The Feng Shui Detective's Casebook Read Online Free

The case
of the fishy flat
    A scholar sat on the Plain of Jars reading The Book of Changes .
    He wanted to know where the Life Force came from. So he closed his book and made a vow. ‘I will travel on and on and on, never stopping, until I find the primary source of ch’i .’
    He walked across the city. He walked across the county. He walked across the kingdom. He could not find it.
    So he decided to sail around the world.
    He got into a ship and sailed far away. He saw many strange things. He saw in the ocean a great fish. The great fish was also travelling very far.
    But he could not find the source of ch’i .
    The scholar did not give up. He travelled very far, to the other side of the world. He went to the four points of the earth and the four corners of the lo pan .
    Many times his path crossed with the path of the great fish, who also seemed to be seeking something.
    But although he went to a thousand places, he could not find the source of ch’i .
    One day he travelled to the land where people can talk to creatures and creatures can talk to people. He saw the great fish passing his boat.
    He asked the fish: ‘Are you looking for something?’
    The fish said: ‘Yes. Are you looking for something?’
    The scholar said: ‘Yes. I am looking for the source of ch’i .’
    The fish said: ‘What is ch’i ?’
    The scholar said: ‘It is prana , it is the life force, it is Tao, it is the way, it is Heaven, it is God. You have travelled far. You have seen it?’
    The fish said: ‘No. I have been everywhere in the whole world. I have not seen the source of ch’i .’
    The scholar was very, very sad. He cried very much.
    After his tears dried, he asked the fish: ‘What are you looking for?’
    The fish said: ‘I am looking for the sea.’
    The scholar said: ‘But you are IN the sea.’
    The fish looked around. He said: ‘How can that be? I cannot see it.’
    The scholar said: ‘You cannot see it because it is every thing you can see.’
    At that moment the scholar found enlightenment.
    Blade of Grass, never forget the words of Confucius:
    ‘Fish forget they live in water and people forget that they live in the eye of heaven.
    ‘The world is heaven and heaven is the world. This is the beginning of understanding.’
    From ‘Some Gleanings of Oriental Wisdom’
by CF Wong, part 21.
    He lowered his pen, blew on the page to dry it, and carefully shut the book.
    Then, slowly as a golden rain-tree falls over in a paper-mulberry forest, he leaned way back in his creaking red leatherette chair, cupped his hands behind his head and grinned.
    CF Wong was a happy man. He felt like physically expressing it some way. But how? Singing was something he hadn’t done for years. Dancing was something he hadn’t done for even longer—since his previous life or perhaps one or two before that, he reckoned. Maybe he should celebrate by having a lion’s head for lunch. But those devils at Tong Kee Fish Porridge were now charging $4.95 a dish: evil robbers from the fifth layer of hell!
    Yet even as the feng shui master pondered the best way to celebrate, he was aware of a growing realisation that he probably wouldn’t do anything at all. He had never been a demonstrative man. He had seen people expressing their feelings by jumping around and yelling, but had no idea how to do the same.
    No matter. He was happy enough to just sink into his chair and let a smile play on his lips.
    He would take it easy today. Perhaps do a little extra writing in his book of educational Chinese classics. And he might make a token celebratory action. He would order a portion of pan-fried wor tip from the Shanghainese coffee shop around the corner. Yes, that would be perfect.
    The sudden burst of joy could be credited to a plan that had come to Wong as he had dragged his eternally suffering limbs into the office at 7:30 that morning.
    Like all members of humanity, he had his crosses to bear. But this particular week, two particularly heavy weights were