Chapter Fifteen
General Tian Yazhou pulled out Clarity from the meditation group led by Madame Wa, who was engaging in hands on meditation, leaving Elsie Chu with Jiang Xiong. The Chinese General was intrigued by Clarity, and her natural, girl-next-door look was appealing to him.
"So you are the woman who owns the symbolic decryptor we found."
"Yes, it took me quite a lot of effort to get it really." Pleased by the assertiveness of Clarity, the Chinese General took Clarity to his quarters on the third floor of the building, a nice but not overly luxurious bedroom with bathroom overlooking the park of Gazelle Valley, with a view on several buildings hosting various high-tech projects. He closed the door and reached for a drawer, pulling Clarity's decryptor out.
"How do you use this? Show me," he said. Clarity beamed a smile inwardly, very pleased of having found her decryptor.
"There's a calligraphy module," she said, "various fonts, maybe you're interested in learning Thai characters?" Tian Yazhou shook his head.
"Not of my interest, what else can you do with this?"
"There's a way to find immortality, but I'm not sure how to get there or find it. This decryptor, in fact, has its own consciousness." She thought about Evans, and shook the decryptor, but the supercomputing consciousness remained dormant. Tian Yazhou turned his back on Clarity, looking out the window.
"What you say is not really possible. What else can this device do?" Clarity had a flash with an idea that was both naughty and potentially beneficial for the General. It made sense to her.
"I can use the decryptor to change your sexuality." The head of the Western military Theater Command of China, a middle aged man in his early fifties, turned around, intrigued.
"What do you mean?"
"I'll show a way to recycle energy, so that you feel more vigorous sexually, and also so that you think more effectively. I need to spend four hours with you in this bedroom. Both of us naked."
The General nodded and locked the door, ensuring privacy. Over the next thirty days, Clarity taught Tian Yazhoo the fundamentals of the microcosmic orbit, as taught by the monks of the Enlightened Jade Dragon Society. To feel the orbit, men had to go over their 'horny period', four, five or six days in general for men aged twenty five to fifty. During those critical days, men usually masturbated and ejaculated.The 'orbit' philosophy recommended 'edging', arousing sexually to the point of near orgasm, and then lowering arousal again, even controlling erection with the mind.
Clarity read some texts inside the decryptor, explaining the techniques in detail, and Tian Yazhou, a man used to hardship and perseverance, went over his horny period without spilling his seed or ejaculating. After two weeks of semen retention, he began to notice a vibration of energy below his skin, running along his arms and legs, the real microcosmic orbit. During this time, Clarity slept with the General, ensuring he didn't bang her, but also making sure that she aroused him so that his erection was strong. She also used the wireless connection of her decryptor to check flights coming in and leaving out of Xianyang airport. After two weeks, she requested her Singapore passport, and the General gave it back to her.
"This meditation and microcosmic orbit feeds on sexual energy, I can feel my energy now," he said.
Clarity checked his erection with her hand. After four weeks of recycling sexual energy, of sexual arousal and orgasm without ejaculation, his erection was tremendous, rock solid, the girl with auburn hair had never seen anything like that. The General was able to sustain erection for hours, two or three, and he was deeply satisfied sexually by his own multiple orgasm without ejaculation.
Increasingly, he was absorbed by his own practices, seeing the benefits in renewed vigor and vitality. After four weeks, Clarity came to know the sentinels guarding Tian Yazhoo's quarters, befriending them as well, offering them ways to experiment with their sexuality, 'without a partner'. One night, on week eight of her training, she decided to make her move. While the general was sleeping, engrossed by his night erections and 'sexual dreaming', which came as a result of preserving his seed, Clarity walked out of her bed, as though going to the bathroom. She donned her clothes, ensuring the decryptor and her Singapore passport was in her pocket, taking with her several papers from the General's military uniform, authorizing him to move freely throughout China and outside the country. Throwing one last look at the General, who was sleeping, she got out of the bedroom, looking for Vanity in another bedroom.
"We're leaving," she said. Showing the General's papers to several guards guarding various rooms, they reached the exit of the building and woke up the chauffeur of the black Hongqi L5.
"To the airport," she said. The chauffeur, who was sleeping across the front seats of the car, saw the papers signed by members of the Central Military Commission, and didn't dare verify them. He drove out of the High Tech zone and stopped at the airport terminal of Xianyiang. Clarity walked to the counter of Shenzen Airlines, requesting a ticket. She pulled out some cash given to her by Tian Yazhou, and purchased two tickets to Singapore, one for her, and a second for Vanity, who used the papers of the General taken by Clarity, as passport.
They sat in the boarding lounge for an hour, and a stewardess called for boarding. Clarity sighed when the plane took off for Singapore. Her decryptor beamed an incoming message, sent wireless from the personal smartphone of General Tian Yazhou.
Thank you for your teachings. Do not forget that you work for the government of China now. We will get in touch with you through the decryptor so that you provide information on surveillance matters performed by the Bellagio Center for Underground and Strategic Affairs in Las Vegas. If you refuse, we will find you, we are able to trace your decryptor anywhere in the world.
Clarity did not reply to the message. At least, she'd left a potential prison. She was better off than Dao Bin. After a three hour flight, they reached Changi airport. Clarity was tired. She used the few Singapore dollars she had left to take a taxi to the Bennington Salm hotel of Lamond Liew, the man who'd placed a large order of showers made and distributed by Stevenson Garden Products, the company where she worked in Malibu. Exhausted from the last four weeks of tension with the General, she crashed on her bed, with Vanity at her side.
"Of course, you can stay here for a few days," said Lamond Liew. The manager of the hotel was friendly, and gave Clarity some time to plan her next move. She called her friend Lanai at the National Library, sensing that the librarian from Malibu was in no rush to leave. Wen Jhi had got in touch with her once, allowing her to keep the decryptor, after she'd briefed him on the plans of the Chinese military at Xian. He praised her findings and warned her about the sexual teachings to Tian Yazhou.
"You think he'll do all right with the teachings on sexual regeneration?" Asked Clarity.
"Maybe," said Wen Jhi, "it depends how he manages sexual energy. Keep us informed on Shalia Owell. We want her out of the left hand path."
"How do I leave Singapore? I have no money." The connection ended, leaving Clarity speechless, gazing at a local program on television, My Sassy Neighbour, showing reflexologist character Madam Tan as she restored calm into the neighborhood of Bukit Anak Kambing.
One day, her decryptor, tuned to wireless frequency 503, intercepted a call from Shalia Owell. The wealthy blond girl was in Singapore, and she was talking to Elsie Chu, who was back in the city-state, after negotiating a leave-of-prison with Chinese authorities. Shalia and Elsie Chu were overseeing the new health phone venture between Hunan Enterprises, China, and Owens & Owell, while Dao Bin rotted inside the Province jail of Shaanxi. The conversation turned to the vanity ring.
"Shalia, I don't have that ring, and I really don't want to talk about that ring, it led me to a lot of trouble." Shalia Owell insisted. She wanted to be part of the exclusive Privilege Club, because the rumor was that it harbored several billionaires. She'd always wanted to bang a billionaire.
"Who is your contact for that ring?" Elsie Chu was coaxed by the girl into answering.
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"A clerk at the Mauboussin jewelry, at the Takashimaya Department Store, on 391 Orchard Road."
Clarity took note of the location and looked it up on her decryptor. At the same time, the fixed line phone in her room rang. Vanity picked it up.
"It's the receptionist, Barand Kishin is downstairs with an arrest warrant for you ordered by the Censorship Bureau of Singapore."
"Damned, Vanity, let's go, we have to get out of here."
Clarity picked up her Singapore passport from the room's deposit box and turned off her decryptor, placing it in her pocket. They took the stairs to the ground floor, and watched Kishin from a distance, hidden by a column near the reception area, until the Infocomm official took the elevator to their room. The teleoperator put the hotel bill on the account of Stevenson Garden Products, and they took a cab to Mauboussin, a posh jewelry selling rings valued between two thousand and seventy thousand U.S. dollars. In the shop, Clarity began a conversation with a clerk who was wearing a Brioni Prince of Wales blazer featuring two flap pockets.
"The Privilege Club? No, we have not heard of that place. The vanity ring you mention is from Viauget, we don't work with that brand."
Clarity insisted, knowing that Elsie Chu could not have possibly lied about the connection with the ring. She kept talking about how beautiful the rings of the exhibitor were. She showed the clerk her diplomatic passport, and told him she'd stayed at the Marina Bay Sands, to let him know that she was important. She was also officially under arrest, and persona non grata in Singapore, but she was important. The clerk took a close look at Clarity's passport and sustained the conversation. Eventually, he changed the topic.
"Would you like to act as courier for us? We have a customer requesting a very particular ring for her girlfriend. It's expensive for us to pay for insurance, the customer prefers personal delivery as well. If you don't mind doing some travel, we can arrange a trip for you."
"Leaving Singapore you mean?"
"Yes." Clarity did not hesitate, nearly kissing the clerk on the cheek.
"Yes. I'll do that, don't mind traveling."
Vanity negotiated a job as sales assistant at Mauboussin, preferring to stay in Singapore. In her mind, her job as maid with Dao Bin was finished, and she was looking for an alternative to escort work. The clerk walked to the back of the store, and came back with a magnificent Alessandra ring made of yellow gold and diamonds, with the code L4670 etched on the inner band of the ring. The clerk called a taxi for Clarity, to lead her to the airport, placing the gold ring, worth seventy thousand dollars, on her finger. As guarantee, the clerk made a complete photocopy of her passport.
"Where am I going?" Asked Clarity.
"The Venetian Macao, a plushy casino-hotel resort based in Macau, owned and operated by the Las Vegas Sands company." A taxi honked outside and Clarity said good bye to Vanity.
"Who is the customer?" The clerk handed him a piece of paper.
"A prominent client of the resort, name is in the piece of paper. Just give the ring to him, and give us a call. The customer will pay us when he gets the ring." Clarity nodded and exited the jewelry, stepping inside the backseat of the taxi. She told the driver to go to the counter of Xiamen Air at Changi airport. Her plane was leaving for Fuzhou in China, and then headed for Macau. She looked at the beautiful Mauboussin ring on her finger, thinking that esoteric sexuality was like a diamond which needed endless polish in order to be brought to the surface. On a more practical matter, she sat back comfortably in the backseat of the taxi, and thought that it was more relevant that she was wearing the ring, rather than own it as property.
Access of use was replacing ownership in many businesses like the room-sharing venture Airbnb, or with the car-sharing Uber, and she wondered whether she could offer a 'rent-to-use' luxury lifestyle, which satisfied those who paid tribute to the notion of vanity, a quality which provided self-esteem to those showing it, verging at times on an excessive sense of personal worth which clouded thinking at times.
Rubbing the diamond on the ring with her finger, she reflected on the source of her own personal worth. She came to the conclusion that personal worth was within the person, not without, within her own sense of inner balance, common sense, and being comfortable with who she was as a teleoperator from Topanga Canyon, and as a woman rejecting the stupidity of others, and espousing middle class values of friendliness, sociability, respect, and sometimes work. She had her own views about proper pay for proper work, and thought about some words that she'd heard Dao Bin say to Vanity, when she asked him how he'd made his money. His enigmatic answer was that 'You don't earn money by working, but by thinking.' She lowered the taxi window to let fresh air in, and wondered how rich people thought.