Chapter 45: Playing Poker With A Sow
Here’s a reminder! The following will be told in the form of a story. To those who are fated to see this, do not get caught up in the form of the story; rather, seek your own path from its periphery. Well said, well said.
A while ago, a buddy I hadn’t contacted in a long time called me, asking what I was busy with and if I wanted to make money.
I asked him where he was and what he was busy with.
He said he had been abroad for three years. He first went to Singapore and worked there for a year and a half without making much money, and now he is in Cambodia.
Before he left, he owed over a hundred [units of currency], and he has paid it all back now.
He also said that his main job there is some kind of online marketing, and he has already been promoted to supervisor.
He specifically targets other countries and doesn’t do anything within China. He has already brought over more than ten people around him, and it’s very profitable. He asked if I wanted to join.
As everyone knows, I am someone who purely cultivates Buddhism to attain enlightenment, not seeking fame or fortune.
When someone speaks to me, the first thing I consider is what I am thinking in my heart, and the second is what others are thinking.
Money and beautiful women hold no temptation for me at all. Therefore, I began to speculate about his motives for telling me all this.
Based on my understanding of human nature, if a person is making a lot of money, they will certainly focus on making money in silence rather than telling others.
Therefore, there are only two reasons why someone would tell others: one is to exploit you for profit, and the other is to treat you as money.
So I directly refused.
As expected, he then told me they were recruiting there and asked if I had any friends who wanted to make money, they could contact him.
For each person he successfully recruits, he will receive thirty thousand [units of currency] there. If I could introduce someone to him, he would give all thirty thousand to me, taking none for himself.
So, here’s the problem: if it were a legitimate marketing job, why would they offer so much for introducing someone?
Although I don’t know if the money is easy to make in Cambodia, in my heart, this is no different from selling pigs.
So, after chatting with him briefly, I hung up.
After hanging up the phone, I thought about this matter. If it were really profitable, he would definitely contact his close friends.
Although he and I are quite good friends, it shouldn’t have come to me before others.
Thinking this, I called another buddy who was closer to him than I was. That buddy told me he hadn’t mentioned anything to him.
This made me even more suspicious of the authenticity of the matter. I wondered if he had been detained.
Perhaps I’m overthinking it, but what if my underestimation of the situation leads to this friend not being able to return?
If we analyze this according to the plots in normal film and television dramas and novels, then this friend’s current state is like a turtle locked in a birdcage; he probably cannot come out.
Moreover, what he calls online marketing is, in my eyes, just like a pyramid scheme. They make money by recruiting people, then extract benefits from those they recruit, and perhaps eventually sell them off.
Such news is constantly reported online.
As the saying goes, one should not harbor ill intentions towards others, but one must guard against them. This makes me have to think this way.
I am mainly worried that this person will truly not be able to return.
Although I suspect he is deceiving me, it does not conflict with my concern for him.
I then contacted this friend’s wife to ask if she knew what he was doing. His wife said she was driving, so I told her to focus on her task.
After much deliberation, I used the Xiao Liu Ren method to cast a divination. The results showed Da An, Su Xi, and Kong Wang.
Xiao Liu Ren has six hexagrams in total, with three being auspicious and three being inauspicious.
They are: Da An, Liu Lian, Su Xi, Chi Kou, Xiao Ji, and Kong Wang.
Representing: Great auspicious, moderate inauspicious, moderate auspicious, minor inauspicious, minor auspicious, and great inauspicious.
Looking at these hexagrams, this person is doing well there and getting by, but the final outcome is not good.
In other words, my friend is fine for now and I don’t need to worry about him, but in the end, it’s likely the “Little Sunflower Mom’s Classroom” has started, and the child can’t spit out rust from lifting iron, so he’s probably crippled.
Alas, with such a celestial arrangement, this humble monk is helpless.
Since we’ve come this far, let me share some knowledge about Xiao Liu Ren with everyone.
Xiao Liu Ren is also known as Ma Qian Ke. It was simplified by Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms period based on Qi Men Dun Jia. Because its prediction method is similar to Liu Ren, it is called Xiao Liu Ren.
When I was initially cultivating, I wanted to learn a method of prediction. I looked at many, such as Mei Hua Yi Shu, Liu Ren, Zi Wei Dou Shu, and so on. Only Xiao Liu Ren was the most convenient and simple. In folk culture, it’s also called “calculating on one’s fingers,” so I learned this. The main reason was for showing off after achieving some cultivation.
Later, things unfolded as the divination showed. This friend told me that his family knew and that I didn’t need to worry too much.
As for the final outcome, we will have to wait and see. If I am still writing this book at that time, I will reveal it. If I am no longer writing this book, I will announce the answer in another book.
…
It had only been a few days since this incident, when a brother named Gouzi from Yangcheng called me again. He said that in his area, there was a man named Wu who used to be a teacher. He seemed to be possessed or haunted by a ghost. The man was acting like he had a mental illness, babbling all day and apologizing to the air, constantly saying:
“Teacher is wrong, teacher is really wrong, I won’t dare again, please spare me!”
While saying this, he would also kowtow vigorously towards the air, his head getting full of bumps.
Sometimes he would even run out of his house in the middle of the night and go to other people’s pigpens to engage in relations with sows.
Just a few days ago, he wasn’t watched, and this Teacher Wu actually sent Wang Shen’s old sow, which had been raised for over ten years, flying to the side.
Hearing this, I couldn’t help but feel some doubt in my heart.
To be honest, this shouldn’t be happening under normal circumstances, right?
Friends who have studied biology know that there is reproductive isolation between humans and other species, meaning it is impossible for humans to engage in relations with sows.
However, from what Gouzi was saying, it didn’t sound like he was joking, so I was very curious about this matter.
Furthermore, the common people were disturbed by this incident and couldn’t live peacefully. The Village Chief thought about spending some money to find some skilled individual to handle it. Gouzi thought that I had been cultivating for about a year and a half now and always bragged about how powerful cultivation was, so he wanted to see if I had any solutions. Then, the two brothers could make some money, splitting it three and seven, with him taking three and me taking seven.
In between, I also asked Gouzi why they hadn’t called the police or sent this Teacher Wu directly to a mental hospital.
Gouzi said that the police and mental hospitals couldn’t handle this matter. He had investigated, and our country has a law called the Mental Health Law. Article twenty-eight of this law stipulates that if a suspected mental disorder patient, or someone who poses a danger to themselves or others, then their close relatives, unit, or local public security organs shall take measures to stop them and send them to a medical institution for diagnosis of mental disorder. This is a diagnosis, but a diagnosis does not equal hospitalization.
Article thirty of the Mental Health Law also stipulates the principle of voluntary hospitalization for mental disorder patients. Even for severely mentally disordered patients, hospitalization treatment can only be implemented with the consent of their guardian.
Article thirty-one of the law clearly stipulates that if the guardian does not agree, the medical institution shall not implement hospitalization treatment for the patient.
Therefore, the law does not stipulate that anyone other than the guardian, or any organization, has the right to decide to implement hospitalization treatment for a mental disorder patient.
Moreover, this Teacher Wu is alone, with no close relatives around, and he is not harming others; he is only harming old sows. Damn it, no one can do anything.
After hanging up the phone, I directly booked a flight to Yangcheng.
