What comes when a person is most afraid? Anger. What comes after anger? Trauma; and this man was the perfect epitome of one who has had a traumatic experience.

Seeing that the man had reached the most harrowing point of his encounter where he tried to strike at the unknown entity with anger, my father observed that blood had but all left the man’s face. He offered the man another cigarette and lighted it for him. The man took a few more swigs off his cigarette, his agitation slowly subsiding. At length, he continued again, “It was like hitting on marshmallows when I tried to strike it with my flashlight. It looked like a living thing to me, but it did not seem so when I hit it. How could a living thing felt like cotton when I hit it? I must have missed, I first thought. Hence, I tried hitting it again. It ducked; and again, and again. I kept missing it, and this filled me with rage. ‘I don’t care what you are,’ I told myself and took another swipe at the ‘thing’ with my flashlight. But this time, my torch passed cleanly through it and hit the rock behind it. My anger was instantly choked, replaced only with cold fear. That must surely be a ghost, I thought, and I nearly wet my pants. I ran all the way home, not being able to look back at all. I did not know whether the thing was following me, but even now, I could not shake off the feeling that the ‘thing’ is following me everywhere, watching me from the shadows. The head of the factory I work at called me two days ago, calling me back to work quickly, for they are short on manpower. I told him yes, only if my shifts are in the day. But we work on three shifts daily. No one will be willing to trade shifts with me every day! That is why I have not been to work!”

Finally having listened to the man’s full story, my father smiled. He said, “All right. I’ll look into this for you and make sure that there will be no repeat of such kind for you in the future when you use that path to work. What do you think?” The man’s eyes instantly glinted brightly and replied, “What? Are you sure?” My father nodded to him and said, “So it is. So, that leaves the matter of payment. How much are you willing to pay me?” It was obvious that the couple had made numerous visits for help. They looked accustomed to the usual proceedings of such visits, with no lack of experiences in being cheated. The woman then said, “Ah… Surely you have to make us an offer? Please, quote us a price.” My father nodded quietly in reply and then said, “I see. How about this? This brother here had just offered to pay two thousand for my help. How about the same rate, two thousand too?” The woman’s eyes twinkled with hope and immediately thanked him profusely. She had never thought that their predicament could be settled with so low a price if compared to the usual rates of the other help that she had tried to look for.

Now that the preparatory negotiations have been done, my father turned to me and said with a smile, “Please lead these good people to the depository to arrange the payments, Shiyan. Bring them back here later when you’re done.” I nodded and muttered in reply, “All right.” I brought them three to the depository where the lady on duty today was going to leave from work. She saw me entering with the three guests and returned to her seat, saying, “Look who it is. What brings you here, Shiyan?” I nodded in acknowledgment and said to her, “Please issue two receipts for two-thousand-dollar lesson fees, Sister.” If she knew what these “lesson fees” actually meant, the lady made no indication of it as she produced the receipts, collected the payments and trotted off from work with her handbag.

Walking out of the depository, Fearless Hao asked me fearfully, “E-er… Look, brother, I am paying before my problem is resolved. What if your father fails…” “Worry not, my friend. We will refund you the money if we fail to help you,” I said. As we talked, we walked back to the Head Person’s Room. I tossed the empty can of Coke I was drinking to the floor of the corridor and the voice of a young woman came suddenly from behind. “I believe I have told you many times not to throw rubbish everywhere, Shiyan!” I immediately picked up the litter I tossed and turned to her, saying, “E-er… Aunt Fen. Heh heh heh, I’m sorry I have not seen you.” And I deposited the trash into a bag she was holding, smiling at her impishly. Aunt Fen knocked at my head once and barked, “So you think you can throw rubbish around when I’m not in sight?” “No, surely not, Aunt Fen,” I replied.

After finishing with Aunt Fen, I led Fearless Hao and the couple up the stairs. Fearless Hao was lost for words. I nudged him once with my elbow and asked him, “What is it with you? You’re choking?” Shyly, Fearless Hao asked me, “T-that… The woman…” Knowing he was referring to Aunt Fen, I said, “Yep. That’s Aunt Fen, the head of the Management Office here.” Fearless Hao waved his hand, “No”, he said, “I have meant to ask you about this at your father’s office, but I had never been able to. What is it with this National Studies Institute? Why is everyone young here holding the position of seniority? Your father looks young himself that he looks only a few years older than you. This Aunt Fen of yours looks even younger than you.” I could see that even the couple had the exact same suspicion, although they did not dare to speak their minds. I smiled at them and said, “Aunt Fen is twenty this year, and I’m twenty-two. I’m not sure of my father though, even though I think he knows not of his age himself.” Fearless Hao gaped with shock, “Ah?! I may be able to understand if you say a young girl of twenty could be a senior here. But what is this about your father?” I shot him a look and snapped, “And what is all these to you?” And Fearless Hao turned quietly instantly.

When we got back to the Head Person’s office, my father was sipping lazily on his drink. He had a wine flask, one that looked silvery but yet not so; an item that never seemed to leave his side. Expectedly, my father was a lover of wine and liquor although I had never seen him being drunk. Still, it was due to his love for heavy drinks that he had made many influential and powerful friends. Seeing us back at his office, my father returned the stopper to his flask and called at the couple who had encountered the “white fiend”, “Come. Let me first settle your impasse with the fiend. Look into my eyes,” he said, “Yes! Look deeply into my eyes.” Hesitant with doubt, the husband shifted in his seat to move forward but his wife dared not move an inch, being the fearful and doubtful woman that she was. She knew full well that her husband was suffering from trauma and she would not be able to take it if her husband would have to undergo another terrifying ordeal.

Noticing her reluctance, my father smiled benignly to her and motioned to her with a wave, saying, “Have no fear. Everything will be fine.” Finally, the woman relented, moving forward in her seat. A solemn silence befell the entire room suddenly. Everyone had their breaths held as they observed my father closely, eager to see him work his magic. Three seconds ticked by before I could distinctly hear the fearful gasps by the couple for breath. The husband mumbled suddenly, breaking the eerie reticence, “Y-your… Y-your eyes… T-they a-are like cat’s eyes…” It was only then when I noticed the change in my father’s eyes: the pupils of his eyes have contracted into the slitted shapes that resembled that of a cat. While the couple might not know what was going on, I did. My father spoke to them gently, giggling lightly, “Have no fear. This change to my eyes is a skill that we, the practitioners of mystic arts, called as the Nocturnal Sight, also known as the Beast Sight by some. The skill allows the eyes to see clearly in the dark like cats.”

But I was slightly perturbed by this display of his skills. Never once had my father revealed his mastery of these mystic skills to strangers. Why did he show this skill to them? The Nocturnal Sight was hardly any common External Magic. It was one of the four greatest Ocular Magic widely practiced amongst practitioners of the arcane arts: all of them being the Nocturnal Sight, the Spirit Sight, the Magical Sight and the Divine Sight. Users of the Nocturnal Sight could see through the darkness without no difficulty. Nothing, be it matter or supernatural entities, would be able to escape the sight of its user. The Spirit Sight allowed its user to detect the flow of spiritual energies. No supernatural entities like demons or ghost would remain unseen in the presence of its user. The Magical Eye bestowed the ability to look through the destiny of three incarnations of any living thing, while the Divine Sight granted its users to peep at Heaven Dao; the only of the four which could only be practiced by those who had attained Immortality. Naturally, I have not met anyone in my life who had possessed the Divine Sight. But there were also people who have been born with the gift of the first three Ocular Magics. I, for one, was born with the Spiritual Sight. Hence I was gifted in this line of business. Still, I knew not of my father’s levels of powers, knowing only that he had both the Nocturnal Sight and the Spiritual Sight. I knew not if he had both the Magical Sight and the Divine Sight. But he would never tell me even if he did have the latter two Ocular Magics.

But I knew that my father was strongly against showing this skill to common mortals. I had once shown to my classmates my Spiritual Eyes when I was young, and he severely punished me. “What was wrong with Father today?” I thought to myself, “Why was he showing these common mortals his powers?” Suddenly my father spoke, “Look at this. Is this you?” He played a video clip on his iPad that he removed from his drawer and handed the iPad to the husband. Everyone looked at the screen of the tablet. Everything was dark in the screen, save for a man walking in the dark holding a flashlight. He was carrying a nylon knapsack on his back. My father pointed to the man on the screen of his tablet and asked, “That is you, no?” The husband was astonished.

My father then giggled before he muttered, “I was not very far away actually, watching you.”