On the way to work, Zhi bought Zhao a fried dough cake and some milk. They both ate as they walked to work and when they were almost there, Zhi noticed two more people in his sphere of influence. The reason he noticed them is because while they seemed to be having a conversation off to the side of the street. They both kept glancing at him and Zhao as they passed. After they passed them by, they started following slowly and only watched Zhi and Zhao.
Once at the restaurant, they both said hello to Zang as he was collecting his fully loaded cart in the morning, before heading inside. As Zhi watched Zhao prepare and cut up vegetables, he focused on his spirit sense and tried to use it to hear what some of the other cooks were talking about on the other side of the noisy kitchen area. But no matter what he tried, he couldn’t make out anything they said the whole morning. When the staff lunch came, Zhi gave Yongzheng a plate from dinner last night. After plating himself some of the lunch made for the kitchen staff, he sat down at a table on the far side of the room facing the kitchen door with Zhao on the opposite side of the table from him.
Zhi removed his rice hat and picked up his chopsticks, Zhao looked over at Zhi and said in surprise, “How long have you had that on for? And how can you even see what you are doing?”
“I picked it up yesterday and never took it off. I am training my spirit sense, I need to get better at it.” Zhi begins to eat, while Zhao says, “Guess I didn’t notice. Will I be doing this at some point?”
Zhi goes to pick up some more rice with his chopsticks and says. “Yes you will, but it will be a while. Oh it looks like your girlfriend is here, I wonder if she is gonna sit at our table.” Zhao’s head snaps around and sees Xiulan walking into the dinning area followed by Sun Meifeng. Xiulan and Meifeng both wave towards their table. Zhao waves back but his face flushes a little red, Zhi waves back with his hand holding the chopsticks.
Zhao looks back at Zhi and huffs before saying, “She is not my girlfriend.”
Zhi smiles back and says, “But you would like her to be. It’s written all over your face whenever you look at her, even now.”
Zhao doesn’t reply, but turns to glance at Xiulan. As he does, Zhi says. “Don’t worry, she will probably come over to sit with us. Just act normal and eat. Well as normal as you can be when you are around her, haha.” Zhao’s head swings back to look at Zhi, but he doesn’t say anything and begins to eat. A few minutes later Xiulan and Meifeng come over to join them at their table.
Before any greeting is said, Meifeng says, “What's up with the blind fold and how can you see what you are doing right now.” Zhi looks up as Meifeng who hasn’t taken a seat yet and says, “Training a new skill, it lets me see perfectly fine. Your light blue cheongsam looks great on you, but the red lace doesn’t really match it.”
A smile plays across Zhi’s face and Meifeng slightly blushes at his words, while Zhao looks at Meifeng and says. “Zhi, she doesn’t have any red lace on with her dress. He just started practicing this skill yesterday, looks like he still has a lot of work to do.”
Meifeng doesn’t say anything but sits down at the table and then kicks Zhi in the Shin. Zhi just smirks at her and continues to eat. Xiulan sits down and greets both of them before beginning to eat herself. Lunch passes quickly with only a little bit of small talk and Zhao giving quick glances to Xiulan whenever he thinks no one is looking. After lunch Zhi changes into his monk clothes and leaves the restaurant, only to feel those same two people watching him as he leaves.
They don’t follow him though as he takes off to the open air market which he finds strange. At the open air market he spends the next hour or so trying to get his spirit sense to listen to what people are saying. No matter what he tries it just doesn’t work. He has made more progress on seeing through items, but his failure on not being able to find a way to listen to people begins to frustrate him. Deciding to reset his mind set and try again tomorrow. He heads over to his divining spot early and helps point people towards their talents. An hour earlier than normal, he stops for the day and heads to his current residents to start cooking dinner.
Once in the kitchen/dining room area he pulls out his music player and sets it into stereo mode. The music player begins to unfold and turns into a small size boom box complete with tape deck. Looking at it on the kitchen table Zhi smiles then hits the power button on the top of it. The tape deck area merges into the top and an LCD type panel is now there with a library list displayed. After clicking shuffle, Zhi scrolls through the list and finds something that sounds good then double clicks the song to play. Before the song plays a message pops up and says, “Would you like to enable equalizer for music? When on it will put the perfect equalizer settings for each song played.” Zhi clicked yes without a thought and walked over to start cooking dinner.
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Zhi hums along as he cooks, he goes through eight songs before he hears. “Stealing runs rampant in Harlem. Gambling runs rampant in Harlem. All types of evils and vices that tear apart our community run rampant in Harlem.” As Zhi hears the first words, he feels the bass of the song in his whole body and he looks over and sees the items he has on the counter shaking.
Looking back at the music player on the table, he can see the table and chairs around it shaking with each bass hit. “Holy shit that is some crazy bass on this music player… SOUND WAVES! All sound travels in waves which are created when something vibrates and sends waves of energy or the vibration into our ears. I should be able to use this with my spirit sense!” A light glow lights up around Zhi after saying that.
[You realize you said that out loud correct? Congratulations on stepping onto the Dao of Sound by the way. Also you sound like a mad man when you talk out loud like that.]
Thanks, I was just surprised, that is a crazy amount of sound for a little stereo. It’s like it has built in little subwoofers somewhere connected to an amplifier.
Buddha actually sounds smug as he says, [All system built devices are built to the highest quality and standards. They also use special spatial techniques to hold all of the features of each device. The music player is designed to play music in high fidelity surround sound. The subwoofers it uses are actually twenty inches and connected to a state of the art amplifier. It also has a mental and voice command mode which you do use.]
Sorry, I didn’t read the instruction manual. But thanks for the info. Play KISS Detroit Rock City original. Put the song on repeat, after the song plays twice turn off my hearing please.
[Smart, I will turn off your hearing after the second play through.]
Zhi continues to cook dinner and uses his spirit sense to watch the sound waves coming from the music player. It takes a while, but part way through the second playthrough it just clicks. As the third time the song plays, he can no longer hear the song. But he can still listen to it with his spirit sense. It’s not the same, it feels diminished to him. All the instruments sound a little muted and the voices are deadened almost monotone. He just lets the song repeat and tries to fix the issue.
Zhi finishes cooking dinner as a guitar rift begins to play. After finishing up, he plates the food for everyone and then stores it all away. Taking a seat at the table, he starts playing around with the mental commands of his music player. Mostly playing with the equalizer and volume settings while he practices his spirit sense. It doesn’t take much longer for someone to come home, and he feels a sound wave from the front door. “What the hell is that sound?!?!”
A few seconds later, Hai Ya walks into the kitchen and looks at Zhi and the little stereo blasting away rock music. Before Zhi says anything, another person says from the front door. “What is going on? What is all of that sound aunty Ya?”
She turns around to see Zhao walking down the hall and says, “ I have no idea, it’s coming from a box that Zhi has on the table.”
Turn back on my hearing, I pretty much have it now. I just need to practice more.
[Hearing turned back on.]
Zhi reaches over and turns down the music and says, “This is music from my homeland, it’s a type of music called heavy metal.”
“I don’t like it, it sounds like what demon or devil cultivators would listen to.” She gives Zhi a look, “You aren’t a demon or devil cultivator are you?”
Zhi laughs and says, “No, but you could say this music is an acquired taste.” Zhi looks over to Zhao who is actually nodding his head along to the music with his eyes closed.
“Look, Zhao seems to like it!” Hai Ya spun around to see Zhao with his eyes closed, head bobbing to the music. She smacks the back of his head hard and says, “Don’t listen to this type of music, it’s devil and demon cultivator music!”
Zhao looks embarrassed, but says “Yes aunty Ya.” Then walks over and takes a seat at the kitchen table. Hai Ya turns and looks at Zhi and says, “And you! Turn off that evil music and don’t play it in the house again. Also don’t play it for Zhao, do you understand?!?”
Zhi smiles at Ya, as he turns off the music he says. “Sure thing aunty Ya.” He stores the music player away and begins to set out plates and tea for everyone. As he is doing this Ya says, “Why do you have a blindfold on? Is something wrong with your eyes?”