ning a paper bag. “Here you are, your new trousers!” he said.

“Oh?” The new trousers made Hao Ning remember that he wanted to buy a new one today. But he forgot about it. Thinking of this, he thanked Zhou Yuan. Suddenly, he saw Liu Shuai with an angry face.

“What’s wrong?” seeing Liu Shuai behave weirdly, Hao Ning asked. “Zhou Yuan did something to you again?” he continued.

“No!” Liu Shuai shrugged. “I asked him to shop with me for cosmetics. He said it was weird to shop for cosmetics by two men!”

“It is weird…” Hao Ning said to himself. Looking at Liu Shuai, Hao Ning realized that he wanted to buy cosmetics for Wen. He continued to say promptly, “but it is normal to buy it for girlfriends!”

“Yes!” Liu Shuai said, realizing that Hao Ning had become his confidant. He continued to say, “but he just wanted to have a look at health products and traditional Chinese medicine. He even checked them one by one! Except for the trousers he brought for you, what he brought are all health products!”

“No!” Zhou Yuan refuted. “Who told you they are all health products? I also bought a health magnetic therapy pad. Is it food?”

“…” Liu Shuai realized that his error in speaking. He stared at Zhou Yuan and said nothing more.

“Why did you buy those things?” Hao Ning wondered, looking at several big bags of health products held in their hands. “You are a young man. You feel not well recently? You should give up reading some novels. They are not good for your health.”

“No, it’s not the case!” Zhou Yuan said with a red face. “I bought them for my parents. I thought that they just recovered. I wanted to buy health products for them.”

Hearing what Zhou Yuan said, Hao Ning felt sympathetic. Zhou Yuan might be the best boy among them.

“But you needn’t buy so many!” Liu Shuai said. “You only have one father and one mother. Why did you buy three pieces? You have a godfather?”

“Hey, don’t say that!” Zhou Yuan raged. He stared at Liu Shuai. But he still gave a bag to Liu Shuai and said, “this bag is for your mother. I thought that she might need this…Don’t say no. I guessed you would reject it if I told you earlier. Now I have bought them, what you need to do is to accept them! That’s all!”

Liu Shuai was stunned after hearing Zhou Yuan. So was Hao Ning. Hao Ning knew that Zhou Yuan was a filial boy. He could do something he did not want to do for his parents. They did not expect that he could do such a thing for Liu Shuai and his mother.

“Don’t say thank you.” Zhou Yuan smiled. “You have helped me a lot. And I made you in trouble before…” Zhou Yuan smiled at Hao Ning. “I thought that Liu Shuai’s mother raised Liu Shuai alone. She must have suffered a lot in the past. What I did just to remind Liu Shuai of her sufferings. I just wanted him to care about her more.”

“Thank you.” Liu Shuai said eventually. However, he did not grab Zhou Yuan’s bag. “But she did not have a chance to use them anymore.”

Hearing what Liu Shuai said, the rest, including Xiao Hong who just woke up, was shocked. What he said proved that his mother has gone long before.

They did not expect this answer. Zhou Yuan felt embarrassed knowing this. Liu Shuai, in his eyes, was a blunt and sometimes silly boy in front of his girlfriend. He did not anticipate that his mother has gone long before.

“Sorr… Sorry to hear that…” Zhou Yuan said, holding the bag in the air. “I just want to surprise you. I heard before that Zhang Quan did not care about your mother and you. I just thought that… Sorry to hear that. I’m so sorry.”

This was a common phenomenon in a big city. We worked together and we thought that we knew each other very well. Nevertheless, we rarely talked about our family members in front of friends unless we were best friends. Or nobody would talk about it in front of others.

“It’s not your fault. I didn’t want to talk about it before because I thought that as long as I didn’t talk about it, she would live forever.” Liu Shuai grabbed the bag, patting Zhou Yuan’s shoulder. “I should thank you. When I was a kid, my mum always put some health products into my soup. I dislike the taste. She always felt not well. That was the reason why I majored in biology. But later I found that being a programmer would make more money. So, I became a programmer.”

“My mum developed a serious illness in the first year after I graduated.” Liu Shuai sat down, looking at the products in the bag. “At that time, I stayed with her every night. I prayed that my father would come and save her life. But finally,…”

Liu Shuai smiled, dropping tears.

Hao Ning said nothing. He passed a tissue to him.

“Do you guys consider that I always disregarded Zhang Quan?” Liu Shuai continued bitterly. “I just hated that Yunzhongzi abandoned my mum and me when I was a kid. What he did was not what a man should do. ”

Hao Ning understood. The feeling of Liu Shuai to Zhuang Quan was complicated. Liu Shuai wanted to admit Zhuang Quan as his father, but he hated him because he did not save his wife although he had art.

“I finally forgive him not long ago.” Liu Shuai sighed. “He also wanted to save her. However, he was also afraid to put me in trouble. He didn’t want others to know that I am a kid of Yunzhongzi.”

Hao Ning sighed. This was what Long Fei told Liu Shuai. Thinking of this, he thought an old Chinese saying, “the loves from parents to their kids must be a far-reaching one.”

“I asked my mom about this before she passed away.” Liu Shuai continued, “I asked her whether she hated my father or not. She smiled at me and said she did not. If she were him, she would do the same. I couldn’t understand her at that time. But now, I do.”

Xiao Hong raised his head, saying with red eyes. “Because in their heart, you are the most important. They were willing to sacrifice themselves to protect you.”

Hao Ning looked at Xiao Hong. He knew that what Xiao Hong said had nothing to do with Liu Shuai’s parents. He talked about his parents indeed.

“Now, I don’t think it is bad to me.” Liu Shuai wiped his eyes, smiling. “My mum worked hard all lifetime. Now, I think that she has reincarnated. I think that she will have better days. Do you agree?”

“Of course!” The three replied at the same time.

“Zhou Yuan.” noticing that Liu Shuai looked at him, Zhou Yuan sat up promptly. Liu Shuai continued, “I want to thank you for your consideration. Although my mum has no chance to take them, I still want you to do a favor for me.”

“Anything I can do.” Zhou Yuan nodded. He knew what Liu Shuai said was to ease his embarrassment. “Ok, tell me now!”

“Help me make a Virtualised reality when you are free someday.” Liu Shuai said, looking at a bag on the ground. “So, I can meet my mum in it. And I can give these presents to her by myself. I have a chance to prepare a meal for her. Is this ok? By the way, I also want to use these products to make a healthy soup for her…” Liu Shuai said with tears dropping from his cheeks. “So, I can be her boy again.”

“Ok.” Zhou Yuan nodded with red eyes. He has used Virtualised reality to make many fake things in this real world. He could use it to help his friend fulfill his wish. “Anytime and anywhere as long as you ask.”

“No, no need.” Liu Shuai said, wiping his tears. He continued to say jokingly, “you cherish your Wuxiang fragrance very much. How can I use your incense for so many times? That will kill you.”

Hearing Liu Shuai mentioning Wuxiang fragrance, Hao Ning and Xiao Hong looked at each other. They said promptly, “ok, then. We already understood. Can we see the gold finger now?”

“Yes, you are right. When are we crying so much? Blame me. I made you cry.” Liu Shuai wiped his face. He continued to say, “Zhou Yuan, let’s see what happened to gold finger?”

Zhou Yuan knew that Liu Shuai did not want to continue that topic. He said ok to him and waved his phone in front of the TV. A black image appeared on the screen.

“Why is it so dark?” Hao Ning wondered. “They did not turn on lights?” added he.

“No.” Zhou Yuan shook his head. “The Spiritual Flying Bugs is made based on feelings. Now his soul has been over 100,000 years old. That means his spirit is very weak.”

The screen flashed as he was talking. A sound passed out of the screen. They listened to it carefully. It seemed that somebody inside said, “now let’s replenish souls, ok?”

Replenish souls? Hao Ning and others wondered. As the sound was too low, they did not hear it clearly. They kept silent and listened to it more carefully.

“They must begin their work now.” Zhou Yuan said to himself. After saying this, he pointed to the screen. It seemed that he used much power to do it. Sweat appeared on his forehead after his pointing. He said bitterly, “this is an induction force strengthened by the incense. I felt tired now.”

“It’s not about the Spiritual Flying Bugs.” Xiao Hong said. “It must be that the soul of gold finger is too weak. The Spiritual Flying Bugs can only feel a limited feeling. You must be tired as you enhanced it.”

After Zhou Yuan used his power, the screen became brighter. Only silver finger and brass finger could be seen on the screen. They were looking for something on the shelves. There were many things on the shelves. But they could not be seen clearly as the light was too dim. One of them found something, screaming, “over here!” And then he got one thing, looked at it carefully and said, “this is it!”

After saying this, he aligned the thing with gold finger, taking a blue light out of his pocket. Seeing the blue light, Hao Ning realized that this was the Soul Coin Material.

What were they doing over there? Hao Ning wondered. However, nobody talked about it. He had to contain his questions to himself.

In the low-quality image, the man put the blue light into his hand, trying to hold something. The whole body of the thing was shining. The man shook the thing in front of gold finger. A light came out of the thing. It seemed to fly into the body of gold finger. The man clapped his hands and said, “Done!”

After saying this, the whole image became so bright that nothing could be seen. Zhou Yuan screamed, “what happened?”

“This is the case.” Liu Shuai nodded. “This man must be recovered. His soul is normal now. So, the Spiritual Flying Bugs can feel again. Zhou Yuan, don’t enhance the image anymore.”

Zhou Yuan clenched his hands. The image on the screen appeared normally. Zhou Yuan wiped his sweat. It seemed that he used too much power just now. He asked, “this man must recover to live. But do you guys understand what happened?”

The three looked at each other, confused. They did not shake their heads or nod.

“What are the things on the shelves?” Hao Ning asked. The screen became clearer. Hao Ning pointed to the things on the shelves. They looked like white yet long and thin porcelain bottles. Hao Ning felt that he had saw them before somewhere. He wondered, “I must have seen them before somewhere.”

“They are Clear Glass Bottles!” Xiao Hong screamed. “How do they have them? And why are there so many?” he shook his head. “Impossible, impossible. They must resemble the genuine ones! They are fake ones.”

Hao Ning fully understood what Xiao Hong thought. Xiao Hong was deeply impressed by Avalokitesvara’s Clear Glass Bottle. However, nobody could stand if he saw so many bottles belonging to him only.

“Of course, they are fake ones.” Hao Ning comforted Xiao Hong. “They may be common bottles. They are fake. I am sure.”

“Silver finger.” gold finger said slowly. “My life just ended?”

“Yes.” silver finger smiled. “It is three days earlier than expected. You are becoming older sooner.” His voice sounded relaxed. It seemed like they were talking a common thing.

“So weird.” gold finger said, rubbing his forehead. “I must be stimulated by the man yesterday. I just remembered that I was recalling the man’s tactics that I underlined on stones. I was thinking about how I could defeat him the whole day. And this morning, I realized that my life would end soon.”

Hao Ning and Xiao Hong looked at each other, confused. According to what gold finger said, it seemed that he knew when his life ended very well. But he did not care about it. Why?

“You are right.” silver finger continued to say. “It was us who got you out of the hospital. Your soul has ended, and you died on the street. We even had no time to use the standby soul to recharge you.”

“So, Mr. Yi is really a talented person!” gold finger said. He did not thank them. It seemed like that what they did was just a small thing. “He even can make standby souls for us. And he guides us to put them into these soul refrigerators. This way, we can fulfill our wishes in the stone speculation forever without worrying about insufficient souls for us. He is really a genius.”

“Yes, I agree.” brass finger nodded. “Only with personal experience can we know that the pleasure of life and Heaven lie in the stone speculation. Anyway, we should thank Mr. Yi. Ok, as you are alive again, we must leave now. We even have no time to cut stones today. I have suffered a lot. I must go there now!”

“Hey, wait for me.” gold finger smiled. “Let’s go together!” added he.

After saying this, gold finger stood up, walking along with them.

At this time, Zhou Yuan shook his body. They appeared in the original place with a bottle in their hands. And the men had been in the places respectively where they cut stones.

“You…” Liu Shuai looked at the bottle Zhou Yuan held, screaming, “are you out of your mind? You risked your life to get it?”

“This is what I should do.” Zhou Yuan said. He almost fell on the ground. Liu Shuai lifted him. Hao Ning couldn’t understand what Zhou Yuan did. He gave him a cup of water and asked Liu Shuai, “what happened to him?”

“He just went to the place where gold finger was saved and stole a bottle.” Liu Shuai sighed, looking at Zhou Yuan. “You needn’t risk your life for that.” added he.

Seeing Hao Ning was still in confusion. Liu Shuai continued to explain, “the video we are watching happened half an hour ago. Zhou Yuan tracked the place through his power. And he went there to get one bottle. The tracking spent his much power. And we don’t know what is happening now over there. If somebody is in that room, Zhou Yuan may be seen. If so, he will be in trouble.”

“We are lucky enough.” Zhou Yuan waved his hand, tiredly. “Nobody was there. Xiao Hong, Liu Shuai, please check the thing inside the bottle. I have to take a break.”

After saying this, Zhou Yuan drank some water and lied down the bed.

“Are you ok?” Hao Ning asked, covering him with the quilt.

Xiao Hong checked him carefully, shook his head and said, “he is ok. He just spent too much power. He needs a rest. Let’s go to Liu Shuai’s room. Leave him here for a rest.”

“What is the bottle for?” After entering the room, Liu Shuai hurried to put away stuff. Hao Ning smiled and said nothing. He checked the bottle up and down. Nothing was inside. “How could they spill over the medicine with a light out of it?”

“Let me check.” Xiao Hong was the last one entering the room. Hearing what Hao Ning said, he grabbed the bottle and checked. His face turned serious after checking it. “So weird.” he said. And then he closed his eyes and said a mantra. The bottle trembled in the air with lights shining on the body. The mouth of the bottle shined dark blue light.

Hao Ning looked at the inside of the bottle through the mouth. There was a thing shining light inside. Hao Ning said, “Xiao Hong, you are so powerful to find out this!”

“I did not find them out…” Xiao Hong rubbed his head. He did not feel happy by Hao Ning’s exaltation. “This is the soul protection mantra Bodhisattva uses for the kalasa. I just tried to use it. But it works…”

“Soul protection mantra?” Liu Shuai said. He already cleaned up his room. He patted his forehead after seeing the bottle. “Wow, you are right. Clear Glass Bottle has a special function. It can protect souls from decay. But this function is useful only to the Clear Glass Bottle. And why the soul protection mantra used by Xiao Hong worked for this bottle?”

“Why?” Xiao Hong echoed. “If the soul protection mantra works for this bottle, that means that this bottle can protect souls from decay? That may be the reason they called it soul refrigerator…”

Saying this, Xiao Hong became more depressed. Nobody was willing to see that his family’s treasures were stacked on the shelves like cheap things.

“If it were a glass bottle, it would be ok. Right?” Hao Ning said. He remembered that Yan had a glass bottle once. Zhou Yuan’s soul was stored in it before. “I thought that it can protect anything. I remember that Yan once stored Zhou Yuan’s soul in a glass bottle.”

“It’s not protection.” Liu Shuai shook his head. “That is a small container storing souls. For example, one bowl of rice, if you put it under the room temperature, it will turn sour. However, if you put it in Bodhisattva’s kalasa, it will maintain fresh even after thousands of years. Of course, we won’t put rice into the kalasa.”

“I know, you mean denotes souls. ” Hao Ning nodded. Trained by Xiao Hong that afternoon, Hao Ning improved his understanding ability. “But why does Bodhisattva’s mantra work for this bottle?”

The questions Hao Ning asked made Xiao Hong more depressed.

“I guess this must be a fake one.” Liu Shuai said. “And it is highly possible when they made fake kalasa, they did not know the mantra. They must load the mantra unintentionally. It was just like you disintegrate a torch and assemble it again. Even you don’t know how to use the new one, but the one who used it before can use it again.”

“They are stupid.” Hao Ning smiled. “If they don’t know the mantra, why did they make so many bottles?”

“Don’t forget that.” Liu Shuai said, recalling what he had seen on the TV. “They don’t know the mantra, but they have the Soul Coin Material. I guess they added something special to it. As long as they added the Soul Coin Material, the soul inside the bottle would appear.”

When they were talking, a sound “Shh…” came out of the bottle. A crack appeared on the body of the kalasa. The crack became bigger and bigger. And then, the bottle broke into halves.

“Oh, it is just a once-only use fake kalasa!” Liu Shuai smiled, patting Xiao Hong’s shoulder. “Now don’t worry. We can say that Bodhisattva’s kalasa is much better than this one. It can be used for thousands of years. It integrates Sky and Man!”

Hearing what they said, Xiao Hong turned happy. He said proudly, “of course, it is made by Mountain Lojia Purple Bamboo Forest. It is not a common thing made by those common persons?”

Saying this, the soul went out of the bottle, falling on the ground. They looked at it. It was a naked silver finger’s soul.

“Err?” looking at the naked white soul on the ground, Hao Ning was shocked to step back. “It is a shameless soul.” he condemned.

“What are you saying?” Liu Shuai said. He did not understand what Hao Ning said. “What do you see?” added he.

Looking at Liu Shuai, Xiao Hong understood what was going on here. Liu Shuai had no power at all now. So, he couldn’t see the thing. To let him see the soul, Xiao Hong touched his head with one finger. “Ok now, you can see souls from now on.”

“Thank you.” Liu Shuai thanked Xiao Hong. Suddenly, he saw the naked soul on the ground. He was shocked, “hey, why is there a naked soul on the ground?”

“Soul with clothes?” Hao Ning asked. He wondered, “Liu Shuai, what you said is not right. Only people can dress themselves. How can a soul get dressed?”

“They don’t wear clothes.” Liu Shuai smiled and continued to say, “if one is touched deeply, he can see what he wants.”

Hao Ning, of course, could not understand what he said. “Tell me in one sentence…”

“Well, I just learned this sentence from others…” Liu Shuai felt embarrassed. “I just heard that there are similar concepts documented in Surangama Sutra. Zhang Quan also explained it to me in my dream. The clothes of a soul are related to this concept. But I did not learn much about it. Xiao Hong, can you explain it for us?”

“No. Leave me alone.” Looking at the naked soul on the ground, Xiao Hong smiled bitterly. “I even can’t understand the math in middle school. How can I explain the concept of inner value?”

“One of you is a child of an Immortal, and the other one is an immortal. You don’t know about this?” Hao Ning mocked. “Shame on you two.”

“Ha, ha. Hao Ning, what you said is nonsense, but it is a truth!” Liu Shuai laughed. “As we are immortals, it is natural we don’t understand our nature.”

“What?” Hao Ning couldn’t understand again.

“…” Liu Shuai intended to explain it in a simpler way for Hao Ning. “For example, you are a person. All your moves are driven by your cells and all your thoughts come from your brain. But do you understand how your cells move and how your brain works? How does your consciousness come into being? Or let me ask you a simple question. Do you know how your inspiration come into being?”

“My inspiration comes from a flash…” Hao Ning stopped. “You are right. Where does my inspiration come from? Many inspirations are unrelated to logic. They seem to come from nowhere. I have them when I am walking… What a weird thing it is.”

“Well, well, well. Forget it!” Liu Shuai stopped Hao Ning. “This is the thing Psychologists are interested in. They put forward many concepts like inner self, self, and super self. I just gave you an example. Sometimes, the thing bewildered us most is ourselves. So do immortals. So, leave it alone. What we need to understand is what souls are indeed and its transformation. You can see that a person, after he separates from his soul, still wears clothes. And his look is the same as the man.”

“You are right!” Hao Ning smiled. “I always have a question. If one did cosmetic surgery, what will she look like? The look before surgery or after?”

“This is not a big deal.’ Liu Shuai continued, smiling. “If one has a haircut, what will his hair look like after he dies? Ha, ha, ha. Only scientists like us will ask such stupid questions. Because what we ask really destroys the romantic mystery in theology!”

“No, I disagree!” Hao Ning continued. He insisted to find out the answer. He asked seriously, “I don’t care about romance or not. Now answer me, how long his soul’s hair will be after a person dies?”

“Err…” Liu Shuai bitterly smiled, rubbing his forehead. “I just told you. If one is touched deeply, he can see what he wants. From my point, it is about your soul that will turn into the way how your subconsciousness understands yourself.”

“This is idealism…” Hao Ning shook his head, unbelievably. “You mean that I can be what I want to be?” added he.

“What you want to be is not controlled by you. It is controlled by your subconsciousness instead. It is out of your control.” Liu Shuai shook his head. “Ok, that’s enough.” He turned to the naked soul and asked, “hey, there. Wow. I think this soul is a little stupid.”

Liu Shuai greeted this naked soul many times. No response from it. It just stared at the distance, saying nothing.

“It did not see us?” Hao Ning said, waving his hand before it. The naked soul stepped back a little. “It can see us. What’s wrong with it?”

“Well…” Liu Shuai and Xiao Hong looked at each other. Liu Shuai couldn’t believe it. “Is it like a baby written in Taoist Tao Te Ching?”

“Stop your nonsense!” Xiao Hong shook his head. “It is a high-level sense. It can be as delicate as a baby. But you look at this stupid soul. Is it delicate? Stupid soul!”

“It can be as delicate as a baby?” Hao Ning seemed to hear this sentence before. It was a sentence written in Tao Te Ching, describing something like the state. The concept of the primary baby was invented by a later generation based on this sentence.

“What you said make sense.” Xiao Hong checked the soul carefully again, leaving Hao Ning saying to himself. He continued to say coldly, “is it a baby body preparing for reincarnation?”