Chapter 20 Avalokitesvara Explaining the Nature of Myths

Fortunately, Zhang Chi Hang did not feel anything and ignored us. He picked up the phone on the table and dialed a number, “Xiao Hong, come in for a while”.

In less than three seconds, a young person wearing a red suit walked in. This young man was at least 1.8 meters tall, but her eyes were bright and her baby face was expressionless and cool. Seeing her coming, Zhang Chi Hang immediately ordered, "Tell director Wang that his son is safe. Also, if the one billion has been transferred into my account, help me donate the money.”

“No problem," Xiao Hong did not say anything useless. On the other hand, Liu Shuai and I had our mouths about to drop, "donate, and donate?”

"Remember, do not donate to that association. You know." Zhang Chi Hang ignored us and continued to instruct, “what’s the next in my donation schedule?”

“Disabled little animals, followed by wind and sand management." Xiao Hong's face was expressionless.

Unbelievable …

"Then start from here. That’s all.”

Xiao Hong is already used to it and was preparing to leave. Just then she accidentally glanced at me and couldn't help but shiver. Her eyes were filled with fear and she staggered, almost falling down.

Zhang Chi Hang saw it clearly and asked, “What's wrong?”

"Nothing, nothing.”

"That's All ~" Zhang Chi Hang waved his hand.

Xiao Hong hurriedly walked out, as if she didn't want to see me again.

Liu Shuai felt a wave of pain as if he had lost one billion. But I remembered a shadow in my mind and quickly said, "that's all, that's the classic line in that movie The Witch in Prada.”

Zhang Chi Hang looked at me and laughed, “Yes."

It was rare for him to be willing to answer our questions, so I hurriedly carried on. "Well… I did not find that you like the lines there too.”

I was just about to express my opinion on this movie. After all, I must find something to talk about, otherwise I did not how I could ask for his help, but Zhang Chi Hang just waved his hand and said, "you're wrong. It's not that I like the lines in this movie, it's that the author of this book likes my words, and then uses them to make the lines.”

"What?" I could not just get it. I looked at Liu Shuai with a face full of worship, my brain no longer running.

Zhang Chi Hang lowered his head to look at his potted landscape & bonsai, "the author was Anna's assistant at the time. Anna is our magazine's editor in chief in U.S. Other than being the person in charge of the Asia-Pacific region of this magazine, I have another role.”

He got such a high position! No wonder he was so rude to the editors here. I remembered what he had said before he came in.

Not allowing me to get distracted, Zhang Chi Hang continued to speak, “I am also a shareholder of this corporation. Whenever the shareholders meet, after I finish looking through the documents, I always push the documents forward and say 'that's all ~'. At this time, Anna's assistant is also present, and she probably thought it very interesting, so she wrote it down, and set it as a pet phrase of Anna in her novel. That’s all.”

"Oh …" I didn’t know how to respond to that. If the words came from the mouth of a bragging ordinary person, I could just laugh and brag about it. However, based on his performance and his identity today, I would rather believe it. But I always felt it was too dramatic, so I wasn't going to be stuck in that matter, "I admire you to donate one billion so generously.”

“I have to, because I cannot use that money," Zhang Chi Hang rubbed his forehead, "I originally wanted to make director Wang to leave me alone and find someone else, but he is also a ruthless person, and he loved his son so much that I could only avoid the issue of cause and effect, otherwise I will get into the Killing Tribulation again in the future.”

"Killing Tribulation, huh …" I did know a bit about this. The Conferred God Battle of the Illustrations of the Gods started from the Heavenly Emperor ordering the twelve Immortal heads to worship him and asking the disciples to undertake the Killing Tribulation. It was just that Mr Xu did not go into detail on this matter. But these were just the words of a novelist, not to be taken seriously. I raised my doubts, and Liu Shuai also expressed his confusion. After all, historians had acquired a consensus on the war between Shang and Zhou Dynasty.

“Haha,” Zhang Chi Hang laughed and walked towards the sofa at the door. He was very tall, ostensibly 1.9 meters up. When he sat down, we also sat down on the sofa with him, watching him sitting on top of it. We were ready to listen to Avalokitesvara's story about the past, but Zhang Chi Hang asked us a question, “let me ask you, what is a myth?”

"Hmm?" Liu Shuai thought for a while, “Like Quafoo chasing after the sun, Houyi Shooting Sun, Chang'e Rushing to the Moon, and myth of the White Snake… these are all myths.”

Zhang Chi Hang looked at Liu Shuai, and shook his head. "Don't use enumerations. Tell me the definition of myth.”

"Well … stories of gods and ghosts?" Liu Shuai scratched his head, "or stories of magics and divine abilities?”

"Where are the gods and ghosts in the Quafoo chasing after the sun? And what kind of magics did Quafoo use? You have a smart mind, but it turns out that you only appear to have a bright future ahead of you. In your mind, is it a fairy tale that a mouse cat can talk? Or is it a science fiction that you can talk about aliens?" Zhang Chi Hang smirked.

Liu Shuai blushed. Although he was not like Lu Xun's Ah Q who did not allow others to talk about his flaws, he was not very happy to have someone sneaking a look at his bald head. He looked at me and planned to change the topic, "Hao Ning, don't you usually talk about the importance of product definition? What do you define as myth? “

Damn, Liu Shuai had learnt to shift the gaze. How could I define a myth? I recalled the method Yan used to deal with me and chuckled, "Liu Shuai, give me your phone.”

"Intelligent", Liu Shuai was instantly beaming with joy, and took out his phone to check the answers on Baidu.

Zhang Chi Hang didn't even look at Liu Shuai as he faintly said, "Whoops, why does such a bright head need a phone? Do you want to compare yourself to your phone which has a more reflective top? “

Instantly, Liu Shuai's face turned completely red. He did not know what to say, nor did he decide whether to search on his phone or not.

Zhang Chi Hang ignored Liu Shuai's awkwardness and looked at me through Liu Shuai's gaze, as if Liu Shuai was some kind of air that could be ignored. He smiled and asked me, “Your name is Hao Ning, right? It does not count to search on phone. The answers you search out are not accurate either. You must give an answer of yourself.”

He pointed to his heart, then to me.

"Do you feel …" Liu Shuai looked at me and I nodded.

Maybe I was thinking too much, but as I recalled, from the moment I entered the office, Zhang Chi Hang seemed to have spoken to me in a more courteous and patient manner. Especially compared to how he made fun of Liu Shuai just a moment ago, the way he talked to me shew an obvious difference.

I shook my head and thought about it. I had indeed once discussed this kind of question with others. Thus, I asked him back, "are you talking about a myth or deification?”

As I said this, I dipped my finger into the water in the cup and wrote the term "myth" and "deification" on the tea table.

"Interesting," Zhang Chi Hang's eyes lit up, “tell me about it.”

It seemed to work, then I said as I thought, "in my understanding, early myths can basically be categorized as the deification of real events, such as Quafoo chasing after the sun being the story of a tribe dying in pursuit of a longer period of sunlight on crops; or a tale saying that a tribe girl getting pregnant because she stepped on a giant's footprints is probably a story of a tribe girl getting pregnant after having sexual contact with someone. These are all more or less truths behind them, but either the rumors spread later on have changed or it was inconvenient for them to tell the truth at that time …”

“Keep the truth concealed for the saint or the ruler,” Zhang Chi Hang nodded, “go on.”

This Avalokitesvara was a little interesting. How could he be so interested in this topic? I thought about this question, but my mouth never stopped, “but then it developed to a certain point, such as the worship of natural powers, foreign cultures, and so on. People added their imagination to these deified events, and the imagination went further and further away, gradually evolving into a myth. Therefore, you will find that Chinese divinatory story rarely diverges from one another. When there is Nvwa creating humans, she created humans. However, the mythological system was extremely chaotic. For example, the relationship between the Heavenly Emperor and West Empress was different in various stories, which nevertheless does not stop people from burning incense to worship them. As long as you place an immortal statue in the temple, people will come to worship it, and if people will worship it, people give donations. They care not what status the immortal they worship is in the system, as long as the worship works. “

I was not confident when I spoke of that. To explain my understanding of myths in front of him was like a monkey jumping down from a tree to tell people "what kind of world your world is”, which was extremely absurd, so I stopped and looked at Zhang Chi Hang.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Chi Hang clapped his hands and smiled at me, "You're right. There are no immortals in this world. The so-called immortals are just the result of people believing in the power of their idols for many years. The true power is the one that everyone believes in their souls. Such sort of power is so great that even after so long, we can only use it, but we can't figure it out. “

“Then what about the Killing Tribulation you were talking?" I tried to get the conversation back on track.

"It's the same, since people believe the existence of Killing Tribulation for gods and Buddhas, and then there must be a Killing Tribulation." Zhang Chi Hang looked at the water vapor in the humidifier in the distance, and his eyes seemed somewhat dejected. "All living beings live less and less in reality, but more and more in belief, don’t they?”

"But you Avalokitesvara's reputation has always been true. Avalokitesvara is a merciful Bodhisattva who sees the hardships of the world and save the livings from the sufferings," Liu Shuai could not help but praise Zhang Chi Hang when he saw how fervent our conversation was.