Another early morning, another guided visualization session.

 

“Okay, here’s the theme of today’s visualization session: you will not face the drawings directly. You will face their reflections.” in the basement, Jianmen announced with his usual getup: white loose silky casual clothes and a bamboo stick: “And the source of your reflection, will be your mirrors.”

 

“Why?” Jason asked: “Wasn’t the whole point of visualization to stare at drawings with ‘True Words’ and let the illusions torment us?”

 

“That is not the point, but you are half correct.” Jianmen pointed at Jason with his bamboo stick: “The point is still to harden and temper your minds and spirit, like I told you many times. The purpose of looking at it through reflection is to let you defamiliarize with the drawings and the ‘True Words’ to prevent you from using your memory as a crutch.

 

“You might have noticed this in your recent visualization sessions, that when you are staring at the drawings, your mind will try to re-use your memory of what the drawings look like to let your minds have a chance to slack off. When this happens, you are less focused on the drawings before you but more on the vision in your head. And at the end of the session you won’t gain as much and even could achieve the opposite effect.

 

“So, this simple practice of focusing on the drawings through a mirror will help you focus more and suppress your mind’s habit and desire to take the easier route.”

 

“Will it be as painful as the first session?” Caroline asked.

 

“No, unless something goes wrong, no visualization experience should match the level as the first session. But you should learn to embrace the pain, not actively avoid it.” Jianmen answered: “The pain is what hardens and strengthens your will.”

 

“This is way too Chinese. Using pain as a measure of your progress?” Jason scratched his face: “My parents thought the same and I didn’t have much of a childhood.”

 

“And why would that be a bad thing?” Jianmen slapped Jason’s shoulder lightly with his bamboo stick: “What else you’re gonna measure your progress with? Hugs and kisses from shallow girls and your spoiling mother telling you how special you are?”

 

Caroline laughed out loud but had to quickly hold back。

 

“Ouch, Boss. Okay!”

 

“Okay, off you go. This session is not timed either. You will stop when I tell you it’s time to.”

 

“Another? We seemed to have more of this kind of untimed session recently. Aren’t you worried no one will take care of the shifts?” Caroline asked.

 

“Because you need them, and times like these, time is a luxury.” Jianmen went out of the basement and closed the door: “Don’t worry! You’ll still get the usual pay!”

 

After he closed the door to the basement, Jianmen went back to the reception’s desk.

 

Then he took out a piece of paper with a meticulously hand drawn map on it and held three ancient Chinese copper coins in his hands, slowly blowing onto them.

 

The coins briefly shined orange, then Jianmen cast the coins onto the desk. This was a special kind of divination he learned a long while ago, and it was the most cost effective one he knew.

 

These coins started spinning on the desk and slowly moving towards the piece of paper with the hand drawn map on it. 

 

“Ting!” “Ting!” “Ting!” the three coins struck something invisible as they moved towards the piece of paper, three faint dots of orange light flew out from the coins and landed on the map.

 

The paper started burning from all three points of contact, but as the burn expanded towards the center point of all three contact points, parts of the burn just stopped spreading.

 

When the burning finally stopped, all that was left was a small piece of the map with burnt edges.

 

“Hmmm.” Jianmen picked up the small piece of paper and put it onto its computer screen where he had the same map loaded on a browser, and eventually he found the location that fits, a small area with a park and a small area under construction, looks to be an entrance into a tunnel, whose name is made of some weird characters: “Los Angeles … Ae - Aa - Ai - Ax - Ah something tunnel.” 

 

Then Jianmen did a quick search on the the tunnel, un-mistakenly named “AeixiiMhundu Tunnel”.

 

The tunnel was once a revolutionary underground transportation project that spanned hundreds of miles underground headed by a billionaire, then it was shut down. Jianmen did not get to read too much on the reason for the shut down because two young men just went into the lounge.

 

“Hello, gentlemen, welcome to Xianshi Inn. Would you like a room?”

 

“Uh… no. Do you serve food here?” one of the two young men asked: “And if you do, is it Chinese?”

 

“Yes, we do serve Chinese food. But if you want it right away you’ll have to wait.”

 

“That’s fine. ” the other young man asked: “And do you cater, for like 20 people’s meal?”

 

“I’m sorry, we don’t cater. But we can definitely make group orders. You can pick them up and bring the food to your location.”

 

“Okay, but we might not have people to pick the food up. Can you do delivery? ”

 

“Well, we can arrange delivery with 20 percent. But since you have 20 people, you get a discount, 15 percent extra for delivery.”

 

“That will do. Can we take a look at the menu?” the first young man seemed receptive to Jianmen's ask.

 

“Sure, no problem.” Jianmen handed out two copies of the menu: “Also, do you want individual meals or served in trays?”

 

“Trays. And please don’t use peanuts or peanut oil. ”

 

By the time these two young men finished ordering, Jianmen also noticed that it was time for Jason and Caroline to stop their visualization session.

 

“Thanks! You will have it next Friday, at 12:30 pm.” Jianmen sent off the two young men with a smile.

 

“Hey Boss?” when Jianmen opened the door to the basement, Jason and Caroline were already standing right in front of the door, “I think we might have an issue.”

 

“Hmm, which is?” Jianmen walked into the basement, and he saw that five of his drawings hanging on the walls were somehow burnt down.

 

“We don’t know anything! Somehow they just burnt!” Jason sounded really nervous.

 

“Huh, don’t worry about it.” a smile appeared then swiftly disappeared from Jianmen’s face, “It is the nature of True Words. I’ll make some new ones.”