Chapter 81: Day One of Therapy Translator: Antonia
After many days of hard work, Mo Qianxue fabricated some fairy tales and finally finished drawing a dozen of pictures to tell these tales. She sent out in the oxcart to Tong mansion.
People who suffered severe autism were afraid of communicating with the outside world. They would rather live in isolation and entertained themselves, so all the stories were carefully selected by her.
When she was a child, Mo Qianxue used to have a classmate who suffered autism. He never talked voluntarily in class nor went to the toilet. He would numbly stare at you even if ask him questions. Neither was he an excellent student.
However, they had a caring and wise teacher who arranged the child to sit in the first row, took special care of him and frequently encouraged him when he knew answers to the school work.
In addition, the teacher encouraged all the students to like, attend to and play games with him. After two semesters, Mo Qianxue felt that this classmate was much better than he had used to be. He nearly looked the same as the rest of the class, just talking less and looking a little numb.
She didn’t know how the boy was now, but Mo Qianxue believed that he must be normal.
She had read a book which said that Einstein was autistic too and that in fact many people that suffered autism had high IQ and were high-achievers in certain fields.
Nevertheless, not all people with autism could be healed. Most of them couldn’t live without other’s assistance. They didn’t talk and had difficulty communicating with others normally.
Therefore, Mo Qianxue wasn’t sure whether she could cure lord Tong. What she could do was to have a try first, and, if it worked, take further steps later. If it turned out to be futile, then she could only give up.
She talked with Mr. Tong, and he would like to cooperate with the therapy but pulled his face when he heard that Mo Qianxue would participate in the therapy personally. He had thought that she would only teach some methods or write a prescription.
At this moment, it was not proper to be frank, so Mr. Tong found an excuse to leave and let the housekeeper pass a message.
Although the housekeeper was also an old man, he was quite eloquent and logical, so in less than an hour, he told everything clearly.
It turned out that Tong Zijing not only smirked and refused to talk, but also feared of approaching people, especially women.
When Tong Zijing was young, Mr. Tong thought he would turn normal as he grew up, so he kept him in his room all day long.
At the beginning, when his poison was just cleared, he occasionally said a few words or demanded for something every ten days, but later he became totally silent, and further later, the situation got worse and worse.
Finally, he only tittered and spoke broken sentences.
As he grew older, Mr. Tong found him a shame to let others know, so he locked his son in the room and never allowed him to leave.
But this wasn’t the main cause. The most fundamental one was—
Two year ago, Mr. Tong had done another stupid thing.
Back then, Tong Zijing turned twenty. Seeing that he was an adult for long, Mr. Tong, on an impulse, bought him a woman to have a taste of sex, in the hope of getting a grandson so that the family could have an heir.
Unexpectedly, Tong Zijing just had no interest in sex, totally ignoring the woman and avoiding her presence.
Finally, in a rage, Mr. Tong should get him bound up and let the woman rape his son…
Tong Zijing, bound to the bed, cried more miserably as one could imagine.
After all, Jing was Mr. Tong’s own son. The crying woke him up. Heart aching, he rushed into the room and pulled the woman off.
In that situation, he pulled too hard that the woman’s clothes were torn up. Upon hearing the sound of tearing clothes, Tong Zijing stopped crying and laughed.
It was also since that time that Jing started to enjoy the sound of tearing clothes. And also since then, he never said a word again. Earlier before, he said one or two words from time to time.
Moreover, currently, Tong Zijing hated being approached, especially by women.
Listening to these, Mo Qianxue trembled bodily from anger and her last trace of sympathy towards Mr. Tong was smashed up.
It seemed that she had to talk with him to let him know what respect was and how hateful his self-righteousness was.
How could he do that? How did he come up with the idea?
Demanding a woman to insult his own son? Tying up his son and letting a woman to rape him? How ridiculous!
She was afraid that even if his autism was cured, this incident would remain a life-long scar to him.
Besides, even a normal person would become a retard after a dozen of years’ locking without friends or normal communication.
The housekeeper, with embarrassment, was still defending for his master when Mo Qianxue rushed out.
As expected, not far from the room, Mr. Tong was standing under a corridor, his back arching.
“You…”
Mo Qianxue had planned to bombard Mr. Tong with blaming, but as he turned over, she saw regretful tears on his face.
How could she blame and point out the fault of such a regretful and poor old man?
Therefore, she finally swallowed the accusation.
The planned hot rhetoric finally turned into calming encouragement and comfort.
After making agreements upon several aspects with Mr. Tong, Mo Qianxue went to Tong Zijing’s room.
Tong Zijing remained exactly the same posture as she last saw him, tittering and tearing a piece of cloth.
Mo Qianxue didn’t get too close to him but kept a certain distance and sat down, taking out the picture scrolls and picking one of them.
That was the story of Three Baby Pigs Make Houses.
The pigs in the picture was drawn in simple comic style. To be honest, she wasn’t able to draw it too complicated.
Pointing at the painting scroll, Mo Qianxue began to tell the story to Mr. Tong. Her voice was gentle and slow. While telling the story, she also acted like a kindergarten teacher and raised questions to Mr. Tong.
After telling that the first pig built a grass house, she asked Mr. Tong, “Do you think this grass house is solid?”
Mr. Tong cooperated like a child and answered, shaking his head, “No. Not solid!”
In fact, he was also curious. He regarded himself as a man of great learning, yet he had never heard of such a story nor seen such kind of drawings.
They were terrible! The pig had a head bigger than the body. The wolf also had a big head. Only the house looked normal. Yet, now it wasn’t the right time to comment on the pictures.
Mo Qianxue replied, “Right. It’s not solid. Forget about it now. Let’s move on to take a look at the second house.”
Mo Qianxue asked questions while Mr. Tong answered. It took a long time to finish telling the first story.
At this time, Tong Zijing had stopped smirking, and his action of tearing cloth became slower and slower.
A smile touched Mo Qianxue’s lips. It was good that he displayed certain reaction. She took out the second story and began to tell it unhurriedly.
When the second story ended, Tong Zijing slowly moved over from there. Like Mr. Tong, he also sat before her and regarded her with expectant eyes.
His face still looked childish, but without the smirk, it was obviously a pretty face with delicate features.
Due to lack of physical exercising for a long term, his face was pale and body skinny, which easily induced pity to him.
The third story was Baby Tadpole Look for His Mother.
Mo Qianxue pointed at the carp on the picture and asked Mr. Tong, “Do you think it’s baby tadpole’s mother?”
Mr. Tong was a born noble who had never seen a tadpole, so he kept shaking his head.
Then Mo Qianxue asked Tong Zijing, and he only intently stared at the picture in her hand and didn’t give an answer.
Mo Qianxue wasn’t frustrated. It was a success as long as his attention could be attracted, because it meant that he hadn’t lost his ability to think at least.
Since Tong Zijing didn’t answer, she continued to guide him, “Let’s take a look. The baby tadpole is black, but the carp is red. Do you think they look alike?”
Mr. Tong had entered the role and shook his head unconsciously, “No!”
“Then let’s look at their tails. The baby tadpole’s tail is long while the carp’s tail is flat. Do you think they look alike?”
Still, Mr. Tong gave an answer, “Not alike!”
After several rounds of Q&A, Tong Zijing looked inchy for a try.
During the sixth story—Crane Drinking Water, Mo Qianxue asked, “Could you tell me whether the crane will drink the water in the plate with such a long beak?”
Mr. Tong wanted to answer first but was stopped by Mo Qianxue’s glance.
She looked at Tong Zijing in the eye, asking slowly word by word, “Little brother, do you think the crane will drink the water in the plate? Could you tell me?”
Tong Zijing’s thinking mode remained at three or four years old. Certainly, he didn’t have the concept that he had grown to an adult now, so she called him little brother.
Mr. Tong was a little shocked at such an improper addressing term. But for his son’s change in facial expression, he would have long stormed out.
“No…no!” Finally Tong Zijing spoke again.
Maybe because he hadn’t spoken for too long, the two words were articulated like squeezing out the last trace of toothpaste. His voice was hoarse and low. It almost inaudible if they hadn’t listened carefully.
However, such light and low voice was enough to cheer up Mo Qianxue and make Mr. Tong shed tears.
He had thought that in this life he couldn’t hear his son talking any more.
In view of lord Tong’s participation, Mo Qianxue encouraged, “Little brother, you’re right. I think the same way. Mr. Tong, do you agree?”
Mr. Tong wiped out his tears while keeping nodding, “Yes, I agree.”
Then Mo Qianxue told one more story and got up, “Little brother, it’s late. I should go home now. I’ll come and tell your stories tomorrow, okay?”
Tong Zijing didn’t reply, numbly staring at her, eyes full of expectations.
Mo Qianxue asked again, “Don’t you like me here? I’m so sad.”
Still no reply.
“Do you want the crane drawing? I give you that as a gift, okay?”
“…Yes.”
“I like you very much. Tomorrow I’ll be here to play with you, okay?”
“Great…”
On this day, Tong Zijing said more words than the past ten years.
Mo Qianxue stood up and walked out. Mr. Tong followed up.
“It’s promising that your son could be cured, but I hope that we should add one more item in our agreement.”
“One more item? Fine! As long as Jing’s getting better, it’s okay if you add one hundred more items.”
Mr. Tong thought that Mo Qianxue wasn’t satisfied by one valley, so he bit his teeth, preparing for Mo Qianxue to blackmail him at this critical phase of treatment.
The first item in their agreement was that the ownership of the valley would be transferred to Mo Qianxue as long as lord Tong’s condition got better.
The second was that no matter what methods Mo Qianxue applied, Mr. Tong shouldn’t interfere and must try his best to cooperate.
Third, he mustn’t paly tough to Tong Zijing nor make decisions on his behalf.
“Forth, please don’t lock him up in the future. Let him get out more to walk around. If you’re worried about him, find some trustworthy servants to follow him, but please don’t tell him what to do.
Even if he would fall, let him stand up on his own.”
The expected blackmail didn’t come, but what she proposed was a condition even harder for him to accept.
“How can he go out on his own? No way!”
“If you were locked up for more than a decade, will you be healthy like now?” The words were impolite. If another person dared to say these, he/ she would immediately be driven away.
Despite his response, Mo Qianxue continued, “You’ve blocked his windows to leave the room in darkness forever; you forbid him from getting sunshine. It’s you that turn him into this…”
The most selfish behavior was to imprison a person in the name of love.
By Mo Qianxue’s unsparing accusation, Mr. Tong finally lowered his arrogant head.
“I…I was wrong, but I feel restless to let him go out alone.”
“I don’t mean him going outside right now. By his current state, he won’t go out even if you push him.” Mo Qianxue was sorrowful.
She couldn’t deny that this old man loved his son, but when the wrong way was applied, love would turn to harm.
Mr. Tong contemplated for a while and finally made up his mind, “I agree if you accompany him out.”
“Good. Then please help him get prepared. I’ll take him to the garden tomorrow and out of the mansion later.”
“…”
The proposal came so quick that Mr. Tong was allowed no time to regret it and had to approve.
Then no matter what, Mo Qianxue added, “I suggest some brain-boosting food for Zijing. Remember, don’t make him medicine. Let me see. Give him more beans and mushrooms. Do you know hericium? …”
On hearing the names of food, Mr. Tong’s frowning brows finally loosened and hurriedly ordered his housekeeper to get the hericium.
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