The Bi Shenghua Project Bar aims to open during the October Golden Week holiday, ideally with a trial run in early September, followed by a grand opening ceremony.
The workers began to rush to meet her requirements, coming and going every day, hammering and banging, the noise of impact drills and cutting machines deafening.
Although Qingmu wasn't a person who was afraid of noise, and he wouldn't wake up even if you drove a tractor right next to his ear when he wanted to sleep, the Boss Coal couldn't stand it. From morning to night, he would cover his ears with his wings and yell, "It's so noisy! It's so noisy!" It even lost a lot of appetite, which made its gradually fat body start to lose weight.
"If you don't move, I'm running away from home!"
The Boss Coal's threatening tone sounded extremely insecure. For him, the choice between enduring two months of commotion or enduring a lifetime without braised pork hock was an extremely simple one.
Bi Shenghua said to Qingmu, " Director Liu came again. Why don't you spend some time in the community?"
Director Liu is the director of Liuying Community. She's a plump, warm-hearted woman and a long-time resident of Liuying Lane. She helped out a lot when Ruhua Bar first opened.
She said that in order to alleviate residents' psychological stress, promote mental health, and improve their quality of life, the authorities required all streets with the necessary conditions to open psychological counseling rooms. Liuying Community also applied to open one, but the psychological counselor assigned by the authorities could not start work until the end of the summer vacation. She knew that Qingmu did this kind of work, and since she couldn't take any work during the bar's renovation, she might as well work part-time at the newly opened psychological counseling room in the community. By the time the summer vacation ended, the bar would also be open.
Qingmu wasn't unwilling, he just disliked the hassle.
The community is the nerve ending of the government; though small, it is very sensitive. Moreover, working in the government inevitably involves summarizing and reporting, and holding meetings every now and then to study the various directives from above.
Given his personality, if he doesn't grasp the spirit of the teachings, he might develop a mental illness first.
Director Liu persisted, coming time and time again, and finally agreed to Qingmu's request that he only need to provide psychological counseling and not worry about the affairs of the street and community.
Not only that, the community also made many exceptions for Qingmu, such as allowing him to temporarily hang the sign of Divine Crow Studio in the community's mental health counseling room, allowing him to smoke in the cubicles of the counseling room, and preparing two meals for him and the Boss Coal.
And so, Qingmu, carrying the sign of Divine Crow Studio and accompanied by the Boss Coal, arrived at the psychological counseling room in Liuying Community, beginning their temporary semi-civil servant career with two signs and one team.
Director Liu even threw him a welcome ceremony, inviting many neighbors from the neighborhood to come and celebrate, making a lively scene all morning.
"From now on, if anyone has any problems, just talk to Teacher Qingmu. Please don't come to the community to cause trouble anymore!"
The last thing Director Liu said before leaving made Qingmu feel like he had fallen into a huge trap.
The mental health counseling room is located in the community service area next to the community service center. It has a separate storefront and two rooms, one in the front and one in the back, and it's quite clean.
The front room is for reception and consultation, like a doctor's office; the back room is where Qingmu and the Boss Coal rest, where they can drink tea and chat, and there are also small beds with Tushu where they can take a nap.
On the walls of the consultation room are some simple psychological knowledge popularizations and introductions of counselors. Qingmu is referred to as the chief counselor and goodwill ambassador of Liuying Community.
The Boss Coal jumped up and down, calling out "Director" repeatedly, insisting that he himself was the "Deputy Director."
Qingmu warned it not to talk nonsense when people were around. The Boss Coal nodded in agreement, pondering the difference between "not to talk nonsense" and "not to talk at all" with its Crow head, the key being the word "nonsense".
When someone comes, it listens attentively at first, then seizes the opportunity to croak over and solemnly recites a bunch of concepts about depression and schizophrenia to show that it is not talking nonsense.
Qingmu had no choice but to confine the Boss Coal to the inner room. Fortunately, Bi Shenghua would occasionally bring them some food. For the Boss Coal, as long as there was food, they could temporarily endure the pain of not being able to speak.
The work at the mental health counseling center is relatively quiet; apart from the occasional student dragged there by their parents due to the pressure of college entrance exams, there are basically no other customers.
Later, Director Liu came a few times, hinting that Qingmu should get a haircut and change his clothes. Only then did Qingmu realize that the reason people didn't want to come was because his appearance was too similar to that of someone with a mental illness, not because he was there to treat a mental illness.
Director Liu tried a few times and found that getting Qingmu to change his image was harder than getting the Crow to stop talking, so he gave up. Anyway, it was just filling in for two months' work, so it was better than nothing.
As agreed beforehand, Qingmu didn't need to come to the consultation room every day. He could skip it if he had something to do. If a resident needed his advice, he could just register an appointment at the community center. Since they were usually very minor matters, people in a real hurry wouldn't come here; they would have gone to the hospital long ago.
Qingmu counted the days and went to Professor Mei's studio, only to find that the professor had not returned to China as scheduled.
He called Mei Ziqing, Mei Ziqing said that he was still in Copenhagen. The original meeting had already ended, but Professor Mei and his team added another meeting at the last minute, making it seem like a state secret. He couldn't see anyone and didn't know when he would be able to return.
With Professor Mei not returning, Qingmu had no one to discuss his questions with, so he could only stay in the community and drift through his days.
Hu Xing visited several times during that period, occasionally bringing Xia Tian with her.
Hu Xing has looked a bit haggard lately. She can now enter lucid dreaming quite skillfully, but she still hasn't mastered how to exit it, so much so that she needs an alarm clock to wake up, otherwise she will be tormented by lucid dreaming all night and won't have the energy to get up the next day.
"Don't try too hard to have lucid dreams; it's not worth the Mental Power," Qingmu said.
"Can we move on to the next lesson now?" Hu Xing asked.
"No," Qingmu shook his head and said, "Some things can't be forced; it depends on your understanding."
Hu Xing was displeased and pleaded, "Just teach me a little more! Or, you could take me into your dreams every day to teach me."
"I never dream," Qingmu said.
Hu Xing was taken aback, assuming that Qingmu was being stingy and unwilling to teach him, and snorted, "Stingy teacher!"
Xia Tian always came happily, bringing the Crow a lot of food. Qingmu gave him a few simple psychological counseling sessions, and his mental state improved more and more. The shadows of the past had basically no effect on him anymore.
Qingmu asked about Xia Wenyuan's condition, Hu Xing said he was much better now; at least he could eat and sleep well and had no more nightmares. However, according to Dr. Peter's observation, there were no signs of improvement in his brain lesions.
Hu Xing rarely comes here, and Bi Shenghua is busy with the bar's renovation and opening, except for delivering food to the Boss Coal. So most of the time, Qingmu just sits in the consultation room staring blankly at the Boss Coal.
At that time, the Crow stopped talking and became silent thinkers.
Sometimes Qingmu wondered if the Crow had damaged his brain, or if the Boss Coal's claws had the ability to absorb people's intelligence, causing him to forget many things from the past and become increasingly lazy, while the talkative Crow was becoming smarter and smarter.
Director Liu probably couldn't stand Qingmu's leisurely life of staring at the little bird every day, with neither bird nor bird doing anything, so he brought someone over and asked Qingmu to give him some guidance.
The man was in his fifties, with messy hair, somewhat resembling Qingmu. He wore a wrinkled khaki shirt and had a stubble beard that looked like he hadn't shaved in weeks.
He stared at Qingmu from the moment he arrived, and after a long while, he said confidently, "I know you. You're from over there."